WTO MC13: US urged to correct .. bullying trade practices

US urged to correct unilateralism, bullying trade practices amid key WTO meeting

Beijing promotes cooperation, as Washington engages in protectionism

By 

Wang Cong

 and Feng FanPublished: Feb 27, 2024 12:11 AM

China's Commerce Ministry said on Monday that China firmly safeguards the multilateral trading system and attaches great importance to the work of the WTO, while slamming the US for violating WTO rules and engaging in unilateral trade bullying, which seriously undermines the global trade order and hurts the common interests of WTO members. 

The comments came as the WTO on Monday officially kicked off the 13th Ministerial Conference in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, as it seeks to tackle a wide range of issues, including reforms, fishing subsidies and digital trade, amid growing uncertainty in global trade.

China and the US, the world's two biggest economies, demonstrated starkly different approaches to global multilateral trade, with Chinese officials spearheading efforts to reform the WTO and supporting various works of the top trade body, while the US engaging in protectionism, economic bullying and finger-pointing, experts said. 

Though the WTO faces increasing challenges posed by members like the US that have called WTO's relevance into question, the global multilateral trade body continues to enjoy firm support from a vast majority of its members, including China, and is more critical than ever in helping navigate a tumultuous period in global trade by championing cooperation among members, experts noted.

The 13th WTO Ministerial Conference comes at a crucial moment, as both the WTO and global trade face tremendous challenges and risks. For the WTO, as some members led by the US openly disregard its rules and even work to cripple its core functions such as the Appellate Body, its influence and relevance have been questioned. Meanwhile, global trade is also facing a rising tide of anti-globalization, protectionism and economic nationalism, while geopolitical conflicts also weigh on trade. 

Speaking at the conference on Monday, Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said the Chinese government firmly safeguards the multilateral trading system and attaches great importance to the work of the WTO, and will work with all parties to promote the success of this ministerial meeting and jointly build an open world economy.

Wang also said China will steadily expand institutional opening-up, cut the negative list for foreign investment access, implement the comprehensive lifting of restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, and ensure equal treatment for foreign-invested enterprises. China is confident that it will push China's economy forward steadily in a new stage of high-quality development and provide lasting impetus for world economic and trade growth, he said.

Huo Jianguo, a vice chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies in Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday that China has always firmly supported multilateral trade organizations with practical actions, but under the interference of US protectionism, multilateral trade organizations are indeed relatively fragile and it is difficult to reach a satisfactory agreement.

US bullying 

While final outcomes of the ministerial conference remain to be seen, one striking trend emerged: even as China and other developing countries are promoting sensible reforms of the WTO to make it more inclusive and influential, the US continues to pose hurdles for any meaningful reforms and engage in protectionism and economic bullying.

Such a difference was clear even before the WTO ministerial conference started. On Sunday, Wang met with WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala in Abu Dhabi and stressed that China stands ready to work with all parties to push for more pragmatic outcomes of the conference. Specifically, China supports resuming the normal operation of the dispute settlement mechanism, formulating a work plan for agricultural negotiations, responding to the food security demands of the least developed countries and net food-importing developing countries, and promoting the conclusion of the second phase of the fishery subsidy agreement.

Also on Sunday, Wang and Okonjo-Iweala attended the China Round Table on WTO accessions, which aims to help developing members, especially the least developed countries, better integrate into the multilateral trading system. "Many thanks to China for supporting this sharing of experiences and learning for newly acceding members like Comoros and Timor Leste and the 22 countries in the accession pipeline - of which one third are Arab countries," Okonjo-Iweala said.

"China is a member of the multilateral mechanism, so we hope that the WTO can reach a consensus so that the organization can operate fully, and we can discuss the reform of the WTO mechanism," Li Xiangyang, director-general of National Institute of International Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Monday, while highlighting damages caused by the US on the WTO, including blocking the appointment of new judges to the Appellate Body, a crucial function of the WTO that resolves disputes among members. 

In stark contrast to China's positive role, the US continues to stir up trade tensions. Ahead of the WTO Ministerial Conference, the Office of the US Trade Representative released a report on China's WTO compliance, which was filled with accusations against China. "China remains the biggest challenge to the international trading system established by the World Trade Organization," US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said.

China's Ministry of Commerce slammed assertions in the report as baseless. The US side criticizes China's economic and trade policies with baseless and arbitrary standards, falsely calls China's legitimate trade measures "economic coercion," and confuses right and wrong, which "fully reflects the unilateralism and bullying behavior of the US," the ministry said on Monday. 

The Ministry further pointed out that in recent years, the US, with its "America first" agenda, violated WTO rules, engaged in unilateral economic bullying, formulated discriminatory industrial policies, which disrupted global supply chains, seriously undermined the global trade order and hurt the common interests of WTO members. 

On the sidelines of the WTO meeting on Monday, Wang met with Tai and had professional and in-depth exchanges on bilateral and multilateral trade issues of mutual concern. Wang also expressed China's serious concerns about the US' additional tariffs on China and Taiwan-related economic and trade issues, according to the Chinese Commerce Ministry.

"The US has always said one thing and done another. The current position of the WTO is directly related to the US. The US took the lead in paralyzing the dispute settlement mechanism," Huo said, noting that the US has also violated many WTO rules by wantonly imposing tariffs, taking protectionist actions and enacting domestic laws in contradiction of multilateral trade rules and norms. "In this situation, the US is not qualified to accuse China at all."⍐

Thirteenth Ministerial Conference of the WTO : Remarks by Director-General

 The MC13 opening ceremony

Remarks by Director-General Okonjo-Iweala

Thirteenth Ministerial Conference

Chair H.E. Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi,
Minister of State for Foreign Trade of the United Arab Emirates
MC13 Vice-Chairs,
General Council Chair, H.E. Ambassador Athaliah Molokomme of Botswana
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen.

Welcome to the Thirteenth Ministerial Conference of the WTO!

It is wonderful to be here in the UAE, and in the Gulf region, which for centuries has been a vital crossroads for goods, people, and ideas.

I want to start by thanking our hosts for their excellent cooperation throughout the months of preparation leading up to our gathering here in this spectacular venue. I am grateful for their optimism, their enthusiasm, and their willingness to act fast.

Minister Al Zeyoudi has already been hard at work for months to lay the groundwork for a successful MC13, chairing virtual meetings of ministers and reaching out in person to the full membership – most recently at a Special General Council in Geneva not even two weeks ago. I thank him and the UAE delegation in Geneva, led by Ambassador Jamal Al Musharakh and the Director of the UAE office to the WTO, Ambassador Abdelsalam Mohamed Al Ali, for their tireless efforts.

Let me also thank ministers from the Gulf region, who have been extremely supportive, and from the wider Arab Group, for taking on this ministerial as their own. All this support will hopefully help us deliver meaningful results here.

I'm delighted to say that we are kicking off this meeting with some excellent news. Here at MC13, the WTO is welcoming its first new members in almost eight years: Timor-Leste and Comoros. We celebrate the hard work they have put in, and the beneficial but challenging reforms they have implemented at home. Both countries are least developed countries, and we are excited to see them reap the gains of membership as they become new members of the WTO. Twenty-two more countries are seeking to follow in their footsteps – many of them are present here as observers, including a sizeable contingent from the Arab world. The opportunities they see in WTO membership, and their commitment to the demanding accession process, stand as an answer to anyone who questions the value that the WTO provides. Comoros and Timor-Leste will bring the WTO to 166 members, and we look forward to adding to that number in the years ahead.

Some additional good news is that the number of acceptances of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement will reach 70 this week. Several ministers have brought their legal instruments with them to Abu Dhabi, and we will be celebrating them later today. MC13 has helped drive forward ratifications. With the 70 we will have this week, we now have 40 members to go, so the countdown towards entry into force can now start in earnest. Those members yet to ratify, I have a list of you. You know who you are. I hope you can work fast to help us allow entry into force by my birthday on 13th June of this year. Which will also mark 2 years since MC12. When we succeed it will be the fastest entry into force of any WTO agreement. And I know we will.

Excellencies, when we met in Geneva for MC12, almost two years ago now, my message to you was blunt. In keeping with my promise to bring a new pair of eyes and ears to the WTO, I told you what I was seeing and hearing from political and business leaders around the world. That the WTO needed to produce results, but expectations were very low that members could agree to.

But you defied those expectations and beat the odds. You showed leadership, you invested political capital, and bridged gaps. You worked together to make MC12 a resounding success. Members delivered what was dubbed the Miracle on Lake Geneva: ten consensus multilateral outcomes with tangible benefits for people and the planet and launched a comprehensive process of institutional reform. Members sent a powerful signal that the WTO can respond to contemporary challenges, and that in a world marked by strategic competition, we could also have strategic cooperation in pursuit of shared goals.

Success is changing the tone about the WTO – both outside and within it. Yes, we will always have our naysayers and detractors but there is no doubt that members have shown that we can deliver when members roll up their sleeves and muster the requisite political will. During the last several weeks, the atmosphere in our preparatory discussions in Geneva has been more constructive and conducive than it was in the run-up to MC12 - and I thank ambassadors, ministers and delegates for that. But as you can see from the documents sent to you, there is still a considerable amount of work to do. Ministers will have to roll up their sleeves, once more to complete the work left over from Geneva.

Whilst many of you empowered your ambassadors to make the necessary trade-offs during negotiations in Geneva, some of you did not, hence the important amount of work left for you to do. So our challenge this week is to prove that we can still deliver - and demonstrate that MC12 wasn't a one-off miracle on lake Geneva. We need to convert improved atmospherics into concrete results. We need to show the world that not only does the WTO underpin over three-quarters of global goods trade – it is also a forum where members deliver new benefits for people through trade.

Let's not pretend that any of this will be easy. If we thought the world looked tough in mid-2022, when we were slowly emerging from the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine had shaken food and energy security, we are in an even tougher place today.

Looking around, uncertainty and instability are everywhere. Geopolitical tensions have worsened. Conflict has spread, as we see here in the Middle East, and – away from the headlines – across parts of Africa and the Arab world. We must not forget the conflict in Sudan, which has displaced close to 8 million people internally and across borders, or the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Higher prices for food, energy, fertilizer, and other essentials continue to weigh on people's purchasing power, fuelling political frustration.

Shipping disruptions in vital waterways like the Red Sea and the Panama Canal are a new source of delays and inflationary pressure, offering a real-time reminder of the risks posed to global trade and output by security problems and the climate crisis.

People everywhere are feeling anxious about the future – and this will be felt at the ballot box this year as 60-odd countries, home to nearly half of the world's population, go to the polls.

Economic growth has lost pace though it held up better than expected, particularly in some major economies like the United States and India, resulting in a softer landing for the global economy than earlier anticipated. However, there are places that are falling behind. The World Bank warns that the global economy is on track for its weakest five-year performance in 30 years. In many developing countries, debt distress and high financing costs remain a drag on economic prospects.

The pandemic ended a roughly 25-year-long trend during which, for the first time in centuries, poor countries began to narrow the income gap separating them from rich ones. Several countries in Africa are already well into a lost decade, and are in danger of falling even further back.

We can be proud of the fact that trade itself has been resilient in recent years. Despite everything we have been through, global goods and services trade remain at or near record highs. International markets anchored in the rules-based global trading system have stayed broadly open, helping businesses, households, and economies adapt and adjust to one shock after the other.

But it would be dangerously naïve to take trade's continued resilience for granted.

The global economic slowdown and wider uncertainty are already having an impact. Global merchandise trade volume growth in 2023 appears to have fallen short of the 0.8% we were projecting in October. And given all the downside risks, we may likely undershoot the 3.3% merchandise trade growth rate I just referred to for this year.

In addition, multilateralism is under attack. Despite the MC12 fightback, the Multilateral Trading System, which I term – a global public good since it was created 75 years ago – continues to be misconstrued in some quarters and undermined. Trade has become a four rather than a five-letter word in some quarters.

Yet trade remains critical to delivering on so many national and global priorities: boosting growth, expanding economic opportunities, meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, and solving collective action problems like protecting our environment or preparing for the next pandemic.

Without cooperation on trade, we would move towards an increasingly fragmented world economy, and all of these priorities would become harder, costlier, and in some cases impossible to achieve. People would become more disappointed, more vulnerable, more frustrated.

In light of these realities, we need the WTO to stand strong as it approaches its 30th anniversary.

We need to keep reforming and reinvigorating the WTO so that it can deliver for trade in the years ahead: seizing the full potential of services and digital trade, accelerating trade for the green transition, and fostering socioeconomic inclusion.

We took important steps in the right direction at MC12. We have continued this work in Geneva under the aegis of the General Council, making significant advances on reform-by-doing. I will come back to those shortly, but I want to thank ambassadors for these achievements. We need to build on these successes here in Abu Dhabi this week. This is why I am excited about the deliberative sessions we have planned for ministers.

This is something new that we are trying for the first time and we very much view this as part of WTO reform. We have two deliberative sessions, one on trade and sustainable development in all its dimensions - social, environmental, and economic. With respect to the economic dimension, issues of industrial policy and policy space will be important. The second session is on trade and inclusion. These sessions are intended to provide space for Ministers to engage on issues at the centre of contemporary economic debate and the intersections with the future of trade policy – issues on which we need ideas and ways forward even if they are not on the formal agenda. We have put questions to ministers to facilitate constructive discussions. These sessions are an experiment – one that I hope will go well so that we can replicate that in the future.

Now, let me look at some of the other issues on the table before you.

At MC12, members delivered the first-ever WTO agreement with environmental sustainability at its core. The Fisheries Subsidies Agreement fulfilled the mandate in Sustainable Development Goal target 14.6, and contributed to several others, including target 14.4, making fishing sustainable, and 14.2, restoring marine ecosystems. This week ministers can finish the job by closing the loop on some outstanding issues relating to harmful subsidies that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing.

We are well on our way to seeing the entry into force of Fish I. Completion of Fish 2 and its rapid entry into force would really put WTO members at the forefront of action on sustainability of our oceans and would safeguard the livelihoods of the 260 million people who depend on these oceans.

Let me take a moment here to thank the International Institute for Sustainable Development, the Pew Charitable Trust, the Stop Funding Overfishing coalition, the Friends of Ocean Action and other civil society groups for their analytical work to help us understand what is at stake – and for the advocacy that has kept our feet to the fire.

Ending the estimated $22 billion per year in harmful fisheries subsidies would free up resources that subsidisers can repurpose, whether to help people domestically or to help the wider world, such as through green financing for poor countries, or to support for climate-related loss and damage.

Turning now to agriculture, according to the FAO, nearly ten percent of the global population is undernourished – 735 million people in 2022, over 120 million more than before the pandemic. Trade has helped bring global food prices down from record peaks, though poor households continue to face difficulties accessing food amid high domestic inflation. Our decisions at MC12 are making a difference: the World Food Programme has told us that the exemption from export restrictions which members approved has made it easier for it to procure and distribute food for those who need it. But as you know, at MC12 we were not able to deliver an outcome on updating the agriculture rulebook. Given the centrality of the issue, this week I implore you to deliver an agriculture outcome at MC13 even if it is setting the platform to do better or more solid work going forward.

Development is at the core of everything we do at the WTO. But developing countries have tabled some specific asks. The LDCs have been working for some years on how to smoothen the transition of members graduating from this category including the transition period over which they can still access special and differential treatment available to LDCs. I have good news for you - that an agreement on some of the LDC asks which Ministers can hopefully bless in a Ministerial decision has been reached while work continues on other aspects. There are also requests by the G-90 group to look at Special and Differential Treatment in some agreement specific proposals such as in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) agreements which will no doubt require some discussion by ministers on the way forward to strengthen work on these issues in the Committee on Trade and Development Special Session (CTDSS) in conjunction with the SPS and TBT Committees.

We know digital trade is the wave of the future. For years, the e-commerce moratorium has been extended, providing a measure of predictability to the global digital economy, now creating millions of jobs, especially for young people and women around the world. At the same time, some members have questioned the value of the moratorium and pointed to its impact on government revenue and the advantage it provides to Big Tech to consolidate power. A great deal of evidence-based work is now available that we hope could be helpful to Ministers to enable them to make the right decision.

Now for the topic you have probably been waiting for with bated breath: reform. Let me first highlight the important progress that has already been made on what delegates call 'reform-by-doing'. Members have already moved ahead with over 100 small-scale measures, like digital tools for transparency and improved databases, that add up to more efficient and effective work in WTO councils, committees, and negotiating bodies, and easier participation for members, particularly for small delegations. Senior officials recognized the importance of these reforms when they met in Geneva last October.

On the high priority issue of dispute settlement reform, ambassadors have heeded ministers' charge to work on delivering a fully and well-functioning system accessible to all Members by 2024. Ministers will be considering an important Ministerial Decision in this regard. Considerable work has been done and progress made, through an informal process ably led by former Guatemala Deputy Permanent Representative Marco Molina, which has produced a draft consolidated text. Several members have also submitted critiques of this and their own papers. But we are not all the way there yet. I would like to thank the USA, indeed all members and in particular, Marco Molina for the progress made. That said, there are some members who would like to formalize the process under the Dispute Settlement Body post-MC13 while other members, especially small economies and LDCs, have stated that they would like to find ways to participate more fully in the work going forward. I hope Ministers will recognize the progress made through the various contributions and will instruct their teams in Geneva to accelerate discussions, build on progress and work on unresolved issues, including a peer review accessibility to achieve convergence and meet the MC12 mandate. Reforming dispute settlement is also an essential mandate as a multilateral organization that sets and enforces the global rules for trade.

At the same time, I want to emphasise Excellencies that members are still using the dispute settlement system to resolve disputes, sometimes in very creative ways. The panel level is quite active, with 12 active panels working on trade disputes, and nine ongoing bilateral consultations between members. Eight disputes have recently been settled bilaterally at the WTO, with seven more in the process of resolution. Alternative mechanisms to resolve disputes were always available at the WTO – but now members are making more use of them, including through article 25 on arbitration and the Multi-Party Interim Appeal Arbitration Arrangement. These important tools ensure that WTO rules are being followed.

In a fast-changing world, the WTO, as part of its reform, needs to operate with multiple instruments. Multilateral instruments continue to be the gold standard, but the WTO also has a proud tradition of some plurilateral arrangements. These include the Information Technology Agreement, which has removed tariffs on roughly $3 trillion worth of annual trade in products on which the digital economy depends, the Government Procurement Agreement, and now the Services Domestic Regulation Agreement. I am grateful to India, South Africa, and the EU for negotiating an approach that allowed the Services Domestic Regulation Agreement to go forward, paving the way for easier access to participating WTO members and economies by services providers from all WTO members. Ministers have an opportunity here to move forward on the plurilateral agreement on Investment Facilitation for Development that has been negotiated by 126 members, the vast majority of them, 90 in fact, developing and least-developed countries hoping to use the agreement to attract much-needed domestic and foreign investment.

Before I conclude Excellencies, let me say a word on what the Secretariat itself has been doing to underpin the issues members are grappling with. To preserve our multilateral trading system, the Secretariat has been doing cutting-edge work to estimate the costs of global economic fragmentation and these costs are significant, signalling the need to work hard to maintain the system we have. Furthermore, in a world where the future of trade is services, digital, and green, the Secretariat has done ground-breaking work on issues ranging from measuring trade in digitally-delivered services, to options for minimizing trade frictions associated with carbon pricing, and fostering convergence in carbon standards for steel. We supported the UAE to organize a 'trade day' at COP28, where we presented ten trade policy options that members could leverage to amplify the impact of climate action. And because the future of trade also has to be more inclusive, we are working on the supply side to broaden access to international market opportunities for people and places left behind by globalization. Through our work, we are advocating for the decentralisation and diversification of global supply chains to developing countries and regions left behind by the first wave of globalization. This is a concept we term Re-Globalization. It will help the world build resilience in supply chains whilst fostering inclusion. Other examples of work designed to foster inclusion is our partnership with the World Bank to bridge the digital divide in eight pilot countries in Africa, with the International Finance Corporation to understand and plug trade finance gaps, and with the International Trade Centre to create a $50 million fund to support women exporters in the digital economy. We want to thank our host, the UAE, and the Gulf countries for an excellent launch of this fund yesterday with an initial contribution of $5 million by the UEAS and more in the pipeline soon. The Secretariat is also working on a vision and strategy for the first time to guide its work till 2030. The secretariat must be properly equipped to help members tackle 21st century issues. And in this regard, I want to thank members for approving a small budget increase for the Secretariat after 12 years of a flat nominal budget. Thank you. It was a moral booster for staff.

Excellencies, let me conclude by coming back to the agenda of deliverables I described earlier. Can we get all of this or some of it done? The answer is yes. But we will need something I mentioned before: leadership. Leadership means you sometimes have to compromise on certain wants, so that others can secure their wants. We will need your leadership from all members, large and small, developed and developing, in order to succeed here in Abu Dhabi

I am not for a moment suggesting that any member set aside national interests. I am asking that members wield these interests with the flexibility that would enable us to deliver important outcomes so we leave Abu Dhabi proud that we have a stronger WTO able to face the future and deliver for all members, all people and the planet.

Speaking at the end of the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau said, and I quote: “We have come to recognize that the wisest and most effective way to protect our national interests is through international cooperation — that is to say, through united effort for the attainment of common goals.” He added that “the great lesson taught by the war is that the peoples of the earth are inseparably linked to one another by a deep, underlying community of purpose.”

That is a lesson that we should not lose sight of. Excellencies, dear friends let's get to work!⍐

Macron Does Not Rule Out Sending Western Troops to Ukraine

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, left, and Mr. Macron after signing a bilateral security agreement
 in Paris this month. Credit...Pool photo by Thibault Camus

The French leader said that talks had not resulted in any consensus among European officials on putting troops on the ground in an “official” way, but that “anything is possible.”

NYT Feb. 26, 2024 

President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday said “nothing should be ruled out” after he was asked about the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine in support of the embattled nation’s war against Russia.

Mr. Macron, speaking after a meeting of European leaders in Paris to bolster support for Ukraine, stressed that the talks had not resulted in any consensus on putting troops on the ground “in an official, approved and endorsed way.”

But he insisted that “anything is possible if it is useful to reach our goal,” which he said was to ensure that “Russia cannot win this war.”

The NATO Welcoming Sweden Is Larger and More Determined

The alliance’s expansion, with Finland last year and soon Sweden, was a consequence from the invasion of Ukraine that Russia’s president may not have calculated.

NYT Feb. 26, 2024

BERLIN — Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine two years ago was an enormous shock to Europeans. Used to 30 years of post-Cold War peace, they had imagined European security would be built alongside a more democratic Russia, not reconstructed against a revisionist imperial war machine.

There was no bigger shock than in Finland, with its long border and historical tension with Russia, and in Sweden, which had dismantled 90 percent of its army and 70 percent of its air force and navy in the years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

After the decision by Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, to try to destroy a sovereign neighbor, both Finland and Sweden rapidly decided to apply to join the NATO alliance, the only clear guarantee of collective defense against a newly aggressive and reckless Russia.

With Finland having joined last year, and the Hungarian Parliament finally approving Sweden’s application on Monday, Mr. Putin now finds himself faced with an enlarged and motivated NATO, one that is no longer dreaming of a permanent peace.

As NATO countries look with some trepidation at the possibility that the unpredictable Donald J. Trump, no fan of the alliance, may become U.S. president again, its European members are taking measures to ensure their own defenses regardless.

Critics consider their actions to be too slow and too small, but NATO is spending more money on defense, making more tanks, artillery shells, drones and jet fighters, putting more troops on Russia’s borders and approving more serious military plans for any potential war — while funneling billions of dollars into Ukraine’s efforts to blunt Russia’s ambitions.

The reason is sheer deterrence. Some member states already suggest that if Mr. Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he will test NATO’s collective will in the next three to five years.

If Mr. Trump is elected and casts serious doubt on the commitment of the United States to come to the defense of NATO allies, “that might tip the scales for Putin to test NATO’s resolve,” said Robert Dalsjo, director of studies at the Swedish Defense Research Agency.

Even now, Mr. Dalsjo said, Mr. Trump or not, Europe must prepare for at least a generation of heightened European containment and deterrence of a Russia becoming militarized, and where Mr. Putin clearly “has considerable public support for his aggressive revanchism.”

Still, with Hungary finally voting for Sweden’s accession to NATO, at last the pieces are falling into place for a sharply enhanced NATO deterrent in the Baltic and North Seas, with greater protection for the frontline states of Finland, Norway and the Baltic nations, which border Russia.

Finnish soldiers in 1939, during World War II.Credit...Associated Press

Once Hungary hands in a letter certifying parliamentary approval to the U.S. State Department, Sweden will become the 32nd member of NATO, and all the countries surrounding the Baltic Sea, with the exception of Russia, will be part of the alliance.

அநு(மா)ரா குமார திசநாயக்கே!

 

AKD:Photo Cartoon Suba

'மலையகத் தமிழர்`- சமூக அடையாளம் காப்போம்!

 

Julian Assange: Two-day extradition hearing starts in London

Julian Assange live news: WikiLeaks founder’s bid to avoid US extradition

By Federica Marsi AJ 21 Feb 2024

இலண்டன் நீதிமன்றம் முன் மக்கள் ஆர்ப்பாட்டம்

The judges said they would reserve their decision. It was not immediately clear when the verdict would be announced.

AJ 21-02-2024 17.00 GMT

A recap of today’s events

We will be closing this live page soon. Here’s what happened on the second and final day of the extradition hearing.

• The US side presented its arguments why the UK High Court should not permit Assange to appeal his extradition from the UK to the US.
• Lawyers for the US said the WikiLeaks founder should be extradited to face spying charges because he put innocent lives at risk by releasing hundreds of thousands of classified US government documents.
• They also said Assange could not be “treated as akin to an ordinary journalist or Wikileaks akin to an ordinary publisher”.
• The 52-year-old’s lawyers had told the court on Tuesday the case was politically motivated, arguing Assange was targeted for his exposure of “state-level crimes”.
• The judges said they would reserve their decision. It was not immediately clear when the verdict would be announced.
• Assange was again not in court on Wednesday, nor watching remotely, because of his poor health condition, his lawyers said.

• WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has made his final legal attempt to prevent his extradition from the United Kingdom to the United States where he is wanted on spying charges.

• Lawyers for US authorities have told London’s High Court to block Assange’s bid to appeal his extradition on the second and last day of hearings on Wednesday.

• Assange’s lawyers on Tuesday asked the court to grant him a new appeal, arguing that US authorities are seeking to punish him for exposing serious criminal acts by the US government.

• If the judges rule against the Australian citizen, he can ask the European Court of Human Rights to block his extradition, but supporters worry he could be sent to the US before that happens.

Sri Lanka sends more workers to Israel

 උපදේශනය තුළ , බලමුලු ගැන්වීමඋග්‍රවන ගාසා ගැටුම මධ්‍යයේ ගොවිපල සේවකයන් ඊශ්‍රායලයට අපනයනය කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය ගත් තීරණය හෙළා දකිමු

නොවැම්බර් 13, 2023

සංස්කාරක විසිනි

ගොවි කම්කරුවන් 10,000ක් ඊශ්‍රායලයට අපනයනය කිරීමට ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය මෑතදී ගත් තීරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් අපගේ දැඩි කනස්සල්ල සහ හෙළා දකිමින් ඉඩම් හා කෘෂිකර්ම ප්‍රතිසංස්කරණ සඳහා වූ ව්‍යාපාරය (MONLAR). ඊශ්‍රායලය සහ ගාසා තීරය අතර ගැටුම උග්‍ර වී ඇති අතර, එහි ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස කුඩා දරුවන් සහ ළදරුවන් ඇතුළු අහිංසක ජීවිත ඛේදනීය ලෙස විනාශ වී ඇති අවස්ථාවක ගත් මෙම තීරණය දැඩි කනස්සල්ලට කරුණකි.

පලස්තීනයේ සිදුවෙමින් පවතින ගැටුම ජාත්‍යන්තර අවධානය ඉල්ලා සිටින අතර සියලු ඝාතන නැවැත්වීමට සාමය, යුක්තිය සහ ක්ෂණික සටන් විරාමය ප්‍රවර්ධනය කිරීම සඳහා සාමූහික ප්‍රයත්නයක් ඉල්ලා සිටින අතර තුවාල ලැබූ සහ අභ්‍යන්තරව අවතැන් වූ පුද්ගලයින්ට මානුෂීය සහයෝගය ලබා දීමට ඉඩ ලබා දේ. මෙවන් අස්ථාවර තත්ත්වයක් තුළ ශ්‍රී ලාංකික ගොවි කම්කරුවන් ඊශ්‍රායලයට යැවීමට ගත් තීරණය සන්නද්ධ ගැටුම්වලට සම්බන්ධ රටක් සමඟ කම්කරු ගිවිසුම්වලට එළඹීමේ යෝග්‍යතාව පිළිබඳ සදාචාරාත්මක ප්‍රශ්න මතු කරයි.

MONLAR යුක්තිය, මානව හිමිකම් සහ අවදානමට ලක්විය හැකි ජනගහනය ආරක්ෂා කිරීමේ මූලධර්ම දැඩි ලෙස විශ්වාස කරයි. මෙම ගැටුමේදී අපමණ දුක් විඳිමින් සිටින පලස්තීන ජනතාව සමඟ අපගේ සහයෝගිතාව ප්‍රකාශ කරමු. ප්‍රචණ්ඩත්වයෙන් විනාශ වූ කලාපයකට කම්කරුවන් යැවීම ඔවුන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව අවදානමට ලක් කරනවා පමණක් නොව, හමුදා ගැටුමකට සම්බන්ධ රටක් සමඟ ආර්ථික ක්‍රියාකාරකම්වල යෙදීමේ සදාචාරාත්මක ඇඟවුම් පිළිබඳ කනස්සල්ල ද මතු කරයි.

ගැටුමේ මානුෂීය පැතිකඩ සැලකිල්ලට ගනිමින් සහ පුරවැසියන්ගේ ආරක්ෂාව සහ යහපැවැත්ම සඳහා ප්‍රමුඛත්වය දෙමින් මෙම තීරණය නැවත සලකා බලන ලෙස අපි ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටිමු. විශේෂයෙන්ම භූ දේශපාලනික ආතතීන් උත්සන්න වන කාලවලදී යුක්තිය, සාමය සහ මානව හිමිකම්වලට ගරු කිරීම යන මූලධර්ම සමඟ අපගේ ක්‍රියා පෙළගැස්වීම අත්‍යවශ්‍ය වේ.

MONLAR විසින් රජයේ තීරණය සම්බන්ධයෙන් පුරවැසියන්, සිවිල් සමාජ සංවිධාන සහ පාර්ශ්වකරුවන්ගේ උත්සුකයන් විසඳීම සඳහා විනිවිද භාවයෙන් යුත් සහ ඇතුළත් සංවාදයක් ඉල්ලා සිටී. මානව හිමිකම් ආරක්ෂා කරන, ගෝලීය සාමයට දායක වන සහ යුක්තිය සහ සහයෝගීතාවයේ වටිනාකම් සමඟ පෙළ ගැසෙන විදේශ ප්‍රතිපත්තියක් පෝෂණය කිරීමේ වැදගත්කම අපි අවධාරණය කරමු.

එබැවින් පලස්තීනයේ පවතින පුළුල් ආචාරධාර්මික සලකා බැලීම් සහ පවතින මානුෂීය අර්බුදය සැලකිල්ලට ගනිමින් සිය තීරණය නැවත සලකා බලන ලෙස MONLAR ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජයෙන් ඉල්ලා සිටී.

காசா மோதல் அதிகரித்து வரும் நிலையில் இஸ்ரேலுக்கு பண்ணை தொழிலாளர்களை ஏற்றுமதி செய்ய இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் எடுத்த தீர்மானத்திற்கு கண்டனம்

நவம்பர் 13, 2023 ஆசிரியர் மூலம் MONLAR

நிலம் மற்றும் விவசாய சீர்திருத்தத்திற்கான இயக்கம் (MONLAR- Movement for National Land and Agricultural Reform), 10,000 பண்ணை தொழிலாளர்களை இஸ்ரேலுக்கு ஏற்றுமதி செய்வதற்கான இலங்கை அரசாங்கத்தின் சமீபத்திய முடிவு குறித்து எங்களின் ஆழ்ந்த கவலையையும் கண்டனத்தையும் வெளிப்படுத்துகிறது. இஸ்ரேலுக்கும் காசாவுக்கும் இடையே மோதல் அதிகரித்து, குழந்தைகள், கைக்குழந்தைகள் உட்பட அப்பாவி உயிர்கள் பரிதாபமாக பலியாகியுள்ள நிலையில் எடுக்கப்பட்ட இந்த முடிவு மிகவும் கவலையளிக்கிறது.

பாலஸ்தீனத்தில் நடந்து வரும் மோதல் சர்வதேச கவனத்தை கோருகிறது மற்றும் அனைத்து கொலைகளையும் நிறுத்த அமைதி, நீதி மற்றும் உடனடி போர் நிறுத்தத்தை மேம்படுத்துவதற்கான கூட்டு முயற்சிக்கு அழைப்பு விடுக்கிறது மற்றும் காயமடைந்த மற்றும் உள்நாட்டில் இடம்பெயர்ந்த மக்களுக்கு மனிதாபிமான ஆதரவை அனுமதித்தது. இத்தகைய கொந்தளிப்பான சூழ்நிலையில், இலங்கை விவசாயத் தொழிலாளர்களை இஸ்ரேலுக்கு அனுப்பும் முடிவு, ஆயுத மோதலில் ஈடுபட்டுள்ள ஒரு நாட்டுடன் தொழிலாளர் ஒப்பந்தங்களில் ஈடுபடுவதன் சரியான தன்மை பற்றிய நெறிமுறை கேள்விகளை எழுப்புகிறது.

MONLAR நீதி, மனித உரிமைகள் மற்றும் பாதிக்கப்படக்கூடிய மக்களின் பாதுகாப்பு ஆகியவற்றின் கொள்கைகளை உறுதியாக நம்புகிறார். இந்த மோதலின் போது பாரிய துன்பங்களை அனுபவித்து வரும் பாலஸ்தீன மக்களுக்கு எமது ஒற்றுமையை தெரிவித்துக் கொள்கிறோம். வன்முறையால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட பகுதிக்கு தொழிலாளர்களை அனுப்புவது அவர்களின் பாதுகாப்பை ஆபத்தில் ஆழ்த்துவது மட்டுமல்லாமல், இராணுவ மோதலில் ஈடுபட்டுள்ள ஒரு நாட்டுடன் பொருளாதார நடவடிக்கைகளில் ஈடுபடுவதன் நெறிமுறை தாக்கங்கள் பற்றிய கவலையையும் எழுப்புகிறது.

மோதலின் மனிதாபிமான அம்சங்களைக் கருத்தில் கொண்டு, குடிமக்களின் பாதுகாப்பு மற்றும் நல்வாழ்வுக்கு முன்னுரிமை அளித்து, இந்த முடிவை மறுபரிசீலனை செய்யுமாறு இலங்கை அரசாங்கத்தை நாங்கள் வலியுறுத்துகிறோம். நீதி, சமாதானம் மற்றும் மனித உரிமைகளுக்கான மரியாதை போன்ற கொள்கைகளுடன், குறிப்பாக புவிசார் அரசியல் பதட்டங்கள் அதிகரித்துள்ள காலங்களில் நமது செயல்களை சீரமைப்பது அவசியம்.

அரசாங்கத்தின் முடிவு தொடர்பான குடிமக்கள், சிவில் சமூக அமைப்புகள் மற்றும் பங்குதாரர்களின் கவலைகளை நிவர்த்தி செய்ய வெளிப்படையான மற்றும் உள்ளடக்கிய உரையாடலுக்கு MONLAR அழைப்பு விடுக்கிறது. மனித உரிமைகளை நிலைநிறுத்தும், உலகளாவிய அமைதிக்கு பங்களிக்கும் மற்றும் நீதி மற்றும் ஒற்றுமையின் மதிப்புகளுடன் இணைந்த வெளியுறவுக் கொள்கையை வளர்ப்பதன் முக்கியத்துவத்தை நாங்கள் வலியுறுத்துகிறோம்.

எனவே, பரந்த நெறிமுறைக் கருத்தாய்வுகள் மற்றும் பாலஸ்தீனத்தில் நிலவும் மனிதாபிமான நெருக்கடி ஆகியவற்றின் வெளிச்சத்தில் இலங்கை அரசாங்கம் தனது முடிவை மறுபரிசீலனை செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று MONLAR கோருகிறது.⍐

Interview by EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar to leading German economic daily, Handelsblatt

 

The Global Economic Model Is Unstable and Unjust

Interview by EAM, Dr. S. Jaishankar to leading German 

economic daily, Handelsblatt during his visit for the Munich 

Security Conference

February 20, 2024

The Global Economic Model Is Unstable and Unjust

India’s Foreign Minister speaks on the role of his country in the Ukraine war and the relationship with Russia. He explains what he hopes for from Europe and Germany

CV:
The top Diplomat: Since 2019 the 69-year-old Indian is the Foreign Minister of his country. Behind him is a decades-long diplomatic career. Amongst others, he was Ambassador to the United States, China, and the Czech Republic. He has also worked in the Indian Embassy in Moscow and Jakarta. He is a member of the ruling government party, the BJP.

The Author: In 2020, he published his book "The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World”. His latest book "Why Bharat matters” on India’s strength is now also out.

Minister Jaishankar, you have just spoken with foreign and defense ministers from all over the world about the threats to the rules-based international order. What is India doing to strengthen it?

The global order is currently facing multiple kinds of stress. Due to shocks like Covid, the war in Ukraine, the war in Gaza, the NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan and disruptive climate events that are happening more and more frequently. That is our challenge. However, it is not just about strengthening the international order, but also about changing this order. Who shapes it and on what basis? The international order must evolve further.

How and in which areas?

Take the United Nations as an important part of the international order. The UN started with 50 members, now it has almost 200 - but the management of the UN has not changed. The group of the world's top 20 or 30 economies has changed a lot in the past two decades. Ten years ago, India was the eleventh largest economy, now we are number five. In a few years, we will be the third largest.

You and others have been calling for reforms at the UN for years. Do you think the current blockade could be resolved?

The countries blocking reform are in denial about the changes that have taken place in recent decades. The real issue is: how do we refresh the international order, how do we renovate and reform it and its institutions? There is no point in saying to international institutions: "Do your job better" if they are not capable of doing so. Look at how the international order simply collapsed during a historically large problem like Covid. Every country acted in its best interest.

There was the UN Covax vaccine campaign…

It was good, there was some collaboration, but most countries didn't help each other. If we are leaving out large parts of the world, we urgently need to change the international order. Even today, many, many countries are angry that they received vaccines so late that they were subject to entry restrictions, that their economic development was seriously undermined.

What exactly do you think should change?

That depends on which area you look at. Climate protection needs to be taken much more seriously. And then you can look at the imbalance in global production.

What do you mean?

We have created an economic model that is unstable and unfair. In the name of globalization, we have seen over-concentration in the world. Production has been shifted to a limited number of countries. The economies of many countries have been hollowed out. They depend on other countries for very basic things - and we notice this immediately when we have disruptions like Covid, like the climate or the problems in the Red Sea at the moment. The problem is so profound that it's not so easy to say: "Let's do these three or four things - and things will be fine again."

Europe's current priority is to push back the Russian troops in Ukraine because they see Vladimir Putin as the biggest threat to the international order. India recently agreed on more arms cooperation with Russia. The country is still the most important arms supplier for you.

In terms of inventory, yes, because many Western countries have long preferred to supply Pakistan and not India. But that has changed in the past ten or fifteen years with the USA, for example, and our new purchases have diversified with the USA, Russia, France and Israel as the main suppliers.

India buys a lot of the Russian oil - in Germany there is criticism that this is detrimental to the effectiveness of the sanctions against Russia. Is the Indo-Russian relationship a burden on the India-Europe relationship?

Everyone conducts a relationship based on their past experiences. If I look at the history of India post-independence, Russia has never hurt our interests. The relations of powers like Europe, the US, China or Japan with Russia, they have all seen ups and downs. We have had a stable and always very friendly relationship with Russia. And our relationship with Russia today is based on this experience. For others, things were different, and conflicts may have shaped the relationship. We, on the other hand, had a politically and militarily much more difficult relationship with China, for example.

Would you have liked support from Europe in the border conflict with China in 2020?

My point is: just as I do not expect Europe to have a view of China that is identical to mine, Europe should understand that I cannot have a view of Russia that is identical to the European one. Let us accept that there are natural differences in relationships.

Do these differences in relations with Russia put a strain on India-Europe relations?

Both sides have communicated their positions clearly and have not emphasized their differences. But yes, there are differences. You mentioned the energy issue. When the fighting started in Ukraine, Europe shifted a large part of its energy procurement to the Middle East - until then the main supplier for India and other countries. What should we have done? In many cases, our Middle East suppliers gave priority to Europe because Europe paid higher prices. Either we would have had no energy because everything would have gone to them. Or we would have ended up paying a lot more because you were paying more. And in a certain way, we stabilized the energy market that way.

In what way?

If no one had bought the crude oil from Russia and everyone had bought the crude oil from the other countries, prices on the energy market would have shot up even further. Global inflation would have been much higher - and that would have been a huge political issue in lower-income countries.

In this way, however, India is undermining the effect of the sanctions against Russia.

If Europe had wanted to maximize the damage at the time, it would have had to stop all economic relations with Russia completely. But it didn't. If Europe was so convinced and the principles were so important, why did it allow relations to end gently? Why were there exceptions for pipeline gas, for individual countries and so on? That's what governments do, they manage politics with an eye on the consequences for their people.

Did the Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago change the Russian-Indian relationship?

We are deeply convinced, and are publicly committed to bringing the conflict to an end. Everyone is suffering from this conflict. I don't know exactly how it will end, we're not deep enough into the process to know.

Isn't that why you could be a mediator?

Theoretically, yes. We have already helped with very specific issues. When Turkey negotiated the corridor through the Black Sea, for example. And we were very supportive of the inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. Wherever we can help, we are happy to do so. We are open when we are approached. However, we do not believe that we should initiate anything in this direction on our own.

Let's talk about India's relations with Europe. The EU and India resumed negotiations for a free trade agreement in 2022. Will it work now?

Free trade agreements are very complex, and one with the EU is the most complex in the world for any country because it also discusses many non-trade issues. Only the EU does that. In addition, the negotiations had been dormant for years in the meantime. We have built on what was negotiated in the past, but many things have changed since then.

Do you believe that the free trade agreement can still be concluded this year?

I know a lot of people are working on it and I know it's very complicated, so I wouldn't make a prediction. It's not that I don't think it's possible. It's just that it's so complicated that I wouldn't just give a timetable. But our relations with Europe are really developing well in various areas.

Which areas do you mean?

We are also working with the EU in the Council for Trade and Technology, which deals with the important issue of strategic technologies. There is also a great need in Europe for skilled workers in this area. We have therefore concluded mobility agreements with Germany, Portugal, France and some others. We consider relations with Europe to be one of our most important relationships. When we talk about a multipolar world, there is no question for us that Europe is a pole and, as a pole, must be involved not only in economic but also in political and strategic issues. One of our recent successes is that we have reached an agreement to build a connectivity corridor from India to Europe through the Middle East.

India is trying to buy more weapons from Germany. Do you see a change in German policy?

Germany has long been cautious when it comes to security and defense. In contrast, we have had robust cooperation with France for a long time and to a more limited extent with Spain and Italy. But I have seen a development in Germany's attitude in recent years; my interlocutors now understand that you can't completely exclude one part of a relationship. It is developing - and that is good for both sides.

Specifically, India wants to buy six submarines, among other things. Thyssen-Krupp is one of the last suppliers in the race. Is there any progress?

The talks are ongoing. I think these things take time.

Minister Jaishankar, thank you very much for the interview.⍐