Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties

Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia Oct. 24, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 24 October 2024
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Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties

Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties
  • “How Russian-American relations will develop after the election will depend on the United States,” Putin told reporters in Kazan
  • “If they are open, then we will also be open. And if they don’t want it, then fine”

KAZAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his relationship with the United States after the presidential elections would depend on what attitude Washington adopts, as he welcomed comments by Donald Trump on his desire to end the Ukraine conflict as “sincere.”
But the Kremlin leader struck a hard-line tone, warning the West it was an “illusion” to think Russia could be defeated on the battlefield and that any peace deal would have to recognize Russia’s control of swathes of Ukrainian territory.
Putin was speaking at the end of the BRICS summit in the city of Kazan, where he had faced calls from some of Russia’s most important allies for the fighting in Ukraine to end.
“How Russian-American relations will develop after the election will depend on the United States. If they are open, then we will also be open. And if they don’t want it, then fine,” Putin told reporters in Kazan.
Relations between the two superpowers have sunk to their lowest since the Cold War amid Moscow’s military offensive on Ukraine.
Next month’s US election is set to be critical to the course of future ties and the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism over Washington’s multi-billion dollar aid to Ukraine and claimed that if elected he could end the fighting in a matter of hours.
Putin said Trump “spoke about his desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine. I think he is being sincere. Of course we welcome statements like this, whoever they come from.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among around 20 leaders that gathered for the BRICS summit, the largest diplomatic event in Russia since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin leader said Moscow was open to considering peace initiatives and welcomed BRICS leaders offering to mediate.
But he said any deal must consider the “realities on the ground” — a reference to Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.
“We are ready to look at any proposals for peace negotiations that are based on the realities on the ground. We won’t accept anything else,” he said.
Putin has previously demanded Kyiv effectively capitulate by pulling its troops back as a precondition to ceasefire talks.
And on Thursday he blasted the West for thinking Russia could be defeated on the battlefield.
Moscow’s opponents “do not conceal their aim to deal our country a strategic defeat,” he said.
“I will say directly that these are illusionary calculations, that can be made only by those who do not know Russia’s history.”
Russia has faced fresh accusations of escalating the conflict this week with the United States, South Korea, NATO and Kyiv all saying North Korea had sent troops to Russia.
Kyiv said Thursday it had intelligence that the soldiers had already been deployed to Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a cross-border offensive.
Putin refused to confirm or deny the reports on Thursday, instead accusing Ukraine and the West of aggravating the conflict.
Putin also held talks with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in the pair’s first meeting since April 2022.
The Kremlin did not broadcast opening remarks, though both sides had said the talks would cover Ukraine.
The UN chief had pleaded earlier for a “just peace” in Ukraine in a speech delivered in front of Putin.
“We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and (UN) General Assembly resolution,” Guterres told the summit.
Ukraine has strongly criticized Guterres’s decision to meet the “criminal Putin.”
Guterres also demanded an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, the release of hostages and an “immediate cessation of hostilities” in Lebanon.
Other world leaders at the summit also called for an end to Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saying Israel was trying to starve Gazan civilians and drive them from their territory.
Xi warned about “serious challenges” in the world and said he hoped BRICS countries could be a “stabilising force for peace.”
“We need to continue to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, relaunch the two-state solution and stop the spread of war in Lebanon. There should be no more suffering and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon,” Xi said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian slammed the UN Security Council’s role in front of Guterres, saying international bodies “lack the necessary efficiency to extinguish the fire of this crisis.”


Two trams collide in France’s Strasbourg, 20 injured: official

Updated 3 sec ago
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Two trams collide in France’s Strasbourg, 20 injured: official

Two trams collide in France’s Strasbourg, 20 injured: official
The cause of the accident had not yet been established

STRASBOURG, France: Two trams collided in a tunnel in the eastern French city of Strasbourg on Saturday, injuring twenty people, the authorities said.
“Twenty people” have been injured, said a spokesman for the prefecture, adding that the cause of the accident had not yet been established.

Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities

Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities
Updated 13 min 53 sec ago
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Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities

Syrian migrant dies trying to cross Channel: French authorities
  • Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France

LILLE: A 19-year-old Syrian migrant perished while trying to cross the Channel to Britain, French authorities said on Saturday, adding he was probably crushed to death in a leaking dinghy.
It was the first reported death at sea of a migrant seeking to travel to Britain from France so far this year.
Several dozen migrants tried to get into the water on the beach at Sangatte, on the northern coast of France, on Friday night, the Pas-de-Calais prefecture told AFP.
The prefecture said that “a few minutes later” the group disembarked from the leaking dinghy. On the floor of the boat, a Syrian man was found, the prefecture said, adding that he had suffered cardiac arrest.
He had “probably” been crushed to death.
“This was the first death at sea in 2025,” the prefecture said.
The victim, 19, was pronounced dead at 5:24 am, the Boulogne-sur-Mer public prosecutor, Guirec Le Bras, said separately.
A forensic investigation will be carried out to determine the exact cause of death.
Citing members of law enforcement, the prosecutor said the small boat carried around 60 migrants.
A 33-year-old Syrian-born man was arrested and placed in police custody, according to the prosecutor.
According to the prefecture, 77 people died trying to reach Britain in flimsy inflatable boats last year, making it the deadliest year for migrants who are taking ever greater risks to evade Britain’s border control.
Associations providing help to migrants recorded 89 fatalities last year. The count includes migrants who died at sea and on the coast of northern France.
The groups planned a march in Calais on Saturday to denounce security policies they say are responsible for the mounting death toll.
Due to unfavorable weather conditions, only 61 migrants arrived in the United Kingdom on small boats between 1 and 10 January, according to British authorities.
More than 36,800 people were detected crossing the Channel last year, a 25 percent increase from the 29,437 who arrived in 2023, according to provisional figures from the interior ministry.
Immigration, both irregular and regular, was a major issue in the UK’s July general election, which brought Labour to power but also saw a breakthrough for Nigel Farage’s hard-right Reform UK party.
According to Downing Street, illegal migration was one of the issues discussed by French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday.


Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports

Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports
Updated 11 January 2025
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Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports

Denmark sent Trump team private messages on Greenland, Axios reports
  • Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland
  • The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the Axios report

COPENHAGEN: Denmark sent private messages to US President-elect Donald Trump’s team expressing willingness to discuss boosting security in Greenland or increasing the US military presence there without claiming the island, Axios reported on Saturday, citing two sources.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, has described US control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous Danish territory, as an “absolute necessity.” He did not dismiss the potential use of military or economic means, including tariffs against Denmark.
Axios said that the Danish government wanted to convince Trump that his security concerns could be addressed without claiming Greenland.
A spokesperson for the Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment on the Axios report.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said earlier this week that she had asked for a meeting with Trump, but did not expect it to happen before his inauguration. Greenland Prime Minister Mute Egede too said he was ready to speak with Trump but urged respect for the island’s independence aspirations.
Denmark has previously said that Greenland is not for sale.


Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers

Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers
Updated 11 January 2025
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Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers

Ukraine says questioning 2 captured North Korean soldiers
  • “Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media
  • The SBU security service gave some details of the men’s interrogation, saying both described themselves as experienced soldiers

KYIV: Ukraine said Saturday that investigators were questioning two wounded North Korean soldiers after they were captured in Russia’s Kursk region, saying they provided “indisputable evidence” that North Koreans were fighting for Moscow.
It is not the first time that Kyiv has claimed the capture of North Korean soldiers during its Kursk incursion but it has not reported being able to question any before.
In December it said it took several captive but they died from serious wounds.
“Our soldiers captured North Korean soldiers in the Kursk region. These are two soldiers who, although wounded, survived and were brought to Kyiv, and are talking to SBU investigators,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
The SBU security service gave some details of the men’s interrogation, saying both described themselves as experienced soldiers and one said he had been sent to Russia for training, not to fight.
But Ukraine has not provided any evidence that the men are North Korean.
In video released by the SBU, two men with Asian features are shown in hospital bunks, one with bandaged hands and the other with a bandaged jaw. A doctor at the detention center says the second man also has a broken leg.
Pyongyang has deployed thousands of troops to reinforce Russia’s military, including in the Kursk border region where Ukraine mounted a shock incursion in August last year.
Zelensky had said in late December that Ukraine had captured several seriously wounded North Korean soldiers who later died.
He said Saturday that it was difficult to capture North Koreans fighting because “Russians and other North Korean soldiers finish off their wounded and do everything to prevent evidence of the participation of another state, North Korea, in the war against Ukraine.”
He said he would provide media access to the prisoners of war because “the world needs to know what is happening.”
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on X that the “first North Korean prisoners of war are now in Kyiv,” calling them “regular DPRK troops, not mercenaries.”
“We need maximum pressure against regimes in Moscow and Pyongyang,” he wrote.
The men do not speak Russian or Ukrainian and communication is through Korean interpreters, the SBU said, adding that this was “in cooperation” with South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
The SBU video does not show the men speaking Korean. AFP reporters in Seoul have contacted the NIS for comment.
The SBU said the men’s capture provided “indisputable evidence of the DPRK’s participation in Russia’s war against our country.”
It showed a Russian army ID card issued to a 26-year-old man from Russia’s Tyva region bordering Mongolia.
The SBU said that one POW carried this military ID card “issued in the name of another person” while the other had no documents at all.
Some reports have said Russia is hiding North Korean fighters by giving them fake IDs.
The SBU said the man with the Tyvan ID had told them he was given it in Russia in autumn 2024 when some North Korean combat units had “one-week interoperability training” with Russian units.
The man said he believed he was “going for training, not to fight a war against Ukraine,” the SBU said.
The man said he was a rifleman born in 2005 and had been in the North Korean army since 2021.
The other man wrote answers because of an injured jaw, saying he was born in 1999, joined the army in 2016 and was a scout sniper, the SBU said.
The SBU said the men were captured separately — one on Thursday — by special forces and paratroopers.
They are being provided with medical care and “held in appropriate conditions that meet the requirements of international law,” the SBU said.
Russia’s army said Saturday that it had gained territory in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region northwest of the logistics hub of Kurakhove, which it claimed to have captured Monday.
The defense ministry said troops had “liberated” Shevchenko, a rural settlement about 10 kilometers (six miles) northwest of Kurakhove.
Shevchenko, a large village, is located west of the reservoir near Kurakhove and “is necessary to take under control, to protect the town from shelling,” the RIA Novosti state news agency reported.
“Now Russian troops can move further toward the western border of the Donetsk People’s Republic,” it said.
Russia claims to have annexed the Donetsk region, which it refers to as the Donetsk People’s Republic, though it does not control the whole region.
Ukraine has not confirmed the loss of Kurakhove, which had around 18,000 inhabitants before Russia launched its 2022 offensive.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff said Saturday that troops had stopped Russia’s offensive actions in the area, including around Kurakhove.
Russia is also moving close to taking the vital frontline city of Pokrovsk north of Kurakhove.
Donetsk’s regional governor Vadym Filashkin said Saturday that one person had been killed and another wounded in Pokrovsk over the last day.
In the southern Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian drone attacked a car in a village near the front line, killing a 47-year-old woman on the spot, its governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.


Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030

Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030
Updated 11 January 2025
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Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030

Top Indian university hosts special course on Saudi transformation, Vision 2030
  • Indian Ministry of Education-sponsored program will take place at Jawaharlal Nehru University on Jan. 20-25
  • Key speaker will be Prof. Joseph Albert Kechichian from King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies

NEW DELHI: One of India’s most prestigious educational institutions will host a special course this month about Saudi Arabia’s transformation programs and Vision 2030, as relations between the countries deepen.

The five-day course is organized by Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi in cooperation with the Ministry of Education under the Indian government’s Global Initiative of Academic Networks program to encourage exchanges with the world’s top faculty members and scientists.

Scheduled to start on Jan. 20, the course will be led by Prof. Joseph Albert Kechichian, senior fellow at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, who specializes in West Asian politics and foreign policy, especially of the Gulf region.

About 70 participants, including scholars, professionals and young researchers are expected to attend the sessions, said Prof. Sameena Hameed form the JNU’s Centre for West Asian Studies, who coordinates the course.

“It’s a Ministry of Education program, it’s a highly prestigious ... Saudi Arabia is one of our key partners in the Gulf region, where India has key energy trade investment and remittance interest,” she told Arab News.

“We have about 2 million Indians working there. India and Saudi Arabia are looking at each other with keen interest: How to harness this partnership for mutual development, for trade investment and other educational engagements.”

Saudi-Indian ties have steadily gained prominence over the past three decades, and reached a new level of engagement in 2019, following Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to New Delhi and the establishment of the Strategic Partnership Council.

This foundation set the stage for further collaboration, which gained momentum when Saudi Arabia presided over the Group of 20 largest economies in 2020, followed by India’s presidency of the bloc in 2023. The evolving relationship has not only deepened strategic ties but also fostered cooperation in trade, security, new technologies and regional stability.

The upcoming course at JNU aims to equip the participants with knowledge about key transformation programs underway in the Kingdom under its Vision 2030, and to understand its position at the local, regional and global levels.

“The rapid transformation the Kingdom has gone through under King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is important and needs greater academic discussions and understanding,” said Md. Muddassir Quamar, associate professor at the Centre for West Asian Studies.

“Vision 2030 promises not only to transform the Kingdom but also set the benchmark for developing societies that are working towards sustainable development with care for people, peace, prosperity and environment. India, in particular, is interested in a peaceful and stable West Asia given its deep and historic relations with the region and its strategic interests in the stability of the region. With Vision 2030 Saudi Arabia is set to take a leap forward in its developmental goals, and India views it as significant in ensuring a stable West Asia.”