Protesters on Thursday set fire to the Old Parliament House in Australia’s capital city of Canberra, which badly damaged the front entrance of the building…reports Asian Lite News
Firefighters were called to the site at about 11.30 a.m. (local time), reports Xinhua news agency.
Video footage by local media showed protesters at the front of the building.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the Old Parliament House, which now houses the Museum of Australian Democracy, was forced to close last week when protesters started a fire at the door, which was later believed to be a ceremonial blaze.
The building was evacuated as a precaution and crews extinguished the blaze, said 7 News Australia.
Social media footage showed police dragging protesters away from the front steps of the building, as well as a large fire burning on the doors.
ACT Policing confirmed Thursay’s incident as continuation of a series of recent protests.
“Old Parliament House was evacuated earlier today after protesters started a fire at the front doors of the building – this was quickly extinguished by ACT Fire and Rescue,” 7 News Australia quoted a spokesperson said.
The current seven-day daily average of cases in the United States is about 240,400 per day, an increase of about 60 per cent over the previous week…reports Asian Lite News
Cases involving the coronavirus Omicron variant will likely peak by the end of January, presidential medical adviser Anthony Fauci said.
“I would imagine, given the size of our country and the diversity of vaccination versus no vaccination, that it likely will be more than a couple of weeks, probably by the end of January, I would think,” Fauci told CNBC said on Wednesday in response to a question about when the coronavirus cases will peak in the United States.
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided data showing that the Omicron variant accounted for 58.6% of all new infections in the United States in the week ending on December 25. The Omicron variant, which was first detected in South Africa in November, is said by public health officials to be more transmissible but produces milder cases.
The current seven-day daily average of cases in the United States is about 240,400 per day, an increase of about 60 per cent over the previous week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is investigating more cruise ships due to new Covid-19 cases aboard.
A total of 88 vessels are under CDC’s investigation or observation for Covid-19 outbreaks. Four other vessels are also being monitored by the US health agency, according to the latest data on the agency’s website.
Omicron variant to replace Delta as dominant global strain
CDC will follow up with cruise ships when an investigation is required as ships begin to sail with passengers on simulated or restricted voyages under the agency’s Temporary Extension & Modification of Framework for Conditional Sailing Order, said the agency.
While cruising will always pose some risk of Covid-19 transmission, CDC is committed to working with cruise ship operators to ensure that cruise ship passenger operations are conducted in a way that reduces the risk of Covid-19 transmission among crew members, passengers and port personnel, the agency added on its website.
Covid-19 cases are surging to record high again as the Omicron variant continues to drive extremely high infection levels, Xinhua news agency reported.
The country registered a grim new record of over 510,000 daily Covid-19 cases on Monday, according to data of Johns Hopkins University. (inputs from IANS/ANI/Sputnik)
Hamas Slams Israel Security Hurdles in Gaza border
The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has accused Israel of tightening the security measures on the border with the Gaza strip…reports Asian Lite News
Ayman Noufal, a leader of the Hamas armed wing, known as al-Qassam Brigades, on Wednesday told a news briefing in Gaza city that the security measures the Israeli Army is tightening on the borders with the Gaza strip “will not protect it in the future.”
Three weeks ago, the Israeli Army had announced completing the construction of the smart barrier around the Gaza strip after three and a half years of work, at the cost of 3.5 billion Israeli shekels (about $1.109 billion), Xinhua news agency reported.
The barrier is about 65 km, including an underground wall equipped with detectors, an upper fence, a sea barrier, a detection system and shooting observatories.
Also on Wednesday, around 12 militant groups, including al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wings of the militant group of the Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine held a joint military maneuver in the Gaza strip.
Speaking at the OIC summit hosted in Islamabad, Imran Khan had commented on Afghan and Pashtun cultural norms while attempting to sound the alarm on the situation in Afghanistan….reports Asian Lite News
The Womens Action Forum (WAF), one of the oldest womens rights groups in Pakistan, has condemned Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khans remarks on women, human rights and the Pashtun culture at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit earlier this month, Friday Times reported.
In a press release issued on Thursday, WAF wrote, “The PM continues to misuse-abuse his public office to voice his personal regressive, misogynistic, racist views on women, Pakhtuns as an ethnic group, culture and fundamental human rights.”
“WAF is seriously concerned over escalating GBV [gender based violence] incidents and attacks against young girls and women,” the statement added, as it decried the premier’s “blatant friendly overtures towards the Afghan Taliban de facto administration”.
Speaking at the OIC summit hosted in Islamabad, Imran Khan had commented on Afghan and Pashtun cultural norms while attempting to sound the alarm on the situation in Afghanistan.
“Every society’s idea of women’s rights and human rights is different,” he had said, adding: “When we are talking about human rights and women’s rights, we have to be very sensitive about this [cultural norms].”
He gave an example on girls’ schooling, a growing concern in Afghanistan, arguing that “if we are not sensitive to the cultural norms of these people [Pakhtuns], even with stipends they won’t send the girls to school”.
WAF called on the Prime Minister to deliver a public apology, “addressed to all women, girls and Pakhtuns of Pakistan and Afghanistan”.
North Darfur State’s Police Chief Abdul-Karim Hamdo urged local residents to abide by the curfew for their own safety…reports Asian Lite News
Security authorities in Sudan’s North Darfur State have declared a curfew in the state from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. (local time) until further notice to curb widespread lootings which recently began targeting the United Nations (UN) warehouses and other international entities in the region.
The indefinite curfew was announced following an emergency meeting for North Darfur State’s security committee held at the government’s headquarters in the state’s capital of El Fasher to discuss its latest security developments, Xinhua news agency reported.
Wide-spread lootings were reported on Tuesday evening on the warehouses of the World Food Program (WFP) in El Fasher as well as the headquarters and assets of the UN-African Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID).
North Darfur State’s Police Chief Abdul-Karim Hamdo urged local residents to abide by the curfew for their own safety.
In the meantime, eyewitnesses said that an armed group aboard six four-wheel drive vehicles raided the WFP warehouses in El Fasher and looted food materials after they clashed with the security forces that were guarding the warehouses, and yet no casualties were reported during the incidents.
The logistic base of the outgoing UNAMID in El Fasher was also reportedly looted on December 26.
In a phone call with Putin scheduled for Thursday, Biden will say “we are prepared for diplomacy and for a diplomatic path forward,” the official told reporters, reports Asian Lite News
President Joe Biden will offer President Vladimir Putin a “diplomatic path” out of tensions around Ukraine but remains “gravely” concerned by Russian troop movements, a senior US administration official said Wednesday.
In a phone call with Putin scheduled for Thursday, Biden will say “we are prepared for diplomacy and for a diplomatic path forward,” the official told reporters.
“But we are also prepared to respond if Russia advances with a further invasion of Ukraine,” Biden will tell Putin, the official said, adding that “we continue to be gravely concerned” by Russian forces near the Ukrainian border.
The phone call is taking place at the request of the Kremlin, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The two leaders will discuss a range of issues ahead of intensive diplomacy next month that will see Russian officials meet with US counterparts in Geneva on January 10.
The Russians will then meet separately with NATO and the OSCE regional security body.
Despite the surge of diplomatic contacts, Washington considers that the Russians have to do more to reduce the threat level around Ukraine for significant progress to take place.
Russia deployed tens of thousands of combat troops to the border, prompting fears that the Kremlin is ready to order seizure of more Ukrainian territory.
Although this has not happened, the force is “not entirely static,” the official said and remains “a continuing source of great concern.”
Washington “would like to see a return of forces to their regular training areas.”
More broadly, the sabre rattling makes any deeper progress less likely, the official said.
“Getting to an end game, a diplomatic end game, getting to meaningful understanding between the US and Russia, NATO and Russia, Ukraine and Russia, that really only happens practically in an environment where we’re seeing deescalation,” the official said.
According to the official, there is no plan for another in-person Biden-Putin summit at the Geneva talks.
Biden will speak to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky “soon,” although no date has been set, the official said.
During Thursday’s interaction, “President Biden will make clear that there is a diplomatic path to de-escalating tensions in the region if President Putin is interested in taking it,” a senior administration official, who did not want to be named, told reporters on a Wednesday briefing call.
The US and Russia are scheduled to hold a bilateral Strategic Stability Dialogue on January 10 in Geneva. However, Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin will not personally participate in those discussions in Geneva, the official said. A NATO-Russia Council meeting is scheduled for January 12 and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe for January 13.
Russia has massed about 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine, according to Ukraine and the West’s estimates. Ten thousand troops had begun returning to their bases after military exercises, Moscow announced on Saturday. However, most of these returning troops were not part of deployments at the border, as per reports.
Biden would tell Putin that the US and its allies were “prepared for diplomacy and for a diplomatic path forward, but we are also prepared to respond if Russia advances with a further invasion of Ukraine,” the official said.
Ukraine had proposed short-term confidence-building measures with Russia, including a recommitment to a 2020 ceasefire, the official said. The U.S was also “prepared to discuss security and strategic matters” that have been the topic of private and public discussion recently.
Russia had published, on December 17 a draft security agreement, in which it had proposed that NATO not accept Ukraine and former Soviet countries as members (a demand rejected by the West). It also suggested that NATO refrain from sending weapons and troops to countries that joined the alliance after May 1997, i.e., several former Soviet countries that are now independent.
The Biden administration has been consulting its European allies, including this week, U.S. officials have said in the run-up to Thursday’s call.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday and discussed the peaceful resolution of the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the U.S.’s imminent diplomatic engagements with Russia, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.
Starting from Thursday, new emergency measures aimed at slowing the spread of Covid-19 in Cyprus will come into force, Health Minister Michalis Hadjipantelas announced…reports Asian Lite News
Everyone except those who have received a booster shot will have to present a negative 24-hour test before entering what Hadjipantelas called ‘high risk ‘ places, such as entertainment venues, dance clubs and reception halls for weddings, reports Xinhua news agency.
The maximum number of people allowed into such places has also been limited to 300.
Meanwhile, the number of public services and business employees working from home will be increased from 10 per cent to 40 per cent.
Hadjipantelas said that as of December 30, football stadiums will operate at 50 per cent of their capacity, with obligatory wearing of masks.
Football authorities said that some matches may have to be postponed due to a large number of infections among players and club officials.
Twenty-nine coronavirus cases have now been identified in nine football clubs.
Restrictions at airports will also be tightened as of January 4, following a sharp rise in coronavirus cases among incoming passengers.
All passengers will be required to present a 48-hour negative test before boarding, and take another PCR test on arrival, at their own expense.
The measures were announced after an extraordinary night-time meeting of the Council of Ministers, as authorities announced that new infections jumped on Wednesday to 3,002 from 2,241 on Tuesday, in a population of less than one million.
Since the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, Cyprus has reported 157,928 confirmed Covid cases and 635 deaths.
But questions persist over whether he would – and, if he didn’t, would Harris inherit the mantle and go on to win the election? …writes Arul Louis
The US and the presidency of Joe Biden lurched from crisis to crisis in 2021 and political and health uncertainties cloud the year ahead.
The nation faced a crisis of democracy; surges in the Covid-19 pandemic; a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan dimming its global perception; a challenge from China to its status as the premier superpower; a crisis of illegal immigration at the border with Mexico; electoral reverses for Biden’s Democratic Party; and a legislative logjam, but amid them, all ties with India continued to grow.
And next year, the outcomes of the mid-term elections on which the control of Congress hinges are an open question because of the history of the President’s party losing and Democratic Party setbacks in state elections this year.
After this year dawned, the supporters of defeated President Donald Trump rioted, violently forcing their way into the citadel of US democracy, the Capitol, disrupting the formalisation of his election by Congress, leaving at least five people dead and a nation shaken.
US President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris.
The riot that followed a rally by a defiant Trump refusing to concede his defeat, which he continues adamantly, was seen as a threat to US democracy never seen probably since the mid-19th century Civil War and its polarisation haunted American politics.
The Democrats then tried unsuccessfully to impeach Trump a second time.
In a reaffirmation of democracy, two weeks later alongside Kamala Harris was sworn in as Vice President setting milestones as the first woman, the first Indian-American and the first person of African-American to hold the office.
Soon, the administration of Harris and Biden faced a surge in Covid-19 cases and scrambled to provide vaccinations to battle the pandemic.
Through the year, Covid-19 overshadowed all aspects of life in the US – as everywhere in the world – with another surge in August driven by the Delta variant and the Omicron variant posing a possible new threat as the year was setting.
In the first flush of governance, Biden managed to get through a splintered Congress his $1.9 trillion rescue package for a Covid-19-ravaged nation, and later a $1.2 trillion legislation for building up the nation’s infrastructure but at the end of the year, the Congressional logjam blocked his more ambitious bill to expand social programmes.
Canada’s most populous province reports 964 new Covid-19 cases
The opposition came from members of Biden’s own party that has slender majorities in Congress because of its price tag even after whittling down to the $2 billion range given the inflation rate of 6.8 per cent, the highest since 1982.
That was also a personal setback for Indian American Pramila Jayapal, who heads the leftist Congressional Progressive Caucus, who pushed for the bill and even made compromises in hopes of getting reluctant centrists of her Democratic Party to back it.
A Democratic plan to revamp “voting rights” – through measures that would make no sense elsewhere in the world like banning photo IDs for voters – was also in the limbo and Harris who was put in charge of it has not been able to get it through Congress.
Curbing the record-setting levels of illegal immigration, another task Harris had been entrusted with, also floundered with hundreds of thousands surging through the southern border with Mexico drawn by perceptions of the Democratic Party as lenient on border controls.
Grappling with these almost impossible tasks, Harris’s popularity has dimmed with a recent Gallup poll showing a disapproval rate of 54 per cent, up from the 42 per cent range when she took office.
Her office is also in turmoil with several of her key staffers quitting while questions arise over her style of leadership and her political future.
Biden has said he plans to run for re-election in 2024, when he would be almost 82 years old — if his health holds.
But questions persist over whether he would – and, if he didn’t, would Harris inherit the mantle and go on to win the election?
The mid-term elections coming up next year cast a shadow on these ambitions.
In a warning about the possibility of a change in political direction, Republican Glenn Youngkin gained an upset victory in the governor’s election in Virginia where Biden had won in the presidential elections a year ago.
And in New Jersey, another state considered a Democratic Party stronghold, Democratic Governor Phil Murphy eked out a narrow win.
On the Republican side, Trump is continuing to sow confusion by hinting at running for another term in 2024.
That uncertainty makes it harder for other Republicans to openly gear up to fight for the party nomination.
Among those who are actively – though behind the scenes – aiming for the Republican nomination is Nikki Haley, the first Indian American to be a member of the cabinet and a former governor of Southern Carolina state.
Military personnel are deploying to assist with the drawdown of British nationals in Afghanistan. (Credit Crown Copyright_Ministry of Defence)
The chaotic pullout of US troops from Afghanistan ceding control to the Taliban after a 20-year war was a point of pivot at the global level.
The fall of Kabul to the Taliban, whom the US had defeated and chased out of the city, without any resistance from the Washington-backed military, was a shock and it led to harrowing scenes of tens of thousands of US employees and supporters trying to get out while an ill-prepared US scrambled to meet the challenge.
The scenes of disarray in Kabul and the quick Taliban takeover dented the US image and gave an edge to China and Russia in the region – and, of course, Pakistan.
Those events forced Biden to turn his attention to also this side of Asia after the Indo-Pacific had been the the focus of his foreign policy.
However, the interest in the Indo-Pacific where India has emerged as a key player has not flagged because of his recognition of China’s challenge after he became president.
Biden convened the first summit of the Quad, the group of India, the US, Japan and Australia, as the four strengthened their cooperation moving steadily into a regional role of multilateral assistance while reaffirming their commitment to securing the region where China is aggressively asserting itself with conflicts from the Himalayas to the South China Sea.
In West Asia, a tentative step was taken for another Quad when India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Ministers Yair Lapid of Israel and Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates met in October with an agenda of regional cooperation.
Contrary to expectations by some in the US and in India that Biden would shun Modi over alleged human rights issues, there was cordiality and closeness dictated by the geopolitical challenges.
And this was despite the close relationship – verging on the electoral – that Modi had forged with Trump. Modi too executed a swift pivot to Biden.
During Modi’s September visit, Harris tried for the benefit of some of her admirers in the US and India to deliver a coded sermon on democracy.
Modi in turn boycotted the session of Quad summit that she presided over.
Indian-Americans continued to make their mark in the US.
Biden and Harris have appointed over 20 Indian-Americans to key posts in the administration, including Vivek Murthy as Surgeon General, Vanita Gupta as Associate Attorney General and Gautam Raghavan as the head of the White House Office of Personnel.
Neera Tanden, who was nominated to the powerful post of the director of the Office of Management and Budget, had to drop out because she had offended key senators of both parties with coarse attacks.
In the corporate world, Parag Agarwal became the CEO of Twitter, the ubiquitous social media that has arguably become the main platform for political discourse.
Bioinformatics scientist Mihir Metkar was recognised as the primary contributor to the development of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine.
Akilan Sankaran won the top prize in the nation’s leading science competition for middle schoolers with a computer programme using “antiprime numbers” that can accelerate everyday processes.
Three of the four winners at the next level were also of Indian-origin, as were 15 of the 30 finalists from around the country.
For the first time in his two-decade long political career, Akhilesh is leading a campaign single-handedly with almost no back-up mechanism in the party….reports Asian Lite News
Swelling crowds, enthused cadres, increasing ground support and a cleverly stitched up alliance may seem a perfect recipe for elections for the Samajwadi Party, but this picture perfect cannot hide the challenges that Akhilesh Yadav faces in the 2022 polls.
For the first time in his two-decade long political career, Akhilesh is leading a campaign single-handedly with almost no back-up mechanism in the party.
Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav is conspicuous by his absence from the campaign and his health issues may not permit him to address more than one or two meetings.
In 2012, when Akhilesh led his party to a comfortable majority, he was firmly backed by his father, while he travelled across the state.
Mulayam would carefully chart his programme, identify leaders who would accompany him and also decide on issues that had to be addressed in different regions.
This time, Akhilesh is the sole campaigner and star attraction of his party and this naturally adds to the challenge and the burden.
Since he took over as the party president in 2017, Akhilesh has not allowed second rung leadership in the party to develop and, today, he runs a one-man army with not even his cousins taking part in the political exercise.
The Samajwadi Party also lacks mature leaders who can deal with situations in the absence of Akhilesh.
Party veterans have either passed away — like Beni Prasad Varma, Bhagwati Singh — or are completely side-lined.
The BJP, on the other hand, has a galaxy of campaigners that simultaneously hold fort. On any given day — as elections draw close — there are, at least, six BJP leaders addressing meetings in the state.
Another challenge that Akhilesh faces is to rein in overzealous party workers. Buoyed up by the people’s response in Akhilesh’s rallies, the untamed cadres often go overboard leading to major embarrassments for the party.
For instance, a group of party workers in Kanpur were arrested on Wednesday for attempting to create ruckus during the Prime Minister’s visit on Tuesday. As the BJP underlined the incident as an example of ‘SP’s goondaism’, Akhilesh was compelled to expel the five party workers.
Akhilesh also faces the challenge of striking a perfect balance between his Muslim and Hindu supporters.
The BJP has forced him to abandon the policy of Muslim appeasement — or at least, not be vocal about it — and peddle soft Hindutva.
As Akhilesh cautiously moves ahead, trying to balance the two ideologies, his Muslim leaders tend to act as irritants.
For instance, the recent statements made by SP MPs Shafiqur — Rehman Barq and S.T. Hasan, embarrassed the SP to such an extent that Akhilesh was forced to disassociate himself from his own MPs.
Meanwhile, as the time for ticket distribution draws near, Akhilesh will also face a situation when he will have to handle discontent within his own party.
Seats that are given away to multiple allies, will leave the SP workers on these seats simmering with anger. The party could face internal sabotage and it will be testing time for Akhilesh to deal with the situation because the SP leaders have been working for five years in their respective constituencies to contest elections.
Akhilesh has never dabbled in coalition politics and his new allies like Om Prakash Rajbhar, are known to drive a hard bargain in politics. How he keeps all his allies in good humour, remains to be seen.
Another problem that Akhilesh has is his inaccessibility. He mostly remains unavailable to party workers and also the media and no one in the party is authorised to take a call on his behalf.
Unlike Akhilesh, Mulayam Singh Yadav — despite his advancing years, still picks up the phone on random basis and talks to senior journalists and party workers, especially old timers.
It is this that keeps still Mulayam clued into ground realities and also tuned in to emerging situations.
In June, Biden repeated the slogan “America is back” several times during his first trip to Europe as US President, trying to repair some of the damages the transatlantic partnership had suffered in the past four years….reports Asian Lite News
From the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan to the “backstabbing” AUKUS deal, the US’ unilateral moves have prompted the European Union (EU) to step up its debate and action on strategic autonomy in an eventful year.
As France, the concept’s staunch European advocate, takes over the half-year rotating presidency of the Council of the EU at the start of 2022, the bloc’s drive for strategic autonomy at least in security and defense is expected to get a fresh boost, though tangible results may not be immediately forthcoming, Xinhua news agency reported.
When the newly-elected US President Joe Biden said at February’s virtual Munich Security Conference that “America is back,” European politicians reacted by calling it a “historic opportunity” for the US and Europe to rebuild trust and reinforce unity after bilateral relations turned sour during former President Donald Trump’s administration.
In June, Biden repeated the slogan “America is back” several times during his first trip to Europe as US President, trying to repair some of the damages the transatlantic partnership had suffered in the past four years.
However, soon in July, the US President announced that the country’s military mission in Afghanistan would conclude on August 31, ahead of the original September 11 deadline. The hasty move left its European allies dazed as they scrambled to leave the war-torn country using their own meagre resources.
Then in September, with the announcement of the AUKUS deal, the US dealt yet another blow to the Europeans still frustrated with the exit from Afghanistan. France, which lost a multibillion-dollar contract due to the nuclear submarine pact, said it felt “betrayed” and “stabbed in the back.”
During the time, some European politicians repeatedly called for the EU to reassess the transatlantic partnership and reposition itself with increased autonomy. In October, EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said that “major geopolitical shifts are taking place,” which put into question Europe’s ability to defend itself.
To move forward, he added that the EU “must focus on action” and presented in November the draft Strategic Compass, which sets out “concrete steps” towards building a common strategic vision for EU security and defense over the next five to 10 years.
Described as a “guide for action,” the document includes operational guidelines to help the bloc become more secure when it comes to responding to external crises, capacity building and protecting its citizens.
The blueprint foresees the creation of a so-called “European army”. It proposes the development by 2025 of an EU Rapid Deployment capacity of up to 5,000 troops made up of land, air and maritime components.
The aim is to improve the bloc’s readiness for future crises such as rescue and evacuation missions as well as maritime or air operations.
It is not the first time that the Europeans have come up with a new defense cooperation initiative nor is it the first proposal for the creation of a rapid reaction force.
Since 2007, the EU has maintained multinational battlegroups composed of 1,500 troops but their deployment has been hampered by a lack of political will and money.
This time, the military force proposed in the blueprint has again become a sticking point for the EU countries and the reactions were mixed.
While the bloc’s major military powers such as France and Italy reportedly welcomed the proposal, Poland and Lithuania have voiced reservations arguing that the EU’s existing battlegroups have never been used and any new EU military idea should not be at the expense of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said his organisation supports the EU’s plan but cautioned that this “can’t replace” and “should not duplicate” NATO. He added that the EU and NATO should avoid creating “parallel structures” that would compete for the same limited resources.
The history of European integration, according to Borrell, has seen many initiatives to strengthen security and defense ties but “most have come and gone”.
France, however, has vowed to make developing an EU security strategy a priority when it assumes the bloc’s presidency in January.
Outlining his country’s presidency agenda in December, French President Emmanuel Macron, who has described the NATO as “brain dead,” said that France plans to move towards “a Europe that is powerful in the world, fully sovereign, free in its choices and in charge of its own destiny.”
For years, the concept of strategic autonomy born in the defense industry has been part of the EU’s agreed language. However, not all the bloc’s 27 member states have the same strategic perceptions due to differences in history, geography and national conditions.
Any meaningful effort on defense capabilities will require further expenditure. Of the 27 EU countries, 21 are NATO members. Up till now, most of these EU states have failed to meet the US-dominated alliance’s target of 2 per cent of GDP spending on defense.
Moreover, unlike other areas where the EU can make decisions with a qualified majority, foreign and security policy remains the “exclusive competence” of member states. Decisions in the area must be made unanimously and each country has a veto power which often results in blockages.
Nevertheless, the Strategic Compass, one of the EU’s most ambitious security and defense initiatives, is set to be adopted in March and a summit on European defense is also on next year’s agenda. The EU has declared 2022 “the year of European defense”.
Borrell has stressed that the draft plan aims to nurture a common strategic culture. He called on member states to avoid treating it “as yet another EU paper with limited buy in and follow up” and work together towards its adoption.
In today’s multi-polar world, how far will the EU go on its path to strategic autonomy? Will the Strategic Compass start a new chapter in European security and defense? These remain to be seen.
