All posts tagged: global security

France signs security pact with Ukraine, pledges ‘up to €3 billion’ in additional military aid

France signs security pact with Ukraine, pledges ‘up to €3 billion’ in additional military aid

Published by Sam

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a security pact with France in Paris on Friday, having earlier secured a similar deal with Germany hailed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz as a “historic step” anchoring support for Kyiv in its raging battle against Russia. Issued on: 16/02/2024 – 18:44Modified: 16/02/2024 – 22:56 3 min The agreement includes a French aid pledge for up to €3 billion for 2024, after €1.7 billion in 2022 and €2.1 billion last year. Both deals are part of Zelensky’s drive to shore up help for his forces who are struggling to hold off Russian attacks on the frontline city of Avdiivka. After touching down at Orly airport south of the French capital, Zelensky travelled on to the Elysee palace where he met with President Emmanuel Macron to sign the accord.  The French presidency said ahead of the meeting that the pact would run for 10 years, and include precise commitments from the French side, including financial pledges. It would strengthen cooperation in the area of artillery, the presidency said, without providing details. The …

Biden Can’t Avoid the Suez Canal Problem

Biden Can’t Avoid the Suez Canal Problem

Published by skeptic

An Iranian-backed group is attacking an essential shipping route. The U.S. will have to step in. Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters / Redux December 24, 2023, 6 AM ET The sooner President Joe Biden acknowledges that Americans will likely be drawn into a fight to protect shipping traffic through the Suez Canal, the more time the U.S. military has to plan, and the less severe the harm will be to the global economy. For months, ever since a deadly Hamas incursion into Israel triggered a massive Israeli military campaign in Gaza, the United States has sought to deter Israel’s enemies, most notably Iran and its proxy Hezbollah, from spreading the conflict to other fronts in the Middle East. The administration’s fears are warranted but also moot. The war is already expanding in a way that endangers the global economy—specifically, through attacks by Iranian-backed forces on the crucial shipping lane from the Indian Ocean through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea. Whereas the U.S. military need not play any substantial role …