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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: maceng2 who wrote (197513)	3/20/2023 10:04:25 PM
From: TobagoJack	Respond to of 219947

Ukraine might still have a viable independent / sovereign future, should Ukraine see way as best way forward Unsure, for Ukraine might choose shock & awe, or select to be shock & awed and rug-pulled. Delicate situation. bloomberg.com Putin Tells Xi He’ll Discuss China’s Blueprint for Ukraine Russian leader opens talks on first day of three-day Xi visit US, allies have rejected China blueprint as biased to Russia 21 March 2023 at 09:46 GMT+8 Vladimir Putin said Russia is ready to discuss China’s initiative for ending the conflict in Ukraine, welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping for a three-day visit that underlines Beijing’s support for Moscow. “We’ve carefully studied your proposals to resolve the acute crisis in Ukraine,” Putin told Xi in televised comments at the start of their one-on-one talks in the Kremlin Monday. “We’ll discuss all these issues, including your initiative, which we of course view with respect.” The trip to Moscow marks Xi’s most ambitious attempt yet to play the role of peacemaker as he seeks to broker an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Kyiv has been cool to Beijing’s plan, while the US and its allies have rejected it outright. After his talks in Moscow, Xi is expected to speak by video link with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, his first conversation since the start of the war with the Ukrainian leader. In his comments to Putin, Xi didn’t mention the invasion and said there’s room for Russia and China to boost cooperation. “China highly values the relationship with Russia,” Xi said. “I am delighted to be in Russia as my first state visit after being reelected as the Chinese president.” Xi also said he’s confident Putin will win the support of his people in next year’s presidential elections. That put the Kremlin in the slightly ticklish position of having to explain what he meant, since Putin hasn’t formally announced whether he will run for a fifth term next year. Calling him “dear friend,” Putin thanked Xi for making time for Monday’s talks and dinner ahead of a second day of negotiations with other officials Tuesday. A state dinner is also scheduled. This first and informal round of Kremlin talks between the two leaders lasted almost four and a half hours, the state-run Tass news service reported. Putin and Xi “had an in-depth exchange of views on the Ukraine issue,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. It added that “most countries support easing tensions,” but the ministry didn’t go into further details on the topic. China would continue to strengthen strategic coordination with Russia, Xi also said, according to the statement. For Putin, Xi is by far the most significant international leader to visit since the Feb. 24, 2022 invasion, which triggered Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II and waves of sanctions by the US and its allies. Xi’s arrival comes just days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on charges of war crimes. Russia has dismissed the move and China Monday called for the court to avoid politicization. “The timing of the visit illustrates how little regard Xi holds for the ICC arrest warrant and how he is seeking to introduce a new international order on China’s terms,” said Kate Mallinson, founder of Prism Political Risk Management in London. “Xi regards the war in Ukraine as a part of a wider conflict with the US and is vaunting the fact that China alone holds the keys to solve the war.” Understand power in Washington.Coming soon: Get the Bloomberg Washington newsletter to find out how the worlds of money and politics intersect in the US capital, delivered Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Ahead of the visit, Putin and Xi published articles in each other’s state newspapers praising bilateral ties. Xi called his trip “a journey of friendship, cooperation and peace” while Putin called the Russia-China relationship “the cornerstone of regional and global stability.” Xi said his position on a settlement of the war in Ukraine “reflects the broadest common understanding of the international community on the crisis.” BREAKING: Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives in Russia for a three-day state visit, when he's expected to deliver a strong message of support for Vladimir Putin https://t.co/ZXpEoSOF9H pic.twitter.com/vNKf5gjy8x — Bloomberg (@business) March 20, 2023 Xi Jinping during a welcoming ceremony at Vnukovo airport, Moscow, on March 20. Photographer: Anatolity Zhdanov/AFP/Getty Images China’s cease-fire paper has little detail and largely consists of broader foreign policy positions long espoused by Beijing. While its embrace of the principle of territorial integrity won praise in Kyiv, which seeks to drive Russian forces back across the border, a call for freezing forces in current positions is a non-starter. China and Russia need to boost two-way trade, foster more convergence of interests and areas of cooperation, as well as raise both the quality and quantity of investment and economic cooperation and step up policy coordination, according to the article by Xi carried by Xinhua News Agency Monday. The Chinese leader last visited Russia in mid-2019, while Putin went to Beijing in early 2022 to attend the opening of the Winter Olympics. At that meeting the two leaders agreed to a “no-limits” friendship and signed a series of long-term energy supply deals. The two met in September last year at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Forum, where Putin said he understands Beijing’s “questions and concerns” about his invasion of Ukraine, a rare admission of tensions between the diplomatic allies. — With assistance by Daniel Ten Kate and Foster Wong (Updates with statement from China’s Foreign Ministry.)

To: maceng2 who wrote (197513)	3/20/2023 10:12:45 PM
From: TobagoJack	2 Recommendations Recommended By Arran Yuan Julius Wong Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 219947

Saudi Arabia chose shock & awe, rather than be shocked and awed, and wasting not much time the only thing I can think about is gold gold gold zerohedge.com Saudi King Invites Iranian President To Visit For 1st Time In 25 Years After striking their historic peace deal which was mediated by China in Beijing over a week ago, Iran and Saudi Arabia continue to make strikes toward full normalization of ties, after being archenemies for decades - and before that their peoples having been rivals for centuries when it comes to the religious Shia-Sunni divide. An Iranian official has announced Sunday that the King of Saudi Arabia has issued a formal invitation to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to visit Riyadh in an unprecedented move. Raisi is said to have "welcomed" the invite from King Salman. Now what remains is setting a date. Via Reuters: China's director of the Office of the Central Foreign Affairs Commission Wang Yi (C), Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (R) and Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed Al Aiban (L) meet in Beijing. "In a letter to President Raisi... the King of Saudi Arabia welcomed the deal between the two brotherly countries, [and] invited him to Riyadh," Mohammad Jamshidi, the Iranian president's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, said on Twitter. The Iranian Foreign Ministry also confirmed the upcoming meeting. Additionally FM Hossein Amirabdollahian said that "An agreement was reached two months ago for Iranian and Bahraini technical delegations to visit the embassies of the two countries." He added, "We hope that some obstacles between Iran and Bahrain will be removed and we will take basic steps to reopen the embassies." Such an official head of state visit hasn't taken place in over 20 years, with the last Iranian president to visit the kingdom being President Mohammad Khatamiin February 1998. That visit in the late 90's was the first trip by an Iranian president to Saudi Arabia since the 1979 Iranian Islamic revolution. Last week, Henry Kissinger was cited in The Washington Post as calling the Saudi-Iran diplomatic breakthrough "a substantial change in the strategic situation in the Middle East." According to more of the well-known former Secretary of State's commentary: The Saudis, who have been among Washington’s closest allies in the Middle East for decades, "are now balancing their security by playing off the US against China," he explained. According to Kissinger, Riyadh’s actions are comparable to what he himself accomplished in the early 1970s when, as secretary of state in the Nixon administration, he helped achieve rapprochement with Beijing amid its tensions with Moscow. This could also eventually usher in a new era of hoped-for regional stability. Not only has the regional rivalry, which intensified most during the decade of the proxy war in Syria which began in 2011, been set amid a centuries-long divide over correct interpretation of Islam (Shia Iran vs. Sunni Saudi Arabia), but it has also spilled over in places like Yemen, scene of another grinding proxy war which pit Shia rebels against a Saudi-backed government. [url=][/url] The Saudis and Iranians also clash in supporting rival political factions inside Lebanon, with Tehran being the Shia paramilitary group Hezbollah's biggest backer. For these reasons, accusations of supporting terrorism have been frequently hurled back-and-forth over the years. Iranian state media, for example, has long charged the Saudis with being a prime covert backer of the Islamic State (ISIS) in their drive to overthrow President Assad in Syria.