Day: September 17, 2022

The US lifted defense trade restrictions on the Greek Cypriot administration for the 2023 fiscal year, the State Department said Friday.

“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken determined and certified to Congress that the Republic of Cyprus has met the necessary conditions under relevant legislation to allow the approval of exports, re-exports, and transfers of defense articles,” according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.

Price said the international traffic in arms regulations will be amended to reflect the new policy effective Oct. 1.

US policy requires the denial of exports, re-exports or transfers of defense articles to Cyprus unless the president determines and certifies to congressional committees authorities there are cooperating with Washington to implement anti-money laundering regulations and financial regulatory oversight reforms.

It also requires Cyprus to take steps to deny Russian military vessels access to ports for refueling and servicing.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments around the world.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met leaders such as his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.

• Ankara is putting “sincere efforts” to end the crisis in Ukraine and let the grain to be exported to Africa, Erdogan said.

• “We make sincere efforts to ensure that grain reaches those who need it most, especially our brothers and sisters in Africa,” the Turkish leader said at the second session of SCO summit.

• He also said Türkiye is exerting “great efforts” to end the conflict in Ukraine through diplomacy as soon as possible.

• Also, Türkiye lashed out against Greece’s recent events held under the “Asia Minor Disaster,” urging Athens for “common sense.”

• A Foreign Ministry statement noted that Greece is trying to mislead its public as well as the international community with “lies” and “by distorting historical facts” through the “Asia Minor Disaster” events.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the UN to influence the European Commission on the issue of lifting sanctions on the export of Russian fertilizers to developing countries.

• Germany is ready for a leading military role to ensure Europe’s security, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

• Delivering a speech at a military conference in Berlin, Scholz said Russia’s attack on Ukraine has been a turning point in history, caused a paradigm shift in security affairs, and made it necessary for Germany to boost its military.

• The number of Armenian soldiers killed in clashes on the Azerbaijani border has risen to 135, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said.

• Speaking to Armenia’s parliament, Pashinyan said there are also many wounded.

• The number of Azerbaijani soldiers killed in the border clashes with Armenia has risen to 77, said Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry.

• An armed man in Al-Aziyah, southern Lebanon on Friday entered a bank and demanded at gunpoint the return of his savings deposits, according to local press reports.

• The Association of Banks in Lebanon announced the closure of all banks’ branches across Lebanon for three days after a series of depositors’ hold-ups demanding withdrawal of their savings.

Source: Anadolu Agency

The regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria claimed that Israel conducted airstrikes Saturday in the capital city.

The Israeli air force carried out the strikes on the Damascus airport and military points at around 12.45 a.m. local time, according to the official SANA news agency, citing a military source.

Noting five soldiers died in the attacks, the news agency said that the missiles were mostly intercepted by Syrian air defenses.

Israel has not yet issued a statement about the claim.

It is known that in addition to the regime army, there are military points belonging to Iran-allied militias and Hezbollah in Damascus.

The Assad regime had said that the Aleppo Airport was targeted by Israeli forces and was temporarily out of service because of attacks on Sept. 6 and Aug. 31.

Israeli officials generally refrain from commenting on attacks on Syrian territory.

Israel has been sporadically carrying out attacks against Iranian-backed groups and regime military points in Syria since 2011 when the civil war began.

Source: Anadolu Agency

This week all the attention was on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

Particularly, the picture that reflects the leaders who attended the summit, sitting together and listening to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan drew the attention of international media.

The photo symbolizes Erdogan’s major foreign policy achievements during the Russia-Ukraine war, such as the grain deal, and also reflects Türkiye’s new role in the SCO in the era of a new multipolar world order.

The summit, which brought the presidents of member states Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan together, as well as the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, and the presidents of the observer country, Iran, attracted great international interest. Türkiye attended the summit as a special guest with other guest countries, including Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Turkmenistan and Mongolia.

The organization was founded by eight countries in 2001. The main goals of the organization are strengthening friendly, good neighbor relations, promoting mutual trust and improving security and economic relations among countries.

The SCO is the largest regional organization in Eurasia, covering around 40% of the world population and 30% of global economic output.

In the era of the Russia-Ukraine war, strained relations between China and the US, and unstable situations in different regions in Eurasia, the organization is one of the main platforms for regional powers in Eurasia that promotes a stable security environment.

Türkiye’s status in the SCO

In 2012, Türkiye obtained SCO dialogue partner status. However, the country took part in the summit at the presidential level for the first time as Erdogan attended the 22nd Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO. Erdogan addressed the second session of the summit and held meetings with leaders including Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Türkiye’s participation has different political and economic foreign policy priorities, amid growing tension between major powers and growing concern about global economic problems such as rising energy prices and the destabilization of the agricultural products supply chain.

Foreign policy objectives of Türkiye

In terms of its political foreign policy priorities, Türkiye follows a multi-vector and balanced policy among international actors and tries to diversify its relations with Western and Asian countries. Due to its geographical location, Türkiye is one of the main countries that play a key role in the Euro-Atlantic world and Eurasia. Ankara’s main foreign policy priority at the summit was to improve its relations with the great powers of Eurasia, especially China, Russia and India, to increase its strategic autonomy, develop different political alternatives, and strengthen its position vis-à-vis Western countries.

Another objective for Ankara is to diversify its relations, as well as to strengthen its credibility and impartiality as a potential mediator by interacting with different countries. The fact that Russia and Ukraine accepted Türkiye as a mediator for the grain agreement, and Beijing’s invitation of the Turkish delegation to visit the Xinjiang province, demonstrates Ankara’s reliability and impartiality on the world stage. Moreover, attending the summit at the presidential level shows that Türkiye, as a member of the Euro-Atlantic community, is not only trying to improve relations with the Western world but also prefers to develop relations with the actors in Eurasia as a reliable connection between East and West.

In the context of economic priorities, Türkiye has a great opportunity to expand its trade relations and increase its export to SCO member countries. The total trade volume of SCO member states also increased from $668.09 billion in 2001 to $6.06 trillion in 2020. And its share of global trade increased from 5.4% in 2001 to 17.5% in 2020. Ankara has a great chance to interact with member countries and dialogue partners and strengthen bilateral trade volumes which create mutually beneficial conditions for both sides.

Second, by way of cooperation, Türkiye can create new opportunities for Turkish companies to expand their presence and play a more active role in emerging economies.

Türkiye plays a critical role in the East-West rail trade. Ankara not only makes infrastructure investments in the region but also cooperates with South Caucasian and Central Asian countries at a bilateral and trilateral level for strengthening connectivity through Eurasia.

Last month’s events such as Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan and Türkiye-Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan trilateral cooperation are indicators of Ankara’s connectivity strategy.

Particularly, Türkiye’s Middle Corridor Initiative plays a critical role in the East-West rail trade. In this context, Ankara’s active involvement with the SCO creates a new opportunity for Türkiye to coordinate its Middle Corridor Initiative with member countries’ connectivity strategy, especially with China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Cooperation at the SCO level can help improve Ankara and SCO countries’ hard and soft infrastructure and optimize railway trade through Eurasia.

To sum up, SCO and new actors in the organization create different political and economic opportunities for Türkiye.

In the short- and medium-term, Ankara’s proactive foreign policy toward the SCO can strengthen its strategic autonomy vis-vis Western and Asian powers and create much better conditions for the continuity of a balanced and multi-vector foreign policy.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Türkiye on Saturday “strongly” condemned the US decision to lift the arms embargo on the Greek Cypriot administration.

“We strongly condemn the expansion of the scope of the decision taken by the U.S. in September 2020 to lift the arms embargo towards the Greek Cypriot Administration,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“This decision, which is in contradiction to the principle of equality of the two sides on the Island, and which will further strengthen the Greek Cypriot side’s intransigence, will negatively affect the efforts to resettle the Cyprus issue; and it will lead to an arms race on the Island, harming peace and stability in the Eastern Mediterranean,” it added.

The US lifted defense trade restrictions on the Greek Cypriot administration for the 2023 fiscal year, the State Department said Friday.

“Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken determined and certified to Congress that the Republic of Cyprus has met the necessary conditions under relevant legislation to allow the approval of exports, re-exports, and transfers of defense articles,” according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.

The US policy requires the denial of exports, re-exports or transfers of defense articles to Cyprus unless the president determines and certifies to congressional committees authorities there are cooperating with Washington to implement anti-money laundering regulations and financial regulatory oversight reforms.

Ankara called on the US “to reconsider this decision and to pursue a balanced policy towards the two sides on the Island.”

“The international community, including the U.S., should reaffirm the sovereign equality and equal international status of the Turkish Cypriot people, which were also confirmed by the 1959-60 Agreements, and act accordingly,” it said.

“In any case, Türkiye, as guarantor country, in line with its legal and historical responsibilities, will continue to take necessary steps for the existence, security and serenity of the Turkish Cypriots, by all means.”

Source: Anadolu Agency