World News
Towards a Conference on the Future of Europe

The Constitutional Affairs Committee will vote on Monday on its suggestions to Parliament’s leaders for the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe.
On Monday 9 December, MEPs from the Constitutional Affairs Committee will vote on their input to Parliament’s Conference of Presidents (i.e. President Sassoli and political group leaders) on the organisation of the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe.
Following the establishment of the relevant Working Group by Parliament’s leaders, the Constitutional Affairs Committee was invited to contribute to its work in line with its leading role on topics of significance affecting the future of Europe. This will in turn help define Parliament’s position in the negotiations with the Council and the Commission on the structure, mission and objectives of the Conference.
When: Monday, 9 December, 18.00 – 20.00
Where: European Parliament in Brussels, Spinelli building, room 3E2
Background
The Conference, to be organised by Parliament, Council and Commission, is among Commission President von der Leyen’s most prominent commitments. It is expected to start in 2020 and run for two years, involving a cross-section of society to give citizens the chance to contribute in shaping the future of the EU.
The most recent in a series of debates in the Constitutional Affairs Committee was a public hearing with Parliament’s Vice-President Othmar Karas (EPP, AT), European Economic and Social Committee President Luca Jahier, Committee of the Regions President Karl-Heinz Lambertz and a range of academic and civil society experts, as well as the two Commission Vice-Presidents: Dubravka Šuica (Democracy and Demography) and Věra Jourová (Values and Transparency).
World News
ABC news: Xi signals strength in Russia-China alliance

Chinese President Xi Jinping departed Moscow on Wednesday after two days of highly symbolic meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in which the two presented a united front and an alternative vision for global leadership, notes ABCnews.
Despite statements saying that “China-Russia relations are not the kind of military-political alliance during the Cold War,” China and Russia made clear they wanted to “advance the trend toward a multi-polar world.”
“This highly publicized summit may reflect a shift towards a new and more active role for China, as it seizes the opportunity to convey diplomatic – and possibly tangible – support for Russia and any other state that wishes to defy the West,” – Michael Butler, associate professor of political science at Clark University, told ABC News.
Joint animosity towards the U.S.-led world order has kept Russia and China close despite Putin’s war in Ukraine and western sanctions against Russia has made China their biggest customer and economic lifeline.
Beijing increasingly sees Russia as necessary ally as China and United States continue to fallout over numerous fronts not limited to Taiwan and access to semiconductors. It was further exasperated by the spy balloon episode earlier this year.
Beijing had initially hoped that the spiraling tensions with the U.S. would abate in the wake of Xi’s meeting with President Joe Biden in Bali last November, but as they continued to crater, Xi seems to have re-prioritized Russian relationship. He even aimed a rare direct slight at the United States earlier this month, blaming the Americans for “containment and suppression” as the reasons for China’s economic challenges.
Xi highlighted on numerous occasions over the two days of meetings that Russia and China are each other’s largest neighbors and that their partnership is “consistent with historical logic and a strategic choice of China.”
World News
Petr Pavl: “Ukraine must adjust to dwindling Western support”

“We must consider war weariness”, says Czech President Petr Pavl. According to Czech President Petr Pavl, Ukraine must adjust to dwindling Western support. “We have to consider war weariness and what that means for support from Western states. This will pass with time,” Pavel told the ‘Süddeutsche Zeitung’.
He also mentioned the 2024 US presidential election and the concentration on domestic politics that could then be expected: “If US support decreases, support for a number of European countries will also decrease. Ukraine should take this into account.”
Thus, in 2024, Ukraine will probably no longer be able to start any large and complex operations, the new Czech president said. “This year is decisive for the development of the war.”
The former general was wary of the prospects of Ukraine joining NATO in the foreseeable future. “Ukraine’s path to Europe should run through a faster rapprochement with the European Union and only then with law enforcement agencies,” the President said. “I think that’s the right order.”
World News
WP: The real lesson from the showy Xi-Putin meeting

Pentagon strategists have always divided the world into East and West, with U.S. regional forces under European Command or Indo-Pacific Command. But looking at the embrace of Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin this week, you wonder whether we may need a single “Eurasian Command” to handle an integrated threat, writes ‘The Washington Post’ in a comment.
Xi’s rescue strategy for Russia seems to center on a peace plan that would stanch the bleeding in Ukraine. From what we know, Xi proposes a cease-fire agreement… By playing the peacemaker, Xi can position himself better to take other, harsher rescue measures if Ukraine rejects a cease-fire. He could offer ammunition for Russia, arguing he’s only leveling the playing field.
He could try to mobilize nations of the Global South, such as India, South Africa and Brazil, to pressure Ukraine to end the fighting. Xi wants to keep the high ground, invoking the sanctity of the United Nations charter even as he affirms his support for the Russian leader who shattered that charter’s norms. It’s a shameless approach, but smart diplomacy.
Xi’s emerging role as the leader of a Eurasian bloc presents dilemmas for U.S. strategists.
For a generation, separating China from Russia was a central goal of U.S. foreign policy. Driving that wedge was a major reason for the historic visit to China in 1972 by President Richard M. Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger.
The Biden administration initially hoped it could try that strategy in reverse — warming relations with Moscow in the June 2021 summit in Geneva in part to concentrate on the Chinese challenge. That didn’t work out as the White House hoped, to put it mildly.
Now it’s Xi who is the triangulator. He is playing off the bitter split between the United States and Russia, helping Putin.
Xi similarly used China’s close relations with Iran to make the diplomatic breakthrough between Riyadh and Tehran that the United States could never achieve, writes WP.
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