Sunday, 5 June 2022

POLITICO

POLITICO

Spain to send tanks, missiles to Ukraine, El Pais reports 

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 11:04 AM PDT

Spain is ready to send Leopard battle tanks and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine, according to Spanish newspaper El Pais. 

The move would mark an increase of Spanish military support of Kyiv. Spain will also provide training for the Ukrainian army on using the tanks, according to the report, which cites government sources.

The instruction would begin in Latvia, which already hosts 500 Spanish soldiers as part of a NATO operation, and a second phase could potentially take place in Spain, according to El Pais.

The Spanish government has not commented on the report,

The Leopold tanks were made in Germany and then sold to Spain, which means Berlin would need to approve re-export before they can be delivered to Ukraine.

The German Economy Ministry, which is in charge of granting export authorizations, had no comment, and referred questions to the chancellery, which had no immediate comment.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez pledged to send more weapons and ammunition to Ukraine while visiting Kyiv back in April. 

US skeptical UN-Russia talks will free trapped Ukrainian grain

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 09:33 AM PDT

The United Nations is trying to broker a deal with Russia to allow Ukraine to restart grain exports via the Black Sea. Biden administration officials and lawmakers, however, are highly skeptical Russia is operating in good faith.

Their primary reason for pessimism: recent comments from Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian officials suggesting they would ease the blockade on Ukraine's ports if, in exchange, the West lifts its economic sanctions on Moscow. That proposal is "complicating" the "fragile" negotiations, a U.N. official told POLITICO, shortly before the U.N.'s top humanitarian official wrapped two days of talks on the blockade in Moscow on Friday. One U.S. official described Moscow's pitch as "extortion diplomacy" and said the U.S. wouldn't agree to a deal that lifted any economic pressure on the Kremlin.

Any deal to allow Ukraine to export grain ahead of the summer wheat harvest would be a major breakthrough, and U.S. officials and global businesses are closely watching Russia's talks with the U.N., as well as separate negotiations with Turkey, about allowing safe passage for Ukrainian grain to world markets. The blockade has upended global trade routes while threatening to financially strangle Ukraine and deepen hunger crises around the world. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres is trying to strike a deal that would ensure both Ukrainian and Russian food and fertilizer exports can safely reach foreign markets.

Martin Griffiths, one of the U.N. officials leading the talks, met with Russian officials from the ministries of defense and foreign affairs about Russia's blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports during his visit to Moscow, according to a second U.N. official. The U.N. has declined to say whether Griffiths or Rebeca Grynspan, the other U.N. official leading the talks, have broached Russia's calls for sanctions relief during their discussions. U.S. officials are not in the room during the talks, but a State Department and a U.N. official separately confirmed a U.N. delegation recently briefed U.S. officials on the discussions.

"The bottom line is that, apart from leveraging overland routes, we need to get the ports back up and running so we can boost food supplies for those most in need," said a State Department spokesperson.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield has expressed general U.S. support for the early discussions, but has also noted that there are no sanctions keeping Russia from exporting its own food and agricultural products like fertilizer, as Putin has suggested. State Department aides appear more hopeful about the negotiations than others in the Biden administration, but most officials said they're waiting for the talks to progress further to see whether Russia drops its calls for sanction relief.

"It's hard to view the Russian offers in good faith considering how they are actively and intentionally destroying food products in Ukraine and exacerbating global food insecurity," a U.S. official said, referencing Russian forces' continued targeting of Ukrainian agriculture facilities and fields.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have bristled at the Russian calls for sanctions relief as well. Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview that Moscow's demand for sanctions relief in exchange for lifting their Black Sea blockade amounts to "blackmail."

"Putin is waging war on other innocent people across the world by holding Ukrainian food and related exports hostage," Risch said.

U.S. lawmakers have, however, have been pushing for the Biden administration to help Ukraine reopen its Black Sea port of Odesa, the country's only port still under their control. But the Biden administration for now has ruled out sending military ships into the region, which would risk Russian retaliation. Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley told reporters Tuesday that de-mining Ukraine's ports and navigating Russia's naval blockade "would be a high-risk military operation that would require significant levels of effort."

Instead, the administration is planning to keep sending weapons to help Ukraine fight off Russian forces attacking Odesa and eastern regions of the country, while pushing to open up more land routes to move grain.

Biden officials were originally hesitant to publicly connect Russia's invasion of Ukraine to likely devastating food shortages and price hikes around the world, concerned it would panic Americans unnecessarily (since the U.S. is a major grain exporter, the domestic market is insulated from the worst of the Ukraine-related shocks). But in the past few weeks, the president has increasingly warned of the Russian blockade triggering long-term damage to global economies and strained food systems while pushing up already high food prices. Discussing the more than 20 million tons of grain trapped at Ukraine's ports, Biden noted that "normally, that would have already been exported into the world market," Biden said during remarks on the economy Friday. "But because of Putin's invasion and a blockade of the port at which they could take that grain out for the rest of the world, it's not."

And Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned this week that Russia's crippling military blockade in the Black Sea is threatening to unleash mass starvation, protests and migration around the world amid rising global hunger. U.S. officials expect the global fallout to worsen over the summer, risking widespread unrest this fall.

There are some small signs of progress on other efforts to get some grain out of Ukraine. Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin ally, told the U.N.'s Guterres on Friday that Belarus would be willing to discuss allowing Ukraine to ship grain through its territory to Baltic Sea ports, if Belarus could also use those ports to ship goods.

The chair of the African Union, Senegal's President Macky Sall, also met with Putin on Friday and planned to press him on the blockade, which has been keeping critical food supplies from many African countries already reeling from severe drought.

Le Maire: France in talks with UAE for Russia oil alternatives

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 09:01 AM PDT

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Sunday that France is in discussions with the United Arab Emirates regarding supplies of oil and diesel. 

"We have to find an alternative to Russian petrol," Le Maire said in an interview with Europe1 Radio. The UAE could provide at least a "temporary solution," he said.  

Le Maire was discussing inflation in France ahead of the first round of voting for the nationwide legislative elections next week. While he denied that the war in Ukraine is the main cause of the jump in energy prices, he said the conflict is "accentuating a much deeper phenomenon," to which becoming more energy-independent is the best response.

As part of its sixth package of sanctions against Russia over the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine, the EU will be placing an embargo on Russian oil, blocking seaborne imports by the end of the year.

Australia complains to Beijing over ‘dangerous’ move by Chinese jet

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 05:44 AM PDT

Australia on Sunday criticized China for a “dangerous maneuver” by a Chinese fighter plane when it intercepted an Australian aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea late last month.

A Chinese jet on May 26 intercepted an Australian P-8 aircraft that was on "routine maritime surveillance activity" in international airspace, the Defense Department in Canberra said in a statement.

“The intercept resulted in a dangerous manoeuvre which posed a safety threat to the P-8 aircraft and its crew,” the department said.

Austrialian Defense Minister Richard Marles told local media that the Chinese plane sent out flares and shards of aluminum chaff. He called the incident "very dangerous."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters the government has raised its "concerns about the incident with the Chinese government." 

The South China Sea is a contested region over which China has claimed rights, while Australia has in recent years increased its defense and cooperation with the U.S. in the area.

US warship calms Sweden’s NATO nerves

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 05:00 AM PDT

STOCKHOLM — In the Swedish capital this weekend, everyone was talking about the American warship.

Moored in the main waterway linking Stockholm with the Baltic Sea, the towering presence of the USS Kearsarge dominated the city center, its 253-meter-long silhouette creating a new militaristic skyline against the early summer sun.

A couple of Danish tourists walking along the waterfront speculated that the American ship's arrival could have something to do with Sweden’s recent application — alongside Finland — to join NATO, or maybe it just reflected the underlying cause of those applications: the darkening of the regional security picture following nearby Russia's attack on Ukraine. 

"I can see why they want to join NATO," one of the tourists said to her companion. "There's just so much uncertainty about where things are headed."

The reality is that the Kearsarge has a dual mission in the Swedish capital. 

Officially, the ship's visit to Stockholm is to participate in a military training exercise involving 14 NATO states plus Finland and Sweden, which will test the ability of these countries' navies, air forces and armies to work together. The exercise, called Baltops, will run all week and involve landing exercises along the Swedish and German coasts. 

But the Kearsarge is also in the Swedish capital to send a message to Russia that the U.S. is keeping an eye on Sweden and Finland. 

The two small Nordic states applied to join NATO two weeks ago, but their applications, already expected to take months, have become tangled up in objections from existing member Turkey. 

Sweden and Finland are now in a sensitive "gray period" between application and full NATO membership — with the mutual defense commitment that entails — and questions have been raised about what protection the countries can expect from the U.S. and others over the weeks and months ahead. 

‘Pretty strong statement’

At a news conference on the deck of the Kearsarge on Saturday, General Mark Milley, the most senior U.S. military commander, said the visit of the warship to Stockholm was in part designed to answer those questions. 

"I think the Kearsarge being here is a pretty strong statement," Milley said. "We are committed to a rules-based international order … and the idea that strong, powerful countries cannot just arbitrarily attack smaller weaker countries as we have seen in Ukraine."

Standing alongside Milley, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said the arrival of the American warship showed that U.S. President Joe Biden was making good on commitments he made to her and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö when the two Nordic leaders visited the White House last month. 

"This shows President Biden's security assurances are followed by actions," she said. 

The way the Baltops exercise is being run offers some insight into how the Swedish and Finnish "gray period" will likely be managed over the months ahead. The strategy seems to be to run a tight schedule of training exercises — which has also included the recently concluded Siil exercise around Estonia — to maintain an enhanced NATO presence in the Baltic Sea region. 

Baltops itself will be around 30% bigger this year than in 2021 and will involve 45 ships and 76 aircraft. General Milley, who serves as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said President Biden had asked military leaders to "modestly increase" activities beyond the "significant program" already scheduled. 

Speaking alongside Milley on the Kearsarge, Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said he could see "a future here with a lot of activities that makes our part of Europe more secure … during this sensitive time from now until we are full members of NATO.”

"We will have naval vessels in the Baltic Sea over the coming months and also we will have an air force presence in our airspace," Hultqvist said. 

Baltops exercise

Below deck on the Kearsarge, an attack helicopter was being examined as part of what an engineer on board said was called a phase inspection. A team of mechanics was taking the aircraft apart to inspect it and would then put it back together. On Saturday afternoon, the team was preparing to reinstall the rotor blades and rebuild the tail. 

A deck further down, rows of all-terrain vehicles were parked ahead of three large air-cushioned landing craft which would deploy troops and machines to shore during this week’s exercise. 

On Tuesday, a landing of 250 U.S. troops on the strategically located Swedish Baltic Sea island of Gotland was expected to take place as part of the Baltops training. 

General Milley's presence on the ship created a buzz as he moved among the U.S. Marines handing out what looked like medallion-like momentos. 

"Don't lose that; it is worth money on eBay," he joked with one Marine. 

In his briefing to reporters, Milley ran through the firepower of the ship. 

"You have seen the type of aircraft that are here: you've got attack aircraft, you’ve got Harrier Jump Jets," he said. "You’re looking at somewhere around 1,200 Marines that are capable of executing battalion-sized amphibious assaults from the sea to project power ashore," he said.

But asked what message Moscow should take from the presence of the Kearsarge in the Baltic, Milley deferred. 

"I'll leave the message to be determined by what Moscow thinks the message is," he said. "It is not my job to articulate a message. We are here to do military training."

East European countries ask EU to reopen vaccine contracts

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 03:24 AM PDT

A group of ten Eastern European countries have petitioned the European Commission to renegotiate coronavirus vaccine contracts, in a letter seen by POLITICO that cites an oversupply of doses and the need to protect state finances.

Contracts should be able to be terminated “if they are no longer needed from a health and epidemiological perspective,” reads one of the letter’s demands. In other cases, it should be possible to reduce the number of doses that are ordered so that they better reflect the demand for shots.

The letter was sent Friday night and is addressed to EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides. Poland led the initiative, and the letter was also signed by Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

A number of countries in Eastern Europe had previously raised concerns that existing coronavirus vaccine contracts, signed at the height of the pandemic when the EU was under intense public pressure to procure jabs, have locked them into buying too many doses that are now not needed. The Commission has secured up to 4.2 billion doses of coronavirus vaccines, nearly ten times the population of the EU. As of February, 1.3 billion had been delivered.

“Despite signs that the pandemic is subsiding and that satisfactory vaccination levels across the EU have been achieved, the contracts with vaccines manufacturers provide for supply of quantities of vaccines that significantly exceed the Member States' needs and capacity to absorb them,” reads the letter.

The countries that signed the letter argue that the vaccines risk expiring unused given the problems that vaccine donations have encountered, which is “a waste of public resources that cannot be reasonably explained to the public.”

Efforts made by the Commission to redraw the contracts to better stagger deliveries don’t go far enough, according to the group of Eastern European countries. The countries write that the portions of the contracts that regulate vaccine purchases need to be changed.

The letter also cites the problem of vaccines being delivered close to their expiration date, something first mentioned by the Baltic countries, and asks for a minimum shelf-life requirement.

Other requests include ensuring that vaccines protect against the latest circulating variants, and the possibility that the EU’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority buy unused vaccines to create a joint stockpile and also allow for donations to the rest of the world in a more coordinated way.

Stockholm+50: Drafting the narrative for a green future

Posted: 04 Jun 2022 07:03 PM PDT

Ann Linde is Sweden's minister for foreign affairs. Matilda Ernkrans is Sweden's minister for international development cooperation.

It's time to take on the responsibility of leadership for a shared green future. But taking responsibility doesn't only mean doing more — it means doing better.

Following two U.N. General Assembly resolutions, and after months of work, the world descended on Sweden's capital last week for Stockholm +50 to discuss the acceleration of efforts to create a healthy planet for the prosperity of all.

Hosted by Sweden and Kenya, the U.N. meeting was more than just a commemoration of the landmark 1972 Stockholm conference — the first world gathering to make the environment a central issue. New complexities in the areas of environment and energy, security and development, and climate and equity mean that isolated responses are simply not good enough. And now is the time for stronger global action that demonstrates the potency of multilateralism.

Along with hundreds of U.N. officials, heads of state, ministers and other government representatives, Stockholm +50 was a gathering that involved civil society – including activists, businesses and scientists – in ways that set new standards for multilateral meetings. And ahead of the meeting in Stockholm, over 50,000 people from all over the world — men and women, young and old, from all walks of life — provided their insights and recommendations.

From this clamor of voices, one message arose loud and clear: the need to speed up green and fair transitions. If 1972 was the starting point for global efforts to address environmental challenges, Stockholm+50 was about shifting to a faster gear.

The urgency isn't surprising. These are difficult times.

A triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution is already impacting people all over the world. The COVID-19 pandemic is far from over; inequalities and hunger are increasing rather than receding; and through its invasion of Ukraine, Russia's challenging the rules-based global order, causing a humanitarian crisis reaching far beyond Ukraine's borders, deepening the global hunger crisis.

All of this demonstrates the connectedness of our challenges. Human wellbeing and human security depend on a healthy biosphere, requiring broad engagement by responsible governments and vibrant civil society, as well as a functioning international system characterized by adherence to agreed principles, multilateralism and cooperation.

So how do we bring this to life?

Before all else, we must work together. If our aim is human security for all, we'll need integrated analysis and action, and with the Stockholm Hub on Environment, Climate and Security, Sweden's offering a resource for the global community to navigate a complex landscape and make sounder decisions for a safer and more sustainable future. Sweden's newly named ambassador for climate and security will also play a key role as our government moves this agenda forward. We hope that others will follow.

Time is also of the essence. We only have eight years to deliver on the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, and even less time to change the course on climate and the environment. There is no time to lose, and we all need to do more and do better.

International development aid can play a catalyzing role here, increasing both public and private financial flows into building resilient societies that are net-zero, nature friendly and zero-pollution. Climate adaptation is a global priority, and scaling up support for the least developed countries so they can adapt to a warming climate is a question of justice and solidarity.

The good news, however, is that the acceleration has already begun, and the transition is full of opportunities for people and our planet.

Visualizing our destination means imagining a world that's safer, healthier and more stable than the one we live in today — but transitions underway are already improving lives, while providing ecological and climate benefits.

In Sweden, for example, a green industrial revolution is emerging with flagships, such as the HYBRIT partnership for fossil-free steel, bringing new jobs and development to its neighborhood. Sweden's also one of the few countries allocating 1 percent of its gross national income to international development aid — with the intention of doubling its climate aid in the years to come as well.

But as Stockholm+50 demonstrated, it's not just Sweden — there's a wealth of such examples from all over the world. And these positive stories must feed the engine of transformation.

Today, on World Environment Day — one of the legacies of 1972 — the outcome of last week's conference brings momentum to our efforts for the months and years to come.

Together, we can change the story of the future.

Wales risks turning heartbreakers in World Cup match against Ukraine

Posted: 04 Jun 2022 03:53 PM PDT

When Wales secured a play-off place for football’s World Cup, it was a big moment — an opportunity to qualify for the international tournament for the first time in 64 years.

But the match has taken on truly historic significance due to their opponents: Ukraine.

The Ukrainian team has only played one competitive match since Russia's invasion of their country on February 24: an impressive 3-1 victory over Scotland on Wednesday that brought them within 90 minutes of going to the World Cup tournament in Qatar this winter.

Star Ukrainian player Oleksandr Zinchenko, who also plays for Manchester City in the Premier League, broke down in tears in a press conference ahead of the Scotland match, saying it was his "dream" to reach the World Cup finals. 

Ukrainian supporters at the match in Glasgow also were emotional.

"It was great," said Maria Romanenko, a Ukrainian journalist who fled Kyiv in February and who has been living in Manchester with her English partner since March. "I was going into it thinking, 'it's going to be a nice game,' but when I arrived there, the scale of it … being among the Ukraine fans felt surreal."

"Right after the game, I saw these Scottish fans, who were waving and blowing kisses with the Ukraine fans. When I saw that, I just had tears in my eyes. I was not expecting that," she said.

Romanenko will be one of hundreds of Ukrainian supporters in the Cardiff City Stadium for Sunday’s contest. They are hoping to see their country qualify for only the second time after their debut at the tournament in 2006.

Among the number will be 100 Wales-based Ukrainian refugees who were given free tickets to the sold-out match by the Welsh government and Football Association of Wales.

Petro Konstantynov, 22, is another fan who was at the Scotland game on Wednesday and who will make the journey to Cardiff this weekend. A student at Leeds University in the north of England, his family hails from Dnipro in Ukraine.

"Whether you like football or not, it's about showing unity and just the team giving a bit of happiness for the Ukrainian people because they deserve it, all of them," he said.

"To qualify for the World Cup would be enormous. But to qualify now, with the political situation, would mean everything,” Konstantynov said. “Ever since February 24, every Ukrainian has just been thinking mostly about one thing. To put your mind off that, to just be happy for a certain amount of time, to distract yourself, would just be amazing for the Ukrainian people," he said.

Romanenko agreed that the match means more than sport alone.

"There will be people who say: 'Oh, there's a war, why is Ukraine playing football?'” she said. "You'll see on social media people saying, 'Why are Ukrainians attending the game? Why are the players not at war?' And things like that."

"These people have probably never experienced war because what they don't realize is that culture, humor, all of these things, are very important to keep the nation sane," she said.

‘The bad guys‘

Against such a backdrop, Ukraine will be the neutral fan's favorite.

It means Sunday's game in Cardiff has cast the Welshmen in an unusual role: potential heartbreakers.

"Ah well … let poor Wales become the most hated country in the world," Scottish author and fan Irvine Welsh put it on Wednesday, after his team's defeat.

It's an unfamiliar tag for a fanbase that likes to be liked, and a country of 3 million people that often sees itself as the perpetual underdog. 

When Wales last played in Cardiff, in March, home fans displayed the Ukrainian flag, said retired teacher Tudur Dylan Jones, 56, who is traveling to the match in Cardiff from Carmarthen in west Wales. "The whole stand held it up in solidarity with Ukraine," he said.

"Even though we're playing against them, of course the solidarity with Ukraine remains. However, in 90 minutes of football, Wales will give 100 percent to reach the first World Cup in my lifetime," Jones said.

"But as far as being the bad guys of the world … so be it! "

Laura McAllister, a former Wales international footballer who now is a professor of public policy at Cardiff University, said many Welsh fans were supporting Ukraine against Scotland on Wednesday.

"A lot of that is empathy and sympathy for what's going on at the moment," she said.

Despite the emotional circumstances, she said the Welsh team shouldn't be apprehensive about the game.

"I think we've got just as much team spirit and unity as Ukraine has — obviously in massively different circumstances — but at the end of the day it's a game of football,” McAllister said. “We can display our greatest respect and support for Ukraine, but for those 90 minutes, this is a one-off match to see who qualifies for the World Cup and we want it every bit as much as they do."

Wales hasn't appeared at the World Cup since 1958, when a 17-year-old Pele scored to knock them out in the quarter-finals. Fans had to wait until 2016 to reach another international tournament, when the Welshmen qualified for the European Championships in France. 

‘Just one’

But expectations were low after five decades without tournament football.

"A common refrain as 24,000 of us walked to the ground in Bordeaux for the first game against Slovakia was 'I'd just like to see us score a goal. Just one. I'll be happy after we've sung the anthem, but I'd just love to see a goal’," the Welsh comedian and football fan Elis James wrote in the Guardian last year.

Wales surprised everyone — including some of their own players — by reaching the semi-finals in France, getting eliminated by eventual winners Portugal.

Wales' run at the Euros was a turning point for the country, says Russell Todd, host of the Podcast Pêl-droed football podcast.

"I think historians will look back in 50, 60 years' time and see 2016 as a milestone. I think it will be seen as that moment when Welsh identity just kind of went up a notch, in a way that other sports haven't been able to do," Todd told POLITICO, adding that the success paved the way for a broader debate about the country's place in the U.K. and the wider world.

But to reach the finals of the World Cup would bring even greater glory, and that makes Wales fans unwilling to give Ukraine an easy ride on Sunday.

Scotland and Wales fans were angered by a Telegraph column that suggested the pair could have ceded their places to allow Ukraine a smooth route to the finals.

Romanenko said that wouldn't be a popular idea in Ukraine, either.

"I don't think there should be any concessions for Ukraine in terms of the tournament itself. It's football, it needs to be fair. And I don't think the Ukraine team would want concessions and be given the victory. They want to win fairly," she said.

McAllister said that it would have been up to governing body FIFA, not the opposing teams, to allow Ukraine a pass.

"FIFA could have given them a route. They didn't choose to do that. So it's none of our business now. Our business is to make sure we do it for Wales," McAllister said.

"That doesn't mean the players won't be sympathetic to everything that's gone on," she said.

"But once they go out onto the pitch, they will want to win, and they'll want to make sure that Wales qualifies for its first World Cup in 64 years,”she said. “And we've got every right to think like that.”

‘Slap in the face’

One man who will be happy whatever the result is Mick Antoniw, a second-generation Ukrainian who represents the South Wales constituency of Pontypridd in the Welsh parliament.

He says a victory would have big implications for either country.

"The last time Wales qualified was in 1958. World football goes into just about every country. For Wales to be on that stage is an incredible step in the recognition and identity of Wales," he said.

Ukrainian fans still remember the last time their team reached the World Cup in 2006, when they got to the quarter-finals. But to see their side in Qatar would have bigger political significance.

"At this moment in time, this is part and parcel of the survival of Ukraine as a nation and a culture," said Antoniw. 

"What Russia has said is that basically it doesn't see Ukraine as a separate nation with a separate identity. So every time Ukraine plays on this world stage, it's a slap in the face to the Russian invasion."

Additional reporting by Ali Walker.

NATO chief to meet with Finnish, Swedish, Turkish officials in Brussels

Posted: 04 Jun 2022 10:03 AM PDT

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will hold talks with officials from Sweden, Finland and Turkey in Brussels next week to discuss Ankara's reservations about the two Nordic countries' bids to join the Western military alliance.

In a visit to Washington this week, Stoltenberg said he would convene officials from all three countries in Brussels "in the coming days … to ensure that we make progress on the applications of Finland and Sweden to join NATO," adding that both countries were "ready to sit down and to address" Turkey’s concerns.

That meeting is set to take place in NATO's Brussels headquarters next week, according to the Associated Press.

In the fallout from the Russian invasion, Sweden and Finland launched official applications to enter NATO, but Turkey has raised hurdles to their joining, pressuring them to cut off support of members of a minority militant group known as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which the Ankara government considers terrorists.

In a phone conversation on Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Stoltenberg that Sweden and Finland should say "very openly and clearly that they had given up supporting terrorism." Erdoğan called his government’s security concerns "rightful and legitimate."

Stoltenberg met with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Friday and said they discussed "the need to address Turkey's concerns and move forward" with Helsinki's and Stockholm's applications.

Turkey's gripes with the PKK and with the Kurds, the largest minority in the country, have also been a stumbling block in its own accession process to the EU. Accession reports by the European Commission have said that bans on Kurdish language books, closures of Kurdish-language media and dismissal of Kurdish academics were a "source of concern." One recent report said the government's "legitimate right" to fight terrorism must respect "human rights and fundamental freedoms."

During his visit to Washington, Stoltenberg said he was "confident" that the countries would find "a way forward."

"Turkey is an important ally, not least because of its strategic location," the NATO chief said. "When they raise concerns, of course, we sit down and we look into how we can find the united way forward."

Ukraine announces deaths of EU, Australian foreign fighters

Posted: 04 Jun 2022 08:10 AM PDT

Ukraine on Saturday announced the deaths of four foreign military volunteers who joined the fight against the Russian invasion, three of whom were from the EU.

"We wish to remember and honor our fallen brothers, who travelled to Ukraine to join the bravest of the brave and fight shoulder to shoulder with the defenders of Ukraine," the International Legion of Defense of Ukraine said in a statement.

The statement said that the volunteers came from Australia, Germany, France and the Netherlands, and thanked them for their "ultimate sacrifice." The statement identified the men as Ronald Vogelaar, Michael O'Neill, Björn Benjamin Clavis and Wilfried Blériot but did not specify the time or circumstances of their deaths.

On Friday, Paris confirmed that a French citizen fighting in Ukraine had been killed in combat, according to French media.

The legion was created in the early stages of the war as Ukraine sought to beef up its military forces with foreign volunteers willing to join the fight against the Russians.

On its website, the legion said that citizens from Denmark, Latvia, Poland, Croatia, the Netherlands, Canada, Israel and the U.K. were among its ranks.
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