Category: Diplomacy
The Risks and Rewards of China’s New Mideast Diplomacy
When China announced in March that it had brokered a landmark agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic ties, it took a lot of people by surprise. They just didn't see it coming. ...
China Willing to Compromise in Debt Stand-off With World Bank and Other International Creditors, Say Reports
Chinese negotiators are reportedly making progress in talks with other major international creditors to break the ongoing impasse that's blocking debt relief for a number of poor developing countries, particularly in Africa. Both the Wall Street Journal and Reuters quoted unnamed sources on ...
Lots of Talk, Little Action: Zambia’s Debt Relief Process Remains Stalled Says Finance Minister
Zambia's Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said it's urgent that the country's international creditors finalize a debt restructuring deal at once, or else a $188 million IMF emergency financial package could be at risk. Musokotwane expressed frustration in an interview with ...
Chinese Analysts Warn New U.S., Philippines Security Plan Will Escalate Tensions in the Pacific
The United States and the Philippines agreed to a new long-term plan that will pave the way for a major increase in U.S. security assistance to the Southeast Asian country over the next five to ten years. The deal was ...
Debt Standoff At IMF, World Bank Spring Meetings
Finance ministers from around the world have descended on Washington DC for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings. The Chinese government has confirmed that a top-level Chinese delegation will attend in person -- the first time since the COVID pandemic.
Chinese Experts Weigh In On Brazilian President’s Visit to Beijing
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is scheduled to arrive in Shanghai on Tuesday, after a March visit was rescheduled due to illness. He will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Before leaving, he said he also plans to invite Xi to Brazil. ...
Getting Currency Swaps Right: How China is Filling the Void Left by the West
By Kevin Gallagher, Marina Zucker-Marques and Barbara Fritz A recent World Bank paper – widely echoed by financial outlets – has raised concerns about a supposed Chinese “emerging system of cross-border bailouts”, composed mostly of currency swap agreements. To the authors, Chinese swaps are opaque and costly, ...
IMF, World Bank Losing Patience With China Over Debt Relief Standoff
China's ongoing stand-off with multilateral lenders over debt relief terms for developing countries will be a prominent issue at International Monetary Fund and World Bank's annual week-long gathering known as the Spring Meetings that get underway on Monday in Washington, D.C. ...
Brazil’s Lula Heads to China With a Ukraine Peace Proposal That’s Effectively Dead on Arrival
Brazilian President Luiz Inàcio Lula da Silva had hoped to arrive in Beijing on Tuesday with a plan to present to Chinese President Xi Jinping that would end the conflict in Ukraine. Lula dispatched a special envoy to Kyiv last week ...
How Important is China’s New Role as Mideast Mediator? Depends Who You Ask.
The smiles and awkward handshake among the foreign ministers from China, Saudi Arabia and Iran last week in Beijing that finalized a once-improbable reconciliation between the two Persian Gulf rivals triggered another wave of analysis by scholars around the world about the significance of China's role as ...
Amid Twin Political and Economic Crises, Tunisia Turns on West and Announces Intent to Join BRICS
The Tunisian government angrily pushed back against both the International Monetary Fund and the European Union over how to resolve the North African country's twin economic and political crises. President Kais Saied bluntly told the IMF on Friday that he ...
Sexy, Sexy Cold War
Years in a media studies grad school have condemned me to always be haunted by the gap between real-life tragedy and its afterlife as a media narrative. In this vein, it recently struck me that the real-life horror, pain, dislocation and ...