Tag: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken plays ‘Rockin’ in the Free World’ in Kyiv bar; internet reacts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in what came as a surprise to many around the world, performed Canadian-American musician Neil Young’s 1989 song on a guitar at a Kyiv Bar. While performing the Rockin’ in the Free World song, the senior diplomat conveyed the message that the United States and most of the world were fighting not just for Ukraine but also for the free world.

Blinken, a previous serious rock musician, joined a local band at the Barman Dictat bar with a left-handed guitar. This popular rock anthem was released shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

According to the news site, Blinken travelled to Kyiv using a secret jet and a private train that passed through the Ukraine at night. To reach the underground club, Blinken went down a flight of stairs into a basement and then turned right.

Blinken acknowledged that the Ukrainian military and residents were still suffering before mounting the stage and assured the audience that the US and the rest of the world were with them.

“They’re fighting, not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world.”

Blinken began the song with the words, “And the free world is with you too,” before joining the punk band 19.99, which is based in Kyiv, according to The Washington Post.

The impromptu musical performance took place at a central Kyiv music bar that serves as a military bunker in the event of a war. Attendees included both locals and US diplomats. Blinken sang the chorus, Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World, to thunderous applause.

The video circulated online, and users, particularly on X, were critical of the gesture.

“The song was written by Neil Young as a critique of the West. It is sarcastic, and it seems unbelievable that Blinken wouldn’t know that. Is he mocking Ukrainians who are dying for this “freedom,”? a user commented.

“It’s so cringe that at first I thought it was a deep-fake,” read another comment.

The event coincided with Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and the recent intensification of Russian attacks on Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine.

The Rockin’ in the Free World song was first played when protests shook the Soviet Union. In the end, the USSR disintegrated and several countries, including Ukraine, became independent.

The lead vocalist of the group, Dmitry Temnyi, told Reuters after the show that he was impressed with the Secretary of State’s axe-holding abilities.

“He played well,” Temnyi said.

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US Secretary of State Blinken, in Kyiv, says US aid arriving at ‘challenging’ time for Ukraine

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told President Volodmyr Zelenskiy during a trip to Kyiv on Tuesday that part of a major US aid package had arrived in Ukraine and that more was on its way that was going to “make a real difference”.

Blinken‘s trip is the first by a senior US official since Congress passed a long-delayed $61 billion aid package last month. Kyiv’s outmanned troops are battling a new Russian offensive in the northeast as well as assaults in the east.

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In China, US Secretary of State Blinken raises concerns over trade policies

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday called on China to provide a level playing field for American businesses as he began a visit aimed at resolving a raft of contentious issues that could jeopardise the newly repaired relationship.

Blinken‘s trip is the latest high-level contact between the two nations that, along with working groups on issues from global trade to military communication, have tempered the public acrimony that drove relations to historic lows early last year.

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As US Secretary of State Blinken heads to China, these are the major divides he will try to bridge

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken is starting three days of talks with senior Chinese officials in Shanghai and Beijing this week with US-China ties at a critical point over numerous global disputes.

The mere fact that Blinken is making the trip — shortly after a conversation between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, a similar visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and a call between the US and Chinese defense chiefs — might be seen by some as encouraging, but ties between Washington and Beijing are tense and the rifts are growing wider.

From Russia and Ukraine to Israel, Iran and the broader Middle East as well as Indo-Pacific and trade issues, the US and China are on a series of collision courses that have sparked fears about military and strategic security as well as international economic stability.

Blinken “will raise clearly and candidly our concerns” during the talks starting Wednesday, a senior State Department official said.

Here’s a look at some of the key issues Blinken is expected to bring up on the trip:

RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR

The Biden administration has grown increasingly concerned in recent months about Chinese support for Russia’s defense industrial base, which US officials say is allowing Moscow to overcome Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine and resupply its military. US officials say this will be a primary topic of conversation during Blinken’s visit.

While the US says it has no evidence China actually is arming Russia, officials say other activities are potentially equally problematic.

“If China purports on the one hand to want good relations with Europe and other countries, it can’t on the other hand be fueling what is the biggest threat to European security since the end of the Cold War,” Blinken said last week.

A senior State Department official said Friday that “through Chinese support, Russia has largely reconstituted its defense industrial base, which has an impact not just on the battlefield in Ukraine but poses a larger threat, we believe, to broader European security.”

MIDDLE EAST TENSIONS

US officials, from Biden on down, have repeatedly appealed to China to use any leverage it may have with Iran to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza from spiraling into a wider regional conflict.

While China appears to have been generally receptive to such calls — particularly because it depends heavily on oil imports from Iran and other Mideast nations — tensions have steadily increased since the beginning of the Gaza war in October and more recent direct strikes and counterstrikes between Israel and Iran.

Blinken has pushed for China to take a more active stance in pressing Iran not to escalate tensions in the Middle East. He has spoken to his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, several times over the past six months and urged China to tell Iran to restrain the proxy groups it has supported in the region, including Hamas, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Yemen’s Houthis and Iranian-backed militias in Iraq and Syria.

Blinken told Wang in a phone call this month that “escalation is not in anyone’s interest and that countries should urge Iran not to escalate,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said of their last conversation.

The senior State Department official said Blinken would reiterate the US interest in China using “whatever channels or influence it has to try to convey the need for restraint to all parties, including Iran.”

TAIWAN AND THE SOUTH CHINA SEA

In the Indo-Pacific region, China and the United States are the major players, but Beijing has become increasingly aggressive in recent years toward Taiwan and its smaller Southeast Asian neighbors with which it has significant territorial and maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

The US has strongly condemned Chinese military exercises threatening Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province and has vowed to reunify with the mainland by force if necessary. Successive US administrations have steadily boosted military support and sales for Taipei, much to Chinese anger.

The senior State Department official said Blinken would “underscore, both in private and public, America’s abiding interest in maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. We think that is vitally important for the region and the world.”

In the South China Sea, the US and others have become increasingly concerned by provocative Chinese actions in and around disputed areas.

In particular, the US has voiced objections to what it says are Chinese attempts to thwart legitimate maritime activities by others in the sea, notably the Philippines and Vietnam. That was a major topic of concern this month when Biden held a three-way summit with the prime minister of Japan and the president of the Philippines.

HUMAN RIGHTS AND SYNTHETIC OPIOIDS

The US and China are at deep odds over human rights in China’s western Xinjiang region, Tibet and Hong Kong as well as the fate of several American citizens that the State Department says have been “wrongfully detained” by Chinese authorities.

China has repeatedly rejected the American criticism as improper interference in its internal affairs. Yet, Blinken will again raise these issues, according to the senior State Department official, who added that China’s self-described efforts to rein in the export of materials that traffickers use to make fentanyl have yet to yield significant results.

The two sides agreed last year to set up a working group to look into ways to combat the surge of production of fentanyl precursors in China and their export abroad. US officials say they believe they had made some limited progress on cracking down on the illicit industry but many producers had found ways to get around new restrictions.

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US Global Music Diplomacy: Secretary of State Antony Blinken sings Muddy Waters song at launch event | Watch

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken launched the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative on Wednesday, September 27. The initiative has been launched as an effort to elevate music as a diplomatic tool for promoting peace and democracy as well as to support the broader foreign policy goals of the United States, according to an official statement of the US Department of State.

Sharing about the launch event, the US Secretary of State posted a video of him singing and playing the guitar.

“I couldn’t pass up tonight’s opportunity to combine music and diplomacy. Was a pleasure to launch the State Department’s new Global Music Diplomacy Initiative,” Secretary of State  Blinken tweeted.

I couldn’t pass up tonight’s opportunity to combine music and diplomacy. Was a pleasure to launch @StateDept’s new Global Music Diplomacy Initiative. pic.twitter.com/6MUfTXO9xK

— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) September 28, 2023

In the three-minute and 57-second video, Blinken was seen singing the 1954 song Hoochie Coochie Man, which was written by Willie Dixon and recorded by Muddy Waters. The song is primarily a reference to the hoodoo folk magic elements.

Meanwhile, the launch event which was organised at the Department of State in Washington DC was joined by the CEO of Recording Academy, Harvey Mason Jr.; the global head of music for YouTube and Google, Lyor Cohen; and the chairman of the board at The John F Kennedy Center, David M Rubenstein.

Besides the US Secretary of State Blinken, the event also featured live performances by Jamie Barton, Gayle, Aimee Mann, DJ 2-Tone, LADAMA and Herbie Hancock among many others.

As per the official statement, this initiative targets to leverage public-private partnerships for creating a music ecosystem that can expand on economic equity and also on the grounds of creativity. This initiative will ensure societal opportunities as well.

The Global Music Diplomacy Initiative also included the American Music Mentorship Programme, which is a partnership between the US Department of State and the Recording Academy. It aims to bring international mid-career music professionals including musical artists, to the US for mentorship and networking opportunities. This mentorship will primarily aim to create support for creative talent and strengthen the creative economy globally.

In addition to the mentorship programme, the initiative also includes the Fulbright Programme which is a US flagship international academic exchange initiative. This has been established in collaboration with the John F. Kennedy Centre for the Performing Arts to offer new fellowship opportunities for foreign scholars.

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US urges swift NATO membership for Sweden and for Turkey to get new F-16s

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday said that the time is now for Turkey to drop its objections to Sweden joining NATO and noted that the Biden administration also believed that Turkey should be provided with upgraded F-16 fighters as soon as possible.

Blinken maintained that the administration had not linked the two issues but acknowledged that some U.S. lawmakers had. President Joe Biden implicitly linked the two issues in a phone call to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday.

“I spoke to Erdogan and he still wants to work on something on the F-16s. I told him we wanted a deal with Sweden. So let’s get that done,” Biden said. Still, Blinken insisted the two issues were distinct. However, he stressed that the completion of both would dramatically strengthen European security.

Also read: Russian accuses Washington of encouraging Ukraine in its attacks

“Both of these are vital, in our judgement, to European security,” Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference in the northern Swedish city of Lulea with Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

“We believe that both should go forward as quickly as possible; that is to say Sweden’s accession and moving forward on the F-16 package more broadly. We believe the time is now,” Blinken said.

He declined to predict when Turkey and Hungary, the only other NATO member not yet to have ratified Sweden’s membership, would grant their approval.

But, he said, “we have no doubt that it can be, it should be, and we expect it to be completed by the time alliance leaders meet in Vilnius, Lithuania in July at an annual summit.”

Fresh from a strong re-election victory over the weekend, Erdogan may be willing to ease his objections to Sweden’s membership. Erdogan accuses Sweden of being too soft on groups Ankara considers to be terrorists, and a series of Quran-burning protests in Stockholm angered his religious support base making his tough stance even more popular.

Kristersson said the two sides had been in contact since Sunday’s vote and voiced no hesitancy in speaking about the benefits Sweden would bring to NATO when we join the alliance.

Blinken is in Sweden attending a meeting of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council and will travel to Oslo, Norway on Wednesday for a gathering of NATO foreign ministers, before going on to newly admitted alliance member Finland on Friday.

Speaking in Oslo ahead of the foreign ministers’ meeting, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the goal was to have Sweden inside the grouping before the leaders’ summit in July.

“There are no guarantees, but it’s absolutely possible to reach a solution and enable the decision on full membership for Sweden by the Vilnius summit, Stoltenberg said.

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US State Secy Blinken to visit India to attend G20 Foreign Ministers meeting

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to New Delhi next week to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, and will hold meetings with the senior Indian officials to reaffirm America’s strong partnership with the country.

Blinken will arrive in India on March 1 and would be here till March 3. His three day visit to India comes after his his trip to two Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – beginning February 28.

India assumed the Presidency of the G20 on December 1, last year.

“On March 1, he will travel to New Delhi to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, which will focus on strengthening multilateralism and deepening cooperation on food and energy security, sustainable development, counter-narcotics, global health, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, and gender equality and women’s empowerment,” the US State Department said in a statement on Thursday.

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“He (Blinken) will meet with Indian government officials and civil society to reaffirm our strong partnership,” it added.

“On February 28, he will visit Astana, Kazakhstan, where he will meet with senior Kazakh officials to deepen bilateral cooperation.”

“He then will participate in a C5+1 Ministerial with representatives of each of the five Central Asian states, to reaffirm the United States’ commitment to the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Central Asian countries, and to collaborate with the region on solutions to shared global challenges,” the statement further added.

The C5+1 Ministerial will focus on enhancing economic, energy and environmental, and security cooperation among the United States, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

On the margins of the C5+1 ministerial, the Secretary will meet with senior government officials from the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan to discuss opportunities for bilateral and multilateral cooperation and advance our shared goal of a prosperous, secure, and democratic region.

“He will then travel to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where he will meet with Uzbekistani officials to further advance our partnership on a range of bilateral and regional issues,” the statement said.

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US pledges Ukraine embassy reopening and military aid amid Russian warning

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The United States will reopen its Ukraine embassy, and President Joe Biden’s top diplomat and most senior defence official promised more military aid while visiting Kyiv as Russia warned against arming its enemy and battles raged in the east.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said their ability to come to Ukraine’s capital was proof of their tenacity in forcing Moscow to abandon an assault on the capital city last month.

“In terms of Russia’s war aims, Russia has already failed and Ukraine has already succeeded,” Blinken said after the visit.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov late on Monday said that the crisis will end with an agreement but its content will depend on the military situation, criticising Kyiv for only imitating negotiations.

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Earlier, Russia’s ambassador in Washington told the United States to halt arms shipments, warning that large Western deliveries of weapons were inflaming the conflict.

The two-month-old war has killed or injured thousands reduced towns and cities to rubble and forced over five million people to flee abroad as the biggest attack on a European state since 1945 drags on.

Russian forces were forced to pull back from the outskirts of Kyiv in the face of stiff resistance and have yet to capture any of the biggest cities.

The United States pledged $713 million in new assistance for Ukraine and other countries in the region seen as potentially vulnerable to Russian threats. The White House also warned that more sanctions against Russia were likely.

An extra $322 million in military aid for Ukraine would take the total US security assistance since the invasion began to about $3.7 billion, one official said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday attacked the West, saying it had failed to divide Russian society and accused it of inciting Kyiv to plan attacks on Russian journalists, in comments dismissed by Ukraine’s security service.

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Russia was trying to disrupt arms supplies from Kyiv’s allies by bombing its rail infrastructure, Ukraine’s military command said.

Russia’s defence ministry said later its missiles destroyed six facilities powering the railways that were used to deliver foreign weapons to Ukrainian forces in the eastern Donbas region.

Five railway stations came under fire in western and central Ukraine on Monday and one person was killed, Ukrainian television quoted state-run Ukrainian Railways as saying.

Two people were injured in the shelling of a village in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, the regional governor said late on Monday.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports.

Russia has consistently denied targeting civilians or intending to overthrow Ukraine’s government.

Moscow says it launched a “special military operation” on Feb. 24 because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and to protect Russian-speaking people there. Kyiv and its allies say they are pretexts for an invasion.

Normal life returning in Kyiv

Just weeks ago, Kyiv was a frontline city under curfew and bombardment, with tens of thousands of troops on its northern outskirts and residents sheltering from artillery in its metro stations.

Today, the nearest Russian soldiers are hundreds of miles away, and normal life is coming back to the capital with Western leaders visiting and diplomats returning.

Blinken said US diplomats would first come to the western city of Lviv and should be back in Kyiv within weeks. Bridget Brink, now US ambassador in Slovakia, will be the envoy.

But away from the capital, war rages on in Ukraine’s east and south where Russia last week launched a massive offensive.

Russian forces were continuing on Monday to bomb and shell the vast Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol where fighters are hunkered down in a city ravaged by a siege and bombardment, Ukrainian presidential aide Oleksiy Arestovych said.

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Moscow said it was opening a humanitarian corridor to let civilians out of the plant but Kyiv said no agreement had been reached and appealed to the United Nations for help in reaching one as “initiator and guarantor”.

Russia’s defence ministry said Ukraine had undermined evacuation efforts and that nobody had left the steelworks via the humanitarian corridors on Monday.

Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters a ceasefire was not a good option and would only allow Ukrainian forces to regroup, though it was not his decision.

Ukraine’s general staff also reported Russian shelling of its second-biggest city, Kharkiv, in the northeast as well as towns and villages to the south, but said that assaults on three settlements were repelled.

Russia was investigating the cause of a large fire that erupted in the early hours of the morning at an oil storage facility in the city of Bryansk, 54 km (96 miles) northeast of the border with Ukraine.

Neither side publicly linked the fire to the war.

Speaking in Moscow to Russia’s top prosecutors, Putin accused the West of inciting Ukraine to plan attacks on Russian journalists, with one such attempt thwarted by the Federal Security Service (FSB)

The FSB service said it had arrested a group planning to kill TV talk show host Vladimir Solovyev, one of the most prominent voices in support of the invasion, at the behest of Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU).

The SBU dismissed the allegations as fantasies cooked up by Moscow.

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3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Quad countries looking to establish resilient supply chain of semi-conductors, say experts

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to India has reiterated the importance of the Quad for all the alliance partners and the Indo-Pacific region at large.

Blinken stressed that Quad is not a military alliance but an effort to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region, with a focus on terrorism, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and resilient supply chains.

While there wasn’t any specific mention of the challenge China poses, the country does remain the elephant in the room when it comes to dominating critical supply chains.

According to Lisa Curtis and Surjit Bhalla, Co-Chairs of the Gateway House Economy and Technology Taskforce, the supply chains that require focus are those in critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, financial technology, cybersecurity, space and 6G, and undersea fibre-optic cables.

To discuss this further, CNBC-TV18’s Parikshit Luthra spoke to Lisa Curtis and Surjit Bhalla, Co-Chairs of the Gateway House Economy and Technology Task Force

Watch the accompanying video for more.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow