Your Monday Briefing: NATO Prepares to Meet

newsofmax07/09/2023

4 4 minutes read

Your Monday Briefing: NATO Prepares to Meet

NATO Summit Preview

leader of NATO countries are preparing for two days of meetings starting tomorrow in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

Ukraine will be a big problem. The war there broke out for more than 500 daysand counterattack is moving slow. Ukraine wants to join NATO, but President Biden said yesterday it was “too early” to start the process to acknowledge the country in the middle of a war.

I spoke with Steven Erlanger, our chief diplomatic correspondent for Europe, about what we can expect from the meeting.

Amelia: What do NATO allies hope to achieve with this summit?

Steven: The main task of this NATO summit is to show the unity and solidarity of the alliance in support of Ukraine.

It will be filled with the most flowery words you can imagine. But it’s also important because we think Russia believes it can expect Western support for Ukraine. And really the main task of this summit is to tell President Vladimir Putin: “That’s not going to happen.”

What will you watch at the summit?

For me, the most important thing that will happen is the political signing of new NATO military plans to contain Russia and protect NATO territory.

After Russia’s annexation of Crimea, in 2014, NATO established these four reinforced forward battalions in Poland and the three Baltic states with about 1,200 troops from various countries in each country, like a trap. . After February 2022, when the war began, NATO then reinforced its forces along the remainder of the eastern flank. Only about 10,300 troops in total.

So part of the plan is to quickly add 4,000 to 5,000 troops to these countries, in case of an emergency.

There is an open question as to whether NATO will extend membership to Ukraine. Do you expect movement on it?

NATO will not offer Ukraine membership in Vilnius. That won’t happen.

One possible compromise, obviously not enough for the Ukrainians, is that Ukraine will be promised that like Sweden and Finland, it can join NATO without going through a membership action plan. . But that doesn’t give a timeframe for when Ukraine will become a member.

We expect Ukraine to be upgraded in its relationship with NATO in the form of a council. A council that would give Ukrainians the opportunity to attend every important NATO meeting. That is very important. Ukraine will be able to participate in nearly all NATO meetings and on the council will have equal status with other members.

How do you think NATO will solve the China problem?

I don’t think the joint communique will be much different from the Madrid statement last year, when NATO Calling China a ‘challenge’ for the first time.

In NATO terms, it’s really about trying to ensure that the alliance is aware of threats to transatlantic relations. That includes arctic routesindustrial espionage of China and not too dependent on China for key raw materials.

But NATO is not intended to be established in Asia. The French have stated again quite strongly that NATO is a transatlantic organization and that it should not cause much trouble in Asia – and that Europe’s interests in Asia are not quite the same as those of Europe. US interests.

Yellen ends visit to China

After a 10-hour meeting over two days in Beijing, Finance Minister Janet Yellen said that the US and China will have communicate more often at the highest level. At a press conference yesterday, she said she believes countries are standing firmer, despite “significant disagreements”.

The desire for more dialogue has been seen by some analysts as an important development, but many experts in both China and the US warn against expecting much change. Notably, Yellen left Beijing yesterday without any announcement of breakthroughs or agreements aimed at healing the nagging rifts between the two nations.

Detail: Yellen is warmly welcomed in Beijing. She had lunch with a group of Chinese women who are economists and entrepreneurs. Yellen also met with Chinese experts on climate finance. Chinese state media wrote about her use impressive chopsticks.

North Korean defectors struggle to flee China

Most North Korean defectors try to get to South Korea via China. But Beijing’s expanding surveillance status has made it more difficult to evade the authorities.

China uses its powerful surveillance technology to catch people on the run or find illegal foreigners. When China detains North Korean fugitives, it often treats them as illegal migrants rather than refugees, and deports them back north to face retribution.

Vivek Ramaswamy is a Republican presidential candidate in the US — and a Hindu. He is trying to appeal to conservative Christian voters, who make up a significant percentage of the party’s primary electorate, by making the point that faiths have much in common. But for many religious conservatives, difference is a barrier.

Life lived: Yan Mingfu, once Mao’s interpreter, tried to find a peaceful way out of the 1989 confrontation between the Chinese Communist Party and student protesters in Tiananmen Square. He died at the age of 91.

ARTS AND IDEAS

A doomed video game love affair

Seema Ghulam Haider, a married Pakistani woman, fell in love with Sachin Meena, an Indian man, in 2019 while they were playing the popular online game PUBG. She is Muslim; He is a Hindu. A few years later, she and her four children sneaked to India to be with him.

But our time together is so short. Last week, Haider and her children were arrested for illegally entering the country. Meena and his father are also arrested, on more or less charges of conspiring to cover for the enemy. The men could face years in prison.

The couple’s romance fueled nationalist intrigue in both India and Pakistan. It also addresses a religious debate: Interreligious relationships, especially between Hindus and Muslims, are a minefield in both countries. Tensions were so high that even suspicious pigeons that crossed the border were taken into custody for espionage.