Month: February 2023

U.S. first lady Jill Biden was visibly moved during a visit to an informal settlement near Namibia’s capital Thursday, where she spent the better part of an hour listening to young beneficiaries of U.S.-funded programs describe their challenges and triumphs in a nation that ranks as one of the world’s most unequal societies.

As a sudden afternoon storm beat down on the metal roofs of the hastily constructed Katutura neighborhood, Biden listened intently as teens and young adults described their work with the local Hope Initiatives program, which receives some U.S. grant money.

VOA asked her if she would take these stories back and lobby for an extension of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief program, which, for two decades, has provided crucial support for nations struggling with the burden of HIV and AIDS.

“I don’t know whether I’ll be lobbying Congress, but certainly I will be taking it back and we’ll see where it goes, I’ll work with my staff and see where we’ll take it,” she responded. “I mean – how many lives it has saved and how many lives it will continue to save, it’s what, 20 years now I think? Yeah, 20 years. So it’s an amazing program.”

Biden encouraged an orphan who failed grade 11 because she had a baby, saying, “You’ll get there. You’ll do it because you have to. Once you have a baby, you know, you have to take care of that baby, that’s your responsibility right? You’ll get there. You’ll do it. Because the moms are the tigers, we fight for our kids, right?”

Celebrates Namibia’s ‘strong democracy’

Motherhood and sisterhood have been themes of Biden’s first visit to the continent as first lady, which she launched in the Southwest African nation of Namibia on Wednesday.

She also praised female leadership, answering a reporter’s question about whether the U.S. is ready for a female president, saying “It’s always time to have a female president, no matter what country you’re in.”

Earlier in the day, Biden praised Namibia’s vibrant democracy at a pomp-filled, wine-laden, dignitary-heavy state luncheon with Namibia’s first lady, Monica Geingos, and her husband, President Hage Geingob.

“I’m proud to be standing here standing with a strong democracy,” Biden said. “And as Monica said yesterday, a young democracy working together. As Joe said at the summit, African voices, African Leadership, and African innovation are all critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges and realizing the vision we all share is a world that is free.”

Thursday also happens to be the 30th anniversary of the first sitting of Namibia’s first post-independence upper house of parliament.

Geingos, a Namibian entrepreneur and lawyer who is the president’s third wife, said she invited Biden to visit after meeting at December’s U.S. Africa Leaders Summit in Washington.

“Of course, there will always be differences,” she said. “But what is important is what the Biden presidency represents. And that is decency, democracy, and diplomacy. This luncheon is to celebrate connection, and possibility.”

On Friday, Biden plans to speak to university students about youth empowerment.

One such youth, the junior mayor of Windhoek, Moses Fillpus, thanked Biden for visiting and praised American ideals.

“Congratulate me for not fainting,” quipped the 17-year-old in front of the room filled with some 200 people from the highest echelons of Namibian society, politics and diplomacy.

“For me, as a young African child growing up, I just consumed American media to the point where I even knew about it more than my own,” he continued. “And I think that I speak for most of the youth that now it is the goal of the modern youth to achieve the American dream that we see on TV so much.”

Visit helps fulfill President Biden’s promise

Jill Biden is the first White House official to visit the country after President Joe Biden last year pledged to send administration officials to the continent. She follows Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who visited earlier this year.

Like Biden, Thomas-Greenfield focused part of her visit around a food security crisis in East Africa — something Biden plans to highlight when she visits Kenya later this week. But these high-profile visits are also happening against the background of increased visits by top-level Russian and Chinese officials to the continent.

While the nation is a multiparty democracy, the same party — Geingo’s South West Africa People’s Organization — has led since the nation won independence more than three decades ago. And that liberation struggle pulled in other countries for support. Earlier Wednesday, Biden laid a wreath at Heroes’ Acre, a memorial to those who fought for the nation’s independence.

That memorial, with its brutalist sculpture and wide expanses of stone, bears an uncanny similarity to the Heroes’ Acre in Zimbabwe’s capital, maybe because both memorials were built by the same North Korean company. That same firm built the imposing, modernist gray cement State House where Biden was so warmly received by the first couple.

Biden also spread some warmth. As she prepared to leave Katutura, she made an unscheduled stop on the street, emerging from her SUV with a navy blue tote bag. Scores of small children – many in clothes that were torn or dirty – swarmed her as she handed out small boxes of M&Ms bearing President Joe Biden’s seal and signature.

She and granddaughter Naomi quickly passed out every box, until she was faced with an empty bag and a young boy, his eyes wide. She motioned that she was out of candy and he turned away.

Wait, she said to the little boy. He turned back. She handed him the tote bag.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday that Washington is seeking to strengthen sanctions against Russia and called for more support for Ukraine as it resists Moscow’s invasion.

She was speaking in India’s technology hub of Bengaluru, where finance leaders of the Group of 20 leading economies have gathered to discuss challenges such as high debt and inflation that confront many low-income countries. She made her comments one day before the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“As [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden has said, we will stand with Ukraine in its fight – for as long as it takes,” she told a news conference ahead of the G-20 meeting.

Yellen, who called Russia’s war in Ukraine a “strategic failure for the Kremlin,” said that American military and economic assistance is making it possible for Ukraine to resist the invasion and that “continued and robust” support for the embattled country will be a major topic of discussion during the G-20 meeting.

She said that in the coming months, the U.S. expects to provide around $10 billion in additional economic support for Ukraine and wants the International Monetary Fund to negotiate an agreement to lend to Ukraine.

Western sanctions imposed on Moscow are having a “very significant negative effect on Russia so far,” according to Yellen.

“While by some measures the Russian economy has held up better than might initially have been expected, Russia is now running a significant budget deficit,” Yellen said.

“It is finding it extremely difficult because of our sanctions and our export controls to obtain the material it needs to replenish its munitions and to, for example, repair 9,000 tanks that have been destroyed because of the war,” according to the Treasury secretary.

Saying that the Russians were seeking alternative ways to replace and repair weapons damaged in the war, she said that “working with our partners, we are seeking to strengthen sanctions and make sure that we address violations of sanctions.”

Yellen also warned that providing any material support to Russia’s war effort would be “a very serious concern.” Her remark came a day after Russia and China forged closer ties during a visit by Beijing’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, to the Kremlin. The U.S. has expressed concern that China could supply weapons to Moscow to aid its war effort.

Yellen struck an optimistic note on the global economy, saying, “It is in a better place today than many predicted just a few months ago.” But, she cautioned, “We are not out of the woods yet.”

There had been widespread fears that the world would experience a sharp downturn in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which led to a disruption in oil and food supply chains and high inflation that hurt many countries.

As many countries grapple with mounting debt, however, Yellen said that it was important for G-20 countries to ease their financial distress.

The International Monetary Fund has estimated that about 15% of low-income countries are in “debt distress.” They range from countries such as Sri Lanka, Laos and Afghanistan in Asia to Zambia in Africa and Venezuela and Argentina in South America.

Yellen said she was hopeful that China would cooperate with other nations in providing debt relief to distressed countries, especially Zambia and Sri Lanka.

Finance ministers from the Group of Seven, or G-7, leading industrialized economies are also meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 talks. They will discuss possible new sanctions against Moscow, according to the French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, who is also in Bengaluru.

India, which has maintained a neutral stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine and continues to purchase oil from Moscow, is not likely to want the issue of additional sanctions to be discussed at G-20 meetings.

The gathering of the finance ministers that begins Friday is the first major meeting of India’s year-long presidency of the bloc.

Source: Voice of America

Russia has said it will not test fire a hypersonic missile during joint naval drills with China and South Africa, contradicting earlier reports in Russian state media.

A senior Russian naval official told a news conference in Richards Bay, on South Africa’s east coast, that the country had no plans to fire the Zircon missile during the ten-day exercise, Reuters reported Wednesday.

A frigate that carries the weapon, the Admiral Gorshkov, is in South African waters — one of several Russian ships deployed to Exercise Mosi II.

Russian news agency TASS reported earlier this month that the Zircon — which President Vladimir Putin has called “unstoppable” — could be used in a training launch during the exercise.

That drew condemnation from South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance as well as the Ukrainian Association in South Africa. South African officials denied the report.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Captain Oleg Gladkiy, who is heading the Russian contingent, said, “The hypersonic weapon will not be used in the context of these exercises… There is no hidden meaning in the exercises that we are performing today,” according to Reuters.

South Africa has been heavily criticized for going ahead with the exercises, which coincide with the first anniversary of the ongoing Ukraine war. But the South African government, which has officially remained neutral on the conflict, has defended its right to hold drills with “friends.”

The ruling African National Congress party has a long relationship with Moscow, dating back to the days when the Soviet Union supported the ANC’s struggle against white minority rule.

Source: Voice of America

NATO’s chief said Wednesday that the military alliance has seen “some signs” that China may be planning to support Russia in its war in Ukraine, and he strongly urged Beijing to desist from what would be a violation of international law.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also told The Associated Press in an interview that the alliance, while not a party to the war, will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes.”

Asked whether NATO has any indication that China might be ready to provide arms or other support to Russia’s war, Stoltenberg said:

“We have seen some signs that they may be planning for that and of course NATO allies, the United States, have been warning against it because this is something that should not happen. China should not support Russia’s illegal war.”

Stoltenberg said potential Chinese assistance would amount to providing “[direct] support to a blatant violation of international law, and of course [as] a member of the U.N. Security Council, China should not in any way support violation of the U.N. Charter, or international law.”

Putin hosts Chinese visitor

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted the Chinese Communist Party’s most senior foreign policy official, Wang Yi, raising concern in the West that Beijing might be ready to offer Moscow stronger support in the almost year-old war.

China has pointedly refused to criticize the invasion of Ukraine while echoing Moscow’s claim that the U.S. and NATO were to blame for provoking the Kremlin. China, Russia and South Africa are holding naval drills in the Indian Ocean this week.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said any Chinese involvement in the Kremlin’s war effort would be a “serious problem.” Ties between China and the U.S. are under severe strain over Taiwan and other issues.

Stoltenberg spoke to The Associated Press in Warsaw, following a meeting of NATO’s nine eastern flank members with U.S. President Joe Biden on the region’s security.

He stressed that while NATO “is no party” to the Ukraine conflict, its tasks are to “ensure that Ukraine prevails” and to “prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine and becoming a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO.”

He said the main message from the meeting in Warsaw was that “we will provide support to Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

It would be a “tragedy for the Ukrainians if President Putin wins in Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said, and also “dangerous for all of us” because it would “send the message to all authoritarian leaders that when they use military force, they get what they want.”

The Russian attack on Ukraine has prompted Sweden and neighboring Finland to abandondecades of nonalignment and apply to join the 30-nation alliance. But their bids, particularly Sweden’s, are being delayed by Turkey, which wants the two countries to crack down on mostly Kurdish groups Ankara regards as terrorists.

Stoltenberg told the AP that following talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week he could see Turkey “is moving closer to being ready to ratify and [to] welcome Finland into the alliance. But [Ankara continues] to have some challenges with Sweden.”

He said he welcomed the fact that he and Erdogan agreed to a meeting soon “of experts and officials in Brussels” from the three countries involved “to look into how we can make progress also on the ratification of Sweden as a full NATO ally.”

Source: Voice of America