World Geography And Politics Daily News | 18 Jun 2023
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Putin takes African leaders on boat trip, they plan to "continue dialogue"
On Saturday, after the official talks were over, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the representatives of seven African countries went on an excursion to Peterhof by boat. Source: Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, in an interview with Kremlin-aligned media TASS; Interfax, citing Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Details: Putin and members of the African delegation went on a boat trip to Peterhof, a palace set in e
On Saturday, after the official talks were over, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the representatives of seven African countries went on an excursion to Peterhof by boat.
Details: Putin and members of the African delegation went on a boat trip to Peterhof, a palace set in extensive grounds on the shore of the Gulf of Finland that the Russian emperors used as their official summer residence.
Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov confirmed to TASS that the trip had taken place. "Yes. They [Putin and the delegation] visited Peterhof," he said.
Earlier, Putin held talks with the African delegation regarding the war in Ukraine. The mission includes the President of Zambia, Hakainde Hichilema; the President of the Comoros Islands, Azali Assoumani, who currently also chairs the African Union; the President of Senegal, Macky Sall; the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, the Prime Minister of Egypt, Mostafa Madbouly; and special representatives of the Presidents of the Republic of Congo and Uganda, Florent Ntsiba and Ruhakana Rugunda.
The trip started at the Constantine Palace in Strelna, where talks lasting around three hours had taken place.
Peskov told journalists that Putin and the representatives of African countries are ready to talk further, although not all the provisions of their peace initiative correlate with the position of the Russian Federation.
"The African leaders and Putin expressed their political will to continue the dialogue, especially since we will all be meeting in the second half of July [at the Russia-Africa summit – ed.], which was also a topic of discussion. We will continue the conversation," Peskov said.
Peskov said the African countries’ initiative to settle the war is "very difficult to implement, difficult to compare positions". However, the Kremlin representative noted, "Putin has shown interest in considering it".
At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told journalists that Russia shares the fundamental approaches of the African peace initiative, which align with China’s proposals.
Lavrov claimed that the members of the African delegation apparently displayed an understanding of the "true reasons" [from the aggressor country’s perspective – ed.] for the Russian Federation's war against Ukraine.
Background:
Podolyak: African leaders came to Ukraine to ask for suspension of Putin's arrest warrant
The African leaders' delegation that came to Kyiv on June 16 to present a peace plan was mostly interested in suspending Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's arrest warrant, Mykhailo Podoliak, an advisor to Ukraine’s Presidential Office, said.
"There is one point that worries them and for which, I think, they came," he said on June 17.
"Trust comes in small steps: And let's make one of the points the termination of the ICC warrant issued for Putin's arrest, and this will symbolize such trust, and then we will move on to the next points," he recalled them saying.
The peace plan includes the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory, the establishment of a Russian war crimes tribunal, the release of all prisoners and forcibly relocated people, and the prevention of ecocide.
As the main points, Ramaphosa emphasized that the Russo-Ukrainian War must be settled, and peace has to be achieved through diplomatic means as soon as possible.
The third step, which the South African president listed at a joint press conference with Zelensky, was the de-escalation of hostilities.
As the fourth step, the sovereignty of states and peoples must be respected in accordance with the UN Charter.
The fifth component included security guarantees, the sixth was ensuring the export of grain and fertilizers, and the seventh was humanitarian assistance to the war's victims.
The eighth step was the exchange of prisoners and captives, including children.
The ninth named component was post-war reconstruction and the final tenth step was for Zelensky to better and further interact with the African countries.
The leaders indicated they wished to "initiate a peace process" but agreed on increasing Ukrainian grain exports and easing shipments of Russian fertilizers.
Biden: Putin's gambit of putting tactical nukes in Belarus 'absolutely irresponsible'
U.S. President Joe Biden called "absolutely irresponsible" Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that the first of Russia's tactical nukes have been deployed to Belarus.
African leaders meet with Putin seeking ‘road to peace’
African leaders hoping to mediate in the Ukraine war met Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg Saturday.
The delegation aims to bring the warring sides to the negotiating table despite both of them playing down the possibility.
Many African countries have been impacted by the Ukraine war, well into its second year, in particular with grain prices soaring.
A statement released by the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa confirmed his arrival in St. Petersburg, alongside the leaders of Zambia, the Comoros, Congo Brazzaville, Egypt, Senegal, and Uganda.
The delegation is “seeking a road to peace to the 16 months long conflict between Ukraine and Russia which has thus caused devastating economic impact, loss of life and global instability,” the statement said.
They were initially greeted with explosions and forced to take shelter in bunkers as Russian airstrikes hit the capital.
The delegation voiced concerns that the continent of Africa was suffering under a prolonged conflict, with Ramaphosa insisting to Zelensky that “there should be peace through negotiations.”
But Zelensky rebuffed efforts to bring Kyiv to the negotiating table imminently, and ruled out any peace negotiations with Russia until Moscow’s troops withdraw from his country’s territory.
“Today, I have clearly said repeatedly at our meeting that to allow any negotiations with Russia now that the occupier is on our land means to freeze the war, to freeze pain and suffering,” he told journalists in a press conference after the meeting.
Ramaphosa’s office had previously described the peace initiative as “the first time that Africa is united behind the resolution of a conflict outside of our continent, and where you have a group of African heads of state and government traveling together in an attempt to find a path to peace to this conflict.”
Western nations have criticized some African countries for not condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and conspicuously stayed away from votes denouncing the invasion at the United Nations General Assembly.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Ramaphosa has been clear that he will not “take sides in a contest between global powers” and that he is pushing for a negotiated end to the conflict.
CNN’s Sarah Dean, Olga Voitovych, Nimi Princewell and Niamh Kennedy contributed reporting.
Saudi foreign minister in Iran as part of restoration of diplomatic ties after a 7-year rift
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister arrived in Iran's capital on Saturday, the latest step in the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two Mideast rivals, Iranian state media reported. Prince Faisal bin Farhan was officially welcomed by his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran TV said.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister arrived in Iran's capital on Saturday, the latest step in the restoration of diplomatic ties between the two Mideast rivals, Iranian state media reported.
Prince Faisal bin Farhan was officially welcomed by his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amirabdollahian, Iran TV said. He carried a message from the Saudi king to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the two were due to meet later Saturday, Iran TV said.
Later, Prince Faisal said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and King Salman officially invited Raisi to visit Saudi Arabia, according to the state TV broadcast of a joint news conference.
The visit comes after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Saudi Arabia earlier in June. In March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to reestablish diplomatic relations and reopen embassies after seven years of tensions. The move sent shock waves through the Middle East, especially Israel, Iran's arch-enemy.
Prince Faisal was expected to officially inaugurate the kingdom’s embassy in Tehran later Saturday. Until the mission is completed, employees were working from a Tehran hotel, Iran TV said.
Both nations reopened their diplomatic missions in recent weeks.
The agreement to reestablish diplomatic relations was a major breakthrough brokered by China that lowered the chances of further conflict between Riyadh and Tehran — both directly and in proxy conflicts around the region.
Soon after exploding in 2014, Yemen’s conflict turned into a proxy war between Saudi Arabia, which led a military coalition backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government, and Iran, which has aided the country’s Houthi rebels.
Iran has been blamed for a series of attacks in recent years following the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. One of those targeted the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry in 2019, temporarily halving the kingdom’s crude production.
Relations between the predominately Shiite Iran and the majority Sunni Saudi Arabia have long been tense. The kingdom broke ties with Iran in 2016 after protesters attacked Saudi diplomatic posts there. Saudi Arabia had executed a prominent Shiite cleric along with 46 others days earlier, triggering the demonstrations.
Amirabdollahian said at a joint news conference that the two sides discussed cooperating on regional security and other topics. “We voiced our concern about the continuation of war in Sudan and discussed some regional and international topics of interest,” he said.
Raisi, in a meeting with Farhan the Saudi foreign minister, welcomed the establishment of relations between Tehran and Riyadh, according to the president's website. He said the only enemy of Muslims is the “Zionist regime,” referring to Israel.
Israel and Iran are archenemies and Raisi said the normalization of relations with Israel by some countries is not only a security issue but also against the Islamic community’s wishes.
One of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s greatest foreign policy triumphs remains Israel’s U.S.-brokered normalization deals in 2020 with four Arab states, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. They were part of a wider push to isolate Iran in the region.
Blinken arrives Beijing on high-stakes mission to cool soaring US-China tensions
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing early Sunday on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to try to cool exploding U.S.-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge. Blinken was to begin two days of talks with senior Chinese officials in the afternoon. The trip comes after he postponed plans to visit in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Beijing early Sunday on a high-stakes diplomatic mission to try to cool exploding U.S.-China tensions that have set many around the world on edge.
Blinken was to begin two days of talks with senior Chinese officials in the afternoon. He is the highest-level American official to visit China since President Joe Biden took office and the first secretary of state to make the trip in five years.
The trip comes after he postponed plans to visit in February after the shootdown of a Chinese surveillance balloon over the U.S.
Yet prospects for any significant breakthrough on the most vexing issues facing the planet’s two largest economies are slim, as already ties have grown increasingly fraught in recent years. Animosity and recriminations have steadily escalated over a series of disagreements that have implications for global security and stability.
Blinken plans to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang on Sunday, top diplomat Wang Yi, and possibly President Xi Jinping on Monday, according to U.S. officials.
The list of disagreements and potential conflict points is long: ranging from trade with Taiwan, human rights conditions in China to Hong Kong, as well as the Chinese military assertiveness in the South China Sea to Russia's war in Ukraine.
U.S. officials said before Blinken's departure from Washington on Friday that he would raise each of them, though neither side has shown any inclination to back down on their positions.
Shortly before leaving, Blinken emphasized the importance of the U.S. and China establishing and maintaining better lines of communication. The U.S. wants to make sure “that the competition we have with China doesn’t veer into conflict” due to avoidable misunderstandings, he told reporters.
“I believe that the foundation of Sino-U.S. relations lies in the people,” Xi said to Gates. “Under the current world situation, we can carry out various activities that benefit our two countries, the people of our countries, and the entire human race.”
Biden told White House reporters Saturday he was “hoping that over the next several months, I'll be meeting with Xi again and talking about legitimate differences we have, but also how ... to get along.” Chances could come at a Group of 20 leaders' gathering in September in New Delhi and at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November in San Francisco that the United States is hosting.
Austin said Friday he was confident that he and his Chinese counterpart would meet “at some point in time, but we’re not there yet.”
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson repeated accusations that Washington carries out hacking attacks and complained the cybersecurity industry rarely reports on them.
Speaking before Blinken's departure, two U.S. officials downplayed hopes for major progress and stressed that the trip was intended to restore a sense of calm and normalcy to high-level contacts.
"We’re coming to Beijing with a realistic, confident approach and a sincere desire to manage our competition in the most responsible way possible,” said Daniel Kritenbrink, the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia and the Pacific.
Kurt Campbell, the top Asia expert at the National Security Council, said "intense competition requires intense diplomacy if we’re going to manage tensions. That is the only way to clear up misperceptions, to signal, to communicate, and to work together where and when our interests align.”
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Associated Press writer Seung Min Kim in Washington contributed to this report.
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