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Tag: Diplomacy

  • UN urges Libya rivals to agree in road map to elections soon

    UN urges Libya rivals to agree in road map to elections soon

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    UNITED NATIONS — The Security Council voted unanimously Friday to extend the U.N. political mission in Libya for a year and urged key institutions and parties in the divided north African country to agree on a road map to deliver presidential and parliamentary elections as soon as possible.

    The resolution adopted by the U.N.’s most powerful body urged “dialogue, compromise and constructive engagement” aimed at forming “a unified Libyan government able to govern across the country and representing the whole people of Libya.”

    Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. The oil-rich nation has been split between rival administrations in the east and west, each backed by rogue militias and foreign governments.

    The country’s current political crisis stems from the failure to hold elections in December 2021 and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who led a transitional government in the capital, Tripoli, in the country’s west, to step down. In response, the country’s east-based parliament appointed a rival prime minister, Fathy Bashagha, who has for months sought to install his government in Tripoli.

    The resolution reaffirmed the Security Council’s “strong commitment to an inclusive Libyan-led and Libyan-owned political process, facilitated by the United Nations and supported by the international community,” that leads to elections as soon as possible. It backs the resumption of efforts to resume intra-Libya talks to create conditions for elections.

    Gabon’s U.N. ambassador, Michel Xavier Biang, the current council president, said the three African nations on the council — Gabon, Kenya and Ghana — “have the sense of having contributed to an important milestone towards the stabilization of a major African state.”

    “Through this vote, we are sending a message to the Libyan people and that message is clear that the U.N. is standing by their side,” Biang said. “This is also a message to the Libyan authorities and all political stakeholders who have an opportunity to create a momentum that would lead to restoring hope in Libya.”

    The council welcomed the appointment of a new U.N. special envoy, Abdoulaye Bathily, after a nine-month search amid increasing chaos in Libya.

    Russia had refused to extend the mandate of the U.N. mission in Libya, known as UNSMIL, for more than three months until a new special representative was chosen. So UNSMIL’s 12-month extension until Oct. 31, 2023, was a vote of confidence for the former Senegalese minister and diplomat.

    Bathily told the council Monday he plans to follow up on commitments by Libya’s political rivals at the end of a meeting last week that reportedly include the need to hold elections and ensure that the country has a single executive power as soon as possible.

    He said he plans to talk to leaders of the east-based parliament, the House of Representatives, and west-based High Council of State in the coming weeks “to understand” the agreements announced at the end of their Oct. 21 meeting in the Moroccan capital, Rabat.

    According to the Moroccan Press Agency and the North African Post, the speaker of the east-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, and the head of the Supreme Council, Khaled al-Meshri, agreed to implement a mechanism on criteria for leadership positions agreed to at talks in Morocco in October 2020.

    Saleh was quoted as saying the rivals also agreed “to ensure that there is a single executive power in Libya as soon as possible” and to relaunch dialogue to achieve an agreement about the holding of presidential and parliamentary elections. The elections need to respect “a clear roadmap and legislation, on the basis of which the polls will be held,” he was quoted as saying at a press briefing after the meeting.

    The Security Council’s resolution underlined “the importance of an inclusive, comprehensive national dialogue and reconciliation process.”

    Council members expressed concern at the security situation in Libya, particularly recurring clashes between armed groups in the Tripoli region that have caused civilian casualties and damaged civilian infrastructure.

    They emphasized “that there can be no military solution in Libya” and called on all parties to refrain from violence.

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  • Putin to host leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan for talks

    Putin to host leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan for talks

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    MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to help broker a settlement to a longstanding conflict between the two ex-Soviet neighbors, the Kremlin said Friday.

    Putin’s talks with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev will be held at the Russian leader’s Black Sea residence in Sochi on Monday.

    The Kremlin said the leaders will discuss the implementation of a 2020 peace deal brokered by Russia and “further steps to enhance stability and security in the Caucasus,” adding that “the issues related to the restoration and development of trade and economic and transport links will also be discussed.”

    The ex-Soviet neighbors have been locked in a decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which is part of Azerbaijan but has been under the control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia since a separatist war there ended in 1994.

    During a six-week war in 2020, Azerbaijan reclaimed broad swaths of Nagorno-Karabakh and adjacent territories held by Armenian forces. More than 6,700 people died in the fighting, which ended with a Russian-brokered peace agreement. Moscow deployed about 2,000 troops to the region to serve as peacekeepers.

    A new round of hostilities erupted in September, when more than 200 troops were killed on both sides in two days of heavy fighting. Armenia and Azerbaijan traded blame for triggering the fighting.

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  • UN urges revival of negotiations on disputed Western Sahara

    UN urges revival of negotiations on disputed Western Sahara

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council called for a revival of U.N-led negotiations on the disputed Western Sahara in a resolution adopted Thursday that expressed “deep concern” at the breakdown of the 1991 cease-fire between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front whose decades-old dispute shows no sign of ending.

    The vote was 13-0 with Russia and Kenya abstaining.

    Morocco annexed Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony believed to have considerable offshore oil deposits and mineral resources, in 1975, sparking a conflict with the Polisario Front. The United Nations brokered the 1991 cease-fire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future that has never taken place because of disagreements on who is eligible to vote.

    Morocco has proposed wide-ranging autonomy for Western Sahara. But the Polisario Front insists the local population, which it estimates at 350,000 to 500,000, has the right to a referendum.

    The U.S.-drafted resolution extended the mandate of the U.N. peacekeeping mission charged with carrying out the referendum, known as MINURSO, until Oct. 31, 2023.

    The resolution calls on the parties to resume U.N.-led negotiations without preconditions, “taking into account the efforts made since 2006 and subsequent developments with a view to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable political solution, which will provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”

    It says this should be done “in the context of arrangements consistent with the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations and noting the role and the responsibilities of the parties in this respect.”

    Kenya’s U.N. Ambassador Martin Kimani said his government voted for the resolution last year in hopes that the U.N. mission would return “to its core objective of implementing a referendum for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.

    But he said progress has been limited and the resolution adopted Thursday “continues a gradual but noticeable shift away from the mandate and will not assist the parties to achieve a just, lasting, and mutually acceptable political solution as originally intended.”

    U.S. deputy ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis welcomed the council’s support, saying the Biden administration continues “to view Morocco’s autonomy plan as serious, credible, and realistic.”

    He called a political solution “vital to promoting a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Western Sahara and the region.”

    But the Polisario Front ended the cease-fire in November 2020 and resumed its armed struggle following a border confrontation with Morocco which continues today, and in comments after the vote the two sides remained at odds about the future.

    The resolution calls on the parties to “to demonstrate political will and work in an atmosphere propitious for dialogue in order to advance negotiations.” It expresses “strong support” for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, and “strongly encourages” Morocco, the Polisario Front and neighboring countries Algeria and Mauritania to engage with him.

    Two round-table meetings of the four parties in December 2018 and March 2019 failed to make any headway on the key issue of how to provide for self-determination.

    But Morocco’s U.N. Ambassador Omar Hilale said after Thursday’s vote that they were “very fruitful and positive and substantial” because “we had very deep discussion on autonomy, on the guarantees, on the need for Polisario to design and to accept autonomy, and also on the elections.”

    He expressed hope that de Mistura “will succeed in calling for another round-table,” lamenting that a year has been lost because Algeria, which backs the Polisario, has said it will not attend.

    “Let’s hope that the wisdom will prevail in Algeria, and we can come back to the round-table because there will be no solution without discussion all together and having compromise” on Morocco’s autonomy proposal, Hilale said.

    He claimed that the resolution adopted Thursday “irreversibly consecrates, like the resolutions of the council since 2007, the pre-eminence, credibility and seriousness of the Moroccan autonomy initiative as the sole and only solution to this regional dispute.”

    The Polisario Front’s U.N. representative, Sidi Omar, strongly disagreed.

    He said the Security Council resolution refers to the referendum but again fails to empower MINURSO with “practical and concrete measures” to implement its mandate and carry out a referendum.

    The Saharwi people “will continue using all legitimate means, including the armed struggle, to defend our inalienable and individual rights to self-determination, independence, and to restore the sovereignty over the entire territory of the Saharwi, our democratic republic,” Omar said.

    He said the Polisario Front will only participate in direct negotiations with Morocco under the auspices of the U.N. and the African Union to enable the Saharwi people to exercise their free and democratic right to self-determination.

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  • West says no biological weapons in Ukraine, Russia disagrees

    West says no biological weapons in Ukraine, Russia disagrees

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.S. and its Western allies on Thursday dismissed Russia’s claims that banned biological weapons activities are taking place in Ukraine with American support, calling the allegation disinformation and fabrications.

    Russia’s U.N. ambassador said Moscow will pursue a U.N. investigation of its allegations that both countries are violating the convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons.

    The dispute came in the third U.N. Security Council meeting on Ukraine-related issues that Russia has called since Tuesday. This one focused on a 310-page document that Russia circulated to council members this week alleging there is “military biological” activity in Ukraine with support of the U.S. Defense Department.

    The document includes an official complaint to the council, allowed under Article VI of the 1972 biological weapons convention, and a draft resolution that would authorize the Security Council to set up a commission to address Russia’s claims.

    Russia’s allegation of secret American biological warfare labs in Ukraine has been disputed by independent scientists, Ukrainian leaders and officials at the White House and Pentagon. An Associated Press investigation in March found the claim was taking root online, uniting COVID-19 conspiracy theorists, QAnon adherents and some supporters of former President Donald Trump.

    Ukraine does have a network of biological labs that have gotten funding and research support from the U.S. They are owned and operated by Ukraine and are part of an initiative called the Biological Threat Reduction Program that aims to reduce the likelihood of deadly outbreaks, whether natural or manmade. The U.S. efforts date back to work in the 1990s to dismantle the former Soviet Union’s program for weapons of mass destruction.

    U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called Thursday’s meeting “a colossal waste of time,” rejected Russia’s allegation as “pure fabrications brought forth without a shred of evidence.” She said the claim is part of a Moscow “disinformation campaign” that is attempting “to distract from the atrocities Russian forces are carrying out in Ukraine and a desperate tactic to justify an unjustifiable war.”

    “Ukraine does not have a biological weapons program,” she said. “The United States does not have a biological weapons program. There are no Ukrainian biological weapons laboratories supported by the United States.”

    British Ambassador Barbara Woodward told the council that since Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine it “has repeatedly spread disinformation, including wild claims involving dirty bombs, chemical weapons and offensive biological research.”

    “How much more of this nonsense do we have to endure?” she asked.

    Norway’s ambassador, Mona Juul, said: “The sole purpose of these false allegations is to provide a smoke screen … that’s sowing confusion and drawing attention from Russia’s unprovoked, illegal and brutal warfare in Ukraine.”

    French Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere condemned “this umpteenth attempt made by Russia to make us forget that it is violating the United Nations Charter” and accused Moscow of again “using the Security Council as a propaganda platform.”

    Other council members including China and India focused on a key problem with the biological weapons convention: Unlike the convention banning the use of chemical weapons, it has no provision to verify compliance and investigate complaints.

    China’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Geng Shuang, urged a late November conference of the 197 state parties to the convention to restart verification negotiations “that have been stalled for more than 20 years.”

    Last month, the state parties met at Russia’s request on the activities at biological laboratories in Ukraine, but a final report said it wasn’t possible to reach consensus.

    Adedeji Ebo, the U.N. deputy high representative for disarmament, told the council that this was the first time Article VI of the convention had been invoked with a complaint to the Security Council.

    He repeated statements in March and May that the United Nation “is not aware of any such biological weapons programs” and “currently has neither the mandate nor the technical or operational capacity to investigate this information.”

    But Ebo said: “Should the council initiate an investigation, the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs stands ready to support it.”

    In his briefing, Russia’s Nebenzia accused the U.S. of conducting work in Ukraine with deadly pathogens — including cholera, plague, anthrax and influenza — that couldn’t be justified under the guise of public health. He said documents and evidence recovered by Russian authorities suggested a military application.

    Nebenzia said the Russian military had recovered drones capable of spraying bioagents as well as documents that he said related to research on the possibility of spreading pathogens through bats and migrating birds.

    Thomas-Greenfield called Russia’s claims “absurd for many reasons, including because such species, even if they could be weaponized, would pose as much a threat to the European continent and to Ukraine itself as they would to any other country.”

    Nebenzia took the floor for a second time at the end of the meeting, saying Western ambassadors routinely accuse Russia of sounding “a false alarm,” disseminating “disinformation” and distracting the Security Council from discussing more important issues. At the same time, he said, “our Western colleagues have nothing to say on the substance” of Russia’s claims.

    He said Russia will move ahead on the resolution calling for a Security Council investigation. He said a second meeting of council experts is the next step, “and then we will be deciding when we’ll put it to the Security Council.”

    ———

    Associated Press writer David Klepper contributed to this report.

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  • UN: Syria facing `acute violence’ and worst economic crisis

    UN: Syria facing `acute violence’ and worst economic crisis

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    UNITED NATIONS — Syria is facing “acute violence,” the worst economic crisis since the war began in 2011, and a rapidly spreading cholera outbreak with more that 24,000 suspected cases reported throughout the country and at least 80 deaths, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

    U.N. special envoy Geir Pedersen told the U.N. Security Council that the conflict remains “very active” across the country despite the “strategic stalemate” that has blocked efforts to launch a political process between the government and opposition.

    He pointed to infighting between armed opposition groups in Afrin in northern Aleppo province in recent weeks, pro-government airstrikes in the northwest, violence in the northeast, security incidents in the southwest, airstrikes attributed to Israel on airports in Damascus and Aleppo, and discovery in the northeast of one of the largest Islamic State arms caches since its so-called caliphate fell in 2017.

    In recent weeks, Pedersen said, the Syrian currency, the pound, “lost a tremendous amount of its value … which in turn saw food and fuel prices jump to even higher record prices.” And he warned the economic crisis “will only get worst for the vast majority” with winter approaching and additional funding needed urgently.

    Reena Ghelani, director of operations for the U.N. humanitarian office, told the council that “communities in Syria are caught in the middle of a spiraling security, public health and economic crisis” that has left many “struggling to survive.”

    She said the cholera outbreak is made worse by Syria’s severe water shortage, and compounded by insufficient and poorly distributed rainfall in many places, severe drought-like conditions, low water levels in the Euphrates River and damaged water infrastructure.

    “The crisis is likely to get even worse: The outlook from now to December suggests an increased probability for below-normal precipitation and above-normal temperatures,” Ghelani said. “If this materializes, it will further exacerbate an already dire water crisis.”

    She said a three-month plan to respond to the cholera outbreak, coordinated by the U.N., needs $34.4 million to assist 5 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene needs and 162,000 with health services. The U.N. will make available about $10 million but “much more is needed,” she said.

    The water scarcity has also impacted crops with the lowest wheat harvest since the war began as well as the livelihoods of farmers under threat, Ghelani said.

    In addition, the rate of food insecurity “is spiraling out of control,” malnutrition rates are rising, and “Syrians today can afford only 15% of the food they were able to purchase three years ago,” she said.

    With winter approaching in weeks, Ghelani said, the number of people across the country needing assistance to survive the cold has increased 30% from last year, including some 2 million in the northwest, mostly women and children living in camps with limited or no access to heating, electricity, water or sewage disposal.

    Humanitarian organizations have launched winterization efforts, but the program is “grossly underfunded,” Grelani said, pointing to the sector that provides shelter, blankets, heating, fuel, winter clothes and other non-food items which is only 10% funded.

    A 2012 U.N. road map to peace in Syria approved by representatives of the United Nations, Arab League, European Union, Turkey and all five permanent Security Council members calls for the drafting of a new constitution and ends with U.N.-supervised elections with all Syrians, including members of the diaspora, eligible to participate.

    At a Russia-hosted Syrian peace conference in January 2018, an agreement was reached to form a 150-member committee to draft a new constitution. It took until September 2019 for the committee to be formed, and after eight rounds of talks little progress has been achieved so far.

    U.N. envoy Pedersen said he continues “to work to unblock obstacles to reconvening the constitutional committee” and is pushing key parties “to engage on step-for-step confidence building measures to help advance” the road map.

    Russia’s military support for Syria changed the trajectory of the Syrian conflict. The EU imposed sanctions on Russia after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and stepped up sanctions after President Vladimir Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

    Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky accused the West of supporting “terrorists” from al-Qaida linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham who are trying to broaden their area of control beyond northwestern Idlib and accused the United States of encouraging “Kurdish separatism.”

    Tensions in northern Syria between U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces and Turkish-backed opposition gunmen.

    U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood responded saying “the United States is in Syria for the sole purpose of enabling the ongoing campaign against ISIS,” an acronym for the Islamic State extremist group.

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  • The awkward lunch: Macron prepares to snub Scholz in Paris

    The awkward lunch: Macron prepares to snub Scholz in Paris

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    BERLIN/PARIS — Relations are now so icy between Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz, the leaders of the EU’s two economic powerhouses, that they are even struggling to agree on whether to be seen together in front of the press.

    As the French president and German chancellor prepared for a tête-à-tête in Paris on Wednesday, Berlin announced that they would make a joint appearance in front of the cameras, which is normally the driest of routine diplomatic courtesies after bilateral meetings.

    But on Tuesday evening, a statement from the French Elysée Palace contradicted the German announcement, saying there was no press conference planned.

    If confirmed, it would be quite a snub for Scholz, who’s traveling with an entire press corps to Paris, and from there continuing to Athens for another state visit. Denying a press conference to a visiting leader is a political tactic that’s generally applied to deliver a rebuke, as was recently done by Scholz when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán visited Berlin.

    “Presumably, there has so far been a lack of contact and exchange between the respective new government teams of Scholz and Macron,” said Sandra Weeser from Germany’s liberal Free Democratic Party, who sits on the board of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. “So, we are certainly also at the beginning of new interpersonal political relations, for which trust must first be built.”

    The tussle over a media show is just the latest episode of a deepening row between the EU’s two biggest powers.

    In recent weeks, Scholz and Macron have clashed over how to tackle the energy crisis, how to overcome Europe’s impotence on defense and the best approach to dealing with China.

    Last week, those tensions spilled into public when a planned Franco-German Cabinet meeting in the French town of Fontainebleau was postponed to January amid major differences on the text of a joint declaration, as well as conflicting holiday plans of some German ministers. Disagreement between the two governments was also broadly visible at last week’s EU summit in Brussels.

    As Scholz and Macron meet in Paris on Wednesday for a “working lunch,” which has been hastily set up as a downgraded replacement for the scrapped Cabinet meeting, politicians and officials across Europe will be closely watching to see whether the bloc’s two heavyweights can find a way back to much-needed unity. The war in Ukraine and the inflation and energy crisis have strained European alliances, just when they are most needed.

    French officials complain that Berlin isn’t sufficiently treating them as a close partner. For example, the French claim they weren’t briefed in advance of Germany’s domestic €200 billion energy price relief package — and they have made sure their counterparts in Berlin are aware of their frustration.

    “In my talks with French parliamentarians, it has become clear that people in Paris want more and closer coordination with Germany,” said Chantal Kopf, a lawmaker from the Greens, one of the three parties in Germany’s ruling coalition, and a board member of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly.

    “So far, this cooperation has always worked well in times of crisis — think, for example, of the recovery fund during the coronavirus crisis — and now the French also rightly want the responses to the current energy crisis, or how to deal with China, to be closely coordinated,” Kopf said.

    Late last month, Paris felt snubbed by Berlin when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz found no time to speak to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne | Jens Schlueter/AFP via Getty Images

    A similar conclusion is being drawn by Weeser from the FDP, another coalition partner in the Berlin government. “Paris is irritated by Germany’s go-it-alone on the gas price brake and the lack of support for joint European defense technology projects,” she said. At the same time, she accused the French government of having until recently dragged its feet on a new pipeline connection between the Iberian peninsula and Northern Europe.

    Unprecedented tensions

    Most recently, the French government was irritated by the news that Scholz plans to visit Beijing next week to meet Xi Jinping in what would be the first visit by a foreign leader since the Chinese president got a norm-breaking third term. Germany and China also plan their own show when it comes to planned government consultations in January.

    The thinking at the Elysée is that it would have been better if Macron and Scholz had visited China together — and preferably a bit later rather than straight after China’s Communist Party congress where Xi secured another mandate. According to one French official, a visit shortly after the congress would “legitimize” Xi’s third term and be “too politically costly.”

    Germany and France’s uncoordinated approach to China contrasts with Xi’s last visit to Europe in 2019 when he was welcomed by Macron, who had also invited former Chancellor Angela Merkel and former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker to Paris to show European unity.

    Macron has refrained from directly criticizing a controversial Hamburg port deal with Chinese company Cosco, which Scholz is pushing ahead of his Beijing trip. But the French president last week questioned the wisdom of letting China invest in “essential infrastructure” and warned that Europe had been “naive” toward Chinese purchases in the past “because we thought Europe was an open supermarket.”

    Jean-Louis Thiériot, vice president of the defense committee in the French National Assembly, said Germany was increasingly focusing on defense in Eastern Europe at the expense of joint German-French projects. For example, Berlin inked a deal with 13 NATO members, many of them on the Northern and Eastern European flank, to jointly acquire an air and missile defense shield — much to the annoyance of France.

    “The situation is unprecedented,” Thiériot said. “Tensions are now getting worse and quickly. In the last couple of months, Germany decided to end work on the [Franco-German] Tiger helicopter, dropped joint navy patrols … And the signature of the air defense shield is a deathblow [to the defense relationship],” he said.

    Germany’s massive investment through a €100 billion military upgrade fund, as well as Scholz’s commitment to the NATO goal of putting 2 percent of GDP toward defense spending, will likely raise the annual defense budget to above €80 billion and means Berlin will be on course to outgun France’s €44 billion defense budget.

    Sick note

    Last week’s suspension of the joint Franco-German Cabinet meeting wasn’t by far the first clash between Berlin and Paris when it comes to high-level meetings.

    Back in August, the question was whether Scholz and Macron would meet in Ludwigsburg on September 9 for the 60th anniversary of a famous speech by former French President Charles de Gaulle in the palatial southwestern German town. But despite the highly symbolic nature of that ceremony, the leaders’ meeting never happened — with officials presenting conflicting accounts of why that was the case, from appointment conflicts to alleged disagreements over who should shoulder the costs.

    French President Emmanuel Macron has refrained from directly criticizing a controversial Hamburg port deal with Chinese company Cosco | Pool photo by Aurelien Morissard/AFP via Getty Images

    Late last month, Paris felt snubbed by Berlin when Scholz found no time to speak to French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne: A meeting between both leaders in Berlin had been canceled because the chancellor had tested positive for coronavirus. But several French officials told POLITICO that a subsequently arranged videoconference was also canceled, allegedly because the Germans told Borne’s office that Scholz felt too sick.

    Paris was even more surprised — and annoyed — when Scholz then appeared the same day via video at a press conference, in which he didn’t seem to be quite so sick, but instead confidently announced his €200 billion energy relief package. The French say they weren’t even briefed beforehand. A German spokesperson could not be reached for a comment on the incident.

    Yannick Bury, a lawmaker from Germany’s center-right opposition who focuses on Franco-German relations, said Scholz must use his visit to Paris to start rebuilding ties with Macron. “It’s important that France receives a clear signal that Germany has a great interest in a close and trusting exchange,” Bury said. “Trust has been broken.”

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    Hans von der Burchard and Clea Caulcutt

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  • Australia drops recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

    Australia drops recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital

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    CANBERRA, Australia — Australia has reversed a previous government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the foreign minister said Tuesday.

    The center-left Labor Party government Cabinet agreed to again recognize Tel Aviv as the capital and reaffirmed that Jerusalem’s status must be resolved in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said.

    Australia remained committed to a two-party solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and “we will not support an approach that undermines this prospect,” Wong said.

    Former conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison formally recognized West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2018, although the Australian embassy remained in Tel Aviv.

    The change followed then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to shift the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. President Joe Biden has kept the embassy in Jerusalem as the U.S. steps back from its once-intense mediation between the Israelis and Palestinians, who have not held substantive peace talks in more than a decade.

    Wong described Morrison’s move as out of step internationally and a “cynical play” to win a byelection in a Sydney locale with a large Jewish population.

    Morrison’s Liberal Party ran Jewish candidate Dave Sharma who was defeated in the byelection but won the seat in the next general election.

    Morrison’s government was elected out of office in May after nine years in power.

    Nasser Mashni, vice president of the human rights group Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, thanked the government for “differentiating itself from the dangerous political posturing of the previous government.”

    “This reversal brings Australia back into the international consensus — Australia must not pre-empt the final status of Jerusalem,” Mashni said in a statement.

    “Israel asserts that the entire city is exclusively theirs, denying Palestinian connection to their ancient spiritual, cultural and economic capital,” Mashni added.

    Opposition foreign affairs spokesperson Simon Birmingham did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    ———

    Follow AP’s coverage of the Asia-Pacific region at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific

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  • Calls grow for Ethiopia peace effort as fighting intensifies

    Calls grow for Ethiopia peace effort as fighting intensifies

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    ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Diplomats are calling on Ethiopia ’s federal authorities and their rivals in the northern region of Tigray to agree to a cease-fire as heavy fighting raises growing humanitarian fears.

    African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat expressed “grave concern” in a statement Sunday over the fighting and called for an “immediate, unconditional cease-fire and the resumption of humanitarian services.”

    AU-led peace talks were due to take place in South Africa earlier this month, but were postponed because of logistical and technical issues.

    The warring parties had said they were ready to participate in the process, even though fighting persists in Tigray.

    “The Chairperson urges the Parties to recommit to dialogue as per their agreement to direct talks to be convened in South Africa by a high-level team led by the AU High Representative for the Horn of Africa, and supported by the international community,” Mahamat said in a statement.

    The AU statement followed one issued late Saturday by a U.N. spokesman who said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “gravely concerned about the escalation of the fighting” and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

    Fighting resumed between the Tigray forces and the federal troops in August, bringing an end to a cease-fire in place since March that had allowed much-needed aid to enter the region. Fighting has drawn in forces from Eritrea, on the side of Ethiopia’s federal military.

    USAID Administrator Samantha Power called on Eritrean forces to withdraw from Tigray and urged the parties to observe a cease-fire, warning in a tweet that up to a 1 million people are “teetering on the edge of famine” in the region.

    “The conflict has displaced millions of people, and camps for displaced Ethiopians have also fallen under attack,” said Power, who warned of further bloodshed if Eritrean and Ethiopian federal forces take charge of the camps.

    The cease-fire calls came as heavy clashes were reported near the northwestern Tigray town of Shire, where an attack on Friday killed a International Rescue Committee worker who was distributing aid supplies.

    European Union foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said he was “horrified by the reports of continuous violence, including the targeting of civilians in Shire.”

    Tigray forces said in a statement that they welcomed the AU’s cease-fire call.

    “We are ready to abide by an immediate cessation of hostilities,” the statement said. Ethiopia’s federal government has yet to respond.

    Aid distributions are being hampered by a lack of fuel and an ongoing communications blackout in Tigray. The Associated Press reported Saturday that a U.N. team found there were “10 starvation-related deaths” at seven camps for internally displaced people in northwestern Tigray, according to an internal document prepared by a humanitarian agency.

    Millions of people in northern Ethiopia, including the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, have been uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands of people are believed to have been killed since the conflict broke out in November 2020.

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  • Putin, Erdoğan to meet in Kazakhstan

    Putin, Erdoğan to meet in Kazakhstan

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    Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana on Wednesday on the sidelines of a regional summit, a Turkish official told AFP Tuesday.

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that potential talks between Russia and the West might be discussed during the meeting. The leaders are both attending the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).

    Last month, the two leaders met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan.

    NATO member Turkey has so far refrained from joining Western sanctions against Russia and instead attempted to play the role of a mediator, hosting talks with officials from Moscow and Kyiv and arbitrating a grain deal alongside the U.N. to ensure safe food exports out of blockaded Ukrainian ports. It has also supplied drones to Ukrainian forces. But it is also accused of war profiteering, helping others in the evasion of international embargoes for its own benefit.

    Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Tuesday called for a cease-fire “as soon as possible,” after the Russian strikes across Ukraine on Monday, which killed at least 19 people and wounded more than 100.

    Putin will also meet with UAE ruler Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi in Saint Petersburg on Tuesday, according to Kremlin spokesman Peskov.

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    Wilhelmine Preussen

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  • West African mediators head to Burkina Faso following coup

    West African mediators head to Burkina Faso following coup

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    OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Regional mediators were headed to Burkina Faso on Monday in the wake of the West African country’s second coup this year amid concern the latest power grab could further postpone elections and deepen the region’s Islamic extremist violence.

    News that the delegation from the regional bloc known as ECOWAS is traveling to the capital, Ouagadougou, came after diplomats confirmed that Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba had left for the neighboring nation of Togo following talks mediated by religious leaders.

    Burkina Faso’s new leader, Capt. Ibrahim Traore, 34, is officially head of state pending future elections, the junta announced Sunday. While ECOWAS, a 15-nation West African bloc, had reached an agreement to hold a new vote by July 2024, it remained unclear whether that date would still hold.

    Burkina Faso’s last democratically elected president was overthrown by Damiba in January amid frustration that his government had not been able to stop extremist attacks. But the jihadi violence, which has killed thousands and forced 2 million to flee their homes, continued and has now brought an end to Damiba’s tenure, too.

    The new leader told journalists in interviews over the weekend that conditions remained poor for soldiers in the field. Damiba had not done enough to improve that situation, Traore said.

    “I go on patrol with my men and we don’t have the basic logistics,” he told Voice of America. “In some villages, the trees don’t have leaves because people eat the leaves. They eat weeds. We’ve proposed solutions that will enable us to protect these people, but we are not listened to. We made so many proposals.”

    In recent days, Traore’s followers have waved Russian flags and called for military support to help fight the jihadis, as neighboring Mali has done with Russia’s Wagner Group. However, those Russian mercenary forces have been accused of human rights abuses and some fear their involvement in Burkina Faso would only make things worse.

    It remains to be seen whether Traore and his forces can turn around the crisis as international condemnation of the new coup mounts. The political chaos erupted into unrest over the weekend as protesters attacked the French Embassy in the capital and several other buildings associated with France around the country.

    The anti-French sentiment swelled further after a junta representative said on state television that Damiba had sought refuge at a French military base in Burkina Faso. France vehemently denied the allegation and any involvement in the unfolding events.

    The 4,000 French citizens registered in Burkina Faso are urged to stay at their homes, French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said.

    “The situation is very volatile in Burkina Faso,” she told The Associated Press on Sunday in Paris. “There have been serious violations of the security of our diplomatic presence. Unacceptable violations that we condemn.”

    ———

    Mednick reported from Barcelona. Associated Press journalists Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.

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  • Burkina Faso junta urges calm after French Embassy attack

    Burkina Faso junta urges calm after French Embassy attack

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    OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Burkina Faso’s new junta leadership called for an end to the unrest Sunday, a day after angry protesters attacked the French Embassy and other buildings following the West African nation’s second coup this year.

    In a statement broadcast on state television, junta spokesman Capt. Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho called on people to “desist from any act of violence and vandalism to prevent the efforts made since (Friday) night, especially those that could be perpetrated against the French Embassy or the French military base.”

    Saturday’s violence has been condemned by the French Foreign Ministry, which denied any involvement in the events unfolding in Ouagadougou, the capital.

    “We condemn in the strongest terms the violence against our diplomatic presence in Burkina Faso,” the French Foreign Ministry said late Saturday. “Any attack on our diplomatic facilities is unacceptable.”

    Anti-French sentiment rose sharply after an earlier junta announcement alleged that ousted interim president Lt. Col. Paul Henri Sandaogo Damiba was sheltering at a French military base. France vehemently denied the allegation, but soon protesters with torches thronged the perimeter of the French Embassy in Ouagadougou.

    Damiba’s whereabouts were still unknown Sunday though a statement attributed to him was posted on the Burkina Faso presidency’s Facebook page late Saturday. In it, he called on the new coup leaders “to come to their senses to avoid a fratricidal war that Burkina Faso does not need.”

    Unlike other ousted West African leaders, Damiba has yet to issue a resignation though the junta said he has been removed from power in their announcement Friday night on state television.

    The events unfolding in Burkina Faso have deepened fears that the political chaos will divert attention from the country’s unabated Islamic insurgency, a crisis that has forced 2 million people from their homes and left thousands dead in recent years.

    Damiba came to power in January promising to secure the country from jihadi violence. However, the situation only deteriorated as jihadis imposed blockades on towns and have intensified attacks. Last week, at least 11 soldiers were killed and 50 civilians went missing after a supply convoy was attacked by gunmen in Gaskinde commune in the Sahel. The group of officers led by Capt. Ibrahim Traore said Friday that Damiba had failed and was being removed.

    Conflict analysts say Damiba was probably too optimistic about what he could achieve in the short term, which raised expectations, but that a change at the top didn’t mean that the country’s security situation would improve.

    “The problems are too profound and the crisis is deeply rooted,” said Heni Nsaibia, a senior researcher at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. “It is hard to imagine that this disunity among the armed forces and the ongoing turmoil will help resolve an already extremely volatile situation.”

    He expected that “militant groups will most likely continue to exploit” the country’s political disarray.

    As uncertainty prevailed, the international community widely condemned the ouster of Damiba, who himself overthrew the country’s democratically elected president in January.

    U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States “is deeply concerned by events in Burkina Faso.”

    “We call on those responsible to de-escalate the situation, prevent harm to citizens and soldiers, and return to a constitutional order,” he said.

    The African Union and the West African region bloc known as ECOWAS also sharply criticized the developments.

    “ECOWAS finds this new power grab inappropriate at a time when progress has been made,” the bloc said, citing Damiba’s recent agreement to return to constitutional order by July 2024.

    Still, to some in Burkina Faso’s military, Damiba was seen as too cozy with former colonizer France, which maintains a military presence in Africa’s Sahel region to help countries fight Islamic extremists. Some who support the new coup leader, Traore, have called on Burkina Faso’s government to seek Russian support instead.

    In neighboring Mali, the coup leader has invited Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to help with security, a move than has drawn global condemnation and accusations of human rights abuses.

    ——— Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed.

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  • UN says it’s ready to work with Congo on peacekeeper pullout

    UN says it’s ready to work with Congo on peacekeeper pullout

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    UNITED NATIONS — The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo, which was the target of deadly protests during the summer, said the United Nations is “ready and willing” to work closely with the government to step up the pace of withdrawal of the U.N. force that has over 14,000 troops and police.

    Bintou Keita told the Security Council on Friday that in the wake of the resurgence of the M23 rebel group in recent months, the “crisis of confidence” that had already affected the U.N. mission and the people in eastern Congo had worsened. This provided “fertile ground” for stigmatization of the force and the sowing of disinformation about the mission, known as MONUSCO.

    “That has led to new violent protests and serious incidents claiming the lives of some dozens of protesters and of four mission personnel,” she said.

    Congo’s mineral-rich east is home to myriad rebel groups. Security has worsened there despite a year of emergency operations by the armies of Congo and Uganda. Civilians in the east have faced violence from jihadi rebels linked to the Islamic State group. Fighting has also escalated between Congolese troops and the M23 rebels, forcing nearly 200,000 people to flee their homes.

    MONUSCO’s mission is to protect civilians, deter armed groups, and build the capacity of state institutions and services. But protesters said armed groups were still roaming the east and the U.N. force wasn’t protecting them. The peacekeepers were also accused of retaliating against the protesters, sometimes with force.

    Keita reiterated her “deepest condolences” to families of the victims and deep regret at the violence. Congo’s government said in early August that at least 36 people were killed and more than 170 others injured in the protests.

    She condemned “in the strongest terms incitement to hatred, hostility and violence” and welcomed a statement by the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Félix Tshisekedi at last week’s annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly “against tribalism and hate speech.” She also welcomed efforts by Congolese authorities, civil society, and influential community figures “that have called for calm and restraint in an incredibly difficult security context.”

    Keita, who is also the U.N. special envoy, said the United Nations is supporting government efforts to thwart “inter-communal tensions” in eastern Congo, and she encouraged the government to adopt a draft law in parliament against tribalism, racism and xenophobia.

    After the anti-U.N. protests, Tshisekedi called a meeting to reassess MONUSCO’s presence. Foreign Minister Christophe Lutundula later mentioned 2024 as the goal for withdrawal of the force. It took over from an earlier peacekeeping operation in 2010.

    Noting the president’s instruction to the government “to reevaluate the transition plan, in order to step up the pace of Moscow’s withdrawal,” Keita said, “We are ready and willing to work closely with the government to this end.”

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  • UN chief urges Yemen’s warring sides to renew expiring truce

    UN chief urges Yemen’s warring sides to renew expiring truce

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    UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. chief is strongly urging Yemen’s warring parties to not only renew but expand a truce that expires Sunday, saying it has brought the longest period of relative calm since the conflict began in 2014.

    Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that the internationally recognized government and Houthi rebels should prioritize the national interests of the Yemeni people and “choose peace for good.”

    His statement followed a stark warning Tuesday from the U.N. envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, that the risk of a return to fighting “is real.”

    Yemen’s brutal civil war began in 2014 when the Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen and forced the government into exile. A Saudi-led coalition entered the war in early 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government to power.

    The conflict has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and over the years turned into a regional proxy war between Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, and Iran, which supports the Houthis. More than 150,000 people have been killed, including over 14,500 civilians.

    Both sides accepted the U.N.-brokered truce for two months at the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on April 2. It has been extended twice, and Grundberg and the secretary-general have been pushing both sides for a longer extension to try to start negotiations toward ending the conflict.

    “Over the past six months,” Guterres said, “the government of Yemen and the Houthis have taken important and bold steps towards peace by agreeing to, and twice renewing, a nationwide truce negotiated by the United Nations.”

    With the Sunday deadline looming, Guterres strongly urged the parties to expand the duration and terms of the truce in line with a proposal presented by Grundberg that has not been made public.

    Nabil Jamel, a government negotiator, said the U.N. proposal includes ways to pay civil servants in Houthi-held territories and reopen roads of blockaded cities, including Taiz.

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  • Russia vetoes UN resolution calling its referendums illegal

    Russia vetoes UN resolution calling its referendums illegal

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    UNITED NATIONS — Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution Friday that would have condemned its referendums in four Ukrainian regions as illegal, declared them invalid and urged all countries not to recognize any annexation of the territory claimed by Moscow.

    The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 10-1 with China, India, Brazil and Gabon abstaining.

    The resolution would also have demanded an immediate halt to Russia’s “full-scale unlawful invasion of Ukraine” and the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all its military forces from Ukraine.

    U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said before the vote that in the event of a Russian veto, the U.S. and Albania who sponsored the resolution will take it to the 193-member General Assembly where there are no vetoes, “and show that the world is still on the side of sovereignty and protecting territorial integrity.”

    The council vote came hours after a lavish Kremlin ceremony where President Vladimir Putin signed treaties to annex the Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, saying they were now part of Russia and would be defended by Moscow.

    Thomas-Greenfield said the results of the “sham” referendums on whether the regions wanted to join Russia were “pre-determined in Moscow, and everybody knows it.” “They were held behind the barrel of Russian guns,” she said.

    Adding that “the sacred principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” at the heart of the U.N. Charter must be defended, she said, “All of us understand the implications for our own borders, our own economies, and our own countries if these principles are tossed aside.”

    “Putin miscalculated the resolve of the Ukrainians,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “The Ukrainian people have demonstrated loud and clear: They will never accept being subjugated to Russian rule.”

    Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia defended the referendums, claiming that more than 100 international observers from Italy, Germany, Venezuela and Latvia who observed the voting recognized the outcomes as legitimate.

    “The results of the referendums speak for themselves. The residents of these regions do not want to return to Ukraine. They have made a an informed and free choice in favor of our country,” he said.

    Nebenzia added: “There will be no turning back as today’s draft resolution would try to impose.”

    He accused Western nations on the council of “openly hostile actions,” saying they reached “a new low” by putting forward a resolution condemning a council member and forcing a Russian veto so they can “wax lyrical.”

    Under a resolution adopted earlier this year, Russia must defend its veto before the General Assembly in the coming weeks.

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  • China dismisses complaints over quarantining US diplomats

    China dismisses complaints over quarantining US diplomats

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    BEIJING — China on Friday dismissed complaints from two U.S. congressmembers over the quarantining of American diplomats and their family members under the country’s strict COVID-19 regulations.

    Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China “adopts a science-based and effective epidemic prevention protocol for both Chinese and foreigners coming to China without discrimination.”

    The policy, Mao said, is “open and transparent.” Regardless of their status, all U.S. visitors accepted China’s epidemic policies, including post-entry medical observation and health monitoring, Mao told reporters at a daily briefing.

    “Such statements by individual U.S. lawmakers are really absurd and completely groundless,” Mao said, adding that the congressmen appeared to be showing signs of “China phobia.”

    Republicans James Comer of Kentucky and Michael T. McCaul of Texas wrote to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday asking for clarification on the quarantining of U.S. diplomats and family members by the People’s Republic of China.

    “U.S. Embassy officials in Beijing recently confirmed that 16 U.S. diplomats and their family members — throughout the pandemic — have been involuntarily held in quarantine camps and subjected to strict confinement measures with no definitive release date,” their letter stated.

    “Committee Republicans are concerned that U.S diplomats could be or have been pressured to surrender intelligence while detained in PRC quarantine camps,” it said. “The PRC poses a geopolitical threat to the United States and should not be coercing U.S. diplomats into and surveilling them under draconian quarantine policies.”

    The U.S. Embassy had no immediate comment on the letter on Friday.

    The letter followed an article in the Washington Post newspaper in July which cited the embassy saying 16 U.S. diplomatic personnel or their family members had “been sent, against their will, to Chinese government medical quarantine centers since the pandemic began.”

    It said the State Department concluded that was a “clear violation” of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and that U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns has since secured a promise that U.S. diplomats and their family members would be allowed to quarantine in their homes or at the embassy rather at government-run isolation centers notorious for poor hygiene, overcrowding and a lack of privacy.

    Mao said she was not aware to the situation of the 16 Americans mentioned or how the number had been arrived at.

    “It is even more nonsense to say that China obtained intelligence from the U.S. through quarantine,” she said.

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  • Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

    Bulgaria to hold election overshadowed by war in Ukraine

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    SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgarians will go to the polls for the fourth time in less than two years in a general election overshadowed this time by the war in Ukraine, rising energy costs and galloping inflation.

    Pollsters expect that voters’ fatigue and disillusionment with the political system will result in low turnout and a fragmented parliament where populist and pro-Russia groups could increase their representation.

    The early election comes after a coalition led by pro-Western Prime Minister Kiril Petkov lost a no-confidence vote in June. He claimed that Moscow used “hybrid war” tactics to bring down his government after it refused to pay gas bills in rubles and ordered the expulsion of 70 Russian diplomatic staff from Bulgaria.

    The latest opinion polls suggest that up to seven parties could pass the 4% threshold to enter parliament in a contested vote on Sunday.

    Despite a decrease in support for the GERB party of ex-Prime Minister Boyko Borissov in previous elections, it is tipped now to finish first. Analysts explain that the shift is likely because of voters’ reluctance to accept change in times of crises and a preference to chose a party they are familiar with.

    Parvan Simeonov, a Sofia-based political analyst for Gallup International, said that the war in Ukraine has a strong influence on this election.

    “While at previous polls the division was for and against the model of governance of the last 10 years personified by GERB and Boyko Borissov, the main issues now are stabilization, keeping prices low and dealing with the consequences of the war,” Simeonov told The Associated Press.

    “The main division in the country now is between East and West on the political map, rather than between status quo and change,” he added.

    Still, the predicted percentage won’t be enough for Borissov’s party to form a one-party government, and the chances for a GERB-led coalition are slim as it is blamed for corruption by almost all other opponents.

    A recent Gallup International survey ranked GERB first with 25.9%, followed by its main rival — Petkov’s We Continue the Change party with 19.2%.

    Borissov, addressing party activists at the last campaign event in Sofia, was positive that GERB would score a convincing victory.

    “That’s the only solution for Bulgaria. We have the rare chance to have a stable government,” said the 63-year-old ex-premier, who is vying for a fourth term in office.

    His main rival, Kiril Petkov, is also confident that Sunday’s vote will yield positive results for his party.

    “I certainly expect us to be the first political power. The goal is to have a majority in the next parliament together with the other two parties — Democratic Bulgaria and the Socialist Party,” he told the AP.

    The war in Ukraine was among the main topics in the campaign and calls by the leader of the pro-Russia party Vazrazhdane, Kostadin Kostadinov, for “full neutrality” of Bulgaria in this war are attracting many voters as latest opinion polls predict that the group would gain 11.3% of the votes, up from 4.9% at the previous election.

    Deep conflicts between the main parties make it almost impossible to form a viable coalition government, which would prolong the political impasse and add more economic woes in the poorest European Union member country.

    Simeonov sees a possible solution in forming a Cabinet of experts with a limited term.

    “The other possible option would be no government and go to new elections,” he said.

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  • VP Harris to visit DMZ after North Korean missile tests

    VP Harris to visit DMZ after North Korean missile tests

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    SEOUL, South Korea — U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is capping her four-day trip to Asia with a stop at the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone dividing the Korean Peninsula as she tries to demonstrate the U.S. commitment to the security of its Asian allies.

    The visit on Thursday comes on the heels of North Korea’s latest missile launches and amid fears that it may conduct a nuclear test. Visiting the DMZ has become something of a ritual for American leaders hoping to show their resolve to stand firm against aggression.

    North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles on Wednesday, while Harris was in Japan, and had fired one before she left Washington on Sunday. The launches contribute to a record level of missile testing this year.

    Before going to the DMZ, Harris met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at his office in Seoul and praised the alliance between the countries as a “linchpin of security and prosperity.” Yoon, a conservative who took office in May, called her visit “another turning point” in strengthening ties.

    Harris and Yoon were expected to discuss the growing North Korean nuclear threats and the U.S. commitments to defend the South. They were also expected to discuss expanding economic and technology partnerships and repairing recently strained ties between Seoul and Tokyo to strengthen their trilateral cooperation with Washington in the region.

    Harris earlier spent three days in Tokyo, where she denounced North Korea’s “illicit weapons program” during a speech on an American destroyer at a naval base and attended the state funeral of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

    In Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the latest missile tests would not deter Harris from the DMZ and that she wanted to demonstrate America’s “rock-solid commitment” to regional security.

    “As you know, North Korea has a history of doing these types of tests,” Jean-Pierre said, calling it “not unusual.”

    Yoon had anchored his campaign with vows to deepen Seoul’s economic and security partnership with Washington to navigate challenges posed by the North Korean threat and address potential supply chain risks caused by the pandemic, the U.S.-China rivalry and Russia’s war on Ukraine. But the alliance has been marked by tension recently.

    A new law signed by President Joe Biden prevents electric cars built outside of North America from being eligible for U.S. government subsidies, undermining the competitiveness of automakers like Seoul-based Hyundai.

    South Koreans have reacted with a sense of betrayal, and Harris acknowledged the dispute in a conversation with the country’s prime minister, Han Duck-soo, on Tuesday in Tokyo.

    “They pledged to continue to consult as the law is implemented,” the White House said of the meeting.

    Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the dispute over electric vehicles has swiftly become a firestorm that U.S. officials cannot ignore, although there may not be a simple solution.

    “It’s taking on a level of urgency that’s making it into a political problem that requires management,” Snyder said. “I don’t know that it’s going to be easy for the Biden administration to do that.”

    Ilaria Mazzocco, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it’s a question of whether the Inflation Reduction Act was intended to create American jobs or move supply chains out of China — “onshoring” versus “friendshoring.”

    “It’s very tricky for U.S. policymakers. It’s tough to sell to voters that the U.S. is stronger when partner countries are stronger. But that’s the truth,” she said.

    There could be more tension over gender issues during Harris’ visit to South Korea. Harris, the first woman to serve as U.S. vice president, planned to hold a roundtable with female leaders on gender equity issues. Yoon has faced criticism for the lack of female representation in his government.

    As they did in Japan, however, regional security issues were likely to dominate the final day of Harris’ trip.

    There are indications that North Korea may up the ante in its weapons demonstrations soon as it attempts to pressure Washington to accept the idea of the North as a nuclear power. South Korean officials said last week that they detected signs North Korea was preparing to test a ballistic missile system designed to be fired from submarines.

    The U.S. aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was to train with South Korean and Japanese warships in waters near the Korean Peninsula on Friday in the countries’ first trilateral anti-submarine exercises since 2017 to counter North Korean submarine threats, South Korea’s navy said Thursday.

    U.S. and South Korean officials also say North Korea is possibly gearing up for its first nuclear test since 2017. That test could come after China holds its Communist Party convention on Oct. 16 but before the United States holds its midterm elections on Nov. 8, according to South Korean lawmakers who attended a closed-door briefing from the National Intelligence Service.

    The spy agency repeated its earlier assessment, shared by U.S. intelligence, that North Korea had restored an underground tunnel at its nuclear testing facility as part of its preparations.

    North Korea has used Russia’s war on Ukraine to accelerate its arms development. It has tested dozens of weapons, including its first long-range missiles since 2017, exploiting a divide in the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow and Beijing have blocked Washington’s attempts to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang.

    Missiles tests have been punctuated by repeated threats of nuclear conflict. Pyongyang’s rubber-stamp parliament also authorized the preemptive use of nuclear weapons in a broad range of scenarios where its leadership comes under threat.

    South Korea and the United States this year resumed large-scale combined military exercises that had been downsized or suspended under President Donald Trump to support his ultimately fruitless nuclear diplomacy with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

    Senior U.S. and South Korean officials met in Washington this month for discussions on improving the allies’ deterrence strategies, but some experts said the meeting failed to produce anything new and exposed a lack of ideas on how to deal with the North’s evolving threat.

    Some South Koreans have expressed interest in the redeployment of U.S. tactical nuclear weapons after their removal from South Korea in the 1990s and even for the country to pursue its own nuclear weapons program.

    Yoon, during a news conference in August, said his government had no plans to pursues its own deterrent and called for North Korea to return to nuclear diplomacy, which imploded in 2019 over disagreements on exchanging the release of crippling U.S.-led sanctions against the North and the North’s disarmament steps.

    ———

    Associated Press writers Tong-hyung Kim and Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.

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  • Biden looks to win over Pacific Island leaders at summit

    Biden looks to win over Pacific Island leaders at summit

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is hosting Pacific Island leaders for a two-day summit as the U.S. looks to counter China’s military and economic influence in the region. Pacific Island leaders, meanwhile, see an even more pressing concern: climate change.

    Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicked off the summit on Wednesday with a luncheon for the Pacific Island leaders and other senior officials from the region. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will hold a climate roundtable with the leaders, and White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan will join them for a dinner hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard.

    Biden is set to address the leaders at the State Department on Thursday and will host them for a dinner at the White House. The leaders also are to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. business leaders.

    Leaders from Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and New Caledonia are attending. Vanuatu and Nauru are sending representatives, and Australia, New Zealand and the secretary-general of the Pacific Island Forum sent observers, according to the White House.

    “This summit reflects our deep, enduring partnership with the Pacific Islands; one that’s underpinned by shared history, values, and enduring people-to-people ties,” Blinken told leaders as he opened the summit. Talks are expected to touch on climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and economic recovery, maritime security, environmental protection and the Indo-Pacific.

    The first-of-its-kind summit comes as the administration has sought to demonstrate that the U.S. remains committed to being a enduring player in the region.

    While the high-level gathering is welcomed by the region’s leaders as a signal of Biden’s commitment to the Pacific, there’s also a healthy skepticism about whether the United States will remain engaged for the longer term in the Pacific Islands. The area has received diminished attention from the U.S. in the aftermath of the Cold War and China has increasingly filled the vacuum, analysts say.

    The Solomon Islands has signaled it was unlikely to sign on to a joint statement that the U.S. hoped to have hashed out by the end of the summit, according to a diplomat familiar with summit planning.

    The diplomat, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the resistance is driven in part by the Solomon Islands’ tightening relationship with Beijing and in part is seen as an effort to press the U.S. for greater economic assistance.

    A senior Biden administration official who briefed reporters before the summit said discussions on the joint statement are still ongoing.

    For the Biden administration, stemming the growing influence of China is a high priority. But for many of the Pacific Island leaders, climate change is the existential crisis that demands attention above all else.

    Last week at the U.N. General Assembly, Prime Minister Kausea Natano of the tiny island of Tuvalu described how rising sea levels have affected everything from the soil that his people rely on to plant crops, to the homes, roads and power lines that get washed away. The cost of eking out a living, he said, eventually becomes too much to bear, causing families to leave and the nation to disappear.

    “This is how our islands will cease to exist,” Natano said.

    In June, Inia Seruiratu, Fiji’s minister for defense, said at the Shangri-La Dialogue that “machine guns, fighter jets, gray ships and green battalions are not our primary security concern.”

    “The single greatest threat to our very existence is climate change,” he said.

    Plans for the summit were announced earlier this month, just days after the Solomon Islands called on the U.S. and Britain not to send naval vessels to the South Pacific nation until approval processes are overhauled. The Solomons in April signed a new security pact with China — a moment that analysts say has created increased urgency for the Biden administration to put greater focus on the region.

    The United States and Britain are among countries concerned that a new security pact with Beijing could lead to a Chinese naval base being constructed less than 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometers) off Australia’s northeast coast.

    Darshana Baruah, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Beijing has been more present in the region in the last decades.

    “The first questions from the islands to the United States are, ‘Is this going to last beyond the current tense cycle? Are you going to keep showing up,?’” Baruah said. “The second question is, ‘What kind of messaging is this sending across the Indo-Pacific? Are you mistakenly giving the impression that if you want Washington’s attention you must grab Beijing’s purse?’”

    In the leadup to the summit, Pacific Island leaders made clear that they want increased U.S. assistance on battling the impacts of climate change and help for their economies recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a senior Biden administration official.

    The official, who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, acknowledged that the “lapse” in the U.S. efforts in the region comes up in “every meeting” with Pacific Island leaders. The White House plans to announce its first U.S. Pacific Island Strategy and announce that the Democratic president will appoint a U.S. envoy to the Pacific Islands Forum.

    The U.S. will also be seeking to mend relations with the Marshall Islands, which for decades has been a strong ally but which is in a bitter dispute over a treaty that’s up for renewal.

    Just last week, the Marshall Islands pulled out of a negotiating session with the U.S. over their Compact of Free Association, which expires next year. The Marshall Islands says the U.S. isn’t engaging in its claim for proper reparations from the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing in the islands.

    The Marshall Islands says there was extensive environmental and health damage from the dozens of tests in the 1940s and ’50s, which a settlement in the 1980s fell well short of addressing.

    The U.S. has treated the Marshall Islands, along with nearby Micronesia and Palau, much like territories since World War II, and observers worry that a weakening of those ties would play into the hands of China.

    The administration in recent months has sought to have greater presence in the region. In February, Blinken became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Fiji in 37 years. And in recent months, the U.S. along with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the U.K. created an informal group aimed at boosting economic and diplomatic ties with Pacific Island nations dubbed Partners in the Blue Pacific.

    During the Fiji visit, Blinken announced the U.S. would open an embassy in the Solomon Islands. The U.S. operated an embassy in the Solomons for five years before closing it in 1993. Since then, U.S. diplomats from neighboring Papua New Guinea have been accredited to the Solomons, which has a U.S. consular agency.

    Guadalcanal, the largest landmass in the Solomon Islands, was the site of the crucial battles between Allied forces and Japan early in World War II.

    —

    Associated Press writers Matthew Lee in Washington and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed reporting.

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  • EU aims for Israel reboot with summit

    EU aims for Israel reboot with summit

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    The EU is seeking to reset its often testy relationship with Israel next week, convening a summit on Monday of senior political figures for the first time in a decade. 

    The meeting format, known as the EU-Israel Association Council, has essentially been dormant since 2013, when Israel canceled a gathering in protest over the EU’s stance on Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Since then, the two sides have continued to clash over similar issues. 

    But the 2021 exit of hardline Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the door for current rapprochement. His replacement, Yair Lapid, who also holds the foreign minister role, has embraced a two-state solution with Palestine — a position more in line with many EU countries’ approach, even if several countries are still expected to express disapproval of Israel’s Palestinian policies on Monday. Brussels is also eager to shore up energy supplies from Israel amid Russia’s war in Ukraine.

    Lapid is expected to attend Monday’s council meeting. 

    “There’s a big hope that the upcoming association council between the EU and Israel will bring … a new wind into our relationship,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told POLITICO last week at the United Nations General Assembly, expressing optimism that the development will be one of the key achievements of the Czechs’ six-month rotating EU presidency.

    Still, getting EU consensus on one of the world’s most notoriously contentious conflicts is not going to be easy. 

    Countries like Ireland and Sweden have traditionally taken a more pro-Palestinian stance — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stopped off in Dublin for a meeting with the Irish prime minister earlier this month en route to the U.N. annual gathering. On the other end of the spectrum, Israel has strong supporters within the EU. Hungary, for example, is a staunch ally with economic and ideological bonds forged over the years between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Netanyahu.  

    Before the EU-Israel council went dark, it had served for more than a decade as a forum for officials to regularly meet and discuss these issues. Now, with the council set to be revived, member states are tinkering with an official communique that needs to satisfy the spectrum of views regarding EU-Israeli relations. 

    Finding common language can mean weeks of fighting over a single word while backroom deals are cut to appease the myriad interests at play. Palestinian officials are also watching closely, demanding not to be left out of a similar diplomatic engagement with Brussels. 

    The EU’s complicated role in the Israel-Palestine conflict has played out in numerous controversies this year alone. 

    This spring, the European Commission was forced to delay funding for the Palestinian Authority over the content of textbooks, which critics say included anti-Israeli incitements to violence. 

    The decision to block the funds was led by Hungarian EU Enlargement Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi. As POLITICO first reported, 15 countries sent a letter to the Commission in April blasting the move. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen finally announced the money would be disbursed during a visit to the Palestinian city Ramallah in July.

    EU commissioner for neighbourhood and enlargement Olivér Várhelyi | Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP via Getty Images

    Further tensions with Tel Aviv emerged following an Israeli raid in July on the offices of Palestinian NGOs. 

    Israel had accused the groups — some of which received funds from EU countries — of being terrorist organizations. But numerous EU countries weren’t convinced.

    In a joint statement at the time, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden all blasted Israel, saying it had not supplied “substantial information” to justify the raids. The bloc reiterated those “deep concerns” in August after further Israeli raids on civil society groups. 

    Another dynamic affecting the EU’s relationship with Israel is the Continent’s energy woes. As Europe scrambles to find alternative sources of Russian gas, furthering energy ties with Israel is one possible answer.  

    In a June visit to Israel, von der Leyen signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel and Egypt to boost gas exports. The EU is also Israel’s largest trade market and accounts for about a third of Israel’s total trade. 

    But while economic imperatives explain part of the new push for engagement with Israel, long-term observers say the outreach also reflects a new willingness to engage with Tel Aviv after Lapid came to power this summer. Lapid entered office as part of a power-sharing arrangement with Naftali Bennett, who held the job for a year prior to him. 

    “I think it is a genuine shift,” said Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, who helms the Israel-Europe Program at Mitvim Institute, an Israeli think tank. “The change of tone was made by Lapid, who shares much of the EU’s normative stance on the liberal democratic world order. It’s now much more positive than during Netanyahu’s government, even if Bennett and now Lapid government is not advancing the peace process.”

    Sion-Tzidkiyahu said mutually beneficial scenarios are helping to replace “megaphone diplomacy” with closer dialogue.

    “Disagreements on contentious issues such as the Palestinian or Iranian one will not disappear, but perhaps there are now better understanding for the concerns of each side,” she said.

    Lipavský, the Czech foreign minister, is aware of the concerns some EU countries have about the Israeli’s government actions in the West Bank and towards Palestinians. 

    “We need to discuss [these concerns] openly, but I don’t think that one issue should block the debate about the others,” he said.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen poses for pictures with Israel’s Yair Lapid | Pool photo by Maya Alleruzzo/AFP via Getty Images

    Officially, the EU supports the two-state solution that sees a Palestinian state living side-by-side in peace and security with Israel — a vision also shared by the United States. But making that prospect a reality seems as far away as ever. 

    Sven Koopmans, the EU special representative for the Middle East peace process, wrote earlier this month that all parties needed to help identify ways to solve the man-made conflict.

    “The current situation is increasingly seen as a structural human rights problem, in which Israel has the upper hand,” he wrote in the Israeli outlet Haaretz. “That negatively affects how the world perceives Israel, and holds risks for the long-term. It should not be that way.”

    When it comes to resuming the peace process, Sion-Tzidkiyahu is not confident. 

    “Under the current political circumstances in the Palestinian Authority and Israel, such development is not foreseen,” she said. “At most, the EU can push for more practical steps by Israel to improve Palestinian’s condition.”

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    Ilya Gridneff and Joshua Zeitz

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  • Statement by Dr. Moshe Kantor the President of the Luxembourg Forum

    Statement by Dr. Moshe Kantor the President of the Luxembourg Forum

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    The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe held a conference “Prospects for Nuclear Arms Control” in May 2021.

    Press Release
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    updated: Jun 7, 2021


    LONDON, England, June 7, 2021 (Newswire.com)
    –
    The International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe held a conference “Prospects for Nuclear Arms Control” in May 2021.

    The conference was attended by leading international experts and scientists dealing with the problems of global nuclear security, strategic stability, disarmament and the reduction, limitation, and non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

    Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the International Luxembourg Forum, made a statement during the conference on the most burning issues of today’s global security, strategic stability and non-proliferation.

    “Everyone is well aware of the current state of U.S.-Russian relations, which are at their lowest point in decades. The challenge is to make sure that no one knocks from below and drags them down even further; on a positive note, concerns regarding the fate of the existing Start Treaty have noticeably decreased following the launch of the new US administration and the five-year extension of New Start,” Dr. Kantor said.

    “First and most important, among these new issues is the intention to include in the follow-on treaty all US and Russian nuclear weapons, both strategic and non-strategic. While both nuclear powers have extensive experience in the counting and verification of strategic arms, a number of questions immediately arise regarding non-strategic nuclear weapons systems. The big question is whether the range of issues can be solved through the negotiating process by 2026.”

    “I cannot overlook the especially dangerous view on the possible use of nuclear weapons at the regional level, with subsequent escalation, which has been discussed in recent years. The discussion now centers not only on how to prevent this threat, but also on how to minimize catastrophic damage from nuclear explosions through the reduction of warhead capacity when they are used, in particular, to de-escalate the possible development of nuclear conflicts.”

    “One can only regretfully note the departure from the fundamental conclusions of our distinguished predecessors, who considered any use of nuclear weapons to be absolutely unacceptable: here I include the long-standing conclusion of Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan that it is impossible to win a nuclear war. I believe that measures to prevent any use of nuclear weapons should always be part of our discussions in the Luxembourg Forum,” Dr. Kantor noted.

    Source: International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe

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