Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for September 23, 2022
Newsline: US, China top diplomats to meet on high tensions
The top US and Chinese diplomats meet Friday in New York as soaring tensions show signs of easing, but Beijing issued a new warning against support for Taiwan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are set to meet on the sidelines of the annual United Nations summit, their first encounter since extensive talks in July in Bali where both sides appeared optimistic for more stability. One month later, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, infuriating Beijing which staged exercises seen as a trial run for an invasion of the self-governing democracy. In a sign of smoother ties, Wang said he met in New York with US climate envoy John Kerry despite China’s announcement after Pelosi’s visit that it was curbing cooperation on the issue, a key priority for Biden. But in a speech before his talks with Blinken, Wang reiterated anger over US support for Taiwan, which China considers part of its territory. (https://news.yahoo.com/us-china-top-diplomats-meet-015230512.html) President Joe Biden in an interview aired Sunday said he was ready to intervene militarily if China uses force, once again deviating from decades of US ambiguity.
Newsline: French President slammed for “disastrous” diplomacy on Ukraine
Diplomatic efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron in response to the war in Ukraine were a failure and “deeply harmful” for Kyiv, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general, said in an interview published on Friday. “It was not a success”, Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister who was one of the world’s most-senior diplomats until he left the transatlantic defence alliance in 2014, told French magazine Le Point. “Macron astonished us at the beginning of the crisis with his, to say the least, unique and critical statement that Putin should not be humiliated and offered an exit ramp. Such statements were disastrous and deeply harmful”, he added. (https://news.yahoo.com/former-nato-boss-slams-macron-133723455.html) His comments come after criticism, especially in eastern Europe, about how Macron kept an open line with Russian President Vladimir Putin with direct phone calls even after the invasion of Ukraine and has warned against ‘humiliating’ Russia. The French presidential office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Newsline: Relocation of British embassy to Jerusalem considered
Liz Truss has told her Israeli counterpart she is reviewing moving the British embassy in Tel Aviv to the contested holy city of Jerusalem. A Downing Street spokeswoman said Ms Truss informed Mr Lapid “about her review of the current location of the British Embassy in Israel”. (https://news.yahoo.com/truss-tells-israel-she-considering-000039584.html) The Prime Minister raised following Donald Trump on the possible move with Yair Lapid during a meeting at the United Nations summit in New York. Britain has long maintained its Israel embassy in Tel Aviv despite Israel designating Jerusalem as its capital. Mr Trump, when president, sparked controversy by moving the US embassy to Jerusalem in 2017.
Newsline: US embassy in Cuba to resume ‘full visa processing’ in 2023
The US embassy in Cuba said it would resume “full immigrant visa processing” next year for the first time since 2017, when the mission was closed over alleged sonic attacks on diplomatic staff. The announcement came as Cuba is experiencing an unprecedented exodus of undocumented migrants amid the communist country’s worst economic crisis in 30 years due to ramped-up US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic. “This change will… eliminate the need for Cubans applying for immigrant visas in family preference categories to travel outside of Cuba to Georgetown, Guyana for their interviews,” the embassy said in a statement. (https://news.yahoo.com/us-embassy-cuba-resume-full-220731586.html) The United States evacuated its diplomatic staff and their families in 2017 after at least two dozen people suffered brain injuries that resembled concussion, but with no exterior signs of trauma. The embassy closure made obtaining a visa an expensive nightmare for Cubans, who now had to travel to a third country, at their own cost, to put in an application. Many have sought to make it to US shores even without a visa, many trying their luck without travel documents on long, dangerous journeys by sea or by road via Central America. According to US border police, a record 198,000 Cubans illegally entered the United States in the last 11 months. The US embassy resumed limited visa services in Havana in May, but announced “full resumption” from early 2023, enabled by an increase in embassy personnel.
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