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Blinken meets top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua/IANS)

Blinken is the first Secretary of State to travel to China in five years…reports Asian Lite News

As part of efforts to improve strained relations between the two largest economies, visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met top Chinese diplomat Wang Yi in Beijing on Monday.

The meeting is currently underway at the capital city’s Diaoyutai State Guesthouse — a lavish estate typically used to host visiting dignitaries, reports the BBC.

Blinken is the first Secretary of State to travel to China in five years, as well as the most senior official making the visit since President Joe Biden took office in early 2021.

It is however unclear if Blinken will meet President Xi Jinping.

According to a State Department official, Blinken’s primary goal in China is to re-establish channels of communication, especially direct military-to-military communication between Washington and Beijing, reports CNN.

Upon his arrival in Beijing on Sunday, the Secretary of State met Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, who took up the post six months ago after ending a stint as Beijing’s Ambassador to Washington.

Blinken and Qin shook hands in front of reporters at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse on Sunday afternoon, their first in-person meeting in their current positions, CNN reported.

During the meeting, which lasted for more than five hours, Blinken invited Qin to visit Washington and the invitation was accepted, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said in a readout of the meeting.

“The Secretary invited Foreign Minister Qin to Washington to continue discussions, and they agreed to schedule a reciprocal visit at a mutually suitable time,” Miller said, adding that Blinken had emphasised the “importance of diplomacy and maintaining channels of communication across the full range of issues to reduce the risk of misperception or miscalculation”.

Blinken also expressed US concerns on a number of fronts and opportunities to work together with China where interests align, Miller said.

US officials who took part in the meeting included Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink and US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns.

On the Chinese side, Qin was accompanied by other Foreign Ministry officials, including Assistant Foreign Minister Hua Chunying.

Besides his meeting with Wang on Monday, Blinken is also scheduled to hold roundtable talks with American exchange students and business leaders.

The Biden administration’s relationship with Beijing is one of its most complicated and consequential, and one that has seen months of strain, including two military-related incidents in recent weeks.

Biden and Xi met in person for the first time as presidents on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Indonesia last November.

Blinken’s trip, which had been announced by Biden and Xi after their meeting, was originally scheduled to happen in February and had been seen as a key follow-on engagement.

However, it was postponed after the discovery of a suspected Chinese spy balloon transiting the US, which Blinken said at the time “created the conditions that undermine the purpose of the trip”.

ALSO READ: Blinken due in China as US pushes for a thaw

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Time is now for Sweden to join NATO, says Blinken

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua/IANS)

Turkey, Sweden, and Finland signed a so-called trilateral memorandum in June of last year to address Ankara’s concerns about banned armed organisations…reports Asian Lite News

The United States has urged Turkey to approve Sweden’s NATO membership, with Secretary of State Antony Blinken declaring that “the time is now” for the northern European country to join the alliance, Al Jazeera reported.

On Tuesday, the senior US diplomat said Sweden has been eligible to join NATO “from day one” and has made considerable steps to address Turkey’s “legitimate” security concerns. He was speaking alongside Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson. Blinken told reporters in the northern Swedish city of Lulea, “From the perspective of the United States, the time is now to finalise Sweden’s accession.”

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Sweden and neighbouring Finland began seeking NATO membership. The alliance is commanded by the United States, and has a collective defence pact, meaning an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.

To allow new countries into NATO, all members must agree. Finland joined the alliance officially last month, while Sweden’s application is still pending, according to Al Jazeera.

Hungary and Turkey have yet to ratify Sweden’s accession, though Ankara is considered as the primary hurdle. Turkey has accused Sweden of harbouring members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which it regards as a “terrorist” group.

Turkey, Sweden, and Finland signed a so-called trilateral memorandum in June of last year to address Ankara’s concerns about banned armed organisations.

Turkey, on the other hand, claims that Sweden has not met all of its commitments under the agreement. An Islamophobic Quran-burning protest in Stockholm in January, which the government condemned, further soured relations between the two countries, as per Al Jazeera.

“Turkey has raised important and legitimate concerns. Sweden and Finland both addressed those concerns. And so, the time to move forward is now. We’d like to see that happen before the Vilnius summit,” said Blinken on Tuesday, referring to a NATO meeting in the Lithuanian capital in July.

US President Joe Biden stated earlier this week that he addressed Sweden’s NATO bid with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was re-elected on Sunday. They also discussed Turkey’s push to purchase F-16 combat jets.

“I congratulate Erdogan. He still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden, so let’s get that done,” the US President told reporters on Monday.

Blinken on Tuesday also said that the Biden government does not see the USD 20bn F-16 deal and Sweden’s NATO bid as connected, but he warned that some US lawmakers do, as per Al Jazeera.

He said, “Some members of Congress …. are linking Sweden’s accession to NATO to the moving forwards on the F-16s. Congress is a fully equal and independent branch of government,” adding, “Their voice and their vote in any such decisions, of course, is critical.”

Although Congress has the authority to veto arms transactions approved by the administration, it has never successfully blocked weapon sales to foreign countries.

Blinken on Tuesday also stressed that regardless of Sweden’s NATO position, the US will support Swedish security.

He said, “We and our allies are both committed to and well-positioned to help Sweden address its security needs, irrespective of whether accession happens tomorrow or in two weeks or in a few weeks after that.”

Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson said that his country is moving ahead with fulfilling its pledges to its “Turkish friends” in accordance with the trilateral memorandum.

He said, “We have always recognised the fact that every NATO ally has to make its own decision, and only Turkey can make Turkey’s decisions, and we fully respect that,” Al Jazeera reported. (ANI)

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Cleverly, Blinken discuss Sudan situation

There was a strongly shared viewed that steps needed to be taken to protect civilians, non-combatants and people from third countries, he said…reports Asian Lite News

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said on Monday there is a “shared deep concern” among allies about the fighting in Sudan and a view that it should stop immediately and the sides return to talks.

Fighting erupted in Sudan on Saturday between army units and a rival paramilitary force, with at least 97 civilians killed and the army appearing to gain the upper hand on Sunday.

Blinken, speaking on the sidelines of a Group of Seven Foreign Ministers meeting in Japan, said close consultations had been held on the fighting, including with partners in the Arab world and Africa and with international organisations.

“There is a shared deep concern about the fighting, violence that’s going on in Sudan. The threat that that poses to civilians, that it poses to the Sudanese nation and potentially poses even to the region,” he said.

There was a strongly shared viewed that steps needed to be taken to protect civilians, non-combatants and people from third countries, he said.

“And also a strongly held view, again, across all of our partners on the need for an immediate ceasefire and return to talks — talks that were very promising in putting Sudan on the path to a full transition to civilian led government,” he said.

Blinken’s views were echoed by British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

“Ultimately, the immediate future lies in the hands of the generals who are engaged in this fight, and we call upon them to put peace first, to bring an end to the fighting, to get back to negotiations,” Cleverly said.

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Blinken dials Lavrov, urges journalist’s release

The Russian Foreign Minister expressed opposition to attempts of US officials and the Western media to politicise the legal case….reports Asian Lite News

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov over Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained in Russia on espionage charges.

During the phone conversation, Lavrov underscored the need to respect the decision of Russian authorities made under Russia’s law and international obligations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich detained in Russia( https://www.instagram.com/p/CK379j5gCqo/)

The Russian Foreign Minister expressed opposition to attempts of US officials and the Western media to politicise the legal case. He noted that “Gershkovich was caught red-handed while trying to obtain classified information and collecting data constituting a state secret under the guise of a journalistic status” and his fate will be determined by the court, Xinhua news agency reported.

In addition, Lavrov and Blinken touched upon some bilateral issues during the call, the statement added.

The Russian Federal Security Service announced on Thursday that it had detained Gershkovich in Yekaterinburg for “spying in the interests of the American government” and a criminal case had been launched.

ALSO READ: Britain mocks Russia over its new foreign policy

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Blinken arrives in Delhi for G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

New Delhi, Mar 01 (ANI): United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in India to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in New Delhi on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)

A US State Department official had said last week that Blinken will attend a bilateral meeting with Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 meeting…reports Asian Lite News

United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived here on Wednesday to take part in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.

G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting under India’s G20 presidency will be held on March 2. During his visit, Blinken will have bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He will also participated in the Raisina Dialogue.

“Welcome to India, FM Sameh Shoukry of Egypt @MfaEgypt, FM @ABZayed of UAE @MoFAICUAE and @SecBlinken of USA @StateDept. Looking forward to deliberations at the #G20FMM. @SecBlinken & FM Shoukry will also participate in #Raisina2023,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a tweet.

The G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre and nearly 40 delegations are expected to participate.

This will be second ministerial meeting being held under India’s presidency so far. The first ministerial meeting – Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors – was held in Bengaluru.

A US State Department official had said last week that Blinken will attend a bilateral meeting with Jaishankar on the sidelines of the G20 meeting.

“They will talk about our strategic partner partnership but really focus on how we’re working together in the Asian Quad, in the G20, what we’re doing on defence cooperation and the Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies that is being run out of the White House and the prime minister’s office,” Donald Lu, Assistant Secretary Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, had said.

Blinken and Jaishankar will also meet with ministers from Australia and Japan. The four countries are part of Quad. (ANI)

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Blinken, Lavrov, Qin in India for G20 meet

This will be Blinken’s first visit to India since the war began last year, Lavrov’s second visit in a year and Qin’s first visit as the newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister…reports Asian Lite News

Coming days after the G20 Finance Ministers failed to agree on a joint communique since there was no consensus on the reference to the Russia-Ukraine war, the Foreign Ministers’ meeting is set to test India’s diplomatic tightrope walk.

Amid the hardening of positions on the Russia-Ukraine war which entered its second year last week, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will host US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang among others at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting beginning on Wednesday.

Coming days after the G20 Finance Ministers failed to agree on a joint communique since there was no consensus on the reference to the Russia-Ukraine war, the Foreign Ministers’ meeting is set to test India’s diplomatic tightrope walk.

This will be Blinken’s first visit to India since the war began last year (he last came to India in July 2021); Lavrov’s second visit in a year (he was in Delhi in April 2022); and Qin’s first visit as the newly appointed Chinese Foreign Minister. Qin’s predecessor Wang Yi had come to India in March last year.

The meeting, which will take place in the Rashtrapati Bhavan premises, will begin with a welcome reception and dinner on Wednesday evening for the visiting Foreign Ministers. This will be followed by a day-long meeting on Thursday, which will tackle six issues in two sessions.

The first session in the forenoon will discuss “strengthening multilateralism and need for reforms”, “food and energy security” and “development cooperation”. This will be followed by bilateral meetings and lunch. The afternoon sessions will discuss “counter-terrorism: new and emerging threats”, “global skill mapping and talent pool” and “humanitarian assistance and disaster relief”.

While India, which holds the G20 presidency, would like a consensus on all these topics, the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine war has polarised conversations in the past.

Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy who is attending the G20 meeting, said: “I think the Indian position has been made very clear by Prime Minister Modi himself — ‘this is not a time for war’ — and he is right.”

“India is renowned as the largest democracy in the world and has a very influential voice on the world scene. The international community needs to come together and ensure that international law will prevail against Russia’s blatant violation of and disregard for the UN Charter. It is dangerous for the entire world if a permanent member of the UN Security Council violates, in such a brutal way, international law and rules. Such behaviour, if left unanswered, can only encourage others who decide to remodel the borders or the world with military means,” said Borrell.

“This is an unprecedented situation internationally and will inevitably also have an impact on G20 proceedings. As in Bali, we will work for a G20 declaration that recognises the facts on the ground,” he said, adding, “We trust the Indian presidency and we will support its work towards an outcome that reflects the current extraordinary circumstances”.

Besides Blinken, Lavrov, Qin and Borrell, France’s Catherine Colonna, Germany’s Annalena Baerbock, British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajan, Australia’s Penny Wong, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Indonesia’s Retno Marsudi and Argentine Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero are among those attending the meeting.

India, which has not explicitly condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine, is mindful of the challenge at hand as well as the precedent in Indonesia, which could not arrive at a consensus document or a joint communique in the 16 ministerial meetings in the lead up to the G20 leaders’ summit in November.

The contention is the crucial paragraph, which echoes Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s now-famous statement to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Samarkand in September last year on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit where he said “this is not the era of war”. While the Western countries in the G20 led by the US — especially the G7 — want the inclusion of paragraphs from the Bali declaration, Russia and China have opposed it.

After the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting, the Russian Foreign Ministry had applauded “the constructive role” of the Indian presidency and its efforts to have “fair consideration of interests and positions of all countries”.

“Our opponents, primarily the United States, EU and G7, continue their paranoid attempts to isolate Russia and shift the blame for the provoked problems in the area of international security and the global economy onto it,” Moscow had said.

Besides participating in the G20 meeting, a number of Foreign Ministers are set to take part in the Raisina Dialogue, India’s annual conference on geo-politics and geo-economics.

The G20 comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.

ALSO READ-Blinken in Central Asia as tensions soar over Ukraine war

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Blinken in Central Asia as tensions soar over Ukraine war

Blinken’s visit to Astana and later this week to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, mark his first trip to Central Asia as secretary of state…reports Asian Lite News

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a series of meetings with top diplomats of Central Asian nations as tensions soar over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Blinken sat down for talks with Kazakh Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi and then with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev. A meeting of the so-called C5+1 group, made up of the U.S. and the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, was expected to follow.

At that meeting, Blinken will stress the U.S. “commitment to the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Central Asian countries,” the State Department said in a statement that mirrors the wording it has been using to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Blinken’s visit to Astana and later this week to Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan, mark his first trip to Central Asia as secretary of state. It comes just days after the anniversary of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has rattled the region.

None of the five former Soviet republics in Central Asia, traditionally viewed as part of the Kremlin’s sphere of influence, publicly backed the attack.

Kazakhstan welcomed tens of thousands of Russians fleeing from the military call-up last fall. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev spoke on the phone with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy three times since Russian troops rolled into Ukraine last February, calling for a diplomatic resolution of the conflict in accordance “with the U.N. charter and commonly accepted norms of the international law.”

However, all five Central Asian republics, along with India, which Blinken will visit next, abstained in a vote to condemn the invasion last week at the U.N. General Assembly on the first anniversary of the war.

U.S. officials hope that Blinken can convince the Central Asian nations that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a threat to them.

The U.S. has for decades sought without great success to wean the former Soviet nations of the region from Moscow’s influence. Some, notably Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, assisted the U.S. logistically during its 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.

Blinken earlier told Foreign Minister Mukhtar Tileuberdi that Washington supports the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Kazakhstan, which won independence from Moscow in 1991.

“Sometimes we just say those words, but they actually have real meaning and of course we know in this particular time they have even more resonance than usual,” Blinken said in reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, also a former Soviet republic.

Russia and Kazakhstan share the world’s longest continuous land border, prompting concern among some Kazakhs about the security of a country with the second-biggest ethnic Russian population among ex-Soviet republics after Ukraine.

Central Asia’s place on the geopolitical map was reinforced by a vote at the United Nations on the February 24 anniversary of the invasion that called for an immediate end to Russia’s war and the removal of Russian forces from Ukrainian territory.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan were among just 32 countries that abstained from voting on the resolution that passed with 141 countries voting in favor and seven countries — including China, Belarus, and Russia — voting against.

Turkmenistan, recognized as a neutral country, did not vote at all.

Two days after the vote, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry described as “worthy of support” a position paper on Ukraine published by Moscow’s partner, Beijing, that U.S. President Joe Biden had earlier doubted “would be beneficial to anyone except Russia” if it was implemented.

Although China’s document paid lip service to the territorial integrity of all states, it refrained from criticism of Russia and advocated the end of Western-led sanctions against its ally.

Kazakhstan has also criticized sanctions independently, while Astana’s pledge to nevertheless uphold them has seen several Russian politicians and public figures shower its leadership with contempt and — in some cases — threats of a Ukraine-style invasion.

“When we talk about the neutral position of Central Asian countries, it is not really neutrality but just the same old fear of Russia,” said Anvar Nozirov, an analyst based in Tashkent, the Uzbek capital.

Yet Nozirov argued that Washington can still play a necessary role in the region despite Moscow and Beijing’s dominance.

“There are many problems in the region that are only intensifying, whether it is climate change, water shortages, energy shortages and, of course, Afghanistan under the Taliban again,” Nozirov said, calling the withdrawal of coalition forces from the country that borders Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan “disastrous.”

“Russia has never fully solved these problems, and China’s solutions are mostly limited to its business interests. Central Asia is still isolated in many ways, and the war launched by Russia has only made new problems for citizens of our countries,” Nozirov said.

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Don Quixote would have approved of Secretary Blinken

Blinken needs to read ‘Don Quixote’ to understand the nature of his temporarily halted mission to get Xi to go against CCP’s interests and push Putin to the negotiating table, writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat

It took a hot air balloon to stop US Secretary of State Antony Blinken from embarking on a pilgrimage to Beijing that not just countries in Greater Asia but the Democratic Party’s own voters would have disowned. US Senators belonging to the Republican Party have signed on to a letter warning Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the lack of sufficient and substantive action by the Biden White House on a matter of the highest concern to countries in the Indo-Pacific.

This is the kid glove treatment given to the PRC led by CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping. This is despite his masterminding of aggressive actions by units of the PLA directed against India and Taiwan. In the case of India, there has thus far been silence from the Biden administration not just about how much but whether there will be additional US supply of weapons to India during the next kinetic attack by the PLA on Indian territory.

While US President Donald Trump gave a strong official response to the aggression by the PLA at Galwan in 2020, in the Yangtze fracas that took place barely months ago, all that Biden came up with was the same formulation that Xi Jinping has favoured. This is that the PRC aggression against India “should be settled bilaterally”. In other words, that India is on its own where even kinetic aggression by the PRC is concerned.

President Biden has taken credit for the way in which the cooperation in matters of defence between India and the US has been progressing since Ashton Carter was the Defence Secretary during 2015-17, in the previous administration. Since that period, even the Quadrilateral Security Alliance has been downplayed by Biden in favour of localised alliances between the US, Japan and Australia with countries not in Asia but in Europe. Not that this comes as a surprise. From the time he was in the US Senate, Joe Biden has been a committed Europeanist.

The US President shares this trait with his longtime advisor on foreign policy, Antony Blinken. Those knowing this admittedly pleasant Biden favourite say that to the Secretary, US interests must revolve in the same orbit as the interests of its European partners. Asia, South America and Africa are a much more distant priority in the White House since 2021, as is noticeable from the hypercharged way in which Ukraine is being flooded with weaponry and resources gratis at the cost of substantial chunks of voters in the US who had been promised by Biden in his 2020 Presidential campaign that they would be his primary priority.

Are any of the countries in Asia that have endured loss of sovereignty of territory to China been given the same consideration? None at all, not even countries that have faced PLA efforts at land and air encroachment this year itself, India and Taiwan.

It is not easy to keep secrets in Washington, and those in that city who track diplomatic goings on say that the primary purpose of Blinken’s humbling, hopefully not entirely visit to Xi in his court in Beijing was to persuade the CCP General Secretary to put his thumb on the scales and help get Vladimir Putin to pull out of the Russian-speaking parts of that country that have been taken over by Moscow since the 2014 change of regime from a Russophile to a Russophobe Head of State in Kiev.

Common sense would indicate that Xi has no interest in any except token and cosmetic gestures in so fundamentally altering a situation that serves the interests of the PRC and in particular the PLA so completely. Only a desperate man or someone who has no comprehension of the mind of the top tier of the CCP would have undertaken such a mission, but given his Europeanist blinkers, this is what Blinken hoped would be achieved by his visit.

Just as he did not factor in the damage to trust among democracies in Asia at least to his chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, President Biden seems oblivious to the effect that such an obvious kowtow by one of his closest associates to Xi Jinping would have had on US credibility as a reliable partner against the expansionist plans and activities of CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping.

Several countries in the periphery of China have suffered the effects of such a policy by the CCP leadership, including a country that had for the longest time been organically connected to the US, the Philippines. Small wonder that behind the politeness by President Marcos to Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, there was a polite scepticism about US reliability.

It was while Biden was a heartbeat from the White House during the Obama administration that Scarborough Shoals was forcibly taken away from Manila by Beijing, an action that showed that none of President Obama’s tough talk was backed by action where military aggression by China was concerned. At a time when the future of the Indo-Pacific as a location where hegemony by a single power is concerned hangs in the balance, all that a legislator close to Biden, Pramila Jayapal, seems to bother about is buttering up GHQ Rawalpindi by dragging out the so-called Kashmir issue.

Or in other words, get Biden to pressure India to hand over chunks of Kashmir to Pakistan and China. For it has become obvious that GHQ Rawalpindi is as much an auxiliary of the PLA as the LeT or the JeM are auxiliaries of the Pakistan military.

With the consent, sometimes direct and otherwise implicit, of his interlocutors in Beijing, Secretary Blinken would have mouthed the usual homilies about China, which would then have fired back, again in a predictable fashion. As he dusted off this time-worn routine indulged in by US Presidents who cloak their empowerment of the CCP by rhetoric, Blinken’s thoughts would ever have been Ukraine, defined by Europeanist policymakers in Washington as the determinant of the future of Europe.

It is time for those political leaders such as Senator Marco Rubio that are serious about deterring the PRC to ask why thus far, there has not been any trace of Ukraine-style generosity in giving advanced weaponry to either India or Taiwan, the two countries most at risk of a large-scale PLA attack. Or why there has not been any talk by the White House of what (or even whether) sanctions of the kind imposed on Russia would be imposed on China in the event of further PLA aggression into the sea, air and land spaces of Asian countries whose territory Xi publicly covets.

Antony Blinken needs to read “Don Quixote” by Miguel Cervantes, to understand the nature of his temporarily halted mission to get Xi Jinping to go against the CCP’s interests and push Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table to in effect sign a surrender document. On such dreams is present-day US foreign policy based.

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Blinken’s West Bank visit sparks protests in Palestine

Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli soldiers as Palestinians tried to cross a checkpoint to reach the Jordan valley following a protest against the expansion of Jewish settlements, near the West Bank city of Tubas, Nov. 24, 2020. (Photo by Nidal Eshtayeh/Xinhua)

The protesters, both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, raised the Palestinian flags and chanted anti-US slogans…reports Asian Lite News

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to the West Bank prompted outrage among many Palestinians, who demonstrated on Tuesday to express their opposition to the US top diplomat’s presence in the Palestinian territory.

The protesters, both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, raised the Palestinian flags and chanted anti-US slogans, accusing it of being biased toward Israel and all its violations of Palestinian rights, Xinhua news agency reported.

“The matter is very simple. Blinken came here to pressure the Palestinian leadership to not adopt any decision against the security cooperation with Israel,” said Nael Salama, who took part in a protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah carrying a banner of “The US is criminal as long as it supports Israel”.

“We came here to deliver our message to Blinken that he is not welcome in our country as his administration’s full bias towards Israel and its practices against the Palestinian people,” Issam Baker, the coordinator of the national and Islamic forces in Ramallah, told Xinhua.

He emphasised that the US administration used “double standards” in dealing with the Palestinian issue, adding that it will “only lead to further continuation of the cycle of violence”.

Since the start of 2023, Israeli forces have killed at least 35 Palestinians, making January one of the most deadly months in the West Bank in recent years. Most casualties occurred during Israeli military raids, which Israel says aimed to detain Palestinian militants.

In retaliation, a shooting attack launched by a Palestinian gunman outside a synagogue in an Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem claimed the lives of seven people on Friday night.

Ahmed Abu Dalfa, a protester in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua that Blinken’s visit will not bring benefits to the Palestinian people because Washington is “abandoning” its promises to Palestine.

Earlier on Tuesday, Blinken held a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the Palestinian presidential headquarters in Ramallah after his meetings with Israeli leaders on Monday.

Blinken urged both the Palestinians and Israelis to calm tensions while reiterating Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to Israel’s security.

Following his meeting with Blinken, Abbas said that the Israeli government “is fully responsible for the current tension and violence in the Palestinian territories” because it has undermined the two-state solution and violated the signed agreements.

Abbas also accused the international community of failing to end Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian territories and its settlement policy in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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Blinken affirms support for Egypt  

Secretary of State Blinken will travel on Monday and Tuesday to Jerusalem and Ramallah after his stop in Cairo…reports Asian Lite News

The US has affirmed its support for Egypt’s economic, social and political development, according to a report issued by the Office of the Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and published it on its website.

This comes amid the visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Egypt as part of a three-day tour of the Middle East.

The report titled “The US-Egypt Relationship” outlines America’s policies towards various challenges in Africa and the Middle East. The visit takes place as the security situation deteriorates in Israel and Palestine.

Blinken will travel on Monday and Tuesday to Jerusalem and Ramallah after his stop in Cairo.

The report states that the US and Egypt are cooperating closely to de-escalate conflicts and promote sustainable peace, including by supporting UN mediation to hold elections in Libya and to restore a civilian-led democratic transition in Sudan.

Also, the US and Egypt share an “unwavering commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the only path to a lasting resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and equal measures of security, prosperity, and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians.”

Building on Egypt’s peace with Israel, the US and Egypt are partnering to foster further regional cooperation, including through the Negev Forum process, the report states.

The American government was also engaged with Egypt, as well as Sudan and Ethiopia, to “advance a swift diplomatic resolution of issues over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam that safeguards the interests of the three parties.”

On the economic side, it noted that there remains “a shared commitment between the US and Egypt to enhance bilateral economic cooperation for the mutual benefit of the two peoples, including through expanding trade, increasing private sector investment, and cooperation in clean energy and climate technology.”

According to the report, the US has invested $600 million to digitize Egypt’s telecommunications sector, and Egypt has imported $5.9 billion from the US to construct, expand, and modernize Egyptian infrastructure to meet the needs of a growing population.

The State Department confirmed that the US and Egypt have committed to establishing a Joint Economic Commission that will further enhance cooperation on all economic and commercial issues.

Within the framework of developing relations between the two peoples, the US State Department said that more than 20,000 Egyptians have participated in US government exchange programs, and 450 Egyptians travel to the US annually on professional and academic exchange programs facilitated by the US Embassy in Cairo.

The US and Egypt renewed their Memorandum of Understanding in November 2021, which strengthens protections for Egypt’s cultural patrimony and enables bilateral cooperation to disrupt the trafficking of archeological artifacts and cultural objects, the report states.

On the climate side, the US welcomed Egypt’s ongoing leadership through the COP27 presidency to accelerate global change.

According to the fact sheet, the US is providing $10 million to support the launch of the Cairo Center for Learning and Excellence on Adaptation and Resilience, which will build adaptation capacity across Africa.

The US State Department affirmed that Egypt remains an important partner in combating terrorism, anti-trafficking, and regional security operations that enhance US and Egyptian security.

It added that since 1978, the US has contributed more than $50 billion in military assistance, which has contributed to Egypt’s capabilities to protect and defend its land and maritime borders and to confront an evolving terrorist threat, including in the Sinai Peninsula.

The State Department recalled that the US and Egypt established diplomatic relations in 1922 in a letter addressed by President Warren G. Harding to King Ahmed Fouad.

This “deep partnership has proven its flexibility over the past century in the face of changing circumstances as Egypt seeks to build a stable and prosperous future that advances rights and fundamental freedoms for all citizens.”

It added that the US firmly believes critical partnerships like the US-Egypt relationship are stronger when there is a shared commitment to human rights.

“We maintain an active dialogue that seeks to reinforce tangible steps to promote freedom of expression, end political detention and strengthen the rule of law, and undertake critical judicial reforms, including with respect to pre-trial detention reforms, in line with Egypt’s National Strategy on Human Rights,” the US report states.

Blinken met on Sunday with a number of Egyptian youth at the American University in Cairo (AUC), which he said was an ancient institution that had witnessed the training and education of thousands of Egyptians and Americans, and had been a communication platform for years.

He pointed out that the presence of young people fuels this strategic partnership and makes it more than a relationship between governments, especially since Egypt is a young country with more than 60% of its population of young people.

Blinken added that it is young people who will carry this bilateral relationship forward and it is necessary to listen to them because they are the leaders of the future, noting that even if politicians have done their job well over the years, it does not mean that there is no room for learning and development.

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