Blinken says he had ’frank’ discussion with Russian foreign minister in first call since Ukraine war began, edition.cnn.com

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday for the first time since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine in late February.

In what the top US diplomat described as ”a frank and direct conversation,” Blinken said he ”pressed the Kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner.”
That proposal, which has been on the table since June, includes an offer to swap convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, CNN reported earlier this week. Läs artikel
Speaking at a press conference at the State Department, Blinken declined to say whether he thought Russians were more or less likely move on the proposal following the conversation, nor would he describe how Lavrov responded.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that Lavrov ”strongly suggested” to Blinken that the United States should return to a mode of ”quiet diplomacy” regarding a possible prisoner exchange ”without speculative information stuffing.”

War games in boreal forest spotlights changing security architecture of the North, thebarentsobserver.com

Vladimir Putin said he wanted a stop to the expansion of NATO, but with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one can now witness a stronger military cohesion between U.S. and European allies. So also in the North where the traditionally non-aligned countries Sweden and Finland are inviting for increased international exercise volume with key partners in the transition period to membership this summer and autumn.

Ryske (Finnish for “crash through”) is the largest army exercise north of the Arctic Circle. It takes place deep in the boreal forest between Sodankylä and Kemijärvi, some 90 km from the Russian border. Alakurtti, home to one of Russia’s two Arctic brigades, is about 145 km east of the training ground where U.S., Finnish and Norwegian troopers now are exercising. […]

“We train with key partner nations in order to build technical and procedural interoperability,” said Commander of the Guard Jaeger Regiment, Colonel Jukka Kotilehto.

“The objective is to enhance U.S. and Finnish land units’ capabilities to operate in Arctic environment,” he added. Läs artikel

NATO members Turkey, Hungary call for Ukraine ceasefire talks, ahvalnews.com

Turkey and Hungary, NATO’s most Russia-friendly members, called for ceasefire talks to end the war in Ukraine.

Turkish Foreign Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made the appeals in statements to the press on Thursday.   Çavuşoğlu, speaking in Turkey’s capital Ankara, said a deal this month to export Ukrainian grain could help establish trust between Russia and Ukraine, providing a foundation for peace talks.

”Now it’s time to focus on a cease-fire,” Çavuşoğlu said at a news conference with Georgian Foreign Minister lia Darchiashvili, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency. “As Türkiye, we will continue our efforts to make parties return to the diplomacy table as soon as possible.”

Orban, who has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin 13 times over the years, said the European Union needed to focus on peace talks rather than winning the war. Läs artikel

Hultqvists budskap till Putin från krigsfartyget i Göteborg: ”En signal”, sverigesradio.se

Under fredagen besökte Sveriges Försvarsminister, socialdemokraten Peter Hultqvist, ett brittiskt försvarsfartyg i Göteborg.

Besöket ombord på fregatten HMS Portland fyller ett symboliskt syfte när det kommer till Sveriges natoansökan, berättar han.

”Det här är en del i den säkerhetspolitiska signal som är viktig att ge under den tid som Sverige har så kallade säkerhetsförsäkringar från bland annat Storbritannien”, säger Hultqvist. Läs artikel

Nato vill bygga hamn i Finnafjörður på norra Island, islandsbloggen.com

En kaj vid Gunnólfsvík i Finnafjörður på nordöstra Island där fartyg kan lägga till – och där förnödenheter kan tas ombord och där besättningar kan bytas ut. Det föreslår nu Nato enligt uppgifter till Fréttablaðið. Även den isländska kustbevakningen skulle kunna använda anläggningen. Utrikesdepartementet har inte kommenterat uppgifterna.

Hösten 2006 lämnade de sista Nato-soldaterna basen i Keflavík. Nedläggningen var en följd av ett förändrat säkerhetsläge i Nordatlanten. Islands strategiska betydelse avtog i takt med att relationerna mellan öst och väst tinade upp och kalla kriget framstod som ett avslutat kapitel.

Men de senaste åren har både säkerhetsläget och attityderna förändrats. I budgeten för 2020 öronmärkte USA 57 miljoner dollar för investeringar i Natos anläggningar i Keflavík. Det handlade bland annat om att utöka kapaciteten för att stationera soldater på Island och för att bygga ut hangarer för att kunna ta emot P-8A Poseidon, ett flygplan som Nato använder för övervakning av ubåtar.

Investeringarna kommer att fortsätta. Nyligen utannonserade Ríkiskaup en utbyggnad med en prislapp på 94 miljoner dollar. USA vill bygga sex till sju förrådsbyggnader med en total yta på drygt 12 000 kvadratmeter. Byggnaderna ska användas som lager för utrustning till flygfält. De ska enligt utrikesdepartementet inte användas för vapen eller krigsmateriel.

Nu uppger Fréttablaðið att Nato även har planer för Finnafjörður på nordöstra Island. I Gunnólfsvík vill Nato bygga en kaj som ska kunna ta emot fartyg. Läs artikel

War in Ukraine: a moment of moral choice, irishtimes.com

Sabina Coyne Higgins, wife of President Michael D Higgins

Sir, – I was disappointed and dismayed that your editorial “The Irish Times view on the war in Ukraine: escalating to stand still” (July 20th), commenting on the war in Ukraine, did not encourage any ceasefire negotiations that might lead towards a peace settlement between the Russians, the Ukrainian forces and the separatists.

Until the world persuades President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy of Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations, the long haul of terrible war will go on. How can there be any winner?

The Ukrainian people have suffered tens of thousands of casualties and are now losing up to a thousand soldiers a day, killed, wounded or taken prisoner. Your editorial states that in the war it is estimated that 25,000 to 27,000 Russians have been killed in the fighting.

For people grieved by the suffering and longing to hear some mention of peace or negotiation it was so welcome to read the deeply concerned and thought-out article by the historian Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at UCC, saying that now is the time for peace negotiation (“Ukraine must grasp peace from jaws of unwinnable war”, Opinion & Analysis, July 13th). […]

Continuing the war of course makes the climate change crisis worse which is resulting in millions of people in Africa, and elsewhere, being put in further danger of starvation, and the endangering of the food security of so many in different parts of the world. Läs brevet till Irish Times.

The War Party parties in Aspen — at the rest of the world’s expense, responsiblestatecraft.org

Andrew Cockburn, Washington editor of Harper’s Magazine

[…] The second part of Adeyemo’s master plan consists of an already widely bruited scheme to limit Putin’s oil revenues by using western dominace of the marine insurance market. The price at which Russia could sell its oil would be set at a level that would allow a small profit, but no more.  Only tankers carrying oil priced at that level would get insurance. “That is a way to reduce their revenue,” Adeyemo announced confidently, promising that the plan would be in operation by the end of the year.  The fact that the Treasury is still promoting the scheme as a key element of Washington’s master plan to bring Putin to his knees shows how detached from reality Washington has become.  Various specialists who understand the oil market rather better than Adeyemo and whoever else is pushing the scheme have detailed its shortcomings. Among the clearest is Christof Rühl, senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, and  formerly chief economist at BP. As he explained in a podcast interview with the energy business news site BNE Intellinews soon after the price cap plan was first  disclosed, it will not work, because, quite simply, “oil is fungible.”

Unlike gas, it is not largely dependent on pipeline distribution, but can be moved anywhere on ships. Therefore, rather than submit to the price cap regime, the Russians would simply direct more exports to Asia where, crucially, there is competition among “a whole plethora of buyers, including India, who would all bid against each other,” thereby driving up the price the Russians would receive for their oil.  If the Russians were still dissatisfied with the price they were getting, all they would need to do would be to reduce supply. As Adeyemo should understand, less oil means higher prices – including to the U.S., since the Indians, who have vastly increased their imports of Russian oil, are busy refining it and selling not only to Europe, but also, according to Rühl, the U.S.  Furthermore, the Indian government has recently certified the entire Russian tanker fleet, making it eligible for Indian insurance coverage. As fellow panelist on the podcast Chris Weafer, CEO of Macro Advisory, exclaimed of the western economic warriors, “what planet are they living on?”

The same query might be applied to the happy conferees at Aspen. Läs artikel

Those who play with fire will perish by it: Xi warns Biden over Taiwan, theprint.in

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned his US counterpart, Joe Biden, not to ‘play with fire’ over Taiwan and asked the US to abide by the One China principle, during a video call between both leaders on Thursday.

“Those who play with fire will perish by it. It is hoped that the US will be clear-eyed about this. The US should honour the one-China principle and implement the three joint communiques both in word and in deed.”

Xi stressed that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one and the same China and that China firmly opposes separatist moves toward “Taiwan independence”.

“China firmly opposes separatist moves toward ‘Taiwan independence’ and interference by external forces, and never allows any room for ‘Taiwan independence’ forces in whatever form”, Xi said, adding, “the position of the Chinese government and people on the Taiwan question is consistent, and resolutely safeguarding China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity is the firm will of the more than 1.4 billion Chinese people.” […]

On contrary, US president Joe Biden said that the US does not support “Taiwan independence”.

“The United States policy has not changed, it strongly opposes unilateral efforts to change the status quo or undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” a White House statement quoted Biden. Läs artikel

 

Korea’s biggest-ever arms deal to fortify NATO’s Poland, asiatimes.com

In the biggest arms export in South Korean history, Poland will buy some 1,000 tanks, hundreds of self-propelled artillery pieces and dozens of fighter jets.

Reports of the deal have been leaking out of Poland for over a week, and today there was partial confirmation from the Korean side. The costing of the package has not been made public.

However, a rough estimate calculated by Asia Times, using the unit prices of the systems as sold to previous customers, puts the it in the US$15 billion-dollar range. An expert, speaking to Asia Times on condition of anonymity, put it even higher at $20 billion.

Both numbers far exceed $7 billion – the total value of all arms sold by South Korea to all global customers in 2021, which marked a record year for Seoul’s weapons sales. Läs artikel

Militärövning väckte uppmärksamhet i Åbolands skärgård – amerikanska specialtrupper intog Finnlines fartyg,hbl.fi

Två stora båtar utrustade med maskingevär och USA:s flagga susade fram i Åbolands skärgård på tisdagskvällen.

Den som befann sig på bilfärjan mellan Korpo och Houtskär på tisdag kväll kunde följa med hur amerikanska specialtrupper övade i skärgården.
Enligt ögonvittnen som befann sig på färjan mellan Houtskär och Korpo körde båtarna utmed sidorna av ett av Finnlines passagerarfartyg. En stund senare anlände också fyra helikoptrar till passagerarfartyget, skriver Ilta–Sanomat.
Från en del av helikoptrarna hissades en handfull personer ner till fartygets däck. De finländska helikoptrarna på plats var av modellen NH90.
Det handlade om en gemensam övning med specialtrupper från USA och Uttis jägarregemente. Från Finlands sida deltog representanter från Försvarsmakten och Gränsbevakningen i övningen. Läs artikel

Finland and Sweden’s decision to join NATO to worsen security situation — Medvedev, tass.com

The decision on Stockholm and Helsinki’s accession to NATO complicates the security situation in the Baltic region, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday.

”It is clear that the decision on Finland and Sweden’s joining NATO does not strengthen the security of the region, but on the contrary, it complicates the security situation for everyone,” Medvedev told journalists following a meeting focused on security of Russia’s northwestern frontiers.

”As for the decision itself, we understand how this decision was made, what hysteria it involved, how the mindset of these two countries was influenced from across the ocean and from Brussels,” he stressed. ”It is quite obvious that as a result of this decision, the well-known Paasikivi – Kekkonen doctrine, as far as Finland is concerned, and also relations with neutral Sweden, are subject to revision,” Medvedev summed up. Läs artikel

”Det här är ett hot mot åsiktsfriheten”, arbetaren.se

Säpochefen Charlotte von Essen vill förbjuda demonstrationer och evenemang som stödjer PKK. ”Det här är ett hot mot åsiktsfriheten, inte bara ett hot mot yttrande- och demonstrationsfriheten”, säger Janne Flyghed, professor i kriminologi.

Sedan Sveriges Natoansökan stoppades av Turkiet tidigare i år har allt mer fokus hamnat på Sveriges syn på kurdiska PKK. Turkiets president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan påstår att Sverige stöttar PKK, trots att gruppen varit klassats som en terroristorganisation sedan 1984. […]

Samtidigt pågår enutredning på Justitedepartementet som syftar till att lämna förslag om att kriminalisera deltagande i en terroristorganisation. Utredaren föreslår i promemorian en ny straffbestämmelse i terroristbrottslagen som även omfattar den som ”deltar i verk­sam­heten i en terrorist­organisa­tion på ett sätt som är ägnat att främja, stärka eller under­stödja terrorist­organisa­tionen”

– Jag tycker att utredningen i sig är väldigt vag och riskerna med det är att en sådan lag skulle bli väldigt godtycklig i praktiken. Vad menas egentligen med att ”främja” en terroristorganisation i det här fallet? Och vem kommer att avgöra vem som ska betraktas som terrorist framöver?, säger Janne Flyghed, professor emeritus i kriminologi vid Stockholms universitet. Läs artikel

Läs även Ingemar Folkes analys av förslaget om förbud mot rasistiska organisationer.