IDN-InDepthNews – Page 678 – News for a Sustainable World, Peace and Security

UN INSIDER2017-01-292023-07-10

UN and Thailand Launch ‘South-South In Action’ Series

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) has launched a publication series – ‘South-South In Action’ – purported to highlight the vast reservoir of developing country experiences and how these are enhancing South-South cooperation.

The first volume of the series, jointly published by the Royal Thai Government and the UNOSSC was presented at the UN headquarters in New York on January 12, one day before the Southeast Asian country handed the annual Chair of the Group of 77 (G77) and China over to Ecuador.

UN INSIDER2017-01-282023-07-10

Search For ‘Hopeful Spots’ As Funding Cuts Threaten UN

By Ramesh Jaura

BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – While a drastic cut in U.S. contributions is hanging like a Damocles’ Sword over the head of the new UN Secretary-General António Guterres, senior Government officials and civil society representatives have stressed the “nexus” between enduring peace and sustainable development, urging the need to raise awareness about such a link beyond the world body’s headquarters in New York.

Goal 16 of the Agenda for Sustainable Development that highlights the importance of the need to “promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies” underlines such an innate bond, they say, but it has escaped wider public and diplomatic attention – one year after the United Nations started implementing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) endorsed by 193 member states in September 2015.

Latin America & the Caribbean2017-01-272023-07-10

Caribbean Countries Strive For Energy Security

By Desmond L. Brown

NASSAU, The Bahamas (ACP | IDN) – Caribbean countries have found themselves between a rock and a hard place. Already grappling with a myriad of challenges, including crime and weak economies, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states from Jamaica in the north to Guyana in the south are also now faced with extremely high energy costs.

Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Perry Christie, said his country and its neighbours must move with haste to transition to sustainable energy sources, something he believes would also help shore up their ailing economies and also address the crime scourge.

UN INSIDER2017-01-272023-07-10

An Eminent Buddhist Leader Urges Nuke Disarmament Summit

By Ramesh Jaura and Katsuhiro Asagiri

BERLIN | TOKYO (IDN) – Japanese Buddhist philosopher and peace builder Daisaku Ikeda has urged the U.S. and Russian leaders to come together for a summit meeting as soon as possible to pledge a global drift toward nuclear disarmament. The two countries together hold more than 90% of the world’s nuclear arsenal.

The advice by Ikeda, who is the President of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) Buddhist association, is contained in his 35th annual peace proposal titled “The Global Solidarity of Youth: Ushering in a New Era of Hope” issued on January 26, 2017.

UN INSIDER2017-01-262023-07-10

UN Stresses Puerto Ricans’ Right to Self-determination

By J C Suresh

NEW YORK (IDN) – The United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization has welcomed the commutation of the prison sentence of Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar López Rivera, the world’s longest-serving political prisoner confined in a U.S. federal penitentiary since 1981.

Puerto Rico – Spanish for ‘Rich Port’ – is an “unincorporated territory” of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea, with a population of about 3.4 million and San Juan as most populous city.

Rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make the main island of Puerto Rico – and a number of smaller ones such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques – a popular destination for travellers from around the world.

UN INSIDER2017-01-262023-07-10

UN Chief Guterres Committed to a Nuclear-Weapons Free World

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA (IDN) – Within less than four weeks of taking office, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has pledged to “actively pursue the abolition of all weapons of mass destruction and the strict regulation of conventional weapons”, arguing that disarmament can play an important role in ending existing conflicts and preventing the outbreak of new.

“I am committed to achieving a world free of nuclear weapons,” Guterres declared in a video message to the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament, which opened the first segment of its three-part 2017 session on January 23.

OPINION2017-01-252023-07-10

The Four Whose Foreign Policy Ideas Could Impact Trump Most

By Jim Lobe* | Reproduced courtesy of LobeLog

WASHINGTON, DC (IDN | LobeLog) – The most frightening commentary I’ve read in the run-up to the inauguration—and there have been many—appeared in a column identifying the four people whose foreign policy ideas were likely to be most influential with the then-president-elect. It was written by The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin and entitled “Inside Trump’s Shadow National Security Council.”

Those four people, according to Rogin, are chief strategist Stephen Bannon, who “has been working on the long-term strategic vision that will shape the Trump administration’s overall foreign policy approach;” chief of staff Reince Priebus; Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner; and his national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.).

EU & Europe2017-01-252023-07-10

Shaky Start to Silicon Smelters in Iceland

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) – Silicon metal smelters have taken over from aluminium plants as the desirable heavy industry for Iceland. At Helguvik in the southwest of the island, close to Reykjavik’s international airport, United Silicon has just started operating a silicon smelter, while an adjacent lot is marked out for a silicon smelter of similar production capacity – 110,000 tonnes per year – run by Thorsil.

The United Silicon plant is situated just over one kilometre from the southernmost point of Reykjanesbaer municipality. Plans were developed for industrial development around the harbour of Helguvik over 14 years ago, including an aluminium smelter slightly north of Helguvik which has never been completed because of disputes over who should provide energy.

SYNDICATION, UNITED NATIONS2017-01-242023-07-12

Outcome of Syria Meeting a Feather in Kazakhstan’s Cap

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | ASTANA (IDN) – UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has commended Russia, Turkey and Iran for their decision to establish a trilateral mechanism to observe and ensure full compliance with the ceasefire in crisis-torn Syria endorsed by the UN Security Council on December 31, 2016.

This is “a concrete step” towards further implementation of Security Council Resolution (SCR) 2236, he said. “The UN stands ready to assist the parties to the trilateral mechanism, develop it, and ensure that it helps strengthen the quality of the ceasefire,” De Mistura added, commenting the two-day ‘International Meeting on Syrian Settlement’ in the Kazakh capital Astana on January 23-24, 2017.

OPINION2017-01-242023-07-10

The Last Chance To Get Russian-U.S. Relationship Right

By Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – The great flaw in ex-president Barack Obama’s record was his policy towards Russia. Going against everything he had said and written about before he became president, one action after another antagonised the Russians.

His early proclamation that he wanted Georgia and Ukraine in NATO, his de facto coalition of convenience for a crucial couple of days with the anti-democratic, anti-Russian, neo-fascist, demonstrators in Ukraine, the further expansion of NATO, despite an earlier promise not to, made by President H.W. Bush, to the Soviet President, Mikhail Gorbachev, and his inability to cooperate with the Russians and Iranians over Syria.