International Relations, Geopolitics & Foreign Policy Discussion

[Afif]

Thread dedicated to international relations, geopolitics and interstate foreign policy matters.

 

[Afif]

@Rooxbar forgot to tag you.

 

[Rooxbar]

@Rooxbar forgot to tag you.

Hey thx, wanted to post this I remembered:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-pleads-guilty-to-shipping-us-made-avionics-to-russia-violating-sanctions/

Also since these reports the traffic of visits by Israeli military committees and high-ranking officials to Russia has exploded. Seems like they're trying to appease Putin to try to block the deepening military technology ties between Iran and Russia. It's really interesting that nobody asks why Iran doesn't buy any major military equipment from either Russia and China (until very recent talks of S-400 and Su-35 after Ukr-Rus war forced clearer delineation) except missile tech which I think was transferred from Libya and North Korea and not directly from China or Russia.

Russia also has been running very smart propaganda campaigns & operations inside Israel akin to its advocacy for AfD, Fratelli d'Italia and Front National and for polarization inside several European countries which they probably calcualte might lead to break from status quo alignment with U.S, along with weakening them internally.

Shomrim, an Israeli offshoot of Center for Media and Democracy (itself an offshoot of Soros' Open Society Foundations), report here is fascinating:

Shomrim - Russia’s Influence Campaign in Israel: Creating New Party, Stoking Social Discord, Fueling Arab Discontent, and Straining Foreign Relations

Leaked documents from the company behind a Kremlin global disinformation campaign provide a rare glimpse into the shadow war that Russia is waging against Israel. According to the leaked documents, the Russians did not stop at spreading incendiary fake news; they also planned to open an office...

www.shomrim.news

It almost guarantees the same operations are being conducted in Turkey to polarize the country more and create tensions from both the Islamist and the Kemalist camp, finding fault-lines along which both can be shaken. It's another sign of decline of the U.S. intelligentsia in comparison to the cold war years, where they had a strong hold on the narratives. They have been quite passive in their handling of rising anti-Americanism in certain European demographics and in our country also. There's almost no effort.

 

[Iskander]

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in New York to attend the 79th session of the UN General Assembly, met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

Anadolu reports that the meeting between the head of state of Turkey and the president of Iran took place in Turkevi in New York.

Ərdoğan ABŞ-də Pezeşkianla görüşdü

Türkiyə Prezidenti Rəcəb Tayyib Ərdoğan İran lideri Məsud Pezeşkian ilə görüşüb. “Qafqazinfo” xarici KİV-ə istinadən xəbər verir ki, görüş Nyu-York

qafqazinfo.az

 

[Afif]

Biden offers full US support to Yunus-led interim govt

Dr Yunus-Biden meeting to help take Dhaka-Washington ties to new level, says CA's press secretary

www.tbsnews.net

The meeting was unprecedented. It is really good to have this degree of US support at this critical time. There is an incentive for going beyond diplomatic backing at the world stage or the financial grant that they just singed off. They are offering technical expertise and ready to share institutional knowledge to support the six major reform initiatives that has been undertaken. (Concerning election system, police administration, judiciary, anti-corruption commission, public administration, and the constitution.) I mean, a distinguished Bangladeshi-American Illinois university professor (who is also involved with Atlantic council) has been appointed as the head of constitution reform commission by the Interim government. I think US policy makers understood the significant of this revolution and the rare opportunity of a second Republic level reset for Bangladesh. Being able to influence that process will determine to an extent how this country operate in the future. So, they jumped right in with what they got.

Bangladesh's relevance on the world stage would increase proportionally to its economic growth. Which set to increase significantly this decade and the next. These reforms, if successful will put it right back on the track. Right now by investing directly in these mega reforms initiatives of the Revolutionary government, United States is trying to score a long term gain for their Indo-Pacific strategy. And for all of it, they couldn't ask for a better person in BD. Professor Yunus being a personal friend of Hillary Clinton and US senators helps a lot.

 

[Iskander]

President Erdogan met with Armenian Prime Minister Pashinyan in Turkevi in New York

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1838676156725207176

...and gave him a book (let him study )

Pashinyan was so happy, as if Erdogan had given him not a book, but Karabakh

 

[Iskander]

“In New York, Erdogan met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The negotiations took place in the Turkic language.

...Some experts in Ankara are convinced that the election of an ethnic Azerbaijani from Tabriz as Iran’s president could become a fateful moment in the politics of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran.

...Judging by the fact that Pezeshkian often emphasizes his Turkic origins, and also recently announced the importance of a serious turn in Iranian-Turkish relations, this conclusion has a real basis.
But there is another group of Turkish experts, according to whom the election of Pezeshkian, conventionally called a representative of the reformist wing, will not have any significant impact on Iran’s foreign policy,” writes Haqqin az.

In short, it is clear that nothing is clear yet.

However, it is indisputable that a rapprochement between these two states will seriously affect not only Middle Eastern, but also global geopolitics.

После встречи Эрдогана с Пезешкианом Иран сдаст позиции Турции? - наша корреспонденция+комментарий Хасана Октая

m.haqqin.az

 

[Afif]

Turkey and Central Asia are riding together again

The Organisation of Turkic States is a counterweight to Russia

www.economist.com

@Sanchez @what @Saithan @dBSPL @Rooxbar et al.

 

[Saithan]

The western media is going to be angling the increase cooperation of Turkic states as something counter to Russia/China. Even if we have common heritage it's difficult to see it anything but a cooperation that will help the involved countries grow and develop into their own sphere.

The huge geography it's spanning over can have extreme economic reach and benefits to the involved parties.

Of course countries that are interested in being the big boi in the neighbourhood wouldn't want any of their neighbours becoming strong and independent.

Look at the size of Kazakhstan and with a small population of 20 million it's a wonder that they're able to protect their own lands from the big fuckers in the neighbourhood. I think it's because they've been ignored until now. But that won't continue.

So increasing cooperation and helping each other and being open about these things will make it that much more difficult for western media to manipulate what is going on.

They will angle it, and spread fake news and promote their own angling and suppress the right answers, but that is war just as much as using real weapons.

Having Satellite coverage and spreading our own news network would be best answer to this kind of war.

 

[Rooxbar]

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor

Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

www.theguardian.com

From 14 years ago:

Drug money saved banks in global crisis, claims UN advisor​

This article is more than 14 years old
Drugs and crime chief says $352bn in criminal proceeds was effectively laundered by financial institutions

Rajeev Syal
Sun 13 Dec 2009 01.05 CET
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Drugs money worth billions of dollars kept the financial system afloat at the height of the global crisis, the United Nations' drugs and crime tsar has told the Observer.
Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said he has seen evidence that the proceeds of organised crime were "the only liquid investment capital" available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.

This will raise questions about crime's influence on the economic system at times of crisis. It will also prompt further examination of the banking sector as world leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, call for new International Monetary Fund regulations. Speaking from his office in Vienna, Costa said evidence that illegal money was being absorbed into the financial system was first drawn to his attention by intelligence agencies and prosecutors around 18 months ago. "In many instances, the money from drugs was the only liquid investment capital. In the second half of 2008, liquidity was the banking system's main problem and hence liquid capital became an important factor," he said.
Some of the evidence put before his office indicated that gang money was used to save some banks from collapse when lending seized up, he said.
"Inter-bank loans were funded by money that originated from the drugs trade and other illegal activities... There were signs that some banks were rescued that way." Costa declined to identify countries or banks that may have received any drugs money, saying that would be inappropriate because his office is supposed to address the problem, not apportion blame. But he said the money is now a part of the official system and had been effectively laundered.
"That was the moment [last year] when the system was basically paralysed because of the unwillingness of banks to lend money to one another. The progressive liquidisation to the system and the progressive improvement by some banks of their share values [has meant that] the problem [of illegal money] has become much less serious than it was," he said.
The IMF estimated that large US and European banks lost more than $1tn on toxic assets and from bad loans from January 2007 to September 2009 and more than 200 mortgage lenders went bankrupt. Many major institutions either failed, were acquired under duress, or were subject to government takeover.
Gangs are now believed to make most of their profits from the drugs trade and are estimated to be worth £352bn, the UN says. They have traditionally kept proceeds in cash or moved it offshore to hide it from the authorities. It is understood that evidence that drug money has flowed into banks came from officials in Britain, Switzerland, Italy and the US.
British bankers would want to see any evidence that Costa has to back his claims. A British Bankers' Association spokesman said: "We have not been party to any regulatory dialogue that would support a theory of this kind. There was clearly a lack of liquidity in the system and to a large degree this was filled by the intervention of central banks."