White House Announces $300 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine |
The United States will send (ABC News) a weapons package including anti-aircraft missiles, ammunition, artillery rounds, and anti-armor systems to Ukraine, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said yesterday. While U.S. lawmakers have stalled on approving a larger aid package worth some $60 billion for Kyiv, this package comes from (WaPo) “unanticipated cost savings” from previously approved defense contracts. It is designed as a stopgap measure “to help Ukraine hold the line against Russia’s brutal attacks for the next couple of weeks,” U.S. President Joe Biden said.
The new aid comes as Ukraine has launched attacks inside Russian territory in recent days. Ukrainian drones hit oil refineries (Reuters) inside Russia for a second day today. Around sixty drones were destroyed over Russian territory today, Russian media reported.
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“A U.S. failure to aid Ukraine would be an unmitigated catastrophe for Ukraine, Europe, and the United States,” CFR expert Max Boot writes in this In Brief. “If Ukrainian troops don’t have any ammunition to hold back Russian assaults, the Russians could breach the Ukrainian lines.”
“Striking Russian oil facilities is a problem for President Vladimir Putin as he faces off against the West over Ukraine, with domestic gasoline prices sensitive ahead of a March 15–17 presidential election,” The Guardian writes.
This article by CFR’s Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow looks at U.S. aid to Ukraine in six charts. |
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U.S. House to Vote on TikTok Crackdown Bill |
U.S. intelligence agencies held a classified House of Representatives briefing yesterday regarding the bill due for a vote this morning. The legislation would give (Reuters) TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance about six months to divest or face a ban due to security concerns. The bill sailed through a House committee vote unanimously last week.
Japan: Unionized workers at some of Japan’s largest companies negotiated (FT) their biggest pay raise in more than three decades. Japan’s central bank has been watching wage growth closely as part of its calculus on whether to begin raising interest rates; analysts expect an interest rate bump could come as soon as later this month.
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Indian, UK Leaders Talk Free Trade |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Rishi Sunak affirmed their commitment (Reuters) to closing a free trade agreement (FTA) in a call yesterday. A UK negotiating team visiting India last week failed to reach deals on several outstanding issues, with the UK trade minister calling the talks “challenging.” The two countries have been discussing an FTA for two years.
China/India: New Delhi dismissed (VOA) Beijing’s protests to Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit to a border region in India’s northeast that has provoked bilateral tensions. China claims the area as its territory and criticized Modi’s announcement of new Indian development projects there. But those objections do not “change the reality” that the region belongs to India, a spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry said.
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Middle East and North Africa |
UN Aid Convoy Enters Northern Gaza via Israeli Military Road |
The United Nations delivered (Reuters) food for twenty-five thousand people yesterday using the new land route along the Gaza Strip border, the World Food Program said, in what was the first delivery in three weeks. UN and U.S. officials have been pushing for more aid to be allowed into Gaza. Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said (Times of Israel) the route was “an experimental pilot in order to prevent Hamas from taking over the aid.”
U.S./Iraq: Talks between the two countries about winding down the U.S.-led military mission in Iraq may stretch past the November U.S. presidential election, an unnamed senior Iraqi government official told Reuters. Baghdad called for such a transition after clashes between U.S. and Iran-backed groups in Iraq, but different factions within Iraq’s government are divided on moving forward with the change.
This timeline looks at the U.S. role in the Iraq War.
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Mozambique Rolls Out Sovereign Wealth Fund for Natural Gas Revenues |
Forty percent of annual state revenues from a forecast natural gas export boom will be required (Bloomberg) to go to a sovereign wealth fund for fifteen years under the new decree announced yesterday. It includes transparency requirements as part of Mozambique’s financial reform program with the International Monetary Fund. The country was cut off from most international borrowing in 2016 after failing to disclose its finances.
Nigeria: The government deployed (FT) security forces in the capital, Abuja, in response to food warehouse lootings. The lootings have occurred across the country amid a cost-of-living crisis that has triggered violent protests and fears of hunger and instability. Food prices have climbed by 35 percent since the start of the year.
For the Africa in Transition blog, CFR expert Ebenezer Obadare looks at Nigeria’s crisis and lessons for the government.
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Chief of Staff to Russia’s Navalny Attacked Outside Home in Lithuania |
Leonid Volkov was a senior organizer to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died last month in Russian prison custody. Volkov was attacked (NYT) last night with a hammer and tear gas and survived, another Navalny aide said. The assault has raised concerns about the safety of Russian opposition figures outside the country. |
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Kenya Pauses Plans for Police Deployment to Haiti |
Kenya will wait (AP) until Haiti installs new leadership before sending one thousand police officers to address insecurity there, a Kenyan foreign ministry official said yesterday. Kenya’s announcement came after Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would resign to make way for a new leadership council. For the Latin America’s Moment blog, CFR experts Will Freeman and Shannon K. O’Neil discuss Haiti’s leadership vacuum.
Honduras: Former First Lady Ana García de Hernández will seek (AP) the country’s presidency next year, she announced yesterday. On Friday, her husband, former President Juan Orlando Hernández, was convicted of drug trafficking in U.S. federal court.
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Biden, Trump Secure Enough Delegates for Presidential Rematch |
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump earned (NYT) enough delegates in state nominating contests yesterday to secure their parties’ nominations for the presidency. It will be the first such presidential rematch vote in almost seventy years.
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