Category Archives: Foreign policy

China requested heavily armed security team be sent to Solomon Islands, leaked documents reveal

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The 10-person detail was to be armed with pistols, rifles, two machine guns and a sniper rifle to protect Chinese embassy

China requested that a plainclothes 10-person security detail armed with pistols, rifles, two machine guns and a sniper rifle be dispatched to Solomon Islands late last year, leaked documents reveal.

The Guardian has received a copy of the documents, dated 3 December 2021, in which China requested security personnel be allowed to enter the country to secure the Chinese embassy in Honiara, in the wake of the riots there in November.

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Germany will stop importing Russian gas ‘very soon’, says Olaf Scholz

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Chancellor declines to endorse claim by Boris Johnson during London visit that goal will be achieved by mid-2024

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said his country is doing all it can to wean itself off Russian energy, but declined to endorse a claim by Boris Johnson that it would stop importing Russian gas by the middle of 2024.

Scholz said only that the goal would be achieved very soon, and that Germany would stop using Russian coal by the summer and Russian oil by the end of the year.

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Moshe Kantor: UK sanctions Russian billionaire over ties to Putin

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Kantor is one of eight Russian oligarchs targeted in the latest round of UK government sanctions

The Russian billionaire Moshe Kantor, who was sanctioned by the UK government on Wednesday, has long cultivated deep ties with British politicians and establishment figures, including Tony Blair and Prince Charles.

With an estimated net worth of £3.48bn, Kantor is the largest shareholder in the fertiliser company Acron, which the Foreign Office said had vital strategic significance for the Russian government.

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Liz Truss announces full asset freeze against Russia’s biggest bank

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Eight more oligarchs will also face sanctions and UK oil and coal imports will stop by end of year, says foreign secretary

The UK will impose a full asset freeze on Russia’s largest bank and end all imports of oil and coal by the end of the year, the foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said.

Eight more oligarchs will also be sanctioned, including Moshe Kantor, the largest shareholder of the fertiliser company Acron and Andrey Guryev, the founder of another key fertiliser company, whom the UK described as a close associate of Vladimir Putin.

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Australia anxious to show it didn’t ‘drop the ball’ on Pacific after China and Solomon Islands deal

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Canberra must walk a delicate line when responding to challenges presented by Beijing and Solomons’ security agreement

As China makes progress on a security deal with Solomon Islands, the Australian government is anxious not to be seen to have “dropped the ball” in the Pacific region. That would be a tad embarrassing, given it has spent the past few years sounding the alarm about security threats from China while also trumpeting its own “Pacific Step-Up”.

The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has been one of the ministers on the defensive after leaked documents revealed the draft agreement between China and the Pacific island nation.

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UK plan to label Houthis as terrorists risks disaster in Yemen, aid bodies warn

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Exclusive: agencies write letter to government after learning home secretary is pushing for designation

Yemen could be afflicted by an even worse humanitarian catastrophe if the UK government goes ahead with a plan to designate the Houthi rebels as a terrorist group, leading aid agencies have warned cabinet ministers in a letter.

The 11 UK agencies are some of those most active in Yemen, and include Save the Children, Care, the International Rescue Committee and Islamic Relief.

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UN donor conference falls billions short of $4.4bn target to help Afghanistan

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Conference raises only $2.44bn as Russian foreign minister says west is responsible for country’s humanitarian crisis

The world’s donor drought, and growing global divisions over Afghanistan’s political direction, have been laid bare when a UN appeal for $4.4bn (£3.35bn) to help Afghanistan fell massively short, the second UN donor conference in a month to do so.

Donor countries pledged only $2.44bn towards the appeal, a senior UN official said on Thursday after a high-level pledging conference.

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Security agreement with China ‘initialled’ by both countries, Solomon Islands says

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Pacific nation has batted away concerns from Australia, New Zealand and the US, saying its policy is ‘friends to all and enemies to none’

Solomon Islands has announced it is pushing ahead with a security agreement with China hours after a senior Australian defence force officer said the deal may force Canberra to change the way it conducts air and sea operations in the Pacific.

The Solomon Islands government said officials from both countries had on Thursday “initialled” elements of the proposed security agreement with China which would be signed at a later date.

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UK must seize chance to repair relations with EU, says thinktank head

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Director of Chatham House says Britain’s role in Ukraine crisis is an opportunity to work more formally with Brussels

Britain should use its leading role in the Ukraine war urgently to repair its relations with the EU by offering to help strengthen European security both via Nato and rapidly evolving EU defence plans, the director of Chatham House, Dr Robin Niblett, has proposed.

That will require working more formally with Brussels on foreign policy and defence, including issues such as cyber, intelligence and disinformation, said Niblett, who heads Britain’s leading foreign policy thinktank.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Ukraine ‘prepared to discuss neutrality as part of peace deal’, with talks between sides to resume

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Volodymyr Zelenskiy told Russian journalists deal would have to be subject to referendum; with in-person talks between negotiating teams to resume this week

Russian artists and performers must not stay silent about the war, according to one of the world’s leading ballet choreographers, Alexei Ratmansky.

The Russian-born former artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, who left a new production in Moscow on news of the invasion, was responding to Mikhail Baryshnikov’s call not to punish cultural and sporting figures for failing to stand up to Vladimir Putin’s regime.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest: Zelenskiy calls on west to supply planes, tanks; Biden says ‘butcher’ Putin cannot remain in power – live

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The Ukrainian president has told Europe its own security is at stake while Joe Biden has pledged ‘further defence cooperation’ with Ukraine

Russian ex-president and deputy head of the security council Dmitry Medvedev has said western sanctions against Russian businesses will not influence Moscow or prompt popular discontent.

Reuters has published a summary of his comments, which were made in an interview with Russia’s RIA news agency:

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US ‘will not entertain’ UK trade deal that risks Good Friday agreement

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US congressman Richard Neal says peace deal must not be held ‘hostage over domestic politics’

A bilateral trade deal between the US and the UK is “desirable” but will not progress while the Northern Ireland peace deal is being used for domestic political purposes, one of the most powerful American congressmen has warned.

Richard Neal, the chairman of the ways and means committee, has told the Guardian: “We will not entertain a trade agreement if there is any jeopardy to the Good Friday agreement.

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No 10 condemns abuse levelled at ‘ungrateful’ Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe

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Briton held captive in Iran for six years should not face online trolling, says Boris Johnson’s office

Downing Street has condemned critics of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe who accused her of being “ungrateful” after she expressed frustration with the UK government for taking six years to secure her release from an Iranian jail.

Days after touching down in Britain, Zaghari-Ratcliffe faced abuse on social media for saying it should not have taken so long for ministers to ensure she returned home safely.

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UK running low on anti-tank weapons, defence secretary tells Russian hoaxers

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Impostors posing as Ukrainian PM post new YouTube clip with Ben Wallace’s response to claim that arms have failed

The UK is running out of anti-tank weapons to send to Ukraine, the defence secretary appeared to tell Russian impostors posing as the Ukrainian prime minister, according to the latest video released by the pair.

Downing Street has said it believes Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax, in which an impersonator was put through for a video call with Ben Wallace about the situation in Ukraine.

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Zaghari-Ratcliffe: Hunt calls for inquiry into delay over Iran debt payment

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Former defence secretary says investigation could help determine why it took six years to secure release

The former British foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt has called for an independent investigation into why it took six years to free Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, saying she was right to question why her release took so long to secure.

Both Hunt and the former foreign minister Alistair Burt have said they would be willing to give evidence about the issues involved in securing her release. Burt has proposed there should be a foreign affairs select committee inquiry into why the payment of a historic debt was delayed.

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Video released showing Russian hoax call with UK defence secretary

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‘Russian state actors’ blamed for prank call made to Ben Wallace

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.

In the short clip, Wallace replies with scepticism and apparent confusion when the caller asks him questions.

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Boris Johnson did prioritise animal charity for Afghan evacuation, MPs told

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Second whistleblower suggests to committee that top civil servants lied to cover up episode

A second whistleblower has gone public to say it was “widespread knowledge” in government that Boris Johnson ordered the prioritisation of an animal charity based in Afghanistan for evacuation during the Taliban takeover last summer.

Josie Stewart, who worked in the Foreign Office for seven years, including a stint in the Kabul embassy, suggested senior civil servants in the department had lied to cover up the embarrassing episode.

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Don’t mention the Partygate: Boris Johnson is buoyant on the world stage

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The PM seems in his element in the role of ‘war leader’, but have voters forgotten their anger?

Since his premiership nearly sank a few weeks ago, Boris Johnson has done more foreign travel and frantic diplomacy than in all his previous years as prime minister combined.

He has made phone calls almost daily to Volodymyr Zelenskiy as the war with Russia rages, and won praise from the Ukrainian president during his emotive video address to the House of Commons.

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Iran made Ashoori family raise £27,000 in 12 hours to secure his release

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Family of freed British-Iranian detainee Anoosheh Ashoori had to pay last-minute fine in cash

The family of the British-Iranian detainee Anoosheh Ashoori had to scramble at the last minute to raise £27,000 to pay a fine to the Iranian government, delivering the money in cash to the authorities in Tehran’s Evin prison for it to be counted and authenticated.

The Iranian government told British Foreign Office negotiators late on Monday that his release would be blocked unless the fine, linked to his 10-year jail sentence, was paid the following day. Ashooori was released along with Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on Wednesday after the UK paid Iran a longstanding £400m debt.

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British-Iranian Morad Tahbaz returned to Tehran prison

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Family says he was taken from home in Iranian capital by armed guards only 48 hours after being released

Morad Tahbaz, the British-Iranian given a furlough as part of a deal to release Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori has been returned to Evin prison in Tehran under armed guard only 48 hours after being released.

The Foreign Office insisted that the Iranians have told them that Tahbaz is only being returned to the prison to have an ankle tag installed and they expect to see him returned home in the coming hours.

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