by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Investing, World
Brussels : The European Union (EU) on Monday adopted a total ban policy on EU investment in North Korea, in a bid to ratchet up economic pressure on the Northeast Asia country over its ongoing nuclear and ballistic missile programme.
The total ban, taking effect immediately, is one of the EU’s autonomous measures against North Korea which was adopted by EU foreign ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg, according to a statement of the Foreign Affairs Council.
The ban was previously limited to investment in the nuclear and conventional arms-related industry.
The Council also slapped a total ban on the sales of refined petroleum products and crude oil to North Korea, and slashed the amount of personal remittances transferred to Pyongyang from 15,000 euros ($17,7000) to 5,000 euros ($5,900).
Furthermore, the Council added three persons and six entities to a blacklist of those subject to an asset freeze and travel restrictions, bringing the backlist to 41 individuals and 10 entities.
The EU has carried out all UN sanctions against North Korea, in addition to its autonomous restrictive measures against Pyongyang.
The UN Security Council on September 11 unanimously adopted a resolution to impose fresh sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear test on September 3 in violation of the previous Security Council resolutions.
The new sanctions severely restrict Pyongyang’s oil imports, and ban its textile exports worth $800 million dollars and the remittances from about 93,000 overseas North Korea labourers.
Reiterating that the “dual–track approach” and the “suspension for suspension” initiative are practical methods to solve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang has called on all relevant parties to actively support China’s efforts to push for dialogue and negotiation, and play a constructive role for a peaceful solution of the issue.
Pyongyang on September 3 detonated a hydrogen bomb capable of being carried by an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the sixth nuclear test it has undertaken, running counter to relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the goal of denuclearising the Korean Peninsula.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Brussels : European Union (EU) leaders have voiced their commitment to the Iran nuclear deal and its full implementation by all sides, despite US President Donald Trump’s decision to decertify Iran’s compliance with the deal.
The leaders of France, Germany and Britain, in a joint statement issued by 10 Downing Street on Friday, said they were concerned by the possible implications of Trump’s decision, urging the US Administration and Congress to consider the implications to the security of the US and its allies “before taking any steps that might undermine the JCPoA, such as re-imposing sanctions on Iran lifted under the agreement”, Xinhua news agency reported.
The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), was the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy and was “a major step” towards ensuring that Iran’s nuclear programme is not diverted for military purposes, the statement stressed.
Noting that the JCPoA was unanimously endorsed by the UN Security Council in Resolution 2231, the leaders of the EU trio said the International Atomic Energy Agency “has repeatedly confirmed Iran’s compliance with the JCPoA” through its long-term verification and monitoring program.
“Our governments are committed to ensuring the JCPoA is maintained,” the joint statement said.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the three countries also said they “share concerns about Iran’s ballistic missile programme and regional activities that also affect our European security interests.”
“We stand ready to take further appropriate measures to address these issues in close cooperation with the US and all relevant partners. We look to Iran to engage in constructive dialogue to stop de-stabilising actions and work towards negotiated solutions,” they added in the statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed regret over Trump’s decision to decertify Iran’s compliance with a nuclear deal, arguing that Tehran strictly abides by the landmark agreement.
Israel has, however, welcomed Trump’s decision to not certify the landmark nuclear deal with Iran and also hailed his remarks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed Trump’s remarks on Friday as a “courageous decision”, Xinhua reported.
Saudi Arabian government has also welcomed the firm new strategy towards Iran announced by Trump.
Following Trump’s announcement that he had decided not to certify Iran’s compliance with the landmark deal, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU will continue to fully implement the Iran nuclear deal.
“It’s not a bilateral agreement. It does not belong to any single country. It’s not up to any single country to terminate it,” said Mogherini at a press conference.
“We cannot afford… to dismantle a nuclear agreement this is working and delivering,” she said, stressing the IAEA has verified eight times that Iran is implementing all its nuclear-related commitments.
“The US’ domestic process — and I underline domestic — following today’s announcement of President Trump is now in the hands of the United States’ Congress. The JCPOA is not a domestic issue but a United Nations Security Council Resolution,” the EU Foreign Policy chief stressed.
“The European Union continues to fully support the Iran nuclear deal, and the full and strict implementation of all its provisions by all parties,” said Mogherini.
The Iran nuclear deal, or the JCPOA, was reached in 2015 between Iran and Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.
The EU also played an important role in brokering the deal and deemed it as one of the bloc’s outstanding diplomatic achievements.
Trump announced on Friday that he had decided to decertify Iran’s compliance with the landmark deal.
“I am announcing today that we cannot and will not make this certification,” Trump said at the White House as he unveiled a new Iran strategy of his administration.
Despite his criticism of Iran and the Iran nuclear deal, Trump on Friday stopped short of abandoning the nuclear deal.
Instead, he said he was directing his administration to work with Congress and US allies to address “the deal’s many serious flaws,” including “insufficient enforcement and near-total silence on Iran’s missile programs”.
In case the efforts fail, Trump warned that “then the (Iran nuclear) agreement will be terminated”.
The decertification would not pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal at the moment, but it would open a 60-day window in which US Congress could reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, a step which would mean the violation of the deal on the US side.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Jerusalem : The European Union (EU) will increase its financial assistance to the government of Palestine following the signing of the intra-Palestinian reconciliation agreement and ending the division, EU officials told Palestine’s Ambassador to the bloc Abdel Rahim al-Farra.
Speaking to the Voice of Palestine, Farra said that the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council will hold a meeting, during which the Palestinian reconciliation and enabling the legitimate government to operate in the Gaza Strip will be discussed.
On the other hand, Farra confirmed that he was informed by EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn that the time has come to implement development projects in the Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian ambassador said that Hahn stressed the need to start building the Gaza desalination plant at the cost of $600 million, noting that this amount will be collected soon during the conference of donor countries in Brussels.
Farra welcomed the statement of the EU missions, which hailed the signing of the Palestinian reconciliation agreement that ended the Palestinian split. “There is a great response to developments in the Palestinian reconciliation,” he said.
—AB/IINA
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Business, Large Enterprise, World
Brussels : The European Union (EU) vowed to further promote its tourism strategy on Wednesday, as the world’s first destination is faced with competition from other emerging destinations and may constantly lose its share of global tourists.
The EU hosted to more than half the world’s tourists in 1990s but the figure dropped to 42 per cent and is set to fall further to 30 per cent by 2030, Xinhua quoted the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani as saying.
EU data showed that tourism industry accounted for some 10 per cent of the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP).
For the EU, the labor-intensive tourism industry is expected to help address its almost double-digit jobless rate. According to the World Tourism and Travel Council, more than 5 million new jobs linked to tourism may be created in the EU over the next 10 years while 20 per cent of these jobs go to young people under age 25.
Tourism hence represents a main avenue to combat youth unemployment, especially in several southern regions where one out of two youths was unemployed, the president noted.
Tajani pledged to develop a strategy to prepare the bloc for competition from emerging rivals and challenges posted by a digital era in which new market players, such as Google, Airbnb and Uber, on course to shape tourism industry.
The EU as well pinned its hope on Asia to inject momentum in tourism. Data quoted by Tajani showed that the number of international tourists was set to double, from 1.1 billion to more than 2 billion, between now and 2030, while half of these tourists will come from Asia.
“A Chinese tourist visited 4 or 5 EU member states on average,” he said.
“The traveler first chooses the continent to go, so the competitors to be beaten are called America, Asia, Caribbean or Pacific.”
The year of 2018 marks the year of EU-China tourism, which would be launched in Venice on January 19. Tajani said that the EU needed good chefs, digital experts, cultural mediators and professional waiters for Chinese visitors.
As the world’s leading tourism market, 135 million Chinese visitors traveled abroad in 2016 and spent $261 billion experiencing tourist destinations. It is estimated, in the coming five years, China’s outbound visitors will reach 700 million providing even greater opportunities for shared development and prosperity, according to China’s Ambassador to the EU, Yang Yanyi.
Echoing Tajani, Yang said tourism is an enormous force for good in the world and plays a crucial role in fostering bonds of friendship between peoples.
“In China we believe that he or she who excels reads as many as ten thousand books and travels as far as ten thousand miles,” Yang told the audience.
“In its drive to achieve creative, coordinated, green, open and shared development, China has made tourism a strategic pillar and a major driver of economic transformation and upgrading,” the Ambassador said.
The China-EU Tourism Year promises to maximise the full potential of one of the most important relationships in the world, not only from a tourism perspective, but across the board, economically, socially and academically, Yang added.
—IANS
by Editor | May 25, 2021 | Opinions
By Kula Saikia,
The tsunami of change was all-pervasive to engulf most of the nation states. Liberalisation, free trade, WTO, TPP, NAFTA, EFTA, EU, the information revolution et al came together and broke the historically defined geographical barriers. Isolationism became a hated and much maligned term in international trade, commerce and strategic considerations. There arose new hope of transnational job opportunities cutting across organisations and authorities.
The belief in the new world order was overwhelming with dreams of a better tomorrow where manmade restrictions would crumble, allowing unhindered migration of people, free flow of goods and technology and knowledge transfer, leading to the growth of the manufacturing and service sectors, employment creation and enhancement of living standards. The undercurrent was that the benefits would percolate down the line. Aspirations and ambitions were local but the vision was global in a wirelessly wired world.
Information and communication technology (ICT) clubbed countries together through the internet highway and, like a great medieval conqueror, created a one-world syndrome. However, the factors that were thought to be ushering in a new age of progress and prosperity turned out to be serious disruptors.
The developed countries witnessed the migration of jobs to the army of cheap labour in less developed countries, coupled with the huge inward migration of displaced people from war-ravaged countries, leading to unforeseen pressure on domestic tax payers.
Soaring unemployment levels, coupled with a fall in the real wage, broke the golden dream of sunny days in a free economy environment. Cities like Detroit, once bustling with industrial activities and manufacturing giants witnessed a slow death with the shifting of their nerve centres to a number of developing countries providing cheap and capable manpower.
Disenchantment grew in the rich countries against apparent loss of their sovereignty in the name of a borderless world which siphoned away their economic opportunities.
Things were no better in the developing countries either. No doubt shedding protectionism helped some of them garner production-line units and service sector benefits leading to absorption of both the skilled and semi-skilled human resource of the local pool.
Capital inflows improved but at a price. The volatile nature of such inflows impacted the economic decision-making process in these countries by integrating them to the frequent ups and downs of the rich economies.
Now, it seemed the developing countries had lost their economic sovereignty in the big empire of the virtual world. The unhindered flow of cultural values, ethics and lifestyles along the borderless internet highway generated a perceived fear and apprehension of being uprooted from their traditional social and cultural milieu — the fear of the big fish eating the smaller ones.
The apprehension was not only that Wal Marts would devour the kirana shops or McDonalds would alter eating habits through the likes of the McAloo tikki but that indigenous knowledge, traditions, religious beliefs and cultural milieu would all get swept away in the deluge. The fashion you favour, the apparel you approve, the music you compose, the food you relish, the opinions you form — as if all these have origins elsewhere in a society alien to your own and you feel an unknown and invisible ‘colonial power’ has stealthily demolished your sovereign boundary in the name of a connected world; as if the culture of the land is being swept away by a mighty cultural aggressor.
Part of such fear and apprehension may be perceived, part may be genuine but could lead to the redefining of nationalist ideas and interests in different parts of the globe.
The issues highlighted through Brexit in the UK, the stricter US immigration policy and the recent electoral agendas of several political groups in the EU and elsewhere are the inevitable fall out of this worldwide phenomenon.
Similar waves have hit the socio-political environment of a number of developing countries to rediscover and redefine their national identities so that the virtual borderless world does not demolish their geographically-defined sovereign borders and sweep away their unique cultural ethnicity.
All this has necessitated a fresh look at policy frameworks by suitably redesigning multilateral institutions so that local needs, ethos and pathos of the member countries are adequately reflected to ensure a win-win strategy. There should be sufficient prescriptions to ensure redistributive justice for the citizens so that inequalities perpetrated by the open economy architecture are taken care of.
Globalization has been there since birth of civilisation in different avatars. It has to retune itself to the needs of the time. After all, no nation would like to go back to the cocoon of isolation and monolithic existence.
(Kula Saikia, a Fulbright scholar and a Sahitya Akademy awardee, is Special Director General of Police, Assam. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at kulasaikia@yahoo.com)
—IANS
