Day: January 17, 2022

China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday called on countries to discard a “Cold War mentality” and to seek peaceful coexistence and win-win outcomes.

“Acts of containment, suppression or confrontation arising thereof do all harm, not the least good, to world peace and security,” Xi told Davos Agenda, an annual event by World Economic Forum.

He said confrontation “only invites catastrophic consequences. Protectionism and unilateralism can protect no one; they ultimately hurt the interests of others as well as one’s own.”

“Countries have divergences and disagreements between them. Yet a zero-sum approach that enlarges one’s own gain at the expense of others will not help,” Xi said.

He suggested “peaceful development and win-win cooperation” as the “right way forward for humanity.”

China to provide 1B vaccine doses to Africa

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese president said countries need to strengthen international cooperation and carry out active cooperation on research and development of medicines.

“China is a country that delivers on its promises. China has already sent over two billion doses of vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations,” he said, and announced another 1 billion doses for African countries, including 600 million doses as donation.

Besides, he added, China will donate 150 million doses to member states of Association of Southeast Asian nations.

Touching upon the economic fallout of the pandemic, Xi said the developed countries should “adopt responsible economic policies, manage policy spillovers, and avoid severe impacts on developing countries.”

“International economic and financial institutions should play their constructive role to pool global consensus, enhance policy synergy and prevent systemic risks,” he added.

Xi said the global Human Development Index had declined for the first time in 30 years.

“The world’s poor population has increased by more than 100 million. Nearly 800 million people live in hunger. Difficulties are mounting in food security, education, employment, medicine, health and other areas important to people’s livelihoods. Some developing countries have fallen back into poverty and instability due to the pandemic. Many in developed countries are also living through a hard time,” he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

There will be new contacts between Moscow and Washington on security guarantees in the coming days, said Russia’s foreign minister on Monday amid ongoing tension over the fate of Ukraine, with thousands of Russian troops amassed at its borders.

Russia expects to hear back from the US and NATO on its proposals, Sergey Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow following a meeting with his Croatian counterpart Gordan Radman.

“We are firmly counting on the concrete answers promised to us to the draft documents that Russia has handed over to the United States and NATO members. These days there will be some contacts on this topic,” the minister said.

Specifically, Moscow wants to know “how the West is going to fulfill its obligations fixed in the documents of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) summits in Istanbul in 1999 and in Astana in 2010,” Lavrov said.

“These documents say that OSCE states will not strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states. It also states that no state, group of states or organization can be given the primary responsibility of maintaining peace and stability in this region,” he added.

Russia has been keen to forestall any move for Ukraine to join NATO, a move it sees as undermining its security.

Asked about US threats to impose additional sanctions on Russia in case of military action in Ukraine, Lavrov said the US is continuing a “smear campaign” accusing Russia of plotting provocations.

The US can encourage Ukrainian authorities to implement the 2014 Minsk Protocol, he said.

“Today Ukraine is under the external control of the US. Washington is quite capable of simply forcing the Kyiv regime to finally fulfill the Minsk agreements,” he said.

For his part, Radman said EU countries that are not NATO members have to take part in security discussions as well.

He also expressed optimism that the security talks will evolve towards a positive outcome.

“In order to overcome mutual differences, it is necessary first of all to achieve mutual trust, and at this stage of building trusting relations, it is necessary to talk about arms limitation,” he said.

On Dec. 15, Yury Ushakov, a presidential foreign policy adviser, announced that Russia handed over its draft proposals to the US and NATO, and two days later, the Russian Foreign Ministry published the text of the draft agreements suggested by Moscow.

On Jan. 10, Russian and US delegations met in Geneva for the first round of consultations “to make positions clear,” and on Jan. 12, Russia and NATO exchanged views on the security proposals in Brussels.

The talks come amid the Russian military buildup on Ukraine’s borders and Western fears an invasion is close at hand. Western countries and NATO have threatened a firm response to any Russian military action in Ukraine.

Stop ‘interference’ in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Turning to the situation in the Balkans, Lavrov called on the West to stop “interfering” in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s affairs.

“Despite all the calls not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries, the United States appointed a special representative for electoral reform in Bosnia and Herzegovina: this is on the question of spheres of influence.

“Former head of the EU diplomatic service Federica Mogherini stated that the Western Balkans is an area where the European Union will deal with all the problems, and it is better for others not to get involved there,” he said.

Russia expects that the EU will support the 1995 Dayton principles for a settlement in Bosnia and Herzegovina, suggesting equal rights for all three state-forming peoples, and to stop treating the Western Balkans as a zone of its influence, Lavrov stressed.

Moscow also sees obvious discrimination against Bosnian Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the ongoing reform of the electoral legislation is designed to correct this situation, he said.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said Monday that it reserves the right to respond following an attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen.

“We condemn the Houthi terrorist militia’s targeting of civilian areas and facilities on Emirati soil today,” the UAE Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This heinous attack will not go unpunished,” it added.

The statement said the UAE “reserves the right to respond to these terrorist attacks and this vicious criminal escalation.”

Three people were killed and six others injured when three fuel tanker trucks exploded in the industrial Musaffah area in the capital Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Houthi rebels said that they had carried out a military operation “deep in the UAE,” without giving further details.

The UAE is a member of a Saudi-led coalition that has been fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen since 2015.

Turkiye was among a number of regional countries that condemned Monday’s attack on the UAE.

Source: Anadolu Agency

If there is a further escalation from Russia in Ukraine, Berlin together with its partners “will take joint suitable measures” against the Nord Stream II gas pipeline, Germany’s foreign minister warned on Monday.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital Kyiv after meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, Annalena Baerbock said Germany sees the Nord Stream II as an economic project but that it also has “political, geostrategic aspects.”

She said that “European law applies to energy projects in Germany, and this also applies to the Nord Stream 2. At the moment, European law is not fully implemented in the context of this project, so the certification process has been suspended. At the same time, we see geostrategic connections, otherwise, we would not have talked about it so much.”

She added: “If there is a further escalation on the part of Russia, then we, together with our partners, will take appropriate joint measures.”

For his part, Kuleba said he discussed arms deliveries with Baerbock, adding that Ukraine would prefer a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis in the east of the country, where Western countries have decried violence by Russian-backed separatists amid a Russian buildup of thousands of troops across the border.

He also said that he discussed reviving the work of the Normandy Four format, which includes Germany, France, Russia, and Ukraine.

The US recently warned its European allies over a possible Russian military attack, claiming that Moscow is planning to carry out a false flag operation – sabotaging its own forces, disguised as a Ukrainian attack – to justify an invasion of Ukraine.

Russia has said that the Ukrainian military, backed by a NATO fleet in the Black Sea, carries out military operations close to its borders and uses weapons that could easily reach Russian territory.

In addition, Moscow claims the US private military companies are providing military assistance to the Ukrainian army, which is the reason for the country’s “extreme concern.”

Source: Anadolu Agency