EsadeGeo
EsadeGeo Daily Digest, 31/01/2023
The Guardian – Dan Sabbagh / Poland could supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters, Kyiv suggests
- Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s most senior adviser has suggested Poland is willing to supply Ukraine with F-16 fighters as Ukraine’s lobbying for the combat jets steps up only a few days after Germany and the US agreed to send over their tanks.
- Andriy Yermak said Ukraine had had “positive signals” from Warsaw in a Telegram posting, although Poland’s prime minister was careful to stress his own country would only act in consultation with Nato allies.
- “We coordinate all actions aimed at strengthening Ukraine’s defence forces with our Nato partners,” Mateusz Morawiecki told a press conference – where he announced plans to lift his country’s defence spending to 4% of GDP – when asked about the jets. Any possible transfer of fighter jets would come “in full coordination” he added.
- The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said on Monday he would not rule out the delivery of fighter planes to Ukraine but warned against the risk of escalation in the conflict.
- Politico – Alexander Ward / Biden seemingly rejects request to send US F-16’s to Ukraine
Financial Times – Demetri Sevastopulo and Sam Fleming / Netherlands and Japan join US in restricting chip exports to China
- Japan and the Netherlands will restrict exports of chip manufacturing tools to China after reaching a deal with the US designed to make it harder for the Chinese military to develop advanced weapons.
- Several people familiar with the trilateral agreement said the countries reached an agreement on Friday after a final round of high-level talks at the White House. The accord comes three months after Washington imposed unilateral export controls that barred US companies from selling advanced chipmaking equipment to Chinese groups.
- The White House declined to comment. But the deal marks a significant milestone in US efforts to work with allies to hinder Chinese efforts to develop its semiconductor industry.
- Joe Biden’s administration has been negotiating with the countries for two years but faced resistance because they were worried about the effect on their chipmaking tool companies, particularly ASML in the Netherlands and Tokyo Electron and Nikon in Japan.
The Guardian – Bethan McKernan and Julian Borger / Blinken calls for calm on Jerusalem visit amid days of Israeli-Palestinian violence
- The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, has called for calm after days of violence between Israel and the Palestinians, as he visited Jerusalem for talks with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
- A Palestinian man died on Monday after an altercation with Israeli troops, as violence in the region continued to spiral.
- Nassim Nayef Salman Abu Fouda, 26, was shot in the head at a checkpoint in the restive city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said. The Israeli army said Abu Fouda had driven his car into a soldier, and crashed it after shots were fired and he attempted to drive off.
- Such incidents – and contrasting narratives – occur regularly in the Palestinian territories. In the aftermath of Friday’s shooting outside a Jerusalem synagogue, which killed seven people in the worst attack in years, and the killing of 10 people in the single deadliest Israeli army raid in the West Bank in decades, every violent episode has the potential to spark a wider conflagration.
- Politico – Nahal Toosi / The US on Israel’s far-right government: It is what it is
Financial Times – Adam Samson and Richard Milne / Swedish and Finnish Nato bids may be treated ‘separately’, Turkey warns
- Turkey has suggested supporting the bid by Finland to join Nato while blocking Sweden, highlighting the deteriorating relations between Ankara and Stockholm after a rightwing activist desecrated a Koran in the Swedish capital.
- Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Monday that Turkey would need to evaluate applications for Sweden and Finland to join the western military alliance “separately”.
- “I think it would be fair to distinguish between a problematic country and a less problematic country,” Çavuşoğlu said at a press conference in Ankara, according to the state Anadolu Agency. His remarks came a day after Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said “Sweden would be shocked when we respond differently to Finland”.
- Relations between Sweden and Turkey have worsened markedly in recent weeks since the rightwing activist set fire to the Koran, the sacred book of Islam, outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm.
Our opinion pieces for today:
- Project Syndicate – Chris Patten / The necessity of morality in foreign policy
- Financial Times – Adam Tooze / Three ways to read the ‘deglobalisation’ debate