IDN-InDepthNews

OPINION2017-01-192023-07-10

Chinese President Xi Claims Global Leadership – Discreetly

Excerpts From Speech at World Economic Forum

Following are detailed excerpts from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historic 45-minute speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January 18, 2017 in which he calls for a world free of all nuclear weapons, and a global governance system based on equality among countries. The full text appeared on https://www.weforum.org/events/world-economic-forum-annual-meeting-2017

Xi’s mission apparently is to make China great by following the advice of Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese author of the legendary Art of War: “Superior strategies avoid conflict. They overcome hurdles without attacking these and quickly appropriate what is foreign to them. They are totally open towards everything under the heavens.”

UN INSIDER2017-01-192023-07-10

Harnessing the Data Revolution for Achieving SDGs

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | CAPE TOWN (IDN) – The unprecedented scope of the UN’s 2030 Agenda, with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), calls for reliable data without which progress in implementing those goals cannot be tracked. “We cannot achieve what we cannot measure,” said Dr Pali Lehohla, South Africa’s Statistician-General and head of Statistics South Africa (STATS SA).

STATS SA hosted the first ever United Nations World Data Forum in Cape Town from January 15 to 18, with support from the Statistics Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), under the guidance of the United Nations Statistical Commission and the High-level Group for Partnership, Coordination and Capacity-Building for Statistics for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

UN INSIDER2017-01-182023-07-10

Bonn To Host Global Festival For Sustainable Development

By Jutta Wolf

BERLIN | BONN (IDN) – The UN SDG Action Campaign, an Initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General, is launching the first Global Festival of Ideas March 1-3 in Bonn with a view to ensuring the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Bonn, former West German capital in divided post-World War II Germany, hosts 22 UN secretariats, including those of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC), UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), and UN Volunteers (UNV).

ARMAMENTS2017-01-172023-07-10

Iran’s Nuke Agreement Survives Without a Shot Being Fired

By Rodney Reynolds

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN) – During the height of the U.S. presidential election campaign last year, Republican candidate Donald Trump threatened to tear up the 159-page Iran nuclear agreement on live television.

In characteristic “Trumpism”, he dismissed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the agreement was formally known, as “stupid”, “a lopsided disgrace” and “the worst deal ever negotiated.”

With Trump moving into the White House on January 20, will he abide by his threats and swear by his rhetoric? Or was it all political bluster?

Africa2017-01-172023-07-10

Concern About U.S. Africa Policy Under Trump

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Long-time Africa specialists who have looked at a four-page list of Africa-related questions from the Trump transition staff say they are seeing an American retreat from development and humanitarian goals while business opportunities will be getting an extra push.

The four-page list has been making the rounds at the State Department and Pentagon, according to the New York Times.

Of priority interest to the new administration is the prospect of dollars to be made in this “new” frontier. One of the first questions on the list went straight to the point: “How does U.S. business compete with other nations in Africa? Are we losing out to the Chinese?”

OPINION2017-01-172023-07-10

Six Out of Ten For Obama’s Foreign Policy

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – When President Barack Obama leaves office will the world be better or worse than eight years ago? Taking the big picture, so often obscured by the wars and uprisings that dominate the front page, more often than not he has resisted the foreign-policy establishment, most importantly in Syria, which makes a fetish of “credibility”.

Obama has argued that “dropping bombs on someone to prove that you are willing to drop bombs on someone is just about the worst reason to use force”.

UN INSIDER2017-01-172023-07-10

Photo Exhibit at UN Focuses on Vulnerabilities of Migrants

NEW YORK (IDN) – A photo exhibit launched at United Nations Headquarters in New York on January 16 by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations TOGETHER initiative seeks to draw attention to the plight of migrants in vulnerable situations around the world.

“The photo exhibit serves to highlight how crisis-related migration flows are growing in scale and complexity and inducing new forms of migration-related humanitarian challenges both internally and across borders,” said Ashraf El Nour, Director of IOM’s Office to the UN in New York. “Migrants need protection as their vulnerability to exploitation, trafficking, and violence heightens during crises,” he added.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-01-162023-07-10

Caribbean Setting Ambitious Renewable Energy Targets

By Desmond L. Brown

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates (ACP-IDN) – As cash-strapped Caribbean nations push towards renewable energy development, the Director General of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Adnan Z. Amin, has pointed to the challenges they face in matching ambition with reality and the need for international support.

Caribbean countries join a growing list of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) which have set ambitious targets to switch to renewables.

In October 2016, Barbados set a new target of generating 65 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2030 following IRENA’s support in developing a national energy road map.

Asia-Pacific2017-01-162023-07-10

Kashmiri Community Propagates Peace Amid Simmering Violence

By Stella Paul

KULGAM/KASHMIR, India (IDN) – Travelling along the roads of South Kashmir, you are constantly greeted by pro-liberation and anti-India slogans. They are written on the tar roads, house walls, little signboards hanging from tree branches and even lamp posts.

“Go India Go Back” and “We Want Freedom” read some; others proclaim “Burhan is Alive” or “Burhan Zindabad” – in reference to Burhan Wani, a young militant gunned down by the security forces in July 2016.

But suddenly, the slogans begin to change. Signposts and walls appear adorned with messages like “Welcome” and “Love for All, Hatred for None”. That is when you know you are in a village of the Ahmadiyya community.

UN INSIDER2017-01-152023-07-10

UN Reform Vital To Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace

By Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin is India’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. Following are excerpts from his statement to the Security Council in an open debate on January 10 on ‘Conflict Prevention and Sustaining Peace’ in connection with the agenda item ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security’- an agenda that relates to one of the first purposes of the UN’s charter and one which is listed in the first article.

UNITED NATIONS (IDN-INPS) – The wisdom of the age-old adage, “Prevention is better than Cure” is self-evident . . . Dag Hammarskjöld is said to have first introduced the term “preventive diplomacy” more than 50 years ago into the lexicon. Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s “Agenda for Peace” unveiled in the 1990s comes to mind as another milestone in this saga.