Five Takeaways from Biden’s Visit to the Middle East
Forget retrenchment: Strategic competition and boosting security cooperation, particularly to counter Iran, will keep Washington focused on the region.
Author: M Barbu
China’s Search for a Permanent Military Presence in the Pacific Islands
After the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with Beijing in April, Kiribati may be considering a similar deal.
In April, China signed an unprecedented security pact with the Solomon Islands, sparking regional concerns of a future Chinese military presence there. China’s pursuit of greater military reach in the Pacific Islands draws parallels to Imperial Japan’s construction of bases prior to World War II, and the implications are, likewise, strikingly similar. A Chinese military presence in the Pacific Islands could complicate transit between Australia and the United States, allow Beijing to increase its power projection in the second and third island chains, and bring Chinese military firepower closer than ever to Australian and U.S. territory. Can the United States and its partners prevent such an outcome?
Russia’s Ukraine War Has Narrowed — But Not its Goals
Putin remains fixed on erasing Ukraine. Ideas for peace talks can’t ignore that.
Russia’s Ukraine war, launched in February along the 350 miles from Belarus to the Black Sea, has largely narrowed these weeks to a 45-mile-wide assault on cities in the Donbas region. This and other signals may suggest that President Vladimir Putin is limiting his war aims and will settle for consolidation of control over four provinces in southern and eastern Ukraine. Yet this is probably just a short-term change. Putin’s goal is unchanged, and he is prepared to achieve it by degrees. This reality undermines well-meaning suggestions for peace negotiations that are based on beliefs the Kremlin will settle for what it has now.
How Putin’s Flawed Assumptions Doomed Russian Victory in Ukraine
The war in Ukraine seems to be entering a transitional phase. Early on, Russia failed in its effort to take Kyiv—so Russian President Vladimir Putin scaled back his ambitions and shifted his military’s efforts to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. As both sides battle it out there, exhaustion and the ability to replenish supplies, weapons, and manpower are becoming more and more critical.
UK spy chief says he doesn’t think Iran supreme leader wants to reach nuclear deal
‘The deal is absolutely on the table but I don’t think the Iranians want it,’ MI6 director tells security forum; CIA chief says Tehran’s advance toward atomic bomb is ‘troubling’
Britain’s spy chief voiced doubt Thursday on reviving a landmark 2015 nuclear accord with Iran, saying Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei remained opposed despite marathon diplomacy with the United States.
Iran says it seeks nuclear deal guarantees so as ‘not to be stung twice’
‘The Americans must accept some commitments. We do not want an agreement at any price,’ Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says
Iran is seeking economic guarantees from the US to revive a long-stalled 2015 nuclear deal so as “not to be stung twice” the same way, its foreign minister said.
UN nuclear chief: Iran’s program advancing at a gallop, we have little visibility
Rafael Grossi says project ‘has grown enormously, far beyond what it was in 2015,’ as Tehran creates new difficulties and negotiations remains stalled
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency warned Friday that Iran’s nuclear program “is advancing at a gallop and we have very little visibility.”
Pourquoi la Chine a du succès en Afrique
Pendant que les Européens prônent des valeurs, la Chine convainc le continent par sa puissance de frappe financière et l’efficacité de ses grands chantiers.
Une voie rapide qui s’étend sur 27 kilomètres au cœur de Nairobi et relie le principal aéroport du Kenya au quartier central des affaires de la capitale, au musée national et au palais présidentiel. Sa construction n’a duré que deux ans sous l’égide de la Chine.
Au Mali, la Minusma poussée vers la sortie ?
Bamako a ordonné l’expulsion du porte-parole de la Minusma. Cette attitude est perçue comme une stratégie pour pousser les Casques bleux à quitter le pays.
Le chef de Barkhane accuse le groupe russe Wagner de “prédation” au Mali
Le commandant de la force française Barkhane, le général Laurent Michon, a accusé jeudi à Ouagadougou le groupe paramilitaire russe Wagner de “prédation”, le comparant à un “dealer” de drogue dans sa façon d’agir au Mali.