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Trump Foreign Policy Tag

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 12, 2019 2 Comments
Trade between Iran and the European Union is in sharp decline, official Iranian figures show. The drop comes despite EU's ongoing efforts to bypass the U.S. sanctions. In November, President Donald Trump imposed a new round of sanctions on Iran's oil, shipping and banking sectors.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 12, 2019 3 Comments
Chinese officials are currently planning to send their top trade negotiator to Washington, D.C., next month for trade talks designed to end the tariff battle between the two nations. Ahead of the meetings, the Chinese are appearing to leverage their influence with North Korea to optimum benefit. North Korea's Chairman Kim Jong-un was in Beijing this week, and made significant statements related to promises made during June's Singapore Summit.

Posted by Mary Chastain on January 10, 2019 18 Comments
Back in 2009, former President Barack Obama delivered a speech at American University in Cairo, Egypt, that "promised a new beginning with Muslim and Arab countries." The right criticized Obama "for placing too much blame on the U.S. for strife in the region." On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected Obama's Middle East policy and stated “the age of self-inflicted American shame is over.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on January 03, 2019 33 Comments
Berlin will be lobbying the United Nations to secure a permanent seat at the Security Council for the European Union, German state media said. "Over the next two years, Germany's main concern will be to try and ensure that the European Union as a whole is given a permanent seat," public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported Tuesday. This year, Germany takes up the non-permanent seat at the Council for a two year term.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 21, 2018 26 Comments
With British Prime Minister Theresa May failing to get parliamentary support for her plan to leave the European Union and only 100 days until the deadline, Britain is veering towards a "no deal" Brexit. In case of a no deal Brexit, the UK will leave the EU without any formal agreement on the future relationship with the 27-member European bloc. This would mean the UK would be "treated as a 'third country' by the EU with commerce governed by World Trade Organisation rules," British tabloid The Sun reported. Currently the UK's trade, customs, and immigration policies are subject to EU laws and regulatory bodies. Under the blueprint agreement presented by May's government and Brussels, the EU courts will continue to have jurisdiction over many aspects of British life.

Posted by Mary Chastain on December 19, 2018 18 Comments
The Wall Street Journal has reported that the US military has started preparations to remove all of its forces from northeastern Syria:
U.S. officials began informing partners in northeastern Syria of their plans to begin immediately pulling American forces out of the region where they have been trying to wrap up the campaign against Islamic State, the people said.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 13, 2018 17 Comments
Turkey is preparing a military offensive against the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds, Turkish state-run media sources say. "We will start our operation in a few days to liberate areas east of the Euphrates River from terrorist organizations," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared in a speech in Ankara Wednesday, referring to the presence of Kurdish forces in neighboring Syria. Kurds, fighting alongside the Assyrian Christians, had played a key role in liberating large parts of Syrian and Iraqi territories from the Islamic State.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 12, 2018 27 Comments
Representatives from around 150 countries signed the United Nations migration pact in Morocco on Monday. The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, as the agreement is formally known, aims to create a legal framework to handle growing migration from impoverished third world countries to the Western world -- overriding the immigration policies of the individual nation states. German Chancellor Merkel, whose open border policies drew millions of asylum seekers from North Africa and the Middle East into Europe in recent years, hailed the signing of the pact as an "important day." It was is about "nothing less than the foundation of our international cooperation," she added. The German leader "received a standing ovation on Monday after an impassioned speech," the UK newspaper The Guardian reported.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 04, 2018 19 Comments
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been working behind the scenes to prevent European Union member countries from recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the newspaper Jerusalem Post reported. The revelation was made by Tomas Sandell, the director of the European Coalition for Israel in Brussels. Chancellor Merkel made a series of calls to European leaders in April while "many of the nations were seriously considering moving their embassies." Sandell said. "This is not the Germany we once knew. This is not the even Angela Merkel we once knew when she was elected."

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 08, 2018 38 Comments
Doing away with diplomatic niceties, the top European Union officials have welcomed the gains made by the Democrats in the US midterm elections. Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans hailed the electoral results while attacking the Trump administration for its "racism" and "rudeness." "Inspired by voters in the U.S. who chose hope over fear, civility over rudeness, inclusion over racism, equality over discrimination," Timmermans wrote on Twitter. EU Economic Commissioner, Pierre Moscovici, also cheered the Democrats winning the House majority. "The Democrats win the House of Representatives for the first time in eight years despite powerful Republican gerrymandering," Moscovici said.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 05, 2018 2 Comments
President Donald Trump's administration has officially restored sanctions on Iran that went away with the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. At the same time, SWIFT, a financial messaging service based in Belgium, announced it will suspend "some unspecified Iranian banks’ access to its messaging system in the interest of the stability and integrity of the global financial system," but did not mention the US sanctions.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 04, 2018 3 Comments
What is the status of the Singapore Summit agreement five months after the historic deal was signed by President Donald Trump and North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un? The American press is highlighting a set-back on the path to peace.  North Korean officials are warning that the nation will begin strengthening its nuclear arsenal if the United States does not lift economic sanctions against the country.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 24, 2018 11 Comments
A leading Chinese bank, which acted as the main conduit for payments to Iran, is halting financial transactions with the Islamic Republic, Reuters news agency reports. The state-owned Bank of Kunlun's decision was made "under pressure" of impending U.S. sanctions due to take effect early November, news reports disclose. The halting of transactions spells trouble for Iran's commercial ties to China, the country's biggest oil consumer. The Bank of Kunlun is controlled by China's state-owned energy group CNPC, a company running multi-billion dollar gas exploration projects in Iran.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on October 19, 2018 10 Comments
Poland has signed a long-term gas deal to buy natural gas from the United States to ease its reliance on Moscow. Polish state-run energy company PGNiG signed a 20-year supply contract with Louisiana-based Venture Global LNG. "Today we can fulfill our efforts to improve the sovereignty, security, and competitiveness of our gas sector," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters on Wednesday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 09, 2018 2 Comments
When reporting on the landmines removal from the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, I noted Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on his way for a meeting with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un to discuss denuclearization of the peninsula. It appears the meeting was a success.
The U.S. and North Korea agreed Sunday to hold a second summit between leaders Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un "as soon as possible," according to a statement by South Korea's presidential office, with the American side saying that Kim had also invited inspectors to a key nuclear facility.
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