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Latvia Threatened at the UN, Iran Deal Disputed & China's Carrier Move
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Russia names Latvia by name at the UN Security Council, US and Iran publicly contradict each other on nuclear terms, and China's Fujian carrier transits the Taiwan Strait against Taiwan's military drills. Six consequential geopolitical developments, analysed without opinion.
Audio is available on Spreaker — see link below.
Russia's envoy to the United Nations told the Security Council this week that NATO membership will not protect Latvia if it continues to allow Ukrainian drones to launch from its territory. That's a direct threat against a member state, delivered inside the room designed to prevent exactly that kind of escalation.
In Switzerland, US and Iranian negotiators spent eighteen hours across multiple sessions this week. Vice President Vance announced that Iran had agreed to readmit nuclear inspectors and establish a telephone hotline with the US and third parties for the Strait of Hormuz.
The Hormuz hotline itself is worth taking seriously. Around twenty percent of the world's oil transits that strait.
US Central Command has now established a real-time monitoring mechanism for the Lebanon ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The mechanism exists because the ceasefire is being violated repeatedly.
China's Fujian carrier, its newest and most capable, transited the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday. Taiwan had begun a five-day military exercise the day before.
Hungary's new Prime Minister Magyar made his first foreign trip to Warsaw, meeting Polish leadership to rebuild a bilateral relationship that deteriorated sharply under Viktor Orbán. The Visegrad Four format, the regional cooperation group that largely broke down under Orbán's obstruction, is now being revived.
Ukraine's UN representative stated this week that the first half of May has been one of the deadliest periods for civilians since the war began. Russian strikes on multiple cities killed civilians including two sisters in Kyiv.
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