As Beijing lays down the fibres and sinews that are setting Chinese standards on infrastructure from the south Pacific to eastern Europe, Australia is grappling with two huge questions: How does it buy into this global construction boom itself in a way that doesn’t play into China’s clear strategic ambitions?
Read Here – The Sydney Morning Herald
It is fair to give the president credit for delivering, or working to deliver, on many of his electoral promises, something that is reportedly a source of pride for Trump. As a candidate, Donald Trump said that he would take a tougher stance on illegal immigration, demand more beneficial trade arrangements from other nations, downplay the struggle against climate change, and avoid regime change and meddling in the internal politics of other states.
As a liberal democracy, built on the freedom of citizens, who are ruled by the leadership of their own choosing, it is in India’s interest that the US prevails in this ‘clash’ of civilisations. A sustained but uneasy peace with China still only means living in the shadow of powerful, undemocratic autocrats. That is a place that India has been in for far too much of its long history.
The Belt-and-Road Initiative (BRI), a pet project of China’s leader Xi Jinping, aims to build trillions of dollars of infrastructure from Asia to Africa to Europe, and along sea routes too. Involving roughly 70 countries so far, it entails massive spending (and lending) by China on railroads, ports and energy projects, highways—and, increasingly, satellite launches.
The Trump administration moved the U.S. to the edge of a trade war with China by announcing tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports and pledging additional investment restrictions, which Beijing immediately vowed to retaliate against. The response from China signaled a rapid escalation of the dispute. China will impose tariffs with “equal scale, equal intensity” on imports from the U.S. and all of the country’s earlier trade commitments are now off the table, the Commerce Ministry said.
Also Read: Trump’s Statement On Trade With China
After watching the G7 train wreck aghast, senior officials at NATO headquarters are quaking in their boots at the prospect of hosting a summit of the Western defense alliance featuring a raging Donald Trump in Brussels. Far from showcasing transatlantic unity and resolve, they fear the 24-hour gathering of leaders of the 29-nation alliance, scheduled for about a month from now, could turn into round 2 of the rumble in Quebec, with the U.S. president on the rampage against the Europeans and Canadians over their allegedly unfair trade surpluses and puny military spending, leaving NATO in tatters.
The Gulf crisis that pit Saudi-led coalition against Qatar has indicated the eroding basis of regional security and stability. In general, the crisis was construed as a component of escalating Saudi-Iranian confrontation. It also highlighted the resurgent great power rivalry in the Middle East, which brought the global dynamics of Russia-led anti-Westernism into play.
In the epilogue to the first volume of his biography of Henry Kissinger, The Idealist, historian Niall Fergusson notes that he asked Yale university professor, John Gaddis, whether he agreed with his designation of Dr K. as a foreign policy “idealist.” That assessment contrasted with the conventional view of the former U.S. Secretary of State as archetypal national security “realist,” the kind who hangs a picture of Otto von Bismarck in his study.
The historic summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ended with the celebratory signing of a declaration that the United States and North Korea will “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” But the declaration, which echoes the vague language of an April joint statement by Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, does not commit North Korea to a firm, verifiable process for giving up its nuclear weapons or the associated research-and-development effort.
A television grab of U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un meeting in Singapore.
President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Tuesday signed a joint agreement, after meeting in person for only a few hours, in which Kim promises to work toward ridding the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons. But the text of the agreement contained few concrete steps to achieve that goal other than a commitment “to hold follow-on negotiations … at the earliest possible date,” according to a photo of the document.
