"A Ryanair plane from Greece to Lithuania was diverted to Belarus for several hours on Sunday, with activists saying it was done to arrest a dissident journalist on board," BBC. "European nations reacted with outrage, accusing Belarus of 'state terrorism'. The ex-editor of the Nexta group, Roman Protasevich, was detained before the plane was allowed to resume its flight." "In a show of unified fury, the United States, Britain, the European Union, NATO and the United Nations lined up to call out the action in the skies above the eastern European country led by Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as Europe's last dictator," NBC. "President Joe Biden on Monday said the forced diversion by Belarus of a commercial passenger jet so it could arrest an opposition journalist was 'a direct affront to international norms' and condemned the action as an 'outrageous incident'," CNBC. A Whitehouse statement said "The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal and arrest of Mr Pratasevich. This outrageous incident and the video Mr Pratasevich seems to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press." "In July 2013 (President of Bolivia) Evo Morales was flying to Bolivia from a summit in Moscow, when his jet had to divert to Vienna airport in Austria after several other European countries apparently refused it permission to enter their airspace," BBC. In an outrageous insult to Bolivia, Austrian Police searched the plane for Edward Snowden and the plane was allowed to leave when he was not found, NPR. Edward Snowden is a whistleblower who exposed how the US National Security Agency (NSA) was spying on leaders of other nations., Wikipedia. Bolivia was convinced that the US was behind the act of air piracy. "Message to the Americans: The empire and its servants will never will never be able to intimidate or scare us," said Morales, CNN. Joe Biden was vice-president to Barack Obama in 2013. Selective amnesia. The European Union (EU) imposed new sanctions on Belarus. Belarus planes have been banned from flying over EU airspace, DW. In response, "At least two European airlines have been refused permission to fly to Moscow by Russian authorities after the carriers requested to fly an alternative route bypassing Belarussian airspace," CNN. In December 2020, the EU and China "concluded in principle the negotiations for a Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), announced the European Commission. The deal followed "a call between Chinese President Xi Jinping and European Commission President von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, on behalf of the Presidency of the EU Council, as well as the French President Emmanuel Macron." This despite a report from Human Rights Watch that, "China's government sees human rights as an existential threat. It's reaction could pose an existential threat to the rights of people worldwide." "For much of the past decade, the world's largest trading bloc has gone out of its way to establish an economic partnership with Beijing that doesn't conflict too aggressively with Brussels' lofty values," CNN. "Last week, the parliament voted on a motion to freeze the CAI until further notice. Ostensibly, this was in protest at China placing sanctions on five MEPs who had criticized China's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang among other things." "Recently the Chinese foreign ministry has taken an increasingly strident tone against the United States, Australia and other countries. Dubbed 'wolf-warrior diplomacy' this new approach seems popular inside China and reinforces a presumed transition of Chinese diplomacy from conservative, passive to assertive, proactive and high-profile," The Diplomat. If you play with the big bad wolf, the little ones will want to join in. Wolves hunt in packs.
No comments:
Post a Comment