European Leaders Talk Migration in Malta Amid Rising Migrant Deaths in Mediterranean |
The leaders of nine European Union (EU) countries and top EU officials are holding closed-door talks in Malta (AP) today over potential reform to the bloc’s migration rules. More than 2,500 migrants have died or disappeared (AFP) trying to cross the Mediterranean this year, a significant increase from the same period in 2022, the UN refugee agency said. Poverty and ongoing violence in Africa and the Middle East have continued to drive migrant flows (The Guardian), EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said last week. He warned that immigration could be “a dissolving force for the European Union” as the bloc has faced internal division for years about how to approach the migrant crisis.
The Malta meeting comes as EU countries strive to reach a compromise about updating the bloc’s migration rules. States such as Italy that immediately receive migrants from outside EU borders have pressed other countries to share more of the responsibility for hosting them while asylum applications are processed. |
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“European countries need to agree to share the task of settling recognised refugees, now and for the long term. Talking tough and promoting deterrence, such as paying countries like Libya or Tunisia to keep people from leaving, clearly hasn’t worked,” Bloomberg’s Rachel Sanderson writes.
“With the overwhelming majority of migrants arriving in Italy, the new redistribution mechanism between member states [being considered by the EU] is a significant concession to the country’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who was elected last year on the promises of reining in immigration and making Italy’s voice heard in Brussels,” journalist Michele Barbaro writes for Foreign Policy.
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Senior U.S., Chinese Officials Hold Talks in Washington |
The top U.S. State Department official for Asia and China’s Vice Foreign Minister had a “constructive” conversation (Bloomberg) yesterday about regional Asian affairs, the State Department said. The talks raised expectations that Chinese President Xi Jinping may visit the United States later this year.
North Korea: Pyongyang enshrined a policy (Yonhap) on strengthening its nuclear force into the constitution, state media reported. Nuclear envoys from Japan, South Korea, and the United States have all condemned the move (Yonhap), while North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said trilateral cooperation among the three countries poses “the worst actual threat” to his country.
This timeline traces North Korean nuclear negotiations.
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Myanmar's Exiled Government Says It Controls Majority of Country |
While Myanmar’s military junta controls the country’s cities, the leader of a shadow government linked to rebel fighters told Bloomberg they control about 60 percent of the country’s total territory. The junta carried out more than double the amount of air strikes against civilians between April 2022 and July 2023 than in the fourteen months following the 2021 coup, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
Pakistan: A suicide blast in the province of Balochistan occurred near where people were gathering (Dawn) for a religious procession, killing at least fifty-two people, an official said.
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Middle East and North Africa |
Egypt, UAE Agree to $1.4 Billion Currency Swap |
The deal will allow for exchange (Bloomberg) of the local currencies of both Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as Cairo struggles to escape an economic crisis. Egypt’s central bank says it is also discussing a potential currency swap deal with China.
U.S./Saudi Arabia: Saudi Arabia is willing to give up major demands regarding Palestinians’ bid for statehood as a condition of Saudi-Israeli normalization in order to secure a defense pact with the United States, three people familiar with the talks told Reuters.
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CFR’s Robert McMahon and Carla Anne Robbins discuss PEPFAR’s reauthorization struggle, Banned Books Week, Slovakia’s democracy test, and more. |
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NYT: UAE Is Arming Rebel Fighters in Sudan Civil War |
By providing arms and medical care for the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group, the UAE is fueling the continuation of Sudan’s conflict, the New York Times reported. The support, posited by the UAE as saving refugees, is being funneled through a Chad airfield across the Sudanese border in an operation Emirati officials say is purely humanitarian.
Somalia: A car bombing at a market in central Somalia yesterday killed six people (AP), officials said, in what was the third attack in the country that day. It follows a car bombing on Saturday that killed eighteen people. No group has immediately claimed responsibility for any of yesterday’s attacks.
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NYT: Under 500 Square Miles Has Changed Hands on Ukraine Frontline Since January 1 |
The small amount of territory that has been captured along the war’s frontline this year underscores the staunch impasse (NYT) between both countries’ efforts to gain ground. Neither Russia’s goal of capturing Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region nor Ukraine’s goal of splitting Russian forces with a southern counteroffensive has gone as planned.
This In Brief by CFR expert Max Boot examines Ukraine’s counteroffensive effort this year.
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Pro-India Hacker Group Claims Responsibility for Attack on Canadian Military Site |
The hacker group Indian Cyber Force claimed responsibility (CBC) for a cyberattack that temporarily disabled the public website of the Canadian Armed Forces on Wednesday. Ottawa’s elections agency also experienced an attack. A spokesperson for Canada’s signals intelligence agency said that “geopolitical events often result in an increase in disruptive cyber campaigns,” while Canada’s defense ministry said their broader systems were not impacted.
This In Brief by CFR expert Manjari Chatterjee Miller unpacks the recent tensions between Canada and India.
Bolivia: A prolonged drought and one of the hottest winters in Bolivia’s history have caused water shortages in the city of El Alto, Reuters reported. Climate change is depleting freshwater access from glaciers in the Bolivian Andes mountain range.
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Potential Government Shutdown Looms |
Hundreds of thousands of U.S. federal workers will be furloughed (Reuters) beginning on Sunday if Congress does not pass a bill to keep the government open before then. As of Thursday, a handful of Republicans were blocking a bill that would avert the shutdown. Meanwhile, an initial hearing on an impeachment probe into President Joe Biden in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday produced no new information (NYT).
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Rest of World details how China’s heavily persecuted, yet steadfast feminist revolution fights against the country’s hard-line digital censorship. |
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Council on Foreign Relations |
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