Top of the Agenda
EU Foreign Ministers Meet to Discuss Sanctions on Russia
EU foreign ministers meet in Brussels on Thursday to debate (BBC)
extending current sanctions and imposing broader ones on Russia, amid
escalating violence in Ukraine. This week, newly elected Greek Prime
Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Greece opposed (FT)
new EU sanctions, and his energy minister, Panagiotis Lafazanis, said
Greece was against the European embargo and had no interest in imposing
sanctions on Russia. Consensus among all EU member states is required to
approve fresh sanctions or to extend existing ones. Meanwhile, the
United States signed an agreement to provide $2 billion (Reuters) in loan guarantees to Ukraine and said it was also prepared to step up its own sanctions against Russia on Wednesday.
Analysis
"The West has to confront the reality that sanctions alone have not changed
Putin's behavior, but policymakers in Washington and Brussels have yet
to craft a broader approach," write Keith Johnson and Jamila Trindle in Foreign Policy.
"Tsipras
spoke out against harsh sanctions on Russia. Some members of his Syriza
party are said to be very close to Moscow. So far, Europe's unanimous
stance in opposition to Russia's aggression is one of the few trump
cards the EU has in the conflict over eastern Ukraine and annexed
Crimea. The new Greek government is canceling that consensus, and that
could plunge the EU into a dire political crisis," cautions Bernd Riegert for Deutsche Welle.
"Many
in the United States and Europe believe that ratcheting up economic
pressure on Russia will help drive Putin out. This is an enormously dangerous gamble.
As Russian living standards decline, Putin's only viable strategy to
remain in power will be an aggressive international posture. Foreign
military adventures, after all, are most appealing when the domestic
front is on fire," argues Charles Wyplosz in Project Syndicate.
PACIFIC RIM
Pentagon Halts New China Defense Cooperation
American defense officials said on Wednesday that planned military exchange programs with China (WSJ),
including a proposed visit of a U.S. aircraft carrier and other joint
operations, would be put on hold indefinitely until the two countries
can agree on new guidelines for sharing airspace. Improving military
communications was a centerpiece of President Obama's November visit to
China, following a number of near collisions of the countries' navy
ships and military aircraft.
This CFR InfoGuide explores the implications of China's increasing assertiveness in its near abroad.
MALAYSIA: Authorities officially declared (Sydney Morning Herald)
the loss of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared March 8,
2014, an accident, a designation which allows the compensation process
to go forward.
SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA
Modi Sacks Foreign Minister After Obama Visit
In a surprise move, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked for the resignation (Times of India)
of foreign secretary Sujatha Singh Thursday and announced that her
replacement would be current ambassador to the United States,
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar. While Singh was appointed by the previous
government, observers say Modi credits Jaishankar with orchestrating the
rapid improvement in U.S.-India ties evidenced by President Obama's
visit.
In this Op-Ed, CFR's Alyssa Ayres argues that trade and economic cooperation could transform the U.S.-India relationship.
AFGHANISTAN: A Taliban attack on a checkpoint in Ghazni province (TOLO) killed eleven Afghan police officers and resulted in the death of seven insurgent fighters, officials said.
MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
ISIS Sets New Deadline for Prisoner Swap
An audio message released by ISIS and apparently recorded by Japanese journalist and hostage Kenji Goto, set a new deadline (Al Arabiya)
of "sunset Thursday" for a proposed prisoner swap. The government of
Jordan said on Wednesday that it would be willing to exchange convicted
terrorist Sajida al-Rishawi for the life of captured Jordanian pilot
Muath al-Kasaesbeh, but the new message implies that ISIS only intends
the deal to include Goto and al-Rishawi.
CFR President Richard N. Haass argues that the threat of ISIS for the region will only grow in this Op-Ed.
ISRAEL: A day after Israel exchanged fire with Hezbollah forces on the border with Lebanon, Israeli officials have said (Daily Star) that they received a message from Hezbollah indicating the group wants no further escalation.
SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Central African Republic Rejects Cease-Fire Proposal
Government officials said that they "categorically reject" a cease-fire proposal (Reuters)
between CAR's two primary warring factions, the largely Muslim Seleka
alliance and the mostly Christian "anti-balaka" rebels. The initial agreement (Al Jazeera)
was signed by representatives of the two groups in Kenya on Wednesday,
without the involvement of the current interim government.
SOUTH SUDAN: President Salva Kiir was rushed to the hospital (Sudan Tribune)
with a sudden and unspecified illness in the Ethiopian capital Addis
Ababa Wednesday, where he was meeting with representatives of a rebel
group.
EUROPE
Italy Begins Process of Selecting New President
After this month's resignation of President Giorgio Napolitano, Italian lawmakers will begin casting ballots (Deutsche Welle)
for the country's next president on Thursday. The process is complex,
as over one thousand national and regional representatives must achieve a
two-thirds consensus in the first three rounds; divisions in Prime
Minister Matteo Renzi's center-left Democratic Party mean that voting
will likely go into a fourth or fifth round.
AMERICAS
Raul Castro Demands Return of Guantanamo
Cuban President Raul Castro said (AP)
that the return of full diplomatic relations between his country and
the United States would be linked to a broad set of demands, including
the return of the Guantanamo Bay military base to Cuban hands. Other
demands included hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for the
effects of the U.S. economic embargo and the end of anti-Castro radio
and television broadcasts.
In this Op-Ed, CFR's John B. Bellinger III argues that Guantanamo Bay is a national security liability that complicates U.S. diplomacy.
UNITED STATES: A former nuclear scientist at New Mexico's Los Alamos National Laboratory, Pedro Leonardo Mascheroni, was sentenced (LAHT) to five years in prison for attempting to pass information on constructing nuclear weapons to Venezuela.
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Thursday, January 29, 2015
CFR Update 1/29 EU Foreign Ministers Meet to Discuss Sanctions on Russia
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