Tag: Russia

Netherlands Considers Sending Patriot Missile System to Ukraine

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands said on Tuesday that his country was considering sending a Patriot missile system to Ukraine, a move that would bolster Kyiv’s air defenses and help repel Russian strikes. Mr. Rutte, seated next to President Biden in the Oval Office, said that a Russian attack on the city of Dnipro, which killed dozens of people in one residential building, had strengthened “our resolve to stay with Ukraine” amid deepening concerns over the Ukrainians’ ability to withstand another possible offensive by Moscow. “We…

China Returns to Davos With Clear Message: We’re Open for Business

Chin@Strategy

DAVOS, Switzerland — China ventured back on to the global stage Tuesday, sending a delegation to the World Economic Forum to assure foreign investors that after three years in which the pandemic cut off their country from the world, life was back to normal. But the Chinese faced a wary audience at the annual event, attesting to both the dramatically changed geopolitical landscape after Russia’s war on Ukraine, as well as two data points that highlighted a worrisome shift in China’s own fortunes. Hours before a senior Chinese official, Liu…

Japan’s PM vows to modernise military for new era of threats

Chin@Strategy

Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has pledged to modernise his country’s military alongside US president Joe Biden, warning that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had opened a dangerous new era and could embolden China. Welcoming Kishida at the White House, Biden hailed the Japanese government’s announcement last month that it will double defence spending over the next five years and develop new capabilities. “Let me be crystal clear: the United States is fully, thoroughly, completely committed to the alliance and more importantly to Japan’s defence,” Biden said. Japan has been officially…

Your Tuesday Briefing: A Major Ukrainian Strike

Chin@Strategy

Ukraine kills dozens of Russians Ukraine launched a major attack against a building housing Russian soldiers in the Donetsk region on New Year’s Day. A full picture of the casualties is still emerging. Ukraine claimed that “about 400” had died, while Russia said yesterday that 63 service members had been killed. But even with the lower figure, the attack was one of the deadliest strikes against Russian forces in Ukraine since the war began. Mistakes by Russian forces may have contributed to the toll. One Russian military blogger said that…

Global economic forecast for 2023? A stormy start followed by a ray of hope

Chin@Strategy

Investors should brace for another turbulent year in the financial markets, economists have warned as central banks fight inflation, China reopens its economy after Covid-19 restrictions and the Ukraine war pushes the global economy towards recession. The first half of the new year is likely to be choppy, according to Wall Street predictions, after global markets suffered their biggest fall since the 2008 financial crisis last year. But the US S&P 500 is still expected to end 2023 a little higher than it began the year. The average target of…

Ukraine is in the headlines now. But a whole new world of conflict is about to erupt

Chin@Strategy

It was a good year to bury bad news – and bad deeds – as a clutch of dictators, assorted killers and repressive or anti-democratic regimes can testify. In Myanmar, Yemen, Mali, Nicaragua, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia and Afghanistan, to name a few crisis zones, egregious abuses and unrelieved misery attracted relatively scant, perfunctory international scrutiny. The main reason for 2022’s blinkered perspectives is, of course, Ukraine, Europe’s biggest conflict since 1945. This is not to say war-torn Tigray or Guatemala, strangled slowly by corruption, would otherwise…

The world in 2023: what our writers say you should watch out for

Chin@Strategy

A near-inevitable global recession sparked by a lengthening war in Europe’s frozen east; an energy crisis coupled with soaring inflation; Covid-19 finally running rampant in China – predictions for 2023 are grim. Still, there are reasons to be hopeful. That same energy crisis has spurred an unprecedented demand for renewables, which are expected to boom, while in Brazil, a new president has sworn to protect the Amazon. Repressive regimes, meanwhile, will be nervously looking at Iran, where hardline clerics are locked in a struggle with a formidable pro-democracy uprising that…

Above and beyond: key events in 2022 that shaped space exploration

Chin@Strategy

The year has been a blast in space exploration, from Nasa’s big step in returning to moon missions, to glimpses at the origins of the universe and hope that humanity could survive the doomsday scenario of an asteroid hurtling towards Earth. These are the events that shaped 2022 in space advances: Back to the moon Nasa hadn’t sent a crew-capable spacecraft to the moon for half a century when Artemis 1 blasted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral in November. Atop the mighty Space Launch System (SLS), the most powerful rocket…

Putin invites Xi to Moscow as Russia pursues alliance with China

Chin@Strategy

Vladimir Putin invited his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, on Friday to make a state visit to Russia next spring, as Moscow seeks to deepen its ties with China amid growing international isolation over the war in Ukraine. Speaking to Xi via a videoconference, Putin said Russia’s ties with China are the “best in history”, expressing his wish to extend military collaboration and inviting Xi to visit Moscow. Without mentioning the war in Ukraine, Putin said he shared the same views with Xi “in the face of unprecedented pressure and provocations…

Vladimir Putin expects Xi Jinping to make state visit in spring – video

Chin@Strategy

President Vladimir Putin has said he expects his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to make a state visit to Russia next spring, in what would be a public show of solidarity from Beijing amid Russia’s flailing military campaign in Ukraine. In introductory remarks from a video conference between the two leaders, broadcast on state television on 30 December, Putin said: ‘We are expecting you, dear Mr Chairman, dear friend, we are expecting you next spring on a state visit to Moscow.’ Putin said the visit would ‘demonstrate to the world the closeness of Russian-Chinese…