Pour un monde raisonnablement ouvert
ENTRETIEN – Face à la flambée du prix des carburants, Philippe Chalmin, professeur à l’Université ParisDauphine et spécialiste de l’énergie, décrypte les chiffres.
Retrouvez l’intervention de Philippe Chalmin sur BFM avec RMC.
ENTRETIEN – À l’occasion de la parution de son nouveau livre, nous rencontrons Olivier Blanchard, Senior Fellow au Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Pour l’ancien chef économiste du FMI, la période de remontée des taux d’intérêt ne durera pas. Il faudra compter pour longtemps dans un univers marqué par les taux bas. Dans ce « monde à l’envers », il devient impératif de réinventer des solutions qui articulent les politiques budgétaires aux politiques monétaires.
Oui, ma pensée a évolué au cours du temps. Je prends un exemple. Quand je suis arrivé au FMI, en 2008, j’étais très inquiet de la taille de la dette publique japonaise, très élevée déjà à ce moment-là. Je pensais qu’il n’était pas possible qu’ils arrivent à la soutenir et qu’il y aurait des problèmes. Durant les six premiers mois, j’ai dit à Dominique Strauss-Kahn, le Directeur général du Fonds monétaire international à l’époque, qu’il y avait un vrai problème au Japon. Finalement, il ne s’est rien passé, il n’y a pas eu de catastrophe — pas de ce côté-là et pas pour le moment en tout cas. Ça m’a forcé à remettre en cause ce que je pensais sur le rôle et les dangers de la dette.
D’un côté, j’avais pris conscience que les taux d’intérêts évoluaient à la baisse depuis les années 1980 de manière presque séculaire. Dans ce contexte de taux faibles, la dette était moins dangereuse que la perception que j’avais pu en avoir auparavant.
[…]
Retrouvez l’entretien complet avec Olivier Blanchard sur le site du Grand Continent.
Space exploration has been an arena of competition and speculation among the major powers. The Cold War saw a fierce space race between the United States and the Soviet Union in satellite launches, manned space flights, and lunar exploration.
In contrast, the International Space Station (ISS) was a collaboration project between the US, Japan, and European countries. It began construction in 1998 under the leadership of the US and became a shining symbol of international cooperation. Russia also joined the project after the Cold War ended.
Much has been achieved aboard the ISS. For instance, new drugs and medical care for the elderly have been developed by conducting experiments in an environment vastly different from that of the earth, including microgravity, high-intensity solar energy, and cosmic radiation.
Furthermore, various research led by participating countries has led to innovations to improve life in space and on earth. ISS operations are expected to be extended from the original 2024 to 2030.
Kazuto Suzuki, a professor of science and technology policy at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo shares his insight into national space policies. He explains, « Much of what happens in space exploration is about symbolic meaning. There won’t be any substantial changes even if ISS operations were to cease. »
[…]
Read the entire article on Japan Forward.
« On attend avec énormément d’impatience le prochain lanceur européen Ariane 6, qui prendra la suite d’Ariane 5 », affirme Philippe Baptiste, le président-directeur général du Centre national d’études spatiales (CNES). Il doit coûter moins cher, et partira de Kourou en Guyane. « Il décollera quand il sera prêt », cela devrait être cette année. Le pas de tir est terminé, le lanceur touche à sa fin. Le projet a déjà trois ans de retard.
Après l’échec de Vega-C, l’Europe n’a plus d’accès autonome à l’espace. Mais le patron du CNES ne panique pas. Deux Ariane 5 vont s’élancer dans les prochains mois. « Avec l’invasion russe en Ukraine, les Russes sont partis de Kourou, regrette Philippe Baptiste, ils lançaient pour le compte de l’Europe Soyouz. C’est vrai qu’on utilisait Soyouz comme moyen de remplacement si on avait une difficulté avec Ariane. »
[…]
Retrouvez l’intervention de Philippe Baptiste du 17 janvier 2023 sur France Inter.
In her first exclusive interview, Nardos Bekele-Thomas, CEO of AUDA-NEPAD, talks forcefully about the imperative to place youth at the centre of development and provides ideas on how this can be achieved.
Ethiopian Nardos Bekele-Thomas has been the CEO of the African Union’s Development Agency (AUDA) for only six months but is already getting a feel for what her job entails – which often means having to be in several places, sometimes at the same time. In the past week alone, prior to our interview, she had arrived in Egypt for COP27 from Japan where she was for the JICA Annual Meetings and was on her way to Indonesia for the G20 meetings to then finish a gruelling travelling schedule in Niamey for Africa Industrialisation Week. More engagements are rolling in as we speak.
AUDA was previously the NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa’s Development) Planning and Coordination Agency. It was renamed and imbued with a fresh mandate by the African Union’s Assembly of Heads of State as part of efforts to accelerate the implementation agenda of the continental body.
Having met, over the last six months, most of Africa’s Heads of State and criss-crossed the continent, she says Africa’s biggest emergency, the most pressing concern, is the youth challenge.
“Africa’s population is extremely young and across the continent, governments are struggling to create opportunities for them to earn a living and make meaningful contributions to their societies,” she says.
Bekele-Thomas believes that this gap, where young and energetic people do not have a stake in society or are not empowered and engaged, is a genuine threat to the peace and security of the continent and requires urgent action.
[…]
Read the entire conversation with Nardos Bekele-Thomas on African Business.
TRIBUNE – Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, ancien ambassadeur de France en Allemagne, lance, avec notamment Matthias Fekl, Hélène Miard-Delacroix et François Villeroy de Galhau une académie franco-allemande de Paris qui réunira universitaires, chefs d’entreprise et hauts fonctionnaires pour célébrer l’amitié germano-française.
Le traité de l’Élysée va avoir 60 ans: voici donc le couple franco-allemand à l’âge senior, et peut-être à celui de la sagesse. Mais c’est aussi, selon certains, le temps du vieillissement, voire de la retraite: l’amitié franco-allemande, ce serait un poncif usé de fin de banquet. Nous n’en croyons rien, bien que nous ne niions aucun des défis.
The cream of the French upper class packed into a ballroom at the Cercle de l’Union Interallié, next door to the British ambassador’s residence in the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, on Monday evening to consider the question, “What remains of French influence?”
The two-hour discussion by former foreign minister Hubert Védrine and Renaud Girard, a foreign correspondent and columnist for the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, revealed the attitudes of a certain elite.
Védrine’s advice is valued by French business executives and politicians, including, it is said, by President Emmanuel Macron. His scathing remarks about naive “européistes” and “human rights-ism” have earned him a reputation as a cynic, but his books on geopolitical strategy sell tens of thousands of copies.
Girard laced his commentary with historical references and anecdotes from his years as a war correspondent. He credited Védrine with having invented Gaullo-Mitterrandisme, a philosophy that reconciles the two main families of post-second World War French politics.
Védrine pointed out that French influence today is greater than it was after defeat by Germany in 1940, or the loss of Dien Bien Phu in 1958, a decisive moment in the first Indochina War.
[…]
Read the entire article on The Irish Times website.
La Chine est devenue en deux décennies le premier partenaire du continent africain, comme l’a illustré la tournée d’une semaine du ministre chinois des Affaires étrangères. Entretien avec Jean-Pierre Cabestan, directeur de recherche au CNRS et chercheur associé à Asia Centre.
Retrouvez l’entretien avec Jean-Pierre Cabestan sur le site de RFI.
London: Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has questioned whether China’s economic growth figures reported for 2022 are accurate.
China reported that its annual gross domestic product growth slumped from 8 per cent to 3 per cent last year.
his constituted its second-weakest economic performance in 50 years and was a direct result of Beijing’s decision to pursue a zero-COVID strategy, which President Xi Jinping suddenly abandoned earlier this year.
Rudd said the result was a best-case scenario, but possibly exaggerated.
“China obviously had no choice, zero-COVID was not working for China’s growth numbers, the 2022 growth numbers were at best 3 per cent, possibly less,” he said.
“We do expect now a bounce back, the official numbers are probably around five [per cent].
“I’m expecting a solid growth number for 2023, that’ll be good for China and importantly in a world where growth will be challenged with Europe facing recessionary challenges and the United States – a question mark, in terms of how soft or hard the landing will be. And the rest of the world, the developing world, struggling.
“If China produces a solid growth number for 2023, 5 or 5-plus, that will actually underpin much global growth for the year to come.”
[…]
Find the entire article about on The Sydney Morning Herald.
«Le monde n’a jamais été dans une meilleure position pour mettre fin à la pandémie. Nous n’y sommes pas encore, mais la fin est à portée de main. Nous pouvons tous voir la ligne d’arrivée, nous sommes en passe de gagner, mais ce serait vraiment le plus mauvais moment pour s’arrêter de courir. C’est le moment de redoubler d’efforts et de nous assurer de franchir la ligne d’arrivée et de récolter les fruits de notre labeur.»
Ces mots, prononcés mi-septembre par Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, directeur général de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS), ont eu tôt fait d’être analysés comme signifiant que la pandémie de Covid-19 touchait à sa fin. Ils étaient certes porteurs d’espoir, mais la ligne d’arrivée peine quand même à poindre à l’horizon.
De la même manière, lorsque le virologue allemand Christian Drosten a déclaré fin décembre que, selon lui, la pandémie était terminée et que l’on entrait désormais dans sa phase endémique, il y avait sans doute des franches nuances à apporter à cette assertion un peu définitive.
Retrouvez l’article entier écrit par Antoine Flahault sur Slate FR.
A “geopolitical EU” is not a theory, but a set of assumptions as well as a more realistic vision of the world. In dealing with Russia’s war against Ukraine, it already has brought impressive results.
Coming from the academic world, I understand the desire to question the meaning political actors give to their ideas. The idea of a “geopolitical Europe” is one of them. That is what Hans Kundnani tried to do in a very succinct way in his article “Europe’s Geopolitical Confusion.” His conclusion is that the concept is fuzzy and not well defined. So let me question that conclusion, with which I strongly disagree.
Yes, “Geopolitical Europe” (GE) is certainly not a theory. Nevertheless, it is a set of assumptions that have dramatically affected European Union thinking and behavior since 2020. So, let me define briefly what GE means and what it entails.
Read the entire article written by Zaki Laïdi on Internationale Politik Quarterly.
BRUSSELS — Jean Monnet, one of the founders of the European Union, wrote in his memoirs that “Europe will be forged in crises and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.”
The war in Ukraine is only the latest crisis to confound Europe and rip away its illusions. A return to full-scale territorial warfare rarely seen in Europe since World War II has altered the European Union and NATO, both their present and their future, with consequences still unclear.
Along with China, Europe’s crises will be the undercurrent jolting discussions at the World Economic Forum, which opened on Monday in Davos, Switzerland. Its theme of “Cooperation in a Fragmented World” summarizes the aspiration driving some of the policies rapidly adopted on the continent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February.
Both the European Union and NATO have responded well and remain united, at least on the surface, to challenges including war, economic stress, energy disruption and humanitarian crises — all topics on the Davos agenda.
Read the article written by Steven Erlanger on The New York Times.
Rudd, a fluent-Mandarin speaker and a keen observer of Chinese politics, cited the four-decade correction of the Mao Zedong years, led by former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, and said that there will be a similar correction of Xi’s Marxist-Leninist tilt after he steps down, bringing China back to a more pragmatic « middle course. »
Read the entire article on Nikkei Asia.
INTERVIEW – Du lundi au vendredi, Philippe Vandel fait le point sur un sujet de l’actualité média avec un invité. Aujourd’hui, François Barrault, président de « Idate DigiWorld Institute » et ancien CEO de « British Télécom », pour parler du « Digital Summit 2022 ».
Invité(s) : François Barrault, président de « Idate DigiWorld Institute » et ancien CEO de « British Télécom »
Écoutez l’intervention de François Barrault sur Europe 1.
ARTICLE – When the Soviet Union collapsed, European nations grabbed the “peace dividend,” drastically shrinking their defense budgets, their armies and their arsenals.
With the rise of al-Qaida nearly a decade later, terrorism became the target, requiring different military investments and lighter, more expeditionary forces. Even NATO’s long engagement in Afghanistan bore little resemblance to a land war in Europe, heavy on artillery and tanks, that nearly all defense ministries thought would never recur.
But it has.
In Ukraine, the kind of European war thought inconceivable is chewing up the modest stockpiles of artillery, ammunition and air defenses. Even the mighty United States has only limited stocks of the weapons the Ukrainians want and need, and Washington is unwilling to divert key weapons from delicate regions like Taiwan and Korea, where China and North Korea are constantly testing the limits.
Now, nine months into the war, the West’s fundamental unpreparedness has set off a mad scramble to supply Ukraine with what it needs while also replenishing NATO stockpiles.
As both sides burn through weaponry and ammunition at a pace not seen since World War II, the competition to keep arsenals flush has become a critical front that could prove decisive to Ukraine’s effort.
The amount of artillery being used is staggering, NATO officials say. Ukraine can fire thousands of rounds daily and remains desperate for air defense against Russian missiles and Iranian-made drones.
Read the entire article written by Steven Erlanger on The Spokesman-Review‘s website.
INTERVIEW – L’ancien expert du Fonds monétaire international estime que la transition énergétique exigera de lever des impôts supplémentaires ou de couper dans certaines dépenses.
La récession dans laquelle plonge le Vieux Continent pourrait s’aggraver si un rationnement du gaz était instauré à la fin de l’hiver, s’alarme Olivier Blanchard. Ancien économiste en chef du Fonds monétaire international, coauteur de l’ouvrage Les Grands Défis économiques (PUF, 240 pages, 15 euros), avec le prix Nobel d’économie Jean Tirole, il prévient également : la tentation du protectionnisme industriel pourrait coûter cher aux pays industrialisés comme aux émergents.
Probablement pas, et certains pays y sont sûrement déjà. D’abord, parce que le pouvoir d’achat a diminué en raison de l’augmentation du prix de l’énergie importée. Ensuite, parce que les incertitudes rendent les ménages plus prudents, et les entreprises plus frileuses. Cela pourrait être pire s’il y avait un rationnement du gaz à la fin de l’hiver. Pour le moment, la politique monétaire n’a pas encore joué un grand rôle.
Il faut d’abord rappeler que la zone euro importe une bonne partie de son énergie, dont les cours ont flambé. Pour faire face à cette hausse, les entreprises augmentent les prix, tandis que les salariés réclament des augmentations pour limiter leur perte de revenu. Mais les augmentations de salaire représentent une nouvelle hausse des coûts pour les entreprises, qui la répercutent en partie sur leurs prix, ce qui génère de nouvelles tensions sur les salaires, etc. C’est ce qu’on appelle « la boucle prix-salaires », qui peut conduire à une inflation plus élevée que l’inflation initiale.
Lisez l’interview d’Olivier Blanchard en entier sur le site du Monde.
CHRONIQUE – Le prix de l’énergie est devenu la principale angoisse des dirigeants d’entreprise. Pour Philippe Chalmin, ces hausses de coût seront répercutées, entraînant la plupart des pays d’Europe dans la stagflation, voire pire pour certains…
Ce sont les derniers jours de l’automne, un automne chaud que commencent à balayer les premiers frimas. Alors que la nuit tombe dès le milieu de l’après-midi, on aime à rentrer dans le confort chaleureux d’un foyer. Chaleur ? C’est bien là que le bât blesse tant la chaleur est chère aujourd’hui et le sera encore plus demain.
Les quelques dernières semaines nous avaient offert un peu de répit : un bel été indien tout d’abord et donc une demande plus faible de gaz et d’électricité pour le chauffage. Malgré la guerre en Ukraine, les réserves de gaz en Europe se sont remplies au point d’avoir dans bien des pays atteint le maximum de leur capacité. Oh, certes, cela a eu un coût et il a fallu payer le gaz norvégien ou russe, les gaz naturels liquéfiés américain ou qatari à des prix équivalents en réalité entre 200 dollars ou 300 dollars le baril de pétrole. Depuis peu, les cours du gaz en Europe ont donné l’illusion de la détente. Mais à y regarder de près, celle-ci n’affecte que le marché à très court terme, les livraisons du lendemain.
Retrouvez la chronique de Philippe Chalmin, publiée le 22 novembre, sur le site des Échos.
ARTICLE – To achieve net-zero emissions, environmentally-vulnerable countries must invest trillions of dollars in capacity-building and green infrastructure. To enable investments on this scale requires mandatory global frameworks for sustainable investment.
Find the entire article written by Bertrand Badré and Jingdong Hua on Project Syndicate.
ARTICLE – Parmi les signataires, Hubert Védrine, ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères français
Une tribune publiée ce jeudi par cinq anciens ministres des Affaires étrangères européens dans le journal Le monde, appelle à reconnaître que « les politiques et pratiques d’Israël à l’encontre des Palestiniens équivalent au crime d’apartheid ».
Parmi les signataires, Hubert Védrine, ancien ministre des Affaires étrangères français sous Lionel Jospin.
Relevant l’urgence de protéger « un ordre mondial fondé sur le droit international », les ex-ministres écrivent souhaiter que » l’illégalité et l’immoralité de plus de cinq décennies d’occupation israélienne constitue l’épine dorsale » de la politique européenne vis-à-vis de l’Etat hébreu.
Retrouvez l’article en entier dans i24news.
ARTICLE – The changes in policy, politics and personnel revealed by the Chinese Communist Party’s five-yearly congress, which finished in recent days, show just how radically China has changed under Xi Jinping, compared with his predecessors Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao. His audacity is without bounds. Mr. Xi is smashing through long-established political conventions and plain old bureaucratic inertia to achieve his ambitions for both himself and China. Consistent with his deeply-held ideological worldview, Mr. Xi is determined to change the international order in a manner more compatible with Chinese national interests and values. His power to do so, at least within his own system, is now unconstrained.
Take politics. Mr. Xi used the 20th congress to defy a convention that general secretaries limit themselves to two five-year terms. Originally this was introduced to preserve the principles of collective leadership and to prevent a return to Mao Zedong’s practice of lifelong rule. The cult of personality is also back. Mr. Xi has his own body of ideological “thought” much earlier than his predecessors, and it has now been entrenched in the party constitution as “the Marxism of our times”. To further cement loyalty, he has presided over the longest-running anti-corruption campaign in the party’s 100-year history. Partly it has been a mechanism for entrenching political loyalty and control.
Find the article written by Kevin Rudd on Asia Society.
Publié
CHRONIQUE – La grande difficulté d’une discussion russo-ukrainienne est qu’elle devra, pour avoir la moindre chance de réussir, sauver la face des autorités de Moscou comme de Kiev.
Les avancées victorieuses successives de l’armée ukrainienne à Izyoum, à Lyman et sur le front de Kherson signalent qu’elle a réussi à établir un rapport de force à son avantage face à son agresseur russe. Elle est plus manœuvrière, plus motivée et mieux équipée que lui. L’Ukraine et ses alliés occidentaux ont d’ores et déjà montré, sur le terrain, que Vladimir Poutine avait commis une erreur stratégique en envahissant son voisin.
Maintenant que l’équilibre militaire est établi sur le front, la négociation politique redevient possible entre Russes et Ukrainiens. C’est ce que souhaitent les grandes puissances, membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité de l’ONU.
Lire l’article en entier sur le site du Figaro.
Le chef de la diplomatie européenne Josep Borrell a mis en garde lundi contre «le risque d’une récession mondiale» à cause de la course à la hausse des taux d’intérêt lancée par la Réserve fédérale américaine, lors d’une intervention devant les ambassadeurs de l’UE.
«Tout le monde doit suivre les hausses de taux décidées par la Fed, sinon les monnaies seront dévaluées» face au dollar, a-t-il expliqué. «Tout le monde court pour augmenter les taux d’intérêt et cela nous amènera à une récession mondiale», a-t-il prédit. «Tout le monde suit la Fed et met en oeuvre la même politique monétaire, parce qu’il n’y a pas d’autre moyen, sinon les capitaux vont fuir», a-t-il expliqué.
Le comité de politique monétaire, l’organe de décision de la Fed, a procédé à trois hausses de taux depuis mars et a averti que pour faire face à une inflation toujours trop forte, un nouveau tour de vis serait nécessaire. Josep Borrell s’aventure rarement sur le terrain de l’économie, mais son intervention devant les ambassadeurs de l’UE visait à analyser la nouvelle donne créée par le fait que la Russie et la Chine sont devenues des sources de problèmes économiques et sécuritaires pour l’UE.
«La Russie et la Chine contribuaient à notre développement économique, ce n’est plus le cas: cela va impliquer une forte restructuration de notre économie, car l’accès à la Chine va devenir de plus en plus difficile et nous n’aurons plus de gaz russe bon marché», a-t-il souligné. «L’ajustement sera difficile. Et cela créera des problèmes politiques».
«D’autre part, nous avons délégué notre sécurité aux États-Unis. Mais qui sait ce qui se passera dans deux ans? Ou même en novembre?», a-t-il souligné dans une référence aux prochaines échéances électorales aux Etats-Unis. «Nous devons assumer nous-mêmes plus de responsabilités, nous devons assumer une plus grande partie de notre responsabilité en matière de sécurité». «Mais nous avons encore beaucoup à faire pour être une, une seule puissance, qui agisse au nom de l’Union dans son ensemble», a-t-il déploré.
Lire la tribune sur le site du Figaro.
The International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 3, 2021. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg)
When they gather in Washington next week for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group annual meetings, the world’s finance ministers face what has been labeled a polycrisis: Challenges ranging from increased interest rates, climate change and an epically strong dollar, to food-supply shortages, high inflation and a still-prevalent pandemic all combine to threaten not just the global economy but also the livelihoods of hundreds of millions.
It is likely that in the next year the United States will go into recession, Europe will be battered by high energy costs and China will suffer its lowest growth in decades. A major slowdown in the global economy is almost inevitable.
What is at stake — what will greatly depend on decisions that finance ministers make next week — is whether developing countries suffer a lost decade of economic opportunity, as happened to many countries in the 1980s, or whether they are enabled to maintain momentum, as occurred after the 2009 financial crisis.
While much will depend on national policy choices, the external environment will be enormously important for most countries. Global cooperation through the IMF and the World Bank matters a great deal. The challenge for these institutions will be not to just discuss new funds and funding mechanisms but to actually deliver the greatly increased support the moment demands.
Read the entire article in the Washington Post.
OPINION – Ukraine Is Weakened by Corruption, So How Is It Stymying the Russians?
Corruption undermines society as surely as termites undermine houses. Ukraine suffers from corruption. So how has Ukrainian society nonetheless managed to stymie a Russian invasion, and even turn the tables on its invaders?
I asked experts inside and outside Ukraine for their answers to this pivotal question and heard several interesting theories. The most intriguing is that it’s possible in certain situations to be simultaneously corrupt and patriotic.
Here are some of the explanations:
Ukraine is corrupt, but the enemy is even more corrupt. On Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, Ukraine was 122nd of 180 countries last year (higher numbers are worse). Pretty bad, but Russia was ranked even worse, at 136th. In May the U.S. State Department said, “While it may be too early to draw definitive conclusions, we have seen open-source reporting about expired rations, lack of fuel and outdated and poorly maintained equipment that point to the waste, misuse and abuse of ‘public’ resources designated for Russia’s military.”
[…]
Ukrainians are rallying around their flag. “Corruption is less because the survival of the nation is at stake,” said Brian Bonner, who was chief editor of The Kyiv Post from 2008 to 2021 and is now an editor at Geopolitical Intelligence Services. “We’re at a higher level of unity and selflessness than I’ve seen since I’ve lived here.” Prince Michael of Liechtenstein, who founded Geopolitical Intelligence Services, agreed: “People stuck together. There was a strike from outside and they came together.”
Read the article on The New York Times.
ARTICLE – Greece and Albania are heading to the International Court in The Hague after both countries failed to agree on the issue of maritime borders, despite both prime ministers meeting on the sidelines of the European political Community in Prague on Thursday, reports Euroactiv.
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama said that no consensus was found, and the matter would progress to the International Court in The Hague.
“This is a legal process, there are a number of rules, there are a number of procedures, and we will respect the procedures from the beginning to the end because we have to make our position very clear, we have to make it very clear what we intend in this process and that unified attitude required of this court as to what one side intends and what the other side intends, requires its own time. So, we don’t have a consensus between the parties”, said Rama.
Find the article on Greek City Times website.
COMMENT – Contrary to the Kremlin’s claims, the West is not to blame for current food shortages in the developing world. But it does have a responsibility to help address them, rather than leaving these countries to fend for themselves, as it largely did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
MADRID – Actions speak louder than words. That adage explains why Russian President Vladimir Putin’s depiction of his brutal and senseless war in Ukraine as a noble fight against Western imperialism comes across as farcical. It should also inform Western leaders’ response to the crises that war has fueled – including the food crisis that looms over vulnerable populations in Africa.
While climate change and the pandemic were undermining food security well before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the situation is even more dire now, particularly in low-income African countries that depend on food imports from Russia and Ukraine. Globally, a staggering 345 million people face acute food insecurity, with hundreds of millions more going to bed hungry every night. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned last month, there is a real risk of multiple famines this year.
Read the comment written by Ana Palacio on Project Syndicate.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/thenational/7EYNKM6TPNAJZDOOSRETFSXB24.JPG)
Dr Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE President, has called for a political solution to the war in Ukraine.
Speaking on Wednesday at the Arab Media Forum in Dubai, Dr Gargash said the effects of the war have been felt around the world.
“There is no political solution yet, unfortunately,” he said. “There are attempts to have countries with or against. Many are being negatively affected.”
Dr Gargash stressed that many countries, including the UAE, were careful not to take sides in a complex war, while saying the “law of the jungle” should not prevail in any dispute.
“Many countries … don’t want to be with or against [Ukraine or Russia] but with the rules. We live in a region with lots of difficulties [so we] cannot [have the] laws of the jungle. There must be clear rules.”
The wide-ranging talk on the second day of the forum also touched on Yemen, the UAE’s plans for the next several decades, and complex relations with countries such as Turkey and Iran.
On Iran, Dr Gargash, a former minister of state for foreign affairs, said it was important to avoid judging other political systems in the region and instead build on opportunities for growth.
“We cannot say this system doesn’t suit us and don’t like it,” he said.
Dr Gargash said there were “issues” with Iran but the UAE is striving for good relations. He cautioned against the “illusion” of a military situation that would only mean the region would lose.
“The solution with Iran is to have good bilateral relations and continue dialogue,” he said.
“To hold each other accountable and find partnerships. [This is the case] not only with Iran but with other countries.”
Dr Gargash said the last decades in the region had been very difficult, with wars, crises and the Arab uprisings of 2011.
“We do not want to spend 20 to 30 years in wars. No one who is rational will accept a repeat,” he said.
Dr Gargash pointed to strengthening ties with Turkey and talks between Egypt and Turkey that suggested a more positive future.
But he said the fact that Yemen was still without a ceasefire was a “disaster”. He said a ceasefire was a paramount objective and conditions for a political solution were needed.
Looking ahead to the UAE’s path for the next few decades, Dr Gargash said it had passed through an “exceptional decade” of challenges, problems, coronavirus, unrest and the Arab uprisings in other countries.
Now the plan was to work on the economy, but not just the traditional economy.
“We have to change the work environment. This is an ecosystem and not just about economic transactions,” Dr Gargash said.
He said it was important to also strengthen bridges built in the past 15 years and he pointed to the signing of the Abraham Accords, talks with Iran and Turkey and efforts to find new partnerships.
“We are not naïve,” Dr Gargash said. “Every country has its own interests. The UAE is working on sorting out problems. We have succeeded to a certain extent. There is competition and we accept legitimate competition.
“The region is slowly getting out of the Arab spring crises. It took a lot of effort to put out those fires. This region will be forgotten if we do not focus on putting prosperity and growth on the agenda.
“Look at Saudi Arabia. This shows the fact [there was a] previous approach for a previous period. [But now] new challenges need a new approach to creating jobs and a new economy.”
Read the article on the site of The National.
A total of 1,700 former rebels have been trained and integrated into the Sudanese National Army as required by the Juba Peace Agreement signed in 2020, Anadolu News Agency reports.
The army, rebel groups in the country, and the UN envoy confirmed the figure.
In an address to his Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-Northern sector, rebel leader, Malik Agar, said more than 700 fighters in the troubled region of Blue Nile were trained and integrated into the National Army.
He, however, added that there are many obstacles to the implementation of security arrangements in the Agreement, including the lack of financial support.
Volker Perthes, the UN’s Special Envoy to Sudan, urged all parties to speed up the implementation of the peace deal.
« However, this two-year anniversary is another stark reminder that much remains to be done. There is an urgent need for the full implementation of the Juba Peace Agreement’s provisions, including security arrangements and the swift deployment of the Joint Security Keeping Forces to ensure the protection of civilians, the establishment of relevant commissions such as the Commission for Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, the Transitional Justice Commission, the Land and Hawakeer Commission, as well as other provisions on wealth and power sharing, nomads and reparations, » Perthes said in a statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Darfur rebels and the army exchanged accusations of delay in the implementation of the security arrangements.
Darfur ruler, Mini Arko Minawi, said the army has delayed the formation of the Joint Civil Protection Forces, which was supposed to include 12,000 fighters from both sides.
However, Sudanese Armed Forces spokesman, Nabil Abdullah, has denied the accusations, saying that the formation of the Civil Protection Forces has faced wide obstacles, especially from the rebel groups.
The Juba Peace Agreement was signed in October 2020, but the two sides have exchanged blame over the implementation of the Agreement.
Read the original article on the Middle East Monitor.
While there had been speculation about using the upcoming Arab League summit in Algeria to normalize relations with Syria’s Bashar Assad and rehabilitate him, this matter now seems more elusive than ever. Though Assad lost his legitimacy when he slaughtered his people, he now poses a direct health threat to the Gulf and the wider international community as Syria turns into a narco-state and Assad uses drugs as a bargaining chip.
Initially, Assad used refugees as a bargaining chip. He wanted them to overwhelm the international community so that he could bring it to its knees and foreign leaders would accept his conditions without him having to make any concessions. However, he cannot play this card anymore, as the Europeans have somehow absorbed the waves of refugees, the violence in Syria has largely stopped and the international community is talking about early recovery without having to normalize with the regime.
Now that the refugee card is lost, Assad needs a new point of pressure. In the first eight months of this year, 250 million Captagon pills of Syrian provenance were confiscated worldwide. Syria is thought to have exported pills worth $17.5 billion in 2020, or 22 times the nation’s total exports. The main destination for the lethal Captagon pills is Saudi Arabia. Every now and then, the Kingdom’s authorities find drugs hidden inside shipments of fruit. Also, in an attempt to evade suspicion, Assad sends the fruits via Lebanon.
In an interview with Le Figaro, a regime-linked Syrian businessman hinted that Assad would stop sending Captagon to the world if the international community rehabilitated him without him having to change his behavior. The businessman gave the excuse that the regime needs to find ways “to live” while sanctions are imposed.
However, various attempts to rehabilitate Assad have failed. Jordan tried to help Assad. When King Abdullah visited US President Joe Biden last year, he took with him the Assad dossier. However, Assad returned the favor by sending weapons and drugs to Jordan. There were also talks held about Amman reviving the opposition groups in Deraa, southwestern Syria, in order to create a buffer between Assad’s thugs and the Jordanian border.
However, the attitude of Assad toward Jordan shows that a step-by-step approach does not work. Assad will always blackmail the international community to get what he wants without making any concessions. This actually makes sense because any concession Assad does make will be the end of his regime.
Assad is a survivor. He will do whatever it takes to survive. When aid goes through Damascus, he makes sure he takes a large cut to bolster his regime. Now that sanctions have cut him off from the global economy, he has turned to the black economy to finance his regime. Drugs serve two purposes. They are both a medium to finance the regime and a way to blackmail the international community.
However, drugs are a red line for the international community. While Assad slaughtering his own people in Syria was an issue, when he is causing health problems in Gulf countries and in Europe, this is a totally different ball game. Europe will not cave in to Assad; on the contrary, it has now confirmed that the Syrian president cannot be trusted and any concessions made to him will only produce more belligerent behavior and more blackmail.
The drugs are a reality check for Europe, the Gulf and the world, including those who go by the logic of ‘better the devil you know’.
Dr. Dania Koleilat Khatib
Everyone in Europe is concerned about drugs and it is unlikely they will empower a regime that they deem so malicious. But the drugs are a reality check for Europe, the Gulf and the world, including those who go by the logic of “better the devil you know.” There is no way forward with Assad. He will not change his behavior and will continue blackmailing the international community, even if funds are directed to him.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, who favors normalization with Assad as a way to stop the conflict, once described the process as an “ugly peace.” However, there will be no peace of any kind with Assad. He does not understand that his methods do not work with the international community and that, unless he shows some goodwill, no one will lend him a hand.
The overtures of Jordan to his regime were a golden opportunity for him to show some goodwill that could have created an incentive for other Arab countries to start the normalization process. However, instead of showing appreciation to the king of Jordan, Assad’s reckless and unethical behavior only embarrassed King Abdullah. What kind of sign does that send to those who have thought of normalizing with him?
Assad does not realize that he is living on borrowed time. He has been very skillful at playing on the differences between his allies and even among his foes. He knew how to strike a balance between the Russians and the Iranians. He presented himself as a deterrent against Turkey at the height of Ankara’s tensions with the UAE. This was one incentive for Abu Dhabi to normalize with the Syrian regime and extend help to it. However, his behavior cannot be sustained. And the Captagon episode is proof that Assad cannot be redeemed.
Read the article on the website of Arab News
INTERVIEW – La Secrétaire générale de la Francophonie Louise mushikiwabo est candidate à sa propre succession à la tête de l’organisation qu’elle dirige depuis 2019. En visite dans les studios de la VOA à Washington, l’ancienne chef de la diplomatie rwandaise promet de poursuivre les réformes engagées pour reformer et moderniser cette organisation. Le 18e sommet de la francophonie est prévue fin novembre en Tunisie. Au micro d’Abdourahmane Dia, Louise Mushikiwabo a dit que l’adhésion de pays francophones comme le Togo et le Gabon au Commonwealth doit plutôt être vue comme une opportunité et non une menace à l’espace francophone.
Retrouvez la vidéo de l’interview complète sur VOA Afrique.
PARIS/WASHINGTON, DC – Next week’s United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt will be the first such summit held on African soil since 2016. That makes the gathering an ideal setting for world leaders to deliver on their earlier promises and announce a comprehensive plan to mitigate the worst effects of climate change on countries in the Global South.
Providing developing countries with the financing they need to achieve net-zero emissions is crucial to realizing climate justice. Ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth will require investing trillions of dollars in clean energy and green infrastructure. But only through investment on this scale can we meet the 2015 Paris climate agreement’s central goal of limiting global warming to well below 2° Celsius, relative to pre-industrial levels.
Fortunately, since the Paris agreement was signed, institutional investors have become increasingly aware that climate change could significantly affect companies’ bottom lines and have incorporated ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and sustainability factors into their risk analyses and valuations.
But as important and commendable as these measures are, they are not enough. Developing global standards for climate-risk disclosure marks the next stage in the fight against climate change. To this end, we must merge today’s alphabet soup of differing ESG and sustainability guidelines into a single mandatory framework. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the European Union’s proposed Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which aim to create clear rules and criteria for ESG-related disclosures, are both steps in the right direction.
[…]