China’s Xi Begins State Visit to Moscow |
The two-day trip is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first visit to Moscow (Reuters) since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. While Xi says he hopes to help negotiate an end to the war, the conflict has also forged closer economic ties between China and Russia.
Xi’s visit comes on the heels of an arrest warrant that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin (FT) over the weekend. The ICC has accused Putin of war crimes, including forcibly transferring children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Over the weekend, Putin made his first visit to Russia-occupied Ukraine since the start of the invasion. China’s foreign ministry said today that the ICC should avoid “politicization and double standards” (NYT) in its work.
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“There are signs that Xi will remain guarded over the potential costs of friendship with Russia’s leader, particularly in Europe as Beijing tries to boost trade after its zero-Covid policy savaged its economy last year,” the Financial Times’ Joe Leahy and Max Seddon write.
“[The visit] sets the scene for global confrontation, with Beijing willing to use its partnership with Moscow to counter Washington, even if that means granting tacit approval to Putin’s brutal, destabilizing war,” the Washington Post’s Robyn Dixon writes.
This Backgrounder looks at China-Russia ties. |
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Japan’s Kishida Visits New Delhi |
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a one-on-one meeting (Nikkei) with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio during which Modi accepted an invitation to attend the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May. In a speech after the meeting, Kishida announced $75 billion in security and infrastructure funding for the Indo-Pacific.
North Korea: Pyongyang said it held drills over the weekend that simulated a nuclear counterattack (Yonhap) against its adversaries. The simulation coincided with joint U.S.-South Korea military drills.
CFR’s Scott A. Snyder explains why North Korea has escalated its nuclear provocations in recent months.
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Election Observers Say Kazakhstan’s Vote Offered Increased But Limited Choices |
Electoral reforms made Sunday’s parliamentary elections more competitive than past votes, but administrative challenges and other obstacles still barred some political groups from participating as parties, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said. Kazakhstan had pitched the elections as a reset after its January 2022 anti-government riots.
India: Punjab State, home to some twenty-seven million people, witnessed one of India’s broadest internet shutdowns in recent years as officials cut mobile internet services (WaPo) while authorities searched for a fugitive separatist over the weekend.
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Middle East and North Africa |
Israel’s Netanyahu Modifies Judicial Reforms After Call With Biden |
The changes (Reuters) to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial reform plans include reduced government control over the nomination of some judges. Netanyahu announced the modifications after listening to U.S. President Joe Biden’s concerns about the reforms, which have prompted weeks of street protests. For Foreign Affairs, Eliav Lieblich and Adam Shinar write that Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul comes from “the autocrat’s playbook.”
Israel/Palestinian territories: During a meeting in Egypt, Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to cooperate to “curb and counter violence” (AP) during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.
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South African Police Arrest Eighty-Seven People Ahead of Planned Protests |
South Africa’s second-largest opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, are planning to hold a demonstration today (Bloomberg) calling for President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign over the country’s rolling blackouts.
Somalia: An estimated forty-three thousand people died (AP) during Somalia’s drought last year, half of them likely children, according to a study that the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine conducted for the United Nations.
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France’s Macron Faces No-Confidence Votes in Wake of Pension Reform |
The lower house of France’s Parliament will vote today (AFP) on two no-confidence motions filed against President Emmanuel Macron’s government. Macron approved a controversial pension reform plan by decree on Thursday, but the measure can be struck down if he loses today’s votes. |
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Earthquake in Ecuador Kills at Least Fourteen |
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Fed, Five Other Central Banks Take Joint Action on Dollar Liquidity |
The U.S. Federal Reserve will join the central banks of Canada, England, Japan, Switzerland, and Europe in increasing the frequency of dollar auctions (FT) from weekly to daily following a spate of banking instability in the last week. The banks last took this step during the initial shock of the COVID-19 crisis in early 2020.
For CFR’s Renewing America initiative, Zongyuan Zoe Liu writes that the fastest way for the United States to cede ground in an era of great-power competition is to relinquish its global financial leadership.
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Council on Foreign Relations |
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