Mereja.Forum

[Zmeselo]

AFRICA
Germany and France dispatch envoys to Ethiopia soon after China's charm offensive

12 Jan

Lenin Ndebele

https://www.news24.com/news24/africa/ne ... e-20230112


African Union Commission. Minasse Wondimu Hailu/Anadolu Agency via Getty Ima

• Germany and France sent their foreign affairs ministers to Ethiopia on an EU diplomatic offensive.

• China avoids talking about AU's push for a permanent AU Security Council seat.

• Africa is at the centre of opposing forces in global affairs.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


A day after the Chinese foreign affairs minister landed in Addis Ababa on a charm offensive, Germany and France dispatched their counterparts on a similar joint mission to Ethiopia, representing the European Union (EU)'s interests.

Despite meeting Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and senior members of his government to commend them on the peace deal in Tigray, China's envoy Qin Gang on Wednesday held the 8th China-AU Strategic Dialogue with the chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) Moussa Faki Mahamat at the headquarters of the African Union (AU).

China is heavily invested in the AU. For one, the continental bloc's headquarters were built and gifted by China.

In 2021, China's combined trade with African governments rose by 35% to R4.28 trillion.

Nigeria is Africa's biggest importer from China while South Africa is the biggest exporter.

In a statement after the meeting between Qin and Mahamat, China said,

In recent years, African integration has gained strong momentum and Africa’s collective influence on international affairs has been growing. China extends congratulations on this.

But Qin's avoidance of a question from journalists on whether China would support a bid for Africa to have a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council, left a lot of suspicions.

Supporting an AU seat is an agenda championed by China's rival in Africa, the United States.

Now it is up to the EU joint team, an American ally on global affairs, to impress Ethiopia, and Africa at large.

Speaking about the diplomatic visit to Ethiopia, the federal minister for foreign affairs of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, said the EU needed Africa's collaboration in dealing with international affairs.

She said:

Our continents are neighbours. What happens in Africa affects Europe. What preoccupies Europe has a direct impact on the African continent.

A case in point was the war in Ukraine that has threatened Africa's food security.

In a joint statement, the foreign affairs ministers of Germany and France said their visit would look into Africa's role in global governance.

In launching the Human Rights Watch Report for 2023 on Thursday, Tirana Hassan, the acting executive director at HRW, said there was a need for new coalitions to work towards the restoration of a rules-based world, meaning that any position taken by Africa had strong sway.

Against a backdrop of shifting power, there is more space, not less, for states to stand up for human rights as new coalitions and new voices of leadership emerge,

she said.

A majority of the world's problems are in, or affect, Africa the most.

As such, competing global forces want the continent as an active stakeholder or an ally.

That's why ignoring the continent's troubles is not possible. This is despite a sudden shift toward Ukraine at the beginning of Russia's invasion which somewhat reduced attention to African problems such as the civil war in Tigray.

Hassan said:

This sort of global action is needed in Ethiopia, where two years of atrocities by all parties to the conflict have received only a tiny fraction of the attention focused on Ukraine, contributing to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

After the peace deal in Ethiopia, Germany and France say it's important for them to be part of the rebuilding process.

It is important to both of us [Germany and France] for Europe to swiftly show a presence in Ethiopia and offer a close partnership following the Nairobi and Pretoria peace agreements,

said Baerbock.

The EU duo said that while in Ethiopia they would focus on

how Germany, France, and the European Union can support Ethiopia on the path it began in 2018 towards peace, democracy, and sustainable development.

____________









I wonder, what he would want Africa to do? Hmmmm..

[Zmeselo]

NEWS/COMMENTARY
Top Dems FUME when Kevin McCarthy boots them from key committee positions

January 10, 2023

Terresa Monroe-Hamilton

https://americanwirenews.com/top-dems-f ... positions/

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has just made good on another promise Tuesday to remove Squad member Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from the Foreign Affairs Committee and Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA) from the Intelligence Committee.

The Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... ttees.html is contending that it is payback from former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (CA) stripping GOP Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) from their committee assignments during the 117th Congress. However, Republicans are asserting it is a promise kept to clean the House of radical leftists who they see as a national security threat.

Republicans warned Democrats https://americanwirenews.com/promises-k ... o-the-irs/ this was coming. Although conservatives won back the House with a slim majority, it is just enough to give them control and allow McCarthy the power to boot leftists from powerful committees. Normally, the new Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries would present names for the committees to McCarthy, but the Speaker had already made it clear who would be blocked, which includes the three far-left representatives, according to Punchbowl News. https://punchbowl.news/archive/11023-punchbowl-news-am/

It’s not like it’s anything new,

McCarthy informed the media outlet.

Remember, this is what Nancy Pelosi – this is the type of Congress she wanted to have.

Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector,

he noted of the California lawmaker who was allegedly honey potted by a Chinese spy named Fang Fang.

I’m not going to give him a government security clearance.

The woman helped Swalwell raise money for his 2014 campaign and many suspect he was sleeping with her. The California Democrat claimed that he cut all ties to the alleged spy, but it was shown that he remained friends with her on Facebook long after an FBI briefing on her connection to China.

Schiff has lied too many times to the American public. He should not be on Intel,

McCarthy bluntly asserted.

And then there are Omar’s antisemitic outbursts https://americanwirenews.com/ilhan-omar ... ommittees/ and anti-American sentiments. She even made conciliatory comments at the last moment, but it didn’t save her committee assignment.

Unsurprisingly, all three Democrats are outraged over being removed from their committees and claim they have done nothing wrong.

The Democrats have created a new thing where they’re picking and choosing who could be on committee,

McCarthy told Breitbart. https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022 ... committee/

Never in the history [of Congress] have you had the majority tell the minority who could be on committee but this new standard, which these Democrats have voted for — if Eric Swalwell cannot get a security clearance in the private sector, there’s no reason why he should be given one to be on Intel or Homeland Security.

So that will not — he will not be serving there,

McCarthy continued, later adding:

Ilhan Omar should not be serving on Foreign Affairs. This is a new level of what the Democrats have done.

You look at Adam Schiff, he should not be serving on Intel when he has openly, knowingly now, used a fake dossier, lied to the American public in the process and doesn’t have any ill will [and] says he wants to continue to do it,

he continued.

Think about what happened in Afghanistan,

the new speaker added.

Why did Afghanistan collapse so fast? Was the Intel committee under Adam Schiff focused on impeachment and not on the safety of America? Why are people coming across the border that are on a terrorist watch list? What are they doing about it? Their own members on that committee say it’s not happening when it’s true. We need to have an Intel Committee that looks at what’s happening around the world and keeps America safe.

McCarthy, in his first test as Speaker of the House, got a new rules package passed Monday night. Now, he faces a fight over committee assignments in the 118th Congress.

He has been promising since 2021 that he would block Swalwell, Schiff, and Omar from spots on the Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees and he kept that promise as soon as possible. Elections have consequences as the left has often said to Republicans.

Punchbowl News is claiming that multiple Democratic leadership sources are claiming that the plan is to still name Schiff and Swalwell to Intel and Omar to Foreign Affairs. But that effort is almost certainly doomed and they will have to learn to live with disappointment now that Republicans are in charge.

The Daily Mail is reporting that Republicans will place Greene, Gosar, and already scandal-ridden New York Republican George Santos on committees. Whether the Santos allegation is true or not remains to be seen. Regardless, Democrats are powerless to stop it.

Greene was previously removed from the Budget and then from Education and Labor committees in February 2021 after comments she made that Democrats found offensive. It should be noted that eleven Republicans backed removing her at the time. It’s now expected that she will be placed on the Oversight and Accountability Committee, among other potential panel assignments.

Gosar was censured and stripped of his committee seats after he posted on social media an animated video depicting violent acts toward progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Biden.

They promised me that if I wanted to stay on Natural Resources and Oversight, I could stay,

Gosar commented.



McCarthy has the power to block Schiff and Swalwell. But the House will need to act against Omar serving on Foreign Affairs. With a Republican majority and numerous Jewish Democrats who don’t care for her, it should be no problem making sure she’s off the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Omar is decrying her removal by claiming that Republicans

made it their mission to use fear, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and racism to target me on the House Floor and through millions of dollars of campaign ads.

Schiff is screaming just as loudly, although he should not be surprised after trying to impeach Trump and then lying about the Russian collusion hoax. He bitterly stated that McCarthy

will adhere to the wishes of Marjorie Taylor Greene,

according to the Daily Mail.