U.S. sending more military aid to Ukraine as war grinds on
The U.S. and allies committed more rocket systems, ammunition, and other military aid to Ukraine Wednesday, as American defense leaders said they see the war to block Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region grinding on for some time. Speaking at the close of a virtual meeting with about 50 defense leaders from around the world, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it will be “hard work” to keep allies and partners all committed to the war effort as the months drag on. “We’re pushing hard to maintain and intensify the momentum of donations,” Austin said. “This will be an area of focus for the foreseeable future, as it should be, in terms of how long our allies and partners will remain committed … There’s no question that this will always be hard work making sure that we maintain unity.” Officials have been reluctant to say how long the war may last, but Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested it could be a long slog. “We have a very serious grinding war of attrition going on in the Donbas. And unless there’s a breakthrough on either side — which right now the analysts don’t think is particularly likely in the near term — it will probably continue as a grinding war of attrition for a period of time until both sides see an alternative way out of this, perhaps through negotiation or something like that.” Officials said Wednesday that the U.S. will send Ukraine four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and precision-guided rockets for them, as well as additional artillery rounds. A more detailed announcement is expected later this week. The aid comes as Russian forces try to solidify gains in the two provinces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, Donetsk and Luhansk, while also expanding attacks into other areas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told state-controlled RT television and the RIA Novosti news agency that Russia has expanded its “special military operation” from the Donbas to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and other captured territories. Austin said Lavrov’s comments come as no surprise to allies who have known Russia has greater ambitions in capturing Ukraine. But Ukrainian troops have been using the HIMARS to strike Russian logistics nodes and command and control centers, including behind the front lines, to disrupt supply chains. And on Wednesday, they struck and damaged a bridge that is key to supplying Russian troops in southern Ukraine, where Lavrov said Moscow is trying to consolidate its territorial gains. Milley said the Ukrainian strikes are “steadily degrading the Russian ability to supply their troops, command and control their forces, and carry out their illegal war of aggression.” He said that, due to Ukraine’s resistance, Russia has been able to gain just six to 10 miles of ground in the Donbas over the past 90 days, with “tens of thousands of artillery rounds” fired in each 24-hour period. And he said he does not believe that the Donbas region has been lost to Russia. “It’s not lost yet. The Ukrainians are making the Russians pay for every inch of territory that they gain, and advances are measured in literally hundreds of meters,” Milley said. The issue going forward, he said, will be the amount of HIMARS rockets and other ammunition expended by the Ukraine forces. The U.S. has been sending thousands of rounds, taking them from American military stockpiles, and raising questions about how long that will last and at what point there may be a risk to U.S. military readiness. “We are looking at all of that very, very carefully,” Milley said. “We think we’re okay right now as we project forward into the next month or two or three, we think we’re going to be okay.” The U.S. has already provided more than $7 billion in aid to Ukraine since the war began in late February. Austin said that during the defense meeting, there was also discussion about how to ensure that Ukraine is able to maintain and repair the weapons systems into the future. Republished with the permission of The Associated Press.
Pledge of more oil heightens odds of Saudi trip for Joe Biden
The Biden administration praised Saudi Arabia on Thursday for its role in a promised boost in oil production and a cease-fire in Yemen, in warm tones that appeared to further raise prospects for a Joe Biden trip to Saudi Arabia and a meeting with the kingdom’s once-shunned crown prince. Biden has been leaning toward making his first trip as president to the Saudi kingdom later this month, a person familiar with the planning told The Associated Press. Such a visit would be politically fraught because it would likely bring the U.S. leader together with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Biden as a presidential candidate in 2019 pledged to make the crown prince a “pariah” for his in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist. In a statement Thursday, Biden took a far different tone, praising the kingdom’s “courageous leadership” for its role in extending a U.N. cease-fire in a Saudi-led war in Yemen. Biden administration officials have been working behind the scenes to repair relations, discussing shared strategic interests in security and oil with their Saudi counterparts, as a Saudi-Russia-brokered deal has kept global oil supply tight and prices at the pump painfully high. Appeals from the U.S. and its allies for OPEC nations to ease up on production limits in the Russia deal appeared to bear results Thursday. OPEC nations announced they would raise production by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August, offering modest relief for the struggling global economy. Rising crude prices have pushed gasoline to a record high in the U.S., raising fears that elevated energy prices could slow the global economy as it emerges from the coronavirus pandemic. Biden and Democrats face rising voter anger over the high prices, making the tight oil supply a top political liability. In a statement, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged what she said was Saudi Arabia’s role “in achieving consensus” among the oil producers’ bloc. She thanked the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Iraq as well. “The United States will continue to use all tools at our disposal to address energy prices pressures,” Jean-Pierre added. The White House is weighing a Biden visit that would also include a meeting of the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates — as well as Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, according to a person familiar with White House planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the yet-to-be finalized plans. Biden would be expected to meet with Prince Mohammed if the Saudi visit happens, according to the person. Such a meeting could also ease a tense and uncertain period in the partnership between Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, and the United States, the world’s top economic and military power, that has stood for more than three-quarters of a century. But it also risks a public humbling for the U.S. leader, who in 2019 pledged to make a “pariah” of the Saudi royal family over the 2018 killing and dismemberment of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a critic of Prince Mohammed’s brutal ways. Jean-Pierre has declined to comment on whether Biden will travel to Saudi Arabia. He is expected to travel to Europe at the end of June and could tack on a stop in Saudi Arabia to meet with Prince Mohammed, Saudi King Salman, and other leaders. If he does, Biden would also likely visit Israel. Israeli officials in their engagement with the Biden administration have pressed their point of view that U.S. relations with Arab capitals, including Riyadh, are critical to Israel’s security and overall stability in the region. The visit could also provide an opportunity to kick off talks for what the administration sees as longer-term project of normalizing Israel-Saudi relations. And while the Biden administration continues to be concerned about Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, the president’s advisers credit the Saudis for showing greater restraint in its conflict with Yemen since Biden takes office. White House officials expect criticism from Democratic allies and human rights advocates charging Biden is backtracking on human rights, but suggest that in the long-term a credible long-term Middle East strategy without key leaders in the kingdom is not tenable. Biden, through the early going of his presidency, has repeatedly said that the world is at a key moment in history where democracies must demonstrate they can out-deliver autocracies. The administration doesn’t want to see countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia with troubling human rights records to fall into the camp of Moscow and Beijing. Any Biden meeting with Prince Mohammed includes the potential for an embarrassing last-minute public rebuff from a still-offended crown prince known for imperious, harsh actions. Since Prince Mohammed became crown prince in 2017, that has included detaining his own royal uncles and cousins as well as Saudi rights advocates, and, according to the U.S. intelligence community, directing Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi Arabia denies his involvement. Moreover, any Biden climbdown from his passionate human-rights pledge during his campaign — that Saudi rulers would “pay the price” for Khashoggi’s killing — risks more disillusionment for Democratic voters. They have watched Biden struggle to accomplish his domestic agenda in the face of a strong GOP minority in the Senate. U.S. officials were recently in the region for talks with Saudi officials about energy supplies, Biden administration efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, and Saudi’s bogged-down war to oust Houthi rebels in Yemen. Fighting there was recently calmed by a cease-fire, which was extended further Thursday. Frequent, warm visits among Saudi, Russian and Chinese officials during the freeze between Biden and the Saudi crown prince have heightened Western concern that Saudi Arabia is breaking from Western strategic interests. Besides helping to keep gas prices high for consumers globally, the tight oil supply helps Russia get better prices for the oil and gas it is selling to fund its invasion of Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited the Saudi kingdom Tuesday. Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for their part,
U.S. hits Russia with ‘war crimes’ sanctions, Europe following
The U.S. rolled out a new wave of financial sanctions on Wednesday against Russia that President Joe Biden said would place a lasting penalty on the country’s economy. The United Kingdom quickly followed suit, and more pain was coming from the European Union as the allies pressed forward with an escalating campaign to tighten the economic screws on Russian President Vladimir Putin for “war crimes” in Ukraine. Making it personal, the U.S. sanctions singled out the Putin’s family, targeting his two adult daughters in addition to blocking two key Russian banks. Biden said that “Russia has already failed in its initial war” after the country’s forces were turned back from the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. He cautioned, however, that “this fight is far from over.” “This war could continue for a long time,” but the United States will continue to stand with Ukraine and Ukrainians in the fight for freedom, Biden said. “We’re going to stifle Russia’s ability to grow for years to come.” The latest sanctions underscore the financial pain that Russia faces, as evidence that its troops killed Ukrainian civilians has led to ever-harsher penalties by the U.S. and its Western allies that are eroding Putin’s ability to fight. While rounds of increased sanctions have not forced Putin out of the war, they have put Russia in increasingly desperate economic circumstances as Ukrainian forces withstand his barrages. Key to the effectiveness of the sanctions has been the unity between the U.S. and European nations. And the atrocities revealed in Ukraine have intensified pressure on Germany and other countries to go further and join the U.S. and Lithuania in blocking all Russian energy exports. The U.K. piled on Wednesday with asset freezes against major banks, a ban on British investment in Russia and a pledge to end dependency on Russian coal and oil by yearend. The European Union was also expected to soon take additional steps, including a ban on new investment in Russia and an embargo on coal, after the recent evidence of atrocities emerging in the wake of the retreat by Russian forces from the town of Bucha. The U.S. acted against two of Russia’s largest banks, Sberbank and Alfa Bank, prohibiting assets from going through the U.S. financial system and barring Americans from doing business with those two institutions. In addition to sanctions aimed at Putin’s adult daughters, Mariya Putina and Katerina Tikhonova, the U.S. is targeting Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin; the wife and children of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov; and members of Russia’s Security Council, including Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister. The penalties cut off all of Putin’s close family members from the U.S. financial system and freeze any assets they hold in the United States. Biden was expected to sign an executive order that would ban new investment in Russia by Americans no matter where they are living. The U.S. Treasury Department was preparing more sanctions against Russian state-owned enterprises, according to the White House. Britain announced asset freezes targeting Sberbank and the Credit Bank of Moscow and designated eight Russian oligarchs whom it says Putin “uses to prop up his war economy.” “Together with our allies, we are showing the Russian elite that they cannot wash their hands of the atrocities committed on Putin’s orders,” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. Britain had already announced a plan to phase out Russian oil, which accounts for 8% of the U.K. supply. Russia is the top supplier of imported coal to the U.K., though British demand for the polluting fuel has plummeted in the past decade. Britain has not ended imports of Russian natural gas, which accounts for 4% of its supply, saying only that it will do so “as soon as possible.” Videos and images of bodies in the streets of Bucha after it was recaptured from Russian forces have unleashed a wave of indignation among Western allies, who have drawn up new sanctions as a response. The European Commission’s proposed ban on coal imports would be the first EU sanctions targeting Russia’s lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine. EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said energy was key to Putin’s war coffers. And because the war has pushed prices higher, Russia has benefitted from being able to sell its natural gas and oil to the rest of the world. “A billion euro is what we pay Putin every day for the energy he provides us since the beginning of the war. We have given him 35 billion euro. Compare that to the one billion that we have given to the Ukraine in arms and weapons,” Borrell said. The steady intensifying of sanctions is less a sign of their shortcomings than the building pressure against Russia as it seeks foreign investment and basic goods, Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, told reporters at a Wednesday breakfast. “We need to have patience and perspective when it comes to the impacts on Russia of this unprecedented and crippling sanctions regime,” Deese said at the event sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor. Deese noted that Russian inflation is running at 2% weekly, which would compound to annual inflation above 200% annually. He noted that the Biden administration expects Russian prices will not ultimately rise more than 200% this year. While the White House has said Russia should not attend the G-20 meeting in Indonesia this November, he noted that it may drop out of the organization anyway because its economy has shrunk in size so dramatically. After several European countries announced the expulsion of Russian diplomats, the European Commission proposed a fifth package of sanctions including a ban on coal imports that could be adopted once unanimously approved by the 27-nation bloc’s ambassadors. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the coal ban is worth 4 billion euros ($4.4 billion) per year and that the EU has already started working on additional sanctions, including on oil imports. She didn’t mention natural gas, with consensus among the 27 EU countries
Kamala Harris acknowledges ‘real possibility of war’ in Europe
Acknowledging “the real possibility of war,” Vice President Kamala Harris wrapped up a weekend of outreach to European allies with a push to bolster the West’s resolve in confronting Moscow with crippling sanctions as increasingly dire signs suggest Russia’s Vladimir Putin plans to order an invasion of Ukraine. In a burst of diplomacy at the annual Munich Security Conference, Harris tried to make the case to American allies that rapidly escalating tensions on the Ukraine-Russian border meant European security was under “direct threat” and there should be unified support for economic penalties if the Kremlin invades its neighbor. “We’re talking about the potential for war in Europe. I mean, let’s really take a moment to understand the significance of what we’re talking about,” Harris told reporters before her return to Washington. Europe, she said, might be at its most perilous moment since the end of World War II. “It’s been over 70 years, and through those 70 years … there has been peace and security,” she said. “We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe.” President Joe Biden was to meet with his national security team later Sunday in Washington to discuss the unfolding developments. Harris planned to participate while flying back from Germany. Before leaving Munich, Harris and her team briefed them about her meetings and exchanges at the conference. Biden is scheduled to hold a virtual meeting with Group of Seven leaders on Thursday to discuss Ukraine, and his top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, intends to meet in Europe with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this coming week — talks that the American says will be scrapped if Moscow has invaded. In Ukraine, shelling on Sunday escalated in and around territory held by Russia-backed rebels, separatists evacuated thousands of women and children, and Putin oversaw tests of nuclear-capable missiles. Putin has massed more than 150,000 Russian forces at the border. During a series of choreographed meetings and a major address at the security conference, Harris told global leaders they were at a “defining” and “decisive” moment for the world. Harris met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the leaders of the three Baltic nations, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Biden sent Harris to Germany with straightforward marching orders to amplify his concern that a Russian invasion was highly likely and make clear to European allies that they must be ready to impose the toughest sanctions Moscow has ever seen. Harris told reporters that an invasion — and subsequent sanctions on Russia — would likely have costs for Americans, as well. “When America stands for principles, and all of the things that we hold dear, it requires sometimes for us to put ourselves out there in a way that maybe we will incur some cost,” Harris said. “In this situation, that may relate to energy costs.” The vice president’s appearance in Munich was largely overshadowed by Biden’s declaration from the White House late Friday that he was “convinced” that Putin had decided to invade. And her message of unity in Europe in the face of Russian aggression was overtaken by Zelenskyy. Soon after meeting with Harris on Saturday, he used his appearance at the conference to question why the U.S. and Europe were waiting to impose sanctions against Russia. “What are you waiting for?” Zelenskyy asked of Western leaders. He said the sanctions that targeted Russia after Ukraine’s economy collapses and “parts of our country will be occupied” would provide little comfort. Harris said she wouldn’t “second guess” Zelenskyy’s “desires for his country,” and she stood by the U.S. decision to hold off on preemptive sanctions. “The purpose of the sanctions has always been and continues to be deterrence,” she said. Blinken also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “as soon as you trigger the sanctions, of course, any deterrent effect they may have is gone, they get absorbed by President Putin, and he moves on.” Zelenskyy also repeated Ukraine’s desire to join NATO even as Putin demands guarantees from the U.S. and the alliance of that not ever happening. Harris, meantime, heard pleas to increase U.S. troop levels from Baltic leaders who worry their countries could be the next ones that Russia sets its eyes on. Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nauseda, urged the U.S., which has bolstered its troop presence in the Baltics in recent weeks, to do even more and create a “permanent presence” in Lithuania. Currently, the U.S. deploys a small contingent of troops to the country on a rotational basis. Estonia’s prime minister, Kaja Kallas, echoed that call. “We have lost our independence to Russia once, and we don’t want it to happen again,” she said. Harris offered no promises, though she predicted in her address at the conference that the U.S. “will further reinforce our NATO Allies on the eastern flank” if Russia invades Ukraine. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump hints at longer path for North Korea to de-nuke
Even by President Donald Trump’s mercurial standards, it was a quick shift. A week after abruptly canceling his historic summit with Kim Jong Un, Trump announced it was back on — and in the process appeared to accede to a key North Korean demand. Beyond the symbolism of Friday’s Oval Office meeting between Trump and Kim Yong Chol — the most senior North Korean official to step inside the White House in 18 years — Trump signaled a subtle change in his administration’s approach toward the goal of getting the pariah nation to give up its nuclear weapons. U.S. officials have previously been calling for North Korea to abandon its nukes rapidly, with the expectation of getting benefits afterward in the form of security assurances, sanctions relief and the opportunity to boost its meager economy. But as he spoke to reporters Friday, Trump repeatedly referred to the June 12 summit in Singapore — a first between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea — as the start of a “process,” and said it was likely that more than one meeting would be necessary to bring about his goal of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. “June 12th, we’ll be in Singapore,” Trump said after his lengthy goodbye with Kim Yong Chol, a former North Korean military intelligence chief, whom he escorted to a black SUV. “It will be a beginning. I don’t say and I’ve never said it happens in one meeting. You’re talking about years of hostility; years of problems; years of, really, hatred between so many different nations. But I think you’re going to have a very positive result in the end.” Trump gave no indication of what kind of timetable he might have in mind for getting North Korea to abandon a weapons program it views as a guarantee for the survival of its authoritarian regime. Still, his comments marked a sea change from the views expressed weeks earlier by his national security adviser John Bolton, who was notably absent from Friday’s meeting. Bolton, who before taking office in April advocated military action against North Korea, had pointed to the disarmament of Libya in 2003 and 2004 in exchange for sanctions relief as a model for a possible deal with North Korea. For the North, that was a deeply provocative comparison, because Libyan autocrat Moammar Gadhafi was killed following U.S.-supported military action in his country about seven years after giving up his fledgling nuclear program. Rather than surrender its program all at once as Gadhafi did, North Korea has repeatedly said it envisions a “progressive and synchronous” approach, where it gets benefits along the way. The latest expression of that came Thursday from Kim Jong Un himself when he met in Pyongyang with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. In a dispatch Friday, North Korean state news agency cited Kim saying “he hoped that the DPRK-U.S. relations and the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula will be solved on a stage-by-stage basis.” DPRK refers to the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. That sounds reminiscent of past U.S. efforts to negotiate North Korea’s disarmament with incentives of aid since the mid-1990s — efforts that have ultimately failed. The Trump administration has often said it can’t afford to repeat those mistakes because of the threat that North Korean nuclear-tipped missiles now pose to the continental U.S. But there’s always been doubt about whether it was realistic to expect instant results — both because of North Korea’s negotiating position and the scale and sophistication of its weapons program. This week, Stanford University experts — including nuclear physicist Siegfried Hecker, who has inspected North Korea atomic facilities firsthand — proposed a denuclearization road map spanning 10 years. They warned that the idea of shipping the North’s nuclear weapons out of the country was “naive and dangerous.” North Korea has shown some goodwill: halting missile tests for six months so far, and last week demolishing key areas of its nuclear test site in front of international journalists. It has also released three American detainees. Now Trump, keen to strike a historic deal with a bitter U.S. adversary, appears eager for rapprochement to work. After meeting Kim Yong Chol, the president said he was putting new sanctions against the North on hold and doesn’t want to use the term “maximum pressure” anymore — referring to his signature policy to isolate Pyongyang economically and diplomatically. That may ease fears of renewed confrontation that fueled fears of war last year. But doubts linger about North Korea’s intentions. By hosting a top official from the North — whose trip to New York and Washington required waiving a travel ban against him — Trump has provided an early public relations victory for an isolated government eager for international recognition. He’s also generated considerable expectations about how the summit can herald a warm relationship between longstanding enemies. Hawks in the U.S. administration may also be concerned that Trump, who often complained during his election campaign about American military burdens overseas, would ultimately agree to a timetable for denuclearization by North Korea in exchange for withdrawing American troops from South Korea — removing a military tripwire to deter aggression by the North. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
North Koreans to meet Donald Trump; deliver letter from leader
A top aide to Kim Jong Un was en route to Washington Friday to hand a letter from the North Korean leader to President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said after reporting “good progress” in talks between the two sides to revive an on-again, off-again nuclear summit. “I am confident we are moving in the right direction,” Pompeo told reporters at a news conference in New York after meeting Thursday with former North Korean military intelligence chief Kim Yong Chol. “Our two countries face a pivotal moment in our relationship, and it would be nothing short of tragic to let this opportunity go to waste.” He would not say that the summit is a definite go for Singapore on June 12 and could not say if that decision would be made after Trump reads Kim Jong Un’s letter. However, his comments were the most positive from any U.S. official since Trump abruptly canceled the meeting last week after belligerent statements from the North. The two countries, eying the first summit between the U.S. and the North after six decades of hostility, have also been holding negotiations in Singapore and the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas. Early Thursday, Trump told reporters “we are doing very well” with North Korea. He added there may even need to be a second or third summit meeting to reach a deal on North Korean denuclearization but still hedged, saying “maybe we’ll have none.” Kim Yong Chol left his hotel in New York City early Friday for the trip to Washington in a convoy of SUVs. He is the highest-ranking North Korean official to visit the U.S. in 18 years, and his trip to the White House will be a highly symbolic sign of easing tensions after fears of war escalated amid North Korean nuclear and missile tests last year. Pompeo, the former CIA chief who has traveled to North Korea and met with Kim Jong Un twice in the past two months, said he believed the country’s leaders are “contemplating a path forward where they can make a strategic shift, one that their country has not been prepared to make before.” He tweeted from New York: “Good progress today during our meetings” with Kim and his team. Yet he also said at his news conference that difficult work remains including hurdles that may appear to be insurmountable as negotiations progress on the U.S. demand for North Korea’s complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. “We will push forward to test the proposition that we can achieve that outcome,” he said. Pompeo spoke after meeting with Kim Yong Chol for a little more than two hours at the residence of the deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The talks had been expected to be held in two sessions, one in the morning and one in the early afternoon, and had not been expected to conclude until 1:30 p.m. Instead, the two men wrapped up at 11:25 a.m. Pompeo said they finished everything they needed to address in the morning session. Immediately afterward, he tweeted that he had had substantive talks on the priorities for the potential summit. Pompeo was accompanied by Andrew Kim, the head of a CIA unit assigned to work on North Korea, and Mark Lambert, the head of the State Department’s Korea desk. “Our secretary of state is having very good meetings,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews before departing on a trip to Texas. He said of the North Koreans, “I believe they will be coming down to Washington on Friday. A letter being delivered to me from Kim Jong Un. It is very important to them.” “It is all a process,” he said of arranging the summit. “Hopefully we will have a meeting on the 12th.” Despite the upbeat messaging in the United States, Kim Jong Un, in a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister on Thursday, complained about the U.S. trying to spread its influence in the region, a comment that may complicate the summit plans. “As we move to adjust to the political situation in the face of U.S. hegemonism, I am willing to exchange detailed and in-depth opinions with your leadership and hope to do so moving forward,” Kim told Sergey Lavrov. North Korea’s flurry of diplomatic activity following an increase in nuclear weapons and missile tests in 2017 suggests that Kim is eager for sanctions relief to build his economy and for the international legitimacy a summit with Trump would provide. But there are lingering doubts on whether he will ever fully relinquish his nuclear arsenal, which he may see as his only guarantee of survival in a region surrounded by enemies. Trump views a summit as a legacy-defining opportunity to make a nuclear deal, but he has left the world guessing since canceling the meeting last week in an open letter to Kim that complained of the North’s “tremendous anger and open hostility.” North Korea’s conciliatory response to that letter appears to have put the summit back on track. Kim Yong Chol is the most senior North Korean visitor to the United States since Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok visited Washington in 2000 to meet President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. That was the last time the two sides, which are technically at war, attempted to arrange a leadership summit. It was an effort that ultimately failed as Clinton’s time in office ran out, and relations turned sour again after George W. Bush took office in early 2001 with a tough policy on the North. Kim Yong Chol, vice chairman of the North Korean ruling party’s central committee, was allowed into the United States despite being on a U.S. sanctions list, and North Korean officials are not normally allowed to travel outside the New York area. The North Korean mission at the United Nations did not respond to an email seeking comment Thursday, and phone calls were not answered. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
US to respond by Sept. 1 to Russia’s expulsion of diplomats
The Trump administration has yet to decide how to respond to Russia’s move to expel hundreds of American diplomats, but plans to deliver a response to Moscow by Sept. 1, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Monday. A day after sitting down in the Philippines with Russia’s top diplomat, Tillerson said he’d asked “clarifying questions” about the Kremlin’s retaliation announced last month following new sanctions passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration has struggled to determine how the move will affect the U.S. diplomatic presence in Russia, as well as the broader implications for the troubled relationship between the nuclear-armed powers. Despite the Russian move, which seemed to plunge the two countries even further into acrimony, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emerged from the meeting declaring a readiness for more engagement with the U.S. on North Korea, Syria and Ukraine, among other issues. Tillerson broadly echoed that sentiment, saying the two countries had critical national security issues to discuss despite deep disagreements on some matters. “I don’t think it is useful to just cut everything off on one single issue,” Tillerson said following his first meeting with Lavrov since the new sanctions were imposed. “These are two very large countries and we should find places that we can work together, let’s try to work together. Places we have our differences, we’re going to have to continue to find a way to address those.” Tillerson also said that Russia has been showing “some willingness” to start talking about a resolution to the crisis in Ukraine, devoid of real progress for years. That assessment came as Lavrov announced that the Trump administration had committed to sending its new special envoy for Ukraine negotiations, Kurt Volker, to Moscow to discuss next steps. Yet several obstacles hang over any attempt to pursue a more functional U.S.-Russia relationship: the new U.S. sanctions, Russia’s retaliatory move to expel diplomats, and the ongoing U.S. Justice Department investigation into Russia’s election meddling and potential Trump campaign collusion. Fearing Trump might move inappropriately to ease sanctions on Russia, Congress last month passed new legislation that both added more sanctions and made it harder for the president to lift them. Trump and Tillerson opposed the legislation, but facing a likely veto override, Trump begrudgingly signed the bill. Moscow’s response to the sanctions was to announce it would force the U.S. to cut its embassy and consulate staff in Russia by 755 people. That move stoked confusion in Washington, given that the U.S. is believed to have far fewer than 755 American employees in Russia. Lavrov, describing his meeting with Tillerson, said Russia and the U.S. had agreed to resume a high-level diplomatic channel that Moscow had suspended after a previous U.S. move to tighten existing Russia sanctions. “We felt that our American counterparts need to keep the dialogue open,” Lavrov said. “There’s no alternative to that.” Trump’s administration has argued there’s good reason for the U.S. to seek a more productive relationship. Tillerson has cited modest signs of progress in Syria, where the U.S. and Russia recently brokered a cease-fire in the war-torn country’s southwest, as a sign there’s fertile ground for cooperation. The Syrian cease-fire reflected a return of U.S.-Russia cooperation to lower violence there. The U.S. had looked warily at a series of safe zones in Syria that Russia had negotiated along with Turkey and Iran – but not the U.S. Lavrov cited upcoming talks involving Russia, Iran and Turkey about how to ensure the truce in the last safe zone to be established, around the north-western city of Idlib. He predicted “it will be difficult” to hammer out the details but that compromise can be reached if all parties – including the U.S. – use their influence in Syria to persuade armed groups there to comply. Tillerson said Russian meddling in the election had “created serious mistrust between our two countries.” Although he and other Cabinet officials have maintained that position consistently, Trump has repeatedly questioned U.S. intelligence about Moscow’s involvement while denying any collusion with his campaign. Word that Volker, the Ukraine envoy, plans to visit the Russian capital was the latest sign that Washington was giving fresh attention to resolving the Ukraine conflict. The U.S. cut military ties to Russia over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and accuses the Kremlin of fomenting unrest in eastern Ukraine by arming, supporting and even directing pro-Russian separatists there who are fighting the Kiev government. In recent days, the Trump administration has been considering providing lethal weaponry to Ukraine to help defend itself against Russian aggression. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
