Olaf Scholz: Dear readers,
Providing security for its citizens is the most important job of every state, of every society. Without security there can be no freedom, no stability, no prosperity.

IMF head welcomes Europe's interest rate hikes in campaign against inflation

[...]
Annalena Baerbock: Dear readers,
Our peace is fragile. Our freedom is precious. For too long we in Germany considered our security in Europe to be something we could take for granted. However, our peaceful order is not set in stone, as has been plain at the latest since Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The climate crisis also threatens the security of the people in our country bringing floods and heatwaves.

Drought and rising heat bring unusual wildfire warnings in northern Europe

The COVID 19 pandemic, cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns—all these threats show how vulnerable we are. Making us more robust in all areas of life is the aim of this our first National Security Strategy. After all, in the 21st century, security also means making sure our heating works in winter. Security means being able to find medication for our children in our pharmacies. Having smartphones that work because supplies of the necessary microchips are reliable. Getting to work safely because our trains are not paralysed by cyberattacks.
[...]

Politico.eu.com | Germany to buy Iron Dome-style air defense system from Israel, 14 June €5B

"With the purchase of the German IRIS-T SLM and the acquisition of the Israeli Arrow, we are pushing ahead with two major projects from the Bundeswehr's special assets that will help build up a protective umbrella in Germany," Karsten Klein, a lawmaker for the Free Democrats in the committee, told POLITICO. The Arrow-3 system is developed and manufactured by Israeli Aerospace Industries in cooperation with U.S. aerospace giant Boeing. Klein said that the air defense systems combined would provide a 2,400-kilometer range.

The Arrow-3 system has been in use in Israel since 2017 as part of its Iron Dome protection network. Berlin is aiming for a binding contract for the Arrow-3 system by the end of 2023, according to a document seen by POLITICO, which then could be operational by the end of 2025. As part of a splurge in defense spending across Europe following Russia's war on Ukraine, aerospace firms fear that billions of euros will go to contractors outside the EU, including in Israel, South Korea, and Türkiye.

Poverty, climate, regional stability on agenda as Saudi crown prince visits France, 16 June

France is a major weapons and defense supplier to Gulf nations. The leaders also are preparing for a global summit next week "aimed at bringing together private and public funding" to fight poverty, support climate transition and protect biodiversity, the French presidency said.

German FM calls on Brazil to align more with the West | Euractiv - June 7, 2023 |

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called on Brazil to align with other democracies on geopolitical matters, particularly regarding its stance on the Ukraine war and China, and is offering a closer relationship in exchange.

Brazil is the only country among emerging democracies that have so far backed all UN resolutions against Russia's war in Ukraine but still refuses to send Ukraine aid. Brazil also maintains a particularly close relationship with China, its top trading partner.

"Security and development are not opposites. They depend on each other," Baerbock said at the Digital Democracy Festival in São Paulo, pointing to the global impact of rising food prices due to the war, warning that democracies could thus not show restraint in geopolitical questions.

"Let's reach out and shape a future together that all of us can benefit from," Baerbock added.

The still not yet ratified EU-Mercosur trade deal could be among the main keys to the rapprochement of like-minded democratic states as it would "make it clear that democracies when they work together, can solve global challenges," said Baerbock.

The EU has been negotiating a free trade agreement with the Mercosur group of states - which includes Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay - since 1999. A summit of European, Latin American and Caribbean leaders on 17 July could provide new impulses on the matter.

Baerbock's visit aligns with increased efforts of Western governments to win over allies among emerging economies in their ongoing geopolitical feuds with Russia and China.

Em SP, Ministra de Relações Exteriores da Alemanha diz que guerra da Ucrânia 'é sentida de forma diferente na América Latina'

Ao falar da guerra na Ucrânia, a ministra disse que é preciso nomear o agressor (ou seja, a Rússia), e que o Brasil de fato fez isso na assembleia da ONU, mas ela também insinuou que falta compreensão maior sobre as consequências da guerra em outros países.

"Quero dizer com toda clareza, a ameaça dessa guerra é percebida de forma diferente na América Latina do que na Europa", disse ela.

Lula e Scholz já se encontraram no Brasil

Scholz, o premiê alemão, estevem em Brasília no fim de janeiro. Na ocasião, Lula afirmou que o Brasil era um país de paz, e por isso não tinha vendido munição para o Ucrânia, como a Alemanha havia solicitado ao governo brasileiro.

Na ocasião, Lula também disse que é preciso mudar os termos do acordo comercial entre a União Europeia e o Brasil, que está sendo negociado.

For Lula, extra requirements in the environmental area presented by the European Union this year, which would provide for sanctions against Brazil, need to be revised.
[...]
» Full text of President Lula's statement to the press

This is the first visit by a European Union Chief Executive to Brazil in the last 10 years. The European Union and Brazil coincide in the importance attributed by both to multilateralism, democracy, the promotion of peace and respect for human rights. It was the recognition of the importance of this relationship that made us sign our strategic partnership pact in 2007.

Fifteen years later, we can confirm that this decision was correct. Our bilateral trade advances consistently. The European Union is Brazil's second largest trading partner and our trade flow could surpass the USD 100 billion [€ 92B, BRL 486B] mark this year.
[...]
Dear President von der Leyen, We are building a partnership founded on mutual respect and understanding. We recognize that the solution to the main problems we face on the global stage involves responses that take into account the interests of everyone, especially the most vulnerable....

UKRAINE - With regard to the war in Ukraine, President Lula emphasized that he has brought up the subject of peace negotiations with South American neighbors and with countries not involved in the conflict, such as India and Indonesia, and that he will return to address the matter in his official visits to France, Italy and the Vatican, and at the next BRICS summit, a forum in which Russia also participates.

The EC president declared that she had "great admiration for the way in which you defend international law and the UN Charter in all your international declarations" and stressed that "Europe agrees [?!] on the need for a negotiated peace between Russia and Ukraine".

Today, the European Commission and the High Representative are presenting a proposal to build a closer and modernised strategic partnership with Latin America and the Caribbean [LAC].
[...]
Q. Ha dicho que durante años se han ["]taken for granted, even neglected["] la relación con los países de Latinoamérica. ¿Me gustaría saber aquel achaca esto? ¿Ha sido porque algunos países europeos igual no veían la importancia geoestratégica de la región? ¿Porque hemos estado muy absorbidos con BREXIT? ¿Porque igual hemos mirado más a otros países del mundo como Estados Unidos o China?
Borrell: Sí. Es una pregunta relevante porque refleja una paradoja: que es que nadie duda del interés mutuo que tenemos. Nadie duda de la intensidad de nuestras relaciones humanas. De la enorme inversión que las empresas europeas han hecho en América Latina, y sin embargo, la dimensión política de esta relación se ha ido dejando ir, por razones seguramente imputables a las dos partes. En América Latina ha habido también problemas de fragmentación política en el continente con el caso de la crisis política en Venezuela o la deriva autoritaria en Nicaragua. Y es verdad que sí, Europa ha estado absorbida, pues por problemas, no diría que más importantes, pero más acuciantes. El BREXIT ha sido uno de ellos, los problemas migratorios, no digo que no sean problemas dignos de ser tomados en consideración, lo son sin duda. Hemos pasado por un proceso de ampliación también, que ha dirigido el centro de gravedad geográfico y político de Europa más hacia el este, y en su conjunto, sin darnos cuenta, el tiempo ha ido pasando y no hemos elevado nuestra relación política al nivel que merece. Probablemente, el cambio político que hay habido en muchos países latinoamericanos, las nuevas circunstancias geopolíticas, la emergencia de China, la guerra en Ucrania, han acelerado la toma de conciencia de que Europa no puede ser un actor geopolítico si no toma en consideración la relación con América Latina, que es muy fuerte en lo económico, en todas las dimensiones, pero que necesita estar bajo una dinámica política de alto nivel, que es lo que pretendemos hacer con esta comunicación y con la próxima Cumbre.
[...]

BRICS will be towering above all existing peer groupings in both substance and gravitas once Saudi Arabia & Iran join. Russia and China should expedite it. [_link]

— M. K. Bhadrakumar (@BhadraPunchline) March 12, 2023

... per capita BRICS 🇨🇳 🇮🇳 🇿🇦 🇧🇷 is not quite there yet 🤣

'Sapere aude'

No information given about her parents.

'Sapere aude'

Annalena Burbock asked not to call "Leopards" German.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock asked the media to change their editorial policy:
"Understand, it doesn't matter where it's made. You don't say about your iPhone that it's American or Tim Cook. You say that it's... pic.twitter.com/pXu3vYSqrB

— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) June 12, 2023

La mort lente de la Françafrique

« Cet âge de la Françafrique est révolu. » À Libreville, première étape de sa tournée africaine, Emmanuel Macron a entériné un fait qu'il est de plus en plus difficile de cacher : Paris n'est plus la première puissance mondiale en Afrique francophone - mais qu'est-ce que cela signifie concrètement ?

Dans cette étude, Ken Opalo revient sur les options qui restent à la diplomatie française pour renverser sa politique africaine.

Beijing has its sights on Francophone West Africa

If France's influence is waning, there is little doubt who is poised to step into the gap. China's presence in Francophone West Africa is booming, having previously lagged other parts of the continent. Drawn to growth rates over seven percent in countries like Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, China has displaced France as the leading exporter to most of France's former colonies.

Chinese lending to these countries increased 332 percent in 2010 - 17 compared to 2000 - 09, and contracts awarded to Chinese firms trebled in value in the same period - with Chinese contractors taking on high-profile projects like the Soubré dam in Côte d'Ivoire. Chinese companies and entrepreneurs are highly visible throughout the region.

Une énorme #explosion à #Paris ! Tout un quartier ravagé. Vidéo envoyé par une amie. pic.twitter.com/7nA9T6qCwL

— Mat (@Namat_12) June 21, 2023

Expert: U.S. Should See China as 'Number One' Adversary, Not Trading Partner | USNI - Sept. 15, 2017 |

The People's Republic China needs to be seen by the United States as its principal potential adversary in the years ahead, not as a commercial partner that America cannot live without, a leading expert on maritime issues said.

Answering an audience question at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. Seth Cropsey, director of sea power programs at the Hudson institute, said, "China should be our Number One concern; it's not." He added that Chinese leaders want to restore it to the status of a great state, overcoming a 19th and early 20th-century history of European imperialism, "not only at sea, but especially at sea. They've invested a lot in satellite technology, in cyber technology, building a fleet" that potentially could be larger than the United States' in the not-too-distant future.

Cropsey, the author of Seablindness: How Political Neglect is Choking American Seapower and What to Do about It, said, the Chinese "have their own way of looking at things" from their island-building campaign to their use of "lawfare," to bolster territorial claims in the East and South China Seas and disregard international court rulings when those claims are rejected. He said President Donald Trump was correct in judging Beijing's commercial policies. "They're mercantilists, not free traders."

While China's close neighbors say how important their economic and commercial ties to Beijing are for their own development, privately they are very concerned about its increasingly assertive behavior on their borders. Cropsey said out of the limelight and away from microphones they say, "if you guys [the United States] get out ... if China becomes the hegemon, they will treat us like dogs" as it did in the past when it was a great power.

In his remarks before the question-and-answer session, he said, "I wish I could be optimistic about the future" of the challenges facing the United States not only from a transoceanic Chinese navy, but as it concerns Russian behavior in the Baltic and Black Seas, Iran's continuing development of anti-ship weaponry and the tolls the continuing wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan are taking on the fleet and the Marine Corps.

Trying to meet the combatant commanders' requirements for presence that call for 370 to 400 ships with the 276 ships now in the fleet "is an exercise in futility" and leads to accidents such as the ship collisions suffered in U.S. 7th Fleet. Cropsey said 350 ships "is the absolute bare minimum to meet [today's] requirements." He pointed out the administration's call for a fleet that size is to be built over 30 years and "it doesn't provide the immediate kind of relief that is necessary" to reduce today's high operating tempo.

As to the additional $50 billion more in the coming year's defense program over this year's, he said much of the money that will go to the Department of the Navy is earmarked for repairs, maintenance and fixing shipyards and port facilities not shipbuilding.

US Navy at the forefront of false flag attacks to create any opportunity for a hot war ...
Cuba invasion 1960 - Vietnam Gulf of Tonkin attack 1964 - Reverse Israeli attack on USS Liberty 1967 - USS Vincennes downing Iranian civilian aircraft killing 290 passengers in 1988 - sabotage Nord Stream 1 & 2 pipelines 2022.

'Sapere aude'

US President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize four years ago. Today, the country he leads is seen -- according to a new poll -- as the biggest threat to world peace.

• Why Barack Obama was particularly unsuited to live up to the ideals of the Nobel Peace Prize

The global survey, conducted by WIN/Gallup International, polled residents in 68 countries on everything from the global economy to politics and living conditions.

According to the poll, 24 percent of the surveyed countries ranked the United States as the greatest threat to world peace today, followed by Pakistan at 8 percent, China at 6 percent and four countries (Afghanistan, Iran, Israel and North Korea) tied at 5 percent. [Russia near bottom at 2%]

Thirty-seven percent of Mexicans ranked their northern neighbor the top threat to the world.