Miscellaneous News

[taxiya]

They want to become independent without declaring independence. And currently they are succeeding towards moving to that goal step by step.

Like my backyard is an independent country without me declaring independence? They are succeeding towards that goal by getting less and lees countries giving a dump to their achievement? That is really some way of self-comforting.

 

[taxiya]

A small but interesting observation is that China has changed protocol of security details for VIP.

The Chinese guard or head of security detail for Macron is wearing a (regular) police uniform rather than PAP uniform in the past.

 

[emblem21]

I don't get the hate for Macron. He is by far the most pro-China EU leader (besides Orban maybe). I watched the press conference of Xi and Macron and Macron was very positive and sincere. He hailed China's role in the Iran-Saudi peace deal, he welcomed the Silk road initiative, he hailed the many economic agreements signed, he stressed the necessity to elevate bilateral relations, he talked about the need for European autonomy, etc.
Of course he brought the Ukraine issue and human rights but not in a condescending tone. I think the meeting went really well.

I think it is more the domestic failures of his rather than any reaction to China. But then again many leaders would actually be smarter and more reasonable if the USA didn’t have a save in the matter. His pension reform isn’t helping matters in France and his general failure in Africa is making everything worse for France so he needs some kind of a win somewhere

 

[taxiya]

I answer this question why my home country Bulgaria became a member of NATO. I quote Bulgarian politicians who were negotiating Bulgaria's accession to the EU at the time: we were told clearly by Brussels that Bulgaria would only be accepted as a member of the EU if it first became a member of NATO. This is an unofficial precondition: without NATO there is no EU. Bulgaria became a NATO member in 2004 and was admitted to the EU in 2007. With similar blackmail and pressure, NATO expanded in Eastern Europe towards Russia's borders.

I assume that the situation is similar now with North Macedonia, which became a NATO member in 2020 and can now be accepted into the EU.

The same is true for Montenegro. Polls showed that way more people were against it, at that time, but the dictator president (who ruled for 30+ years, just yesterday lost in the elections) directly led the country into NATO without a referendum and without any kind of public opinion. As for why he did that, he is just like a narco president of the past century in South America, they blackmailed him for his criminal activities probably. He also order to used to arrest, beat down, and destroy the opposition. In the beginning, he was a pro-Serb, but later CIA acquired him and he just changed his political course overnight and turned to be genocidal against Serbs ever since then. I think they also promised something along the lines of faster joining the EU which is a fairy tale. I think they also did a similar thing in North Macedonia, I mean CIA and the West, promises of EU + covert operations, media campaigns, coups, etc. Nothing of that was legitimate.

As I kept saying in this forum, EU and NATO is the two faces of the same coin.

[Addition]
Just a mind game, now after joining EU, can Hungary, Bulgaria, Montenegro quit NATO? EU does not have a clause to expel members.

 

[gelgoog]

Judging by casualty ratios, they could roll through in 2022 as well, if Russia had committed the whole air force and army.

The problem is what happens afterwards when an equally sized NATO volunteer army and US air force hits the overextended Russian occupation regions. Probably a complete collapse back to the Dnieper at best and Crimea at worst.

Russia in 2014 was dependent on food imports from the EU and relied on SWIFT for internal financial transactions. Not just external ones. They were simply not ready for sanctions. If they were sanctioned like they were in 2022 people would have starved and all electronic money transactions would have stopped.

This time they had the Mir debit and credit cards. All pensioners and government workers had one. And they had the SPFS financial transaction network.

 

[taxiya]

I don't get the hate for Macron. He is by far the most pro-China EU leader (besides Orban maybe). I watched the press conference of Xi and Macron and Macron was very positive and sincere. He hailed China's role in the Iran-Saudi peace deal, he welcomed the Silk road initiative, he hailed the many economic agreements signed, he stressed the necessity to elevate bilateral relations, he talked about the need for European autonomy, etc.
Of course he brought the Ukraine issue and human rights but not in a condescending tone. I think the meeting went really well.

Maybe disappointing is the more suitable word. When Chinese judging Macron, people are using Jacques Chirac as the baseline. When judging German chancellors, Gerhard Schröder is the baseline.

 

[Michaelsinodef]

Russia in 2014 was dependent on food imports from the EU and relied on SWIFT for internal financial transactions. Not just external ones. They were simply not ready for sanctions. If they were sanctioned like they were in 2022 people would have starved and all electronic money transactions would have stopped.

This time they had the Mir debit and credit cards. All pensioners and government workers had one. And they had the SPFS financial transaction network.

Basically, the imaginary scenario of Russia collapsing due to the sanctions, could maybe have happened if they did those sanctions back in 2014.

Or at the very least, the damages they would cause would have been far, far more substanstial and probably induced a very large scale crisis.

 

[pmc]

Basically, the imaginary scenario of Russia collapsing due to the sanctions, could maybe have happened if they did those sanctions back in 2014.

Or at the very least, the damages they would cause would have been far, far more substanstial and probably induced a very large scale crisis.

i would not go that far. In 2014 global oil/Gas industry was not that big when you look at LNG capacity and Europe still far too depended. but Russia would have definitely felt the sanctions much more than now. i would think only Syria solved the reliability of air power. The scale of helicopter operations that you see now in Ukraine that would not possible without Syria experience. and without choppers occupation not economical and effective. There is also another benefit now as Israel moved up the technology chain. it give Russia better insight of things that will happen.

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[taxiya]

Interesting but Austria is a EU member and not in NATO and Turkeys a NATO member , but cant get into the EU.

Austria is a special case, a legal binding nutral country who can not join any military alliance. That was the condition of it regaining independence after WWII.

Turkey joined NATO when EU was not born yet. So again it is not comparable.

 

[taxiya]

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View attachment 110541
Ursula von der Leyen in Beijing today? Who's that?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1643844463385559040

The US will cry about how Iran-Saudi normalization was a joint effort which included the west also

I wish to see SA joining the China-Russia-Iran joint naval drill in the gulf region in the near future.