Category: Politics

The White House announced on Thursday that US President Joe Biden will meet his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa this month. The administration considers bringing African nations closer to the US when South Africa and most of its neighboring countries have taken a neutral stand on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The announcement of the September 16 visit followed close post-US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to South Africa last month, in which he stated the Biden government sees the 54 nations of Africa as “equal partners” in tackling global issues.

However, South Africa and much of the continent have brushed aside the US condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has upset the U. S administration.

South Africa restrained itself in a United Nations vote to criticize Russia’s action, and Ramaphosa has abstained from any criticism of Russia and instead has called for a reconciliation.

Biden and Ramaphosa, who had a telephonic conversation in April, are expected to hold talks on trade and investment, infrastructure, climate and energy, public health, and South Africa’s pivotal role in Africa, officials said.

“The two Presidents will reaffirm the importance of our enduring partnership, and discuss our work together to address regional and global challenges,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre released a statement announcing this month’s meeting.

The governor of Arizona, Dough Ducey, arrived in Taiwan on Tuesday on a trip that is focused on securing critical chips that are the focal point of the inflamed tech rivalry between the United States and China.

Ducey is expected to meet the President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, as well as business tycoons and university representatives in the semiconductor industry during his three-day visit to the self-ruled island. He becomes the latest US politician to visit Taiwan after recent trips by the US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, and some US senators.

Beijing, which considers Taiwan a province that must be forcefully reunited with China, has reacted angrily to the visits.

During his Taiwan visit, Ducey is looking to lure suppliers for a new $12bn semiconductor plant being constructed in Arizona by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (TSMC), the world’s biggest supplier of the critical chips used in almost all electronic devices.

The governor will then visit South Korea, where he will meet South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and business leaders later in the week.

“Arizona has excellent relationships with Taiwan and the Republic of Korea,” Ducey said before starting the trip. “The goal of this trade mission is to take these relationships to the next level — to strengthen them, expand them and ensure they remain mutually beneficial.”

Bali, the capital of Indonesia, hosted a meeting of senior officials from the Group of 20 major (G20) economies, to discuss climate talks. Indonesian cited that failure to work together to reduce emissions would push our planet toward “unchartered territory”.

Indonesia’s Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar said countries must come together to address global warming or witness the planet pushed to a point “where no future will be sustainable”. “It is our responsibility to be part of the solution. We build bridges, not walls,” she said.

The G20 climate meeting was held as weather events like fires, floods, and heatwaves had reached the highest degree and rising across several parts of the world, including the damaging floods in Pakistan in recent days that have killed at least 1,000 people. Scientists say most such harsh weather events result from climate change caused by humankind and will only augment in frequency and gravity if necessary action is not taken right away.

The meeting in Bali is attended by environment officials from Australia, Brazil, India, Japan, South Korea, and U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. Indonesia, the current host, has also invited representatives from the African Union to take part in the discussion for the first time, stating that opinions and feedback from all countries, irrespective of their wealth and size, must be heard.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will be on a three-day visit to the United Arab Emirates from August 31 to carry out a review of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

Mr. Jaishankar, alongside his UAE counterpart Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will review the partnership during the 14th India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) and the third India-UAE Strategic Dialogue.

“These meetings will provide an opportunity to both the ministers to review the entire spectrum of comprehensive strategic partnership between India and UAE and regional and global developments,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Monday.”

Jaishankar will also meet other dignitaries of the UAE. India and the UAE have regularly had top-level discussions this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Abu Dhabi on June 28 and met the gulf country’s President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Earlier, on February 18, both leaders had participated in a virtual summit during which the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) was signed and a vision statement was implemented. Thereafter, on July 14, both leaders were a part of the I2U2 virtual summit which was also attended by US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid.

The new grouping is known as ‘I2U2’ with ‘I’ denoting India and Israel and ‘U’ for the US and the UAE.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will go on a three-day trip to Uzbekistan on Tuesday for SCO Defence Ministers’ meet aiming to broaden the defense partnership with Eurasia.

In September, Singh is planning to tour Egypt for a long-awaited bilateral engagement that has received enormous attention since last year.

Singh will meet his Chinese and Russian counterparts at the SCO meet. The meeting held in the countdown to the SCO Summit gathers importance amid current geopolitical stress. He will also meet the defense Minister of Uzbekistan, Lieutenant General Bakhodir Kurbanov. Furthermore, there is a schedule of meetings with Defence Ministers of other member countries of SCO on the sidelines of this meeting, where discussions will be held on bilateral issues and issues of common interest. There is also a possibility of terrorism, the spread of fundamentalism in the region, and the situation in Afghanistan is discussed at the SCO Defence Ministers meeting.

Meanwhile, the expected trip to Egypt in September will enable the restoration of defense ties that flourished during the 1960s. There have been several engagements between Indian and Egyptian militaries in the past year. Egypt is a significant player in the Arab world, with one of the strongest and biggest militaries in the region.

Israel has launched flights allowing Palestinians from the occupied West Bank to fly abroad from an airport in the Negev region in Southern Isreal.

The first flight, which had a tourist group from the West Bank consisting of doctors, pharmacists, and their families, took off on Monday from Ramon Airport to Larnaca Airport in Cyprus.

Ghassan Olyan, the Israeli government’s activities coordinator in the Palestinian territories, said that the Palestinian’s travel from the West Bank through an Israeli airport “is historic and unprecedented. It was a dream and became a reality.”

However, the launch of the Palestinian tourist flight service from the West Bank to Turkey has been delayed because of unfinished preparations, which are underway to operate two weekly flights from Ramon Airport to Istanbul and Antalya. It is expected that flights to the two Turkish cities be launched next month, and services to Dubai and Sharm El-Sheikh may begin gradually.

Israel opened Ramon Airport, which is regarded as the second largest Israeli airport after Ben Gurion, in 2019 for $500 million. However, Israelis do not prefer to travel through Ramon Airport due to its proximity to Jerusalem.

Over 1 million Palestinians travel to Jordan every year, most of whom stop to visit relatives or finish business in Jordan. Others come to Jordan while returning from other countries.

China and India could become world leaders in “clean” hydrogen, according to Jane Nakano, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

However, Nakano found China is still making and using gray hydrogen — a type of hydrogen obtained from natural gas and produced from fossil fuels and is the least renewable form of hydrogen.

She also said that the hydrogen market is not big at present and that it will take time to commercialize it.

 “I think both China and India have potential to become major powers… not just as a potential supplier and also exporters of clean hydrogen, but also [as] consumers [and] users of clean hydrogen,” Nakano told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday.

Hydrogen can play a vital role in dealing with the climate crisis. The energy created by it does not produce atmosphere-warming carbon dioxide. On the other side, it is prone to leakage, which can bring about its warming effect that can worsen the climate problem, if left uncontrolled. It is costly to produce “Clean” hydrogen, and the industry is still in its nascent stage.

China currently produces about 33 million tons of hydrogen a year, making it the largest producer in the world.

The Chinese government has set a 2025 target for more extensive use of green hydrogen.

Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt and Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have stressed the importance of strengthening joint Arab action and Arab unity to address the challenges facing the Arab world.

On Sunday, Egypt’s presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said that both leaders discussed both regional and international issues during their meeting at El Alamein, a coastal city in northern Egypt.

During their meeting at El Alamein, a coastal city in northern Egypt, the two leaders also exchanged views on both international and regional issues, Egypt’s presidential spokesman Bassam Rady said. The leaders emphasised the importance of conversation, understanding, and diplomacy as they reviewed recent regional and global developments in order to settle problems and maintain world peace.

Moreover, they pledged that the strategic partnership between the two countries would be strengthened, especially in the economic and development areas, in support of their aspirations for sustainable development, progress, and prosperity.

Meanwhile, as per a statement released by CAMPAS on Sunday, the value of trade between the UAE and Egypt climbed to around $1.2 billion during the first half of this year, an increase of 1.4 percent above $1.1 billion during the same period last year.

On Friday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met envoys of Latin American and Caribbean countries. The focus of the meeting was to boat overall bilateral ties ahead of Jaishankar’s visit to South America.

He tweeted on his official handle, “Pleasure to host Ambassadors in New Delhi from the Group of Latin America and the Caribbean countries- Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican, Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, and Uruguay”.

He further added that there is a lot of potential for growing the cooperation between the nations and he encourages their efforts. He further thanked them for their perspectives and insights as he heads to the region tonight.

Over the last few years, India has grown closer to the African continent. The Indian government has extended concessional loans to Africa totaling USD 12.3 billion and has completed 197 projects so far, Jaishankar explained last month.

As of 2021-22, India has a bilateral trade balance of $89.5 billion with Africa, up from USD 56 billion in the previous year.

In order to address issues such as food and energy security, oil marketing, and the extension of the Fixed Preference Agreement between India and MERCOSUR, Jaishankar will visit three key countries in South America – Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.

On Wednesday, information released by the country’s Finance Ministry, Japan resumed its purchases of Russian oil in July. Due to the sanctions related to Ukraine, imports of Russian crude fell to zero in June.

Despite not disclosing the exact volume, the oil ministry said July imports from Russia were 65.4% lower than last year. In July 2021, LNG imports from Russia decreased by 26.1%, while coal imports decreased by 40.1%.

The price of global commodities rose 45.1% despite the decline in physical volumes of Russian fuel exports to Japan last year.

Tokyo will gradually reduce its dependence on Russian energy resources, but can’t immediately stop buying Russian oil, Japanese Economy, Trade, and Industry Minister Koichi Hagiuda announced in May.

In addition, Japan endorses the G7’s proposal to cap the price of Russian oil. During the same period, the imports of oil from all countries to Japan increased by 3.8%. Japan consumes 90% of its oil from the Middle East, but due to its proximity, Russia is an important energy supplier.

According to MOF data, Russian crude imports in June were 242,575 kiloliters, or 49,218 barrels per day, compared to 514,843 barrels per day in June 2021, or 107,942 barrels per day. Russian coal imports in Japan dropped both on a month-to-month and year-to-year basis in June.