International Relations, Disarmament and Arms Control, Strategic Issues, Energy Policy
China’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin has reiterated the mainland’s stance of zero tolerance to any form of “Taiwan Independence” and called for the endeavor of all Chinese to realize the country’s reunification.
Jia, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), made the remarks at a reception held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday evening to celebrate China’s 58th National Day (see full Xinhua article).
On September 25, at France’s initiative, the UN Security Council voted the UNSCR 1778 approving the deployment of an international force provided by the UN and EU in eastern Chad and the north-eastern part of the Central African Republic.
The full text of President Ahmadinejad’s address to the students at Columbia University (U.S.) on Monday, September 24, can be found on the Presidency of the Islamic Republic of Iran website.
Belgrade, Sept 25, 2007 – Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica stated today that a solution to the Kosovo-Metohija issue cannot be imposed to Serbia and that unilateral declaration of independence is a non-enforceable and unsustainable scenario (see full article on the Serbian Government website).
Photo : PM Kostunica, Wikipedia.
The European Community submitted yesterday to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) in Geneva its instrument of accession to the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement concerning the international registration of industrial designs. This accession will allow EU companies, with a single application, to obtain protection of a design not only throughout the EU with the Community Design, but also in the countries which are members of the Geneva Act. It will simplify procedures, reduce the costs for international protection and make administration easier. The system will become operational for businesses on 1 January 2008 (see full press release on EUROPA website, September 25, 2007).
Tehran, Sept 25, IRNA. – Experts from Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) held talks on remaining issues about Iranian nuclear program mainly centrifuges P-1 and P-2 (see full article).
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s Yearbook always devotes a chapter to international Military Expenditure and another to Arms Productions trends. The latest edition (1) highlights the impressive level of activity and expenditure of both the U.S. Defence administrations and corporate military companies.
While world military expenditure in 2006, according to the authors of the Yearbooks 2007, is estimated to have totalled $1204 billion in current prices, which “represents an increase of 3.5 per cent in real terms since 2005”, with significant differences at the regional level, the expenditure of the United States has increased in an impressive way, in the wake of the “global war on terrorism” since 2001. “Between financial years (FYs) 2001 and 2006, outlays by the US Department of Defense (DOD) increased by 53 per cent in real terms, while the increase in outlays for national defence (a functional category that includes non-DOD defence-related activities) was 49 per cent (…). These increases are the result primarily of the massive supplemental appropriations made under the heading ‘global war on terrorism’, mostly to fund military operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere.
(1) Stålenheim, P., Perdomo, C. and Sköns, E., “Military expenditure”, SIPRI Yearbook 2007: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2007), pp. 267-297; Sköns, E., and. Surry, E., “Arms production”, Ibid., pp. 345-373.
Turkish Army Commander General Ilker Basbug warned the United States about the PKK activities in Northern Iraq. Basbug said “Turkey has the power to prevent developments and tıo increase the costs in Iraq”. (…) General Basbug argued that the developments in Northern Iraq threatens Turkish security (source : The Journal of Turkish Weekly, September 24, 2007).
Former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski likened U.S. officials’ saber rattling about Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions to similar statements made before the start of the Iraq war. “I think the administration, the president and the vice president particularly, are trying to hype the atmosphere, and that is reminiscent of what preceded the war in Iraq,” Brzezinski told CNN’s “Late Edition” on Sunday (see full report on CNN website).
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heading a high-ranking delegation, left Tehran for New York on Sunday to take part in the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. During his stay in New York, the president is scheduled to address the assembly and hold talks with the UN secretary general as well as presidents and senior officials of several countries on the sidelines of the UN meeting (see full IRNA article, September 23, 2007).
