European Union and China leaders agreed a business investment deal on Wednesday, 30 December 2020, the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment. The EU hopes the deal will give European companies greater access to Chinese markets, and helping redress what Europe sees as unbalanced economic ties with China.
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In energy transition conversations, hydrogen is having a bit of a moment. But, as ever, there’s a catch. So here, from the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Julie McNamara, an introduction to hydrogen as a decarbonisation pathway, to help differentiate between the promise and potential and the distractions and misdirections.
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A report from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (United Kingdom), released on 26 December 2020, has forecast that China will overtake the United States to become the world’s biggest economy in 2028, five years earlier than previously estimated, due to the contrasting recoveries of the two countries from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Richard Armitage and Joseph Nye have led a team to produce a new “bipartisan Armitage-Nye” report on the state of the US-Japan alliance, seen as critical to addressing both regional and global challenges. On the question of China and US strategy in Asia, the report is both entirely predictable and refreshingly surprising.
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France has welcomed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Paris. At a joint media conference President Macron told reporters that “matters of defence and economic cooperation” with Egypt would not be conditional on questions of disagreements on human rights, disappointing those who had been calling for France to take a stronger position with Egypt on rights issues.
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New data from SIPRI’s Arms Industry Database shows that arms sales by the world’s 25 largest arms companies totalled US$361 billion in 2019, an 8.5 per cent increase over 2018. The top five arms companies were all based in the United States: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and General Dynamics. Outside of North America and Western Europe, the largest number of foreign arms company entities are hosted by Australia (38).
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The Pentagon has announced that by early 2021 it will withdraw about 700 troops from Somalia, where the US has been involved for an extended period in fighting a low-intensity battle against the local al Qaeda affiliate, al-Shabaab.
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On 1 December 2020, Australia announced a formal agreement to partner with the United States on the development and testing of “hypersonic cruise missile prototypes”.
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Chatham House’s Bill Hayton looks at the UK’s ’tilt’ to the Indo-Pacific – involving trade, military presence and diplomatic efforts, concluding that the overall effect is likely to embed the UK in the Indo-Pacific as a valuable partner for those countries which value a free and open international order.
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Reuters reports that China’s Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, has visited South Korea, and met with South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in, and foreign minister, Kang Kyung-wha.
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Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen has announced on that Taiwan will build a new fleet of submarines aimed at countering China’s military power in the region.
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The first high-level dialogue between China and Japan since Yoshihide Suga succeeded Shinzo Abe as Japan’s Prime Minister in September have taken place in Tpkyo, with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Japanese counterpart, Toshimitsu Motegi discussing maritime tensions over disputed islands in the East China Sea, trade and the Covid-19 pandemic response.
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The United States has officially withdrawn from the Open Skies treaty, with effect 22 November 2020, blaming the withdrawal on Russia’s transgression of the Treaty.
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Japan and Australia reached a new agreement on defence cooperation on Tuesday [17 November 2020]. The agreement, agreed in-principle by Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, allows Japanese and Australian troops to visit each other’s countries and conduct training and joint operations.
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Although not unexpected, the timing of the decision to withdraw all but 2,500 US troops from Afghanistan and Iraq by mid January 2021 has been criticised by NATO allies and senior Republican lawmakers.
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Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Monday [16 November 2020] approved the creation of a Russian naval facility in Sudan capable of mooring nuclear-powered surface vessels, clearing the way for Moscow’s first substantial military foothold in Africa since the period of the former Soviet Union.
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In Paris on Monday,16 November 2020, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US administration and Europe need to work jointly on addressing recent “aggressive” actions led by Turkey – before continuing his 7-country tour, landing in Istanbul on Monday night. In Washington, a US official confirmed that last week US President Trump considered a strike on Iran’s main nuclear facility.
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On Monday [16 November 2020], US President-elect Joe Biden said that the United States needed to negotiate with allies to set global trading rules to counter China’s growing influence – but declined to say whether the US would join the 15-country Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement, the new trade pact that includes China, which was signed in Hanoi on Sunday [15 November 2020].
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The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECP) agreement: Fifteen Asia-Pacific economies have signed what could become the world’s largest free trade agreement, covering nearly a third of the global population and about 30% of its global gross domestic product.
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Australia hopes the trade deal about to be signed by 15 Asia-Pacific economies will help improve Australia’s strained relations with China. Australia’s Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said that the trade pact offers a platform that can lead to a positive change in relations. “The ball is very much in China’s court to come to the table for that dialogue,” he is reported to have said.
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