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February
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Joe Biden and Russia's President Vladimir Putin meet for the U.S.-Russia summit at Villa La Grange in Geneva, Switzerland, June 16, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque -
US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will speak on Saturday (Feb 12) as Western nations warned a war in Ukraine could ignite at any moment.
Putin requested the telephone call between the leaders to take place on Monday, a White House official said, but Biden wanted to conduct it sooner as Washington detailed increasingly vivid accounts of a possible attack on Ukraine.
Australia and New Zealand on Saturday joined the countries urging their citizens to leave Ukraine, after Washington said a Russian invasion, including a possible air assault, could occur anytime.
Moscow has repeatedly disputed Washington's version of events, saying it has massed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border to maintain its own security against aggression by NATO allies.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed hope that Putin would choose diplomacy but said Washington would impose swift economic sanctions if Moscow invades.
"I continue to hope that he will not choose the path of renewed aggression and he'll chose the path of diplomacy and dialogue," Blinken told reporters after a meeting with Pacific leaders in Fiji. "But if he doesn't, we're prepared."
Putin, jostling for influence in post-Cold War Europe, is seeking security guarantees from Biden to block Kyiv's entry into NATO and missile deployments near Russia's borders.
Washington regards many of the proposals as non-starters but has pushed the Kremlin to discuss them jointly with Washington and its European allies.
Still, Biden, who will join the weekend call from the mountainside presidential retreat in Camp David, Maryland, has long believed that one-on-one engagement with Putin may be the best chance at a resolution.
Two calls in December between Biden and Putin produced no breakthroughs but set the stage for diplomacy between their aides. The two leaders have not spoken since, and diplomats from both sides have struggled to find common ground. Four-way talks in Berlin between Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France on Thursday made no progress.
Putin also plans to speak with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, according to Russia's TASS news agency.
US intelligence believes a rapid assault on Kyiv is possible and that Putin could order an invasion before the Winter Olympics end on Feb 20, Biden's national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Friday, adding it remains unclear whether such a command has been given.
He said they had gathered sufficient troops near the border to invade the country and that they may initiate an aerial bombing.
On Twitter, Russia's Deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy accused Washington of fanning "hysteria" and mounting a "panic campaign."
Ukrainian officials have tried to tamp down Washington's assessment an invasion could be imminent.
Nonetheless, Washington planned to send 3,000 extra troops to Poland, Ukraine's western neighbor, in coming days to try and help reassure NATO allies, four US officials told Reuters. They are in addition to 8,500 already on alert for deployment to Europe if needed.
Meanwhile, Russian forces gathered north, south and east of Ukraine as six Russian warships reached the Black Sea and more Russian military equipment arrived in Belarus. Commercial satellite images from a US firm showed new Russian military deployments at several sites near the border.
Ahead of the talks with Putin, Biden spoke about the crisis with the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Poland and Romania, as well as the heads of NATO and the EU. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also spoke with Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba.
"Our support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering," Blinken said after the call on Friday.
Washington also expressed concern that Russia and China were cooperating at the highest level, with a senior administration official saying on Saturday the two were "working to undermine us".
A partnership agreement between Moscow and Beijing shows they are in "fundamental alignment" that is growing closer, and a meeting between Putin and China's President Xi Jinping shows Beijing sees Moscow's moves regarding Ukraine as "legitimate," the official told reporters accompanying Blinken on a flight from Australia to Fiji//CNA
February
UK tells British nationals in Ukraine not to expect military evacuation
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: A service member of the Ukrainian armed forces walks at combat positions near the line of separation from Russian-backed rebels outside the town of Avdiivka in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine February 10, 2022. REUTERS/Oleksandr Klymenko/File Photo -
British nationals who choose to stay in Ukraine should not expect a military evacuation if conflict with Russia breaks out, junior defence minister James Heappey told Sky News on Saturday (Feb 12).
"British nationals should leave Ukraine immediately by any means possible and they should not expect, as they saw in the summer with Afghanistan, that there would be any possibility of a military evacuation," he said.
On Friday the UK government advised British nationals to leave Ukraine while commercial means were still available and advised against all further travel to the country.
Britain is, however, maintaining a diplomatic presence in Ukraine.
"I am staying in Kyiv and continue to work there with a core team. The embassy remains operational," the British ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, said on Twitter.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said on Friday British troops sent to Ukraine for training purposes would return soon.
"There will be no British troops in Ukraine if there is any conflict with Russia," said Heappey.
US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin were set to speak on Saturday as Western nations warned that a war in Ukraine could ignite at any moment//CNA
February
Canada braces for action on US-border bridge blocked by protesters despite court order
Written by nuke
A man reacts as truckers and supporters continue blocking access to the Ambassador Bridge, which connects Detroit and Windsor, in protest against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine mandates, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada February 11, 2022. REUTERS/Carlos Osorio -
Canada was bracing for more protests against the government's pandemic measures on Saturday, with the focus on the vital US-Canada bridge that remained be blocked by demonstrators defying a court order and emergency measures and disrupting the North American auto industry.
The "Freedom Convoy" protests, started in the national capital Ottawa by Canadian truckers opposing a vaccinate-or-quarantine mandate for cross-border drivers, entered its 16th day on Saturday (Feb 12).
Protests have spread to three border points, including the Ambassador Bridge, North America's busiest land border crossing, where dozens of vehicles have crowded since Monday, choking the supply chain for Detroit's carmakers.
Ford, the second-largest US automaker, said on Friday it had temporarily halted work at its assembly plant in Ohio. General Motors and Toyota Motor Co also announced new production cuts. Companies have diverted cargo to stem losses amid production cuts.
A judge on Friday ordered an end to the Ambassador Bridge blockade, but some 100 protesters continued to occupy the bridge early on Saturday with trucks and pick-up vans, preventing the flow of traffic either way.
The Ontario government, which declared a state of emergency in the province on Friday, has threatened fines and jail for protesters if they do not leave.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has come under pressure from opposition party leaders to intervene, while US President Joe Biden's administration urged his government to use federal powers. Trudeau has promised Biden quick action to end the crisis.
Trudeau, after a call with Biden on Friday, said all options were on the table to end blockades, adding that the consequences were becoming "more and more severe."
"We've heard your frustration with COVID, with the measures," Trudeau told reporters, addressing the protesters' concerns. "It's time to go home now."
East of Ottawa, people were expected to gather in Fredericton in the province of New Brunswick for a weekend demonstration. Local police said officers were stationed at entrances to the city to ensure traffic can continue. Canada's financial capital Toronto was also bracing for more weekend demonstrations.
Ottawa police chief Peter Sloly said officers were on standby to begin enforcing the new laws and warned of consequences for law-breakers in anticipation of people joining the protesters over the weekend.
"The Ottawa police service is better equipped and better resourced to deal with this anticipated influx," deputy police chief Steve Bell told city officials in a meeting//CNA
February
Macron urges calm as French "Freedom Convoys" approach Paris
Written by nuke
Supporters wave French national flag and cheer French anti-COVID restrictions car drivers near the Canadian National Memorial in Vimy northern France as they parade during the start of their "Convoi de la liberte" (The Freedom Convoy), a vehicular convoy protest converging on Paris to protest coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine and restrictions in France, February 11, 2022. The slogan reads "The last bastion". REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol -
France mobilised thousands of police, armoured personnel carriers and water cannon trucks in Paris on Friday (Feb 11) to keep out convoys of motorists converging on the capital for a protest against COVID-19 restrictions.
Checkpoints were set up at toll points on major entry roads while riot-control barriers were erected across the city centre ahead of rallies that the protesters aim to hold over the weekend.
Inspired by horn-blaring "Freedom Convoy" demonstrations in Canada, the motorists - from numerous cities across France - were expected to gather outside Paris during Friday and seek to defy a police order not to enter the city.
"We've been going around in circles for three years," said pensioner Jean-Marie Azais, part of a "Convoie de Liberte" headed to the capital from the southwest, in reference to France's anti-COVID strategy.
"We saw the Canadians and said to ourselves, 'It's awesome, what they're doing.' In eight days, boom, something was sparked."
As the evening rush hour got under way, police began checking drivers' documents at various entry points into the city centre. More than 7,000 officers will be mobilised over the next 72 hours.
Convoy members exchanged information via social media on how best to slip into the city, avoiding a police presence that included heavy-lifting equipment to dismantle any makeshift roadblocks.
"We have always safeguarded the right to protest ... but we need harmony and we need a lot of collective goodwill," President Emmanuel Macron told newspaper Ouest France, while urging calm.
His prime minister, Jean Castex, was more blunt. Citizens had the right to protest but not gridlock the capital, he said.
The Canadian demonstrations, which have paralysed parts of the capital Ottawa and blocked key U.S.-Canada crossing points, united truckers angered by a vaccine mandate for trans-border traffic.
But in France it is ordinary citizens angry at COVID rules who are taking to their vehicles. The protests show signs of uniting disparate opponents of President Emmanuel Macron, two months before an election in which he is expected to stand again.
A crusade by Macron against anti-vaxxers had been broadly supported, with 80per cent in France having been inoculated, but public irritation over COVID restrictions including a widely enforced vaccine pass that has already triggered waves of demonstrations is growing.
In Toulouse, one woman cheering on motorists said the protesters should defy the police order to stay outside Paris city limits.
"The authorities cannot block everyone," she said, withholding her name. "The convoys must force it, they must still try to enter."
Some far-right politicians and remnants of the anti-government "Yellow Vest" movement came out in support of the protesters.
Some among a crowd that waved off a convoy of vans, motorhomes and cars in Vimy, northern France, wore the high-visibility vests that characterised those pre-pandemic popular protests of 2018 and 2019.
The "Yellow Vest" revolt shook Macron's presidency over several months. What began as a protest against diesel taxes morphed into a broader rebellion against Macron and revealed a deep-seated anger outside big cities at the high cost of living and a disconnected urban elite.
With spiralling energy prices and a strong economic rebound driving inflation higher, households are again feeling a squeeze on budgets and public frustration is simmering.
"The question everyone is asking is whether the freedom convoy going to be a renaissance of the 'Yellow Vests'," one investigative police source said//CNA
February
US plans to free half of US$7 billion in frozen Afghan funds for aid
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: A displaced Afghan woman holds her child as she waits with other women to receive aid supply outside an UNCHR distribution center on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan October 28, 2021. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra -
The Biden administration is seeking to free up half of the US$7 billion in frozen Afghan central bank assets on US soil to help the Afghan people while holding the rest to possibly satisfy terrorism-related lawsuits against the Taliban, the White House said on Friday (Feb 11).
President Joe Biden signed an executive order declaring a national emergency to deal with the threat of an economic collapse in Afghanistan, setting the wheels in motion for a complex resolution of competing interests in the Afghan assets.
The US Justice Department is due on Friday to present a plan to a federal judge on what to do with the frozen funds amid urgent calls from US lawmakers and the United Nations for the money to be used to address the dire economic crisis that has worsened since the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan in August.
Senior US administration officials said they would work to ensure access to US$3.5 billion of the assets - which stem mainly from aid to Afghanistan over the past two decades - to benefit the Afghan people.
They said Washington would set up a third-party trust in coming months to administer the funds but details were still being worked out on how that entity would be structured and how the funds could be used.
The multi-step plan calls for the other half of the funds to remain in the United States, subject to ongoing litigation by US victims of terrorism, including relatives of those who died in the Sep 11, 2001, hijacking attacks, the officials said.
Washington froze the Afghan funds after the Taliban's military takeover in August, but has faced pressure to find a way to release the money without recognizing the new Afghan administration, which says it is theirs.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s designated representative to the United Nations, called for the entire amount to be unfrozen and kept under control of the Afghan central bank.
"The reserve is the property of Da Afghanistan Bank and by extension, the property of the people of Afghanistan. We want the unfreezing of the entire amount as a reserve of Da Afghanistan Bank," Shaheen told Reuters.
The spokesman of the Taliban’s Doha office blasted the US move in a tweet: "Stealing and takeover of frozen money which belongs to the Afghan people by US shows the lowest level of human and moral decline of a country and a nation."
Control over the funds is complicated by lawsuits filed by some Sep 11 victims and their families seeking to cover unsatisfied court judgments related to the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Biden's new executive order requires US financial institutions to transfer all Afghan central bank assets held into a consolidated account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Afghanistan has another US$2 billion in reserves, held in countries including Britain, Germany, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates. Most of those funds are also frozen. US officials said they had been in touch with allies about the frozen assets, but Washington was the first to offer a plan for how to use them to help the Afghan people.
The United States, the largest single donor of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, also plans to keep working with the UN and humanitarian aid groups on separate US aid flows, the officials said, adding that they expected significant multilateral engagement in creation of the new trust fund.
Washington is also working closely with the UN to ensure the international body's agencies and aid groups have the liquidity needed to support critical humanitarian assistance programs, the White House said.
Reuters reported on Thursday that the UN aims to kickstart a system to swap millions of aid dollars for Afghan currency that would help solve that issue.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a mechanism to free up about US$9.5 billion in frozen Afghan reserves, including in the United States.
US sanctions ban financial business with the Taliban, but Washington has granted waivers to allow humanitarian support for the Afghan people. A new license will be needed to allow transfers from the envisioned trust, officials said//CNA
February
Biden picks former sanctions enforcer as ambassador to South Korea
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: Philip Goldberg, then U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, speaks during the announcement of the granting of legal status of temporary protection to Venezuelan migrants, in Bogota, Colombia February 8, 2021. REUTERS/Luisa Gonzalez/File Photo -
US President Joe Biden announced on Friday (Feb 11) he intends to nominate Philip Goldberg, a career diplomat and a former North Korea sanctions enforcer, as ambassador to South Korea, a White House statement said.
Goldberg has served since 2019 as ambassador to Colombia and previously as charge d'affaires in Cuba and ambassador to the Philippines and Bolivia, among other postings.
Goldberg also worked as coordinator for the implementation of United Nations sanctions on North Korea over its nuclear weapons and missile programs from 2009 to 2010.
Reuters reported plans for Goldberg's nomination last month.
The post in one of the United States' key allies has been filled by a charge d'affaires for more than a year since the last ambassador to South Korea, former navy Admiral Harry Harris, stepped down when Biden took office in January 2021.
While Seoul and Washington insist their alliance is "iron-clad," the sanctions have been a source of controversy as they blocked South Korean President Moon Jae-in's desire for more economic engagement with North Korea.
Harris' tenure was marked by tension in the alliance as then-President Donald Trump pressed Seoul to pay billions of dollars more toward supporting the roughly 28,500 US troops stationed there, while South Korea chafed at the US push for strict sanctions enforcement.
The nomination of Goldberg, who faces a Senate confirmation hearing, comes at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula over a spate of missile tests by North Korea, which has long been seeking relief from US and international sanctions.
The tests have included the first of an intermediate range ballistic missile since 2017, raising fears that North Korea may resume tests of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombs for the first time since that year.
Biden's administration has repeatedly urged North Korea to return to dialogue aimed at persuading the reclusive state to give up its nuclear weapons programs but has been rebuffed, with Pyongyang saying it would not engage further unless Washington dropped hostile policies//CNA
February
Swiss raise rights concerns, including girls' education, with Afghan Taliban
Written by nuke
A girl sits in front of a bakery in the crowd with Afghan women waiting to receive bread in Kabul, Afghanistan, Jan 31, 2022. (Photo: REUTERS/Ali Khara) -
Switzerland has raised concerns about human rights in Afghanistan, including about girls' education, in a meeting with the Taliban, a government spokesman said on Friday (Feb 11), as the new rulers in Kabul wrapped up a week of talks in Geneva.
The trip is seen as a key step in Taliban efforts to boost outreach efforts as they seek to persuade foreign powers to officially recognise them and restore the aid money that has been cut off in protest of their takeover last August.
The delegation met with Swiss officials as well as the Red Cross and other humanitarian groups in the talks that touched on aid needs, security concerns and health care, according to participants who attended the closed-door talks.
In an emailed response to questions, foreign ministry spokesperson Paola Ceresetti said Switzerland had raised the issue of abductions and reprisals including the targeting of reporters, without specifically discussing the detention of two journalists reported by the UN Refugee Agency on Friday.
Berne had also raised the "systematic exclusion" of girls and women from education, politics, society and public life and said it expected girls to be back in school in March, she said.
Under their previous rule from 1996 to 2001, the hardline Islamist Taliban barred women and girls from education. They say they have since changed but they have been vague on their plans and high school-aged girls in many provinces have still not been allowed to return to school.
A handful of female activists gathered outside the delegation's hotel earlier this week while a few dozen people protested outside the UN headquarters in Geneva on Friday, a police spokesperson confirmed.
Ceresetti denied that the talks amounted to official recognition of the Taliban and stressed that it was important to maintain dialogue. "We talk to everyone," she said.
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who met with Afghanistan's acting health minister Qalandar Ebad earlier this week during the same trip, also called on countries and organisations "to continue with dialogue to support the people of Afghanistan".
Geneva Call, the humanitarian group that hosted the talks, said that the Taliban delegation had signed a closing statement that pledged to promote humanitarian access, respect female health workers and help clear mines//CNA
February
Afghan refugee protest in UAE calling for US resettlement continues for third day
Written by nuke
FILE PHOTO: Evacuees from Afghanistan board a military aircraft during an evacuation from Kabul, in this photo taken on August 19, 2021 at undisclosed location and released on August 20, 2021. Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar/U.S. Marine Corps/Handout via REUTERS -
Afghan refugees held in the United Arab Emirates for months since fleeing Afghanistan last year protested for a third day on Friday (Feb 11), calling for resettlement to the United States.
The demonstrations by hundreds of Afghans began on Wednesday at the centre where they are being housed as months of frustrations with what refugees say is a lack of communication over the resettlement process boiled over.
A protestor told Reuters by phone more refugees had joined the protest on Friday, a day after a US official visited the centre and told them it could take years for applications to be processed.
Many refugees, however, were unlikely to ever be resettled in the United States, the official told them, according to the protestor.
Ahmad Mohibi, an advocate who has helped Afghans evacuate, including to the UAE, and who is contact with several refugees there, said Afghans planned to continue peaceful protests.
The refugees, he said, were appreciative of the care the UAE has provided them but were exasperated by the uncertainty over how much longer they would have to remain at the Abu Dhabi centre.
The US Embassy in Abu Dhabi and the Emirati government have not commented on the protests. The refugees have complained about prison-like conditions in the centre.
The UAE agreed with Washington and other Western countries last year to temporarily house Afghan nationals evacuated from Afghanistan as they made their way to a third country.
It is unclear how many Afghans refugees are being housed in the UAE, though demonstrators and advocates estimate there are 12,000 temporarily living at two locations in Abu Dhabi.
Afghans have protested outside a US government representative office at one of the centres in Abu Dhabi, holding banners pleading for freedom and urging the US to resettle them.
The US is prioritising those with visas or applications but two sources familiar with cases of refugees in Abu Dhabi said most there had neither.
Advocates say while it is believed thousands of refugees there have a legal path to the United States, many others do not.
They say the refugees include people who had worked with the US government, military and for Afghan forces before the withdrawal of Western forces last August. The Western-backed government collapsed and the hardline Islamist Taliban movement took over the country.
Mohibi said he was coordinating with other advocates and charities to raise the Afghans' concerns directly with the US government//CNA
February
Quad ministers address Indo-Pacific 'coercion', climate, COVID
Written by Nur Yasmin
The United States, Australia, Japan and India pledged on Friday to deepen cooperation to ensure the Indo-Pacific region was free from "coercion", a thinly veiled swipe at China's economic and military expansion.
Foreign ministers of the so-called Quad group, meeting in the Australian city of Melbourne, also promised to increase cooperation onCOVID-19, cyber threats and counter-terrorism.
In a joint statement, they vowed to work on humanitarian relief, disaster assistanceand the delivery of infrastructure to the region, and condemned North Korea's "destabilising ballistic missile launches" in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
They said their informal Quad grouping was determined to deepen engagement with regional partners, and increase their capacity to combat unregulated and illegal fishing.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels onwards to Fiji on Saturday to meet with Pacific island leaders to whom fishing and climate change are likely to be priority issues.
"We agreed to boost maritime security support for Indo Pacific partners to strengthen their maritime domain awareness and ability to develop their offshore resources, to ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and to combat challenges such as illegal fishing," Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said after the meeting.
The Quad partners "oppose coercive economic policies" that run counter to the World Trade Organization system, "and will work collectively to foster global economic resilience against such actions", the statement said, a reference to China's recent trade boycotts of Australia and Lithuania.
Blinken arrived in Australia this week as Washington grapples with a dangerous standoff with Moscow, which has massed some 100,000 troops near Ukraine’s border and stoked Western fears of an invasion. Russia denies it has such plans.
The Biden administration wants to show the world its long-term strategic focus remains in the Asia-Pacific and that a major foreign policy crisis in one part of the world does not distract it from key priorities.
Asked by reporters on Friday whether confrontation with China in the Indo-Pacific was inevitable, Blinken replied that "nothing is inevitable".
"Having said that, I think we share concerns that in recent years China has been acting more aggressively at home and more aggressively in the region," he said.
China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and a clique "targeting other countries".
Payne said earlier on Friday the Quad's cooperation on the region's COVID response was "most critical", with cyber and maritime security, infrastructure, climate action and disaster relief - especially after the recent Tonga volcanic eruption - also in focus.
The Quad nations have begun holding annual naval exercises across the Indo-Pacific to demonstrate interoperability, and the United States itself conducts freedom of navigation patrols in the South China Sea.
Blinken's trip comes after China and Russia declared last week a "no limits" strategic partnership, their most detailed and assertive statement to work together - and against the United States - to build a new international order based on their own interpretations of human rights and democracy.
U.S.-Chinese relations are at their lowest point in decades with the world's top two economies disagreeing on issues ranging from Hong Kong and Taiwan to the South China Sea and China's treatment of ethnic Muslims.
Biden told Asian leaders in October that the United States would launch talks on a new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework. But few details have emerged and his administration has been reluctant to offer the increased market access Asian countries desire, seeing this as threatening American jobs.
Critics say the lack of U.S. economic engagement is a major weakness in Biden's approach to the region, where China remains the top trading partner for many of the Indo-Pacific nations. (Reuters)
February
Hong Kong extends ban on flights from eight countries, adds Nepal
Written by Nur Yasmin
Hong Kong on Friday extended a ban on incoming flights from eight countries, including the United States and Britain, and imposed one on Nepal until March 4, with the government citing concerns over a growing COVID-19 outbreak.
The other countries are Australia, Canada, France, India, Pakistan and Philippines.
Flights to Hong Kong are down 90% and hardly any are allowed to transit as the financial hub isolates itself from the world in the hope it can contain a coronavirus outbreak, even though new infections are overwhelmingly local transmissions. (Reuters)