Category: Foreign

THE United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) have ended years of wrangling, sealing a deal to resolve their thorny post-Brexit trade dispute over Northern Ireland.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the “decisive breakthrough” yesterday marked a “new chapter” in the UK-EU relationship.

Sunak and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed off on the deal at a meeting in Windsor, England.

Von der Leyen told a news conference it was “historic what we have achieved today”.

The agreement, which will allow goods to flow freely to Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK, ends a dispute that has soured UK-EU relations, sparked the collapse of the Belfast-based regional government and shaken Northern Ireland’s decades-old peace process.

Fixing it is a big victory for Sunak – but not the end of his troubles. Selling the deal to his own Conservative Party and its Northern Ireland allies may be a tougher struggle.

Now Sunak awaits the judgment of Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which is boycotting the region’s power-sharing government until the trade arrangements are changed to its satisfaction.

Sunak is due to make a statement to the House of Commons later setting out details of the deal.

Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK that shares a border with an EU member, the Republic of Ireland. When the UK left the bloc in 2020, the two sides agreed to keep the Irish border free of customs posts and other checks because an open border is a key pillar of Northern Ireland’s peace process.

Instead, there are checks on some goods entering Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK. That angered British unionist politicians in Belfast, who say the new trade border in the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom.

The Democratic Unionist Party collapsed Northern Ireland’s Protestant-Catholic power-sharing government a year ago in protest and has refused to return until the rules are scrapped or substantially rewritten.

The DUP has stayed largely silent in recent days, saying it needs to see the details of a deal before deciding whether it meets the party’s self-imposed tests.

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said he was “neither positive nor negative” about the deal but would wait to see the details.

Hints of compromise towards the EU also have sparked opposition from hard-line eurosceptics, who form a powerful bloc in Sunak’s governing Conservative Party.

Critics include former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who as leader at the time of Brexit, signed off on the trade rules that he now derides. Johnson was ousted by the Conservatives last year over ethics scandals, but is widely believed to hope for a comeback.

Jacob Rees-Mogg, a prominent pro-Brexit Tory lawmaker, said acceptance of any deal “will all depend” on the DUP. “If the DUP are against it, I think there will be quite a significant number of Conservatives who are unhappy,” Rees-Moog said.

In a boost for Sunak’s chances of winning Conservative support, lawmaker Steve Baker – a self-styled “Brexit hardman”, who helped topple Prime Minister Theresa May by opposing her Brexit deal in 2019, said Sunak was “on the cusp of securing a really fantastic result”.

Sunak has said Parliament will get to debate any deal he strikes, but he hasn’t promised lawmakers a binding vote on it, and no vote in Parliament is expected this week.

Relations between the UK and the EU, severely tested during the long Brexit divorce, chilled still further amid disputes over the Northern Ireland Protocol. The UK government introduced a bill that would let it unilaterally rip up parts of the Brexit agreement, a move the EU called illegal. The bloc accused the UK of failing to honour the legally binding treaty it had signed.

The mood between London and Brussels improved after Sunak, a pragmatic Brexit supporter, took office in October, replacing more belligerent predecessors – Johnson and Liz Truss.

A deal is likely to remove customs checks on the vast majority of goods moving between the UK and Northern Ireland and to give Northern Ireland lawmakers some say over EU rules that apply there as part of the Protocol.

The thorniest issue is the role of the European Court of Justice in resolving any disputes that arise over the rules.

The UK and the EU agreed in their Brexit divorce deal to give the European court that authority. But the DUP and Conservative Brexiteers insist the court must have no jurisdiction in UK matters.

Callous human traffickers threw young migrants into the sea to try to lighten the boat that sank off the Italian coast, according to a report yesterday with officials fearing the death toll could top 100.

“The traffickers started to throw kids out,” one of the 81 survivors told La Stampa of the overcrowded 65-foot wooden boat that smashed into rocky reefs before dawn Sunday.

“They grabbed them by the arm and threw them in the sea.”

The mayor of the Italian town of Crotone, Vincenzo Voce, shared similar stories as he arrived with flowers to where dozens of coffins were laid out in a sports hall yesterday.

“Smugglers are heinous criminals who throw people into the sea, without any scruples,” Voce told La Stampa.

The harrowing allegation came as authorities yesterday confirmed that no fewer 14 children — including a baby and young twins — were among the 62 so far confirmed dead.

Officials fear that the death toll could top 100 since survivors said as many as 200 passengers were packed on the boat. With 81 rescued and 62 dead, that suggests more than 50 migrants are still missing.

The dead on the boat — which left Turkey packed with migrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia — were “children and entire families,? according to the United Nations.

Firefighter Inspector Giuseppe Larosa recalled the “spine-chilling scene” that met the first responders.

“Bodies disseminated all along the beach, many bodies disseminated on the beach. Among them many children,” Larosa said.

As for the survivors, the “thing that struck me the most was their silence. The terror in their eyes and the fact that they were mute. Silent,” he recalled.

Red Cross volunteer Ignazio Mangione told the Times of London of the “horrible scene.”

“Dozens of bodies washed up including children and a newborn baby, alongside survivors who made it ashore suffering from shock and close to hypothermia,” Mangione said.

“Children have lost their parents, parents have lost their children, husbands have lost their wives,” Mangione also told RAI News.

A doctor recalled seeing two men holding up the body of a 7-year-old boy who could not be saved.

“We met a survivor who fled Afghanistan with his sister to escape the Taliban. She did not survive,” said Sergio Di Dato, a project coordinator with charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

The humanitarian group was also assisting children orphaned by the shipwreck — including a 12-year-old boy from Afghanistan who lost his parents and four siblings.

MSF was also offering psychological assistance to survivors, including a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan whose 28-year-old sister made it to the beach but then died.

The surviving teen “hasn’t found the courage to tell his parents,” Di Dato said.

Officials believe the crowded wooden boat collided with the reefs, with three big chunks of it found washed up on the shore.

One man was taken into custody Sunday after fellow survivors indicated he was a trafficker, state TV said.

Yesterday, officials arrested a second man — one of those hospitalised — as one of at least three suspected smugglers, local media said.

Bad weather slowed the initial rescue operation, and left authorities doubting they will find any more survivors.

“I think no, because the sea conditions are too difficult,” said provincial fire Cmdr. Roberto Fasano. “But we can never abandon this hope.”

Moscow yesterday hit out at the European Union and the United States after they adopted their latest packages of sanctions against Russia for its military intervention in Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the European Union’s latest round of sanctions, which was adopted last week, was “absurd”.

The EU’s penalties, which target 121 individuals and entities, are the 10th round of sanctions aimed at undercutting Russia’s finances and military supplies for the conflict.

Peskov said Western countries were struggling to find more people and entities to punish.

“That explains the illogical listing of individuals and entities,” Peskov said.

“We are talking about such accomplished people and for them, inclusion in the lists will not cause any discomfort,” he added.

The latest EU sanctions target dozens of Russian businesses and state agencies including three Russian banks.

Separately, the Russian foreign ministry blasted the latest U.S. round of sanctions – also adopted last week – as “futile and mindless” attempts “aimed at undermining our industrial and financial potential, at shutting Russia off from international economic relations.”

The new U.S. penalties, which are targeting sectors including banks, mining, and the defence industry, will hit more than 200 individuals and entities, including both Russian and third-country actors.

“We are preparing responses by creatively using our experience,” Moscow said.

“Russian counter-sanctions will continue to be built on the principle of strict reciprocity.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree yesterday removing the commander of the military’s Joint Forces Operation (JFO), which is involved in the ongoing counter-offensive in the eastern Donbas region of the country.

Zelensky announced Eduard Moskalyov’s dismissal in a one-line decree without any explanation, according to Reuters. Moskalyov had been appointed to the position last March.

The JFO was launched as a resistance force in 2014 after Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Donbas, and has been heavily involved in fighting since Moscow’s full invasion a year ago.

Moskalyov’s dismissal is the latest in a series of changes to Ukraine’s military amid a corruption scandal that nearly ousted Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov. Reznikov remains in office, and earlier this month appointed three new deputies. It’s not clear if Moskalyov’s dismissal was connected to the corruption fallout.

The war in Ukraine surpassed its one-year mark on Friday, as Russian forces launched a new offensive earlier this month. Zelensky declared the year-long fight as a “year of invincibility” in an address last week.

Zelensky said last week that Ukraine will continue to defend Bakhmut, an eastern city in Donetsk province that has seen months of brutal Russian attacks, but “not at any price.”

President Biden visited Ukraine last week, ahead of a trip to Poland to deliver remarks about the one-year conflict between the two counties. In his address, he reiterated the United States’ and his allies’ commitment to Ukraine’s ultimate victory.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has asked people in a heavily quake-hit area of Turkey for understanding over rescue delays, amid mounting anger at the government’s response.

On a visit to Adiyaman, Erdogan said the tremors and bad weather meant “we could not work as we would have liked”. “For this, I ask forgiveness,” he said.

More than 50,000 people are known to have been killed in Turkey and Syria after huge earthquakes on 6 February.

A new, smaller quake has hit Turkey.

It killed at least one person and injured more than 100 people in Malatya province, north of Adiyaman. Search and rescue teams were trying to find several people believed to be trapped under collapsed buildings.

There have been four new earthquakes and 45 aftershocks of magnitudes 5-6 since the two massive quakes on 6 February, according to Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD).

AFAD chief Orhan Tatar described it as “very extraordinary activity”.

The World Bank said the 6 February quakes caused about $34bn (£28bn) of direct damage in Turkey, but the cost of reconstruction could be about twice that figure. Meanwhile World Bank official Anna Bjerde said the situation in Syria was “really catastrophic”.

Erdogan – who is seeking re-election as president in polls to be held by June – has been touring some of the worst-hit areas. His visit to Adiyaman came after strong criticism of the emergency response there from local people.

“No government, no state, no police, no soldiers. Shame on you! You left us on our own.”

The disaster left 1.5 million people homeless and many thousands of people remain without shelter or sanitation. There are shortages of tents for survivors.

Discontent has spread around the country, with football fans singing “government resign” at matches this weekend.

Fans of Besiktas in Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul threw thousands of soft toys onto the pitch, to be distributed to children affected by the earthquake.

Meanwhile, riot police detained protesters at a demonstration in Istanbul.

More than 160,000 buildings containing 520,000 apartments collapsed or were badly damaged on 6 February.

The government says hundreds of people are under investigation and nearly 200 people – including construction contractors and property owners – have already been arrested.

Experts had warned for years that endemic corruption and government policies meant many new buildings were unsafe.

In Adiyaman, Erdogan vowed to build more than 500,000 new homes along with infrastructure, medical centres and parks.

Turkey is due to hold presidential and parliamentary elections by June. Erdogan is seeking another term as president after 20 years in power.

The moderator described them as “three very knowledgeable and high-level guests”. And when Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Melissa G. Dalton, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs and Dr. Ely Ratner, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs, started speaking about U.S-China relations, the aptness of the description was not in doubt. 

Kritenbrink was the first to speak at the Foreign Press Center-organised briefing. He said the United States and People’s Republic of China are in competition. 

“We are focused on responsibly managing that competition so that it does not lead to conflict. We have emphasized the importance of direct and honest communication, and that includes crisis communications and more regular channels for official communication and dialogue,” he said.

He said Secretary of State Antony J Blinken and PRC State Councilor and Director of the CCP Central Foreign Affairs Office Wang Yi met on the margins of the Munich Security Conference on February 18, 2023. The one-hour meeting, he said, was candid. 

Blinken, according to Kritenbrink, conveyed U.S. concerns regarding the PRC’s high-altitude surveillance balloon that violated U.S. airspace. 

” The Secretary made clear that the United States will not stand for any violation of our sovereignty. He made clear that such an irresponsible act must never occur again, and he also made clear that the PRC’s high-altitude surveillance balloon program has now been exposed to the world. 

“China still has not offered a credible explanation for their intrusion into our airspace and the airspace of over 40 countries across five continents. We’ve shared information with countries around the world on China’sprogramme.”

Blinken, Kritenbrink added, also underscored the United States’ condemnation of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, and warned about the implications and consequences for both the U.S.-China relationship and also China’s relationships with countries around the world if China were to support to Russia with material or systematic sanctions evasion. 

Kritenbrink said Blinken also called for dedicated crisis communication channels with regular lines of communication to responsibly manage the U.S.-China relationship, especially during times of tension. 

He said: “The bottom line, again, is that the U.S. approach to the PRC remains calm, resolute, and practical. We will stand up for our values and interests while managing this consequential relationship responsibly and maintaining open lines of communication.   

“We will also continue to invigorate the core pillars of our China policy – namely invest, align, compete – and we will defend U.S. interests and ideals, promote universal human rights, and stand up for the rules-based international order. We are investing in the foundations of our strength at home: our economy and our democracy. We are aligning with likeminded partners around the world, strengthening our shared interests and values of democracy, openness, and fairness, and to addressing the challenges posed by the PRC.”

Kritenbrink said America is not interested in another Cold War or conflict but just wants everyone to play by the same set of rules. “We want to ensure that all countries have the ability to make their own choices free from coercion,” he explained.

According to him, the United States still believes that diplomacy with China is important to manage the stiff competition between them and avoid miscalculation. 

Assistant Secretary of Defense Melissa Dalton said since the February 4th Chinese balloon shootdown, America has been more closely scrutinising its airspace, including enhancing its radars through new tracking procedures. These, she said, “may at least partly explain the increase in unidentified objects detected that are both slower and smaller”. 

She added: “We also know that a range of entities – including countries, companies, and research organisations – operate objects at these altitudes for purposes that are not nefarious, including legitimate research. The PRC spy balloon was fundamentally different. We know precisely what it was. This balloon was 200 feet tall, and the payload was 90 feet across. While the PRC balloon never posed a military or physical threat to air traffic or people on the ground, we did take immediate steps to protect against the balloon’s collection of information, mitigating its intelligence value to the PRC.”

The U.S., she said, knows China used these balloons for surveillance. “The high-altitude balloon’s equipment was clearly for intelligence surveillance, and inconsistent with the equipment onboard weather balloons. We know these balloons are all part of a PRC fleet of balloons developed to conduct surveillance operations. These kinds of activities are often undertaken at the direction of the People’s Liberation Army. We have successfully located and retrieved debris from the high-altitude PRC surveillance balloon. Final pieces of debris are being transferred to the Federal Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Virginia for counter-intelligence exploitation, as has occurred with the previous surface and subsurface debris recovered.”

The United States, Dalton said,  shot the ballon down to send a clear message to China that  violation of its sovereignty was unacceptable.

 “Moving forward at the direction of the President, we are working with the interagency for both balloons and unidentified aerial phenomena to: one, work to establish a better inventory of unmanned airborne objects in U.S. airspace and ensure that that inventory is accessible and up to date; two, to implement further measures to improve our capacity to detect unmanned objects in our airspace; three, to support efforts to update the rules and regulations for launching and maintaining unmanned objects in the skies above America; and four, to support the State Department’s lead to help establish common global norms in this largely unregulated space,” Dalton said.

One China

Kritenbrink said America believes in One China based on the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiques, and the Six Assurances to Taiwan. “Again, in the interest of maintaining and growing our robust but unofficial relationship with Taiwan, we engage regularly with Taiwan counterparts, and we will continue to do so.”

He said the U.S.-China relations has long been extremely complex. “That has been the case for a long time. That was the case before this balloon incident and before our meeting in Munich – remains the case afterward. As I’ve tried to underscore here today, our approach will remain consistent and responsible. We are pursuing the three lines of our policy: invest, align, and compete. We’re also committed to maintaining open lines of communication so as to responsibly manage our competition and ensure that we can prevent a miscalculation that could lead to unintended conflict.”

Kritenbrink said   Secretary Blinken cancelled his travel to China because of the incident involving the China-affiliated surveillance balloon that violated U.S. sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“In light of that incident which happened right on the eve of the Secretary’s planned traveled to Beijing, he made the decision that it would be wise to postpone that travel until a time when conditions permit. We will decide when those conditions permit.”

Assistant Secretary of Defense Ratner said America is taking steps to prevent miscalculation and escalation in the Taiwan Strait by maintaining open lines of communication with the PLA. 

“We’ve been disappointed by the PLA’s unwillingness to engage Secretary Austin and senior Defense leaders recently, but we are going to continue to have an outstretched hand and an open invitation on maintaining those open lines of communication. 

“In addition to that, we are going to continue to fulfill our commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act, including providing Taiwan with the defensive articles it needs to defend itself and to maintain the capacity of the United States to resist the use of force to jeopardise the security of the people of Taiwan. Thank you.”

Fentanyl precursor enforcement

 Kritenbrink said the fentanyl scourge is one that is raised in virtually every interaction between the United States and China. “Certainly, fentanyl overdoses – this is one of the leading killers of Americans today. We have underscored to Chinese counterparts their responsibility to work with not just the United States but many in the international community who are suffering from this scourge of fentanyl, and particularly to work with the international community to ensure that fentanyl precursors are not diverted and used illegally to manufacture opioids that are the cause of so many deaths.”

He added that “China has an obligation to cooperate with us more, to crack down and curb the diversion of these precursors”. 

 President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping, he said, have spoken five times on the phone or video conference in the last two years “Of course, they recently had a very consequential meeting in Bali, Indonesia last November. I think it’s only natural that the two leaders would continue to have regular communications. I don’t know when the next opportunity might be. There’s currently nothing scheduled, but again, I think you heard the President speak to this directly, that he anticipates speaking to President Xi again at some point, but I can’t tell you when that might be.”

The United States has nominated ex-Mastercard Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank.

President Joe Biden made the announcement on Thursday.

Banga is vice chairman at private equity firm General Atlantic, and over 30 years of business experience.

Biden credited Banga, who is of Indian descent, with critical experience on global challenges, including climate change, the issue that led to the early exit of Mr David Malpass.

Malpass was an appointee of ex-President Donald Trump.

Banga, Biden said, “has critical experience mobilising public-private resources to tackle the most urgent challenges of our time, including climate change.”

He added that “Ajay is uniquely equipped to lead the World Bank at this critical moment in history.”

U.S. Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks on upholding Ukraine’s sovereignty in the face of Russia’s aggression.   At the New York Foreign Press Center briefing attended by United States Bureau Chief OLUKOREDE YISHAU, Thomas-Greenfield details how America, the United Nations and allies are taming Russia and why the United States will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes to achieve a just and lasting peace. Excerpts: 

Biden’s meeting with Zelenskyy and related issues

President Biden went to Kyiv yesterday and stood shoulder to shoulder with President Zelenskyy to remind the world that one year later, Kyiv stands.  Today we heard the President say in Poland that a world in which the fundamental principles of the UN Charter will be upheld.  And today, Ukraine still stands.  Democracy still stands.  And America and the world still stands with Ukraine.  

Putin thought he would break the coalition of countries that have supported Ukraine over the last year.  He thought he could easily roll over Ukraine.  He thought he could tear the UN Charter to shreds.  He was wrong.  The people of Ukraine have proven their determination to defend their freedom, and one year later the United States and our allies and partners have proven that we will ensure that Ukraine has what it needs to defend its people and territory against Russia’s aggression for as long as it takes.  

Over the past year, in cooperation with allies and partners, we have done everything in our power to help Ukraine defend itself, because Russia has shown no interest in ending this war.  And here at the UN for the past year, you’ve seen us stand up for the fundamental principles of the UN Charter.  Leading up to the brutal full-scale invasion, we held meeting after meeting.  We made it clear that Russia was preparing to invade, even as Russia denied, denied, denied.  Then Russia launched their full-scale invasion at the very moment when we were sitting in the Security Council.  While we sought peace, Putin chose war.   

So we have worked with the international community to respond.  Just days after Russia launched its attack, the UN General Assembly adopted with 141 votes from countries across the globe a resolution condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and demanding Russia withdraw its troops.  Then in March, the UN General Assembly reconvened to adopt a resolution deploring the humanitarian crisis caused by Russia’s aggression.  And in April, we successfully led a push to suspend Russia from the Human Rights Council for its gross and systematic violations of human rights.   

In May, we used our presidency of the Security Council to shine a light on how Russia’s attacks on Ukraine were hurting others around the world too by exacerbating global food insecurity.  We rallied more than 100 countries to sign onto a Roadmap for Global Food Security.  And this past October, 143 countries – 143 member-states – voted to reject Russia’s illegal attempted annexation of Ukrainian territory and upheld Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity once again – 143 members.  It was a strong rebuke by the international community.  The world time and time again has sent an unequivocal message to President Putin:  Silence your weapons, withdraw your troops, end this war.  Because we all know that the longer this war goes on, the more the Ukrainian people will suffer; the more the world, especially countries in the Middle East and Africa that rely on Ukraine’s grain, will suffer.   

UN General Assembly 

This week the UN General Assembly will have the opportunity to vote on a resolution that calls on countries to support diplomatic efforts to achieve a comprehensive, just, and lasting peace in Ukraine – a peace consistent with the UN Charter, especially the fundamental principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity.  This resolution also urges countries to work together to address the global impact of the war, including on food security, energy, finance, the environment, and nuclear security and safety.   

Already 68 countries have co-sponsored this important text, and we strongly encourage all member-states to vote for this resolution, to vote for peace.  I want to emphasize that supporting peace in Ukraine is in no way about a great power competition.  This is not somehow about choosing between the United States and Russia.  This is about defending the UN Charter, this is about doing our part to end the scourge of war, and this is about reaffirming one of this institution’s core principles – that one country – one country cannot take the territory of another by force.   

Let me end by saying Russia alone could end this war today.  Until it does so, the United States will stand united with Ukraine for as long as it takes to achieve a just and lasting peace.  

Expectations on turnout for the resolution in the General Assembly

 As I said, we have 68 countries that have already signed up to co-sponsor this resolution, and we are continuing to work with other countries to address any issues or questions they may have about the resolution.  We think this is a simple resolution to support.  It is a resolution that calls for peace, it is a resolution that calls for negotiation, in line with the Charter of the United Nations, in line with the values of the Charter of the United Nations.  So we think this should be something that countries should find easy to support, and we’ll look forward to seeing the vote on that day.  I can’t predict what it’s going to be, but I can just say that given all of the work that all of us have put into this, we’re looking forward to having a robust debate and discussion and vote.   

Chinese peace initiative

On China, we are not expecting or projecting that China will submit anything – any counter-resolutions or any other documentation, but that’s a question I think you’ll have to ask the Chinese directly.   

And in terms of the resolution, what we are calling for are negotiations.  And we’re calling for the two sides to sit together.  We’re calling for peace.  But any cessation of hostilities require the Russians, who are – who initiated hostilities, to cease this war.  They can end the fighting today by stopping the fighting, by taking their troops out of Ukraine and ending the war, and going to the negotiating table.  If Ukraine stopped fighting – and you heard Secretary Blinken say this over and over again, and I’ve said it as well – if Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends.  If Russia stops fighting, the war ends.   

Conditions for negotiation

 Look, it’s not for us to decide the conditions for negotiations.  It’s for the Ukrainians to decide what conditions they will negotiate under.  But what we want to do is put them in as strong a position as possible so that when they go to the negotiating table, they are in a position of strength. 

The impact of a UN General Assembly resolution   

It sends a strong message, first to Russia, that their actions are unacceptable, it isolates Russia in the General Assembly as well as in the Security Council, and I think it isolates Russia around the world.  And a strong vote also sends the message to Russia that they need to sit at the negotiating table.  They are a pariah state right now, and they – if they want to be – to move forward in this world, they have to end this war.  They have to go to the negotiating table, and the only way that they can do that is for them to take their troops out of Ukraine and end the war.  And a strong vote in the General Assembly will send that message to them in no uncertain terms.  They will see that the world remains unified against their unprovoked actions in Ukraine. 

How difficult it was to get support for the resolution

 It takes a lot of hard work.  We’re unified in our strong condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, but we want to make sure that we bring others into this condemnation, into this group, into this unity that we have established.   So we have a lot of meetings, as you can imagine.  We have a lot of meetings, we have a lot of group meetings, we have a lot of one-on-one meetings with countries, and we worked hard with the Ukrainian Government to forge a resolution that everyone could support.  Because this is a resolution that stands on the principles of the UN charter.  It stands on a country’s right to sovereignty and the integrity of their borders, and it condemns any action by another country in terms of compromising their neighbor’s borders.  So there is very little there in this document that anyone would disagree with. 

Italy’s role in the war in Ukraine 

 Italy has an important role to play.  Italy is a member of NATO, they’re part of the G7, and they’re a close ally and strong friend of the United States.  And we have worked closely with the Italian Government on a range of shared issues.  As we – and we will continue to do that.  And what is happening in Ukraine is something that we share, it’s something that we both believe in.  And as President Biden just came out of – just came out of Kyiv, I thought it was important for him to talk to President 
Meloni about her visit to Kyiv and to share what he was able to assess on his trip there.   

So I thought it was a good time for them to have a discussion on a range of issues, and I have a very close working relationship with your ambassador here in New York as well, and we regularly exchange views and ideas on how we will continue to work together to address the issues related to Ukraine.   

Three United Nations (UN) peacekeepers were killed in an artisanal mine explosion in central Mali, UN Multi-dimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said yesterday.

“A convoy of the MINUSMA Force hit an improvised explosive device (artisanal mine) on Feb. 21.

According to preliminary reports, three peacekeepers have died and five others were seriously injured, the UN mission said in a statement, promising to provide further information on the attack.

In January, MINUSMA reported that it had lost four peacekeepers due to 18 attacks since Oct. 3, 2022, in the West African country.

Since 2012, Mali has been engulfed in a deep multi-faceted crisis at the security, political and economic levels.

Independence insurgencies, jihadist incursions, and inter-communal violence have left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands more displaced in the country.