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Hungary and Serbia will ‘rebuild’ Central Europe
and ‘protect’ it from waves of immigration – Orban
9 Sep, 2021 13:06
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Budapest and Belgrade have pledged to “rebuild Central Europe,” even stating that the two Balkan countries will “protect” the region against waves of migration from Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic met with Orban in Budapest for a joint government session. The Hungarian leader described the outcome of their meeting as the two countries having “agreed to rebuild Central Europe.”
Orban continued, “however, at the moment, it is not enough just to rebuild … but we must also protect it, to guarantee the security of Central Europe,” citing the crisis in Afghanistan as having the potential to cause a tsunami of migration to spill onto the continent.
Budapest’s leader proposed that if Serbia and Hungary “stand in the way of migrations” the two Balkan nations would also be “defending Western European countries – for example, Austria, Germany.”
Vienna’s interior minister, Karl Nehammer, has previously vocalized grievances about the prospect of taking in Afghan refugees in the wake of the Taliban’s takeover, bluntly stating that “there is no reason why Afghans should come to Austria now.” Meanwhile, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and his government have persisted in deporting rejected asylum seekers and illegal migrants to their home countries.
Levente Magyar, state secretary of Hungary’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, warned last month that the dramatic situation in Kabul “could bring about an era in migration and international terrorism that we didn’t want and perhaps could have avoided.” Budapest made clear that it would not allow unrestricted access of Afghan asylum seekers into Hungary.
Orban has come under fire previously for his anti-immigration approach, with Hungary having erected a fence on its southern border with Serbia to keep out the masses fleeing from the Middle East at the height of the migrant crisis in 2015.
Hungary blasts ‘arrogant’ Brussels over move to penalize Poland
for judicial reform, accuses EU of empire-building
9 Sep, 2021 08:46
The Hungarian government has lambasted the European Commission’s decision to fine Poland over judicial reforms, claiming the move is both “scandalous and arrogant” and reflective of Brussels’ empire-building.
Late on Wednesday evening, Justice Minister Judit Varga said Hungary would “broadly endorse” Poland in solidarity against the European Commission’s decision to penalize Warsaw over judicial reforms.
“By this scandalous and arrogant move, the Commission has crossed a line that we previously thought it would never do,” Varga wrote on her Facebook page, adding that Budapest would examine how it could be involved in proceedings at the European Court of Justice.
She said the Hungarian government had decided at a meeting on Wednesday to stand up for their Visegrád Group allies and “condemn the indecent attacks of Brussels”, adorning her message with the Hungarian and Polish flags, linked by the peace emoji.
In no Member State can the national administration of justice fall victim to the empire-building in Brussels!
On Tuesday, the European Commission asked its top court to fine Poland over a judges’ disciplinary chamber Brussels claims is being used to pressure Polish judges and exert political authority over the courts.
“The Commission is asking the Court to impose a daily penalty payment on Poland for as long as the measures imposed by the court’s order are not fully implemented,” it said in a statement.
Warsaw said three weeks ago that it would remove the chamber in the coming months. The EU and Poland have long been at odds over issues relating to the rule of law, with the former threatening to cut access to European funds should Warsaw venture too far from acceptable standards.
Poland has insisted that national law should not be subordinate to European law. The East European nation has also been at odds with the EU over LGBTQ rights and, among other things, logging in a UNESCO World Heritage site.
The disciplinary chamber is one of several judicial reforms brought in by the Law and Justice Party since coming to power in 2015.
Hungary has also fallen foul of the European Commission, which has warned Budapest it could lose access to EU funds if it fails to uphold the rule of law and blasted Viktor Orban’s government over its banning of the dissemination of pro-LGBTQ material to minors.
It appears that the EU is trying to remake society which will in no wise resemble centuries of European culture.
Amid fresh tensions with NATO states, Belarus to purchase $1bn worth
of Russian arms, including S-400 missile defense – Lukashenko
12 Sep, 2021 17:14 / Updated 1 hour ago
FILE PHOTO: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko greets Russian army officer during the military exercise Zapad-2021in Belarus, on September 12, 2021. © Reuters / BelTA / Maxim Guchek
Belarus is set to acquire over $1 billion worth of arms and military hardware from Russia, its President Alexander Lukashenko has announced, adding that the purchase of S-400 air defense systems was discussed in Moscow, last week.
“We are holding talks and are planning S-400 deliveries,” Lukashenko told journalists, on Sunday, as he attended the Zapad-2021 drills held jointly, on a quadrennial basis, by Russia and Belarus. The Belarusian president also said that security was a major issue on the agenda of his talks with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin in the Russian capital.
During the eight-hour-long meeting, the leaders dedicated some three hours to discussing “defense and security,” Lukashenko said, adding that he once again asked the Russian president to supply the advanced air defense systems to Belarus. Putin then ordered the Russian Defense Ministry to “negotiate these issues” with the Belarusian side, he added.
The S-400 is a long-range system with a maximum speed of 4.8km/s (three miles per second) and a range of 600km (375 miles). As well as being in operation with the Russian Army, it has been sold to China and Turkey. India and Saudi Arabia have also placed orders with Moscow.
Although Minsk is yet to strike a formal deal on the S-400s, Belarus and Russia have already agreed on an arms deal worth $1 billion and including various other military hardware ranging from dozens of warplanes and helicopters to mid-range Tor-M2 air defense systems, according to Lukashenko.
Belarus is expected to take delivery by 2025. The arsenal upgrade is needed in light of the continued tensions between Moscow, Minsk and NATO, Lukashenko believes.
The Belarusian president still maintained that all such actions are purely defensive and are aimed at ensuring the security of his country, and its allies.
We do not aim our missiles at neighboring nations; our aircraft are not picking targets to strike their territory… We are preparing to defend our land. The Union of Russia and Belarus does not need any extra territories.
His words came as the two nations are holding massive wargames across 14 separate training grounds from the Baltic Sea to Central Russian cities like Voronezh and Nizhny Novgorod. A total of 200,000 soldiers, over 80 aircraft, and up to 760 heavy military equipment pieces, including 290 tanks as well as 15 warships from both nations, take part in the biannual exercise, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Dutch foreign minister quits after parliament votes to censure
her oversight of chaotic Afghanistan evacuation
16 Sep, 2021 20:44
Outgoing Minister Sigrid Kaag of Foreign Affairs looks on as she resigns at the House of Representatives in the Hague, on September 16, 2021. © AFP / ANP / Bart Maat
The Netherlands' foreign minister, Sigrid Kaag, has stepped down from her post after the country's parliament censured her and the Dutch defense minister over a chaotic Kabul evacuation that left many behind.
Kaag announced her resignation on Thursday, after the motion of censure was passed by the parliament. The motion targeted the whole cabinet, but named the foreign minister explicitly as having ultimate responsibility for the evacuation failures.
The censure received broad support in parliament, backed not only by the opposition, but by some members of the ruling coalition as well. While not legally required to quit, the minister said it was her personal choice.
"Your chamber has decided the Cabinet acted irresponsibly," Kaag said. "The minister must go if her policy has been rejected."
A second motion of censure was passed against Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld. She, however, has not expressed any immediate desire to quit, stating she would continue her work regardless of the censure.
"The cabinet, including myself, already indicated yesterday that things did not go well. My priority is still to get interpreters who are still in Afghanistan to safety," said Bijleveld.
While Kaag refrained from explicitly condemning Bijleveld for staying, she said that "[in] my view on democracy and culture of our governance, the minister should go if the policy is disapproved."
"These are my choices, everyone makes their own choice," Kaag added.
The chaotic evacuation of the remaining western forces and their local helpers from Afghanistan unfolded over the last two weeks of August, as the US military withdrew and the Taliban militant group encroached on Kabul. The evacuation was riddled with logistics and security issues and left over 200 people dead, with the majority killed during a suicide attack on the airport by a local chapter of the Islamic State terrorist group.
During the evacuation, the Netherlands airlifted some 2,100 people from Kabul, with around 1,700 ending up in the European country. Hundreds of Dutch citizens, many of whom are of Afghan origin, however, were left behind. An unknown number of people who previously worked for the Dutch occupation forces and were, in theory, eligible for evacuation were also stranded. While announcing her resignation, Kaag said the ministry will continue its efforts to get these people out of Afghanistan.
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The day after this story was posted, Ank Bijleveld resigned!
‘Stabbed in the back’: France ‘regrets’ AUKUS nuclear submarine
deal that scuttled its multi-billion contract with Australia
16 Sep, 2021 00:33
The AUKUS deal would replace Collins-class subs like HMAS Rankin, shown here during AUSINDEX 21 maneuvers, September 5, 2021. © Royal Australian Navy/POIS Yuri Ramsey
A new plan to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines using US and UK technology may be aimed to counter China, but steps on the toes of NATO ally France, which lost a massive shipbuilding contract with Canberra.
US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his British counterpart Boris Johnson announced the ‘AUKUS’ initiative in a three-way virtual event on Wednesday. It is supposed to start 18-month consultations to eventually provide Australia with nuclear-powered but conventionally armed submarines – making it the first non-atomic nation with such weapons.
French shipbuilder Naval Group reportedly expressed “disappointment” at the announcement, as it meant Canberra was abandoning their contract for a dozen diesel-electric submarines. The Australian press has reported the value of that contract at AU$90 billion (US$66 billion).
The Naval Group contract was personally backed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who promised “full and complete” commitment to it as recently as June, according to AFP – even as Australia was already in talks with London and Washington, apparently.
Canberra’s “regrettable” decision was “contrary to the letter and the spirit of the cooperation which prevailed between France and Australia,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly said in a joint response to the AUKUS announcement.
Both Le Drian and France’s former ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud, later said their country had been “stabbed in the back.”
Part of the problem with the Naval Group deal was that the Australian government was insisting on doing the manufacturing and sourcing the components locally, according to Reuters. At least one Australian MP has already wondered whether Canberra will make the same demands in the AUKUS deal, or simply buy off-the-shelf designs from Washington and London.
Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton and Foreign Minister Marise Payne are already in Washington, while PM Scott Morrison is expected to arrive later this month.
The Royal Australian Navy currently operates six Collins-class submarines, based on a Swedish design and built between 1990 and 2003 in Port River, near Adelaide. Canberra had made a deal with Naval Group in 2016 for a dozen new vessels, but the contract has since “broken down over a series of disagreements over spiralling costs, design changes, schedule slippage and local industry involvement,” according to the Australian outlet Financial Review.
After one European think-tank fellow called the cancellation “a knife in the back to Paris on a very important deal for France as it looked to solidify [its] own complementary role in the Indo-Pacific,” an Australian journalist in Berlin disagreed.
Australia was “long unhappy with the cost blowouts and missed deadlines of [the] French programme,” argued Trent Murray. “In the eyes of Canberra, Naval Group simply didn’t deliver what was being paid for.”
The AUKUS arrangement has both financial and political implications for France, numerous observers have pointed out. The French government has a 62% stake in Naval Group, with the remaining third held by Thales, itself partly state-owned. Losing the contract to the US and UK would also be a “major blow for Macron” and “could prompt a rethinking in France about strategic alliances with the Anglosphere,” said a Reuters correspondent in Paris.
The statement by Le Drian and Parly appears to bear this out, as they pointed out the “regrettable” decision by Australia “reinforces the need to raise the issue of European strategic autonomy” as the only “credible way to defend our interests and our values in the world.”
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The day after this was posted, France recalled its ambassadors to the USA and Australia!
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