Skip to content

Diplomacy

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi Holds Press Conference On Foreign Policy

The year 2024 saw profound changes in the international landscape as well as remarkable progress in China’s reform and development. Under the stewardship of General Secretary Xi Jinping, China made important progress in its diplomacy. We fostered a good external environment for China’s high-quality development, brought much-needed stability to a changing and turbulent world, and made new and solid strides in building a community with a shared future for mankind. This year, the international situation is still full of challenges. But the mission of China’s diplomacy remains unchanged.

Trump’s Détente With Venezuela

Trump’s corollary to the Monroe Doctrine – “speak loudly AND carry a big stick” – has not been applied full force on Venezuela…as of yet. Instead the new administration appears to be testing a more nuanced approach. In his first administration, he succeeded in crashing the Venezuelan economy and creating misery among the populace but not in the goal of changing the “regime.” Back in 2019, the Bolivarian Revolution, initiated by Hugo Chávez and carried forward by his successor, current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, was teetering on collapse under Trump’s “maximum pressure” offensive.

Negotiations With US Not Reasonable, Honorable, Or Intelligent

“Negotiations with the US are not reasonable, honorable, and intelligent and have no effect on solving the country’s problems, and the reason is what we have experienced in the past,” Khamenei said during a meeting with Air Force personnel in Tehran. “In the past years, we negotiated with the United States and several countries for about two years, and the Iranian side smiled at it, shook hands with it, was honest with it, and made generous concessions, and a treaty was reached, but the Americans did not act according to the treaty, and the person in power tore it up and did not abide by it,” the Iranian leader added.

Three Amigos No More?

Just a week ago, we wagered that the US and Canadian embassies would soon begin piling pressure on Mexico as the outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (aka AMLO) seeks to pass sweeping constitutional reforms to its mining laws, energy laws and judicial system, among other things, in his last month in office. Just two days later, the US Ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, sent a communique warning that the proposed judicial reforms could have serious consequences for the US’ trade relations with its biggest trade partner: Based on my lifelong experience supporting the rule of law, I believe popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy. Any judicial reform should have the right kinds of safeguards that will ensure the judicial branch will be strengthened and not subject to the corruption of politics.

The Beijing Declaration: How Chinese Diplomacy United Palestinian Groups

Chinese diplomacy has done it again. By hosting a historic signing of a unity agreement between 14 Palestinian political parties in Beijing on July 23, China has, once more, shown its ability to play a global role as a peace broker. For years, China has attempted to play a role in Middle East politics, particularly in the region’s most enduring crisis, the Israeli occupation of Palestine. In 2021, China announced its four-point plan, aimed at “comprehensively, fairly and permanently” resolving the Palestinian question. Whether the plan itself was workable or not, it mattered little, as neither the Israeli government nor the Palestinian Authority were prepared to ditch Washington, which has dominated Middle East diplomacy for decades.

Venezuela Expels Diplomats From Seven Countries After Blatant Interference

The Venezuelan Minister for Foreign Affairs Yván Gil, through a statement, announced that the Venezuelan government decided to withdraw all diplomatic personnel from its embassies in Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. The announcement followed the unprecedented interventionist aggression and interference in Venezuelan internal affairs carried out by these seven countries. In addition, the minister requested that the governments of these countries immediately withdraw their representatives from Venezuelan territory. In diplomatic jargon, this essentially constitutes a complete diplomatic rupture.

Deaf And Blind: The Maladies Of American Diplomats

Here is a modest proposal, nothing too radical, just good sense. Turn over Antony Blinken and Jake Sullivan to the Iranian authorities on the understanding the two statesmen, very loosely defined, would spend 444 days at the U.S. embassy compound in Tehran. Let’s think of it as a reenactment. Said premises, long a mess of barbed wire, weeds, brambles, mold and anti–American graffiti, is now a museum. The Den of Espionage, as it is called, is dedicated to the shameful history of U.S.–Iranian relations leading up to that fateful day, Jan. 16, 1979, when the shah was deposed by a nation that had had enough of him. Those unkind Iranians had to rub it in: The old graffiti is now covered over with mocking murals featuring Mickey Mouse and McDonald’s.

China-Russia Joint Statement On ‘New Era’, Marks 75th Anniversary Of Relations

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin traveled to China from May 16-17, 2024, where he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This was the 43rd meeting between the two leaders, although it held particular significance as it marked the 75th anniversary of the relations between their countries. While in Beijing, Xi and Putin signed a lengthy joint statement, which when translated into English amounts to roughly 8000 words. The document is available in Chinese and Russian on the websites of the respective governments. As of May 25, there is no official translation of the full text in English. Only short excerpts of the statement have been reported on in the English-language media.

Colombia To Open Embassy In Occupied West Bank

The Colombian government announced on 22 May plans to open an embassy in the Palestinian city of Ramallah, the de facto capital of the occupied West Bank, under the orders of President Gustavo Petro. “President Petro has given the order that we open the Colombian embassy in Ramallah, the representation of Colombia in Ramallah, that is the next step we are going to take,” Foreign Minister Luis Gilberto Murillo told reporters on Wednesday. Murillo also said Petro recently led a meeting of Latin American leaders in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where they agreed to implement strategies to recognize Palestine as a full UN member state.

Putin And Xi In Beijing: Steps Into The 21st Century

Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping added another to their count of 40–odd summit meetings when the Russian and Chinese presidents convened in Beijing, later proceeding to Harbin in Northeast China, for two days of talks that ended Friday. At 9:55 Thursday evening Beijing time, a day’s work done, the two sat behind a long table draped in green to address “members of the media,” as Xi put it.  Western officials and the media that clerk for them have done their best, per usual, to dismiss this latest encounter of the Russian and Chinese leaders as of no account, just two authoritarians bound together by nothing more than their shared enmity toward the West. Pay no attention.

Russia And China — Two Against One

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s extremely warm reception of President Vladimir Putin yesterday in Beijing sealed the increasingly formidable Russia-China strategic relationship. It amounts to a tectonic shift in the world balance of power.  The Russia-China entente also sounds the death knell for attempts by U.S. foreign policy neophytes to drive a wedge between the two countries. The triangular relationship has become two-against-one, with serious implications, particularly for the war in Ukraine. If U.S. President Joe Biden’s foreign policy geniuses remain in denial, escalation is almost certain.

Nicaragua Closes Embassy In Berlin After Suing Germany Over Genocide

Nicaragua announced the closure of its diplomatic mission in Berlin on Wednesday, noting that the Central American state’s consular tasks and official businesses in Germany will now be handled by the embassy in Austria. Managua recently announced the accreditation of its ambassador in Vienna, Sabra Amari Murillo Centeno, as a concurrent representative in Germany. Earlier this week, hearings opened in the ICJ, with Nicaragua saying Germany is violating the 1948 Genocide Convention by providing Israel with military and financial aid, as well as suspending funding to the main UN humanitarian agency in Gaza, UNRWA.

The Premises Of The Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable

We live in dishonest times, where certainties have crumbled, and malevolence stalks the landscape. There is Gaza, of course. Gaza above all else is on our minds. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 7 October, with more than 7,000 people missing (5,000 of them children). The Israeli government has brutally disregarded the global public opinion mounted against them. Billions of people are outraged by the stark fact of their violence and yet we are unable to force a ceasefire from an army that has decided to raze an entire people.

Pakistan Officially Restores All Ties With Iran After Short-Lived Spat

Pakistan officially moved to restore all diplomatic ties with Iran on 19 January after a brief diplomatic row as both sides fired missiles into each other's lands. “The apex security committee has decided to restore full diplomatic ties with Tehran, including sending back the ambassador, as both sides agreed to de-escalate the situation after retaliatory strikes,” local media reported. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian also spoke over the phone with his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani, telling him that “Pakistan is of high importance in Iran’s foreign policy." For his part, Jilani expressed Islamabad's “readiness to work with Iran on all issues based on the spirit of mutual trust and cooperation” and urged for ”closer cooperation on security issues."

The Solution To Violence In Yemen And The Red Sea Is A Cease-Fire In Gaza

As Washington continues to help arm and finance the Israeli government’s genocidal assault on Gaza, White House rhetoric has increasingly centered on preventing the war from expanding across the region. But the Biden administration’s actions in Yemen and the Red Sea are having exactly the opposite effect. Beginning shortly after the Israeli assault on Gaza started in early October, Houthi militants from Yemen launched a series of attacks on commercial ships, some of them connected to the Israeli economy, in the shipping lanes in and around the Red Sea.
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.