Syria and Iran are deepening economic cooperation, as Iran is about to launch a Syrian-Iranian joint bank, according to Asharq al-Awsat.
Syria and Iran reached an agreement to launch a joint free trade zone and bank, the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Qasemi announced this weekend, in a bid to deepen economic ties.
Describing his visit to Russia as a milestone in the promotion of ties between Tehran and Moscow, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said cooperation and dialogue between the two states would contribute to regional security.
Speaking to reporters before leaving Tehran for Moscow on Wednesday morning, Raisi said he would make the visit at the invitation of his Russian counterpart with the purpose of enhancing the neighborliness and regional diplomacy.
Reportedly, Russian state energy giant Gazprom said it has not booked any capacity to pump gas to Europe through the Yamal pipeline in February underscoring a sharp drop-off in Russian exports to the region so far this year.
Gazprom said pipeline exports of Russian gas have tumbled 41% from a year ago so far in January, underlining the impact of a reversal in the Yamal-Europe pipeline, which usually pumps Russian gas into Europe, from Germany to Poland. Data from German network operator Gascade showed that this was occurring for a 28th consecutive day on Monday.
The United States is warning Russia that the U.S. and its allies will respond “forcefully and resolutely” to further Russian military aggression against Ukraine but hopes Moscow will pursue a diplomatic path to resolve the crisis, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told VOA in Kyiv Wednesday.
“We’ve offered Russia a clear choice, a choice between pursuing dialogue and diplomacy on the one hand, or confrontation and consequences on the other hand,” Blinken said during an interview with VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze.
Americans performed three very different policies on the People’s Republic: From a total negation (and the Mao-time mutual annihilation assurances), to Nixon’s sudden cohabitation. Finally, a Copernican-turn: the US spotted no real ideological differences between them and the post-Deng China. This signalled a ‘new opening’: West imagined China’s coastal areas as its own industrial suburbia. Soon after, both countries easily agreed on interdependence (in this marriage of convenience): Americans pleased their corporate (machine and tech) sector and unrestrained its greed, while Chinese in return offered a cheap labour, no environmental considerations and submissiveness in imitation. Both spiced it by nearly religious approach to trade.
Many in the West believe China’s economic ascendancy indicates that Beijing is covertly working to usher in a new world order in which the balance of power has shifted.
History shows that changes in the world order are inevitable, but they are not happening as quickly as some analysts think. For example, the rise of the US to the world’s primary geopolitical position took nearly half a century, from the late 19th to the mid-20th century. France’s rise to domination over western Europe in the 17th century was also a long and arduous process.
Principal Findings
What’s new? UN-led efforts to broker a ceasefire in Yemen have repeatedly stalled due to a standoff between Huthi rebels and the internationally recognised government over who has authority to control goods, particularly fuel, entering the Red Sea port of Hodeida. With the conflict escalating, the UN is struggling to make headway.
Why does it matter? The economy has become an integral part of the parties’ efforts to strengthen their own positions while weakening their rivals. The economic contest has fuelled the fighting at the front and impeded attempts at peacemaking. But diplomats working to stop the war have too often sidestepped the issue.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded 10 teams more than $18 million total in first-round contracts for a program aimed at making night vision glasses less bulky and more powerful.
The U.S. agency announced the Enhanced Night Vision in Eyeglass Form program last year, calling on industry and academia to submit proposals in two technical tracks. The first focuses on developing prototypes to reduce the size of the eyepieces and intensifiers on current night vision glasses. The second explores new methods for converting infrared light reflected into visible images.
Officials in Berlin have rejected a renewed request by Ukraine for lethal, defensive equipment in the face of Russia’s massive troop buildup, effectively testing the restrictive arms-export policy enshrined in the government’s coalition agreement.
Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany, Andriy Melnyk, told German press agency DPA on Wednesday his country is seeking warships to help defend its Black Sea and the Sea of Asov coasts in the event of a Russian invasion. Germany’s ships, he was quoted as saying, “are among the best in the world.”
Vladimir V. Putin met at the Kremlin with Iran’s new leader, Ebrahim Raisi, at a time when both their countries, despite their differences, are at odds with Washington.
Sitting across a long table from President Vladimir V. Putin at a Covid-conscious distance, President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran reminded his Russian counterpart on Wednesday that Tehran had been “resisting America for 40 years.”