Daily News Brief

September 6, 2023

Top of the Agenda

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv today on an unannounced trip to show support for Ukraine as its counteroffensive makes slow progress. He is expected to announce (WaPo) more than $1 billion in new U.S. funding for Ukraine, meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and discuss anticorruption efforts with civil society organizations. The two-day trip is Blinken’s fourth visit to Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion last year, and his sixth since taking office.

The trip follows the resignation of Ukraine’s defense minister amid speculation of corruption in the defense ministry. Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops have been slowed by entrenched Russian forces in southeast Ukraine as Moscow has continued to fire missiles (Al Jazeera) at Kyiv and Ukraine’s southwestern port cities along the Danube River.    

Analysis

“Ukraine’s summer counteroffensive has moved more slowly than many of its allies and supporters had hoped,” the Center for Security and Emerging Technology’s Owen J. Daniels and Margarita Konaev write for Foreign Affairs. “In the near term, NATO states must continue transferring weapons and other capabilities to Ukraine. They will need to give Kyiv political and military support for the long term, as well.”

“Blinken’s event on anti-corruption is probably aimed at signaling that the Biden administration takes government malfeasance seriously while maintaining its confidence in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,” the Washington Post’s John Hudson and David L. Stern write.

This article by CFR’s Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow explains in six charts how much aid the United States has sent Ukraine. 

Pacific Rim

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said countries should avoid (Reuters) “taking sides, bloc confrontation and a new Cold War” at this year’s gathering of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia. The comment comes as some ASEAN states grow increasingly frustrated over China’s activities in the South China Sea.

China: Beijing banned some government officials from using iPhones and other foreign-branded smartphones for work purposes in an effort to reduce the reliance on overseas technology and limit flows of sensitive information, the Wall Street Journal reported.

South and Central Asia

Official invitations to an event at the upcoming Group of Twenty (G20) summit refer to India’s president (WaPo) as the president of “Bharat,” a Sanskrit and Hindi word interchangeable with India. The invitation sparked controversy among supporters who view “Bharat” as a way to shed India’s colonial history and critics who say it evokes an exclusively Hindu past.

For the Asia Unbound blog, CFR expert Manjari Chatterjee Miller looks at what to expect at this year’s G20 summit.

Pakistan: The government expects to hold elections (Bloomberg) within four months, its caretaker prime minister said, as it faces mounting pressure from protests over the country’s economic crisis. Elections were originally scheduled for November but were delayed as the election commission redrew constituencies to account for population increases.

Middle East and North Africa

U.S. President Joe Biden is planning to nominate (WSJ) former Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew to be the next ambassador to Israel. If appointed, Lew will face several challenges, including increasing violence in the West Bank, protests over Israel’s recent judicial overhaul, and ongoing friction between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and Washington. 

Iran/Saudi Arabia: The two countries exchanged ambassadors (Al-Monitor) yesterday for the first time since 2016. The states resumed bilateral engagement in March after a period of hostile relations.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen arrived yesterday in Eswatini (Africanews), one of only thirteen countries that formally recognize Taiwan, for a four-day trip that will mark fifty-five years of bilateral relations. The visit comes as China pushes countries that share diplomatic relations with Taiwan to switch their allegiances to Beijing. 

Burkina Faso: The army said fifty-three soldiers and volunteer fighters were killed (Reuters) in clashes with militants in the country’s north yesterday, marking the deadliest attack in months. Burkina Faso has been battling armed insurgent groups since 2015, but violence has surged this year.

Europe

The European Union (EU) named six technology firms (TechCrunch) that will be required to change the way they offer their services under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act. The “gatekeepers”—Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, and Microsoft—will have six months to inform the European Commission how they will comply with the Act’s rules.

This episode of the Why It Matters podcast explores increasingly divergent EU internet policy.

Bulgaria/Greece/Turkey: Severe rainstorms struck the three countries, unleashing floods (AP) that have killed at least eleven people and caused widespread damage.

Americas

A cyclone killed at least twenty-two people (NYT) and displaced three thousand others in the southern states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, authorities said yesterday. Meteorologists predict that torrential rainfall could soon cause further flooding. 

Brazil: The government announced a program to invest up to $120 million in technical assistance (AP) to Amazon communities, with disbursements contingent on the municipalities’ progress in reducing deforestation.

This Backgrounder by CFR’s Diana Roy examines what Amazon countries are doing about deforestation.

United States

Henry “Enrique” Tarrio received the longest prison term yet (FT) out of more than one thousand defendants in a case relating to the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He was previously convicted of seditious conspiracy. Prosecutors had been seeking an even longer sentence of thirty-three years.

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