Tag: China

U.S., EU search for climate truce — and a united front against China

[ad_1]

After a winter during which the EU threw constant barbs at the U.S. over Biden’s signature climate law and its $369 billion of green incentives, many on both sides of the Atlantic are hoping the visit signals the beginning of a spring thaw. The message from Biden and von der Leyen was that whatever differences they may still have as they try to favor their own clean energy industries, the U.S. and Europe both need to contain the same threat — China, the industry’s global front-runner.
In their statement, Biden and von der Leyen spoke about cooperation — a departure from the economic and trade anxiety that dominated relations the past several months — and singled out China’s “non-market policies and practices” in announcing a dialogue on clean energy.
The dialogue will “coordinate our respective incentive programs so that they are mutually reinforcing,” they said. “Both sides will take steps to avoid any disruptions in transatlantic trade and investment flows that could arise from their respective incentives.”
In a joint statement, the U.S. and EU leaders said they “will deepen our cooperation on diversifying critical mineral and battery supply chains,” noting that official dialogue between the two on the Inflation Reduction Act “has taken practical steps forward on identified challenges to align our approaches.”
Both parties will also align interests to push back on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, with von der Leyen telling Biden the U.S. “helped us enormously when we wanted to get rid of the Russian fossil fuel dependency — you helped us tremendously by delivering more [liquefied natural gas], you helped us through the energy crisis.”
She called it “great that there is such a massive investment in new and clean technologies” and said the EU wants “to match it” with its Green Deal plan, according to the press pool report.
“We welcome the Inflation Reduction Act because it is a massive investment in the green transition moving towards a net zero economy,” she later added in comments to the press after her meeting with Biden.
But while von der Leyen and Biden were talking up cooperation, they continued to circle the wagons back home.

Von der Leyen’s EU executive branch is preparing to propose new targets next week for the share of its clean tech industry that must be met with domestically manufactured products, along with the amount of strategically important minerals it mines.
On Thursday, the EU flipped over decades of careful management of state subsidies, carving out huge new exceptions for clean tech. The moves prompted the director of the Bruegel think tank, Jeromin Zettelmeyer, and several colleagues to call Brussels’ approach “crude protectionism and dirigisme.”
The U.S. climate law is “first of all a battle cry in the competition between economic regions. Who is the strongest at bringing green technologies forward?” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Thursday. “If we don’t address it and pass it, we’re going to lose economically as well.”
Both the EU and U.S. leaders know they are playing catch-up with China — hence the need to jumpstart their domestic industries.
“The world is entering a new industrial age: the age of clean energy technology manufacturing … Currently there is one country [that] is making major, major inroads. It is China,” the head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, told a committee in the European Parliament on Thursday.
But while the will for all-out competition with China is growing, the Americans and Europeans are still trying to work out where they are competing and where they can team up.
The message from Biden and von der Leyen was that more unites them than tears them apart. Divergence of their respective methods for boosting clean energy briefly clouded the reality that, in the long term, both governments eyed the same end goal of fighting climate change and curtailing China’s control of key industries, materials and supply chains.
On Friday, the two allies took a step in that direction with their agreement on minerals.
Europe has been slower to come around to the U.S. worldview that economic cooperation will not sway China on other key matters, said Jake Schmidt, senior strategic director for international climate with the Natural Resources Defense Council. European nations like Germany have been more resistant to closing that door due to their export dependency amid a smaller domestic market, Schmidt said. But he said factors outside the climate space, such as fights over 5G networks and whether China will arm Russian troops in its war in Ukraine, have accelerated the EU’s pessimism about Beijing.
That same premium on finding overseas trade partners partially explains the EU’s initial strong response to Biden’s climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
The U.S. wasn’t going to enact a national carbon price in time to excuse itself from the EU’s emerging greenhouse gas border tariff scheme — itself designed to buoy European companies paying higher prices under the EU’s cap-and-trade system. When the U.S. responded last year with the IRA, it jolted European governments who worried that their national manufacturing champions would sail across the Atlantic, leaving the old country behind.
“It’s like stages of grief,” said Joseph Majkut, director of the energy security and climate program at the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Now we’re over the initial shock.”
The friction chilled talks elsewhere. A parallel negotiation between the U.S. and EU to finalize an agreement by October aims to create standards that would set aside tariffs for steel and aluminum imports made with fewer carbon emissions. Those talks have hit a pause.
The concept was originally conceived in 2021 as a way to promote cleaner steel and global overcapacity, though the unofficial U.S. goal is to squeeze Beijing’s dumping of Chinese steel — which is made with far more coal-fired power. But the EU cooled on that after the IRA, said Philip Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association, a U.S.-based trade group. When the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative drew up a detailed proposal in December, the EU criticized the plan during the private negotiations, Bell said.
“It’s in a difficult place, but we still have got plenty of time,” Bell said, noting that the trade representative’s office and the Commerce Department briefed his organization last month. “I think the temperature will cool down.”
The Biden administration has tried to manage the relationship, first with a dialogue with EU officials to present opportunities for cooperation under the IRA. And it is now doing some heavier lifting to address where it can still carve out lanes for the EU to take advantage of the IRA.
The Treasury Department, for example, is conceiving of a workaround to the law’s $3,750 electric vehicle tax credit for battery minerals from nations that have a free-trade agreement with the U.S. — something the EU does not have. But it is not clear that the executive branch can unilaterally grant such wiggle room to the EU, said Emily Benson, a CSIS senior fellow who focuses on trade.
“Low-hanging fruit is for the EU to acknowledge that the EV tax credit is not as alliance shattering as they’ve made it out to be,” she said. “That will really clear up the pathway for more intensive negotiations elsewhere.”
Recent analyses have suggested the IRA’s trade effects will be more muted than assumed. Climate research firm Rhodium Group said between 7 percent and 11 percent of the law’s funding directly supports U.S. manufacturing that competes with European firms. It said bonuses for domestically produced and sourced products covers between 9 percent and 15 percent of the law’s spending, though it acknowledged that the electric vehicle incentives created some distortion.
At the same time, European governments have been hearing from companies that they very much enjoy all the IRA can offer them, said Max Gruenig, senior policy adviser with the environmental think tank E3G. That’s of little comfort to governments that would rather have investment and jobs within their own borders, but companies do not think about those boundaries, he said.
The U.S. and EU “have to also accept that the other side does it differently,” he said. “They’re both not small countries or blocs, so they’re not going to fold and go, ‘OK.’”
Gabriel Rinaldi and Barbara Moens contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#U.S #search #climate #truce #united #front #China
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 11, 2023
Major Development: China Brokers Peace Between Iran and Saudi Arabia

[ad_1]
SRINAGAR: In a Himalayan development that will have huge consequences for regional peace and the Muslim world, arch-rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to revive diplomatic relations after a long hiatus. What is interesting, it was China that played the broker. The two countries will unlock their diplomatic missions within the next 60 days.
Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed to resume diplomatic relations after four days of intensive previously undisclosed talks in Beijing.
“The three countries announce that an agreement has been reached between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, that includes an agreement to resume diplomatic relations between them and re-open their embassies and missions within a period not exceeding two months, and the agreement includes their affirmation of the respect for the sovereignty of states and the non-interference in internal affairs of states,” a joint statement issued by the three countries earlier in the day said. “They also agreed that the ministers of foreign affairs of both countries shall meet to implement this, arrange for the return of their ambassadors, and discuss means of enhancing bilateral relations.”
The joint statement was the outcome of negotiations that, n the final leg, continued for five days. “The deal was abruptly announced after five days of intensive and secret talks in the Chinese capital Beijing,” Tehran Times reported. “It was signed by Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Musaad bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, the Saudi National Security Advisor, and Wang Yi, Member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Director of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee.”
This China-mediated Iran-Saudi Arabia reconciliation is a black swan event-a surprise, rare watershed moment for international relations that’ll have major ripple effects across the globe, including South Asia-especially Pakistan-where Iran-KSA rivalry has played out heavily.
— Michael Kugelman (@MichaelKugelman) March 10, 2023
“The three countries expressed their keenness to exert all efforts towards enhancing regional and international peace and security,” the statement concluded.
The two countries snapped diplomatic ties on January 3, 2016, a day after Saudi embassy was stormed by angry Iranian protestors following the execution of a Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia. On January 2, 2016, Riyadh executed nearly 50 people including prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr.
Post-cold war between the two, oil facilities in both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates came under attack by actors believed to be Iran-backed, including Yemen’s Houthi rebels, with whom, Riyadh is engaged directly.
Amid lowest ever ties and “proxy wars”, efforts at revving relations has been going on since April 2021. For the first time the two countries had a meeting in Baghdad on April 9, 2021 and the process continues and four rounds take place till ran pulls out on March 13, 2022, after fresh executions in Saudi Arabia. So far, five rounds of talks were held in Iraq, with Oman supporting the reconciliation. The final round of talks was going on in Beijing since March 6.
“The move comes as China expands its diplomatic outreach in the Arab world. In December, Chinese President Xi Jinping was welcomed in Riyadh in an extravagant ceremony as part of a visit that brought together 14 Arab heads of state,” American broadcaster, CNN reported from Abu Dhabi. “That was just months after a relatively low-key meeting with US President Joe Biden, whose relationship with Saudi Arabia has been frosty.”

China brokering peace between arch rivals is being seen as a bold diplomatic position. Interestingly, Iran was already facing music from the US and, off late, Saudi Kingdom had been lukewarm towards the major global power.
In a statement on its website, the Chinese foreign ministry quoted top diplomat Wang Yi as saying the agreement represented “a victory of dialogue and peace”.
“This shows that the Ukraine issue is not the only problem the world faces today,” Wang was quoted saying by South China Morning Post. “[We face] many problems related to peace and people’s livelihood that deserve international attention, and timely handling by the relevant stakeholders. But regardless of their complexity and difficulties, they can be resolved through dialogue on equal footing and with mutual respect.”
Wang said Chinese President Xi Jinping guided the talks from the beginning, and the agreement between the three parties was testimony to the merits of Beijing’s “recent proposal” on handling international affairs. China, it may be recalled here sources 40 per cent of its fuel requirements from the Gulf.
“China’s role in hosting the talks that led to a breakthrough in a longstanding regional rivalry highlights the country’s growing economic and political importance in the Middle East, a region that was long shaped by the military and diplomatic involvement of the United States,” The New York Times reported. “The rivalry between the two Islamic nations, which are less than 150 miles away from each other across the Persian Gulf, has long shaped politics and trade in the Middle East. It has a sectarian dimension — a majority of Saudi Arabia’s population is Sunni, while Iran’s is overwhelmingly Shiite — but has predominantly played out via proxy conflicts in neighbouring Yemen, Iraq and Lebanon, where Iran has supported militias that Saudi officials say have destabilized the region.”

[ad_2]
#Major #Development #China #Brokers #Peace #Iran #Saudi #Arabia
( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

March 10, 2023
The U.S. to Europe: It’s about you, but it’s also about China

[ad_1]
On the pledges side, U.S. officials are assuring Europeans their companies will get access to some tax credits and subsidies from a landmark U.S. climate bill passed last year.
But Europe’s response has been ambivalent at best, with many countries hesitant to pull away from the profitable Chinese market — not least Germany, which has strong trade links.
The back-and-forth has laid bare the lingering divisions between the United States and European countries on how to address the growing economic power and military might of China.
“The Europeans have already experienced deep economic trauma because of cutting off Russia. They cannot imagine cutting off China,” said Heather Conley, a former State Department official overseeing European and Eurasian Affairs in the George W. Bush administration.
But as the U.S. pressure on Europe mounts and intelligence on China becomes more concerning, there are signs the American campaign could be bearing fruit. Germany has said it is reviewing whether it should continue to use equipment from China’s Huawei and ZTE; the Netherlands said Wednesday it will block the sale of advanced chips printers to China.
Conley argued that getting more from Europe requires a reimagining of U.S. policy priorities.
“This is where the United States has to create an alternative where we’re working to strengthen Europe and our allies in Asia,” said Conley, who’s now president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She argued that means designing legislation on technology, critical minerals and supply chains that keeps the needs of allies in mind — something recent U.S. legislation, with its emphasis on American industry, has not done.
European officials are hoping to make progress toward securing an agreement on EU access to the made-in-America subsidies program created by the Inflation Reduction Act. The two sides are now hashing out a special exemption that would give EU companies the same access to the incentives the U.S. is offering free-trade partners like Canada and Mexico. A final agreement is not expected this week, however, with any changes possibly needing a presidential executive order, given that there is no appetite in Washington to re-open the IRA.

In exchange, the EU is touting the idea of a critical raw materials “club” — a group of like-minded countries who would get together to combat China’s dominance in the field.
Europe in particular has a dearth of raw minerals such as lithium and cobalt — crucial materials that are components in everything from car batteries to solar panels. Von der Leyen focused heavily on the idea during a visit to Canada on Tuesday, suggesting that Canada could offer Europe badly-needed resources. “China produces 98 percent of Europe’s supplies of rare earths,” she said. “Europe needs to de-risk this dependency.”
An EU official stressed this is a shared objective. “Both sides want a green transition. Both sides want to keep in check non-market economies,” said the official, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in an interview that goal “is as important for us as it is for the EU or any of our other partners.”
U.S. officials denied that Biden is linking friendlier U.S. trade policies with expectations of European action on China.
“The EU makes its own decisions,” a White House National Security Council spokesperson said. “There is unprecedented alignment between the U.S. and Europe on concerns posed by the People’s Republic of China, and we continue to coordinate with them on that.”
A senior official from the State Department stressed that getting Europeans on board with a tougher approach to China has been a focus of the Biden administration from its start, and that the administration believes the Europeans are much closer to the U.S. point of view now than before.
“This isn’t something we woke up to two weeks ago,” the official said. “The Europeans are with us. We’re working on this together precisely because we now have this convergence that we previously did not.”
Another U.S. official, who, like others, was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic issues, said the administration isn’t “looking at it as a transactional thing. ‘You take China seriously and we give you X.’”
“Instead, we are in some ways relying on our approach to the Ukraine war: Sharing intel, engaging in a steady back and forth dialogue, and warning about an overreliance or dependencies on any country, whether it is Russia or China,” the official said.
Any moves Europe does make could still fall far short of what the Biden administration wants in terms of isolating China economically.
“They are betting that Europe will really step up and materially contribute to confronting China. Yet the leaders of Europe’s largest economies are openly saying they are not interested in decoupling and by extension, meaningful sanctions on China in the event of conflict,” said Elbridge Colby, a former Defense Department official who has advocated a more hawkish U.S. policy on China. “So if the Biden administration thinks that their policy on Europe is working in light of the China challenge, there’s a huge disconnect.”
Von der Leyen said as recently as January at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the EU wants to “de-risk” but not “de-couple” from China. But there are signs that EU policy toward China is hardening. EU officials have signaled in recent weeks that the bloc is prepared to sanction China if Beijing crosses their red line and provides weapons to Russia.
U.S. diplomats from London to Vienna to Berlin have shared China-related intelligence with their European counterparts to try to convince them that Beijing is considering sending weapons and to take a tougher economic and political stance on the country.
The new intelligence, which has been briefed to U.S. officials in the last month, indicates that China is considering sending drones, ammunition and other small arms to Moscow in an attempt to aid its effort in Ukraine. The intelligence also touches on the extent to which Russia is running low on certain weapons and ammunition and is becoming increasingly desperate for foreign help. Moscow has in recent months brokered deals with Iran and North Korea to help prop up its battlefield operations. U.S. officials are concerned that Beijing could be next.
It’s possible that U.S. officials are sharing different levels of intelligence with different countries or institutions. A country like Britain, which is a member of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, for instance, is likely to have more access than others not in that club.
One European diplomat said “yep” when asked by POLITICO if the U.S. is offering evidence to back up its claims that China is mulling sending weapons to Russia. A U.S. diplomat said the reactions among European officials has been one of “concern” because they take American intelligence seriously — especially after the U.S. correctly warned of Russia’s impending full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Von der Leyen spurred confusion on Sunday by saying the United States had offered “no evidence” so far about China’s suspected considerations.
But a spokesperson for von der Leyen stressed Tuesday that she was talking about the body she leads — the European Commission. That doesn’t preclude U.S. intelligence-sharing with individual European member states.
At the same Sunday press conference with von der Leyen, Germany’s Scholz declared that China had offered assurances that it would not send weapons to Russia.
In the diplomatic conversations with their European counterparts, U.S. officials have raised the potential for additional future sanctions on Chinese entities already thought to be violating existing U.S. sanctions related to Russia, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the matter.
If China decides to provide lethal weapons to Russia — Europe’s main geopolitical foe on the continent — it’s likely that the EU would respond forcefully, said Max Bergmann, a former State Department official, now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“This isn’t really about China for the Europeans. This is about Russia,” Bergmann said. “I don’t think the United States would have to do much of a sales job to convince Europe to respond.
Doug Palmer contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
#U.S #Europe #China
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 9, 2023
Google now begins laying off employees in China

[ad_1]
Hong Kong: Google is now laying off employees in China that have hit senior positions and high-paying workers as part of the global announcement, the media reported on Monday.
The aim of the company is to “reset the salary standard and reduce operating costs while improving overall work efficiency”, reports Pandaily.
The compensations include stock and annual leave discount and 30,000 yuan ($4,339) in cash and medical insurance, and these benefits can only be obtained by signing the agreement of leaving the company before March 10, the report noted.
“In addition, Google has provided a three-month buffer period for laid-off employees, during which they cannot work but will continue to be paid normally,” it added.
Alphabet, Google’s parent company, recently laid off 12,000 workers and even 100 robots that cleaned its cafeterias at its headquarters. The company sacked about 400 employees in India as part of the global announcement.
On January 20, Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed in a letter to employees that about 12,000 people will be laid off globally, accounting for more than 6 per cent of the total workforce.
Several Google employees went to social media, especially LinkedIn, to share their plight.
Denying that the layoffs were done “randomly”, Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai had said that he is “deeply sorry” for reducing the workforce.

In an email to employees, Pichai said he takes “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here”.
The layoffs at Google’s parent company were expected amid the deepening funding winter that has hit companies of all sizes in the global slowdown and recession fears.
[ad_2]
#Google #begins #laying #employees #China
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 6, 2023
China continues to block efforts to determine Covid’s origins, lawmakers say

[ad_1]

Other U.S. agencies, though, have said they think it was probably due to natural transmission from animals to humans.
“We have so few facts that, inevitably, different agencies are going to arrive at different conclusions,” Himes said.
Himes is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. His view was shared by the panel’s chair, Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio).
“There’s no direct evidence, we don’t have China admitting it, we don’t have Wuhan Lab handing these things over,” Turner said, referring to the city that is home to several laboratories and where the virus first circulated in late 2019.
Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) also blamed China’s refusal to be open and honest about Covid-19 for continuing questions about its origin.
“If this virus had originated virtually anywhere else, we would have had world scientists there,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
He also told host Shannon Bream: “You know, at the end of the day, we’ve got to keep looking, and we’ve got to make sure, in terms of future pandemics, that we can have access to where the source of these diseases originate a lot earlier on.”
Debate over Covid-19’s origins has political implications, with the latest reports fueling demands in conservative circles for China to be punished in one way or another for unleashing it. More than a million deaths in the United States have been attributed to the coronavirus; the worldwide total is approaching 7 million.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said last Monday that the U.S. government still had not reached a consensus on how the pandemic started. President Joe Biden did not address the subject last week.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the Energy Department report supported the view he took back in 2020 when he was part of the Trump administration.
“Make no mistake, this is a Chinese virus that came from the laboratory,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Pompeo also asserted that U.S. funding for international research might have played a part in the development of the virus — a theory that Anthony Fauci, the now-retired top pandemic medical adviser, rejected when it first surfaced — and that China’s leadership had made it difficult to know “the full scope” of what occurred by destroying documents and censoring journalists.
A different perspective on the various origin theories came from Leana Wen, former health commissioner of the city of Baltimore and a professor at George Washington University.
“I think at this point there is circumstantial evidence on both sides,” she said on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS,” “but there is one thing that the intelligence community has found and, in fact, has been unanimously saying since early on, which is that this was not intentional. This was not a bio weapon or something that China or scientists or whatever politicians or political leaders were trying to do.”
[ad_2]
#China #continues #block #efforts #determine #Covids #origins #lawmakers
( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 6, 2023
China hikes defence budget

[ad_1]
Beijing: China on Sunday hiked its defence budget by 7.2 per cent, marginally higher than last year, to 1.55 trillion yuan (about USD 224 billion), marking the eighth consecutive year of increase in its military spending.
China last year pegged its defence budget at 1.45 trillion yuan, a 7.1 per cent increase. This year the defence spending is increased to 1.55 trillion yuan.
However, in view of the appreciation of the dollar against the yuan, this year’s defence spending of China totalled about USD 224 billion compared to last year’s USD 230 billion.
This is the eighth consecutive year that China has announced a single-digit percentage point increase in its military budget.
In his work report presented to the opening session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) – the country’s rubber-stamp parliament – outgoing Premier Li Keqiang called for the armed forces to boost combat preparedness.
China’s armed forces, with a focus on the goals for the centenary of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in 2027, should work to carry out military operations, boost combat preparedness and enhance military capabilities so as to accomplish the tasks entrusted to them by the CPC (Chinese Communist Party ) and the people, Li said.
The armed forces should intensify military training and preparedness across the board, develop new military strategic guidance, devote greater energy to training under combat conditions, and make well-coordinated efforts to strengthen military work in all directions and domains, Li said.
China is the second biggest spender on defence next to the US whose defence budget for 2023 totalled USD 816 billion.

From India’s point of view, however, China’s defence budget continued to be over three times higher. India’s defence budget for 2023-24 amounted to Rs 5.94 lakh crore (about USD 72.6 billion).
Aided by increasing defence budgets, the two-million-strong PLA, the world’s largest military, is increasingly getting powerful and assertive with the ever-expanding military modernisation of its Army, Navy and Air Force.
The Chinese military is headed by President Xi Jinping, who is the Chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission, the overall high command of the PLA.
Xi, 69, the only Chinese leader to have been elected for an unprecedented third term five-year term by the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) in October last year, also heads the party besides the Presidency.
Under his leadership, the Chinese military has embarked on a massive military modernisation with a goal to be on par with the US armed forces in the next few years.
The Chinese Navy, the fast-expanding arm of the Chinese military, has now three aircraft carriers while its Air Force continued to be modernised with a vast variety of military jets including stealth jet fighters.
Ahead of the NPC session, its spokesman Wang Chao on Saturday defended China’s steady increases in annual defence budgets saying that the country’s defence spending as a share of the GDP was lower than the world average.
China has been ramping up its defence expenditure as it vied with the US for global influence.
Wang said the increase in the defence budget is needed to meet the complex security challenges for China to fulfil its responsibilities as a major country.
China’s military modernisation will not be a threat to any country but a positive force safeguarding regional stability and world peace, he said.
[ad_2]
#China #hikes #defence #budget
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 5, 2023
China slams Quad meeting held in New Delhi; opposes ‘exclusionary blocs’

[ad_1]
Beijing: China on Friday renewed its criticism of the Quad grouping comprising the US, India, Australia and Japan, saying that state-to-state cooperation should be consistent with the trend of peace and development, rather than putting up “exclusionary blocs.”
The Quad foreign ministers carried out a comprehensive review of the situation in the Indo-Pacific at a meeting in New Delhi on Friday. Presided over by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, the meeting was attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, his Japanese counterpart Yoshimasa Hayashi and Australian foreign minister Penny Wong.
The meeting came against the backdrop of growing global concerns over increasing Chinese assertiveness in the strategically-vital region.
A joint statement issued after the meeting reaffirmed the four-nation grouping’s commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific and said it strongly supports the principles of rule of law, sovereignty and territorial integrity and peaceful settlement of disputes.
Responding to the Quad statement at a media briefing here, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said China has stated its position on QUAD on multiple occasions.
“We believe that state-to-state cooperation needs to be consistent with the trend of peace and development, rather than be about putting up exclusionary blocs,” she said.
“We hope certain countries can do more things that contribute to security and mutual trust between regional countries and that help to maintain regional peace and stability,” Mao said, reaffirming Beijing’s oft-repeated opposition to the Quad that it is an exclusive bloc aimed at containing China’s rise.
In November 2017, India, Japan, the US, and Australia gave shape to the long-pending proposal of setting up the Quad to develop a new strategy to keep the critical sea routes in the Indo-Pacific free of any influence.

US President Joe Biden hosted the first-ever summit of the Quad leaders in the virtual format in March 2021 that vowed to strive for an Indo-Pacific region that is free, open, inclusive, anchored by democratic values, and unconstrained by coercion, sending a subtle message to China.
Beijing claims almost all of the 1.3 million square miles of the South China Sea as its sovereign territory. China has been building military bases on artificial islands in the region also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
On China’s reluctance, along with Russia, to endorse a joint statement on the Ukraine war at the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting in New Delhi on Thursday, spokesperson Mao said G20 is a premier forum for international economic cooperation.
The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi was unable to come out with a joint communique due to a bitterly increasing rift between the US-led Western powers and Russia over the Ukraine conflict despite consistent efforts by host India to bridge the differences.
“The G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Leaders of member states made it clear in the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration last year that the G20 is not the forum to resolve security issues,” Mao said.
China believes that the G20 should work to follow through on the leaders’ consensus, focus on its mandate and main function, and contribute to promoting stable, inclusive and sustainable economic recovery, she added.
“We also noted that G20 members have varying views on the Ukraine issue. We hope that G20 members will respect each other’s concerns and send a message of solidarity and cooperation instead of division and mutual recrimination,” she added.
About China’s views on the outcome of the New Delhi meeting of the G20 Foreign Ministers, she said: It was an important event, especially considering the uncertainties and challenges facing today’s world.
“China hopes that the G20 will demonstrate its sense of responsibility and contribute to global development and prosperity,” she added.
Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang took part in the meeting.
The G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies.
The members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
[ad_2]
#China #slams #Quad #meeting #held #Delhi #opposes #exclusionary #blocs
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 3, 2023
Germany’s Scholz says China ‘declared it will not deliver’ weapons to Russia

[ad_1]

MESEBERG, Germany — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday said China had declared it won’t supply Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine, suggesting that Berlin has received bilateral assurances from Beijing on the issue.
Scholz was speaking at a press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who told reporters that the EU has received “no evidence” so far from the U.S. that Beijing is considering supplying lethal support to Moscow.
Senior U.S. officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken have expressed deep concern in recent weeks that China could provide weapons such as kamikaze drones to Russia, which in turn triggered warnings to Beijing from EU politicians. Scholz himself urged Beijing last week to refrain from such actions and instead use its influence to convince Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.
Yet speaking at Sunday’s press conference, which was held at the German government retreat in Meseberg north of Berlin, Scholz claimed that China had provided assurances that it would not send weapons to Russia.
“We all agree that there should be no arms deliveries, and the Chinese government has declared that it will not deliver any either,” the chancellor said in response to a question by POLITICO. “We insist on this and we are monitoring it,” he added.
Scholz’s comments came as a surprise because China has not publicly rejected the possibility of weapons deliveries to Russia. The chancellor appeared to suggest that Beijing had issued such reassurances directly to Germany.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell received similar private assurances last month. Borrell told reporters that China’s top diplomat Wang Yi had told him in a private discussion at the Munich Security Conference in mid-February that China “will not provide arms to Russia.”
“Nevertheless, we have to remain vigilant,” Borrell said.

Von der Leyen, who attended the first day of a two-day German government retreat in Meseberg, told reporters that the EU still had not seen any proof that China is considering sending arms to Russia.
“So far, we have no evidence of this, but we have to observe it every day,” the Commission president said. She did not reply to the question on whether the EU would support sanctions against China should there be such weapon deliveries, saying that was a “hypothetical question” she would not answer.
Stuart Lau contributed reporting.

[ad_2]
#Germanys #Scholz #China #declared #deliver #weapons #Russia
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 2, 2023
Biden rebuffs UK bid for closer cooperation on tech

[ad_1]
Press play to listen to this article
Voiced by artificial intelligence.
LONDON — Britain was rebuffed by the Biden administration after multiple requests to develop an advanced trade and technology dialogue similar to structures the U.S. set up with the European Union.
On visits to Washington as a Cabinet minister over the past two years, Liz Truss urged U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and senior Biden administration officials to intensify talks with the U.K. to build clean technology supply chains and boost collaboration on artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors.
After Truss became prime minister in fall 2022, the idea was floated again when Raimondo visited London last October, people familiar with the conversations told POLITICO. But fear of angering the U.S.’s European partners and the U.K.’s diminished status outside the EU post-Brexit have posed barriers to influencing Washington.

Businesses, lawmakers and experts worry the U.K. is being left on the sidelines.
“We tried many times,” said a former senior Downing Street official, of the British government’s efforts to set up a U.K. equivalent to the U.S.-E.U. Trade and Technology Council (TTC), noting Truss’ overtures began as trade chief in July 2021. They requested anonymity to speak on sensitive issues.
“We did speak to Gina Raimondo about that, saying ‘we think it would be a good opportunity,’” said the former official — not necessarily to join the EU-U.S. talks directly, “but to increase trilateral cooperation.”
Set up in June 2021, the TTC forum co-chaired by Raimondo, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. trade chief Katherine Tai gives their EU counterparts, Margrethe Vestager and Valdis Dombrovskis, a direct line to shape tech and trade policy.
The U.S. is pushing forward with export controls on advanced semiconductors to China; forging new secure tech supply chains away from Beijing; and spurring innovation through subsidies for cutting-edge green technology and microprocessors.
The TTC’s 10 working groups with the EU, Raimondo said in an interview late last year, “set the standards,” though Brussels has rebuffed Washington’s efforts to use the transatlantic body to go directly after Beijing.
But the U.K. “is missing the boat on not being completely engaged in that dialogue,” said a U.S.-based representative of a major business group. “There has been some discussion about the U.K. perhaps joining the TTC,” they confirmed, and “it was kind of mooted, at least in private” with Raimondo by the Truss administration on her visit to London last October.
The response from the U.S. had been ‘’let’s work with what we’ve got at the moment,’” said the former Downing Street official.
Even if the U.S. does want to talk, “they don’t want to irritate the Europeans,” the same former official added. Right now the U.K.’s conversations with the U.S. on these issues are “ad hoc” under the new Atlantic Charter Boris Johnson and Joe Biden signed around the G7 summit in 2021, they said, and “nothing institutional.”
Last October, Washington and London held the first meeting of the data and tech forum Johnson and Biden set up | Pool photo by Olivier Matthys/AFP via Getty Images
Securing British access to the U.S.-EU tech forum or an equivalent was also discussed when CBI chief Tony Danker was in Washington last July, said people familiar with conversations during his visit.
The U.K.’s science and tech secretary, Michelle Donelan, confirmed the British government had discussed establishing a more regular channel for tech and trade discussions with the U.S., both last October and more recently. “My officials have just been out [to the U.S.],” she told POLITICO. “They’ve had very productive conversations.”
A U.K. government spokesperson said: “The U.K. remains committed to working closely with the U.S. and EU to further our shared trade and technology objectives, through the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the U.S.-U.K. Future of Atlantic Trade dialogues, and the U.K.-U.S. technology partnership.
“We will continue to advance U.K. interests in trade and technology and explore further areas of cooperation with partners where it is mutually beneficial.”
Britain the rule-taker?
Last October, Washington and London held the first meeting of the data and tech forum Johnson and Biden set up. Senior officials hoped to get a deal securing the free flow of data between the U.S. and U.K. across the line and addressed similar issues as the TTC.
They couldn’t secure the data deal. The U.K. is expected to join a U.S.-led effort to expand data transfer rules baked into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trading agreement as soon as this year, according to a former and a current British official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The next formal meeting between the U.K. and U.S. is penciled in for January 2024.
Ongoing dialogue “is vital to secure an overarching agreement on U.K.-U.S. data flows, without which modern day business cannot function,” said William Bain, head of trade policy at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC). “It would also provide an opportunity to set the ground rules around a host of other technological developments.”
In contrast, the U.S. and EU are always at work, with TTC officials in constant contact with the operation — though questions have been raised about how long-term the transatlantic cooperation is likely to prove, ahead of next year’s U.S. presidential election.
“Unless you have a structured system or setup, often overseen by ministers, you don’t really get the drive to actually get things done,” said the former Downing Street official.
Right now cooperation with the U.S. on tech issues is not as intense or structured as desired, the same former official said, and is “not really brought together” in one central forum.
Britain has yet to publish a formal semiconductor strategy | Thomas Coex/AFP via Getty Images
“This initiative [the TTC] between the world’s two regulatory powerhouses risks sidelining the U.K.,” warned lawmakers on the UK parliament’s foreign affairs committee in a report last October. Britain may become “a rule-taker rather than a rule-maker,” MPs noted, citing the government’s “ambiguous” position on technology standards. Britain has yet to publish a formal semiconductor strategy, and others on critical minerals — like those used in EV batteries — or AI are also missing.
Over the last two years, U.S. trade chief Tai has “spoken regularly to her three successive U.K. counterparts to identify and tackle shared economic and trade priorities,” said a spokesperson for the U.S. Trade Representative, adding “we intend to continue strengthening this partnership in the years to come.”
All eyes on Europe
For its part, the EU has to date shown little interest in closer cooperation with the U.K.
Three European Commission officials disregarded the likelihood of Britain joining the club, though one of those officials said that London may be asked to join — alongside other like-minded countries — for specific discussions related to ongoing export bans against Russia.
Even with last week’s breakthrough over the Northern Ireland protocol calming friction between London and Brussels, the U.K. was not a priority country for involvement in the TTC, added another of the EU officials.
“The U.K. was extremely keen to be part of a dialogue of some sort of equivalent of TTC,” said a senior business representative in London, who requested anonymity to speak about sensitive issues.
U.K. firms see “the Holy Grail” as Britain, the U.S. and EU working together on this, they said. “We’re very keen to see a triangular dialogue at some point.”
The U.K.’s haggling with the EU over the details of the Northern Ireland protocol governing trade in the region has posed “a political obstacle” to realizing that vision, they suggested.
Yet with a solution to the dispute announced in late February, the same business figure said, “there will be a more prominent push to work together with the U.K.”
TTC+
Some trade experts think the U.K. would increase its chances of accession to the TTC if it submitted a joint request with other nations.
But prior to that happening, “I think the EU-U.S. TTC will need to first deliver bilaterally,” said Sabina Ciofu, an international tech policy expert at the trade body techUK.
Representatives speak to the media following the Trade and Technology Council Meeting in Maryland | Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
When there is momentum, Ciofu said, the U.K. should join forces with Japan, South Korea and other advanced economies to ask for a TTC+ that could include the G7 or other partners. At the last TTC meeting in December, U.S. and EU officials said they were open to such an expansion around specific topics that had global significance.
But not all trade experts think this is essential. Andy Burwell, director of international trade at the CBI, said he doesn’t “think it necessarily matters” whether the U.K. has a structured conversation with the U.S. like the TTC forum.
Off the back of a soon-to-be-published refresh of the Integrated Review — the U.K.’s national security and foreign policy strategy — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak should instead seize the opportunity, Burwell said, to pinpoint where Britain is “going to own, collaborate and have access to various aspects of the supply chains.”
The G7, Burwell said, “could be the right platform for having some of those conversations.”
Yet the “danger with the ad hoc approach with lots of different people is incoherence,” said the former Downing Street official quoted above.
Too many countries involved in setting the standards can, the former official said, “create difficulty in leveraging what you want — which is all of the countries agreeing together on a certain way forward … especially when you’re dealing with issues that relate to, for example, China.”
Mark Scott, Annabelle Dickson and Tom Bristow contributed reporting.

[ad_2]
#Biden #rebuffs #bid #closer #cooperation #tech
( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

March 2, 2023
G20 meet: FMs of Saudi Arabia, China, Spain arrive in India

[ad_1]
New Delhi: Foreign Ministers of Saudi Arabia, China, Indonesia, Spain and Croatia on Thursday arrived in India to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting being held in New Delhi from March 1-2.
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jose Manuel Albares Bueno, and Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman on Thursday arrived in India for the meeting.
The Director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, also arrived for the foreign minister’ meeting on Thursday.
“Greetings to FM Qin Gang of China, FM @Menlu_RI of Indonesia @Kemlu_RI, FM @FaisalbinFarhan of Saudi Arabia @KSAmofaEN and DG @wto @NOIweala on their arrival in India for the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. FMs of Indonesia & Saudi Arabia will also join #Raisina2023,” Ministry of External Affairs Official Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi tweeted on Thursday.
UAE’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Shoukry and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday arrived in India to participate in the G20FMM.
“Welcome to India, FM Sameh Shoukry of Egypt @MfaEgypt, FM @ABZayed of UAE @MoFAICUAE and @SecBlinken of USA @StateDept. Looking forward to deliberations at the #G20FMM. @SecBlinken & FM Shoukry will also participate in #Raisina2023,” Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said in a tweet on Wednesday.
Earlier on Wednesday, Foreign ministers of Canada, Argentina, Netherlands, Singapore and Bangladesh also arrived in Delhi for the meeting.
The G20FMM will be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre and nearly 40 delegations are expected to participate in the meeting.

This will be second ministerial meeting being held under India’s Presidency so far. The first ministerial meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors was held in Bengaluru.
Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said it is one of the largest gathering of Foreign Ministers hosted by any G20 presidency.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
[ad_2]
#G20 #meet #FMs #Saudi #Arabia #China #Spain #arrive #India
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 2, 2023