Tag: President

US Vice President Kamala Harris visits her Indian grandfather’s house in Zambia

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Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris remembered her maternal grandfather P V Gopalan and visited his family house in Zambia’s capital Lusaka where he lived as an Indian Foreign Service official in the 1960s during her trip to the African country.
Born in Chennai in 1911, Gopalan was an advisor to first President of Zambia Kenneth Kaunda and served as Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the 1960s.
“My visit to Zambia has a special significance for me, as many of you know, and for my family. As you know, I visited Zambia, Mr President, as a young girl when my grandfather worked here,” Harris told reporters in Lusaka at a joint news conference with Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema.
“In 1966, shortly after Zambia’s independence, he came to Lusaka to serve as a director of relief measures and refugees. That was his title. He served as an advisor to Zambia’s first president, Kenneth Kaunda. And he was an expert on refugee resettlement,” she said.
While in Lusaka in the 1960s, Gopalan lived at 16 Independence Avenue, where 58-year-old Harris visited as a little girl.
Though the numbering of addresses has since changed and the location was ultimately identified using plot numbers in public records and land surveys, according to a White House official.
“I remember my time here fondly. I was a child, so it is the memory of a child. But I remember being here and just how it felt, the warmth and the excitement that was present,” Harris said.
She said she spoke to her aunt recently who reminded her of the relationships she made while working at a hospital in Lusaka.

“So, from my family and from all of us, we extend our greetings and hello to everyone here,” Harris added.
Gopalan was deputed to the government of Zambia as the Director of Relief Measures and Refugees in January 1966 by the Indian government.
To perform these duties, he relinquished his role as the head of the office of the joint secretary in the Ministry of Rehabilitation.
He resumed charge of the Office of the Joint Secretary to the government of India in the Ministry of Rehabilitation in July 1969, on reversion from the government of Zambia.
He helped Zambia manage an influx of refugees from Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
After much effort, the US embassy in Lusaka, while working with the Vice President’s office, located the spot they believe Gopalan lived. It was the land where his house was, not the structure which is no longer there, the White House official said.
The US Embassy in Lusaka pursued research to identify the location of this home, including going through public records, engaging with Zambian and Indian authorities, and speaking with those who worked in the Zambian government at the time, said the official on condition of anonymity.
“In addition, members of the Vice President’s family provided recollections about the home, which aided the search. After much work by the Embassy and dead-ends in the search, the Embassy identified this location only a few days ago while the Vice President was in Accra, Ghana,” the official said.
Ultimately, the Zambian Ministry of Lands, with assistance from others, identified 16 Independence Ave as the Gopalan family home, as recorded in a public lands document dated March 9, 1967.
The property now belongs to Madison Group, a Zambian group of companies that include Madison General Insurance and Madison Financial.
Harris, the daughter of an Indian mother and Jamaican father, is the first Black and the first Asian-American woman vice president of the US. She made history when she was sworn in as the 49th US vice president on January 20, 2021.
Her mother Shyamala Gopalan came to the US from Chennai to study science, specifically endocrinology and complex mechanisms of cancer.
Her father Donald grew up in Jamaica, where he became a national scholar and studied economics. Harris was born in Oakland, California.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 1, 2023
Taiwan’s president is coming to America. Political bickering awaits.

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Tsai is stopping in the U.S. on both ends of a Latin America trip. She’ll be in New York for one day Thursday to receive a leadership award from a conservative think tank and will meet with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles on April 5.
It’s Tsai’s seventh such trip to the United States since she became president in 2016, but this one comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing have deteriorated over the spy balloon that recently transited the U.S. and China’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Her visit is making even starker the growing divide between lawmakers who argue for protecting Taiwan at all costs, and an administration that is trying to rein in China without completely derailing a relationship that is already at its frostiest level in decades.
Beijing is calling the visit an affront to U.S.-China relations and a provocation. “The trip is not so much a ‘transit,’… but the U.S. egregiously conniving at and supporting ‘Taiwan independence separatists,’” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday. The spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Zhu Fenglian, added that Beijing will “take measures to resolutely counter” any meeting between Tsai and McCarthy.
Asked Wednesday about McCarthy’s plan to meet with Tsai, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said: “We leave it to Speaker McCarthy to talk to his schedule, his agenda and what he intends to do or not do, particularly in relation to this transit.” Taipei is cooperating by not releasing any details of Tsai’s U.S. schedule.
McCarthy is one of a band of lawmakers who argue the Biden administration isn’t doing enough to show its support for Taiwan. And they’re demanding that the U.S. provide whatever military and diplomatic support necessary to prevent Beijing from attempting to annex the island. Over the past two years, they’ve drafted legislation proposing everything from establishing formal U.S. diplomatic relations with Taiwan to lending U.S. military equipment to Taipei in the event of “preemptive aggression” by China.
The Biden administration “isn’t being strong enough in its support of Taiwan,” said Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.). “Prioritizing U.S.-Taiwan arms sales and training programs today is a prerequisite to deter a PRC attack on Taiwan in the near future.”
That sentiment is bipartisan. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), ranking member of the House Select Committee on China, said the administration needs to expand and strengthen U.S. defense and economic ties with Taiwan, and deliver long-promised weaponry.

The upcoming meeting between McCarthy and Tsai is a prime example of the dynamics. McCarthy had originally announced a plan to visit Taiwan, prompting Beijing to warn that such a trip “could undermine China-U.S. relations or peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.” It was a clear reminder that China responded to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August with days of live-fire aerial and naval drills around the island.
McCarthy responded by saying “I don’t think China can tell me where I can go.” The Biden administration refrained from weighing in. “I’m not aware that the Speaker’s office has announced any planned travel. … They are going to make their own decisions,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in January.
It’s not clear what prompted McCarthy to compromise with the California meeting (and his office didn’t respond to a request for comment). But the White House is clearly worried that Beijing might respond to Tsai’s presence in the U.S. with another surge of threatening military activity around Taiwan. Beijing “should not use this transit as a pretext to step up any aggressive activity around the Taiwan Strait,” Kirby at the National Security Council said on Wednesday. The White House has had “multiple diplomatic discussions with Beijing” about Tsai’s visit to avoid that from happening, Kirby said.
Those discussions haven’t calmed Beijing’s bluster. Tsai’s visit “could lead to another serious, serious, serious confrontation in the China-U.S. relationship,” the chargés d’affaires in the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C., Xu Xueyuan, told reporters on Wednesday. ”Those who play with fire will perish by it,” Xu warned.
Lawmakers do have lapsed promises from the Biden administration to point to in their arguments for more action on Taiwan. Deliveries to Taiwan of billions of dollars in U.S. arms are backlogged due to supply chain issues related to the pandemic and exacerbated by the Ukraine conflict.
“We are already within the window of maximum danger and we need all hands on deck to deter Xi Jinping’s malign designs on Taiwan,” said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chair of the House Select Committee on China, stressing the need to get weapons to Taiwan quickly.
The White House didn’t respond to requests to comment for this story. But Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week that a task force launched in September to untangle snarls in weaponry supply chains is making progress.
Another argument from the lawmakers: Biden’s messaging on Taiwan is confusing to the point where it may be increasing the risk that China invades Taiwan.
Four times since August 2021 Biden has stated that the U.S. would deploy U.S. military forces to defend Taiwan in case of a Chinese invasion attempt. And in every case, aides have walked back comments that appear to reverse the longtime policy of “strategic ambiguity” regarding U.S. willingness to defend Taiwan. That has “managed both to provoke the Chinese and to leave Taiwan without any assurance of American support, a dangerous scenario,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).
A transition to an explicit U.S. policy of guaranteed military support for Taiwan to fend off a Chinese attack — what Cotton calls “strategic clarity” — has backers in Taiwan. “Dictators are prone to misjudge situations because they are biased,” said independent Taiwan legislator Freddy Lim. International support for Taiwan “must be clearer for China to understand at a glance,” Lim said.
Other Taiwanese observers have less charitable views of congressional interest in Taiwan. In the U.S. “Taiwan is already a political football,” said Andrew Nien-Dzu Yang, a former Taiwan defense minister and adjunct assistant professor at National Sun Yat-sen University. The intense U.S. focus on the island reflects how “Taiwan is a bargaining chip for the United States,” Yang said.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 30, 2023
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expected to return to Arab fold

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Nicosia: March has been a month full of surprises in the Middle East, as after the shock created by the announcement that the formerly implacable arch-rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to restore diplomatic relations, the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday that Saudi Arabia and Syria agreed to reopen their embassies, after the Muslim holiday of Eid-al-Fitr (21-22 April).
This means that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been shunned by Arab leaders, due to the crimes perpetrated by his regime against Syrian citizens, is now expected to be welcomed back to the fold and we may soon see him taking part in Arab summits and the Arab League from which he was suspended in 2011.
A few days ago, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud had hinted that the suspension of Syria from the Arab League could be lifted but hastened to add that it was too early to discuss this possibility, as the matter could be examined during the forthcoming meeting of the Arab League in Saudi Arabia in April.
Syria was suspended from the Arab League in November 2011, at the time of the Arab Spring, when the Syrian regime killed about 5,000 protesters and opponents. In the next ten years of the civil war that broke out in the country, various domestic and foreign forces were fighting the government and often each other, resulting in more than 600,000 deaths.
The Bashar al-Assad regime has committed repeated and massive violations of human rights and on some occasions used chemical weapons.
Most Arab countries imposed travel bans on senior officials of the regime and other sanctions, including limitation of investments and dealings with the Central Bank of Syria.
The only Arab governments that refused to apply any sanctions on the Syrian regime were those of Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, where Iran – the ally of Hafez al-Assad – exercises great influence.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, speaking before the UN General Assembly last year, said that the Syrian government was responsible “for massive violations of human rights and international humanitarian law” and added that “the perpetrators of these crimes and the use of chemical weapons against civilians must be held to account.”

Although at the beginning of the war, it seemed that the Assad regime will collapse, the intervention of Iran and mainly Russia, which has been carrying out airstrikes and ground operations in Syria, changed the whole picture and now it has become apparent that the regime will not be defeated.
It should be noted that Saudi Arabia and Qatar sided with some of the rebels, while Turkey fought Islamic State (ISIL), the Kurdish-Arab SDF and the Syrian Army and currently occupies large swathes of land in north-western Syria. The United States fought the ISIL terrorists and sometimes the pro-government forces in Syria.
A growing realization that the Damascus regime has prevailed, compounded by fatigue with the war, has led several Arab governments make second thoughts about the war in Syria and decide that it is in their national interest to restore relations with the Assad regime.
The first country that changed its mind about its relations with Damascus was Tunisia in 2015, followed by the United Arab Emirates which reopened its embassy in Damascus in 2018, saying that Arab countries should be present in Syria and work hard to resolve the conflict. Jordan sent a charge d’ affaires to Damascus in 2019 and Oman followed suit in 2020.
Last month, at the prompting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, announced that Cairo supported the normalization of relations between Arab countries and Syria.
The devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria last month, with tens of thousands of dead and millions of people made homeless, created a wave of sympathy for the victims all over the world and prompted several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, to send hundreds of tons of aid to the quake victims.
The announcement about the planned reopening of Embassies in Damascus and Riyadh made a few weeks after the devastating earthquake and the desperate need for the provision of international assistance to the victims, gave the Saudi Government an opportunity to change its policy on Syria, without losing face, and also to remove one of the reasons of confrontation with Iran, which has been a strong supporter of the Assad regime.
If the rehabilitation of Assad and his return to the Arab fold is made dependent on him accepting the safe return of millions of Syrian refugees from Turkey and elsewhere, it would be easier for many countries to accept that he would no longer be an international pariah for the violations of human rights committed by his regime.
The world opinion would more easily accept the bitter pill that he will not be punished for his crimes, if this will improve the plight of Syrian refugees seeking asylum in foreign lands and will allow them to return to their homeland in safety.
James Dorsey, in an article published in Responsible Statecraft, points out that the Arab proposition to bring Assad in from the cold potentially opens a way out of a quagmire because “it would enhance the leverage of the United States and Europe to ensure that political reform is the cornerstone of Assad’s engagement with elements of the Syrian opposition.
In other words, rather than rejecting any solution that does not involve Assad’s removal from power, the United States and Europe could lift sanctions contingent on agreement and implementation of reforms. Similarly, the US and Europe could make sanctions relief contingent on a safe, uninhibited, and orderly return of refugees.”
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 27, 2023
Pak PM Sharif accuses President Alvi of following dictates of Imran Khan’s party

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Islamabad: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday hit back at President Arif Alvi, accusing him of being partisan and following the dictates of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party instead of remaining neutral as the head of the state.
His comments came two days after President Alvi in a letter on Friday accused the premier of using disproportionate force against politicians, political workers and journalists in recent clashes with former prime minister Imran Khan’s PTI.
The president, who was a member of Khan’s party before assuming the office, had also asked Sharif to direct all authorities to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in holding the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa elections as per the orders of the Supreme Court.
In his five-page letter to President Alvi, Sharif said that he was writing to “set the record of the government straight” and bring the latter’s “partisan attitude” on record.
He said Alvi’s communication in parts read like “a press release of the opposition political party PTI whose one-sided, anti-government views you continue to openly espouse, notwithstanding your constitutional oath/office of President ”.
He said that the president on several occasions violated his oath, including the order of the dissolution of the National Assembly in April last year on direction of then prime minister Imran Khan, and also his failure to discharge his constitutional duty to give oath to Sharif on his election as the prime minister.
“Despite the foregoing and several other instances, where you actively worked towards undermining a constitutionally elected government, I have made all-out efforts to maintain a good working relationship with you. However, the contents of your letter, its tone, and language have compelled me to respond to it,” he stated in the letter.
Sharif said that actions by the law enforcement agencies were in accordance with the law.

“Regrettably and ostensibly due to your party allegiance, you have failed to note the sheer violation of laws, contumacious disregard of court orders, attacking the law enforcement agencies, damaging public property, attempts to create chaos, civil and political unrest, and in short, to bring the country to the brink of economic default and civil war by PTI,” he said.
He said the PTI’s complete disregard of law tarnished the image of Pakistan in the international community and cast negative repercussions on the future of democracy and state of human rights.
He also complained that Alvi as president had not once said anything regarding the conduct of Khan for his “aggressive, rather militant, attitude of a political order in complete defiance of court orders”.
“Regrettably again, you never raised your voice or shared your concerns in the manner that you have in your letter, in the past while the PTI was in power,” he said.
He further stated that Alvi’s reference regarding meaningful consultation between the president and prime minister was “out of place”.
“Mr President, in the exercise of your functions, you must act on and in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet or the Prime Minister under clause (1) of Article 48,” he wrote.
Talking about the election in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, he said that the federal government provided every support to the ECP which is an autonomous body and free to decide about election.
Sharif also said that he was “fully aware” of his duties, asserting that his government was fully committed to preserving, protecting, and defending the Constitution but would not allow anyone to violate the law or create unrest.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 26, 2023
Naveen Paliwal takes charge as AAP president in Rajasthan

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Jaipur: Newly appointed president of the Aam Aadmi Party in Rajasthan Naveen Paliwal Saturday said the party is fighting a battle to change the system and save democracy.
He said AAP will contest the assembly elections with all its might and on coming to power, will provide the people of the state all the facilities that are enjoyed by the public in Punjab and Delhi.
Paliwal was talking to reporters after taking over as the state president of AAP. He expressed his gratitude to the party leadership for entrusting him the responsibility.
Rajasthan election in-charge of AAP Vinay Mishra said the party will fight the elections on the issues of education, health, water, electricity, women’s safety, welfare of the unemployed and farmers, and will defeat both the Congress and the BJP.
He said only Arvind Kejriwal can fight against Narendra Modi to save democracy.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 25, 2023
Saudi Arabia’s King invites Iranian President to visit Riyadh

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Tehran: Just over a week after Tehran and Riyadh agreed to restore diplomatic relations, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud has invited Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to visit Riyadh, a senior official here has confirmed.
Mohammad Jamshidi, deputy chief of staff for political affairs to Raisi, confirmed the development in a tweet on Sunday, saying the invitation was extended to the President from the Saudi monarch in a letter, reports Xinhua news agency.
Jamshidi added the Saudi king said in the letter that he welcomed the recent deal between the two “brotherly countries” on the normalisation of bilateral ties and called for strong economic and regional cooperation between Riyadh and Tehran.
Raisi welcomed the invitation and stressed Iran’s readiness to expand cooperation, the official noted.
China, Saudi Arabia and Iran on March 10 announced that Riyadh and Tehran had reached a deal that included the agreement to resume diplomatic relations and reopen embassies and missions within two months.
Also on Sunday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told reporters that the two countries had agreed to hold a meeting at the Foreign Ministers level, and that three possible locations had been proposed.
He did not name the locations, nor say when the meeting might take place.
The two nations have also announced they will reopen embassies within two months and re-establish trade and security relations.

Saudi Arabia cut ties in January 2016 after demonstrators stormed its embassy in Tehran after Riyadh had executed the prominent Shia Muslim cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who was convicted of terror-related offences.
Since then, tensions between the Sunni- and Shia-led neighbours have often been high, with each regarding the other as a threatening power seeking regional dominance.
They have been on opposing sides of several regional conflicts, including the civil wars in Syria and Yemen.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 20, 2023
KCR took away the money of poor people: BJP SC Morcha president

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Hyderabad: Bharatiya Janata Party Scheduled Castes (SC) Morcha National President Lal Singh Arya on Sunday hit out at the K Chandrashekhar Rao government and said they have taken away the money of the poor people.
“There is a liquor scandal here and the government has siphoned off the money of poor people,” Arya added.
“SC certificate is made at the district level and not at any other level. The SC commission has not been formed here yet. The Safai Karamchari Commission has not been formed here,” Arya said to ANI.
Speaking to ANI, Lal Singh Arya said, “A resolution was taken to protect the Dalits who are being attacked by KCR’s government.”
“He (KCR) talks about changing the constitution, on the one hand, he is also installing the statue of Ambedkar,” he said.
Speaking to ANI, Arya said, “KCR says that if they come to power in the centre, then they will change the constitution of India. KCR is anti-Dalit, anti-Ambedkar and anti-constitution.”
On April 14, on the occasion of Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti, we will organise big programs at all assembly levels. We will also conduct medical camps for poor people which will end on May 5, he added.
“For SC people we will also organize to watch the 100th episode of Mann Ki Baat on April 30,” he said.

Under the leadership of KCR, Dalit people here are not receiving the benefits they should receive under the schemes brought by PM Narendra Modi, Arya said.
He joins hands with Mamata Banerjee under whose government Dalits are being killed and their houses burned, he added.
KCR joins hands with the AAP party, whose Deputy CM is involved in the liquor scam and here his (KCR) family is involved in the liquor scam, he added.
“This is the government that eats the money of the poor. We are determined to remove this government that talks about changing the Constitution,” sc-morcha”>BJP SC Morcha National President said.
Earlier in the day, Bharatiya Janata Party SC Morcha State Executive held a meeting which was attended by many prominent leaders including BJP Scheduled Castes (SC) Morcha National President Lal Singh Arya. (ANI)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 20, 2023
Telangana: Congress calls on President to dissolve TSPSC

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Hyderabad: Congress party protested on Sunday demanding the intervention of the President of India into the Telangana State Public Service Commission (TSPSC) paper leak and called for the resignations of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and IT minister KT Rama Rao.
Speaking to the media district congress committee president Sameer Waliullah said that the President of India should intervene to sack the TSPSC chairman B Janardhan Reddy and all members and replace them with efficient people.
Congress leaders burned an effigy of KCR during the protest at the Gandhi Bhavan and demanded for a probe into the paper leak by a sitting judge of the Telangana High Court.
Sameer said that the paper leak and cancellation of three exams have shattered the dreams of thousands of candidates. It has caused immense mental agony to the candidates, and the state government should compensate them for their losses.
He condemned the suicide of a Group-1 aspirant, Naveen from Sricilla, and termed it “institutional murder.” He demanded that all responsible for the paper leak be booked for Naveen’s murder.
He said, “Candidates had put in months of hard work to crack the exams, expecting to secure a government job. However, the criminal negligence of TSPSC and the lethargic attitude of the KCR government led to the leakage of question papers, resulting in the hard work of lakhs of students going in vain.”
Sameer said that KCR should have sacked all the concerned ministers and demanded the entire board of TSPSC to step down from their posts.
The Congress leader accused KTR of triggering a blame game with opposition parties to divert attention to protect the real culprits. “The guilty should be punished, regardless of their political affiliation,” he said.

He alleged that KCR and his family have been looting Telangana and selling off its assets and resources. “By failing to prevent the leakage of question papers in many exams, he allowed the sale of government jobs through the paper leak. We demand the resignation of CM KCR and KTR,” he said.
Telangana unit Congress chief A Revanth Reddy on Sunday alleged that the personal assistant of KTR has played a key role in the paper leak.
He also alleged that KTR’s personal assistant Tirupati has links with Rajasekhar Reddy, a contract employee of TSPSC and the second prime accused in the case. He claimed that the paper leakage happened from KTR’s office.
He said the minister gave Rajasekhar Reddy a job in TSPSC on the recommendation of Tirupati.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 19, 2023
Turkish President announces extension of Black Sea grain deal

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Ankara: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday announced an extension of the Black Sea grain deal, CNN reported. However, he did not reveal details regarding the expiration date of the deal.
The deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July to ensure safe passage for ships carrying grain exports from Ukraine. The deal was set to expire today.
Speaking at an event in Turkey’s Canakkale province, Erdogan said, “As a result of our negotiations with both parties, we extended the agreement period,” as per the CNN report.
Turkish President Erdogan thanked the Russian and Ukrainian parties as well as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for their efforts to extend the agreement.
“This agreement, which has provided the shipment of 25 million tons of grain to the world markets with more than 800 ships to date, is of vital importance for the stability of the global food supply,” Erdogan said as per the CNN report.
“I would like to thank the Russian and Ukrainian parties and the UN secretary general for their efforts to extend the agreement once again,” he added.
Stephane Dujarric, a spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said, “We remain strongly committed to both agreements and we urge all sides to redouble their efforts to implement them fully,” according to the CNN report.
The agreement comes after Russia on Monday said that it had agreed to a 60-day extension of the deal. The Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the move as a “goodwill gesture.” On Thursday, the UN stressed that the agreement stated it would be extended for 120 days rather than 60.

In July last year, Ukraine and Russia signed the agreement following months of negotiations brokered by the UN and Turkey. The agreement allowed the resumption of exports of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea.
According to the statement released by United Nations, the Black Sea grain initiative allowed commercial food and fertilizer (including ammonia) exports from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny/Pivdennyi. The Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) was established to monitor the implementation of the initiative.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 19, 2023
Russian President Putin visits occupied city of Mariupol

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The trip also came ahead of a planned visit to Moscow by Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, expected to provide a major diplomatic boost to Putin in his confrontation with the West.
Putin arrived in Mariupol by helicopter and then drove himself around the city’s “memorial sites,” concert hall and coastline, Russian news reports said, without specifying exactly when the visit took place. They said Putin also met with local residents in the city’s Nevskyi district.
Speaking to the state RIA agency Sunday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnulin made clear that Russia was in Mariupol to stay. He said the government hoped to finish the reconstruction of its blasted downtown by the end of the year.
“People have started to return. When they saw that reconstruction is under way, people started actively returning,” Khusnulin told RIA.
When Moscow fully captured the city in May, an estimated 100,000 people remained out of a prewar population of 450,000. Many were trapped without food, water, heat or electricity. Relentless bombardment left rows upon rows of shattered or hollowed-out buildings.
Mariupol’s plight first came into focus with a Russian airstrike on a maternity hospital on March 9 last year, less than two weeks after Russian troops moved into Ukraine. A week later, about 300 people were reported killed in the bombing of a theater that was serving as the city’s largest bomb shelter. Evidence obtained by the AP last spring suggested that the real death toll could be closer to 600.
A small group of Ukrainian fighters held out for 83 days in the sprawling Azovstal steel works in eastern Mariupol before surrendering, their dogged defense tying down Russian forces and coming to symbolize Ukrainian tenacity in the face of Moscow’s aggression.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal, and moved on last September to officially claim four regions in Ukraine’s south and east as Russian territory, following referendums that Kyiv and the West described as a sham.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

March 19, 2023