Council on Foreign Relations
Daily News Brief
March 24, 2022
Top of the Agenda
Three Brussels Summits Weigh Responses to War in Ukraine
Leaders of European Union (EU), Group of Seven (G7), and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries are meeting in Brussels today (RFE/RL) to consider further responses to the war in Ukraine as it enters its second month. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to address (Reuters) the NATO and EU meetings via video. 

Leaders are expected to warn Russia against using chemical and nuclear weapons. NATO this week doubled the number of battle groups deployed on its eastern flank, and U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to announce new sanctions against Russia. To reduce European reliance on Russian energy, Biden is also reportedly working on a deal to ensure supplies (Bloomberg) of U.S. natural gas and hydrogen for Europe.
Analysis
“The transatlantic alliance can dictate nothing to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. It can only assist Ukraine in navigating its way to a probably unsatisfactory peace. This humbling reality must be the starting point for policy and diplomacy,” the German Marshall Fund of the United States’ Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage write for Foreign Affairs.
 
“The longer the war in Ukraine drags on, the more fragile European unity will be. Differences over a boycott of Russian hydrocarbon imports have been the first fracture line. There will be others,” the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs’ Carme Colomina tells Carnegie Europe.
 
CFR provides comprehensive coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Two Years of Think Global Health
To mark its second anniversary, CFR’s Think Global Health website features articles on some of the biggest health challenges and interviews with people who are shaping the future of global health.

Pacific Rim
North Korea Launches First ICBM Since 2017
Officials from the United States, Japan, and South Korea strongly condemned (Yonhap) the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which appeared to fly higher and further (NYT) than North Korea’s last such launch in 2017.
 
For Foreign Affairs, Sue Mi Terry writes that North Korea could accelerate its nuclear program while the world focuses on Ukraine.
 
China: Washington announced that it will reinstate tariff waivers (SCMP) on more than 350 Chinese products. The Donald Trump administration first imposed the tariffs in 2018.

South and Central Asia
Chinese Foreign Minister Visits Taliban Officials in Kabul
Wang Yi’s meeting was the highest-level visit (Reuters) by a Chinese official to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August.
 
Sri Lanka: A U.S. State Department official visiting Colombo urged Sri Lanka to end detentions (Al Jazeera) under its antiterrorism law and ensure justice for abuses committed during the country’s civil war, which ended in 2019.

Middle East and North Africa
Investigation: Israel Blocked Ukraine From Buying Pegasus Spyware
Israel blocked the purchase to avoid angering Russian officials, according to an investigation by the Guardian and the Washington Post. Ukraine had lobbied Israel to sell it the spyware since at least 2019.
 
This In Brief discusses how the Israeli government uses Pegasus to advance its foreign policy goals.
 
Egypt: Cairo solicited support (FT) from the International Monetary Fund amid an economic crisis caused by soaring grain prices. Egypt is the world’s biggest wheat importer and relies heavily on Russia and Ukraine for supplies.

Sub-Saharan Africa
African Development Bank Issues Loan for South Africa’s Green Transition
The bank loaned South Africa $2.8 billion (Bloomberg). More than $400 million will go toward helping state energy utility Eskom transition to cleaner energy sources.
 
Somalia: A suicide bombing at a voting station in rural central Somalia killed at least fifteen people (AP), including prominent woman lawmaker Amina Mohamed Abdi, who was campaigning for reelection.

Europe
Putin Plans to Seek Payments for Russian Gas in Rubles
President Putin ordered Russia’s central bank (Bloomberg) to prepare to require European countries to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles, which would effectively prop the currency up and escalate economic tensions between Russia and the West.

Americas
Jamaica to Cut Ties With British Monarchy
Prime Minister Andrew Holness told Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Kate that Jamaica plans to become a republic (DW, AP), which would remove Queen Elizabeth II as the country’s head of state.
 
Colombia: Leftist presidential front-runner Gustavo Petro named environmental activist Francia Marquez Mina (Guardian) his running mate. If elected, she would be the country’s first Black vice president.

United States
Madeleine Albright, First Woman Secretary of State, Dies at Eighty-Four
Albright, a child of Czech refugees, served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations before becoming the country’s top diplomat and helping steer Western foreign policy (WaPo) after the Cold War. She advocated against mass atrocities in Eastern Europe and for the United States to participate in “assertive multilateralism.”
 
In Foreign Affairs last year, Albright wrote about how the United States can lead the fight against authoritarianism.
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