Diplomatic Briefing
Your exclusive news aggregator handpicked daily!Archive for September 29, 2022
Newsline: Top Cuban diplomat pledges to negotiate with the United States
Cuba’s top diplomat said his country’s officials have no choice but to engage the United States in negotiations to normalize relations, despite a decade of diplomatic whiplash and mixed messages from Washington. In an interview with The Hill, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded to a question posed by former Obama administration adviser Ben Rhodes on whether Cuban officials would “ever, ever negotiate anything with America ever again after this?” “We will have to,” said Rodríguez Parrilla, who was in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. “We will have to, first, because there is a historical trend that will, at some point, force us to reestablish dialogue and lift the blockade.” (https://news.yahoo.com/top-cuban-diplomat-negotiate-united-100000389.html) After a historic and controversial push to normalize relations between Washington and Havana under former President Obama, the Trump administration did an about-face, most famously adding Cuba to a list of state sponsors of terrorism. The Biden administration, though less hawkish than the Trump administration, has not taken major steps to normalize relations, including keeping Cuba on the terrorism watchlist.
Newsline: China Seen Pursuing Aggressive Diplomacy
China signalled on Thursday no let-up in its combative approach to foreign policy in a third term for Xi Jinping as leader despite criticism from many Western diplomats that the so-called Wolf Warrior stance has been counterproductive. As relations with the West have soured over issues from trade and human rights to COVID-19, Chinese diplomats have often been confrontational on the public stage, including on social media, a stridency that some critics see as intended for a domestic audience that nonetheless hurts its foreign ties. “We Chinese will not capitulate. We will not sit and do nothing while our country’s interests are being harmed,” Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu said in response to a Reuters question at a Thursday news conference to discuss Chinese diplomacy in the decade since Xi assumed power. “Going forward, Chinese diplomats will continue to overcome all obstacles, and always be the devoted guardians of the interests of our country and our people,” said Ma. (https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-09-29/china-signals-no-let-up-in-its-aggressive-diplomacy) He is considered to be among contenders to replace Wang Yi as foreign minister in an upcoming leadership reshuffle.
Newsline: Spain summons Iran ambassador over protests crackdown
Spain summoned the Iranian ambassador to express its opposition to the heavy-handed crackdown on mass demonstrations across Iran that have claimed dozens of lives, a diplomatic source said. In a statement, the ministry expressed Spain’s “absolute condemnation” of the violence against peaceful demonstrators and in particular its “abhorrence of the violence against Iranian woman and their rights”. “The foreign ministry has summoned the Iranian ambassador in Madrid to express its objection over the repression of the protests and the violation of women’s rights,” the source said. (https://www.thelocal.es/20220928/spain-summons-iran-ambassador-over-protests-crackdown/) It urged the Iranian authorities to carry out “an independent investigation (into the bloodshed) and to establish responsibility in a transparent, objective and thorough manner” while “ending all arbitrary arrests” of journalists and other citizens exercising their civic freedoms.
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