NAYPYITAW, 19 November 2021, (TON): Diplomatic sources said “a Chinese envoy has lobbied Southeast Asian nations to let Myanmar's military ruler attend a regional summit being hosted by China's president next week but has met stiff opposition.”

Myanmar's standing as a member of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) has been thrown into the spotlight by a February 1 coup, when its military ousted the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking bloody turmoil.

Several Asean members, dismayed by the return of crisis and the suppression of democracy in Myanmar, have sought to press its generals by excluding them from Asean meetings.

In an unprecedented decision last month, Asean leaders blocked Myanmar's military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, from an Asean summit after he failed to honour pledges to allow an Asean envoy to meet lawmakers overthrown in the coup.

Instead, Asean leaders said a non-political figure from Myanmar should be asked to attend. In the end, Myanmar was not represented.

Four diplomatic and political sources in the region said Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore wanted Min Aung Hlaing to be banned from a November 22 China-Asean meeting being hosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

KABUL, 18 November 2021, (TON): Norway has pledged 200 million Norwegian crowns ($23 million) to the fund, which is managed by the UN Development Program (UNDP).

Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt said in an interview ahead of a UN Security Council meeting “we encourage other countries to do the same, to pitch in to avoid a pressing humanitarian crisis and a potential famine.”

She said “Norway was also funneling cash to aid women’s organizations in Afghanistan, and Norway’s humanitarian aid to the country would total 325 million crowns this year. Norway will take over the UN Security Council presidency from January.”

She added “I hope the discussion in the Security Council tomorrow will contribute to give some attention to the situation in Afghanistan, to mobilize more funds.”

She further said “(The fund’s) purpose is to build a bridge between a humanitarian effort and something more long-term, in order for people to support themselves.”

WASHINGTON, 18 November 2021, (TON): U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism, and Investment Dan Tehan met in Singapore during the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.

They discussed a range of topics, including promoting the green economy and next steps on building resilient supply chains in the Indo-Pacific. In particular they discussed the crucial role that critical minerals play in driving the clean energy transition, highlighting the importance of cooperation between partners and allies to build resilient supply chains while upholding strong labor and environmental standards.

U.S-Australia critical minerals cooperation is a practical demonstration of our shared ambition to work together to speed the adoption of low carbon, green technology that benefits the real economy and workforce.

Secretary Raimondo and Minister Tehan issued the following statement:

Today, we reaffirm our commitment to collaboration on supply chains. We appreciate the investments made by Australian firms in the United States, especially with respect to those ventures supplying rare earth materials necessary for electric vehicles and the broader transition to a green economy that creates jobs for our people. We look forward to continued cooperation between our nations in 2022.

WASHINGTON, 18 November 2021, (TON): Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III met with Norwegian Minister of Defence Odd Roger Enoksen at the Pentagon to reaffirm the United States as a committed ally to Norway.

The two leaders discussed deepening the long-standing defense ties between the United States and Norway, and underscored the importance of NATO unity, common approaches to arms control, addressing shared security challenges in the High North, and global D-ISIS operations. 

They also discussed concerns about Russia’s destabilizing actions in Ukraine and the need to maintain strategic stability.

The Secretary commended Norway’s contributions to global security operations, and highlighted the resolve and courage of Norway’s forces at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the evacuation from Afghanistan. 

He recognized Norway’s important role as NATO’s eyes and ears in the Arctic and thanked Minister Enoksen for hosting the equipment and periodic presence of U.S. Marines for the Marine Corps Preposition Program, Norway. 

DOHA, 18 November 2021, (TON): The Qatari Foreign Ministry said “Qatar and Egypt have signed agreements to supply fuel and basic building materials to the Gaza Strip.”

The announcement was made in Oslo by Soltan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, Qatar’s minister of state for foreign affairs, during a ministerial meeting of the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC), the international donor group for Palestinians.

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Qatari foreign ministry said in a statement “his Excellency [Al-Muraikhi] noted the importance of the current understandings, facilitating the movement of travelers through Rafah Border Crossing, and communication between all parties to calm the situation in the region.”

The announcement comes as Gaza pushes to rebuild after an 11-day war with Israel in May. Authorities in Gaza say about 2,200 homes were destroyed during the Israeli bombing of the enclave and 37,000 were damaged according to the Reuters news agency.

ANKARA, 18 November 2021, (TON): Russia and Turkey have agreed not to make any statements regarding the joint production of components of the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM).

This was announced by the President of the Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a press conference in Ankara following talks with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.

He stressed “as for the joint production of S-400 parts, both sides, Turkey and Russia, have agreed not to disclose any details.”

Erdogan also noted that this topic is “sensitive” for the Russian Federation and Turkey.

Turkey expects to increase military cooperation with Spain, including on the issue of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

The Turkish leader said “we agreed to build a large-scale aircraft carrier with Spain. However, perhaps we can reach agreements on cooperation on the construction of submarines. We considered these possibilities. We also talked about [cooperation] on UAVs, including [Bayraktar strike drone] Akinji.”

Erdogan also said that Ankara and Madrid have already built an aircraft carrier, which “is now being launched.”

He added “however, the first aircraft carrier is not large, after that we will make a larger aircraft carrier.”

Also, Turkey’s president said Wednesday he would end the scourge of interest from the nation.

LONDON, 18 November 2021, (TON): The UK’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) believes that Russia and China pose the greatest threats to the country in terms of cyber attacks. This is stated in the annual report released on Wednesday by the intelligence service at the UK Government Communications Center.

NCSC continued throughout the year to work with partners around the world to identify and suppress common threats, the most systemic of which emanate from Russia and China.

States in report “in addition to direct cybersecurity threats from the Russian state, it became apparent that many of the members of organized crime groups, who carry out ransomware attacks on Western structures are based in Russia. China remains a highly sophisticated player in cyberspace with increasing ambitions to spread its influence beyond its own borders, as well as with a clear interest in the trade secrets of Great Britain.”

It emphasizes that strengthening the kingdom’s cyberspace security over the next decade is likely to depend largely on how China’s cyberspace tools evolve.

In addition, the report expresses the opinion that Iran and the DPRK, “albeit in a less sophisticated form than the Russian Federation and China, continued to resort to digital invasion to achieve their goals, including through theft and sabotage.”

NCSC also once again outlined the version according to which the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is probably behind the hacking of the software of the American firm SolarWinds. Russian President’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov previously indicated that Moscow was not involved in hacker attacks on US government agencies and companies.

According to him, “any accusations of Russia’s involvement are absolutely unfounded and are rather a continuation of the blind Russophobia, which is resorted to in any incident.”

WASHINGTON, 18 November 2021, (TON): Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has said that I’m very grateful to all of you for being able to join us this morning.

I really wanted to spend the next hour or so listening to each of you, so let me just be very brief at the top. This he said during conversation here in Kenya.

This is an important time, not just for Kenya but around the world. We’re seeing, we’ve seen over the last decade or so what some would call the democratic recession – democracies are falling back, as opposed to test democracy in all sorts of ways, from inside and from outside.

As we’ve seen citizens’ trust in democracy decrease, we’ve seen bad actors play up some (inaudible) that exist within democracies; independent institutions challenged and undermined; journalists, human rights activists threatened and attacked. Even vibrant democracies like Kenya are experiencing these pressures, especially around election time.

We’ve seen the same challenges here that we see in many parts of the world: misinformation, political violence, voter intimidation, voter bribery, (inaudible).

And these are stories that we see in place after place. And there’s also something that chips away at democracy in country after country, and that is corruption – there’s also bias and intimidation, (inaudible).

BEIJING, 18 November 2021, (TON): Natural gas supplies to China via the Power of Siberia reached 12 billion cubic meters at the end of October, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said following a meeting of the Russian-Chinese intergovernmental commission on energy cooperation.

Novak noted that more than a third of the total trade and economic turnov-er between Russia and China continues to be occupied by the fuel and energy complex, which plays a key role in cooperation.

The Deputy Prime Minister said “the dynamics of our work inspires optimism. Russia is the leading supplier of crude oil to the PRC – in 2020 exports amounted to 81.7 million tons, this year the volume of natural gas supplies has already exceeded 12 billion cubic meters only along the eastern route (Power of Siberia – ed.).”

In turn, Deputy Premier of the State Council of China Han Zheng also said that as of the end of October 2021, 12 billion cubic meters of natural gas had been pumped from Russia to China via the eastern route.

He added “this testifies to the stable nature of the partnership between our countries. Active consultations are underway on other projects.”

WASHINGTON, 18 November 2021, (TON): US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will travel to the Middle East today to meet with leaders in Bahrain and the UAE.

The department of defence said “in Bahrain, Austin will meet with senior government officials to affirm the strength of the US’ defense partnership and discuss joint priorities in the Middle East.”

He will also deliver remarks at the annual International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue that will reaffirm the US resolve to advance and strengthen enduring defense partnerships and commitment to the long-standing US leadership role in strengthening regional security and stability.

The Manama Dialogue will take place from Nov. 19-21 and will bring together defense ministers and other high-ranking government officials from across the Middle East region and beyond.

In the UAE, Austin will meet with senior government officials to reaffirm the importance of the US- UAE strategic partnership.