by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : US President Donald Trump is expected to attend the World Economic Forum at Davos in Switzerland, in the coming weeks, an official has said.
In a statement on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said the President was looking forward to attending the gathering of world leaders and business executives, The New York Times reported.
“The President welcomes opportunities to advance his America First agenda with world leaders,” Sanders said.
“At this year’s World Economic Forum, the President looks forward to promoting his policies to strengthen American businesses, American industries and American workers.”
Trump’s planned appearance at an event that is synonymous with wealth and elite prestige comes as he enters the second year of a term he won on a message of economic populism.
Presidents have rarely attended the forum in Davos, in part out of a concern that it would send the wrong message to be rubbing shoulders with some of the world’s richest individuals.
Trump won the 2016 election in part by attacking elites in the United States and promising to “drain the swamp” in Washington of lobbyists, corporate influence and members of the establishment – the very description of those who regularly attend the Davos forum.
The event in Switzerland is a global symbol of everything that Trump’s former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, railed against during the presidential campaign and the first seven months in the administration.
But Trump has also spent a lifetime as a real estate mogul and television personality.
Some of Trump’s advisers were befuddled by his planned trip, coming a year after his team decided not to send a representative to the 2017 gathering.
A year into his term, Trump’s appearance at the forum is certain to highlight the clash between his America First agenda and the more globalist approach of some of America’s closest allies around the world.
Those disagreements have been highlighted during Trump’s earlier trips abroad, including arguments with European leaders about the need for action to confront climate change.
Trump’s visit to Asia last year underscored his disagreements on trade issues with countries in the region.
The President has claimed credit for the economic improvements during his first year in office, and has predicted that the tax overhaul passed at the end of last year would accelerate those trends.
The annual economic forum takes place in the resort town of Davos high in the Swiss Alps, bringing together more than 3,000 members of the global elite in what has been described as the world’s most high-powered networking event.
Founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, a German economics professor, the forum has become an annual meeting that includes dinners and over 400 panel discussion sessions, largely about world social and economic trends. Officially, it is an academic conference; unofficially it is a global schmoozefest for the rich and powerful.
The conference is still dominated by corporate executives, but the gathering also now attracts world leaders, some of whom use the venue as a way to hold less formal bilateral conversations.
Last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended the forum.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Lt. Gen. Kamal Davar (retd),
With the call that “America is in the game and America is going to win”, strongly reminiscent of his populist campaign speeches, US President Donald Trump launched his first National Strategic Security (NSS) policy document on December 18, 2017. He categorised his ambitions for the US based on “principled realism” to be propelled by the “re-awakening of America”.
That Trump’s NSS was shorn of any diplomatic finesse and loaded with maximalist rhetorical stirrings for his nation was, to say the least, on expected lines.
Throwing to the winds previous President Barak Obama’s cautious American foreign and economic policies, including withdrawing from earlier US internationally agreed upon commitments to combat climate change, Trump’s macho exhortations did not find much resonance even among many centre-of-the road American politicians and strategic analysts.
The strategy document, which every US president is required by law to produce, lays down the administration’s foreign, security and economic policies. Though normally the US Secretary of State introduces the document, Trump broke with tradition to personally enunciate his future strategies.
He unleashed his priorities for the coming years based on his “whole of government approach” which stresses the “economic and military might” of the US to further America’s national strategic objectives. That, currently, the US is financially fatigued and even militarily weary and stretched, according to its own analysts, is another story.
Trump outlined his NSS based on four pillars — protecting the homeland, promoting prosperity, peace through strength, and accelerating US influence globally. Terming China and Russia as “revisionist powers”, he called upon the US military to augment its capabilities, reiterating that “our rivals are tough, they are tenacious and committed to the long term, but so are we”.
He cautioned China on its growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region while mildly chiding it for its One-Belt-One-Road initiative, exclaiming that though the country “presents its ambitions as mutually beneficial, China’s dominance risks diminishing the sovereignty of many states in the Indo-Pacific”. The NSS document categorically castigates China that it “seeks to displace the US in the Indo-Pacific region, expand the reaches of its state-driven economic model, and re-order the region in its favour”. That the US has not done much, physically, to check the Chinese in the choppy waters of the Indo-Pacific is a harsh reality.
Trump also alluded to the “unfair” trade practices adopted by China while also seeking its cooperation to keep North Korea’s dangerously errant nuclear ambitions in check. That North Korea has got away-so far — with its nuclear blackmail in the region and even threatening the US — is a sad commentary of the times when possession of nuclear weapons, even by nations otherwise starved of basic necessities, has emerged as the final arbiter of one’s ultimate status in the world.
In his geo-political projections, Trump was, perhaps, unfair to Russia, portraying it as a global rival stating that Moscow “seeks to restore its great power status and establish spheres of influence near its borders”, alluding to Ukraine and Crimea.
This assessment will hardly be welcome to India, which has been looking for rapprochement between the US and Russia in the South Asia region, especially in Afghanistan and Iran, to counter the ever-growing Pakistan-China nexus. It would be fair to also assume that notwithstanding Indian sensitivities, even its decades-old partner, Russia, is searching for newer alliances in the region.
The NSS document, however, would be music to Indian ears, as it terms this country a “leading global power” while also seeking larger Indian assistance in South Asia. The US called for stronger strategic and defence partnership with India.
As done many times in the past, without much success though, the NSS warned Pakistan to refrain from its assistance to terrorists in the region, stating that the US sought a “Pakistan that is not engaged in destabilising behaviour and a stable and self-reliant Afghanistan”.
Additionally, Trump also said that “we have made it clear to Pakistan that while we desire a continued partnership, we must see decisive action against terrorist groups operating on their territory. And we make massive payments every year to Pakistan. They have to help”. That any such exhortations to Pakistan will ever help decreasing terrorism in the region is a moot point which the US acknowledges but, off and on, persists with its policy of appeasing its one-time protégé, an aspect which needs to be critically factored by the Indian security establishment.
Notwithstanding the shrill rhetoric of Trump’s call to his nation, only time will tell if his articulation gets translated into reality — some of it definitely fraught with additional dangers to global peace. As India gets inexorably closer to its “strategic partner”, it will be worthwhile for it to never forget the simple rule in global geopolitics — that for a nation of its values, size, global and regional influence there is immense wisdom in maintaining “strategic autonomy” and being ever-prepared to fight its own battles.
(Lt. Gen. Kamal Davar (retd) was founder of India’s Defence Intelligence Agency and is currently President, Delhi Forum For Strategic Studies. The article is in special arrangement with South Asia Monitor)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi (R) shakes hands with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita during a meeting on Jerusalem in Amman, Jordan, on Jan. 6, 2018.
Amman : King Abdullah II of Jordan on Saturday called for intensified Arab efforts to support the Palestinians following a decision by US President Donald Trump recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
At a meeting with several Arab foreign ministers, the king said there was a need for more efforts to support the rights of the Palestinians in preserving their legal and historic rights in Jerusalem and in creating their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital, reports Xihua.
The Jordanian leader said the issue of Jerusalem should be settled through negotiations and as part of a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis based on the two-state solution, the international resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.
He underlined the need for supporting the Jerusalemites and protecting the Arabic identity of the city as well as the holy Islamic and Christian sites.
Jordan, he said, will continue to safeguard the holy sites in the city.
Discussions also covered best means to face the consequences of the US decision that violates international resolutions.
In a press conference following a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Amman, Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi reiterated the Arabs’ rejection of the US decision.
Rejecting any Israeli unilateral measures, he said the Arabs will push for a global recognition of Palestine.
The minister added that the Arabs will exert more efforts to curb any further recognitions of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, adding that there will be no peace and security in the region without creating an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
US-Mexico border
Washington : President Donald Trump’s administration has asked Congress for $33 billion to secure the US-Mexico border of which $18 billion will be spent on the border wall, the media reported.
According to a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) document that was sent to lawmakers on Friday night, the remaining $15 billion would cover technology, personnel and readiness, reports CNN.
Titled “Critical CBP Requirements to Improve Border Security”, the document says the agency has identified what a 2,026-mile border wall system would entail — about 864 miles of new wall and about 1,163 miles of replacement or secondary wall.
It said the $18 billion investment will cover 722 miles of border wall — about 316 new miles of primary structure and about 407 miles of replacement and secondary wall.
The administration does not envision the investment happening all at once, laying out the investment costs over 10 years, breaking down the totals desired per year.
The fiscal year 2018 request would have 60 miles of primary wall and 14 miles of secondary wall to the tune of $1.6 billion.
Congress is yet to agree to appropriate any of the administration’s requested funds for a border wall, reports CNN.
The fiscal year 2017 omnibus budget package passed by Congress last year required a comprehensive plan from CBP on securing the border, which was due in August but had not been delivered before Thursday.
Members of Congress, including Senate Republican Whip and Texan John Cornyn, have called on the administration to present a coherent border strategy as opposed to individual yearly requests for border funds.
An administration official told CNN that the budget estimate “only covers one aspect — the border security needs — of the President’s previously stated immigration policy priorities and was delivered to the Hill to meet a specific request from negotiating team members.
“The border wall needs to be fully funded by Congress but the other priorities, such as improved immigration enforcement measures and a merit-based immigration system, must also be part of the larger immigration reform package.”
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, Technology, World
San Francisco : Sidestepping once again whether Donald Trump’s tweets violates its terms of service, the micro-blogging platform has clarified that it will not block the US President’s tweets because he is a world leader.
In a blog post called “World Leaders on Twitter”, the company said on Friday that there has been a lot of discussion about political figures and world leaders on the platform.
“Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial tweets would hide important information people should be able to see and debate,” the company said.
“It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions.”
Twitter was not blocking Trump for his “nuclear button” tweet that stormed the social media, and many thought raised prospect of nuclear war with North Korea.
Trump declared that his nuclear button was “much bigger” and “more powerful” than North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s after the latter threatened the US about Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities.
A number of users reported to the tweet, TechCrunch reported, with the expectation that threatening a war one is capable of starting should violate Twitter’s revised “Terms of Service”, given the company’s recent crackdown on violent threats.
In December, Twitter began enforcing new rules around violent and hateful content posted to its platform to reduce the amount of online abuse, hate speech, violent threats and harassment associated with its service.
“You may not make specific threats of violence or wish for the serious physical harm, death, or disease of an individual or group of people,” as per Twitter’s rule about violent threats.
In response to Trump’s threat on Twitter, the company earlier said that it had reviewed the case and “found that there was no violation of the Twitter rules against abusive behaviour”.
Moreover, the rules do not apply to whatever Trump posts because of who he is and the “newsworthiness” of his statements, Twitter added.
In the latest blog post, the company said it reviews tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce its rules accordingly.
“No one person’s account drives Twitter’s growth, or influences these decisions. We work hard to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind.”
—IANS
