The German chancellor has warned China against arming Russia with weapons, as western foreign ministers repeatedly clashed with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, at an ill-tempered meeting of the G20 in New Delhi, India. Olaf Scholz told the German parliament: “My message to Beijing is clear: use your influence in Moscow to urge the withdrawal of Russian troops. And don’t deliver any weapons to the aggressor Russia.” China has repeatedly denied suggestions it might arm Moscow, but the US administration has recently said that cooperation between China and Russia…
Tag: Narendra Modi
Ukraine war to take centre stage at UN as west and Russia vie for support
The UN general assembly summit this week will be dominated by a struggle – between the US and its allies on one side and Russia on the other – for global support over the fate of Ukraine, as the global south fights to stop the conflict from overshadowing the existential threats of famine and the climate crisis. With a return to fully in-person general debate, presidents and prime ministers will be converging on New York, many of them direct from London, where the diplomacy got under way on the sidelines…
Indian government accused of ceding land in Himalayas to China
Indian people living near the country’s disputed Himalayan border with China have accused their government of giving away swathes of land after both sides agreed to withdraw troops from some contested areas and create buffer zones. Earlier this month, Indian and Chinese troops, who have been locked in a tense border dispute since June 2020, began to draw back from the contested area of Gogra-Hot Springs after an agreement was reached to disengage. The Indian government said the agreement restored the territory on both sides of the contested border, known…
India is quietly laying claim to economic superpower status
The rise of China has been the biggest story in the global economy in recent decades. But amid concern about its stumbling property market and global fears about inflation, the emergence of its neighbour, India, as a potential new economic superpower may be going under the radar. You won’t find mention of it in Liz Truss’s blueprint for a “modern brilliant Britain”, but the UK has just been overtaken by India as the world’s fifth biggest economy. The nation of 1.4 billion people is on track to move into third…
Scott Morrison tells Cop26 Australia will exceed 2030 target in bid to fend off criticism
Scott Morrison has used his national statement at the Cop26 to emphasise that Australia will probably overachieve on its 2030 emissions reduction target in an effort to blunt international criticism about his government’s lack of climate ambition. While the lead-up to the Glasgow summit was dominated by Morrison’s negotiations with the National party to land a net zero commitment by 2050, the UN-led event is focused on ambition for the 2030s. Australia – part of a bloc of big emitters and exporters at last weekend’s G20 summit in Rome attempting…