World

Ukraine’s foreign minister urges NATO for ‘deterrence package’ against Russia

Ukraine urged NATO on Wednesday to prepare economic sanctions on Russia to deter a possible invasion by tens of thousands of Russian troops concentrated within reach of its border.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said he would make the request to NATO foreign ministers meeting for the second day in Latvia to discuss how to respond to the Russian build-up and avert potentially the most dangerous crisis in relations with Moscow since the Cold War.

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“We will call on the allies to join Ukraine in putting together a deterrence package,” Kuleba told reporters as he arrived for the talks in Riga.

This should include preparing economic sanctions against Russia, in case it “decides to chose the worst-case scenario”, Kuleba said, adding that NATO should also boost military and defense cooperation with Ukraine.

Ukraine is not a member of NATO but the US-led alliance has said it is committed to preserving the sovereignty of the former Soviet republic, which has tilted towards the West since 2014 and aspires to join both NATO and the European Union.

That has enraged Russia, drawing a warning from President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Russia was ready with a newly tested hypersonic weapon in case NATO crossed its “red lines” and deployed missiles in Ukraine.

Putin said on Wednesday that Moscow wanted serious negotiations with the United States and its allies to extract legal guarantees that would rule out “any further NATO moves to the east and the deployment of weapons systems that threaten us in close proximity to Russian territory.”

That is unlikely to be acceptable to the United States, which has said no country has the right to veto Ukraine’s NATO ambitions. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Stockholm on Thursday.

Separatist conflict

Russia also backs separatists in a long-running war in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine and accused Kiev on Wednesday of mobilizing 125,000 troops, or half its army, in the conflict zone. Kiev declined to comment.

The Kremlin said it feared Ukraine was gearing up to try to take back the rebel areas by force – something Kiev denies – and accused it of “very dangerous adventurism.”

It said Russia could not take any steps to de-escalate because of a large concentration of Ukrainian forces close to the border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said direct talks with Moscow were needed to end the war in the east, which Kiev says has killed more than 14,000 people.

“We must tell the truth that we will not be able to stop the war without direct negotiations with Russia, and today this has already been recognized by all, all external partners,” Zelenskiy told parliament.

Russia said it had started regular winter military drills in its southern military district, parts of which border Ukraine, and that 10,000 troops had relocated to training grounds across the huge area. Its ally Belarus has also announced joint military drills with Russia on the Ukrainian border.

Deterring Putin

The West has maintained economic sanctions on Russia’s energy, banking and defense sectors since 2014 after it seized the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine. It has also targeted a growing list of senior Russian officials with asset freezes and travel bans.

But Russia has also blunted the impact of sanctions by reducing its borrowings on foreign financial markets and maintaining large currency and gold reserves.

“We are confident that if we join efforts, if we act in a coordinated fashion, we will be able to deter President Putin and to demotivate him from choosing the worst-case scenario, which is a military operation,” Ukraine’s Kuleba said.

Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod told reporters any military operation that would violate the sovereignty of Ukraine would be met with “severe consequences” and that Denmark was ready to engage with heavy sanctions.

His comments echoed those of NATO and the United States, who on Tuesday issued stark warnings to Russia that it would pay a high price for any new military aggression against Ukraine.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told reporters: “For the European Union, the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine is above anything. And we will be standing firmly and decisively with Ukraine in front of any attempt to undermine its territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

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World

Russia has no access to damaged Togliatti-Odesa pipeline: Reports

Russian Industry and Trade minister Denis Manturov said on Thursday that Moscow has no access to the damaged part of the Togliatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline, and does not expect to be granted it, the Interfax news agency reported.

Russia has made the restart of the pipeline, which before the war carried ammonia from Russia to Ukraine for export, central to future renewal of a deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain safely from its Black Sea ports.

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Both Russia and Ukraine this week reported damage to a section of the pipeline that runs through the front line between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The two sides have blamed each other.

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World

EU launches new effort to resolve longstanding migrant crisis

European Union interior ministers on Thursday made a fresh attempt to overcome one of the bloc’s most intractable political problems as they weighed new measures for sharing out responsibility for migrants entering Europe without authorization.

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Europe’s asylum system collapsed eight years ago after well over a million people entered – most of them fleeing conflict in Syria – and overwhelmed reception capacities in Greece and Italy, in the process sparking one of the EU’s biggest political crises.

The 27 EU nations have bickered ever since over which countries should take responsibility for people arriving without authorization, and whether other members should be obliged to help them cope.

Arriving for the meeting in Luxembourg, the EU’s top migration official, Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said it was an “extremely important day” to resolve what has “been a marathon” issue for Europe.

“Of this marathon, we have maybe 100 meters left. So, we are so close to actually find an agreement today,” Johansson said. “I expect the member states to be able to do the final extra meters to reach the agreement.”

“If we are not united, we are all losers,” she said.

Under the existing rules, countries where migrants first arrive must interview and screen them and process the applications of those who might want to apply for asylum. But Greece, Italy and Malta maintain that the burden of managing the numbers of people coming in is too onerous.

Later attempts to impose quota systems on countries to share out the migrants were challenged in court and finally abandoned. EU countries now seem to agree that the assistance they provide must be mandatory but can take the form of financial and other help rather than migration sharing schemes.

The EU’s presidency, currently held by Sweden, has proposed a system under which countries who do not want to take migrants in could pay money instead. Figures of around 20,000 euros ($21,400) per migrant have circulated in the runup to the meeting. It remains unclear if the idea will be accepted.

Diplomats said ahead of the meeting that an agreement is only likely if big member countries France, Germany and Italy back the plan. A deal requires the support of a “qualified majority” – roughly two thirds of the 27 members but crucially also making up about two thirds of the EU population.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the compromise on the table “is very difficult for us.” She said that “I am fighting for us to have a Europe of open borders,” and warned that “should we fail today … that would be the wrong signal.”

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters that he had come with compromise proposals and that plenty of work remains to be done on what is a “very difficult” issue.

“What we want to do is completely change the situation on migration,” Darmanin said.

His Spanish counterpart, Fernando Grande-Marlaska – whose country has struggled to deal with an influx of people trying to enter from North Africa through Spanish islands in the Atlantic – warned that “if we don’t reach that agreement, I think that all of us will be losers.”

Even if a political agreement is reached Thursday, the member countries must still negotiate a full deal with the European Parliament, which has a different view of solidarity – one that requires countries to draw up detailed “annual migrant support plans” in case of emergency.

Lawmakers have warned that this is a last chance to solve the conundrum before EU-wide elections in a year, when migration is likely once again to be a hot-button issue.

Should the EU fail, the project might have to be abandoned or completely overhauled as it’s taken up by the next European Commission – the bloc’s executive branch – and the new members of parliament after next June’s polls.

“If we miss this chance to make it right, I don’t think we will have another,” Spanish Socialist lawmaker Juan Fernando López Aguilar, a leader on migration policy, said in April. “The kind of a message would be: ‘Hey, listen, it’s not going to happen. Not this time. Ever.’

The long-festering dispute has led to the collapse of Europe's asylum system. Unable to agree, the EU has tried to outsource its migrant challenge, making legally and morally questionable deals with countries like Turkey or Libya, which many people transit through on their way to Europe.

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World

Indian leader Modi expected to visit Egypt after official US trip: Source

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to Cairo on his way back from an official visit to the US in June, the Times of India reported Thursday, citing official sources.

It will mark the Indian premier’s first visit to the Middle Eastern country. No official announcement has been made.

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Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi joined India’s President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a parade celebrating the south-Asian nation’s Republic Day in January 2023.

Ahead of the parade, al-Sisi met with Modi and held talks, including on deepening military cooperation, and invited the Indian premier to Egypt.

The January visit elevated ties between the two countries, especially in counter-terrorism, energy and economy. Egypt and India share historic diplomatic relations.

As for trade, it bilaterally expanded in 2021-22, amounting to $7.26 billion, registering a 75 percent increase compared to 2020-21, according to data provided by the Embassy of India in Cairo.

India’s exports to Egypt during this period amounted to $3.74 billion, registering a 65 percent increase over the same period in 2020-21, the same report said.

Egypt’s exports to India reportedly reached $3.52 billion, registering an 86 percent increase over the previous year.

US President Joe Biden will host Modi at the White House for an official visit from June 21 to 24. They will reportedly address a joint meeting of the House of Representatives and Senate, one of the highest honors Washington affords to foreign dignitaries.

The speech would be Modi’s second to a joint meeting of the US legislature and comes as Biden seeks to deepen ties with the world’s largest democracy as part of his bid to win what he has framed as a contest between free and autocratic societies, especially China.

With Reuters

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