Day: February 4, 2022

China on Friday put its weight behind Russia in opposing NATO’s expansion eastward amid ongoing tensions with Ukraine.

“The (two) sides oppose further enlargement of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon its ideologized cold war approaches,” said a joint statement released by the Kremlin after a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Beijing. They met ahead of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.

It urged NATO to “respect sovereignty, security and interests of other countries.”

There have been fears of a military invasion for weeks because of the deployment of Russian soldiers in the border area with Ukraine. Moscow denies planning such a step.

Ukraine and Russia have been locked in conflict since hostilities broke out in the eastern Donbas region in 2014 after Moscow annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

Russia has demanded security guarantees from the West, including that Ukraine would not join NATO.

The US and NATO handed their written responses to the proposals, but Moscow said its main concerns were ignored.

Xi and Putin called on NATO to “exercise a fair and objective attitude towards the peaceful development of other states.”

“Russia and China stand against attempts by external forces to undermine security and stability in their common adjacent regions, intend to counter interference by outside forces in the internal affairs of sovereign countries under any pretext, oppose color revolutions, and will increase cooperation in the aforementioned areas,” the readout said.

They expressed “grave concern” on “serious international security challenges,” and that “no state can or should ensure its own security” at the expense of others.

On Washington’s increasing engagement in Asia Pacific, the statement noted that both Beijing and Moscow “stand against the formation of closed bloc structures and opposing camps” in the region.

We “remain highly vigilant about the negative impact of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy on peace and stability in the region,” it said.

Russia also reaffirmed its support for the “One-China principle,” saying “Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and opposes any forms of independence of Taiwan.”

Additional 10bcm gas to China

Meanwhile, Putin announced Russia has signed a new contract with China to deliver an additional 10 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas.

“Our oilmen have prepared good new solutions for the supply of hydrocarbons to the People’s Republic of China. And the gas industry has also taken another step forward – I mean a new contract for the supply of gas to China from the Russian Far East at 10 billion cubic meters per year,” he said.

The two countries reached a new record trade turnover of $140 billion, the Russian president said, adding that it is a step to reach $200 billion.

Xi said his meeting with Putin will give an additional impetus to the development of Russian-Chinese relations.

“The world has entered a new period of upheaval and change” and that “humanity is facing many challenges and crises,” he said.

In these circumstances, he added, Russia and China “remain committed to the original goal – making unremitting efforts for the sustainable development of relations” and protection of their fundamental interests.

“Everything is getting stronger (between Russia and China) – political and strategic mutual trust,” he said.

Xi said Moscow and Beijing will continue to promote “true multilateralism,” and strive to transform mutual trust into practical cooperation “for the benefit of the two peoples.”

The meeting ended with the signing of 16 agreements and MOUs, including political-strategic plans and four commercial contracts.?

It was Xi’s first in-person engagement with a foreign leader in nearly two years. He has not left the country since January 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: Anadolu Agency

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday threatened Russia with tougher sanctions if the Ukraine conflict escalates.

“We have prepared a robust and comprehensive package of financial and economic sanctions,” von der Leyen told Handelsblatt, a business newspaper in Germany.

This includes the “cutting off of access to foreign capital” and “export controls, especially technical goods,” she added.

The EU Commission chief stressed that the aim is to make the “Russian economy even more fragile.“

The controversial Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline is also part of the sanctions package, she said, adding that Europe cannot “take Nord Stream 2 off the table in view of the sanctions, that’s very clear.”

Von der Leyen also expressly did not rule out economic penalties against Russia’s head of state Vladimir Putin. “Of course, people close to Putin and oligarchs could be hit hard,” she said.

The EU is also preparing a technology embargo. “It’s about high-tech components that Russia cannot simply replace, for example in the field of artificial intelligence and armaments, in quantum computers, lasers and in space travel,” she explained.

In the West, there have been fears of an imminent military invasion for weeks because of the deployment of Russian soldiers in the border area with Ukraine. Moscow denies planning such a step.

Ukraine and Russia have been locked in conflict since hostilities broke out in the eastern Donbas region in 2014 after Moscow illegally annexed the Crimean Peninsula.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The UN Refugee Agency said on Friday it was “shocked and deeply distressed” by reports that 19 migrants died on Wednesday on the Greek-Turkish border.

“We have seen reports in the media. And we are shocked and deeply distressed by these reports,” UN High Commission for Refugees spokesman Boris Cheshirkov told a news conference.

He said they have reports that people have died near the border between Greece and Turkiye.

“We are working to verify these reports,” he said in reply to a question from Anadolu Agency.

According to Cheshirkov, the UN agency has received reports of an increase in the number of human rights violations at land and sea borders during the last two years.

“Such tragic deaths are avoidable, including through the establishment of regular and safe pathways that could prevent people from resorting to smugglers,” said the UN official.

“Increasing border restrictions and pushbacks in Europe contribute to refugees and migrants using riskier routes. And it means that people are putting themselves and their lives and their children in greater risk,” he added.

Turkiye’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu heavily criticized Greece on Wednesday for the inhuman and degrading treatment of irregular migrants and said those who were found dead were stripped of their clothes and shoes by the Greek border guards.

At least 19 irregular migrants were found frozen to death, the Turkish authorities said on Thursday, raising the death toll from 12 a day earlier.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Somalia is facing a political standoff due to the country’s delayed presidential and parliamentary elections.

Currently, Somalia seems to have taken a path that could see parliamentary elections on Feb. 25 as agreed by Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble and regional leaders after almost a week of intense discussions.

However, there are sticking points, including allocation of 30% seats in parliament to women.

In an exclusive interview, Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam, Somalia’s only female presidential candidate, told Anadolu Agency that the country needs a leader that can ensure peace and stability. She declared that only a female leader would be able to do that.

“Somalia needs peace, stability and development and due to the current political stalemate, tribal conflicts and massive corruption, only a female leader can lift it out of this mayhem,” Adam told Anadolu Agency.

Adam has already broken the glass ceiling by becoming Somalia’s first female deputy prime minister and foreign minister and now is vying for the highest office.

She said Somalia has been deprived of peace because of the “egos of men” at the top echelon of power.

Somalia has already held elections for the upper house of parliament, Aqalka Sare, where 14 out of 54 seats went to women.

‘More seats for women’

Adam said the women of Somalia deserve more than 30% representation in parliament.

Unfortunately, they are denied their rights by the 4.5 electoral system which allows tribal elders to select candidates, and who mostly prefer men over women, she said.

Somalia’s recent political standoff started after the country’s electoral body ousted its chairman and Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed suspended Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble.

She blamed the 4.5 system for the mess saying it lacked transparency.

“This system is unprincipled and unconstitutional. It is turning clans, families and constituencies against each other,” he said.

Calling herself a trailblazer, she said many other women have their eyes set on her electoral success and are playing a “wait and see” game.

She said presidential candidates that comprise two former presidents– Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed are lacking cohesion and ready to contest both of them in the highest office in the country.

On the role of Turkiye in Somalia, she said Ankara has contributed to security, education and development in the Horn of Africa country.

“Turkiye has been a supporter of the Somali people for centuries. But they became closer on Aug. 19, 2011 when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Somalia,” she said.

Turkiye’s aid played a major role in mitigating the famine in 2011 and starting infrastructure and development projects in Somalia.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Human Rights Committee of the Turkish parliament said Thursday that Greece has been convicted in the conscience of humanity for its treatment of migrants.

Speaking to the committee members, Hakan Cavusoglu reminded that at least 12 irregular migrants were found frozen to death in northwestern Turkiye after they were pushed back from neighboring Greece.

“Greece has been convicted in the conscience of humanity for its practices towards migrants and will one day be condemned before international law,” Cavusoglu said.

The deaths of the migrants “has once again revealed the extent of Greece’s actions against human rights and international law, and how it recklessly endangered the lives of migrants,” he added.

Twelve of 22 migrants who were “pushed back” by Greek border forces Wednesday and stripped of their clothes and shoes froze to death.

The Governor’s Office of Edirne province in northwestern Turkiye released a statement, saying the bodies of nine migrants were found in Pasakoy village of Ipsala district, less than 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Greek border.

Turkiye has been the main transit point for asylum seekers attempting to enter Europe to begin new lives, particularly those fleeing war and persecution.

Turkiye and international human rights groups have repeatedly condemned Greece’s illegal practice of pushing back asylum seekers, saying it violates humanitarian values and international law by endangering the lives of vulnerable people, including women and children.

Source: Anadolu Agency

China’s announcement to appoint a special envoy for the Horn of Africa region affirms its intent to play a more strategic role as a security actor on the continent, experts said.

During his visit to the region earlier this year, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced Beijing will appoint a special envoy for the Horn of Africa. Although, he did not mention what exact role the envoy would partake, he said China will help Eritrea to develop its coastline.

Faith Mabera, a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue, a foreign policy think-tank in South Africa’s capital Pretoria, told Anadolu Agency the announcement confirms China’s determination to engage in a more strategic role as a security actor on the continent, leveraging its evolving experience in conflict management, drawing on its contribution to multilateral peacekeeping and in mediation.

There are many conflicts in the Horn of Africa with Somalia battling the al-Shabaab terror outfit and the Ethiopian government battling the rebel forces from the northern Tigray region with Eritrea aligned on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s side in the conflict.

“Taking stock of Wang Yi’s recent visit, one begins to get a sense of the centrality of personal ties and mutual obligations at the center of China’s diplomacy with Africa,” Mabera said.

“This attests the importance that the Chinese accord to Africa in their diplomatic engagements, but also points to the prioritization of security on the foreign policy agenda,” he added.

“Specifically, the imperative of securing crucial maritime chokepoints in the Red Sea, aligned to the view of ports as prime real estate,” she said, noting that the Chinese port in Djibouti is important in this regard.

Wang’s announcement in January came at a crucial time when the US envoy to the Horn of Africa was heading to Ethiopia to resolve a year-long conflict.

“China wants to overtake the continent from traditional western friends and old colonial masters,” said Abdurahman Sheikh Azhari, director of the Somalia-based think tank Centre for Analysis and Strategic Studies, adding China was providing cheaper and more accessible products to the continent compared to costly western manufactured goods.

He said some of the products include military hardware.

He said the Chinese base in Djibouti is providing sophisticated weapons to African markets, a claim Anadolu Agency could not independently verify.

Chinese loans a debt trap?

Azhari said Africa’s traditional partners, including Europe and the US, are worried about China’s expansion in Africa, and the growing interest of African nations in doing business with China which also offers long-time development projects to the continent.

Azhari, however, said China may be trapping African countries into debt by offering them heavy loans they may not be able to repay. He said in the end, China could seize strategic national key points of defaulting nations such as airports, seaports and even land.

Other experts warn that in the long run, China might also start influencing political and economic decisions of certain African countries seeking development aid or those that have defaulted despite it currently having a non-interference policy.

China, however, denies that its loans to the continent have political strings attached.

“China does not interfere in Africa’s internal affairs and does not impose its own will on Africa,” President Xi Jinping told leaders at a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2018 as he offered Africa $60 billion in new development financing, in addition to another $60 billion Beijing had offered to the continent in 2015.

Dr. Mustafa Mheta, a senior researcher at the Media Review Network, a Johannesburg-based think tank, told Anadolu Agency that he does not think China wants to trap Africa into debt.

“Those against China have been peddling this narrative, giving China a negative image. Beijing has not officially said they will take over infrastructure from defaulting countries,” he said in a phone interview.?

“The time for western influence and power in Africa is over,” he added.

He said some African leaders are failing to pay Chinese loans because of China’s soft approach and loans which have “little or no strings attached.”?

“In the foreseeable future, China will continue to depend on African resources,” he said, and so good relations will continue.

Source: Anadolu Agency

A Turkish fisherman and his crew were harassed by the Greek Coast Guard while fishing in international waters, a video he made of the incident shows.

Ilker Ozdemir said Thursday that he was fishing in international waters off Turkiye’s Gokceada island and a few miles from Greece’s Samothrace island.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Ozdemir said they make a living by fishing around Gokceada, located off the coast of Turkiye’s northwestern Canakkale province, adding they were in an area known as the Giraffe Cliffs, which is in international waters.

“This region is located six miles (9.6 kilometers) off the Greek island of Samothrace. It is in international waters. These are waters that we should all use,” he said.

“The Greek Coast Guard boat came near us while we were fishing. They came before as well, but we never took a video of it. We launched a YouTube channel recently and we had cameras this time. We took a video of the incident. They harass us regularly. They scare us, and they even pulled a gun on us in the past,” said Ozdemir.

He said they called the Turkish Coast Guard immediately and its teams intervened in a very short time.

Ozdemir said the Greek Coast Guard team that came to harass them told them that they were in Greek waters, but his crew also recorded the coordinates, and it shows that it was indeed international waters.

“They threatened to shoot us, sink our boat. But we refuse to go. We were fishing for about two to three hours and then we returned. They returned to their waters and watched us the whole time,” he added.

Source: Anadolu Agency