EU discord over Ukraine free trade spells trouble for Kyiv’s accession hopes
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Camille Gijs, Bartosz Brzeziński
19h ago
You thought all the fuss over Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU was bad. It could just be the start. A squabble among EU countries over whether to grant Ukraine’s vast farming sector another year of emergency, no-strings-attached access to their markets could well be a taste of what’s to come when negotiations on admitting the bloc’s 28th member get down to serious business. Leaders are trying to keep Ukraine’s accession talks on the down-low until after the European election in June. Yet the EU is still struggling in the meantime to deal constructively — let alone i ..read more
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What is ISIS-K, the terror group claiming responsibility for the Moscow concert hall attack?
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Ashley Jackson
2d ago
Ashley Jackson is co-director of the Centre on Armed Groups. She has spent the past year interviewing more than 100 ISIS-K  fighters and commanders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her decade-long on-the-ground work looks into militant groups in the region.  The Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for Friday’s deadly massacre at a concert hall in Moscow, releasing graphic footage of the attack.  Three days after ISIS-K, an offshoot of the Islamic State, claimed responsibility for an attack that killed more than 130 people — one of the worst terror attacks ..read more
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Best of luck in your new role! It’s time for the EU to reshuffle its ambassadors
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Barbara Moens, Jacopo Barigazzi, Jakob Hanke Vela
3d ago
The first leg of the EU top jobs race is underway. Before the most senior jobs in the EU institutions are doled out, which will take place after the European election in June, a number of key European diplomats — including the chief of staff of European Council President Charles Michel — are already being reshuffled or have secured new jobs. For many EU staffers, they need to move quickly to avoid being linked to a politician who might be on the political scrapheap in a few months. Others have to move because their time in the current role is up. Although there’s a diplomatic reshuff ..read more
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From ‘I Love You’ to ‘Asshole’: How Joe Gave Up on Bibi
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Michael Hirsh
6d ago
The last time Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu got into a public spat as ugly as this one was 14 years ago. In March 2010, Biden traveled to Jerusalem to push President Barack Obama’s ambitious peace plans on Netanyahu — the prime minister whom the then-vice president, upon landing, called his “close, personal friend of over 33 years.” Obama wanted a freeze on construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank to avoid depriving the Palestinians of land for a future state as U.S. special envoy George Mitchell restarted Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. But upon Biden’s arrival, Netanyah ..read more
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Rishi Sunak’s Brexit trade agenda is faltering. Are the Gulf states his last hope?
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Sophie Inge, Graham Lanktree
1w ago
LONDON — On the Red Sea coast at the northwest tip of Saudi Arabia, plans for an outlandish £400 billion ‘mega-city’ featuring an artificial moon and flying taxis are starting to take shape. While far from completion, the enigmatic project — known as NEOM — has become a symbol of the vast oil-derived wealth of the country that the U.K. government hopes to tap into through a free trade agreement with Gulf states. Bruised by a recent breakdown in talks with Canada and disheartened by sluggish progress with India, Rishi Sunak’s government is increasingly setting its sights on this gold-lined pock ..read more
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Von der Leyen wants to be a wartime president. Now she has to convince EU leaders.
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Barbara Moens, Jacopo Barigazzi
1w ago
BRUSSELS — Never waste a good crisis, especially if it is a good campaign opportunity. President of the European Commission since 2019, Ursula von der Leyen has steered Europe through a pandemic, a cost of living crisis, and a war on the continent’s doorstep. As the “existential threat” of the war in Ukraine shows no sign of abating, the former German defense minister is campaigning for a second term on a platform of her being crisis-manager-in-chief, hoping to win over European Union leaders who themselves are making promises of financial and moral support for Ukraine. So with the United ..read more
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Top Zelenskyy adviser condemns EU protectionism
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Jamie Dettmer
1w ago
KYIV — Two years into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s Western allies are still trying to have it both ways even as Moscow settles in for a long, attritional war, Mykhailo Podolyak, a top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, told POLITICO Wednesday. “On the one hand, you’re an ally and you must help Ukraine in the war,” Podolyak said in an interview in the country’s capital. “On the other, you are trying to protect your market in a protectionist way.” Relations between Kyiv and its European allies have been strained by weeks of protests by farmers in Poland and elsewhere aga ..read more
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Britain and US race to expand Pacific defense pact before election turmoil
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Stefan Boscia
1w ago
LONDON — The U.K., U.S. and Australia are rushing to expand their trilateral AUKUS defense partnership to further allied nations before potentially tumultuous elections in all three countries over the next 14 months. One senior diplomat involved in the talks told POLITICO that Japan and Canada are in line to join the so-called pillar 2 section of the AUKUS agreement, which will see participants sign up to extensive military technology collaboration, by the end of 2024 or early 2025. It comes amid fears in Washington, London and Canberra that Donald Trump could wind back or scrap the AUKUS deal ..read more
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Europe needs an endgame for its China policy
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Ben Bland
1w ago
Ben Bland is the director of the Asia-Pacific Programme at Chatham House. Over the last decade, most European governments have flipped their China policies, moving from naive optimism regarding Beijing’s economic attraction to broad concern about the multifaceted threats it poses. This dramatic shift has been driven by increased knowledge concerning the realities of China, the growing assertiveness of its leader Xi Jinping, pressure from Washington, and the concurrence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with a deepening Russia-China partnership. Meanwhile, European leaders and officials have step ..read more
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As ‘Oppenheimer’ wins big, we should worry about lowering of nuclear thresholds
POLITICO » Foreign policy
by Sophie-Jade Taylor, Graham Stacey
1w ago
Sophie-Jade Taylor is a senior network development and communications manager at the European Leadership Network nonprofit. Retired Air Marshall Sir Graham Stacey is a senior consulting fellow at the European Leadership Network. Last summer, director Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” captivated the global public, making history as the highest ever grossing biopic. And having already won big at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs, the film closed awards season by sweeping the Oscars last weekend. The film brought fresh awareness of the unique, destructive power that J. Robert Oppenheimer’s creatio ..read more
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