2021-12-19: News Headlines

Staff (2021-12-19). Venezuela and Belarus Sign Bilateral Agreements in Strategic Areas. orinocotribune.com This Friday, December 17, the governments of Venezuela and Belarus signed several agreements at the closing event of the Eighth Meeting of the Venezuela-Belarus high level mixed commission, in order to consolidate strategies for the benefit of both nations and for strengthening cooperation relations. At the Simón Bolivar room of the Miraflores Palace, the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, stressed that Venezuela "is taking a successful step in the right direction, with the pace, speed and intensity that is needed," by signing agreements that will allow the development of different sectors of the national ec…

Amjed Jaaved (2021-12-19). Pakistan-Bangladesh: Need to move forward. moderndiplomacy.eu History tells that countries, at daggers drawn for centuries, progressed by leaps and bounds once they buried the hatchet. Europe is a case in point. They first general agreement on trade and tariffs to to remove kinks and wobbles in free flow of goods and services. And , then joined the European Union. Thus they …

Dmitri Trenin (2021-12-19). After COP26: Russia's Path to the Global Green Future. moderndiplomacy.eu Russia is certainly now taking climate-related issues seriously, but even though a latecomer in embracing the climate change agenda, it will not simply accept the West's or the EU's lead. Rather, it will act in accordance with its national interests. At the COP26 UN climate change summit that ended last week, Russia was noted mainly …

Dmitri Trenin (2021-12-19). Russian Foreign Policy: Shifting Gears. moderndiplomacy.eu Not long ago, a popular Russian joke went: "Those who do not want to listen to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will have to deal with Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu." Now it is official. President Vladimir Putin often makes statements on foreign policy. Just last month, he spent several hours discussing world affairs at the annual …

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-19). Why Russia vetoed at the U.N. the U.S.-proposed inclusion of climate-change as a 'National Security' issue. moderndiplomacy.eu The United States Government wants to persuade the gullible global public that that Government takes seriously the global-warming threat. The only way actually to stop global warming — if it still can be stopped — is to outlaw, even if in only one major country (such as the U.S.), purchases of stocks and bonds in …

M. K. Bhadrakumar (2021-12-18). Spectre of War is Haunting Europe. globalresearch.ca A fateful week is ending today for international security with the Russian Foreign Ministry releasing the two documents on security guarantees that Moscow had proposed to Washington as the basis for discussions to ease the tensions over NATO's eastward expansion …

M. K. Bhadrakumar (2021-12-18). A Sino-Russian military alliance is gratuitous (as of now). mronline.org To apply a western analogy, while the Sino-Russian partnership has great potential to model itself after the European Union, neither Moscow nor Beijing desires an Eurasian NATO to create synergy for it.

Sharmila Devi (2021-12-18). [World Report] Russia—Ukraine tensions hampering health-care access. thelancet.com Humanitarian groups warn that medical care for civilians is being jeopardised amid a military standoff. Sharmila Devi reports…

_____ (2021-12-18). True Colors: Red, White, Black And Blue. popularresistance.org With a bold and completely self-sabotaging diplomatic blunder, one which fails on every level including the least rigorous sanity test, this past Wednesday the U.S. was one of two nations to vote against a UN resolution designed to discourage the glorification and promotion of Nazi ideology. The other nation was Ukraine, which currently is overrun and effectively ruled by Jew-hating, Russia-hating, LGBT-hating neo-Nazis, who openly flaunt their allegiance to Stepan Bandera, a collaborator with the Third Reich during WWII. | The reason the U.S. supports such Jew-hating, Russia-hating thugs is obvious. It's an effe…

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. moderndiplomacy.eu Germany's new Foreign Minister, Annalena Baerbock came into office on December 8th without her knowing that America's stationing missiles in Ukraine on Russia's border, and only a 7-minute flying distance away from Moscow, would be even more unacceptable to Moscow than, in 1962, would have been, to Washington, the Soviet Union's stationing missiles in Cuba, …

Guntaj Mirzayev (2021-12-18). Azerbaijan might be the champion that GUAM needs. moderndiplomacy.eu International organizations remain key venues where states with overlapping interests try to cooperate and find common ground. Such organizations range from all-encompassing global organizations to small thematic institutions. In order to remain operationally relevant and on the agenda, they may need to seek ways of reviving organizational structures with fresh methods and ideas that fit …

Frances Kuo (2021-12-18). Founder reconnects with her roots while building her products. america.cgtn.com It's a "hot" product that's taken years to develop. Behind it — a Chinese-American woman who embarked on a personal journey to make it happen. She hopes to awaken people's senses to Sichuan cuisine.

WSWS (2021-12-18). PSOE-Podemos government arrests Cádiz workers as strikes spread in Spain. wsws.org The PSOE-Podemos government's arrests in Cádiz are a blatant attempt to intimidate workers to prevent them from exercising their right to strike and to protest.

Newsroom (2021-12-18). Turkey to Scale-up Renewable Geothermal Energy Generation. moderndiplomacy.eu The World Bank's Board of Directors has approved two loans worth $300 million for the Geothermal Development Project in Turkey, to support the development of renewable energy by tapping heat sources deep in the ground. The loans are Additional Financing to two initial loans worth $250 million. The loans, approved yesterday, are complemented by a …

Eric Zuesse (2021-12-18). US Missiles on Russia's Border: The Dangerous Ignorance of Germany's New Foreign Minister. globalresearch.ca Germany's new Foreign Minister, …

WSWS (2021-12-18). EU summit threatens Russia. wsws.org The escalating coronavirus pandemic and threats against Russia were the focus of the EU summit that met on Thursday in Brussels.

José Manuel Blanco Diaz (2021-12-18). Venezuela's Appeal to the UN about Refugees (+ Vuelta a la Patria). orinocotribune.com With the ratification of the Vuelta la Patria repatriation program as an effective measure to guarantee the safe return of refugees, the government of Venezuela urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to support the program which has already aided in the return of thousands of Venezuelan nationals from various countries. | Héctor Constant Rosales, Venezuelan representative to the UN and other international organizations based in Geneva, Switzerland, raised his concerns about the politicization of the migration issue during a high-level…

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