Saudi Railway Company (SAR) wants to localize expertise in operating the al-Mashaer Train, aiming to run it entirely with trained national units by 2026. The Mashaer Train is one of the most important transportation pillars in the Holy Sites, which is being developed continuously to promote the service provided to the pilgrims. The project seeks to achieve the goal of Vision 2030 by increasing its capacity to five million pilgrims. The Train was on hiatus for two years due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. SAR disclosed that the Mashaer train project provided over 7,500 seasonal jobs in crowd control at the train stations. Saudi Railways began its first operation of the Mashaer Rail after signing an agreement with the Royal Commission for the Holy City of Makkah and the Holy Sites in March 2021. Under the agreement, SAR is required to operate and maintain the Mashaer Rail for five years. It must also manage and control the crowds and security guards and handle the assets, including stations, facilities, equipment, operating systems, and other related equipment. SAR identified the necessary needs for the project, prioritizing projects in preparation for the operation of the Hajj season. It implemented several projects to renew many systems, including signaling systems, wireless communication systems, visual communications, sidewalk doors, the waterproofing system for roofs, and the renewal of elevators and escalators. SAR indicated that it began preparing for this year’s Hajj season and completed all routine and maintenance work in addition to several improvement projects necessary before the start of operations. It explained that operations are divided into three primary stages: the pre-operational stage, the experimental operation stage, which includes four simulations of the Hajj, and the actual Hajj season. The Train has nine stations, including Arafat, Muzdalifa, and Mina. It connects the southeast of Arafat and the southwest of Mina via the Muzdalifah with a track of 20 km in high structures on poles in the middle islands of the roads. The Chinese Railway Construction Corporation implemented the project at a total cost of SR6.650 billion. It was launched in November 2010. The project consists of 17 trains, including 204 cars, each accommodating 300 passengers, and two vehicles, front and rear. The length of the track is about 18.1 km, with a capacity of 72,000 pilgrims per hour. The project includes nine stations elevated from the ground with a length of 300 meters for each station, and the train platforms are accessed by ramps, elevators, regular and electrical stairs, and automatic gates separating the Train from loading areas and waiting areas.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3730311/saudi-arabias-mashaer-train-operate-again
A World of Diplomacy and Multi-dimensional Moves to Counter Challenges
Opinion
Omer Onhon
Omer Onhon -
Important back to back international summit meetings have been taking place; in Asia (the BRICS Summit) and in Europe (EU Council and the Group of Seven Summit). The last of the series, 2022 NATO Summit, will begin Wednesday. All these meetings are held in the midst of what almost everyone refers to as the re-shaping of a new world order and against the backdrop of Russian invasion and the ensuing war in Ukraine. Russia and Ukraine (and its supporters) are engaged in a war of attrition. Both sides have weaponized all means possible, including, energy, tourism, food and trade. This war is creating new problems and additional, worsening crisis at a global level almost every day. The supporters of Ukraine led by the US are aiming to reduce to the extent possible the revenues (from gas, oil and other sources) of the Russian state, squeeze it’s so called oligarchs so as to create pressure on Putin and awaken the Russian population at large about the damage that the policies of their president has caused for Russia. Russia has been negatively affected by sanctions but is not backing down, as it has the means and political will to fight back. When recently Lithuania stopped railway transportation of sanctioned items to Kaliningrad (Russian enclave with a population of 480,000 located between Poland and Lithuania, home to Baltic Fleet), Russia threatened unspecified appropriate measures at a time of its choosing. Whatever that means, Lithuania, unlike Ukraine or Georgia or Moldova, is an EU and NATO member and is covered by Article 5. On June 22, Russia cut the flow of gas to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline to 40% of capacity. European countries are actively engaged for seeking alternative sources to fill their storages and to ensure a winter without shortages. Some deals have been reached such as between Germany and Qatar, between the EU, Israel and Egypt. But time is needed to feel on safe ground. Global food security, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East is a serious concern. Food shortages, high prices and social unrest are nightmare for countries which have certain weaknesses and have limits to their ability to sustain government subsidies. Efforts to move grain unhindered from Ukraine and through the Black Sea have not yet yielded results. Despite all setbacks, delays and losses, Russia is making progress on the ground. Donbas is almost entirely under Russian control. Russia is also getting more reckless with more actions amounting to more war crimes. Last couple of days Russia struck civilian targets in different Ukrainian cities, an apartment block and a shopping mall and killed civilians. In a just world, these war crimes should not go unpunished. Even though the Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought a sense of unity in NATO and the EU and a seemingly better communication in transatlantic relations, there are still serious challenges. The longer the war in Ukraine, the more frictions within the Western camp. Just recently, the Foreign Minister of Italy resigned because of a disagreement over providing arms to Ukraine. There is also a concern that the US may once again make one of its sharp U-turns as in Syria and later in Afghanistan. Russia is banking on such developments which may also lead to the collapse of governments and to political crisis in the West. The other favorite issue; China. China is more assertive under President Xi Jinping but its fighting tools are different than Russia. China prefers to use its soft power and almost endless economic capabilities. What brings out the military in China is Taiwan and this is when the Chinese dragon shows its face. The BRICS group (China, Russia, Brazil, India and South Africa) held its Summit a week ago. Presidents Xi and Putin demonstrated defiance against the US and its allies. Russia has found new trade partners in China and India which are buying huge quantities of Russian oil at very competitive prices. Official figures show that, compared to last year, China is buying around 55% more oil from Russia. G7 came up with the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Development Initiative” where the aim is to come up with 600 million dollars over the next five years for infrastructure projects in various countries. This initiative is a counter measure to China’s Belt and Road Initiative which was launched in 2013. At the documents which will be adopted by the NATO leaders at the Summit, most probably, China will once again be referred to as a challenge and at the same time, as an opportunity. A firm stance but at the same time extending a hand. Membership problems and peculiarities; At its Council meeting, the EU granted the status of candidate to Ukraine and Moldova. But membership issues in the EU are complicated and peculiar. Anyone who thinks that once candidate status is approved membership is imminent is wrong. As President Emmanuel Macron clearly stated back in May on the occasion of the Europe Day, even if candidate status is given (to Ukraine and others) the process would take several years and even decades. Turkey has been kept in the waiting room since 2005.The six Western Balkan countries (Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and Kosovo) which are all at different stages of the process for becoming a member are also in waiting. Bulgaria (a NATO member) has been blocking accession negotiations of North Macedonia (another NATO member), demanding North Macedonia to recognize that certain national characters of the country including language and the name of the nation are not of its but of Bulgaria’s. Macedonia has to satisfy Bulgaria to begin accession negotiations to join the EU. (A day after the EU Council meeting Bulgaria's parliament voted in favor of a proposal that could lead to the lifting of its veto). In NATO, Turkey conditioned its acceptance of membership of Sweden and Finland to being strict on combatting terrorism. A way forward is likely to emerge which will pave the way for membership. On the other hand, one should not overlook the fact that becoming NATO member is a process and the final phase of this process is the ratification of accession protocols by all 30 member countries. In conclusion; Conflicts and challenges are costly and damaging but they also bring about new opportunities, friendships, alliances and business partnerships. With that, (hopefully and ideally) without neglecting principles, international politics and diplomacy have a lot to do with changing circumstances and ability to adopt. We will see whether all these important meetings one after the other will lead to developments in this direction.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3730296/omer-onhon/world-diplomacy-and-multi-dimensional-moves-counter-challenges
UN: Over 100 Murders in Syria’s al-Hol Camp Since Jan 2021
Arab World
Asharq Al-Awsat
A general view of al-Hol camp in Syria. Reuters file photo
More than 100 people, including many women, have been murdered in a Syrian camp in just 18 months, the UN said Tuesday, demanding countries repatriate their citizens. The Al-Hol camp is increasingly unsafe and the child detainees are being condemned to a life with no future, said Imran Riza, the UN resident coordinator in Syria. Al-Hol, in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, was meant as a temporary detention facility. However, it still holds about 56,000 people, mostly Syrians and Iraqis, some of whom maintain links with ISIS, which seized swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014. The rest are citizens of other countries, including children and other relatives of ISIS fighters. Some 94 percent of the detainees are women and children, Riza, who has visited Al-Hol a handful of times, told reporters in Geneva. "It's a very harsh place and it's become an increasingly unsafe place," AFP quoted Riza as saying. There have been "around 106 murders since January last year in the camp" and "many" of the victims were women, he added. "There's a great deal of gender-based violence... There's a lot of no-go areas." The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said violence was spiking in the camp, with another murder Tuesday -- the seventh since June 11. Out of 24 people murdered inside the camp this year, 16 were women, the Observatory added. Riza said there were around 27,000 Iraqi detainees, 18-19,000 Syrians and around 12,000 third-country citizens. While there have been some repatriations to Iraq, many other countries which "need to be accepting their people back" were refusing to do so. "The majority of the population there are children. They are innocent. If you leave them in a place like Al-Hol, you're essentially condemning them to not having a future." Riza said that when boys get to 12, 13 and 14, they are taken away from their families and put into a different center, where their future is one of radicalization and joining a militia. "The only solution is emptying the camp," he said.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3730261/un-over-100-murders-syria%E2%80%99s-al-hol-camp-jan-2021
Human Rights on Mars Won’t Be the Same as Those on Earth
Opinion
Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen -
Kim Stanley Robinson writes bestselling novels about a colony on Mars. Elon Musk talks of actually colonizing Mars. There is even a 30-page constitution, courtesy of a Yale political science class, for a Mars settlement. The actual prospects for a settlement remain uncertain, but the question of how it should be organized could stand some further scrutiny. The Yale proposal is about how to make a Mars settlement democratic, as is an earlier proposal published in Space Legal Issues. But I fear a harsher question needs to be addressed first: Should a Mars settlement allow for contractual servitude? When the New World was settled, it was common practice for workers to sign multiyear contracts, receiving passage across the ocean but giving up a share of their earnings and some of their freedom. Contractual servitude is distinct from slavery in the sense that it is chosen voluntarily. But once the contract is signed, the worker is in an uncomfortable position, in both an economic and democratic sense. And once these individuals land in the New World — or, as the case may be, on Mars — their protection by mainstream legal institutions cannot be assumed. It is easy to inveigh against contractual servitude, but it has one valuable function: It creates incentives for someone to finance the voyage in the first place. If I had to finance my own passage to Mars, and then sustain myself when I got there, and pay off the travel costs, I would never go. But if a company can send a few thousand people, keep half the profits, and remain in charge, the voyage might stand a chance, at least decades from now when the technology is further along. That said, I am fine with banning contractual servitude on Mars, if that is what a democratic society decides. My point is that this is a more pressing question than what kind of new participatory rights the new Martians will have. Keep in mind the economic point about trade-offs: If poorer people are not allowed to sign up for these funded voyages, then maybe only billionaires will visit Mars. The tension is that most people have well-developed moralities for wealthy, democratic societies in which most citizens can earn their keep or be provided for by a well-funded social welfare state. Neither of those assumptions holds for Mars, which at least at the beginning will be a kind of pre-subsistence economy. The upshot is that feasible Mars constitutions will probably offend the educated classes dearly. Another option for a Mars constitution is to have the U.S. government fund the voyage and apply some version of military law to the venture, as one might find on an aircraft carrier. Earlier NASA voyages were based on military command and involved no democracy. I support such a plan, but also note that governmental space exploration has slowed dramatically since its peak in the 1960s and 1970s. It is the private sector that has revived interest in a Mars settlement. Ideally I might like Mars to be settled by a religious group rather than by a government or a corporation. After all, various Puritan groups helped to settle North America, and they had the unity and sense of mission to pull off a very difficult and dangerous endeavor. Similarly, Mormons helped settle the American West. Not surprisingly, many of these early governments had strong theocratic elements. While I don’t view theocracy as either efficient or just, if the key question is motivating the settlers, then the religion option ought to be taken seriously. Like contractual servitude, it could serve a practical purpose. Yet religious settlements willing to go to Mars may be hard to come by. Relative religious freedom is available in many places on Earth. A victim of persecution in, say, North Korea, will find it far easier — now and maybe forever — to seek asylum in South Korea instead of Mars. I suspect that no feasible constitution for a Mars settlement would be very popular in the broad sense. Ages of exploration tend to encourage strong non-democratic or anti-democratic elements. Perhaps the best that can be hoped for is a very democratic philosophy for life on Earth, with the understanding that Mars will be very different. Can we accept and indeed embrace such a dialectical and contradictory set of perspectives? Can the proper answer to such a fundamental question as how society should be organized so firmly depend on which planet we are talking about? Might some skeptics suggest that, with illiberal values ascendant on Earth, it would be better for Mars to offer an alternative? These are all valid questions. The debate over a Martian constitution is interesting, but it may also be premature. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3730191/tyler-cowen/human-rights-mars-won%E2%80%99t-be-same-those-earth
The Jumbo Floating Restaurant, a landmark attraction built in the style of an imperial palace that adorned the south side of Hong Kong island for more than four decades, capsized this month in the South China Sea, having been towed away after its business was rendered unprofitable by the pandemic. Social media users were quick to see a metaphor. As Hong Kong prepares to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its return to China, the city’s dreams of autonomy and democracy are as stricken as this jaded colonial-era icon. That isn’t the official narrative, needless to say. The Hong Kong government has set up a celebratory website for the anniversary, under the heading: “A New Era: Stability, Prosperity, Opportunity.” A theme song titled “Heading Forward” features numerous Cantopop stars intercut with scenes of the city’s landscape and activities – including kindergarten children goosestepping with the Chinese flag. The song doesn’t appear to have captured the popular imagination yet: Three weeks after being released, a YouTube version had 4,200 views and 50 “likes.” By contrast, “Glory to Hong Kong,” an unofficial anthem of Hong Kong’s 2019 pro-democracy protests, has 3.5 million views and 117,000 likes. Anniversaries are often arbitrary milestones. They nevertheless offer an opportunity to stop and take stock, to assess where we have come from and where we are heading. And Hong Kong’s silver jubilee as a special administrative region of China has a particular significance, being the halfway point of the 50 years during which Beijing promised the free-spirited capitalist city a high degree of autonomy and an unchanged way of life. When looking for clues on the future direction of this global financial center that grew out of a colonial trading post, it makes sense to scrutinize the past. History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes. Handover day wasn’t particularly memorable, for me. It was a historic occasion, everyone knew: the end of more than 150 years of British rule, a closing curtain on the UK’s empire and a symbol of the rise of China. Thousands of journalists had flown in from around the world to cover the event. But the big questions had been settled long in advance. Those who intended to get out before Beijing resumed control had already mostly done so. Those who remained were content, or at least resigned, to watch what happened; pride, hope and excitement mingled with varying degrees of apprehension. I spent the early part of the evening at a party of German expatriates in the Mid-Levels district of Hong Kong Island that promised a good view of the fireworks in the harbor below. With the hoi polloi kept well away from the invite-only official festivities, we watched on television. There was one moment that seared me with emotion, I’ll admit: when the orchestra at Britain’s harbor-front farewell played Elgar’s Nimrod (I am British, after all). The staid and choreographed handover ceremony itself left me cold. Military pomp, whether colonial or communist, has never held much appeal. Amid much shouting, marching and horn-blowing, some flags were lowered and others raised, and it was over. We went to bed, woke up the next morning and life carried on as normal. The parachute correspondents flew on to their next global assignment. Looking back, it is striking how we have come full circle; how the sense of foreboding and anxiety that pervaded much of the media coverage of the handover (which arrived just eight years after Tiananmen) has come to be vindicated, so completely and yet so belatedly. A central question, then, is: Why did it take so long? If the Communist Party intended to renege on its promises, then why did it not act sooner? Tibet offers one possible answer. Scholars have drawn parallels between the “One Country, Two Systems” formula that governed Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty and the Seventeen Point Agreement that incorporated Tibet into the People’s Republic in 1951. The agreement pledged the region autonomy and to preserve its way of life, but tensions with Beijing led to an uprising in 1959 that was suppressed by the People’s Liberation Army, after which the central government set about assimilating Tibet into the nation’s socialist system. (China blames a reactionary clique set on preserving feudal practices for inciting the rebellion and calls its takeover a “democratic reform” and “emancipation.”) It’s a strategy that borrows from the approach of China’s imperial dynasties to its periphery. “The Qing emperor allowed local elites in newly incorporated regions with distinct customs and leadership to exercise local autonomy. But not indefinitely,” as Ho-fung Hung, a professor at Johns Hopkins University, has written. “Over time, they would be integrated into the core territory of the empire, being culturally assimilated and having their local autonomy abolished.” The head of the Communist Party’s Southwestern Bureau in 1949-52, and in charge of negotiations with the Dalai Lama government, was Deng Xiaoping. Three decades later, as China’s paramount leader, Deng oversaw the negotiations with Britain on Hong Kong’s future and is credited with proposing the One Country, Two Systems arrangement. (Deng frequently spoke of his desire to set foot in the territory after its return to China. He missed the handover by four months, dying at 92 in February 1997. Memories of that day are as vivid as July 1. Although the city was still at that point under British rule, Hong Kong’s subway operator spent the day piping funeral music through its loudspeaker system. The eeriness of hearing that lugubrious sound echoing through station tunnels has stayed with me since.) Seen through this lens, then, Hong Kong’s autonomy was always a strictly transitional affair, with absorption into the national system the ultimate destination, whether voluntary or otherwise. Indeed, 50 years put a finite time frame on the city’s separate status from the start. In the event, it lasted 23 years, until Beijing imposed a national security law that radically reshaped Hong Kong society. Perhaps, for a country famous for taking the long view, the missing 27 years is a mere rounding error. The Hong Kong government’s version of events presents a far sunnier picture. In the telling of the anniversary web site and the statements of officials, the national security law restored order after a violent insurrection fomented by anti-China external forces. Normal service has been resumed, and the city is as free as ever. Outgoing leader Carrie Lam says Hong Kong is “back on the right track.” Apparently, all those years when there was a diverse and thriving free media, competitive elections, opposition lawmakers, independent trade unions, orderly and peaceful protests, and a wide variety of civil society groups, Hong Kong was doing it wrong. Now, with political opposition eradicated, activists in prison or exile, democratic participation vastly scaled back, news organizations closed down, trade unions disbanded and demonstrations all but unheard of, the city has finally got it right — even though this “way of life” is like nothing in living memory pre- or post-handover. Others would argue that the 2019 protests were entirely homegrown, the result of Beijing’s steady erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and refusal to honor meaningfully its promise of expanded democracy for the city. As in Tibet, resistance offered the occasion for forcible assimilation. My observation is that China’s popularity tended to rise and fall with the degree to which Beijing left the city alone, with the 2008 Olympics a high point of patriotic feeling. A turning point came with Xi Jinping and, in particular, the publication of a white paper in 2014 that sought to redefine the terms of One Country, Two Systems, arguing that the central government had “comprehensive jurisdiction” over the city. The paper is widely thought to be the work of Communist Party intellectual Jiang Shigong, whose influences include the Nazi theorist Carl Schmitt. Some analysts once contended that Hong Kong’s international connectivity and visibility, along with its economic importance to China, would protect it from the fate of other peripheral regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang. Such beliefs proved misplaced. What, though, of Hong Kong’s financial role? The city’s relative heft has shrunk drastically since 1997 (when its gross domestic product was equal to about a fifth of China’s) as the mainland expanded to become the world’s second-largest economy. But it retains a crucial financial role, as China’s window into the dollar world and a safe testbed for reforms such as the creation of an offshore renminbi market. There is room here for some qualified optimism. Hong Kong’s own Covid policies have done more damage to the city’s hub status than US-led sanctions. These have been targeted at officials blamed for undermining Hong Kong’s autonomy such as Lam and her replacement John Lee, and are largely symbolic. Western countries can’t expand such measures without hurting the Hong Kong people they are trying to support, while also damaging their own interests. In the financial arena, One Country, Two Systems remains a reality. Hong Kong has a freely convertible currency, a low-tax regime and is its own customs territory — all attributes that set the city apart from the mainland’s economy. “Compared to Tibet, one difference of Hong Kong is that Beijing has not decided how far and fast to dismantle One Country, Two Systems yet,” Johns Hopkins’ Hung said by email. He points out that Beijing suspended plans to extend its anti-foreign sanctions law to Hong Kong (after it provoked disquiet in the business community), and also backpedaled on plans earlier this year for a mainland-style lockdown. “The financial centrality of Hong Kong still served as a check (though limited) on the crackdown.” Socially, culturally and politically, though, the outlook is bleak. The direction has been set, and it is hard to envisage any return to a more liberal model. At the time of the handover, the Communist Party advanced an expansive definition of patriotism, based on Deng’s formulation, as anyone who welcomed Hong Kong’s return to China and didn’t wish to impair the city’s prosperity and stability. “Those who meet these requirements are patriots, whether they believe in capitalism or feudalism or even slavery,” Deng said. “We don’t demand that they be in favor of China’s socialist system; we only ask them to love the motherland and Hong Kong.” Watching handover-era interviews with the patriotic young Hong Kongers who flocked with pride to embrace that invitation, in the belief that their country was moving in a more open, liberal and inclusive direction, I cannot help wondering what they think now. Only 2% of Hong Kong’s youth now identify as Chinese, down from 5.4% six months ago, a poll showed last week. Record numbers are leaving the city. How might things have been different, if Beijing had trusted the Hong Kong people and kept its promises? We’ll never know. That ship has sailed. Bloomberg
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3730186/matthew-brooker/how-hong-kong%E2%80%99s-1997-dreams-sank-without-trace
Sony Launches PC Gaming Gear, Expanding Beyond PlayStation
Technology
Asharq Al-Awsat
Journalists wait for Sony Corp's President's news conference on the company's business plan at Sony's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan May 22, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai
Japan's Sony is launching a new brand that will offer PC gaming gear, the company announced Wednesday, as it tries to compete for a share of the lucrative gaming peripherals market. Sony is looking to expand beyond its flagship PlayStation console and boost revenue from other sectors, including PC and mobile gaming. The gaming peripherals market of items used by players was valued at $3.88 billion globally in 2019 according to Grand View Research. Sony's first offerings from its new Inzone brand will be three wireless headsets and two monitors, the priciest of which will retail for a suggested $899.99 in the United States. "The market has been expanding with a higher interest in gaming with the spread of esports tournaments and the advancement of gaming entertainment," said Yukihiro Kitajima, head of Sony's game business and marketing office, in a statement. Sony is "very late" to the "hopelessly crowded" sector, said Serkan Toto, CEO of game industry consultancy Kantan Games. Rival Microsoft is already well-positioned, along with competitors like Razer, though Sony will bring unique hardware features, he told AFP. The firm's decision to enter the market now is linked to its "aggressive plan to boost sales from PC and mobile for its PlayStation unit to around 50 percent by fiscal 2025," Toto said. It "apparently believes that the goal is easier to achieve by leveraging its position in hardware to raise awareness among PC gamers."
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3730181/sony-launches-pc-gaming-gear-expanding-beyond-playstation
Asharq Al-Awsat
A worker fixes a NATO poster outside the NATO Summit building ahead of the summit in Madrid, Spain, Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP)
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked NATO back to first principles. Seven decades after it was founded, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is meeting in Madrid this week with an urgent need to reassert its original mission: preventing Russian aggression against Western allies. Leaders of the world’s most powerful military alliance are aiming to increase support for Ukraine's fight against Russian invasion, boost forces on NATO's eastern flank and set priorities for the coming decade - with a new emphasis on checking China’s growing international ambitions. But the gathering will also showcase the difficulties in keeping 30 nations - from tiny Iceland and Luxembourg to huge Turkey and the United States - aligned in an organization that must make decisions by consensus. Focus on Ukraine NATO was formed after World War II to counter the threat from the Soviet Union and foster cooperation in a shattered Europe. In the years after the collapse of the USSR, the alliance recast Russia not as an adversary but as a "strategic partner." No longer. Russia is NATO's dominant issue and main adversary, and the Madrid summit will be dominated by how to support Ukraine and bolster defenses along the bloc's eastern borders, where countries from Romania to the Baltic states worry they may be next in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s sights. Until late last year, only around 5,000 NATO troops were deployed in the Baltic states and Poland on a rotational basis. Now hundreds of thousands of troops are on heightened alert, with 100,000 US troops in Europe, and 40,000 under direct NATO command, supported by air and naval power. The summit is set to agree to stockpile weapons and equipment in eastern Europe and to dramatically increase the number of troops based in the region or on standby in their own countries as a rapid-reaction force. There will also be more support for Ukraine to upgrade its military, still reliant on Soviet-era equipment, to modern NATO-standard gear. The alliance is trying to strike a delicate balance, letting its member nations arm Ukraine without sparking a direct confrontation between NATO and nuclear-armed Russia. That’s one reason Ukraine will not be joining NATO in the foreseeable future, despite being put on the pathway to membership, along with Georgia, in 2008. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to address the summit by video, but he has acknowledged joining NATO is a distant prospect and is instead focusing on seeking European Union membership. Expansion of the alliance is on the cards, however. Finland and Sweden have both abandoned their nonaligned status and asked to join NATO as protection from Russia. Turkey as spoiler?
But Turkey, which has NATO’s second-largest army after the US, is set to play spoiler to the aspirations of Sweden and Finland - at least for now. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has insisted that he will only allow the Nordic pair to enter NATO if they change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg hosted talks with Turkey, Sweden and Finland last week to work toward a breakthrough, and will meet with the three countries' leaders on Tuesday, but there's no guarantee the breakthrough will come in Madrid. "Turkey has legitimate security concerns over terrorism that we need to address," Stoltenberg said. "So we will continue our talks on Finland and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, and I look forward to finding a way forward as soon as possible." A united front? Russia’s invasion upended European security, but NATO’s members take comfort in the fact that the US is back as the pillar of Western defense after four years in which President Donald Trump derided and undermined the alliance. But there are differences within NATO on military spending. Currently only nine of the 30 members meet the organization’s target of spending 2% of Gross Domestic Product on defense. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently urged others to commit more, saying the 2% target is "a floor, not a ceiling." Cracks also could emerge over strategy on Russia and Ukraine as the war drags on and debate intensifies over what, if any, concessions Ukraine should make to end the fighting. "There are still unresolved questions around how NATO as an alliance should deal with Russia in the long term," said Alice Billon-Galland, research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank. "Do we consider that it’s unredeemable as a neighbor? And what does that mean? Or do we think that at some point we will have to sit down and negotiate a new security architecture with Russia? Allies have been on different pages when it comes to that." Checking China With the world in turmoil, the alliance will try to craft a long-term strategy that can stand the test of time. NATO will set out its goals for the coming decade in a new Strategic Concept, the document that identifies its most pressing security concerns and how it will tackle them. While Russia will remain the top issue, the document will see NATO grapple for the first time with the growing military reach of China, which has set out on an ambitious plan to expand naval bases in the Pacific and in Africa. The leaders of Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand have been invited as guests to the summit for the first time. All four have been supportive of Ukraine, and Japan has its own territorial disputes with Moscow. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will discuss efforts toward achieving a "free and open" Indo-Pacific, because security in Europe and Asia is inseparable, according to Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno. Insecurity in Africa’s Sahel region and its threats to southern Europe could also earn a mention, as could the threats caused by climate change and the growing waves of migration driven by global warming.
from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3728421/nato-holds-summit-gaze-russia-and-china
