ETHIOPIAN IMPERIALISM AND ETHNIC CLEANSING
WHO slams 'unimaginable cruelty' inflicted on Tigray

Robin MILLARD
Wed, August 17, 2022 


The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday branded the "man-made catastrophe" in Ethiopia's Tigray region the "worst disaster on Earth" -- and slammed global leaders for overlooking the humanitarian crisis.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said "unimaginable cruelty" was being inflicted on six million people in the northern region, effectively cut off from basic services for nearly two years.

Tedros, who is himself from Tigray, suggested racism may be why the situation ranked behind Ukraine in terms of international attention, despite it being "the worst humanitarian crisis".

In November 2020, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed ordered troops into the region to topple the Tigray People's Liberation Front, accusing rebels of attacking federal army camps.


Since the war broke out, Ethiopia's northernmost region has suffered food shortages and access to basic services such as electricity, communications and banking has been severely limited.

"As a result, the people of Tigray are facing multiple outbreaks of malaria, anthrax, cholera, diarrhoea and more," Tedros told a WHO press conference in Geneva.

"This unimaginable cruelty must end. The only solution is peace."

Fighting has eased in northern Ethiopia since a humanitarian truce was declared at the end of March, allowing the resumption of desperately needed international aid convoys to Tigray.

In recent weeks both sides have mooted the possibility of peace talks.

But Tedros said only a trickle of food and medicines had made it into the region, and said basic services must be resumed in order to build confidence in the peace negotiations.

"How can peace talks happen when six million people are suffocated?" he said, putting his hand around his neck.

Tedros suggested discrimination could explain why the crisis had persisted without world leaders pressing Ethiopia and its northern neighbour Eritrea, whose forces have been backing the Ethiopian army.

"Maybe the reason is the colour of the skin of the people in Tigray. I haven't heard in the last several months now even a head of state talking about the Tigray condition anywhere, in the developed world especially. Why? I think we know," Tedros said.

"This is the worst disaster on Earth as we speak... That's the bare truth."

He said the drought affecting the Horn of Africa was compounding the crisis.

"I appeal to the Ethiopian government to resolve this peacefully. The ball is in its hand," the country's former health and foreign minister said.

Soce Fall, the WHO's assistant director-general for emergency response, said that recovery in the health system in Tigray would take "months and months", with the current needs far from being fulfilled before it was even possible to talk about recovery.

rjm/nl/rox/ri

UN rights chief says Rohingya refugees unable to return

AFP -

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday that it remained unsafe for Rohingya refugees to return to their homes in Myanmar, nearly five years after a crackdown there sparked an exodus to neighbouring Bangladesh.


© -UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet (C) visits a Rohingya refugee camp in Ukhia, Bangladesh

Nearly a million members of the mostly Muslim minority live in a sprawling and squalid patchwork of refugee settlements near Bangladesh's southern coast.

Most fled their homes after a 2017 Myanmar army offensive that is now subject to a landmark genocide case at the UN's top court.

Five years later, the refugees refuse to go back without guarantees for their safety and rights in Myanmar, which is now ruled by a military junta after the ouster of its civilian government last year.

Bachelet met with Rohingya community members during a tour of the camps on Tuesday and said they had expressed "resounding hope" that they would be able to go back to their homes.

"Unfortunately the current situation across the border means that the conditions are not right for returns," Bachelet told reporters in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka.

"Repatriation must always be conducted in a voluntary and dignified manner, only when safe and sustainable conditions exist in Myanmar."

Bangladesh has become increasingly impatient with the presence of its huge refugee population, and Bachelet said she was concerned about "increasing anti-Rohingya rhetoric" and scapegoating of the community.

She added that many refugees were fearful for their safety due to the activity of armed groups and criminal gangs.

Security has been a constant issue in the camps, with scores of killings, kidnappings and police dragnets targeting drug trafficking networks.

Two Rohingya community leaders were shot dead earlier this month, allegedly by an insurgent group active in the camps that has been accused of murdering political opponents.

Bachelet was on a four-day visit to Bangladesh before her term as UN high commissioner for human rights ends later this month.

While touring the camps on Tuesday, she urged the international community to continue to support the Rohingya despite heightened global focus on more recent crises.

She added that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was being keenly felt among the Rohingya, with global food prices soaring and driving up the costs of supporting a population dependent on humanitarian aid.

"I would insist that the international community don't abandon the Rohingyas and continue supporting and even looking at if they can scale up and support, because of the consequences of the war," she said.

- 'Serious allegations' -

Bachelet is the first UN rights chief to visit Bangladesh and her trip included meetings with local activists to discuss accusations of gross abuses by security forces, including extrajudicial killings.

Campaigners say that under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the country's security forces have killed thousands of people in staged shootouts, while hundreds of others have disappeared.

"I raised my deep concern about these serious allegations with government ministers and highlighted the need for an impartial, independent and transparent investigation into these allegations," Bachelet told reporters.

In December, the United States imposed sanctions on the country's elite Rapid Action Battalion police force as well as seven top security officers, including the national police chief, over allegations of gross human rights violations.

The government denies the accusations of disappearances and extrajudicial killings, with one minister saying that some of those who went missing had in fact fled Bangladesh.

bur-gle/slb/aha

Damaged freighter blocks traffic at drought-hit Rhine

Wed, August 17, 2022 


A stranded cargo ship caused traffic to be halted Wednesday at the Rhine river in western Germany after suffering a technical fault, authorities said, at a time when water transport was already ailing from a drought.

The vessel is stuck at St Goar and Oberwesel, in between the cities of Mainz and Koblenz, water police said, adding that they were expecting to clear the stricken ship within the day.

The machine damage came as water levels in the Rhine had dropped to critical points at several locations, including at nearby Kaub -- a known bottleneck for shipping where the river runs narrow and shallow.

The gauge at Kaub stood at 34 cm (13 inches) on Wednesday, well below the 40-cm reference point.

While vessels are still able to navigate at low water levels, they are forced to reduce their loads to avoid the risk of running aground.

About four percent of freight is transported on waterways in Germany, including on the Rhine, which originates in Switzerland and runs through several countries including France and Germany before flowing into the sea in the Netherlands.

Transport on the Rhine has gained significance in recent months because among cargo moved on the river is coal, now all the more necessary as Germany seeks to wean itself off Russian gas.

Germany's biggest companies have already warned that major disruptions to river traffic could deal another blow to an economy already beset by logistical difficulties.

The 2018 drought, which saw the benchmark depth of the Rhine in Kaub drop to 25 cm in October, shrank German GDP by 0.2 percent that year, according to Deutsche Bank Research.

hmn/dlc/lth

Egypt's central bank governor resigns as economic woes mount

Wed, August 17, 2022 


CAIRO (AP) — Egypt’s central bank governor resigned Wednesday as the Middle East's most populous nation struggles to curb inflation triggered by Russia's war in Ukraine, high oil prices and a drop in tourism.

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi accepted the resignation of Tarek Amer and named him a presidential adviser, the Egyptian leader’s office said in a statement. The brief statement offered no explanation for Amer’s resignation.

No replacement was immediately named for Amer, who had been appointed governor of the central bank in November 2015. He has been criticized for his handling of Egypt’s financial challenges.

The currency is under pressure, sliding in value to about 19 Egyptian pounds to the U.S. dollar. That followed a central bank decision allowing the currency to depreciate by around 16% in March to try to stem a growing trade deficit.

“It seems there's a lot of tensions within policymaking circles, and I think that's ultimately what led to Mr. Amer's resignation," said Jason Tuvey, a senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics.

Tuvey said there are officials that oppose devaluing the pound and instead support measures like rationing gas consumption by curbing electricity usage, which could in turn harm business activity. Amer had traditionally been seen as in the camp that supported the pound's depreciation as a way to secure a loan from the International Monetary Fund.

The London-based Capital Economics research firm predicts that Egypt’s currency will continue to slide, reaching 25 pounds to the dollar by the end of 2024 amid sustained pressure.

The resignation of the central bank head comes after key ministries were reshuffled Saturday as the government faces mounting pressure from economic challenges. The Cabinet shake-up, which was approved by parliament in an emergency session, affected 13 ministries, including health, education, culture, local development and irrigation. The country’s minister of tourism and antiquities also was replaced.

Egypt’s expansive tourism industry, which employs millions, was hit hard by years of turmoil, the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine. Prior to the conflict, around a third of tourists to Egypt came from Russia.

Russia’s war has been deeply felt in other ways in Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer that sources around 80% of it from the Black Sea region.

In the first weeks after the invasion of Ukraine in late February, the price of wheat and other grains skyrocketed, as did the price of fuel. Although prices have come down somewhat, the cost of grains remains at least 50% higher than before the pandemic in early 2020. Furthermore, the cost of shipping to export those grains through the Black Sea is high.

Inflation in the country of 103 million people reached 14.6% in July, increasing pressure on lower-income households and everyday necessities. Around a third of Egyptians live in poverty, according to government figures.

The World Bank notes that Egypt's government announced an assistance package worth 130 billion pounds (more than $8 billion) just before devaluing the pound in March to alleviate the impact of rising prices. The package aimed to increase public-sector wages and pensions, as well as expand direct cash assistance programs.

Egypt's Gulf Arab allies have come to its assistance with multibillion-dollar investments buoyed by high oil prices that have helped their bottom line.

Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, known as the Public Investment Fund, recently established a division in Egypt that has already announced deals worth $1.3 billion with the aim of bringing in $10 billion into Egypt.

___

Batrawy reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Samy Magdy And Aya Batrawy, The Associated Press

Miners Toil For Coal Beneath The Battle For East Ukraine
By Joe STENSON
08/17/22 

Since Moscow's troops failed to storm Kyiv, the conflict has shifted to the agricultural south and industrial, coal-rich Donbas in the east

Deep underground, not far from Ukraine's frontlines, coal miners burrowing in the bowels of the earth are preoccupied by the war but resigned to getting the job done.

Since Moscow's troops failed to storm Kyiv, the conflict has shifted to the agricultural south and industrial, coal-rich Donbas in the east.

At a mine founded 43 years ago, when Ukraine was still part of the USSR, outside the city of Pavlograd in the Dnipropetrovsk region, 4,000 workers toil on rotating shifts.

Just 170 kilometres (106 miles) from the pro-Russian separatist stronghold of Donetsk, miner Oleksandr Oksen says thoughts are often with colleagues on the frontlines.

"We are with them in spirit, but after all, the coal also needs to be mined by someone" the 42-year-old pit boss said.

Some 800 employees have been called up to serve as soldiers in the war raging 150 kilometres to the east, soon to enter its seventh month.

Mine officials insist output has nevertheless remained the same.

From the ground level, the facility has the air of a university campus. Willow fronds blow in the wind and a water feature spouts next to a waist-high giant chess set.


But 370 metres (1,200 feet) down a lift shaft, wailing with the sound of tortured metal during the descent, the hardships of working at the coalface begin.

The heat is smothering, and the air is saturated with percolating dust. It is said there is a ghost in the mine that helps the workers, but even here they are haunted by anxieties about the war.

Phones must be surrendered at the start of shifts and staff learn only of the latest developments -- and the safety of friends and family -- when they emerge back into the sunlight six hours later.

"Leaving the mine, the first thing they do is pick up the phone and call," said Vasyl, the director of the mining complex, who asked that his last name not be used.


After plunging into the tunnels, workers are ferried 3.6 kilometres in a squat train carriage -- like a giant filing cabinet turned on its side -- before travelling by foot up a narrow tunnel, the rock walls held back by rusted metal cages.

The slot in the rock is winnowed down further and further, until it is only one metre tall.

Deep inside, hunched at his post, is Volodymyr Palienko, 33, tinkering with the metal maw of a machine.

"What is happening in our country affects everyone," he says. "Everyone has friends and acquaintances who are involved in one way."

At a mine outside the city of Pavlograd -- founded 43 years ago when Ukraine was still part of the USSR -- 4,000 workers toil on rotating shifts

Phones must be surrendered at the start of shifts and staff learn only of the latest developments -- and the safety of friends and family -- when they emerge back into the sunlight six hours later

The heat is smothering in the shafts and the air is saturated with percolating dust

Online campaign raises $20,000 for Freya walrus statue in Norway

Critics said the decision to put the animal down was rushed and did not take her well-being into account.

Issued on: 17/08/2022 

Freya had made headlines since July 17 when she was first spotted in the waters of the Norwegian capital

 Tor Erik Schrøder NTB/AFP/File

Oslo (AFP) – An online campaign has raised over $20,000 to build a statue in Norway for Freya, a beloved walrus that was euthanised by officials at the weekend.

The walrus gained global attention after she was spotted basking in the Oslo fjord, attracting large crowds keen to spot the 600-kilogram (1,300-pound) marine mammal.

She was put down on Sunday after officials said she was showing signs of stress and feared she was a threat to the public, who did not keep their distance as requested.

On Wednesday, an online campaign had so far raised 210,000 Norwegian krone ($21,600) to build a statue in the young walrus's honour.

The campaign's organiser said the statue should serve as a reminder for future generations to protect animals.

"The culling of Freya sends the extremely negative message that Norway, and in particular Oslo, is not able to make room for wild animals," Erik Holm said on the fundraising website Spleis.no.

"By erecting a statue of the symbol that Freya has become in such a short time, we will remind ourselves (and generations to come) that we cannot and should not kill or erase nature when it is in our path."

Freya, estimated to be around five years old, had already been sighted in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden and chose to spend part of the summer in Norway.

She had made headlines since July 17 when she was first spotted in the waters of the Norwegian capital.

The walrus is a protected species that normally lives in the even more northerly latitudes of the Arctic.

Between long naps in the sun -- a walrus can sleep up to 20 hours a day -- Freya had been filmed chasing a duck, attacking a swan and dozing on boats struggling to support her bulk.

Despite repeated appeals, curious onlookers continued to approach the mammal, sometimes with children in tow, to take photographs.

Walruses do not normally behave aggressively towards humans, but they can feel threatened by intruders and attack.

Critics said the decision to put the animal down was rushed and did not take her well-being into account.

Officials said sedating Freya and moving her to a less populated area would be too complex an operation.

© 2022 AFP

NASA's new rocket on launchpad for trip to Moon


Issued on: 17/08/2022 -

NASA's SLS rocket with an Orion capsule at its tip on launchpad 39B in Cape Canaveral in Florida ahead of the planned launch of the Artemis 1 uncrewed flight to the Moon Joel KOWSKY NASA/AFP


Washington (AFP) – NASA's giant new SLS rocket arrived at its launchpad Wednesday in Cape Canaveral ahead of a planned flight to the Moon in less than two weeks.

It will be the maiden voyage of the Artemis program -- America's quest to return humans to the Moon for the first time since the last Apollo mission in 1972.

The Artemis 1 mission, an uncrewed test flight, will feature the first blastoff of the Space Launch System rocket, which will be the most powerful in the world.

It will propel the Orion crew capsule into orbit around the Moon, and the spacecraft will remain in space for 42 days before returning to Earth.

Starting in 2024, astronauts will travel aboard Orion for the same trip, and the following year, at the earliest, Americans will once again set foot on the Moon.

The SLS rocket, in development for more than a decade, is 98 meters (322 feet) tall.

On Wednesday it stood at historic launch complex 39B, after a 10-hour overnight crawl from the assembly building.

"To all of us that gaze up at the Moon, dreaming of the day humankind returns to the lunar surface, folks, we're here. We are going back," NASA administrator Bill Nelson said earlier this month.

The Orion capsule will fly to the Moon and 64,000 kilometers (40,000 miles) beyond it -- further than any previous crewed spacecraft.

On the way back through Earth's atmosphere, traveling at 40,000 km per hour (25,000 mph), Orion's thermal shield will have to withstand a temperature that is half that of the surface of the sun.

Liftoff for the Artemis 1 mission is scheduled for August 29 at 8:33 am (1233 GMT). If it has to be postponed due to bad weather, the backup dates are September 2 and 5.

After the 42-day trip, the capsule is supposed to splash down in the Pacific and be picked up by a US Navy vessel.

In 2024, an Artemis 2 mission is scheduled to take astronauts up to orbit the Moon but without landing on it. That honor is reserved for Artemis 3, a mission scheduled for 2025 at the earliest.

The last time people walked on the Moon was with the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

While the Apollo program featured only white male astronauts, NASA says the Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon.

The hope is to use the Moon as a staging ground to develop technologies for sending humans to Mars.

© 2022 AFP

Cairo blaze highlights problem of unsafe makeshift churches

Bahira AMIN
Wed, August 17, 2022 


An electrical fire that turned a crowded Cairo church into a deathtrap highlights a persistent problem, say Coptic Christians in majority-Muslim Egypt -- a struggle to build or renovate their places of worship.

The residential-style multi-storey building housing the Abu Sifin Church where 41 worshippers died had only one exit and, like most structures in Egypt, lacked smoke detectors and alarms or fire escapes.

Its location in a maze of alleyways in the working-class district of Imbaba was part of the reason firefighters reportedly took more than an hour to arrive, during which dozens died of smoke inhalation.


Unable to escape the flames down the narrow staircase from the upper floors, some of the about 200 worshippers "threw themselves out of the windows," one witness told AFP.

Christian leaders say policy changes since 2016 have facilitated obtaining building permits -- but also that many churches remain located in dangerous makeshift locations unsuitable for large congregations.

"As we've seen, these are life and death matters and disproportionately affect churches in poorer areas," historian Amy Fallas, who has studied the issue, told AFP.


Since Sunday's disaster, two more churches have caught fire, both blazes also blamed on "power surges", though they were quickly contained and caused no casualties, according to church and official sources.

Copts are the Middle East's largest Christian community but are a minority in Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, where they account for 10 to 15 percent of the country's 103 million people.

Christians have in the past been targeted in deadly attacks by Islamist militants, particularly after the 2013 overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi, with churches, schools and homes burnt down.
- 'Bureaucratic hurdles' -


Such violence has eased, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the first to attend Christmas mass every year, was quick to offer his condolences Sunday to Pope Tawadros II, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

With world attention on the tragedy, a presidential decree was issued for the Armed Forces Engineering Authority to renovate the charred church.

In the aftermath of the disaster, Tawadros II said on national TV that Copts often pray in "small, inadequate churches", and that the Abu Sifin Church measured "only 120 square metres" (about 1,300 square feet).

The pope said Copts had often faced bureaucratic hurdles in obtaining permits to build and repair churches, "a very cumbersome process", but he was careful to clarify this had been the case until "over a decade ago".


A 2016 law to improve the process has been lauded as a breakthrough by authorities. By last year, 1,077 churches had been recognised as legal places of worship, according to a cabinet statement that hailed Egypt's "unique model of interfaith coexistence and national unity".

Father Yohanna, of Cairo's Great Saint Anthony's Church, told AFP that the process to build and renovate churches, once difficult, had indeed "become smooth" since 2016.

But the priest -- who lost six relatives in Sunday's fire, including three children -- also said that places of worship still require better inspections to avoid more such tragedies.

- 'National unity' -

Critics say the state's legal push in the name of "national unity" in fact stigmatises complaints of discrimination as "anti-patriotic", as Fallas argued in a paper for the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy.

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) says authorities have conditionally approved fewer than 40 percent of requests to build or repair churches since 2016, with only 20 percent granted final approval.

EIPR also argues that Copts still face discrimination.

A fire in 2016 that destroyed the Church of Saint Joseph and Abu Sifin in Ezbet Faragallah in Minya, south of Cairo, has been described by some as a "deliberate act", according to the group.

The church submitted a request to rebuild the house of worship after it was demolished in 2021, but has received no response so far.

Nine Coptic Christians who held a small protest demanding the church be rebuilt were detained for three months and released in January.

Pope Tawadros II, in the aftermath of Sunday's fire at the Abu Sifin Church in densely populated Imbaba, meanwhile called on state officials "to move the church to a more spacious area".

Father Yohanna, however, said proposals to relocate it to an outer district are "not practical" for the local Christian community, arguing that "places of worship must be close to residential areas".

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/08/safety-concerns-after-deadly-fire-rips.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2022/08/anger-flares-at-slow-response-to-deadly.html

Portugal struggles to control huge blaze in natural park

Issued on: 17/08/2022 

Portugal has been battling its worst forest fires since 2017 when around 100 lives were lost 

PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA AFP

Orjais (Portugal) (AFP) – More than 1,200 firefighters struggled Wednesday to control a huge forest fire in Portugal's Serra da Estrela park, which resumed just days after being brought under control.

Strong winds have been hampering attempts to combat the spread of the fire, one of 195 that have ravaged some 92,000 hectares of land across Portugal this year amid record temperatures.

The fire in the UNESCO-designated park restarted Tuesday after being brought under control five days earlier, and is estimated to have already consumed around 25,000 hectares (62,000 acres) of land.

It is still posing a sizeable challenge even if "90 percent of this fire's perimeter is now under control", said civil protection agency head Andre Fernandes.#photo1

July proved to be Portugal's hottest in nearly a century, with the country battling its worst forest fires since 2017 when around 100 lives were lost.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is contributing to extreme weather events, including wildfires and heatwaves.

Neighbouring Spain has also been battling a wave of forest fires in recent weeks after also recording soaring temperatures.

The Serra da Estrela fire started on August 6 outside the central town of Covilha and authorities say they have deployed 390 fire engines and 14 planes and helicopters in efforts to control it.

Firefighters, who hope to keep the fire from spreading further before temperatures are forecast to rise again Friday, have thrown a 160-kilometre (95-mile) cordon around the area, Fernandes told reporters.

The blaze has left 27 people injured, including three seriously, while 45 people have been evacuated as a precaution since Monday.

Residents in the village of Orjais in the foothills of the mountain range helped fight back the flames which came within a few dozen metres (feet) of their homes.

"It was chaos", Fatima Cardoso, 62, told AFP.

"We have not yet reached the end of this critical period for fires," Interior Minister Jose Luis Carneiro warned after meeting with meteorologists.

The upcoming heatwave is forecast to last into September, which Carneiro said was set to be drier and hotter than usual.

© 2022 AFP

China And The West Both Want To Keep Kazakh Oil Flowing

By Eurasianet - Aug 14, 2022

• Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Russia has cut off oil exports from Kazakhstan through its territory twice.
• 
  
• The Chinese government has signaled that it will not tolerate Russian meddling with Kazakh oil exports.
• 
  
• The West and China have a mutual interest in keeping Kazakh oil flowing.

Since its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has twice blocked Kazakh oil exports crossing its territory. Is this revenge for Kazakhstan’s refusal to endorse the war? An attempt to push up the value of its own crude?

Either way, Beijing does not like it. The Chinese government has signaled that it will not accept Russian meddling in Kazakh oil exports, quietly rebuking Moscow for the blockades.

Kazakhstan pumps just under 2 million barrels per day (bpd), about 2 percent of global oil production. Almost 80 percent is exported to world markets via the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) pipeline that connects the country’s major oil fields with Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.

This gives Moscow leverage.

On March 22, Russian authorities claimed that two of three loading facilities at Novorossiysk had been damaged by a storm. In reality, Moscow almost certainly invented a pretext to reduce global supply, raise oil prices to pressure the West into easing sanctions, and aid the Kremlin’s preferred candidate in the French presidential election. The CPC restored full exports after a month.

Then, on July 6, a Russian court ordered the CPC to suspend operations for 30 days, citing environmental concerns. This disruption was limited, however, as a higher court ruled on July 11 to restore operations and issued a nominal fine.

Both times, oil prices jumped.

While the Kremlin does not fear Kazakhstan, it needs Beijing. And China has significant economic interests in Kazakhstan, the gateway to its Belt and Road Initiative of global transportation infrastructure. Chinese companies are important players in Kazakhstan’s oil and gas industries. Although little Kazakh crude is physically shipped to China, China has an interest in seeing it reach global markets; without these shipments, oil prices would rise, global consumer demand for goods would weaken, and China’s export-oriented growth would take a hit. Finally, all three existing legs of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline transit Kazakhstan, delivering critical energy supplies. With the Chinese economy slowing, in part thanks to higher energy prices, Beijing needs Kazakhstan to export every molecule possible.Related: The Burgeoning Energy Partnership Between Azerbaijan And The EU

Though Beijing is loath to publicly break with Moscow, the PRC has subtly warned Moscow about intruding too deeply in world oil markets. Three days after the CPC was first closed, Sinopec halted a major investment in Russia.

That same day, Bloomberg reported that Chinese companies and government officials were “rushing” to learn how to comply with Western sanctions on Russia, while the Chinese Foreign Ministry reportedly warned state-owned energy firms to avoid any “hasty” purchases that could present secondary sanctions risk. Additionally, the China National Petroleum Corporation reposted a history of natural gas in Beijing, detailing the Central Asia-China Gas Pipeline network but conspicuously omitting the $55 billion, Russia-to-China Power of Siberia pipeline that opened in 2019.

As the global economy contends with inflation and slowing growth, and China deals with the consequences of rolling COVID lockdowns, Beijing has little tolerance for further economic disruptions. Additional Russian restrictions on CPC exports would be an unwelcome distraction for President Xi Jinping as he seeks an unprecedented third term at the upcoming Communist Party Congress later this year.

Beijing is not on the West’s side in the Ukraine conflict. Yet even as tensions over Taiwan threaten cooperation, policymakers in China and the West should see that they have a shared interest in preserving Kazakh oil flows should Russia block exports again.

By Eurasianet.org