WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will present a meeting of the NATO allies on Friday with a demand from President Donald Trump that they increase defense spending.
The annual NATO foreign ministers talks in Brussels were brought forward at the last minute after Tillerson warned he would not be able to attend on the long-planned date.
Washington’s top diplomat is reportedly keeping time free in early April to take part in a possible golf resort summit between Trump and China’s leader Xi Jinping.
But Tillerson needs to meet with his colleagues to prepare for Trump’s first full NATO summit, on May 25.
And his apparent reluctance to commit to the NATO meeting only served to reinforce the impression that Trump places little stock in America’s decades-old alliances.
This month, Trump’s conviction that the allies must somehow pay Washington for the reassuring presence of US forces in Europe cast a pall over talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO and the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!” he tweeted.
In barnstorming speeches on the campaign trail last year, Trump declared NATO to be obsolete. But since coming to office his administration has taken a more positive stance.
Acting as the good cops while bad cop Trump lays out cash demands, Vice President Mike Pence and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis have reaffirmed the US commitment to NATO.
Tillerson, having finally agreed to meet his colleagues at his first NATO talks, must now translate Trump’s tweets into a diplomatic strategy to strengthen the alliance.
The press-shy former oilman has kept his thoughts to himself but State Department officials — speaking on condition of anonymity — briefed reporters.
“The first goal that Secretary Tillerson’s going to push is to get the allies to renew their commitment through increased resources for NATO defense spending,” one said.
“It’s essential that the allies honor their commitment from the last two previous summits to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on defense,” he explained.
In addition to the two percent goal, the official said, Tillerson will push very hard for allies to spend a fifth of their defense budgets on military-capacity building.
The 28-member alliance met in Wales in 2014 and agreed that each would boost defense spending to the two percent goal by 2024 — leaving them today with a seven year grace period.
But Trump has made it clear he regards previous shortfalls in this goal — even before the Wales deal — as representing a growing debt from member states toward the alliance.
Some NATO members, particularly those on the alliance’s eastern flank exposed to potential Russian interference, have met or are close to meeting the goal.
But Trump wants NATO to refocus its efforts away from deterring Vladimir Putin’s Russia and toward his global goal of eradicating “radical Islamic terrorism.”
“Secretary Tillerson will be pushing allies in that way as well,” a senior State Department official said.
The US defense budget is 68 percent of NATO members’ combined spending, but previous presidents have assumed the burden as part of a global leadership role.
Russia meanwhile has taken increasingly provocative steps in Ukraine and Syria, just across NATO’s eastern and southern borders, spooking many of the allies.
Allied warplanes regularly intercept Russian bombers over the North Sea and Russia is accused of covertly backing anti-EU and anti-NATO populist movements across Europe.
Washington still insists it has the allies’ back — but apparently not at any price.
“The President has made very clear, and the Secretary will reinforce this on Friday,” a senior US official said.
“It’s no longer sustainable for the United States to maintain a disproportionate share of NATO’s deterrence and defense spending.”
On Thursday, Tillerson will be in Ankara, meeting senior leaders of NATO ally Turkey, which has increasingly strained relations with European capitals but a key role in Syria.
While he is there, NATO ambassadors will meet their Russian counterpart as part of the NATO-Russia council, a forum which has been mothballed since Moscow’s 2014 intervention in Ukraine.
On Friday, Tillerson — who had such friendly ties with Putin as CEO of energy giant ExxonMobil that he won a Kremlin medal — will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart.
And he will lend American support to NATO’s efforts “to push Russia to end its aggression” in Ukraine.
Trump’s debt collector: Tillerson heads to NATO
Trump’s debt collector: Tillerson heads to NATO
North Korea troops in Ukraine war ‘extremely significant’ for east Asia security: Japan minister
KYIV: Japan’s foreign minister warned Saturday that North Korean troops entering the Ukraine conflict would have an “extremely significant” effect on east Asian security, with Pyongyang reportedly deploying troops to Russia’s border Kursk region.
“This will not only deepen the severity of the Ukraine situation, but also have extremely significant implications for east Asia’s security situation,” Tokyo’s foreign minister Takeshi Iwaya said while on a visit to Kyiv, pledging further support. “We are seriously concerned over this development, and strongly condemn it.”
Iran ‘categorically’ denies envoy’s meeting with Musk
TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman on Saturday “categorically” denied The New York Times report on Tehran’s ambassador to the United Nations meeting with US tech billionaire Elon Musk, state media reported.
In an interview with state news agency IRNA, spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei was reported as “categorically denying such a meeting” and expressing “surprise at the coverage of the American media in this regard.”
The Times reported on Friday that Musk, who is a close ally of President-elect Donald Trump, met earlier this week with Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani.
It cited anonymous Iranian sources describing the encounter as “positive.”
Iranian newspapers, particularly those aligned with the reformist party that supports President Masoud Pezeshkian, largely described the meeting in positive terms before Baghaei’s statement.
In the weeks leading up to Trump’s re-election, Iranian officials have signalled a willingness to resolve issues with the West.
Iran and the United Stated cut diplomatic ties shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
Since then, both countries have communicated through the Swiss embassy in Tehran and the Sultanate of Oman.
Indian private university opens first international campus in Dubai
- Indian FM inaugurated the Dubai campus of Symbiosis International University on Thursday
- Under national education policy, New Delhi wants to internationalize Indian education system
New Delhi: A private Indian university has opened its first international campus in Dubai this week, marking a growing education cooperation between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi.
Symbiosis International University is a private higher education institution based in the western Indian city of Pune with at least five other campuses operating across the country, offering undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate-level programs.
It is considered one of the top private business schools in the South Asian country, ranking 13th in management in the Indian Ministry of Education’s National Institutional Ranking Framework.
SIU’s Dubai campus, which will offer management, technology and media and communications courses, was officially inaugurated on Thursday by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak, the UAE minister of tolerance and coexistence.
“I am sure that this campus will foster greater collaboration and research linkages between scholars of India and UAE, for mutual prosperity and global good,” Jaishankar said during the ceremony.
“(The) ceremony is not just an inauguration of a new campus; it is a celebration of the growing educational cooperation between our two countries. Right now, Indian curriculum and learning is being imparted through more than 100 International Indian Schools in UAE, benefitting more than 300,000 students.”
Under India’s National Education Policy 2020, New Delhi aims to internationalize the Indian education system, including by establishing campuses abroad.
Another top Indian school, the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, began its first undergraduate courses in September, after starting its teaching program in January with a master’s course in energy transition and sustainability.
Initially launched in September with more than 100 students, the SIU Dubai Campus is the first Indian university in Dubai to start operations with full accreditation and licensing from the UAE’s top education authorities, including the Ministry of Education.
“A university setting up a campus abroad is not just a bold step, but a concrete commitment to the goal of globalizing India. They certainly render an educational service, but even more, connect us to the world by strengthening our living bridges,” Jaishankar added as he addressed the students.
Dr. Vidya Yeravdekar, pro-chancellor of Symbiosis International University, said that the school’s establishment in Dubai was in line with the UAE’s education goals.
“Internationalization is central to the UAE’s educational vision,” Yeravdekar said on Friday.
“By opening our campus in Dubai, we are creating a gateway for students from around the world to engage in a truly global academic experience, where they can benefit from international faculty, real-world industry collaborations, and a curriculum that meets the needs of a changing world.”
Russia captures two villages in eastern Ukraine, defense ministry says, according to agencies
MOSCOW: Russian forces have captured the villages of Makarivka and Leninskoye in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russian news agencies reported on Saturday, citing the Russian Defense Ministry.
UN climate chief asks G20 leaders for boost as finance talks lag
- Negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku struggle in their negotiations for a deal intended to scale up money to address the worsening impacts of global warming
BAKU: The UN’s climate chief called on leaders of the world’s biggest economies on Saturday to send a signal of support for global climate finance efforts when they meet in Rio de Janeiro next week. The plea, made in a letter to G20 leaders from UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Simon Stiell, comes as negotiators at the COP29 conference in Baku struggle in their negotiations for a deal intended to scale up money to address the worsening impacts of global warming.
“Next week’s summit must send crystal clear global signals,” Stiell said in the letter.
He said the signal should support an increase in grants and loans, along with debt relief, so vulnerable countries “are not hamstrung by debt servicing costs that make bolder climate actions all but impossible.”
Business leaders echoed Stiell’s plea, saying they were concerned about the “lack of progress and focus in Baku.”
“We call on governments, led by the G20, to meet the moment and deliver the policies for an accelerated shift from fossil fuels to a clean energy future, to unlock the essential private sector investment needed,” said a coalition of business groups, including the We Mean Business Coalition, United Nations Global Compact and the Brazilian Council for Sustainable Development, in a separate letter.
Success at this year’s UN climate summit hinges on whether countries can agree on a new finance target for richer countries, development lenders and the private sector to deliver each year. Developing countries need at least $1 trillion annually by the end of the decade to cope with climate change, economists told the UN talks.
But negotiators have made slow progress midway through the two-week conference. A draft text of the deal, which earlier this week was 33-pages long and comprised of dozens of wide-ranging options, had been pared down to 25 pages as of Saturday.
Sweden’s climate envoy, Mattias Frumerie, said the finance negotiations had not yet cracked the toughest issues: how big the target should be, or which countries should pay.
“The divisions we saw coming into the meeting are still there, which leaves quite a lot of work for ministers next week,” he said.
European negotiators have said large oil-producing nations including Saudi Arabia are also blocking discussions on how to take forward last year’s COP28 summit deal to transition the world away from fossil fuels.
Saudi Arabia’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Progress on this issue has been dire so far, one European negotiator said.
Uganda’s energy minister, Ruth Nankabirwa, said her country’s priority was to leave COP29 with a deal on affordable financing for clean energy projects.
“When you look around and you don’t have the money, then we keep wondering whether we will ever walk the journey of a real energy transition,” she said.
