From the security weekend in Bavaria to Beijing plan for “peace” to Biden’s first visit to Kyiv – this is what the continent has been talking about this week.
No more Scholzing
This is how we could resume the Munich Security Conference that took place over the last weekend in the Bavarian city: it was the occasion for the leaders of the free world and top-level officials to call for no more scholzing. Ukraine needs weapons, training, and financial aid for as long as necessary, and they need all of it now. In a marquee address, US Vice-President Kamala Harris detailed that Russia is responsible for a “widespread and systematic attack” against Ukraine’s civilian population, citing evidence of execution-style killings, rape, torture and forceful deportations — sometimes perpetrated against children. As a result, Russia has not only committed war crimes, as the administration formally concluded, but also illegal acts against non-combatants. At this point, we presume that allowing Huawei to cover the telecommunication infrastructure around the location was done intentionally to make the message as clearest and loudest as possible to Putin and his closest ally, Xi.
Beijing bipolar disorder
No, it’s nothing related to some Trumpish mocking tone against China as we witnessed during the Covid pandemic. We sincerely express our concerns about China’s diplomatic well-being. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, breaking weeks of icy silence between the superpowers over a suspected “spy balloon” Washington shot down over the Atlantic. More critically, Blinken warnedBeijing there would be “implications and consequences” if China sends weapons or helps Russia evade sanctions. For his part, Yi passive-aggressively called the US response to the balloon “hysterical” , adding that Beijing works to stop the Cold War with the West while others add “fuel to fire” and announced a proposal for Ukraine-Russia peace talks. We all buy the hype, but we know someone else who tries to divide the West with peace rhetoric while bombing civilian infrastructures, accusing others of stirring up war. By the way: ça va sans dire, it is just a coincidence that Beijing’s plan for peace has been brought only to Moscow.
Joe is not sleepy anymore
As you know, this week marks the first anniversary of Putin’s war against Ukraine. We will not dwell on the Russian long string of successes: Western partners are more united than ever in supporting Ukraine (apart from Orban), sanctions put the Russian economy under unprecedented stress, and Ukraine is still a sovereign country. To reinforce the concept, Joe Biden visited Kyiv earlier this week, bringing 1 billion dollars in military support and a solemn promise of usque ad finem (until the end), before stopping by Warsaw, Ukrainian strongest ally in the EU. Meanwhile, on planet Russia, President Putin spoke to the nation on Tuesday and followed the script as usual: anti-Western rhetoric featuring no sign that he plans to change course on Ukraine (this might be why many in the audience were groggy during the speech). The most relevant news is that Russia will halt its participation in the New START Treaty — the last remaining nuclear arms control pact between Moscow and the U.S. Should we be worried? Even though the Chinese saviour does not enlighten you, right now, we do not think so.
