Various useful updates on foreign affairs for you
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Foreign affairs updates - 25th August, 2021
- Tension between US and UK on Afghanistan: PM Boris Johnson reportedly intended to pressure Joe Biden to extend his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan. Britain currently has more than 1,000 armed forces personnel in Kabul and no fixed withdrawal date. Biden hasn’t ruled out extending the deadline, but Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen has said that Aug. 31 is a “red line” and that any extension would “provoke a reaction.” Britain said there’s no ongoing dispute between the two nations’ leaders, even as Britain has made its displeasure with the U.S. deadline known. The countries’ differences amid the withdrawal have forced Britain to reckon with the fact that it can’t depend on Washington for its security. [President Joe Biden said he intended to stick to an August 31st deadline for American forces to leave Afghanistan. But his withdrawal commitment depends on whether the Taliban guarantee access to the Kabul airport for those trying to evacuate.]
- China and Russia on Afghanistan: Beijing and Moscow, which have conducted public diplomacy with Taliban leaders for years, had not officially recognized the Taliban government till today. Both have interests in Afghanistan, including preventing instability from spilling over into Central Asia. Russia in particular has indicated that it’s ready to engage with the group, praising the Taliban and conducting its diplomatic operations as normal—even though it officially considers the group a terrorist organization.
- Extreme weather warnings: Extreme rainfall—like the record-breaking flooding that killed more than 200 people in Germany and Belgium last month—will only become more frequent in Western Europe as climate change worsens, leading international climate scientists found. According to the World Weather Attribution initiative, climate change has made rainfall on that scale between 1.2 and 9 times more likely in those countries today than in the pre-industrial era, and has increased the region’s rainfall by 3 to 19 percent. These floods have shown that even developed countries are not safe from severe impacts of extreme weather that was seen.
- Brexit means losses: McDonald’s franchises in the United Kingdom have become the latest Brexit victims as a shortage of truck drivers has forced the chain to remove milkshakes from its menu. In a statement, McDonald’s said the driver shortage was one of many supply chain problems the company was facing and was “working hard” to remedy the issue. Nearly 14,000 truck drivers from EU countries left their U.K. jobs in 2020, while an industry group estimates that roughly 100,000 new truck drivers are needed to address the current shortfall, which has been exacerbated by a lack of driving tests during the pandemic.
- Belarus’s “hybrid war”: Poland and Lithuania have each announced plans to build a razor-wire fence on their border with Belarus to stop migrants from entering the European Union—an effort to combat what they’ve called a “hybrid war.” Poland and the Baltic States have accused Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko of flying asylum seekers to Minsk and then sending them to the EU in retaliation for the bloc’s sanctions on his regime. Poland, which has already deployed more than 900 soldiers to the border, intends to send more soldiers to stop the migrants, who are primarily Afghans and Iraqis. The Polish government said that more than 2,000 migrants have tried to cross illegally from Belarus in August '21. Tensions increased in Poland over the government’s decision not to allow 30 migrants stuck on the border—some of whom reportedly need medical attention—to apply for asylum.
- Booster moratorium: The World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on countries planning to offer third doses of COVID-19 vaccines to implement a two-month moratorium on the boosters to reduce global vaccine inequality. Earlier this month, Hungary became the first country in the European Union to allow people to sign up for third shots, and the United States announced its own plans to distribute boosters. A new Israeli study found that a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine significantly reduces the chance of infection among older people. But the WHO has repeatedly called on wealthy countries to help improve vaccine access in the developing world, to prevent further contagion. The virus will get the chance to circulate in countries with low vaccination coverage.
- EXAM QUESTIONS: (1) Explain the competing interests of various major powers in an Afghanistan in flux. (2) Why is Belarus acting strangely, and against various members of the European Union? (3) What negative impact has Brexit started to have on the businesses in UK?
#Afghanistan #US #EU #Brexit #Belarus #BoosterDose #Pandemic
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