EU & Europe

EU and 79 ACP Countries Plan a 'Modernised Partnership'

By Reinhardt Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (IDN) – As the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) gear up for talks on future relations between the two groupings after the Cotonou Agreement expires in February 2020, some areas of agreement on their respective stances have emerged.

The agreement that was signed in June 2000 in Cotonou – Benin’s largest city – is the most comprehensive partnership treaty between developing countries and the EU. Its fundamental principles include equality of partners, global participation, dialogue and regionalisation.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 07 January 2018

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson addresses reporters during a joint statement to the media with European Union High Representative Federica Mogherini, in Brussels, Belgium on December 5, 2017. [State Department Photo/ Public Domain]

Iran Deal 'Key Strategic Priority' for Global Security, Mogherini Tells Tillerson

By Kelsey Davenport

Kelsey Davenport is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association. This article was first published in their blog with the caption 'Tillerson, Mogherini Meet Ahead of Key JCPOA Deadlines'. – The Editor

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini reiterated to U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the EU would work with the United States to address shared issues related to Iran, "on the basis of continued U.S. implementation of the nuclear deal" and outside of the agreement itself.

Mogherini and Tillerson discussed the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) during a Dec. 5 bilateral meeting in Brussels.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 12 December 2017

Photo: NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg and EU High Representative addressing a press conference on December 5, 2017. Credit: NATO

Despite Differences, New Areas of NATO-EU Cooperation Agreed

By Jaya Ramachandran

BRUSSELS (IDN) – Against the backdrop of growing estrangement between the European Union (EU) and the United States with Donald Trump at the helm of affairs, 23 member states of the European Union (EU) signed up on November 13 for the permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) on defence.

In spite of persisting differences, some three weeks later, Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the EU have agreed to step up the U.S.-led Alliance's cooperation with the EU. Explaining the move, EU High Representative and Vice President Federica Mogherini, told journalists on December 5 that the European Union comprises 28 democracies that maintain with the United States "not a relationship of alliance but of partnership and friendship". NATO, said Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, is "an alliance of 29 different nations, democracies," with "very often different views on different issues".

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 06 December 2017

Photo: Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov addressing a conference on central Asia under UN auspices. Credit: The Astana Times.

Kazakhstan Committed to Sustainable Development and Mutual Prosperity in Central Asia

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – In the run-up to Kazakhstan assuming the UN Security Council's rotating presidency for January 2018, Kazakh Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov has accentuated that the Central Asian country stands for the creation of a model of a regional zone of peace, security and cooperation in Central Asia and Afghanistan.

Kazakhstan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2017-2018, and it chairs the Council's Committees 1988 on the Taliban movement and 1267 on ISIL (Da’esh) and Al-Qaida.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 03 December 2017

Photo: General Ratko Mladic, convicted after 22 years, in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in June 2011

Mladic Verdict After 22 Years Cries for Shake-up of the UN Court

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) - Timing is everything. Dear Reader you’re right. If I was going to write on the conviction in a UN court of General Ratko Mladic I should have done it last week when the court sentenced him to life imprisonment for the mass murder of a significant part of Bosnia’s Muslim population during the civil wars in ex-Yugoslavia.

But does a week here or a week there matter when it has taken the ridiculous time of 22 years from the horrific event in Srebrenica, when 7,000 Muslim men were rounded up and slaughtered, to conviction? It was 16 years from the end of the war and 6 years from the date of his capture. The trial in Nuremberg of ex-Nazi leaders took only a year and took place immediately after the end of the Second World War.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 28 November 2017

U.S. and Russia Should Avail of the Avalanche of Truth-Telling

By Alice Slater*

NEW YORK (IDN-INPS) – NATO’s recent provocative decision to build up its military forces across Europe by sending four new multinational battalions to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland, comes at a time of great turmoil and intense questioning of global security with new forces for both good and evil straining to make their mark on the course of history.

On November 10-11, at the Vatican, Pope Francis held an international conference to follow up on the recently negotiated treaty to prohibit the possession, use, or threat of use of nuclear weapons leading to their complete elimination which was negotiated in the UN General Assembly this summer by 122 nations, although none of the nine nuclear weapons states participated.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; USA and Canada; 16 November 2017

Look Beyond Nuclear Deterrence to Deserve the Title of 'Civilization'

By Alexey Arbatov

Dr. Alexei Arbatov is the head of the Center for International Security at the Institute of Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations. He is a former scholar in residence with the Carnegie Moscow Center’s Nonproliferation Program. Formerly, he was a member of the State Duma, vice chairman of the Russian United Democratic Party (Yabloko), and deputy chairman of the Duma Defense Committee. He is a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and is the head of the academy’s Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations. Following is the complete text of his paper presented to the conference on 'Perspectives for a world free from nuclear weapons and for integral disarmament' at Vatican City on 11 November 2017 – The Editor