SEOUL: Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a new partnership that includes a vow of mutual aid if either country is attacked, during a Wednesday summit that came as both face escalating standoffs with the West.
It could mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Putin’s visited North Korea for the first time in 24 years, as the US and its allies express growing concerns over an arms arrangement in which the country provides Moscow with badly needed munitions for its war in Ukraine in exchange for economic assistance and technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by Kim’s nuclear weapons and missile program.
The details of the partnership deal were not immediately clear, but both leaders described it as a major upgrade of their ties.
Kim said that the deal was the “strongest ever treaty” between the two nations, putting the relationship at the level of an alliance, and vowed full support for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin said that it was a “breakthough document” reflecting shared desire to move relations to a higher level.
Putin said that security and international issues took up a large part of the talks with Kim, according to Russian state media. He was also quoted to say that Russia would not rule out developing military-technical cooperation with North Korea under the deal.
Kim was quoted as saying that the agreement was of a peaceful and defensive nature. “I have no doubt it will become a driving force accelerating the creation of a new multipolar world,” he was quoted to say.
Russia and North Korea also signed agreements on cooperation in the fields of health care, medical education, and science, Russian state media reported, citing the Kremlin’s website.
Putin was met upon his nighttime arrival by Kim, who shook his hands, hugged him twice and rode with him from the airport in a limousine in a huge motorcade that rolled through the capital’s brightly illuminated streets, where buildings were decorated with giant Russian flags and portraits of Putin.
After spending the rest of the night at a state guest house, Putin attended a lavish welcoming ceremony at the city’s main square, where he and Kim saluted an honor guard and walked across a red carpet. Kim then introduced key members of his leadership including Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui; top aide and ruling party secretary Jo Yong Won; and the leader’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong.
The square was filled with what appeared to be tens of thousands of spectators, including children holding balloons and people wearing coordinated t-shirts in the red, white and blue of the Russian and North Korean flags. Huge crowds lined up on the streets to greet Putin’s motorcade, chanting “Welcome Putin” and waving flowers and North Korean and Russian flags.
As the talks began, Putin thanked Kim for North Korea’s support for his war in Ukraine, part of what he said was a “fight against the imperialist hegemonistic policies of the US and its satellites against the Russian Federation.”
Putin hailed ties that he traced back to the Soviet army fighting the Japanese military on the Korean Peninsula in the closing moments of World War II, and Moscow’s support for Pyongyang during the Korean War.
Kim said Moscow and Pyongyang’s “fiery friendship” is now even closer than during Soviet times, and promised “full support and solidarity to the Russian government, army and people in carrying out the special military operation in Ukraine to protect sovereignty, security interests and territorial integrity.”
Kim has used similar language in the past, consistently saying North Korea supports what he describes as a just action to protect Russia’s interests and blaming the crisis on the US-led West’s “hegemonic policy.” It wasn’t immediately clear what that support might look like.
North Korea is under heavy UN Security Council sanctions over its weapons program, while Russia also faces sanctions by the United States and its Western partners over its aggression in Ukraine.
US and South Korean officials accuse the North of providing Russia with artillery, missiles and other military equipment for use in Ukraine, possibly in return for key military technologies and aid. Both Pyongyang and Moscow deny accusations about North Korean weapons transfers, which would violate multiple UN Security Council sanctions that Russia previously endorsed.
Along with China, Russia has provided political cover for Kim’s continuing efforts to advance his nuclear arsenal, repeatedly blocking US-led efforts to impose fresh UN sanctions on the North over its weapons tests.
In March, a Russian veto at the United Nations ended monitoring of UN sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear program, prompting Western accusations that Moscow is seeking to avoid scrutiny as it buys weapons from Pyongyang for use in Ukraine.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters in Pyongyang that the two leaders exchanged gifts after the talks. Putin presented Kim with a Russian-made Aurus limo and other gifts, including a tea set and a naval officer’s dagger. Ushakov said that Kim’s presents to Putin included artworks depicting the Russian leader.
Russia media said earlier that Kim will host a reception, and Putin is expected to leave Wednesday evening for Vietnam.
In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Putin’s visit to North Korea illustrates how Russia tries, “in desperation, to develop and to strengthen relations with countries that can provide it with what it needs to continue the war of aggression that it started against Ukraine.”
The North may also seek to increase labor exports to Russia and other illicit activities to gain foreign currency in defiance of UN Security Council sanctions, according to a recent report by the Institute for National Security Strategy, a think tank run by South Korea’s main spy agency. There will likely be talks about expanding cooperation in agriculture, fisheries and mining and further promoting Russian tourism to North Korea, the institute said.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with the pace of both Kim’s weapons tests and combined military exercises involving the United States, South Korea and Japan intensifying in a tit-for-tat cycle.
The Koreas also have engaged in Cold War-style psychological warfare that involved North Korea dropping tons of trash on the South with balloons, and the South broadcasting anti-North Korean propaganda with its loudspeakers.
Russia and North Korea sign partnership deal that appears to be the strongest since Cold War
https://arab.news/mjjgf
Russia and North Korea sign partnership deal that appears to be the strongest since Cold War
- Russian leader hails ‘close friendship’ between the two countries based on ‘equality and respect of mutual interests’
- North Korean state media described the meeting between the leaders as a historic event
Pope to preside over interfaith meeting in Indonesian mosque during longest, most challenging trip
The Vatican on Friday released the itinerary for Francis’ Sept. 2-13 trip to Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Singapore. The packed schedule makes clear that the 87-year-old pontiff, who has battled health problems and is increasingly reliant on a wheelchair, has no plans to slow down.
After a day of rest upon arrival in Jakarta on Sept. 3, Francis launches into a typically rigorous round of protocol visits to the four countries’ heads of state and government, speeches to diplomats and meetings with clergy and public Masses in each location. In Jakarta, he’ll preside over an interfaith meeting at the capital’s Istiqlal Mosque.
Sprinkled in the mix are encounters with young people, poor and disabled people, elderly people and Francis’ regular meetings with his Jesuit confreres.
The trip was originally planned for 2020 but was called off because of the COVID-19 pandemic. At 11 full days, it’s the longest of Francis’ 11-year papacy, outpacing by a few days some of his long trips to the Americas and recalling some of the strenuous, globe-hopping trips of St. John Paul II.
It will bring the Argentine Jesuit to the world’s most populous predominantly Muslim nation, Indonesia, as well as the former Portuguese colony of East Timor, where the Catholic Church wields enormous influence.
In East Timor, however, Francis may also have to reckon with the legacy of independence hero Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was sanctioned by the Vatican in 2020 for having sexually abused young Timorese boys and is currently believed to be living in Portugal.
Francis had to cancel his last planned foreign visit -– a quick trip to Dubai last year to participate in the UN climate conference -– because of a recurring case of bronchitis. He has seemed in relatively good form in recent months, including during day trips to Italian cities and visits to Roman parishes.
But in recent years, as his mobility has been limited by bad knee ligaments, he has generally stuck closer to home and kept his trips relatively short.
After he returns to Rome in mid-September, he has a four-day visit to Belgium before the end of the month, the only other foreign trip that has been confirmed for the year.
Hungary’s Orban meets Putin in Moscow, drawing EU rebukes
- EU leaders warn Hungary against ‘appeasing’ Russia on Ukraine
- EU says Orban does not speak for EU in meeting Putin
- Orban: Ukraine peace can’t be brokered from ‘armchair in Brussels’
BUDAPEST/MOSCOW: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to discuss peace in Ukraine, drawing warnings from fellow European Union leaders against appeasement and an insistence that he did not speak for the EU.
Hungary assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the bloc on Monday. Five days in and Orban has visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv and formed the “Patriots for Europe” alliance with other right-wing nationalists.
Now, he has chosen to go to Moscow on a “peace mission,” days before a NATO summit that will address further military aid for Ukraine against what the Western defense alliance has called Russia’s “unprovoked war of aggression.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that only unity and determination within the 27-nation EU would pave the way to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.”
“Appeasement will not stop Putin,” she said on X.
Hungarian @PM_ViktorOrban is visiting Moscow:
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) July 5, 2024
Appeasement will not stop Putin.
Only unity and determination will pave the path to a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
Putin, who received Orban in the Kremlin, told him that he was ready to discuss the “nuances” of peace proposals to end the two-and-a-half-year-old war.
Putin said last month that Russia would end the war in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation, only if Kyiv agreed to drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four provinces claimed by Moscow — demands Kyiv swiftly rejected as tantamount to surrender.
’Sceptism’ of Hungary’s motivations
An EU diplomat said that, in Orban’s decision to meet Putin in Moscow, Hungary’s presidency of the EU — which will run until Dec. 31 — had effectively ended before it had really begun.
“The skepticism of EU member states was unfortunately justified – it’s all about promoting Budapest’s interests,” the diplomat said, asking for anonymity due to political sensitivities.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda accused Orban of undermining the EU presidency. “If you truly seek peace, you don’t shake hands with a bloody dictator, you put all your efforts to support Ukraine,” he wrote on X.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Orban in Moscow was “not representing the EU in any form” and Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the visit undermined EU interests.
Pavel Havlicek, research fellow at the Association for International Affairs, said Orban’s visit was an abuse of a power vacuum in Brussels and a dangerous undermining of the common European position.
Orban, a critic of Western military aid to Ukraine who has the warmest relations of any EU leader with Putin, said he recognized he had no EU mandate for the trip, but that peace could not be made “from a comfortable armchair in Brussels.”
“We cannot sit back and wait for the war to miraculously end,” he wrote on X.
The EU presidency’s role is to chair meetings of member states, seek consensus and broker agreements on legislation with the European Parliament.
At a time of transition, with a new European Commission only set to take office in November, analysts said Budapest’s actions at the forefront of EU policy-making were
likely to be restricted.
Ministers said Hungary wanted to make an impact with its presidency, which it launched with a striking call to “Make Europe Great Again,” echoing former US president Donald Trump, an Orban ally.
“We intend to leave a mark,” Orban’s spokesman Zoltán Kovacs said on Thursday, before reports of the Moscow trip emerged. “The prime minister is going to use the presidency in a political way.”
Starmer heckled as pro-Gaza candidates snatch safe Labour seats in UK election
- Party leader’s victory speech accompanied by ‘free Palestine’ shouts
- 5 pro-Palestine independent candidates elected, including ex-Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
LONDON: Labour leader Keir Starmer faced heckles of “free Palestine” as independent candidates took a number of seats from his party during the UK general election over anger at its stance on Gaza.
In a major upset, shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth, a key Starmer ally, was defeated in the formerly safe seat of Leicester South.
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, survived by just 528 votes, having previously commanded a majority of more than 9,000, after a strong campaign by Leanne Mohamed, the granddaughter of Palestinian refugees.
In areas with a Muslim population of over 10 percent, the party’s vote dropped by an average of 11 points, despite Labour winning a significant majority of seats nationwide ahead of forming the next UK government.
Though enjoying a comfortable win, Starmer was heckled at his victory speech after independent candidate Andrew Feinsten won 7,312 votes.
Five independent candidates running on pro-Gaza tickets were returned as MPs, including former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The party also lost Leicester East to the Conservatives after an independent — vocal pro-Palestine supporter and former Labour MP Claudia Webbe — split the Labour vote.
In Leicester South, Shockat Adam unseated Ashworth, who previously had a 22,000 majority and had held the seat for 13 years. Adam announced “this is for Gaza” during his victory speech, winning by 979 votes.
Labour also lost seats in Dewsbury and Batley to independent Iqbal Mohamed by nearly 7,000 votes, Blackburn to Adnan Hussain by 132 votes, and Birmingham Perry Bar, where Khalid Mahmoud was defeated by independent candidate Ayoub Khan by 507 votes.
A number of senior Labour MPs only narrowly retained their seats in the face of independents, including Shabana Mahmood in Birmingham Ladywood, who saw her majority slashed from 32,000 to 3,421.
Fellow Birmingham MP Jess Phillips saw her majority reduced from 13,141 to 693 despite having resigned from a shadow ministerial role in order to vote for a ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year.
In Birmingham Hodge Hill, former minister Liam Byrne retained his seat by just over 1,500 votes.
In the London constituency of Bethnal Green and Stepney, the shadow small business minister, Rushnara Ali, saw her majority of more than 31,000 go down to 1,689.
In north London, Corbyn, a long-time champion of the Palestinian cause, won his Islington North seat as an independent, beating his Labour opponent by more than 7,000 votes.
However, Labour claimed a major pro-Palestine scalp in Rochdale, unseating former MP George Galloway, who took the seat from Labour in a by-election earlier this year.
The party has struggled with its position on Gaza since Israel launched its invasion of the enclave last October.
It faced criticism from its own members for initially backing the Israeli government, and since then has backed a humanitarian ceasefire.
In the party’s manifesto, it said it would move to recognize a Palestinian state if elected, but there have since been suggestions that the move could be shelved over fears of jeopardizing Labour’s relationship with the US government.
Keir Starmer: Who is the UK’s new PM and what has he promised?
- Starmer faces immediate tests with few resources, slow change could shorten ‘honeymoon period’
- Former lawyer is known for his cautious approach, on campaign trail, Starmer was keen not to raise high hopes
LONDON: Keir Starmer enters power with one of the longest lists of problems ever to face an incoming prime minister and few resources to deal with them — a situation that could curtail any “honeymoon period” offered by the British people.
It is a situation not lost on the 61-year-old Labour leader and former lawyer, who spent much of the election campaign listening to voters’ concerns about health care, education, and the cost of living, but promising only to try to make the lives of British voters a little better — over time.
“I’m not going to stand here and say there’s some magic wand that I can wave the day after the election and find money that isn’t there,” he said in a head-to-head debate with his predecessor Rishi Sunak before the election. “Huge damage has been done to our economy. It is going to take time.”
It is not an easy sell.
Despite being on course for a massive majority in the parliamentary election, many voters are disenchanted with politicians after years of what became an increasingly chaotic and scandal-ridden Conservative government and what was an often divided Labour opposition, dogged antisemitism accusations.
Hailing his party’s victory at a speech to supporters, Starmer said on Friday: “We did it. Change begins now, and it feels good. I have to be honest.”
“Today, we start the next chapter, begin the work of change, the mission of national renewal and start to rebuild our country.”
Starmer says he leads a changed Labour Party, having instilled a sense of discipline after it all but tore itself apart during the Brexit years under his predecessor, veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn.
That message dominated the six-week campaign, with no really new policy offerings beyond those which had been, according to Labour, fully funded and costed. He has tried not to raise hopes for swift change too high, putting wealth creation and political and economic stability at the heart of his pitch to voters.
CAUTIOUS AND METHODICAL
The strategy is very much a product of Starmer, who turned to politics in his 50s in a career that has been marked by a cautious and methodical approach, relying on competence and pragmatism rather than being driven by an overriding ideology.
Named after the founder of the Labour Party, Keir Hardie, Starmer was brought up in a left-wing household. As a barrister, he often defended underdogs and worked to get people off death row around the world.
He became a Labour lawmaker in 2015, a year after he received a knighthood for his services to law and criminal justice and was appointed Labour leader in 2020 following the party’s worst election showing since 1935.
He implemented a plan to turn the party around and guide its priorities, with one person who worked with Starmer saying: “He thinks about the best way to take people with him.”
This approach has led to the charge that he is dull. He has drawn negative comparisons with Tony Blair, who led the party to victory with a landslide majority in 1997.
“I think he’s got a good heart but he’s got no charisma. And people do buy charisma. That’s how Tony Blair got in,” said Valerie Palmer, 80, a voter in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea.
NOT IN LOVE WITH LABOUR
Unwilling to make promises that could not be costed, his approach has also prompted critics to say the party’s manifesto offered only a partial view of what Labour would do in government — something the Conservatives tried to capitalize on by saying Starmer would raise taxes.
Starmer denied this, saying he would not raise income tax rates, employees’ national insurance contributions, value-added tax or corporation tax.
Some businesses say they look forward to a period of calm after 14 years of turbulent Conservative government, marked by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union in 2016 and the cost of living crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One FTSE-100 CEO told Reuters they had met Labour’s top team several times and the party had made a strong “pitch” to business.
Laura Foll, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors, said it looked like Britain was returning to an era when “boring is good.”
But for voters, real-life difficulties are more of a pressing concern, with people crying out for Labour to tackle the ailing health service, widen educational opportunities and improve living standards.
For some, although they wanted the Conservatives out of power, they had not fallen in love with Labour, or with Starmer.
“I’m excited about change, but I don’t really love the Labour Party,” said Ellie O’Connell, 28, at the Glastonbury music festival.
Sitting in the courtyard of a doctors’ surgery, Starmer sipped tea with patients before the election, listening to them complain about how difficult it was to get an appointment.
His offer of helping train more doctors, reducing bureaucracy and getting better control over budgets missed out one thing that might help — more money, something his new government will not have much of.
Asked by Reuters how he would better retain doctors who say their salaries are uncompetitive internationally, he said: “I don’t have a wand that I can wave to fix all the problems when it comes to salaries overnight if we win the election.”
With only 9 billion pounds ($11 billion) of so-called fiscal headroom — barely a third of the average for governments since 2010 — Starmer might have to keep pressing the message that change will take time.
That may cut short any political honeymoon — the respite voters and newspapers offer incoming administrations from criticism.
This cautious approach has also alienated some on the left of the party. Asked how he thought Starmer would be as prime minister, James Schneider, former director of communications for Corbyn, said: “When push comes to shove, he will be on the side of bosses over workers.”
India’s Modi heads to Moscow for first visit since Ukraine invasion
- Russia is a key supplier of cut-price oil and weapons to India, but its isolation from West and growing friendship with China have impacted partnership with New Delhi
- The United States and its Western allies have in recent years cultivated ties with India as a bulwark against Beijing and its growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region
MUMBAI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday makes his first visit to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, walking a fine line between maintaining a longstanding Moscow alliance while courting closer Western security ties.
Russia is a key supplier of cut-price oil and weapons to India, but its isolation from the West and growing friendship with China have impacted its time-honored partnership with New Delhi.
The United States and its Western allies have in recent years cultivated ties with India as a bulwark against Beijing and its growing influence in the Asia-Pacific, while also pressuring it to distance itself from Russia.
Modi, who was returned to power last month as leader of the world’s most populous country, last visited Russia in 2019 and hosted President Vladimir Putin in New Delhi two years later, weeks before the invasion.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has “transformed” ties with India, said Swasti Rao, from a think tank funded by India’s defense ministry, the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defense Studies and Analyzes.
“There is no decline in goodwill between India and Russia per se,” she said. “But there are challenges that have cropped up.
“These are external factors, which have been strong enough to bring in a paradigm shift in India-Russia bilateral issues,” she added.
Nandan Unnikrishnan of the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation said the upcoming in-person meeting showed the two sides were looking for ways forward.
“There have been pressures on India, and there have been pressures on the India-Russia relationship,” Unnikrishnan said.
“Face-to-face interactions help in working out positions,” he added. “I’m sure Mr.Modi would like an assessment from Putin on the Ukraine war.”
New Delhi has shied away from explicit condemnation of Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and has abstained on United Nations resolutions censuring Moscow.
But Russia’s war in Ukraine has also had a human cost for India.
New Delhi said in February it was pushing Russia to release some of its citizens who had signed up for “support jobs” with the Russian military, following reports some were killed after being forced to fight in Ukraine.
Moscow’s deepening ties with Beijing have also raised concerns for New Delhi.
China and India, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia.
India is part of the Quad grouping with the United States, Japan and Australia that positions itself against China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.
The United States and the European Union accuse China of selling components and equipment that have strengthened Russia’s military industry — allegations Beijing strenuously denies.
That leaves India with a dilemma.
Their “relationship has to evolve,” said Rao.
“Some say India should strongly engage with Russia so it doesn’t fall into the lap of China,” said Rao. “Others would say, that ship has sailed.”
New Delhi and Moscow have forged a tight relationship since the Cold War, and Russia was for a long time India’s biggest arms supplier.
But Ukraine has stretched Russia’s arms supplies, and India is eyeing other sources — including growing its own defense industry.
Russia’s share of Indian imports of weapons has shrunk considerably in recent years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
It dropped from 76 percent in 2009-13 to 36 percent in 2019-23, SIPRI said, noting France is now a close second, providing 33 percent.
“India has instead looked to Western suppliers, most notably France and the USA, and its own arms industry,” SIPRI said, adding that its arms procurement plans “seemingly do not include any Russian options.”
Rao said the Ukraine war had “accelerated” India’s push to diversify its defense purchases.
“The Ukraine war has become one of grinding attrition,” she said.
“There are genuine concerns about Russia’s export capabilities, and its focus and priorities.”
At the same time, India has also become a major buyer of discounted Russian oil, providing a much-needed export market for Moscow after it was cut off from traditional buyers in Europe.
That has dramatically reshaped energy ties, with India saving itself billions of dollars while bolstering Moscow’s war coffers.
India’s month-on-month imports of Russian crude “increased by eight percent in May, to the highest levels since July 2023,” according to commodity tracking data compiled by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“Russian crude comprised 41 percent of India’s total crude imports in May, and with new agreements in place to conduct payments in rubles, the trade might grow significantly,” the research center said.
But this has also resulted in India’s trade deficit with Russia rising to a little over $57 billion in the past financial year.
From Moscow, Modi will travel to Vienna for the first visit to the Austrian capital by an Indian leader since Indira Gandhi in 1983.
