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Photo: A ship in The Arctic Sea. Source: eurasiareview.vom

Russia, US and The Churning Arctic Geopolitics

Viewpoint by K.M. Seethi*

KOTTAYAM | India (IDN) — The Arctic geopolitics has become one of the strategic policy planks of big powers. This has been reflected in the separate statements issued by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden after the US-Russia summit in Geneva on June 16.

Putin told reporters that Moscow and Washington “should interact on issues related to the Arctic region.” He said: “Russia and the United States are among the eight members of the Arctic Council; Russia chairs the Arctic Council this year. Moreover…there is a strait between Alaska and Chukotka, the United States is on one side and Russia is on the other. All this together should push us to join efforts” (The TASS News 16 June 2021).

: Opinion Editor; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 18 June 2021

Photo: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with Foreign Minister of China Wang Yi on the sidelines of ASEAN ministerial events, Singapore, August 2, 2018. Credit: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

China and Russia Build a Central Asian Exclusion Zone

Viewpoint by Emil Avdaliani*

TBILISI, Georgia (IDN) — State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi hosted the China+Central Asia (C+C5) Foreign Ministers’ meeting in the Chinese city of Xi'an on May 12. This is the second such meeting, which increasingly focuses (with Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan) on geopolitical issues. More broadly, it signals China’s lack of concern for what Russia considers its vital economic and political interests in the region.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 17 June 2021

Photo: US President Joe Biden with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Credit: David Lienemann | Official White House.

A Seismic Event in US-Russia Relations

Viewpoint by Somar Wijayadasa*

NEW YORK (IDN) — The President of the United States Joseph Biden and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin met on June 16 in Geneva at a time when the two countries are engrossed in an antagonistic confrontation over many issues—historically, the worst ever relations between the two countries.

: Somar Wijayadasa; OPINION; 17 June 2021

Photo: A group of children. Credit: UNCTAD

Productive Capacities Key to Achieving Sustainable and Growth in LDCs

By Radwan Jakeem

NEW YORK (IDN) — The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to light not only the systemic interdependence of countries, but also the socioeconomic fragility of the global economy. From a trade and development perspective, this has been felt most acutely in the most vulnerable developing countries—the least developed countries (LDCs), says the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

: Radwan Jakeem; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 16 June 2021

Photo: Sri Lanka’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dinesh Gunawardena at the 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on February 23.

Majority of UN Members Refuse to Fund UNHRC’s Sri Lanka Probe

But would the West Respect the Majority Will?

Viewpoint by Sugeeswara Senadhira

COLOMBO (IDN) — Majority of members of the UN, especially from the Global South, have refused to donate funds to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC’s) move to set up a separate secretariat to enforce matters relating to the Resolution it passed on Sri Lanka in March this year. The inability to raise sufficient funds is a major setback to UNHRC plans to implement the Resolution, but there are fears here that the West will not respect the will of the majority in the international community, and may chip in with funds to implement their project.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; OPINION; 16 June 2021

Photo: Code Pink anti-war activists protest U.S. Senators supporting Saudi-U.S. arms deals, December 2017. CC BY 2.0

Aid Does Not Necessarily Foster Stability

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The biggest war at the moment is the civil war in Somalia, started in 1991. It has claimed over half a million lives. Second, is the civil war in Syria which has led to about 400,000 deaths. Third, is South Sudan where approximately 400,000 have been killed. Yemen is a younger conflict, with over 230,000 deaths. Human suffering is at its worse in Yemen—it is held in the pincers of Saudi Arabia and the Arab Emirates. Food and medical supplies have often been squeezed to a dribble. The US and the UK contribute to relief in the Yemen via the UN’s World Food Program and UNICEF, while supplying arms to the side of Saudi Arabia.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 15 June 2021

Photo: COVID-19 patients receive oxygen at a place of worship in Ghaziabad, India. © UNICEF/Amarjeet Singh.

Donating for COVID-Relief — Mixed-Up Governmental Priorities

Viewpoint by Sunil J. Wimalawansa *

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought “a tsunami of suffering”, taken over 3.4 million lives and 500 million jobs, while wiping trillions of dollars from global balance sheets, Secretary-General António Guterres told business last May, for equitable vaccine distribution worldwide.

NEW JERSEY, USA (IDN) — While the COVID-situations are significantly improving in the USA, UK, and most European nations, the situation in Asian countries such as Sri Lanka, Nepal, and India worsened. Flawed policy decisions and fraud considerably worsen the situation.

: Opinion Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 15 June 2021

Photo: Women planting an olive tree in the Marrakech-Safi region of Morocco (High Atlas Foundation, 2021)

Decentralisation Vital to Achieving the UN's Global Goals

Viewpoint by Yossef Ben-Meir

The writer is a former Peace Corps Volunteer and president of the High Atlas Foundation.

MARRAKECH (IDN) — The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are aspirationally universal, addressing globally relevant issues with earnest objectives. Despite the profound good that they represent, fundamental problems exist with the Goals. They lack prescriptiveness, even to the extent of not explicitly aligning with what we know is indelible to sustainability: local people’s participation.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 14 June 2021

Image: Memorial to Dulcie September in the Basque/Spanish town of Guernica. Wikimedia Commons.

Life of Anti-Apartheid Activist Dulcie September Profiled in New Documentary

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — South African anti-apartheid activist Dulcie September was the representative of the African National Congress (ANC) in France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland until her murder outside of ANC offices in Paris in 1988. Despite an array of clues, her killer was never identified and the story of the 52-year-old activist drifted into oblivion.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 June 2021

Photo: Tsitsi Dangarembga in November 2006 during a UK tour. C BY-SA 3.0

Zimbabwean Novelist Tsitsi Dangarembga Called ‘Voice of Hope’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — For her “ability to capture and communicate vital truths even amidst times of upheaval”, Zimbabwean writer Tsitsi Dangarembga will receive the PEN Pinter prize in memory of the Nobel laureate Harold Pinter.

Dangarembga is the author of Nervous Conditions, which she wrote when she was 25, and which was described by Doris Lessing as one of the most important novels of the 20th century.