Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at an African peace delegation to Ukraine and Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China, and Japan’s military promises to the Philippines.
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at an African peace delegation to Ukraine and Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to China, and Japan’s military promises to the Philippines.
A quick note: World Brief will be off Monday for the U.S. observation of Juneteenth and will return on Tuesday.
A delegation of African leaders has embarked on an ambitious mission to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia. On Friday, officials representing Comoros, Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Zambia—and led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Senegalese President Macky Sall—met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Their goal: to promote “confidence-building measures” to secure peace between the two warring countries, with an emphasis on combatting the war’s detrimental impact on global food and fertilizer prices, which has hit Africa especially hard.
But the peace mission got off to a rocky start: The delegation’s arrival in the Ukrainian capital was met with a missile barrage from Russia that injured at least four people, including a child. Reuters reported seeing the African heads of state fleeing to a nearby hotel to use its air-raid shelter, though a spokesperson for Ramaphosa later tweeted that they “didn’t hear the sirens or explosions” and that the peace mission was “proceeding as planned.”
The delegation, which vowed to focus on neutrality and diplomacy, was already the subject of controversy before even starting the trip. Western nations worry South Africa will unfairly favor Russia due to the country’s close ties to the Kremlin. Last month, the U.S. ambassador to Pretoria accused South Africa of having supplied Moscow with weapons in December 2022. Ramaphosa denied the claim and appointed a judge to oversee an inquiry into the allegations.
And, indeed, it seems little progress was made during Friday’s meeting. In a joint press conference with the delegation afterward, Zelensky made clear that his country’s position on peace talks hadn’t changed: “To allow any negotiations with Russia now while the occupier is on our land is to freeze the war, to freeze everything: pain and suffering,” Zelensky said, though he did invite the African leaders to attend an international peace summit that is being planned.
The African leaders now head to St. Petersburg, Russia, to meet with President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.
Blinken heads to China. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flew to China on Friday for long-anticipated meetings with top Chinese officials, possibly including President Xi Jinping. Talks will be held throughout the weekend and are expected to focus on growing economic competition, China’s claims over Taiwan’s sovereignty, microchip and other tech development, and human rights abuses. However, neither side seems thrilled by the other’s company, with Blinken even saying he “probably won’t be very welcome.”
Blinken is the first U.S. secretary of state to travel to the mainland since Mike Pompeo’s 2018 trip, which occurred amid then-U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. Blinken had planned to visit China in February, but the sighting of a Chinese spy balloon over Montana caused him to postpone that meet and greet. With both sides carrying baggage and tensions only expected to rise, foreign-policy experts fear the meeting may result in a lot of nothing.
The Indo-Pacific’s “weak link.” Japanese officials announced on Friday that Tokyo would provide the Philippines with military aid, including radar technology. The assistance would go toward securing the Philippines’ maritime waters and protecting Taiwan from Chinese incursions. Tokyo has expressed concern over Manila’s strength, saying the Philippines is a weak link in the Pacific region. “Ukraine may be East Asia tomorrow,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida warned last month.
Meanwhile in the Indo-Pacific, the United States deployed a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea on Friday in response to North Korea’s two ballistic missile tests on Thursday. The U.S. submarine is reportedly capable of carrying around 150 Tomahawk missiles. Washington and Seoul were in the midst of conducting joint military exercises, including live-fire drills, when Pyongyang fired into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, sparking condemnation from both Tokyo and Seoul.
Battling dengue fever. Peruvian Health Minister Rosa Gutiérrez resigned from her post on Thursday amid public pressure over her failure to resolve the country’s dengue fever outbreak. At least 248 people have died from the infection, which is spread by mosquitos, and upward of 146,000 cases have been reported.
The disease first surged in Peru following heavy rainfall from Cyclone Yaku in April and May. Gutiérrez had originally promised to contain the infection’s spread within 15 days. With this year’s upcoming El Niño expected to worsen the crisis, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte declared a two-month state of emergency across the country last week to contain the outbreak.
Which former European leader died on Monday?
A. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi
B. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
C. French President Nicolas Sarkozy
D. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder
Poland is cracking down on Satan—starting with its buses. Local Polish bus operator PKS Gdynia announced this week that bus 666 will no longer run routes to the northern seaside town of Hel after complaints from some Christian conservatives, who did not find the joke of a bus number associated with the devil delivering passengers to “hell” particularly amusing. Bus 666 will become bus 669 starting June 24, which means there’s still time to take the 666 bus to Hel before the fun ends.
B. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Berlusconi died at the age of 86 and left a complicated personal and political legacy, Barbie Latza Nadeau writes in an obituary for FP.
To take the rest of FP’s weekly international news quiz, click here or sign up to be alerted when a new one is published.
