A Turkish court in Diyarbakir decided on Wednesday to release 14 Kurdish journalists on bail after detaining them for 13 months awaiting trial.

The journalists were initially detained on June 8, 2022, without knowing the charges against them. The indictment was released in March 2023, charging 17 journalists with membership in a terrorist organization in reference to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. Three of the journalists were released, pending trial.

The journalists worked for several pro-Kurdish media outlets, including the Mesopotamia News Agency, the PEL production company and the Dicle Firat Journalists Association.

The first hearing in their case began on Tuesday, 13 months since the detentions. Experts say prolonged judicial processes, such as pretrial detention and late indictments, are being used as a punishment and deterrent.

“The main purpose of this case is to cease our work [as reporters] and keep us away from the field,” Serdar Altan, one of the arrested journalists and co-chair of the Dicle Firat Journalists Association, said during the hearing.

“We have been arrested for 13 months. Who will be held accountable for restricting our freedom?” Altan added.

The journalists facing trial denied being members of a terrorist organization, and some defended themselves in court in Kurdish.

Resul Temur, one of the lawyers defending the journalists, told the court that at least 30 Kurdish journalists had been arrested in the last 12 months.

“This data alone shows what kind of judicial harassment journalists face,” Temur said.

Temur demanded the journalists’ release, asking the court to consider the length of their pretrial detention.

Veysel Ok, co-director of an Istanbul-based Media and Law Studies Association and a human rights lawyer, argued in court that the case questioned the journalists’ profession by asking about their news sources.

“As we cannot question your judgeship, you cannot question journalism. All journalists here are journalists who do rights journalism and are the voice of the Kurds and the oppressed,” Ok said during his court argument.

The prosecutor asked for continuation of the detention, citing “the nature of charges and evidence showing a strong suspicion of committing the crime.”

The court panel did not accept the prosecutor’s request and released the journalists on bail. The hearing was adjourned until November 9.

“Their release does not mean that they are acquitted. The trial will continue. There are other witnesses to listen,” Ok told VOA.

“In fact, there should have been an acquittal after these defenses. But since there is no legal security in Turkey, we cannot make such predictions for the future,” he added.

Temur said the court’s decision to release the journalists is promising for other press freedom cases.

“This decision made us hope that the court panel had a judgment or thought that the evidence in the indictment was within the scope of journalistic activity,” Temur said.

Turkey has one of the worst records for jailing journalists.

According to data from the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 40 were detained in connection with their work as of December 2022. Of those, 15 are facing anti-state charges, and the rest have not had charges released, the data shows.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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Spain sweltered under an unrelenting heat wave Wednesday as temperatures started to build toward what is forecast to be a torrid weekend across southern Europe.

Spain’s weather service said thermometers could potentially hit 45 C (113 F) in southeastern areas of the Iberian Peninsula, which are under alert for extreme heat. That mark was reached Monday in the village of Loja near Granada at the start of the heat wave that is causing restless nights across the country.

More than 100 weather stations registered temperatures of at least 35 C (95 F) as early as 6 a.m. Wednesday, according to meteorologist Ruben del Campo of Spain’s national weather agency.

“On Wednesday, we expect temperatures to fall overall with the arrival of cool winds from the North and East, with the exception of the southeast and southern Andalusia, where hot winds blowing from the interior will cause temperatures to soar,” Del Campo said.

While some relief is in store in the coming days for the Iberian Peninsula, other European countries will sweat through the weekend.

In Italy, 10 cities were put on high heat alert for older people and other vulnerable populations from Bolzano in the north extending southward to Bologna, Florence and Rome. Temperatures are expected to reach 40 C (104 F) in the Sardinian inland Wednesday.

But storms in Italy’s populous northern Lombardy region caused flooding, felled trees and ripped roofs off buildings. More than 200 firefighters responded to emergencies in the regional capital of Milan, Varese, near the Malpensa airport, Lecco, near Lake Como, Sondrio, located in the Alps, and Bergamo.

Temperatures were also starting to tick up in Greece, where a heat wave was forecast to reach up to 44 C (111 F) in some parts of the country in the coming days. Authorities banned access to nature reserves and forests to reduce the risk of wildfires, while municipalities were opening air-conditioned areas in public buildings for people to shelter from the heat.

Greece’s agriculture ministry issued restrictions on the transportation and working hours of animals such as horses and donkeys offering rides in tourist areas during the heat wave. Working animals won’t be allowed to work between noon and 5 p.m. on days where temperatures are between 35-39 C (95-102 F) in the shade, while they won’t be allowed to work at any time of the day when temperatures exceed that range.

Scientists report that heat-related deaths soared in 2022 in Europe, when Spain had a record-hot year. The Mediterranean region is expected to see temperatures rise faster than many other areas of the globe because of climate change.
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, outlining a proposal aimed at satisfying a Russian demand that threatens to shut down the key Black Sea Grain Initiative.

“The secretary-general remains engaged with all relevant parties on this issue and expresses his willingness to further engage on his proposal with the Russian Federation,” Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday.

Dujarric declined to go into details about the proposal, saying “we are in very delicate times.” 

The initiative, which allows the export of Ukrainian grain from ports Russia blocked during its invasion of Ukraine last year, is due for renewal by July 18. Moscow has said repeatedly during the lead-up to previous extension deadlines that it is not benefiting enough under the initiative and has sent similar signals recently.

A parallel memorandum of understanding between Moscow and the United Nations has sought to remove obstacles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer. While food and fertilizer are not sanctioned by the West, efforts have been made to ease concerns of anxious banks, insurers, shippers and other private sector actors about doing business with Russia. 

One of Russia’s main demands has been for its agriculture bank to be reinstated in the international Swift system of financial transactions.

U.N. trade chief Rebeca Grynspan, who has led the U.N. negotiations with Moscow on the memorandum of understanding, told reporters Wednesday that the U.N. has been able to secure “alternatives” to Swift within the Western sanctions framework, to help the Russian Agriculture Bank expedite its work.

“But it’s true that this is one of the challenges that has not yet fully happened,” she said. “We have not fully found the solution for the Russian Agriculture Bank.”

But she said the U.N.’s proposal could be of significant help for what the bank wants to achieve. She emphasized that it would apply only to food and fertilizer and not to the Russian Agriculture Bank’s other operations.

Since the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, nearly 33 million metric tons of grain and other food stuffs have been exported to global markets, helping to calm food prices, which spiked at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

Experts say food prices would certainly spike again if Moscow does not renew the deal.

“How much will be the duration of that spike will depend a lot on how markets will respond to that,” Maximo Torero, Chief Economist of Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) told reporters.

His remarks came at the launch of a global food security report, which found that between 691 and 783 million people faced hunger in 2022, an increase of 122 million people compared to 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. 
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United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a costly, senseless war that has killed and injured thousands of civilians and violated the human rights of millions. Türk presented an oral update on the current situation in Ukraine and Crimea on Wednesday to the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.

In a no-holds-barred presentation to the council, Türk outlined in grim detail what he calls the horrendous civilian cost of the war in Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, he said more than 9,000 civilians, including at least 500 children, have been killed, adding that these figures are likely to be much higher.

He said Russia did not grant U.N. monitors access to places of detention. Nevertheless, from interviews with 178 detainees who had been released, he said monitors have documented more than 900 cases of arbitrary detention, many of them tantamount to enforced disappearances.

“We also documented the summary executions of 77 civilians while they were arbitrarily detained by the Russian Federation,” he said. “Over 90% of detainees held by the Russian Federation whom we were able to interview stated that they had been subjected to torture and ill-treatment — including sexual violence, in some cases — by Russian security personnel.” 

Türk also expressed concern about human rights violations committed by Ukraine. He said the U.N., which had unimpeded access to places of detention under Ukrainian control, documented 75 cases of arbitrary detention. He added that monitors found Ukrainian personnel in unofficial places of detention, to a much lesser extent, also engaged in torture or ill-treatment, including sexual violence.

Türk said a report submitted to the Human Rights Council by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres describes widespread, systematic human rights violations committed by Russian forces in Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, as well as other areas occupied by Russia.

Türk said his team has documented 60 arbitrary arrests, as well as enforced disappearances and torture in these areas. He said 2,500 men have been forcibly conscripted in Crimea. He said he is deeply concerned about population transfers of civilians.

“During the reporting period, my office collected information about 23 residents who were arrested by Russian security forces and transferred across the administrative boundary line to Crimea, reportedly handcuffed and blindfolded,” he said. “In parallel, the Russian authorities have continued transferring Ukrainian citizens whom they consider so-called foreigners out of Crimea.” 

Russian Ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Gennady Gatilov, categorically rejected the high commissioner’s report, calling it flawed and one-sided. He said the report does not adequately reflect the crimes committed by Ukraine.

The Russian envoy said there is a multitude of video evidence on the internet of Ukrainian security forces executing suspected collaborators in regions vacated by Russian troops. He called on the high commissioner’s office to pay attention to these actions by Kyiv and to address them publicly.
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Iran summoned Russia’s ambassador on Wednesday after Moscow released a joint statement with Arab countries earlier this week challenging Iran’s claim to disputed islands in the Persian Gulf.

It marked a rare spat between Iran and Russia, which have deepened ties since Moscow invaded Ukraine, with Iran supplying killer drones that have been used to devastating effect there. Iran and Russia are also strong backers of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.

Iran’s official IRNA news agency said the ambassador was summoned over a joint statement released Monday after a meeting in Moscow between Russia and the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.

In the statement, the ministers affirmed their support for efforts “to reach a peaceful solution to the issue of the three islands, Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, through bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice,” according to the Saudi Press Agency.

Iran took control the three islands after British forces withdrew in 1971 and considers them an “inseparable” part of its territory. The United Arab Emirates also claims the three islands and has long pressed for a negotiated solution.

“We never stand upon ceremony with any side over Iran’s independence, sovereignty and integrity,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian tweeted, without naming Russia.

Iran summoned China’s envoy over similar remarks on the disputed islands in December.

The three islands dominate the approach to the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.

Iran says the islands have been part of Persian states from antiquity up until they were occupied by the British in the early 20th century. It also says an agreement reached with Sharjah, one of the UAE’s seven emirates, gives it the right to administer Abu Musa and station troops there.

There is no such agreement on the other two islands. The UAE says they belonged to the emirate of Ras al-Khaimah until Iran seized them by force days before the Emirati federation was formed.
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NATO leaders met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they close a summit in Lithuania’s capital, reiterating support for Kyiv to join the alliance but stopping short of any specific commitments or timeline that Zelenskyy has sought.

“Today, we meet as equals. I look forward to the day we meet as allies,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

In its written declaration Tuesday, leaders said they “will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met.”

Kyiv’s NATO membership in the middle of Russia’s invasion would require allies to apply the principle of “an attack on one is an attack on all” enshrined in the bloc’s Article 5 – putting members in direct conflict with Moscow.

While not extending a fast track to membership, NATO is dropping its requirement for Ukraine to fulfill its so-called Membership Action Plan, a list of political, economic and military goals it must meet before joining the alliance.

A day after blasting NATO’s lack of a clear timetable as “absurd,” Zelenskyy appeared more conciliatory and acknowledged concerns that allies do not want to be dragged into direct conflict with Moscow.

“Even during the full-scale war against Russia, Ukraine continues to conduct reform,” he said. “Therefore, we highly appreciate the recognition that Ukraine will not need an action plan on its way to NATO.”

NATO-Ukraine Council

Wednesday’s agenda features the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, a newly established decision-making body that carries more authority than the previous NATO-Ukraine Commission, which was a consultation-only platform.

Zelenskyy is also set to hold separate talks with U.S. President Joe Biden later Wednesday.

Alongside Zelenskyy, leaders of the Group of Seven wealthiest democracies, including Biden, will announce a new framework to provide long-term security and economic support for Ukraine through separate bilateral negotiations.

“This multilateral declaration will send a significant signal to Russia that time is not on its side,” said Amanda Sloat, National Security Council Senior Director for Europe, in a briefing to reporters.

Biden’s final item before leaving Vilnius is an address “highlighting how the United States, alongside our allies and partners, are supporting Ukraine, defending democratic values and taking action to address global challenges,” the White House said.

Immediately after his remarks Wednesday evening, Biden is scheduled to depart for Helsinki to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Now that Sweden will be joining NATO, all five Nordic countries are part of the military alliance.
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NATO leaders met Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Lithuania’s capital as they close a summit that has included emphasis on supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion and discussion of Ukraine’s future within the alliance.

Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg that he understands some allies do not want to consider Ukraine joining the alliance at this time due to fears of a world war, and that it is clear Ukraine cannot join while the conflict with Russia is ongoing.

NATO leaders said in a written declaration Tuesday that the bloc “will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” reiterating their position supporting Ukraine’s membership but stopping short of any specific commitments or timeline that Zelenskyy has sought.

Zelenskyy said Wednesday he understands the statement to mean the conditions will be met when Ukraine’s territory is secure.

Stoltenberg highlighted a three-part package of more closely integrating Ukraine with NATO, including work on interoperability between Ukrainian and NATO forces, a new NATO-Ukraine council that held its first meeting Wednesday and removing a requirement for Ukraine to complete a membership action plan on its path to becoming a member.

“Today we meet as equals,” Stoltenberg said. “I look forward to the day we meet as allies.”

Russia has issued several statements during the summit stating that security assistance for Ukraine and NATO expansion represent a threat to Russia.

Asked about potentially inflaming the situation, Stoltenberg said there is already a “full-fledged war going on in Europe” and there is no risk-free option. He said the “biggest risk is if President [Vladimir] Putin wins.”

Stoltenberg repeated NATO’s position that it is only for Ukraine and NATO allies to decide if Ukraine will join the alliance and that “Moscow doesn’t have a veto.”

Britain said members of the Group of Seven, or G7, leading industrialized nations planned to announce a new framework for allies providing long-term security support for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy welcomed the move, saying that while the best security guarantee for Ukraine would be NATO membership, the G7 action would be a concrete step in support of Ukraine’s security. He added that Ukraine has already spoken to nations outside of the G7 that are interested in joining as well.

Stoltenberg said that while guarantees, documents and meetings are important, the most urgent task for allies is to provide Ukraine with enough weapons.

Zelenskyy was also set to hold separate talks with U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday.

The U.S. leader is scheduled to deliver an address “highlighting how the United States, alongside our allies and partners, are supporting Ukraine, defending democratic values, and taking action to address global challenges,” the White House said.

Following the two-day summit, Biden heads to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Once Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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NATO leaders are set to meet Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as they close a summit in Lithuania’s capital that has included emphasis on supporting Ukraine in its fight against a Russian invasion and discussion of Ukraine’s future within the alliance. 

“We will be in a position to extend an invitation to Ukraine to join the alliance when allies agree and conditions are met,” NATO leaders said in a written declaration, reiterating their position supporting Ukraine’s membership but stopping short of any specific commitments or timeline that Zelenskyy has sought. 

Wednesday’s agenda features the first meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council, and Zelenskyy is also set to hold separate talks with U.S. President Joe Biden. 

The U.S. leader is scheduled to deliver an address “highlighting how the United States, alongside our allies and partners, are supporting Ukraine, defending democratic values, and taking action to address global challenges,” the White House said. 

Britain said members of the G-7 group of nations planned to announce a new framework for allies providing long-term security support for Ukraine. 

Alliance expansion 

Biden said Tuesday the NATO summit represents a “historic moment,” as the security bloc prepares to enlarge while tackling issues around the grinding war in Ukraine.   

“Adding Finland and Sweden to NATO is consequential,” Biden said to NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.  “And your leadership really matters. And we agree on the language that you propose, relative to the future of Ukraine being able to join NATO.”  

 

 

Stoltenberg said Tuesday he is “absolutely confident” that Turkey’s parliament will admit a new member, Sweden.  

At the same time, Zelenskyy continues to push for his nation’s inclusion in the security alliance – a step that NATO members seem unlikely to take at this high-stakes summit in Lithuania’s capital.   

“NATO will give Ukraine security,” tweeted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Ukraine will make the alliance stronger.”  

 

 

Membership in the middle of a war would require NATO to apply the principle of “an attack on one is an attack on all” enshrined in the bloc’s Article 5 – putting the U.S. and Western nations in direct conflict with Moscow.   

Zelenskyy has said he accepts that situation, but shortly before leaders gathered for their meeting Tuesday, he tweeted complaints about what he said were “signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine.”   

Stoltenberg said Tuesday in Vilnius that he had put forth a package during an informal NATO foreign ministers meeting in May that included removing the requirement for a membership action plan in Ukraine’s bid.     

Defense spending   

Another key issue at the summit is whether the members can agree on — and then meet — a commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. Currently, only seven members fulfill that target.      

Several alliance members used the summit to announce new military aid for Ukraine, including a $770 million package from Germany including Patriot missile launchers, battle tanks and ammunition.  French President Emmanuel Macron said his government will supply long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Following the two-day summit, Biden heads to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Once Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance.     

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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A Romanian man who was part of an international human smuggling ring was sentenced Tuesday to more than 12 years in prison for the deaths of 39 migrants from Vietnam who suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England in 2019. 

Marius Mihai Draghici was the ringleader’s right-hand man and an “essential cog” in an operation that made huge profits exploiting people desperate to get to the U.K., Justice Neil Garnham said in Central Criminal Court known as the Old Bailey. 

Victims, who paid about 13,000 pounds ($16,770) for so-called VIP service, died after trying in vain to punch a hole in the container with a metal pole as the temperature inside exceeded 100 degrees F (38.5 C). Their desperation as they struggled to breathe was captured in messages they tried to send loved ones and and recordings that showed “a growing recognition they were going to die there,” Garnham said. 

There was no escape and no one could hear their cries, prosecutors said. 

Their final hours “must have entailed unimaginable suffering and anguish,” Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones said Tuesday. 

A young mother wrote a message to loved ones that was never sent: “Maybe going to die in the container. Cannot breathe any more.” 

The 28 men, eight women, and three children ranged in age from 15 to 44 and about half hailed from the Nghe An province in north central Vietnam. The victims included a bricklayer, a restaurant worker, a manicure technician, an aspiring beautician and a college graduate. 

A married couple, Tran Hai Loc and Nguyen Thi Van, were found lying side by side Oct. 23, 2019, in the container that had been shipped by ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Purfleet, England. 

Defendant ‘shocked and horrified’

Draghici, 50, pleaded guilty last month to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration. 

He’s the fifth man to be sentenced in the case in the U.K. Four other gang members were imprisoned in 2021 for terms ranging from 13 to 27 years for manslaughter. The stiffest sentence went to ringleader Gheorghe Nica, 46. 

Another 18 people were convicted in Belgium, where the Vietnamese ringleader was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Others got one to 10-year term terms. 

Draghici was “shocked and horrified with what occurred” defense lawyer Gillian Jones said in court. 

But he, like the others involved in the conspiracy, had “immediately abandoned the plan and melted away in the night,” after another man opened the truck container and discovered the dead bodies, Emlyn Jones said. 

Draghici and Nica both fled to Romania, where Draghici was later arrested. 

Social media broke news to families

Family members of the victims who had gone into debt to fund the travel said they were crushed by the loss. 

The parents of Nguyen Huy Hung, 15, who was on his way to live with his parents in the U.K. and wanted to be a hairdresser, were shocked after learning of the tragedy on social media. 

“We did not believe it was the truth until we saw his body with our own eyes,” his father said. “We felt numb and that feeling lasted for many weeks later.” 
…

As NATO leaders meet in Lithuania’s capital to hammer out key agreements amid a grinding war in Ukraine, John Kirby, director of strategic communications for the National Security Council, met with VOA to discuss the main issues at the high-stakes summit.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

VOA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was withholding Sweden’s NATO bid for a long time until he pivoted yesterday, as we saw. What was the breakthrough moment?

Kirby: It’s a big decision. And we’re grateful to [Erdogan] because Sweden is a modern, capable military. They will lend to the alliance a terrific suite of military capabilities that are critical for NATO’s eastern flank. I’ll let those two leaders talk about how they got to where they got to. We have long believed that Sweden had met its commitments — commitments made on the margins of the Madrid summit last year, and we were also very glad to see that the conversation and the dialogue continued between both leaders.

VOA: Was your decision to provide F-16s to Turkey somehow related to the decision made by Ankara?

Kirby: The president has long supported F-16s for Turkey, as well as modernizing the F-16s that they already have. And that’s something that we have to work out with Congress, and we know that, and we’ve had those conversations.

VOA: NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance agreed to remove the requirement for a Membership Action Plan, or MAP, for Ukraine to join NATO. I’ll quote him: ‘We will issue an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO when allies agree and conditions are met.’ Speaking of these conditions, are they any different from the Membership Action Plan that we have seen before?

Kirby: Ukraine is at a point now where the alliance doesn’t really feel like a MAP is required. Because we have been now working with Ukraine so closely, particularly over the last 16 months, we have such a strong sense of awareness about their military capabilities. So, MAP may not be the best process. But what the alliance will talk about with Ukraine in Vilnius is what the process, what the path needs to look like going forward. There’s still going to be reforms that Ukraine has to meet and make — political reforms, rule of law, democratic institutions — those reforms are still required to be a member of NATO. The other thing to remember is that they’re in the middle of a shooting war right now. And the president believes strongly that we’ve got to continue to focus on their needs on the battlefield.

VOA: Let me ask you straight: Is it an open door policy but just rephrased and restructured, or is it different?

Kirby: It’s still an open door policy. Every nation that aspires to become members of NATO — Finland and Sweden, who are now the 31st and 32nd members — they still had to apply. There’s still a process. And part of that process is having a healthy, vibrant democracy and healthy, viable, sustainable democratic institutions. And Ukraine still has some more work to do in that regard. We all understand that it’s difficult to work on political reforms when you’re in the middle of a war, which is why, again, the president wants to focus on getting them what they need on the battlefield and making a commitment to Ukraine after the war’s over and before NATO membership that they’ll continue to have support from the United States and for the allies for their own self-defense.

VOA: One of the requirements that Jens Stoltenberg outlined today was having armed forces which are interoperable with NATO. What is your assessment of the armed forces of Ukraine? Are they any closer to NATO standards?

Kirby: I think, without question, they’re getting closer to interoperability with NATO, because as the war has gone on, they have shed a lot of their Soviet systems. The way they operate on the battlefield has definitely Westernized as the last 16 months have transpired. They’ve got a lot of Western equipment. They have been trained by Western militaries, including the United States, even before this most recent invasion kicked off. So clearly, they are closer to a standard of interoperability now. Are they absolutely there yet? Again, I think that remains to be seen, and our focus right now is helping them succeed on the battlefield.

VOA: President Joe Biden has said inviting Ukraine to join NATO right now is an invitation to war, but Russia has no history of attacking NATO allies. Why not extend this invitation?

Kirby: What the president said was joining NATO now would be going to war with Russia. The allies in 2008, in the Bucharest declaration, made it clear that NATO is in Ukraine’s future. The president still believes that. He still believes in the open door policy. He just believes that right now, the focus has to be on helping Ukraine succeed on the battlefield, and in making sure that Ukraine has the appropriate security commitments from the United States and from our allies for when this war is over. Because they’re still going to have a long border with Russia, and we need to make sure that Mr. Putin doesn’t believe he can buy for time.

VOA: Is there a possibility for Ukraine to join NATO in the near future?

Kirby: I wouldn’t be able to put a timeline on that. They’re in a shooting war right now. Ukrainians are fighting and dying for their country, and we’ve got to focus on helping them succeed in that effort. Then we’ll set out a pathway for eventual membership that will allow Ukraine the time and space to work on some of these reforms, at the same time, enjoying security commitments and guarantees from the West so that as they continue to work on their reforms postwar, that they can still maintain a measure of safety and self-defense.

VOA: What kind of reforms are you looking into right now?

Kirby: These are reforms that President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Ukraine were in some measure already working on — rooting out corruption and oligarchs, working on democratic institutions, strong judiciary, rule of law. All these are key tenets that any nation who aspires to be a member of NATO has got to ascribe to and make sure that they they rise to that level.

VOA: Let’s get back to Sweden. President Erdogan has to pass this bid through the parliament of Turkey, of course, and they have to support it. Can he bail?

Kirby: As every other NATO ally is going to have to do, there’s a ratification process here. But we’re comfortable and confident that Sweden will become the 32nd member of the NATO alliance.
…

From Lithuania, U.S. President Joe Biden said Tuesday this year’s NATO summit represents an ‘historic moment,’ as the security bloc prepares to enlarge while tackling issues around the grinding war in Ukraine. But although the path has been cleared for Sweden’s inclusion in the bloc, Kyiv is not getting a timetable for its membership. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara reports from Vilnius.
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Russia has vetoed the continuation of a U.N. aid operation that is a lifeline to more than four million Syrians living in areas outside of government control and signaled its readiness on Tuesday to completely shutter the nine-year-old aid operation.

“Now Moscow must answer to the international community — and you have to answer to the Syrian people,” U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after Russia voted against a nine-month extension of the authorization that lets humanitarian aid flow from Turkey into northwest Syria, reaching 2.7 million people each month.

Brazil and Switzerland, which oversee the Syria humanitarian file on the 15-member council, had initially sought a one-year extension of the use of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing. But once it became clear during negotiations that Russia would not go along with it, they sought nine months as a compromise. Some other Russian concerns were also addressed in the compromise text, which received 13 votes in favor. China abstained.

Over the last few years, Russia, with Syrian government backing, has forced the Security Council to shrink the cross-border aid operation and has threatened to totally close it down. Since 2021, Moscow has only agreed to 6-month renewals, instead of the year-long ones the council had approved since the operation was established in 2014, and which humanitarian groups have requested. Moscow and Damascus have also pushed for aid deliveries across conflict front lines from within the country, rather than from outside.

“The cross-border mechanism is an obvious violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria, which because of circumstances was possible 5 to 7 years ago, but looks completely anachronistic today,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the council.

After casting its veto, Russia put forward its own draft resolution, which offered only a six-month renewal. Humanitarians have repeatedly said this is insufficient for planning and efficiency. It would also mean the operation would come up for renewal again in early January — in the dead of winter.

Nebenzia said the choice was clear: “But let me state already here, if our draft is not supported, then we can just go ahead and close down the cross-border mechanism.”

He added that Moscow is not open to any kind of technical rollover, which is often used for a short amount of time to continue a mission while outstanding issues are worked out.

Tuesday’s votes took place after the mission’s authorization expired at midnight Monday, because the ongoing negotiations delayed plans for an earlier vote.

“Where we are right now is that trucks are not crossing the border at Bab al-Hawa,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield told reporters after the votes. “They have been stopped. So needed humanitarian assistance is not getting to the people.”

Following devastating earthquakes in February, the Syrian government did authorize the use of two other crossing points from Turkey. Those are available until August 13. The Assad government has not said publicly whether it plans to extend their use. But the U.N. says on their own they cannot match Bab al-Hawa, which sees about 85% of aid to northwest Syria transit the crossing.

“Bab al-Hawa remains the center of gravity for the U.N.’s cross-border response,” U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters. He added that humanitarians pre-positioned supplies in northwest Syria ahead of the vote in order to meet short-term needs.

In the meantime, the Swiss ambassador said she is not giving up.

“The council has a responsibility in renewing the mandate for cross-border aid and we will keep up our work to find common ground and to ensure that we collectively live up to that responsibility,” Pascale Baeriswyl said.

Under a General Assembly resolution adopted in April 2022, Russia will now have to go before the U.N. membership within the next 10 days to explain its veto.
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Russia’s prolonged aggression in Ukraine has raised fears that Moldova could be next on the Kremlin’s list. Like Ukraine, Moldova has close cultural ties to Russia. Unlike Ukraine, however, Moldova’s armed forces are weak, making the small nation vulnerable. Jonathan Spier narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina in the Moldovan capital, Chisinau.
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South African business groups are pushing the government to make strong diplomatic efforts to ensure the country is not stripped of its duty-free access to the U.S. market.

A group of U.S. senators recently questioned South Africa’s status under the African Growth and Opportunity Act, citing Pretoria’s ties with Moscow. South Africa has invited Russia President Vladimir Putin to an August summit despite his invasion of Ukraine and his being wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Relations between Pretoria and Washington have so deteriorated in recent months that South African business groups are now scrambling to try and make sure the country isn’t kicked out of an important U.S. tariff-free program.

The war in Ukraine has divided the two countries after South Africa refused to condemn Russia’s invasion, even going so far as hosting Russian warships for joint military exercises earlier this year. In May, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa alleged the country had secretly supplied arms to Moscow — something Pretoria denies.

It is unclear whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will be attending the summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies in Johannesburg in August. His visit would place South Africa in a quandary. As a signatory to the International Criminal Court, it is obliged to arrest him should he set foot in the country.

The U.S. Congress is beginning to review the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, known as AGOA, with a decision expected by the end of the year. Some U.S. senators recently wrote a letter saying South Africa should no longer host an AGOA forum set for later this year. They also raised the prospect that the country could lose access to its trade benefits entirely.

Busisiwe Mavuso, CEO of Business Leadership South Africa, an independent association of some of South Africa’s largest businesses, said she was preparing a submission urging the U.S. to renew South Africa’s participation in AGOA.

“There’d be dire financial consequences if we were to lose this,” Mavuso said. “And loss of this trade relationship would mean billions of rand of economic activity as well as tens of thousands of jobs, which depend on those exports, would be lost. It would be devastating for employment, especially in a country where we’re currently sitting with 70 percent youth unemployment.”

Mavuso said South Africa is the largest single beneficiary country under AGOA, with 25% of the country’s exports going to the U.S. and nearly a billion dollars’ worth of exports to the U.S. in the first three months of this year alone.

Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, said being removed from AGOA would have far-reaching implications, not just on the tariff side but in terms of investor sentiment.

“The AGOA benefits, there are certain industries that really enjoy those,” Sihlobo said. “In the absence of them there could be economic consequences, particularly in the automobile industry and of course the agricultural sector, specifically wine as well as the fruit sector.”

South Africa’s opposition Democratic Alliance, which has expressed strong support of Ukraine, is also worried the country could lose access to AGOA, said the party’s shadow finance minister Dion George.

“If the view is that South Africa is in fact not acting in the interests of the United States and may well be a threat to the national security of the U.S., then yes, of course that will become an issue and may very well be a factor in carving South Africa out of AGOA next year,” George said.

Spokespeople for the presidency and South Africa’s ministry of international relations did not reply to requests for comment. However, they have previously said there’s no evidence South Africa is going to lose access to AGOA, after President Cyril Ramaphosa recently sent a delegation to lobby U.S. officials.
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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday he is “absolutely confident” Turkey will ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO and that alliance leaders gathered for a two-day summit in Lithuania’s capital will “send a very strong and positive message” about Ukraine’s own desire to join.

Allies were debating the wording of a final joint text, but there is consensus that Ukraine joining NATO while Russia’s invasion is ongoing is not under consideration.  Membership in the middle of a war would require the alliance to apply the principle of “an attack on one is an attack on all” enshrined in the bloc’s Article 5.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he accepts that situation, but shortly before leaders gathered for their meeting Tuesday he tweeted complaints about what he said were “signals that certain wording is being discussed without Ukraine.”

Zelenskyy, who is expected to attend the summit Wednesday, said “vague wording about ‘conditions’” was being added, while there was no timeframe for inviting Ukraine to join NATO.

“It seems there is no readiness, neither to invite Ukraine to NATO nor to make it a member of the alliance,” Zelenskyy said.

NATO allies in 2008 agreed in principle that Ukraine would join, but did not set up a pathway for Ukraine’s membership.

Stoltenberg said Tuesday in Vilnius that he had put forth a package during an informal NATO foreign ministers meeting in May that included removing the requirement for a membership action plan in Ukraine’s bid.

U.S. President Joe Biden told Stoltenberg ahead of Tuesday’s meetings that he agrees with the language Stoltenberg proposed “relative to the future of Ukraine being able to join NATO and we’re looking for a continued united NATO.”

Some NATO allies, including the U.S., U.K. and France, are set to come up with proposals to strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces, including its postwar needs, through a series of long-term commitments outside the NATO framework.

The so-called security guarantees are going to be done in “extremely close coordination, given how high the stakes are,” however it will be “different from having an Article 5 agreement to defend Ukraine,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, to VOA.

Sweden’s accession

Stoltenberg said Tuesday the NATO summit “is already historic before it has started” after talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yielded a breakthrough in a months-long impasse during which Erdogan accused Stockholm of not doing enough to crack down on their branch of a political party that Turkey’s government sees as extremists.

Erdogan pledged to support the approval of Sweden’s bid in Turkey’s parliament, while Hungary, the other remaining NATO member yet to give its approval in a process that must be unanimous, is expected to follow suit.

Biden, who is set to meet with Erdogan late Tuesday at the end of the first day of the summit, welcomed news of Turkey’s support for Sweden.

“I stand ready to work with (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and (Turkey) on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area,” Biden said in a statement. “I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO Ally.”

The Biden administration has supported Turkey’s effort to buy 40 F-16 fighter jets from the United States, a deal that has met opposition from U.S. lawmakers who said it should not go forward until Turkey supported Sweden joining NATO.

Asked Tuesday what made Turkey agree to drop its opposition, Biden said with a smile, “What do you think?”  When asked by another reporter if he was surprised by Turkey’s decision, Biden said, “Not at all.”

Sweden and Finland applied jointly for membership last May, with both Nordic nations citing overwhelming popular support for the idea amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland’s membership was finalized in April.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Sweden’s accession would be negative for Russia’s security.

Defense spending

Another key issue at the summit is whether the members can agree on — and then meet — a commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. Currently, only seven members fulfill that target.

Several alliance members used the summit to announce new military aid for Ukraine, including a $770 million package from Germany with Patriot missile launchers, battle tanks and ammunition.  French President Emmanuel Macron said his government will supply long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Following the two-day summit, Biden heads to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Once Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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The Taliban Tuesday ordered the suspension of all Swedish activities in Afghanistan because of the public burning of the Quran, Islam’s holy book, at a protest in Sweden last month. 

The June 28 authorized protest saw an Iraqi national resident in Stockholm tear and burn a copy of the Quran outside the capital’s largest mosque as Muslims celebrated Eid al-Adha worldwide. The incident sparked outrage and condemnation in Islamic countries.

“The Islamic Emirate suspends Sweden’s activities in Afghanistan for granting permission to insult the Quran and the Muslim faith,” the Taliban said, using the official name for their government in Kabul.

According to the statement, the order will remain effective “until they (Sweden) apologize to the Muslims for this heinous act.” The Taliban called on other Islamic nations to “reconsider” their relations with the Swedish government over its “blasphemous” act.

The Quran burning incident in Sweden saw immediate reaction from the Middle East and North Africa, with governments strongly condemning the act. Morocco recalled its ambassador from Stockholm.

A crowd of angry protesters in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad quickly assembled at the Swedish embassy and stormed its compound before being dispersed by security forces. Tens of thousands of people staged protest rallies across Pakistan last Friday.

Like other Western countries, Sweden closed its embassy in Afghanistan and evacuated all its staff, including Swedish and Afghan citizens, in August 2021, when the then-insurgent Taliban regained control of the country.

Aid workers said Tuesday’s Taliban order would likely disrupt the humanitarian operations of the non-governmental Swedish Committee for Afghanistan in the impoverished war-ravaged country.

The charity group manages development programs, including health care and education, in 19 Afghan provinces, employing around 6,000 people, mostly Afghans. It provides education to nearly 90,000 children and health care to two million people through its hospitals and medical centers in Afghanistan.

The SCA did not immediately comment on the possible suspension of its activities by the Taliban.

Humanitarian operations in Afghanistan have already been under severe pressure after the Taliban banned the United Nations and other non-government organizations from hiring Afghan female workers. The Taliban have also barred girls from attending schools beyond the sixth grade and ordered most female government employees to stay home since seizing power nearly two years ago.

The restrictions on women’s freedom to access education and work and a decline in donor funding have prompted the U.N. to cut its annual humanitarian aid plan for Afghanistan by more than $1 billion, forcing aid agencies to stop giving critical assistance to millions of people across the country.  
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Myanmar’s prolonged civil strife, tensions in the disputed South China Sea, and concern over an arms buildup in the region are expected to dominate the agenda when Southeast Asia’s top diplomats gather for talks this week in Indonesia. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-China rivalry will also be under the spotlight as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang participate as dialogue partners of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations foreign ministers meeting in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. 

North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui will not attend the ASEAN Regional Forum, an annual security meeting, Indonesian Foreign Ministry official Sidharto Suryodipuro told a news conference on Monday, without elaborating. 

It’s also unclear who among the key figures in the world’s most intractable conflicts will meet on the sidelines of the group’s ministerial meetings. 

The top diplomats of ASEAN, which consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, will meet Tuesday and Wednesday before their Asian and Western counterparts join them in discussions on Thursday and Friday. 

Group’s principles tested

Founded in 1967, the often-unwieldy collective of democracies, autocracies and monarchies has been held together for decades by bedrock principles of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs and consensus-based decision-making. But that approach has also prevented the 10-nation bloc from dealing swiftly with crises that spill across borders. 

ASEAN’s principles have been tested since Myanmar’s army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and plunged the country into deadly chaos. 

More than 3,750 civilians, including pro-democracy activists, have been killed by security forces and nearly 24,000 arrested since the military takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group that keeps tallies of such arrests and casualties. 

Myanmar’s military government has largely ignored a five-point plan by ASEAN heads of state that includes an immediate end to the violence and dialogue among all contending parties. That prompted the regional group to take an unprecedented punitive step by barring Myanmar’s military leaders from its top-level gatherings, including the ministerial meetings, that Indonesia will host. 

Since assuming ASEAN’s rotating chairmanship this year, Indonesia has initiated some 110 meetings with groups in Myanmar and provided humanitarian aid to build trust, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said, adding that continuing violence would hurt efforts to return the nation to normalcy within ASEAN. 

“ASEAN is still very concerned about the increasing use of violence in Myanmar which has resulted in civilian casualties and the destruction of public facilities,” Retno told a news conference on Friday. “This must stop immediately.” 

Two months ago, an aid convoy with Indonesian and Singaporean embassy representatives on an ASEAN mission to provide help to displaced people came under fire from unknown attackers in a road ambush in Myanmar’s eastern Shan State. A security team returned fire and a security vehicle was damaged, but no one in the convoy was injured, state-run television MRTV reported. 

ASEAN is under international pressure to effectively address the crisis in Myanmar. But ASEAN members appear divided over how to proceed, with some recommending an easing of punitive actions aimed at isolating Myanmar’s generals and inviting its top diplomat and officials back to the high-profile summit meetings. 

Retno stressed the group would continue to focus on enforcing the ASEAN leaders’ five-point plan. 

A draft of a post-meeting communique to be issued by the ASEAN foreign ministers remained blank on Myanmar, reflecting the difficulty of reaching agreement on the issue. Their concerns over other contentious issues, such as the South China Sea disputes, were included in the draft, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. 

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, director of the Jakarta-based Habibie Center think tank, said the situation in Myanmar could become a long-term problem like the South China Sea disputes given ASEAN’s limited capacity to solve it. The bloc, however, should try to convince Myanmar’s military government that it has better options, she said. 

“It’s recalcitrant. Its determination to hang on to power is not going to be sustainable because it’s only going to incite conflicts,” Anwar told the AP. 

Myanmar is scheduled next year to assume the role of coordinating ASEAN’s engagements with the European Union. But the E.U., which has imposed sanctions on the military government, has opposed such a role for Myanmar, two Southeast Asian diplomats told the AP on condition of anonymity because they lack authority to discuss the issue publicly. 

A call for self-restraint

On the South China Sea conflicts, ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to renew a call for self-restraint “in the conduct of activities that would complicate or escalate disputes and affect peace and stability,” according to the draft communique, repeating language used in previous statements that does not name China. 

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam have been embroiled in long-simmering territorial conflicts with China and Taiwan for decades. ASEAN and China have been negotiating a non-aggression pact that aims to prevent an escalation of the disputes, but the talks have faced years of delay. 

The disputed waters have emerged as a delicate front in the rivalry between China and the United States. 

 

 

Washington has challenged Beijing’s expansive territorial claims and regularly deploys warships and fighter jets in what it calls freedom of navigation and overflight patrols that have incensed China. 

Other Western and European nations have deployed navy ships on occasional patrols in the busy waterway, where a bulk of the world’s trade transits, with similar calls for unimpeded commerce and mobility. 

China’s increasingly aggressive actions have prompted other countries to boost their territorial defenses. 

“We expressed concern about the growing arms race and naval power projection in the region, which could lead to miscalculation, increased tensions, and may undermine regional peace, security, and stability,” the ASEAN foreign ministers said without elaborating in their draft communique, whose wording is still subject to negotiations and could change. 

Anwar said there’s no solution in sight for the South China Sea disputes and ASEAN could only take steps to help prevent full-blown conflict. 

“We hope that China will give up this claim, but don’t hold your breath on that,” she said. 
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Spanish authorities rescued 86 people Monday from a boat near the Canary Islands that appeared to be from Senegal, after an aid group reported that three boats from the African country went missing with 300 people aboard. 

Spain’s Maritime Rescue Service said it could not confirm that the rescued boat was one of the three reported missing but told The Associated Press that the vessel was a multi-colored, 20-meter-long (65-foot-long) canoe of the type known in Senegal as a pirogue. 

Eighty men and six women of sub-Saharan origin were rescued and expected to reach Spanish soil Monday evening, the Spanish agency said. It also said it had alerted boats sailing in Atlantic waters between the Canary Islands and West Africa to be on the lookout for other migrant boats still missing. 

Helena Maleno Garzon, coordinator for the aid group Walking Borders, which is known as Caminando Fronteras in Spanish, said earlier Monday that the three missing boats had departed Senegal in late June. 

Two boats departed June 23 from Mbour, a coastal city in central Senegal, carrying about 100 people, and a third left the southern town of Kafountine four days later with approximately 200 people, Garzon said. 

There has been no contact with the boats since their departures, she said. 

“The most important thing is to find those people. There are many people missing in the sea. This isn’t normal. We need more planes to look for them,” Garzon told The Associated Press. 

Deadly route

The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world, with nearly 800 people dying or going missing in the first half of 2023, according to Walking Borders. 

In recent years, the Canary Islands have become one of the main destinations for people trying to reach Spain, with a peak of more than 23,000 migrants arriving in 2020, according to Spain’s Interior Ministry. In the first six months of this year, more than 7,000 migrants and refugees reached the Canaries. 

One of the deadliest mass drownings of Europe-bound migrants happened last month on the Mediterranean Sea, where more than 500 people were presumed dead off the coast of Greece. Criticism has mounted over the European Union’s yearslong failure to prevent such tragedies. 

Boats that go missing often aren’t documented. Some are never found or are discovered across the world years later. An AP investigation published this year found that at least seven migrant boats from northwest Africa, likely trying to reach the Canary Islands in 2021, drifted to the Caribbean and Brazil. 

The boats mainly travel from Morocco, Western Sahara and Mauritania, with fewer coming from Senegal, the Spanish aid group said. However, at least 19 boats from Senegal have arrived in the Canary Islands since June, the group said. 

Factors such as ailing economies, a lack of jobs, extremist violence, political unrest and the impact of climate change push migrants to risk their lives on overcrowded boats to reach the Canaries. Last month in Senegal, at least 23 people were killed during weeks of protests between opposition supporters and police. 

‘I am still believing’

A woman whose 19- and 24-year-old sons left on one of the boats from Mbour in June told the AP they had a goal of trying to pull the family out of poverty. 

Daw Demba, 48, said she discovered her sons’ secret plans days before they left and tried to convince them not to. They assured her it would be safe because the captain had made the trip safely multiple times, she said. 

“I am desperate to hear the voices of my sons. I am convinced they are still alive,” Demba said through tears in a phone interview from her home in Mbour. “Every moment, every second, I am still believing.” 

Before they departed, she armed her sons, Massou Seck and Serigne Galaye Seck, with traditional spiritual items, including a bottle of water that had been blessed and Quranic paper with their names written on it for protection. 

Walking Borders’ Maleno said she had been in contact with the Moroccan, Spanish and Mauritanian marines and that more needs to be done to look for the missing boats. 

“Imagine if there (were) 300 American people missing at sea. What (would) happen? Many planes will look for them,” she said. 
…

The repeated harassment of U.S. drones by Russian fighter pilots in the skies over Syria is again drawing the ire of U.S. officials who now warn Russia’s antics are serving to help save key terror leaders from almost certain death.

U.S. military and defense officials have complained for months about increasing Russian harassment of U.S. drones and repeated incursions into the airspace over U.S. positions in Syria. But in the latest reported incident, the U.S. says Russian jets spent hours harassing two U.S. drones that were being used to track down and kill a senior Islamic State leader.

“It is almost as if the Russians are now on a mission to protect ISIS leaders,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Monday in response to a question from VOA.

“They know exactly where we operate and so there is no excuse for Russian forces’ continual harassment of our MQ-9s after years of U.S. operations in the area aimed at the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Singh added, using an acronym for the Islamic State, also known as IS or Daesh.

U.S. Central Command announced Sunday the drones successfully tracked and killed Usamah al-Muhajir in eastern Syria on Friday, noting the same drones, earlier in the day “had been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours.”

Russia’s harassment of the drones used to kill al-Muhajir came a day after the U.S. accused Russian pilots of forcing U.S. drones to take evasive maneuvers in two separate incidents over a 24-hour period.

Those incidents, spanning this past Wednesday and Thursday, included what U.S. Central Command described as close flybys by Russian fighter jets that deployed flares and engaged their afterburners in an attempt to damage the drones’ electronic systems.

Singh declined to say Monday whether any of the incidents allowed other IS targets to escape, instead noting that at least on Friday the U.S. drones were able to successfully complete their mission.

Russia’s embassy in Washington has yet to respond to VOA requests for comment.

In June, the combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command accused Russian pilots in Syria of “buffoonery in the air.”

“Anytime you have an air force that has fallen so low on the professional ladder, that they’re giving medals for buffoonery in the air, you’ve really got to wonder what they’re thinking,” Lieutenant General Alexus Grynkewich told reporters at the time, adding Russia’s actions were allowing IS to rebuild.

“They are running training camps and they’re building up their capabilities because the Russians and the [Syrian] regime are either incapable or unwilling to put pressure on ISIS,” he said. “They’re letting the ISIS threat grow right under their nose.”

The U.S. has about 900 troops in Syria to combat the threat from IS.

Intelligence estimates by United Nations member states shared in a report earlier this year indicate the terror group has about 2,500 to 3,500 fighters across Syria and Iraq.
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President Joe Biden welcomed news late Monday that Sweden will be admitted to NATO, overcoming objections from the last holdout in the security alliance, Turkey, on the eve of a major summit of the security bloc in Lithuania’s capital.    

“I stand ready to work with (Turkish) President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan and (Turkey) on enhancing defense and deterrence in the Euro-Atlantic area,” Biden said in a statement issued from Vilnius, where he is attending the summit of NATO leaders. “I look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Kristersson and Sweden as our 32nd NATO Ally.”    

Biden is set to meet with Erdogan late Tuesday at the end of the first day of the summit. 

Erdogan had opposed Sweden’s membership, accusing Stockholm of not doing enough to crack down on their branch of a political party that Turkey’s government sees as extremists.   

In what appeared to be a last-ditch parry on the eve of the summit, Erdogan linked the Sweden issue with Ankara’s stalled demands to join the European Union.  

“The United States has always supported (Turkey’s) EU membership aspirations and continues to do so. (Turkey’s) membership application and process is a matter between the EU and (Turkey),” a National Security Council spokesperson told VOA. The official asked not to be identified, as is common practice when discussing administration policy. “Our focus is on Sweden, which is ready to join the NATO Alliance.”  

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed Turkey’s decision on Sweden, calling it “an historic step” that makes all members stronger and safer.  

Sweden needed unanimous support from all 31 NATO members to join the alliance. Sweden and Finland applied jointly for membership last May, with both Nordic nations citing overwhelming popular support for the idea amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland’s membership was finalized in April.   

Defense spending and Ukraine 

The summit still has important issues to cover in a short time. Those include whether the members can agree on — and then meet — a commitment to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense. Currently, only seven members fulfill that target.  

Another key agenda is Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO, something that Biden has candidly admitted there is no consensus about within the alliance. The U.S. is reluctant to grant quick membership for Kyiv for fear of dragging NATO into war with Russia. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he accepts that his country can only join after the conflict with Russia ends. Membership in the midst of a war would require the alliance to apply the principle of “an attack on one is an attack on all” enshrined in the bloc’s Article 5.  

Still, Zelenskyy has demanded a clear pathway to join the alliance, and during the two-day summit, NATO members will aim to nail down a compromise that will signal that Kyiv is moving closer to membership without making promises of a quick accession.   

 

 

Some NATO allies, including the U.S., U.K. and France, are set to come up with proposals to strengthen Ukraine’s armed forces, including its postwar needs, through a series of long-term commitments outside the NATO framework.  

The so-called security guarantees are going to be done in “extremely close coordination, given how high the stakes are,” however it will be “different from having an Article 5 agreement to defend Ukraine,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the U.S. and Americas program at Chatham House, to VOA.   

Earlier on Tuesday, Biden will participate in a bilateral meeting with summit host President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania and with the North Atlantic Council, the principal political decision-making body within the alliance.    

Following the two-day summit, Biden heads to Helsinki on Thursday to meet with leaders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. Once Sweden has joined NATO, all five Nordic countries will be members of the military alliance. 
…