Mario draghi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden met virtually on Monday morning, as External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh were in Washington for the fourth ‘2+ 2’ foreign and defence ministry dialogues with their U.S. counterparts. The war between Russia and Ukraine featured prominently in the opening remarks of both. Russia has nearly completed its buildup of forces for a renewed assault on Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Ukraine’s defence ministry said on Monday. Nine humanitarian corridors to evacuate people from Ukraine’s besieged eastern regions have been agreed for Monday between Kyiv and Moscow, including five in the Luhansk region, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. The mayor of the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol said Monday that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of his city and that the death toll could surpass 20,000, with corpses that were “carpeted through the … [Read more...] about Russia-Ukraine crisis updates | April 12, 2022

By The Associated Press ANKARA, Turkey — A pro-government Turkish newspaper says Turkey has drawn up a list of 10 demands it will reportedly ask Sweden and Finland to meet before it can approve their NATO membership. The list published by Sabah newspaper on Wednesday calls on the two countries to stop any financial support to groups linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as well as to Syrian Kurdish fighters whom Ankara views as extensions of the banned group. There are also demands that these countries halt contacts with members of the Syrian Kurdish group. Sabah said Turkey furthermore wants the two countries to “expedite” extradition proceedings for suspects wanted by Turkey on terror charges. The list also includes a demand that Sweden clamps down on what Sabah called a “disinformation” campaign against Turkey led by followers of Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara claims was behind a coup attempt in 2016. Many followers of the Gulen movement have fled to Sweden. … [Read more...] about Live updates | Report: Turkey lists Sweden, Finland demands

Moscow on May 18 kicked out diplomats from France, Italy and Spain in retaliation for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from European countries as part of a joint action against Russia's campaign in Ukraine. Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement it was expelling 34 "employees of French diplomatic missions" in Russia and gave them two weeks to leave the country. Moscow made the announcement after summoning France's ambassador to Russia, Pierre Levy, and telling him that the expulsion of 41 employees of Russian diplomatic missions was a "provocative and unfounded decision", the statement said. The Ministry later said that 27 employees of the Spanish embassy in Moscow and the Spanish Consulate General in Saint Petersburg "have been declared persona non grata" and will have seven days to leave Russia. The Ministry told Spanish ambassador Marcos Gomez Martinez that the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Madrid "would have a negative impact on Russian-Spanish relations". … [Read more...] about Russia expels dozens of diplomats from France, Italy and Spain

Russia will cut off natural gas to Finland after the Nordic country that applied for NATO membership this week refused President Vladimir Putin's demand to pay in rubles, the Finnish state-owned energy company said on Friday, the latest escalation over European energy amid the war in Ukraine. Finland is the latest country to be cut off from an energy supply that is used to generate electricity and power industry after refusing Russia's decree. Poland and Bulgaria were cut off late last month but had prepared for the loss of gas or are getting supplies from other countries. Putin has declared that “unfriendly foreign buyers” open two accounts in state-owned Gazprombank, one to pay in euros and dollars as specified in contracts and another in rubles. Decoding the geopolitical implications of Finland and Sweden joining NATO | In Focus podcast / repeat shuffle Italian energy company Eni said this week … [Read more...] about Finland says Russia suspending natural gas supplies