VILNIUS, Lithuania — The Biden administration is urging U.S. citizens in Belarus to depart the country immediately and warned against travel there in a statement published Monday.
The updated travel warning comes after bordering countries Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have stepped up security along the border over concerns about Russian Wagner mercenary forces exiled in the country.
The State Department, in its warning, encouraged Americans still in Belarus to depart the country immediately and categorized the country as a Level 4 risk, the highest security warning.
Belarus’s longtime leader Alexander Lukashenko, known as Europe’s last dictator, has been a key facilitator of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, and is under a catalog of U.S. sanctions for human rights abuses and political repression against Belarusian people who challenged his claim to election victory in 2020.
The U.S. mission in Belarus is scaled down and only handles emergency American Citizen Services.
Lukashenko’s welcoming of Wagner forces in a deal with Putin that ended the mercenary group’s short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin has raised concern in NATO-member countries on its border.
“Do not travel to Belarus due to Belarusian authorities’ continued facilitation of Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine, the buildup of Russian military forces in Belarus, the arbitrary enforcement of local laws, the potential of civil unrest, the risk of detention, and the Embassy’s limited ability to assist U.S. citizens residing in or traveling to Belarus,” the State Department wrote in its warning.
Last week, Lithuania closed two of its six border crossings with Belarus. The State Department urged Americans to travel through the remaining, open border crossings, warning that the Polish, Lithuanian, and Latvian governments have stated that further closures of border crossings with Belarus are possible.
PM Modi said that he looks forward to holding bilateral meetings with “some of the leaders present in Johannesburg”.
PM Narendra Modi Embarks On 4-day Visit To South Africa, Greece; Will Attend BRICS Summit |
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has embarked on a four-day visit to South Africa and Greece. In South Africa, PM Modi will attend the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg from August 22-24 at the invitation of the country’s president Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa.
PM Modi said that BRICS has been actively engaged in fostering a robust collaboration agenda across diverse sectors, and serves as a platform to deliberate upon issues of significance for the entire Global South.
PM Modi said that he looks forward to holding bilateral meetings with “some of the leaders present in Johannesburg”.
“BRICS has been pursuing a strong cooperation agenda across various sectors. We value that BRICS has become a platform for discussing and deliberating on issues of concern for the entire Global South, including development imperatives and reform of the multilateral system,â? the PM said in a statement.
About BRICS Summit
BRICS is a grouping of the world economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
BRICS summit will be held from August 22-24. This will be PM Modi’s third visit to South Africa and the trip marks the 30th anniversary of the diplomatic relationship between India and South Africa.
This year’s BRICS is under the presidency of South Africa. The theme of this year’s summit is: “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for mutually accelerated growth, sustainable development and inclusive multilateralism.” This will be the first in-person BRICS Summit after three consecutive years of virtual meetings owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The BRICS bloc of countries led by China and Russia want to upend the U.S. dollar. Indeed, South Africa’s ambassador to the group could not have been clearer last month when she said, “The days of a dollar-centric world is over. That’s a reality. We have a multipolar global trading system today.”
BRICS is an acronym coined in 2001 by Jim O’Neill, former managing director of Goldman Sachs’ Global Investment Management division, in his seminal paper in which he predicted that the budding economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China (and now includes South Africa) would surpass the world’s top economic superpowers of the G-7 in the years ahead.
Formed in June 2009 at their its summit held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, the group accepted South Africa as a full member in September 2010. Its officially stated mandate is “restructuring the global, political, economic and financial architecture to be more equitable, balanced and representative.”
The leaders of the five nations seeking to upend the West’s dominance in global affairs will gather on Aug. 22-24 for their 15th summit, minus Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will be represented by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov due to Putin facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Ukraine.
A top item, which undoubtedly will underpin all the discussions – while officially not on the agenda, according to South Africa’s ambassador – will be the creation of a new international currency. It is the bloc’s strategic ambition to stand up a joint BRICS monetary unit, akin to the Euro, which eventually would replace the U.S. dollar as the premier currency of international reserves and medium of exchange.
How else can one possibly achieve the goal of remaking the world’s existing geopolitical and economic structure? Why would anyone embark on such an ambitious project? And should the United States and its Western allies be worried?
President Biden (Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images / File)
The major move among non-Western countries towards de-dollarization has gained much momentum in the past year and a half. It is a direct result of what many analysts call the “weaponization” of the U.S. dollar by the U.S. government that levies economic sanctions on countries that Washington doesn’t agree with politically.
Economic sanctions have been employed by the U.S. for decades. Cuba, for instance, has been sanctioned for more than 60 years and Iran for more than 40. This practice has reached unprecedented levels, however, in the aftermath of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to punish Russia as the White House seized $600 billion of its central bank’s assets in U.S. dollars, a move that even Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called illegal in 2022. In addition, the Russian economy was cut off from SWIFT, the international money transfer system.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, greets Chinese President Xi Jinping in Ufa, Russia, July 9, 2015, at the start of the seventh annual BRICS summit. (Alexander Nemenov / AFP via Getty Images)
Washington’s policy of using the U.S. dollar as the non-kinetic, economic warfare tool to change Putin’s behavior – although it hasn’t worked since 2014 – prompted many non-Western countries to seek ways to reduce their dependence on the dollar. Many are eager to join BRICS for that reason, a trend that is highly welcome by China – the key driving force within BRICS – whose grand plan is to replace the United States as the military and economic superpower by 2049.
More than 40 countries have recently expressed interest in joining the block in an effort to reduce the currency risk and bypass U.S. sanctions, if necessary. These aspirants include both, U.S. foes, such as Iran, and allies, such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia and Argentina. The message is clear: The non-Western world wants to keep business and economics separate from politics and ideology. It is ready to challenge the Western international norms that have governed global trade and finance since 1944 when 44 nations, including the Soviet Union, founded the Bretton Woods system that includes the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Is this threat to U.S. economic hegemony as real as Moscow and Beijing, who have been pushing the “multipolar world” narrative for years, want you to believe? The two authoritarian regimes have joined forces to challenge U.S. policy at every corner, eager to dethrone the dollar.
Mr. Kim inspected one of his fleets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and watched as the crew staged a drill launching ‘strategic cruise missiles,’ state-run news agency KCNA reported
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un observed the test-firing of strategic cruise missiles from a navy ship, as the U.S. and South Korean militaries kicked off major annual drills, on August 21, 2023. | Photo Credit: AP
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited a navy unit and oversaw a strategic cruise missile test, state media reported on August 21, ahead of the start of joint military drills between Seoul and Washington.
Mr. Kim inspected one of his fleets in the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, and watched as the crew staged a drill launching “strategic cruise missiles,” state-run news agency KCNA reported.
Lord Jim O’Neill, the British economist credited with coining the acronym BRIC, calls the creation of a common BRICS currency “ridiculous,” emphasizing that the BRICS nations have “never achieved anything since they first started meeting.” He added: “It’s a good job for the West that China and India never agree on anything, because if they did the dominance of the dollar would be a lot more vulnerable.”
Lord Jim O’Neill Slams Common BRICS Currency Idea
British economist Lord Jim O’Neill shared his view on the proposed single BRICS currency in an interview with the Financial Times this week. The BRICS leaders are set to meet at the economic bloc’s 15th summit on Aug. 22-24 in Johannesburg. South Africa is the host of the BRICS summit this year. However, there are mixed reports on whether the creation of a common BRICS currency will be discussed at the summit.
O’Neill, a former Goldman Sachs economist, coined the acronym BRIC over 20 years ago to describe the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. South Africa joined the group a few years later, and the acronym was changed to BRICS. O’Neill is now a senior adviser at U.K. think tank Chatham House.
The economist asserted that the BRICS nations had “never achieved anything since they first started meeting” eight years after he created the phrase in a 2001 research note. He believes that a common currency for the BRICS economic bloc would be unfeasible, stating:
It’s just ridiculous … They’re going to create a BRICS central bank? How would you do that? It’s embarrassing, almost.
“Quite what they attempt to achieve beyond powerful symbolism, I don’t know,” he opined.
In June, Lord O’Neill similarly described the idea of a single currency for the BRICS nations as “ridiculous” and “amusing.” He stressed that “China and India never agree on anything,” pointing out that the two countries “can’t even really agree on basic things like a peaceful border.”
U.S. Dollar Could Lose Its Dominance, Lord O’Neill Warns
The British economist also commented on the dominance of the U.S. dollar, emphasizing that the USD’s dominant position in the global financial system is not beneficial for emerging countries. He described:
The dollar’s role is not ideal for the way the world has evolved. You’ve got all these economies who live on this cyclical never-ending twist of whatever the [U.S. Federal Reserve] decides to do in the interests of the U.S.
Some economists have predicted that other currencies, such as the Chinese yuan, the Japanese yen, or the euro, would eventually overtake the U.S. dollar. However, O’Neill cautioned: “None of these things will ever happen until those countries want to have their currencies used by people in other parts of the world.”
Seven people including a 6-year-old girl were killed, 144 wounded, and 41 were in hospital after a Russian missile struck a central square in the historic northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
“I am sure our soldiers will give a response to Russia for this terrorist attack,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, delivered early on Sunday at the end of a visit to Sweden. “A notable response.”
He said that of the 144 people injured, 15 were children, and named the girl killed as Sofia. Fifteen others were police officers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. Klymenko said most of the victims were in vehicles, crossing the road, or returning from church.
Regional governor Viacheslav Chaus said 41 people were in hospital on Saturday.
Zelenskiy said the strike on Chernihiv, a city of leafy boulevards and centuries-old churches about 145 km (90 miles) north of Kyiv, coincided with the Orthodox holiday of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord.
Debris was scattered across a square in front of the damaged theatre and surrounding buildings, where parked vehicles were heavily damaged. A 63-year-old who only gave her first name, Valentyna, showed the damaged balcony in her apartment opposite the theatre.
“It is horrific. Horrific. There were wounded, ambulances and broken glass in here. Nightmare. Just nightmare,” she said.
Rescuers work at a site of a Russian missile strike, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Chernihiv, Ukraine August 19, 2023. National Police/Handout via REUTERS
The roof of the neoclassical theatre was torn off by the strike.
Russia has attacked Ukrainian cities far from the frontline with missiles and drones as part of the full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.
People leaving church and others passing by were among those hurt when the missile hit the theatre, where a meeting was taking place, Chaus said.
Law enforcement agencies were looking into how Russians became aware of the event, which he said included business and community representatives but Ukrainian media reported involved drone manufacturers. Both sides have widely used drones on the battlefield.
More than 40 Chinese warplanes flew over Taiwan’s air defence zone on Saturday, as part of military drills that Taiwan called “irrational and provocative”.
About 26 Chinese aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s ministry of defence said.
It said Beijing was trying to influence Taiwan’s upcoming election.
China said the drills would test its forces’ ability to fight in “combat conditions”, state media reported.
The People’s Liberation Army “launched joint air and sea patrols and military exercises of the navy and air force around the island of Taiwan” on Saturday, military spokesperson Shi Yi is quoted by Xinhua as saying.
The exercises would serve as a “stern warning to the collusion of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatists with foreign elements and their provocations”, he added.
It follows Chinese anger at a recent stopover by Taiwan’s vice president, William Lai, in the United States. China previously launched major military exercises after Nancy Pelosi, then US House speaker, visited Taiwan last year and again when President Tsai Ing-wen met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
Mr Lai, a frontrunner in Taiwan’s upcoming presidential election in January, was visiting the US on a trip to Paraguay.
China said Mr Lai was a “troublemaker” and that it would take “resolute measures” to “safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
Despite China’s claim to sovereignty over the island, Taiwan governs itself. It described China’s military exercise as “irrational and provocative behaviour”.
Taiwan said it would dispatch “appropriate forces” to respond “with practical actions” – adding that the national army was using reconnaissance methods to “strictly control” the situation.
“Conducting a military exercise this time under a pretext not only does not help the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but also highlights (China’s) militaristic mentality and confirms the hegemonic nature of its military expansion,” Taiwan’s defence ministry said.
Yang Chih-yuan, a Taiwanese political activist, has been formally arrested in China on secession charges.
A Taiwan political activist has been formally arrested on suspicion of “secession” in China, more than eight months after he was detained amid heightened tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
Yang Chih-yuan, a democracy campaigner and pro-independence politician, was detained by Chinese state security in Wenzhou in Zhejiang province last August, hours after then United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrapped up her high-stakes visit to Taipei.
The visit infuriated Beijing, which retaliated by holding days of large-scale military drills and firing missiles over the self-governing island, pushing tensions to their highest in decades.
Yang’s fate remained unknown for months.
But on Tuesday, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate announced on social media that prosecutors in Wenzhou had approved the arrest of Yang on secession charges, after the city’s state security bureau concluded its investigation and handed the case to the prosecutors for “review and prosecution.”
The statement did not mention when Yang will appear in court.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said they had repeatedly reached out to mainland authorities about Yang’s detention but had not received a direct response.
“The government reiterates that Yang is innocent and calls on the Chinese Communist Party to release Yang and allow him to return to Taiwan as soon as possible,” the council said in a statement to CNN Tuesday.
Yang, 33, has been active in Taiwan’s social movements for more than a decade and once contested for a seat in Taiwan’s legislature, which he did not win.
In 2019, he became the vice chairman of the Taiwan National Party, a fringe political party advocating Taiwan independence. The party is now defunct, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of the Interior.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV reported on August 3 last year that Yang was taken into custody by the state security bureau in Wenzhou for engaging in “separatist activities” supporting Taiwan independence and endangering national security.
China’s ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its own territory, despite having never controlled it, and has refused to rule out the use of force to “unify” the island with mainland China.
Under leader Xi Jinping, China has stepped up crackdown against perceived threats from both within and outside the country, arresting Chinese and foreign nationals for endangering “national security” – a broadly and vaguely defined concept under Chinese law.
Non-mainland Chinese citizens have also been imprisoned for national security crimes. Taiwanese human rights activist Lee Ming-che, for example, was sentenced in 2017 to five years in prison for “subverting state power.” Lee was released last year after serving his full sentence.
Handcuffed and escorted
CCTV said Yang had long advocated the idea of “Taiwan independence” and founded the Taiwan National Party to push for Taiwan to become an independent, sovereign country and a member state of the United Nations.
The broadcaster aired footage showing a handcuffed man purported to be Yang being held by two officers, as the police went through his phone, wallet and other personal belongings.
In a subsequent report, CCTV said Yang had been placed under “residential surveillance at a designated location” from August 4 – a form of secrete detention frequently applied to national security cases in China that United Nations human rights experts say tantamount to enforced disappearance.
Authorities in Beijing and Taipei have not given any explanation as to why Yang had traveled to the mainland.
However, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council reminded Taiwan citizens to evaluate the risks before traveling to mainland China, citing the “repeated occurrence of similar cases recently,” without elaborating on the incidents.
“When the epidemic on both sides of the strait is gradually slowing down and people on both sides are hoping to resume normal exchanges, the mainland arbitrarily arrested Taiwanese people, seriously harming the rights and interests of our people and creating fear,” it said in a statement to CNN. “This is bound to be detrimental to the exchanges and interactions across the strait.”
News of Yang’s formal arrest comes as concerns are mounting for a Taiwan-based book publisher, who reportedly has been detained in China since March, according to Taiwan’s Central News Agency (CNA).
THE risk of nuclear oblivion is edging closer as humanity stands on the brink of World War 3, Russia’s ex-President has warned.
Dmitry Medvedev is a close ally of Vladimir Putin and made the chilling warning amid rising tensions between the Russia and the West over the Ukraine war.
Dmitry Medvedev is a former Russian President and close ally of Vladimir PutinCredit: EPAMedvedev has made several threats of approaching nuclear warCredit: East2West
Kremlin jets recently brought down an American drone with both sides displaying nuclear bombers in shows of strength.
Fears have been raised Putin could still use nuclear weapons in Ukraine, as the prospect of victory ebbs away from him, in a final act of destruction.
Medvedev, 57, is currently the deputy head of Russia’s powerful Security Council and a former prime minister.
He told an audience in Moscow the West was to blame for taking the world to the brink of Armageddon.
He said: “The world is sick and is on the edge of the Third World War. And although we tried to avoid war for 30 years, it was imposed on us.”
He added that the threat of climate change was nothing compared to that of nuclear war “which exists today unfortunately”.
“It’s growing with every day for known reasons. The Western world was unfair to our country to a large extent. Did they hear us? No, they didn’t.”
Medvedev went on to warn that Russia was itself prepared to use nuclear weapons.
He spelt out that Russian doctrine “makes it clear that nuclear weapons may be used if Russia faces an act of aggression involving other types of weapons, which threaten the very existence of the state”.
He added: “In fact, it is about using nuclear weapons in response to such actions.
“Our potential adversaries should not underestimate this.
“All these speculations about how the Russians will never do this are worthless.
“The Western analysts and Western commanders – both military and political leaders – should simply assess our rules and our intentions.”
Medvedev was elected president of Russia in 2008 after Putin was forced to step down due to term limits.
He was once considered more liberal than Putin but has become more and more hardline in his statements, particularly since Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen completed a three-day trip to Guatemala on Sunday (Apr 2) where she offered more cooperation with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei’s government, one of Taiwan’s few allies in the world.
Tsai’s tour, which will take her to Belize on Sunday afternoon, comes a week after Honduras severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favour of Beijing.
China and Taiwan have tussled for influence in Latin America since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, with Beijing considering Taiwan part of Chinese territory, a position Taipei strongly rejects. China refuses to allow other countries to maintain diplomatic relations with both at the same time.
While visiting Guatemala, Tsai signed a US$4 million agreement to modernise rural areas and promised to promote and increase cooperation between the two countries.
“From now on, Taiwan and Guatemala will continue to show solidarity to each other, deepening cooperation in all possible areas based on firm objectives, solidarity and mutual benefit,” Tsai said during a tour of a hospital built with Taiwanese help.
Before arriving in Guatemala – one of the 13 countries that Taiwan has diplomatic relations with – Tsai made a controversial stopover in New York, angering China, which has repeatedly warned US officials not to meet Tsai.
Chinese influence in Latin America has increased in recent years, with Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama and Costa Rica abandoning Taipei in favour of Beijing.
President Tsai Ing-Wen is shoring up allies, but a meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy is drawing threats from Beijing
Josue Decavele/Getty Images
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-Wen is in the midst of a 10-day trip to the Americas, with stops in Belize, Guatemala, and the US as the island faces an increasingly belligerent Beijing. Tsai’s trip underscores Taiwan’s vulnerable position as its international allies face a pressure campaign from the People’s Republic of China to switch diplomatic ties from Taiwan to the mainland.
Beijing has threatened conflict over Taiwan, which according to its “one China principle” is part of the mainland, to some extent for decades. The tension most recently reached a fever pitch when former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August of last year. At the time, Beijing retaliated by sanctioning Pelosi and firing ballistic missiles toward Taiwan, as well as announcing it would extend planned military drills. Now, with Tsai headed to the Americas to shore up support for Taiwan, Beijing has threatened “resolute countermeasures” should Tsai meet with current Speaker Kevin McCarthy next week, as she’s tentatively planned to do.
Just as existential for Tsai, though, may be her scheduled visits to Belize and Guatemala, particularly given the fact Honduras, a former diplomatic partner, recently changed its allegiance to Beijing. Though the US is Taiwan’s most powerful friend and security partner, the US government walks a fine line where the island is concerned. Officially, the US recognizes the People’s Republic of China and respects what it calls the “one China policy,” but practices strategic ambiguity where the two are concerned.
Taiwan itself is in a difficult position, too, as its official number of diplomatic partners dwindles from 14 to 13. Tsai’s visit to Belize and Guatemala will reinforce those countries’ commercial, diplomatic, and military commitments to Taiwan. But China has a tactic of using its relative economic might as a cudgel, typically by persuading poorer nations into infrastructure and lending deals that later make those nations economically beholden to Beijing. Honduras’s decision to switch allegiance may have had an economic payoff for the Central American nation, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu alleged.
Five Central American and Caribbean nations have switched their diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing since Tsai took power, and it isn’t clear that diplomacy can stanch the bleeding. And in regard to Tsai’s US visit, Beijing has warned that it’s watching the situation closely should Tsai meet with US officials.
What Tsai’s Central American visit can do for Taiwan
Though Tsai will bookend her trip with stops in the US — she started off in New York and plans to visit McCarthy in his California district before heading back to Taiwan — her Central American stops are critical too, Kitsch Liao, assistant director of the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub told Vox in an interview.
Much of Taiwan’s national security is connected to the threat from China, which can be dealt with in two different ways — cross-strait relations or international diplomatic relations. “Cross-strait doesn’t work if China doesn’t want to play with you,” Liao said, and China is not particularly disposed to work with Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Therefore, international support and diplomatic engagement, whether with official partners like Belize and Guatemala or powerful security partners like the US, does play an important security and intermediary role for Taiwan.
From a purely military perspective, Taiwan’s allegiances aren’t terribly strategic, but Taiwan does have priorities other than defense, like trade. Taiwan has a strong trade relationship with Guatemala, and has invested millions in the Central American country’s agricultural, manufacturing and tech industries, and Taiwan’s ties with the Marshall Islands in the Pacific are crucial for its fishing industry.
Of course, there’s also the symbolic importance of having official diplomatic relationships — they give credence to Taiwan’s sovereignty, a threatening concept for Beijing. That’s why, since Tsai became president in 2016, Panama, Nicaragua, and El Salvador in Central America, Sao Tome and Principe and Burkina Faso in Africa, the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, and the Solomon Islands and Kiribati in Oceania, have all broken ties with Taiwan in favor of Beijing, many citing economic concerns for the switch, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Honduras, the most recent country to shift its allegiance to China, has been dealing with economic insecurity, including $600 million the country reportedly owed to Taiwan. China has made a concerted effort to isolate Taiwan, relying on the economic coercion it practices elsewhere — providing loans or support for infrastructure projects, only to exert more influence or take over those projects when the recipients of its largesse can’t pay China back or complete the planned construction.
“I expect that to continue,” Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND corporation, said of China’s campaign to peel off Taiwan’s allies.
Another method of influence is the so-called “golden passport” programs in certain Caribbean nations, according to the research of Leland Lazarus, associate director of the national security policy program at Florida International University’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy. In a recent report, Lazarus found that some Caribbean nations’ citizenship programs for foreign investors see a large percentage of Chinese applicants, who then wield political influence in those countries. In St. Kitts and Nevis, a diplomatic partner of Taiwan, an estimated 60 percent of applicants to the citizenship program were from China.
Since Honduras’ defection, Taiwan’s three Latin American partners — Paraguay, Guatemala, and Belize — have all reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, touting shared democratic ideals. Guatemala and Belize both reaffirmed their position that Taiwan is a sovereign nation.
Of course, there is an argument that Taiwan should work on cultivating relationships with powerful security partners like the US, according Grossman. “Taiwan shouldn’t worry about the Hondurases of the world,” Grossman told Vox in an interview, but rather “focus on powers including Australia, Japan, even the Philippines,” nearby nations that could provide military support in the case of an attack by China, especially if for some reason the US weren’t in a position to or were unwilling to come to Taiwan’s aid.
“Time is not on Taiwan’s side here,” Grossman said.
A Russian tank in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol in March last year
Russia has taken the presidency of the UN Security Council despite Ukraine urging members to block the move.
Each of the council’s 15 members takes up the presidency for a month, on a rotating pattern.
The last time Russia had the presidency, February 2022, it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It means the Security Council is being led by a country whose president is subject to an international arrest warrant for alleged war crimes.
The International Criminal Court – which is not a UN institution – issued the warrant for Vladimir Putin last month.
Despite Ukraine’s complaints, the United States said it could not block Russia – a permanent council member – from assuming the presidency.
The other permanent members of the council are the UK, US, France, and China.
The role is mostly procedural, but Moscow’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, told the Russian Tass news agency that he planned to oversee several debates, including one on arms control.
He said he would discuss a “new world order” that, he said, was coming to “replace the unipolar one”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called Russia’s presidency “the worst joke ever for April Fool’s Day” and a “stark reminder that something is wrong with the way international security architecture is functioning”.
And in a further comment on Saturday, he called it “a slap in the face to the international community”.
Ukraine’s presidential adviser, Mykhaylo Podolyak, said the move was “another rape of international law… an entity that wages an aggressive war, violates the norms of humanitarian and criminal law, destroys the UN Charter, neglects nuclear safety, can’t head the world’s key security body”.
President Volodymyr Zelensky called last year for the Security Council to reform or “dissolve altogether”, accusing it of failing to take enough action to prevent Russia’s invasion.
He has also called for Russia to be removed of its member status.
But the US has said its hands were tied as the UN charter does not allow for the removal of a permanent member.
“Unfortunately, Russia is a permanent member of the Security Council and no feasible international legal pathway exists to change that reality,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told a news briefing this week.
She added the US expects Moscow “to continue to use its seat on the council to spread disinformation” and justify its actions in Ukraine.
The UN Security Council is an international body responsible for maintaining peace.
Five nations are permanently represented on the Security Council. They reflect the post-war power structure that held sway when the council was formed.
Members of this group work alongside 10 non-permanent member countries.
Russia’s presence as a permanent member on the Security Council means it can veto resolutions.
