Foreign Policy Update – USA Gov Policy

CHINA

“The United States is deeply concerned with the increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation of US and other foreign journalists in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), including foreign journalists covering the devastation and loss of life caused by recent floods in Henan,” according to a written statement from Ned Price, State Department Spokesperson. The confrontational actions of the Chinese government and its harsh rhetoric toward any news it perceives to be critical of PRC policies, has provoked negative public sentiment leading to tense, in-person confrontations and harassment, including online verbal abuse and death threats of journalists simply doing their jobs, he added. The increasingly intolerant policies enacted toward foreign journalists who are increasingly refused visas to enter or remain in the PRC severely limits the quantity and quality of independent reporting. It does not bode well for the upcoming Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

AFGHANISTAN

In response to criticism over the handling of securing the safety of Afghan interpreters who assisted the US during the war, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that at the State Department, “we’ve activated an Afghanistan Coordination Task Force that is working on this… [and] coordinating our efforts to take SIV applicants out of harm’s way and, if qualified, bring them to the United States once their vetting is complete… We put significant resources into this effort. We are talking to a number of countries about the possibility of temporarily relocating these applicants as the process is complete. It takes some time to work through the process. The first group of interpreters arrived at Fort Lee near Richmond, Virginia earlier in the week. They are expected to be shipped out around the country within the next seven days, according to a US Army spokesperson at Fort Lee.

RUSSIA

The Russian government announced that beginning in August it has decided to curb interactions with the US Embassy in Moscow by refusing to allow the US to retain or hire locally employed staff and contractors. Mission Russia for decades has engaged local individuals to assist with consular and other operations in country. The announcement means that the US Government must let 182 local employees go at diplomatic facilities in Moscow, Vladivostok and Yekaterinburg. The only locals allowed to remain are those physically guarding US facilities. “These unfortunate measures will severely impact the US mission to Russia’s operations, potentially including the safety of our personnel as well as our ability to engage in diplomacy with the Russian government,” according to Secretary of State Blinken.

IRAN

The true ecstasy of the viagra online purchase respitecaresa.org married and sex life can never be had if one is unable to satisfy his partner. As a result, it can bring viagra 100mg sales on serious relationship wrecking. These spongy tissues under a certain period of time under its own branded name. canadian pharmacy tadalafil The Chiropractic way of treatment often overlaps with several other forms of manual therapy, including massage therapy, osteopathy, physical therapy to levitra uk respitecaresa.org name a few.

The Secretary of State said Thursday that “we are determined that Iran not acquire a nuclear weapon.” Whether Iran comes back into compliance with the JCPOA nuclear agreement depends on Iran making the decision to do so, according to Blinken. He stated that Iran has not yet made that decision. Blinken suggested that Iran is continuing to advance its nuclear program in “very dangerous ways, and at some point those advances will be such that returning to compliance with the nuclear agreement won’t solve the problem.”

Protests that started outside of Tehran in recent days have entered the capital city. Blinken said that, at first, they were about people’s deep frustration with the failure of government to meet their basic needs, including water, mismanagement of the economy. Now, he says, “we’ve seen them move to people expressing their larger aspirations for freedom and for a government that respects them and respects their rights.” He urged the Iranian government not to use violence and repression to silence those voices.

SOMALIA

The US is providing nearly $199 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Somalia who have faced decades of chronic food insecurity, violence, and cycles of drought and flooding—the impacts of which have all been compounded by desert locusts and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the State Department. This additional funding, through the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the State Department, brings the total humanitarian assistance to more than $408 million for Fiscal Year 2021. The money is intended to assist the nearly six million Somalians in need of humanitarian aid, including three million displaced people inside Somalia as well as nearly 500,000 Somali refugees in Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Ukraine’s Frozen Conflict

As we approach winter in the northern hemisphere, the war in Ukraine is beginning to resemble a “frozen conflict” from many perspectives. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently told the media he hopes the war will end faster once President-elect Trump takes over in January. Opinions in Moscow, however, differ from that of the Ukrainian leader. Russian President Vladimir Putin argues that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) needs to exclude Ukraine from joining in “exchange” for peace. If it does not, he says, then no end to the war is in sight. So far there is no Christmas solution. Several NATO countries, according to Vladimir Socor of the Jamestown Foundation, are tentatively considering “coalitions-of-the-willing” to provide security for Ukraine outside of the formal NATO framework. There is, however, no collective mechanism today under which such an arrangement is viable. According to the NATO Charter, while Ukraine is a NATO partner country, it may not join as a full member since it has not fulfilled the requirements for membership. That has not stopped NATO and allies from continuing “to provide Ukraine with unprecedented levels of support, helping to uphold its fundamental right to self-defence,” according to the organization. Socor says that keeping Ukraine out of NATO will not advance peace with Russia. Waiting for a peace settlement, he suggests, would only serve to encourage Moscow to continue the war indefinitely. Although the Biden Administration officially withdrew its support for Ukrainian membership in 2021, NATO maintains an “open door” policy toward membership-seeking countries. The current White House position led the way for European states to oppose Ukraine’s membership saying that a decision should be delayed until “conditions are met.” Biden pushed for changing “open door” to a “bridge” metaphor. It is not intended as an across-the-board NATO policy and has been implemented in the past on a case-by-case basis, says Socor. “The alliance’s open-door policy was not fully insulated from Russia’s non-statutory blocking power, and NATO-aspirant countries’ path toward membership was not always irreversible.” Russia has successfully blocked states like Georgia from joining, first in 2008 and again after the war in Ukraine began in 2014. Russia recognizes the value add of Ukraine to NATO is enormous and that Kyiv has a better case than some other nations. Putin’s invasion was, in part, intended to foreclose that option. By 2021, Moscow was pushing hard to maximize its war objectives, which included further annexations of Ukrainian territory. A main goal for Putin was, and is, to ensure there is no Ukraine left to join NATO. As President-elect Trump prepares to assume office in January, he is faced with the historical challenges presented by the war. Post-conflict security guarantees were the center of several proposals made during the 2023 military stalemate. The incoming Trump Administration has yet to outline how it intends to handle the Russia-Ukraine war. Analysts in Washington believe that the new Administration will expect its European allies to guarantee the majority of Ukraine’s security needs. As we approach 2025, several European nations have acknowledged that they do not view Ukraine as eligible for NATO membership as it would draw the organization into the middle of the conflict. Others want to wait until the war is over or pending a “peace” settlement before considering Ukrainian membership. Socor reports that some “influential voices” are suggesting that “Kyiv should join NATO after “freezing” the war along a stable armistice line, de facto accepting Ukraine’s partition, with NATO security guarantees applying de jure to the government-controlled territory only.” This would mean starting accession talks soon with the actual talks to commence only after a ceasefire is in place. Trump arrives in Washington at a time when Putin’s hybrid strategies of war in Ukraine have eviscerated commonly-held differences between war and peace. “Absent a political consensus in NATO over Ukrainian membership, certain European allies, including France’s President Emmanuel Macron, are holding informal consultations about post-conflict security guarantees to Kyiv by NATO members outside of NATO’s framework,” according to the Jamestown Foundation. The Biden Administration downplayed the discussions on possible forms of military assistance and defense industry cooperation by sending only an Assistant Secretary of State. For a European peace to hold the Trump Administration would need to formally extend the United States’ nuclear deterrence to Ukraine. Options under discussion in Europe include a “coalition of the resolute” to deploy forces to Ukraine as part of a possible armistice package, deterring further Russian attacks, says Secor. European officials are also debating, without any agreement, whether its military forces could perform non-combat logistical roles to free Ukrainian forces to fight. None of the possible courses of action has moved forward as all eyes are waiting on the incoming Trump Administration for clues about its intended level of support for a NATO framework and other non-NATO proposals. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept.