China inks ‘strategic partnership’ with Palestinan Authority as it expands Middle East presence
China inks ‘strategic partnership’ with Palestinan Authority as it expands Middle East presence
BEIJING: China said Wednesday it has established a “strategic partnership” with the Palestinian Authority during a visit to Beijing by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The announcement marks another step in China’s campaign to gain political and economic influence in the Middle East, where it is competing for influence with the United States.
China is seeking energy resources and markets for its military and civilian exports, while promoting its version of authoritarian government in a joint challenge with Russia to the Western-led democratic world order.
China has appointed a special envoy to meet with Israeli and Palestinian officials, but its experience in the region is mainly limited to construction, manufacturing and other economic projects.
Beijing has long maintained diplomatic ties with the Palestinian Authority and Abbas was welcomed with full military honors at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.
“We are good friends and partners,” Chinese president and head of the ruling Communist Party Xi Jinping told Abbas at the start of their meeting. “We have have always firmly supported the just cause of the Palestinian people to restore their legitimate national rights.”
“China is willing to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Palestinian side to promote a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue as soon as possible,” he said.
Xi called the strategic partnership an “important milestone in the history of bilateral relations,” but its financial details were not immediately released.
China relies on such partnerships to bolster its diplomatic posture and give large Chinese corporations a leg-up when negotiating infrastructure deals in line with the government’s “Belt and Road Initiative” that has left many struggling countries in deep debt to Chinese banks.
China has also sought close ties with Israel to both expand its diplomatic presence and gain access to high technology.
Abbas’ visit comes after China recently hosted talks between Iran and Saudi Arabia that resulted in the restoring of diplomatic relations between the two Mideast rivals and boosting China’s standing in the region.
The Riyadh-Tehran rapprochement is seen as a diplomatic victory for China as Gulf Arab states perceive the United States as slowly withdrawing from the wider region.
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On the dangerous return of the mercantilism
By Mahmoud Mohieldin - Tuesday 13 Jun 2023
The developing countries must act with all the means at their disposal against protectionist restrictions on international trade and investment.
For reasons connected with the devastating impacts of climate change and the recent protectionist measures of industrial nations that fear the loss of their competitive edge in advanced technology and related fields, the developing economies are facing major challenges in international trade and their ability to attract foreign investment. These have required their governments to implement urgent measures and mechanisms for mutual coordination.
The developing nations need to prepare for the new business practices associated with the CHIPS and Science Act adopted by the US Congress in 2022 and the Inflation Reduction Act of the same year that is intended to spur domestically oriented investments in energy security, climate change programmes, and the green economy.
The implementation of these acts will have far-reaching repercussions, which according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Mike Spence will affect main areas of science, technology and associated human resources, global supply chains due to the transfer of certain industrial components and their supply chains to the US and its partners, as well as trade with China due to US restrictions on trade, investment, and technological cooperation with China.
At the same time, the EU has signalled its resolve to step up measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As this goal entails restructuring greenhouse gas producing European industries and having them pay higher carbon prices to induce them to make changes, the EU has felt it necessary to insulate these industries against competition from their counterparts outside Europe that are not subject to similar carbon prices.
Thus, the EU Commission has introduced its Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which imposes an additional levy on a range of carbon-intensive goods, essentially shifting carbon prices onto the shoulders of foreign producers. This unprecedented measure, which will start coming into force on 1 October, will affect the exports of the developing nations, especially steel, fertilisers, energy derivatives, cement and aluminium.
The declared motives for such measures are many, but it is impossible to escape the fact that they coincide with mounting geopolitical tensions and the growing influence of political currents that espouse protectionist and isolationist outlooks. One cannot help but be reminded of the mercantilists whose views dominated European economic and trade policies from the 16th to the 18th centuries. They held that wealth is finite and that the state should accumulate as much of it as possible through restrictions on imports and the expansion of markets, as well as through gaining control over raw materials and building reserves of gold, then considered the standard of wealth.
In order to bring about these ends, all means were possible, including war, foreign occupation, and slavery.
At the end of the 18th century, Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, refuted the mercantilists’ ideas and demonstrated the advantages of free trade, specialisation, and the division of labour for accumulating wealth. Since the middle of the last century, the industrialised economies have also urged free trade, the lifting of restrictions on the flow of capital, and a global system of rules to govern economic transactions. International organisations were established and binding agreements concluded in a manner consistent with the other arrangements of the post-World War II period.
After all, the victor not only gets to write history, but he also gets to set the rules of the game of nations so as to ensure the permanence of his victory in all circumstances apart from another war. This policy seemed to work until the critical moment when the traditional powers began to feel that their perpetual advantage and cumulative rewards were being jeopardised by new regional and international powers that had achieved economic progress through hard work and in accordance with the accepted rules of the game.
At this point, the architects of the rules began to break them and rebel against the system that they themselves had created. As a result, trade, investment, and the management of capital in the world today are being conducted in ways that are very far from the rules and principles that make up the texts of international agreements on trade and investment. Worse still, economic and financial instruments and mechanisms have been weaponised for offensive or defensive purposes.
The liberalisation of trade and investment brought great rewards for countries adept at implementing it. International economic growth rates and volumes of trade have increased 20-fold since the 1960s. The number of people suffering from severe poverty has dropped four-fold to 15 per cent of the global population since the 1990s. The managing directors of the world trade organisation (WTO) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) cited such successes in a recent co-authored article to illustrate what is being threatened by the current deterioration of international cooperation and trade.
With every international crisis that could throttle the flow of international trade, countries have imposed restrictions on imports and exports, claiming that these are only temporary. But afterwards, the protectionist restrictions have remained in place and more have been added to them.
Many of the restrictions placed on trade and investment at the time of the 2008 world financial crisis are still in place, and on top of them have come further restrictions against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. All this goes to show that there is nothing more permanent than temporary measures.
Perhaps some will respond to the managing directors of the IMF and WTO appeal on behalf of cooperation and the free flow of trade and the advantages this brings in terms of productivity, employment, economic growth through exports, and insulating economies from shock through the diversification of sources for goods and services.
However, it is the neo-mercantilists who should really heed the message.
At the same time, the developing countries should not just sit back and blame the rule-breakers and bemoan their double standards, especially now that times are moving from bad to worse and double standards are becoming multiple standards.
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Borrowing, even on concessional terms, should be kept as a last resort and only for vital projects of the highest priority.
* This article appeared in Arabic in Wednesday’s edition of Asharq Al-Awsat.
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UAE expected to join Israel in global communications project - A fiber-optic cable is to connect Asia to the West via the Jewish state.
(June 14, 2023 / JNS)
A communications corridor that will transmit digital data between Asian and Arab countries and with Europe and the West through Israel is expected to be constructed in cooperation with the United Arab Emirates and an additional Arab country that has not yet made peace with Israel, Israeli officials said Monday.
The agreement of the project, which is slated to be signed in the coming months, is the latest sign of the growing economic ties between Israel and the UAE.
The proposal will see the laying of fiber-optic cables along the 250-kilometer-long Europe Asia Pipeline Co. (EAPC) pipeline between Eilat and Ashkelon, while two-way underwater cables will be affixed between foreign countries and Israel, said Elad Malka, deputy director general of the Israeli Communications Ministry.
Malka, speaking to JNS, declined to name the additional Arab country that is expected to join the project.
Foreign companies will be tasked with the work on the cable from their countries to Israel, he said, while Israeli companies will be in charge of the intra-Israel section.
“The Abraham Accords made this possible,” Malka said. “Before this, there was no one to connect to.”
The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords reached under the Trump administration saw Israel normalize relations with four Arab countries: the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Previously, foreign countries ran such cables through Egypt and the Suez Canal, but they had many problems with the line, including high expenses.
“Israel’s geographic location is strategic looking eastwards and also westwards,” Malka said.
The project, which has been in the planning stages for two years, is expected to be completed within four years and will be economically self-sufficient, he said.
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The United States Announces $920 Million in Additional Humanitarian Assistance for Syria
MEDIA NOTE - OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON
JUNE 15, 2023
Today, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights Uzra Zeya announced $920 million in additional U.S. humanitarian assistance for Syria at the Brussels VII Conference on “Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region.”
The announcement brings the total U.S. government humanitarian assistance to Syria and the region to $1.1 billion in FY 2023 and almost $16.9 billion since the start of the 12-year crisis. It is our largest announcement of humanitarian funding to the Syria response to date and comes against a backdrop of record-high humanitarian needs exacerbated by the devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria in early February 2023. The United States remains steadfast in our commitment to the Syrian people, and we urge other donors to increase their contributions to the response as Syrians continue to face severe challenges from years of war, terrorism, and natural disaster.
In her remarks at the Brussels VII Conference, Under Secretary Zeya reaffirmed the importance of unfettered humanitarian access to all parts of Syria and urged the UN Security Council to re-authorize UN cross-border aid into Syria in July. She underscored U.S. support for a 12-month authorization of all three border crossing points currently in use, to ensure predictable humanitarian access to millions in need in northwest Syria.
Under Secretary Zeya also shared concern around the deteriorating situation for refugees in the region, including increased anti-refugee rhetoric, and reaffirmed that conditions inside Syria are not in place for safe, voluntary, dignified, and sustainable refugee returns.
Under Secretary Zeya emphasized that a political solution in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2254 remains the only way to end the suffering of the Syrian people. She also stressed that the United States will continue promoting respect for the dignity and human rights of all Syrians and continue supporting Syrian civil society in pursuing justice and accountability for human rights violations and abuses.
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