POLITICS
At global summits, Biden aims to assert America’s leadership
Published
2 years agoon
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will aim to assert America’s global leadership during his upcoming trip to Southeast Asia that will be shadowed by a verdict on his presidency after Tuesday’s elections.
The foreign policy challenges that have helped define Biden’s first two years in office -– Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the increasing influence of China -– will be on full display at a pair of summits in the region. Biden is preparing for a potential one-on-one meeting with a newly empowered Xi Jinping, who last month won an custom-shattering third term as China’s Community Party leader.
Biden will also be confronted by global economic challenges at the Group of 20 summit, an annual gathering of leaders from the world’s largest economies. He also will try to assure the nearly dozen countries that are part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that the United States is invested in the region at a time when China is also stepping up its influence.
The ASEAN summit is in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Bali, Indonesia, is the site of the G-20 summit.
Before that, Biden will stop in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, at the U.N. climate conference, known as COP27. Unlike last year’s conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the president will arrive at this year’s gathering able to point to significant achievements at home, with the August signing of legislation that will deliver the biggest investment in U.S. history to battle climate change.
A look at major themes that will dominate Biden’s seven-day trip. The first stop is in Egypt on Friday.
KEEPING THE PRESSURE ON RUSSIA
More than eight months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden is facing new challenges in his efforts to isolate Moscow. Elevated energy and food prices, and concerns in Europe about supplies of those vital commodities heading into the winter are testing global resolve to support Ukraine’s defense and punish Russia’s aggression.
At the G-20 summit, Biden will have his first opportunities to meet with two critical new partners in that effort: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni.
Sunak, who took office last month after the disastrously short tenure of Liz Truss, has promised to continue his conservative predecessors’ steadfast support for Ukraine. He and Biden are set to strategize on new ways to bolster Ukraine’s defenses for the long haul.
Meloni has pledged to continue to provide arms and aid for Ukraine, but questions remain over her far-right coalition’s commitment to stand up to Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has not made public whether he plans to participate in the summit. Biden has said he has no plans to meet with Putin, but left the door open to a conversation if Putin wants to discuss a deal to free Americans imprisoned in Russia.
Biden administration officials have been coordinating with global counterparts to isolate Putin if he does decide to participate either in person, or virtually. They have discussed boycotts or other displays of condemnation.
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NAVIGATING THE AUTOCRATS
Biden has spoken of a global struggle between autocracies and democracies. But increasingly he is having to rely on less-democratic leaders to further U.S. interests, from Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who is hosting the climate conference, to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has resisted U.S. pleas to curtail purchases of Russian oil.
Biden used his remarks at the United Nations in September to emphasize that the U.S. was willing to work with all nations — no matter their systems of government — to effect change.
“The United Nations Charter was not only signed by democracies of the world, it was negotiated among citizens of dozens of nations with vastly different histories and ideologies, united in their commitment to work for peace,” Biden said at the time.
The administration says Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, after the OPEC+ cartel embarrassed Biden by cutting production months after his July meeting with the crown prince. Biden has blasted the move as indicating that Saudi Arabia was siding with Russia.
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DOMESTIC POLITICS
American voters on Tuesday will deliver a verdict on Biden’s governance and two years of Democratic control of Washington. It’s not clear how quickly control of the House and Senate will be known after Election Day. The White House has persistently sought to frame the midterms as a choice between dueling visions for the nation, rather than a referendum on Biden’s time in office.
Democrats are privately bracing to lose control of at least the House. A slew of Senate races that could tip power in the 50-50 chamber are considered toss-ups. Depending on the results, Biden could embark on his overseas trip significantly weakened politically.
The most acute impact abroad from Tuesday’s results in the United States could be the future of assistance to Ukraine. Though backing for aid has been broadly bipartisan, conservatives have increasingly voiced skepticism about the wisdom of continued support, as has California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader who is poised to become House speaker should Republicans win that chamber.
Still, some observers believed the midterm outcome, no matter the judgment, would have no significant impact on Biden’s maneuvering overseas.
“These issues tend to transcend politics,” said Ash Jain of the Atlantic Council, pointing to congressional support for Ukraine and bolstering U.S. competition with China. “Biden’s discussions with leaders on these issues will largely be unaffected by the outcome of the election.”
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A MEETING WITH XI?
U.S. and Chinese officials are working out the logistics of such a meeting between the two leaders, which would be the first such in person during Biden’s presidency. It could come at time when Biden may have been politically punished by U.S. voters while Xi consolidated his power during the Communist Party congress that concluded last month.
If a meeting happens, there will be no shortage of topics for Biden to raise with China, which the U.S. government now says is its most potent military and economic rival.
Tensions have been rising between the two nations over Taiwan, particularly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit in August to the self-governing island and Biden’s repeated remarks that the U.S. would militarily defend Taiwan if attacked by China – comments his aides have repeatedly walked back.
The matter of Trump-era trade penalties on Chinese goods also remains on the table. Biden is also likely to raise the issue of human rights abuses, particularly against the Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region. China has also refrained from publicly taking Russia to task over Ukraine, although Putin said Xi privately relayed “concern and questions” about the invasion when the two met in Uzbekistan in September.
John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council, stressed on Friday that the U.S. government has never asked other countries to effectively choose between it and China, acknowledging that every nation can build relationships based on its own interests.
But “it’s not going to change the fact that we continue to want to make sure we’re in the best position we can to compete strategically with China and to confront the threats and challenges that China very physically, very tangibly represents –- particularly in the Indo-Pacific region,” Kirby added.
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KEEPING UP THE MOMENTUM ON CLIMATE CHANGE
At the climate conference, Biden will spotlight one of his key domestic successes — Democrats’ massive health care and climate change bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act.
The U.S. commitment of some $375 billion over a decade to fight climate change gives Biden greater leverage to press other nations to make good on their pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition the global economy toward cleaner energy sources.
Biden will be in far different position from last year’s gathering, which came about during a particularly unhappy stretch in the bill’s tortuous path to passage.
That summit resulted in additional global commitments to meet the temperature targets agreed to in the Paris Climate Accord, which Biden rejoined after then-President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. from the deal. But even with the new U.S. law, America and the world have a long way to go to meet emissions targets that scientists hope will contain global warming. And the political will for more investment — as the global economy faces new headwinds — is shrinking.
“There’s a real gap in public policy reality versus the ambition that was sealed at Glasgow,” said Joseph Majkut, the director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies Energy Security and Climate Change Program.
Global eagerness for shifting away from fossil fuels has been tempered by the roiling of world energy markets after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden is pressing oil and gas producers to boost production to meet demand and bring down prices that have funded the Kremlin’s war effort.
The prospects of a significant breakthrough are even more slim as major emitters such as China and India are sending less-senior delegations. Biden administration officials have tried to lower expectations for results at the meeting and instead cast it as a return to U.S. leadership on the issue.
POLITICS
Erdogan election defeat would be ‘revenge’ – Syrian Kurds
Published
12 months agoon
May 23, 2023The YPG claims the Turkish president failing to win another term would be payback for Ankara’s counter-terrorism operations in Syria
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s defeat in this month’s presidential election would serve as “revenge” for Türkiye’s military operations in Syria, a top official of the People’s Defense Units (YPG) has said.
Salih Muslim, one of the leaders of the YPG — a Syrian militant group affiliated with the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and designated by Ankara as a terrorist organization — said in an interview with Medya Haber Kurdish TV channel that his organization has grown frustrated with Türkiye’s counterterrorism operations ongoing in the northern part of Syria since 2016, Daily Sabah reported.
“Now, we have an opportunity in our hands,” Muslim said, stressing that the YPG is eager to see Erdogan unseated. “It’s the first time we have such a thing happening in elections.” He added that “If we can win at the ballot box, we will take all the revenge from [the defeat of] one person.”
Muslim’s statement comes as several members of the YPG and the PKK have openly expressed support for Erdogan’s main challenger, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as the two head into a runoff election on May 28. In the previous round, held on May 14, both candidates failed to secure an outright majority with Erdogan gaining just over 49.4% of the vote while Kilicdaroglu received 44.96%.
Kilicdaroglu has vowed to mend Ankara’s relations with NATO and revive Türkiye’s EU membership talks, which have been effectively stalled since 2016. He has also accused Russia of spreading “conspiracies” and “deep fakes” apparently referring to footage circulating online purportedly linking him to the PKK, and told Moscow to get its “hands off the Turkish state.” Russia has rejected the accusations.
Somalis cheer on Türkiye’s Erdogan to win re-election
Erdogan has repeatedly accused his rival of “colluding with terrorists” and threatening to undo Türkiye’s achievements in its war on terror. He has also blasted Kilicdaroglu for trying to “detach” the country from Russia.
Türkiye has been waging low-intensity warfare against Kurdish militias along its Syrian and Iraqi borders for four decades, in a back-and-forth campaign that has claimed the lives of over 40,000 people.
The PKK and its affiliates have been waging an insurgency since 1984 demanding political and cultural autonomy with the final goal of establishing an independent Kurdish State, laying claim to territories in southeast Türkiye and northern parts of Iraq and Syria.
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Li Hui visited Kiev to share Beijing’s views on a political settlement to the Ukraine crisis
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has met with China’s newly appointed special envoy for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, who traveled to Kiev to convey Beijing’s views on a diplomatic resolution to Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
According to a statement published on Thursday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Li held talks with Zelensky as well as the head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, Andrey Yermak, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba, and representatives from several other ministries.
Beijing said both sides had agreed that the recent phone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Zelensky had outlined the direction for future relations between their two nations, which it stated should be built on mutual respect and sincerity.
During his trip, Li reiterated that Beijing is willing to serve as a peace broker to help reach a political resolution to the conflict with Russia, based on the principles outlined in a 12-point roadmap published by China in late February.
“There is no panacea in resolving the crisis. All parties need to start from themselves, accumulate mutual trust, and create conditions for ending the war and engaging in peace talks,” Li said, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s statement.
The special envoy’s two-day trip to Ukraine is the first leg of a wider European tour, during which he is expected to visit Poland, France, Germany, and Russia. Beijing has explained that the trip aims to promote communication toward “a political settlement of the Ukraine crisis.”
Hungary backs Chinese plan for Ukraine
China’s peace efforts have been welcomed by Russia as well as some European nations such as Hungary, and have been praised for acknowledging the national interests of both parties.
The roadmap, however, has been criticized by some in the West. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that China lacked “credibility” as it has refused to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell insisted that “the only thing that can be called a peace plan is Zelensky’s proposal.”
The Ukrainian president has demanded that Russia must withdraw from territories that Kiev claims as its own, as well as pay war reparations and face an international tribunal. The Kremlin has dismissed the initiative, claiming it does not take into consideration “the realities on the ground,” including the new status of four former Ukrainian regions as part of Russia.
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POLITICS
Pakistan’s top court orders release of former PM Imran Khan
Published
1 year agoon
May 12, 2023Pakistan’s Supreme Court has ordered the release of former prime minister Imran Khan, whose arrest earlier this week triggered deadly protests across the country, Geo TV news channel has reported.
The court considered an appeal by Khan’s legal team on Thursday, ruling that the arrest of the opposition figure was illegal, according to the broadcaster.
The leader of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was detained on an order from the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Tuesday as soon as he arrived at a lower court in connection with a graft case against him. He has been held at a police compound in the capital, Islamabad, since then.
Khan’s spokesperson told Al Jazeera that the 70-year-old was apprehended in court before he could even appear before the judges, which was “in violation of all laws.” The PTI party claimed that it was not an arrest, but “an abduction,” and called on its supporters to take the streets.
Pakistan deploys army after Imran Khan’s arrest
Pakistan has been gripped by violent protests for the last three days, with demonstrators clashing with security forces and setting government buildings on fire in major cities across the country. The government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has deployed the military in an attempt to curb the unrest.
Some 2,500 of Khan’s supporters, including some top figures in his party, have been arrested so far. Local media have reported at least 11 protesters killed and hundreds of police officers wounded.
Numerous criminal cases have been launched against Khan since his removal from office after a no-confidence vote in April 2022. The PTI leader, who remains highly popular in the country, denies all accusations against him.
The politician claimed a year ago that he had been deposed as a result of a US-led “international conspiracy” and accused his opponents of receiving money from foreign forces.
Khan has been making active attempts to return to power since then, staging massive rallies across the country. The former premier survived an assassination attempt last November, escaping with a non-life-threatening leg wound after several bullets were fired at him.
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