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China urges US answer on Ukraine biolabs
Beijing’s ambassador to the UN said evidence provided by Russia
deserves a response without double standards
Russia’s revelations of documents pertaining to US-backed biological laboratories in Ukraine deserve the world’s attention, and the parties involved need to address those concerns, China’s permanent representative to the UN told the Security Council on Friday.
Having been a victim of chemical and biological weapons, China believes that “any information and leads on biological military activities should trigger heightened concern and attention of the international community to avoid irreparable harm,” Ambassador Zhang Jun said.
“Russia has further revealed the newly discovered relevant documents. The party concerned should respond to questions, and offer timely and comprehensive clarifications to remove the doubts of the international community,” Zhang added.
We do not consider it too much to ask. And, on this issue, no double standards should be applied.
Friday’s UNSC briefing was called by Russia, which shared the evidence obtained from laboratories across Ukraine. Moscow’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzia, argued that if the dangerous pathogens the laboratories were working on had leaked, the impact on Europe would be “difficult to imagine” and could have been worse than the Covid-19 pandemic, in comparison.
According to a briefing by the Russian military on Thursday, the Pentagon-funded labs were working on “biological weapons components,” and may have been connected to suspicious outbreaks of dirofilariasis, tuberculosis and avian flu over the past several years.
If the pathogens had gotten out of the labs, Nebenzia told the UN Security Council, “the scale of impact, including among the population of European countries, in this case is even difficult to imagine. It is possible that even the coronavirus epidemic could pale [in comparison] to this.”
You should maybe have thought of that before placing them in Russia's back yard. Victoria Nuland was involved in the Orange Revolution and the Maidan coup. She served as the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs at the United States Department of State from 2015 to 2017 under Obama, and US Permanent Representative to NATO from 2005 to 2008 (a recycled Deep Stater). She later bragged about spending $5 bn on the Ukraine coup.
US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland last week testified under oath that there were “biological research facilities in Ukraine,” and that the US was assisting Kiev in destroying research materials so they would not get into Russia’s hands.
Because we wouldn't want those Russians to get their hand on good medical research!!!
Meanwhile, the UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said that the world organization has neither the authority nor the ability to verify the data provided by Russia on the alleged US military biological program in Ukraine.
Russia’s offensive in Ukraine is ‘electroshock’ to NATO
– Macron
France’s president has said he stands by his 2019 characterization of
NATO as ‘brain dead’
– to be held on 10 April – in Paris, France, March 17, 2022 © AFP / Ludovic Marin/AFP
Russia’s ongoing military offensive in Ukraine has delivered an “electroshock” to NATO, France’s President Emmanuel Macron said during a press conference on Thursday. The remark came in response to a journalist’s question regarding the president’s 2019 characterization of the military alliance as “brain dead,” and whether the French head of state was still of that opinion.
Macron said that he stood by his initial ‘diagnosis,’ taking “full responsibility” for his words; however, according to the French president, Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine has been a wake-up call for NATO.
Macron pointed out that the “war launched by President Putin” at the alliance’s doorstep created an “unusual threat which gives a strategic clarification to NATO.”
He also said that the military alliance in its current form would not cut it, standing by his earlier calls for reform.
In November 2019, Macron told The Economist that the world was witnessing the “brain death of NATO.” The French president also urged Europe to “wake up” after the Trump administration had “turned its back” on European allies, as Macron had put it. He went on to call into question the effectiveness of NATO’s Article Five, under which an attack on one member state would be seen as an attack on the entire military bloc. He concluded that European member states should “reassess the reality of what NATO is,” given America’s shaky commitment to its allies.
At the time, his blunt remarks drew criticism from the likes of then-US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and then-Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.
In contrast to his 2019 interview, Macron’s assessment of the situation on Thursday was not all doom and gloom. For example, he emphasized that work to boost the EU’s defense has been underway. According to the French president, at next week’s European Council in Brussels, the bloc’s member states will “conclude” work on its “strategic compass” – an initiative spearheaded by France and aimed at enhancing EU military capabilities. On top of that, Macron noted, a NATO summit in June is expected to “redefine the alliance's frameworks.”
Speaking at the Ottawa Conference on Security and Defense last Wednesday, NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called for a “serious assessment of the longer-term adaptation of NATO – our posture, our presence and also how we can strengthen our ability to reinforce quickly.” The military alliance’s chief said that, in light of Russia’s military campaign against Ukraine, NATO was “faced with a new reality, a new security environment, a new normal.”
NATO could have prevented this war by committing to stop its eastward expansion as was promised many times since Glasnost. Consequently, either NATO is absurdly stupid, or they deliberately wanted a war between Russia and Ukraine.
Whatever NATO proposes to do in June will require increased military spending that will benefit only the military industrial complex, of which Stoltenberg is the chief salesman.
Some NATO member states, such as Germany and Poland, have already announced plans to increase defense spending. Meanwhile, NATO has beefed up its presence on its eastern flank, sending troops and military hardware to Romania.
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Serbian fans list litany of US military campaigns in peace display
Red Star Belgrade fans unveiled the banner before their match against Glasgow Rangers
Fans of Serbian football club Red Star Belgrade issued their own particular message of peace ahead of their European clash with Glasgow Rangers, unveiling banners listing American military incursions on foreign soil spanning more than half a century.
Before kick-off in their Europa League last-16, second leg match in the Serbian capital on Thursday night, home supporters in one section of the Rajko Mitic Stadium produced a display consisting of six rows of text.
Beginning with ‘Korea 1950’ and running to ‘Syria 2011’, the banners listed locations and years coinciding with military action by the US and its allies, with the message at the bottom reading: “All we are saying is give peace a chance.”
Also known as Crvena Zvezda, the Serbian club are sponsored by Russian energy giant Gazprom.
The club’s general director, Zvezdan Terzic, has vowed they will not end the deal despite the Russian company being dropped by the likes of UEFA and German club Schalke 04 in the wake of the military operation in Ukraine.
Terzic also said Red Star were angered by the recent suspensions of Russian clubs from UEFA and FIFA competitions, noting that Serbian sport had suffered similar sanctions during the Yugoslav conflict.
“We went through this in 1992. There is anti-Russian hysteria in Europe, politics is unnecessarily interfering in sports,” said Terzic earlier in March.
“We sympathize with the Ukrainian people and the terrible civilian casualties, but the Russian people are close to the Serbs and always will be. Russia is a power that has always been on the Serbian side.”
Elsewhere, Red Star fans have been heard chanting their support for Russia in the stands in recent weeks.
Thursday’s match against Rangers played out amid a typically febrile atmosphere at the 53,000-capacity stadium nicknamed the ‘Marakana’.
The banners showed the NATO interventions in such countries and regions as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Panama, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria and so on.
In 1999, the U.S.-led NATO forces carried out continuous airstrikes for 78 days against Yugoslavia, leaving more than 8,000 civilians dead or injured and nearly 1 million displaced.
South African president blames NATO for Ukraine
President Cyril Ramaphosa says the bloodshed could have been averted
if US-led bloc hadn’t increased instability
© Getty Images / Maja Hitij
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, a potential mediator in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, has faulted NATO for triggering war in the former Soviet republic by expanding eastward onto Moscow’s doorstep.
“The war could have been avoided if NATO had heeded the warnings from amongst its own leaders and officials over the years that its eastward expansion would lead to greater, not less, instability in the region,” Ramaphosa told South African lawmakers on Thursday.
Rather than reaping an expected peace dividend after the Cold War ended in 1991, NATO expanded, adding former Warsaw Pact nations and ex-Soviet republics to its fold, starting with Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic in 1999.
Another wave came on board in 2004, including Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. Albania and Croatia followed in 2009; then came Montenegro in 2017 and North Macedonia in 2020. Ukraine and Georgia have asked to join the bloc.
Moscow has vehemently opposed NATO’s presence close to its borders, and embarked on a mission to obtain security guarantees that would halt the US-led military bloc’s expansion and bar Kiev from joining its ranks. However, the West ignored Russia’s concerns.
President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” on February 24, with a stated goal to “demilitarize and denazify” the government in Kiev, ensuring that it no longer poses a threat to either Russia or the newly recognized Donbass republics, which have suffered seven years of grueling siege. The US and its NATO allies have accused Russia of starting an “unprovoked” war to gobble up Ukraine.
South Africa abstained from backing the United Nations General Assembly resolution that condemned Russia's military action in Ukraine, and chose to stay neutral alongside 34 other countries, including China, India and Pakistan.
The South African president said it’s important to understand the causes of the crisis, but that doesn’t mean agreeing with the Russian invasion.
“We cannot condone the use of force or violation of international law,” said Ramaphosa.
The president's latest comments came after he revealed last week that he had been asked to help mediate the negotiations between Moscow and Kiev. Ramaphosa said on Thursday that he has already spoken to Putin, who indicated that he’s eager to end the fighting, and hoped to talk soon with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“There are those who are insisting that we should take a very adversarial stance and position against Russia,” the South African leader noted on Thursday, without identifying the countries that have pressured him. “The approach that we have chosen to take, which is appreciated by many, is that we are insisting that there should be dialogue. Screaming and shouting is not going to bring an end to this conflict.”
By remaining neutral, Ramaphosa argued, South Africa can make its voice heard, “not only publicly but also to the parties that are involved in the conflict.”
“War, violence never really solves any problems," he added. “It is for this reason that we say that we would prefer and insist that there should be mediation, there should be dialogue and there should be negotiation.”
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