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HANOI (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday opened a visit to a Vietnam that wants to dramatically ramp up trade with the United States, a sign of how competition with China is reshaping relationships across Asia. The president has made it a point of pride that Vietnam is elevating the United States to the status of being a comprehensive strategic partner. Other countries that Vietnam has extended this designation to include China and Russia. Giving the U.S. the same status suggests that Vietnam wants to hedge its friendships as U.S. and European companies look for alternatives to Chinese factories....

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet later this week with her Chinese counterparts to talk about major financial issues, making her the second top White House official to travel to the US’ great rival in a matter of weeks. Yellen’s Thursday-Sunday visit is meant to address “areas of concern” in the relationship between the world’s two largest economies as part of President Biden’s government-wide effort to re-engage with China and its president, Xi Jinping, the Treasury Department announced over the weekend. The visit of Yellen, 76, will hopefully “deepen and increase the frequency of communication between our countries moving forward...

China views public relations as an asymmetric weapon it can use to put other nations’ governments into conflict with their respective militaries. Its strategy is to have the Ministry of Foreign Affairs extend a generous economic carrot of trade agreements and infrastructure pledges, while the PLA wields an ever-present, ever-more-capable military stick. In addition, China has established itself as the indispensable economic heavyweight in terms of its ability to rapidly and efficiently fund infrastructure and development projects around the world, seemingly with few strings attached. Nations and their respective populations are told they can share in the economic growth that...

As we witness the collapse of various mainstream narratives, especially those surrounding the U.S./NATO war with Russia in Ukraine, Americans should begin to reassess their understanding of U.S. national leadership. Most American citizens have no notion of the great disparity between what their government does overseas and the stories they hear from its mouthpieces. As a result, Americans unwittingly support all sorts of foreign operations with little or no understanding of what is actually going on. For years, they have been misled by a non-stop propaganda campaign that is only now beginning to crumble.We are experiencing the death throes of...

Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are allies, not rivals. Portraying them as political opponents is yet another twisted mistake in judgment that gives political gamesters something to add to their tactics for dividing America. The Trump versus DeSantis game is aimed at destroying both of these outstanding Americans. Don’t fall for it. And take political commentary that distorts the relation between Trump and DeSantis -- even that from “conservatives” -- with a ton of salt. What Trump did for America before Biden knocked down the vast improvements that Trump ushered in, and what DeSantis did for Florida to make that...

The Russian deputy foreign minister on Thursday said Moscow will take seriously any sign from the US regarding improvement in relations. "We will take the slightest sign of readiness to move towards improving very seriously, whether it's public signals, whether it's some actions, but so far, unfortunately, the trend and the tendency are opposite," Sergey Ryabkov told a news conference in Moscow.

In a phone conference with reporters on Monday, U.S. Special Envoy to Afghanistan Thomas West said the Biden administration is considering a “roadmap” to normalizing relations with the Taliban regime. The vague roadmap West spoke of included some requirements the Taliban seems to have little interest in meeting.

At their June 16, 2021, summit in Geneva, Presidents Joseph Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to return their previously recalled ambassadors: Anatoly Antonov to Washington and John Sullivan to Moscow. Antonov stayed in Moscow for over three months in an unprecedented demonstration of anger. Sullivan was pressed by the Russian authorities to leave. In addition, both presidents agreed to form multiple joint working groups to deescalate tensions and solve outstanding problems in arms control, the manning of respective diplomatic missions, cyber security and exchange of prisoners (see EDM, June 17). The working groups have met while diplomats discuss ways to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin in an interview with NBC News ahead of his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden next week, said U.S.-Russia relations are at their lowest point in years. This is reported by Reuters. Putin and Biden will meet in Geneva on Wednesday. The White House has said Biden will bring up ransomware attacks emanating from Russia, Moscow's aggression against Ukraine, the jailing of dissidents and other issues that have irritated the relationship. "We have a bilateral relationship that has deteriorated to its lowest point in recent years," Putin said in an interview broadcast on Friday. Putin praised...

The United States will continue to support Ukraine irrespective of the change of administration in either country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. "There are relations between the United States and Ukraine. The presidents can improve these relations, but it is hard to alter the sentiment in general. The United States is well disposed towards Ukraine and gives it support. No matter who becomes the president of the United States or Ukraine, the relations will exist," Zelensky said in an interview with the French media outlet Le Figaro published on the presidential website on Friday. Zelensky said he could understand the...

Russian businessman Konstantin Kilimnik, business partner of Paul Manafort, ex-head of the campaign headquarters of 45th U.S. President Donald Trump (2017-2021), tried to influence the U.S. elections and damage the ties between the United States and Ukraine. The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine said on its Twitter that he acted in concert with non-factional MP of Ukraine Andriy Derkach, against whom the U.S. imposed sanctions in September 2020 for trying to influence the U.S. presidential elections in 2020, as well as others, associated with Russian intelligence. "Russian influence agent Konstantin Kilimnik is wanted in the United States for obstruction of justice....

Before Covid upended everything, the US president upended relations with Beijing – without interest or ability to build anew Lloyd Green Sun 14 Mar 2021 06.00 GMT 84 Covid-19 has left more than 530,000 Americans dead and China’s standing with the US at a historic low. Only Iran and North Korea fare worse. US opinion is no outlier. China’s reputation has taken a beating in Australia, the UK, Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. Images of tanks rolling through Tiananmen Square in summer 1989 have been supplanted by Beijing stonewalling on the origins of the plague. Lucky review: how Biden beat...

One feels no sympathy for Andrew Cuomo, but he's being hounded by the Left for awkward flirting. Sure, stealing a kiss can be construed as "crossing the line," but how many first kisses have been stolen over the centuries, not just by the rich and powerful, but by ordinary joes? It might even be that most first kisses throughout history were stolen, even celebrated. Certainly a public record has been built up that is nothing short of iconic. There’s that famous VJ Day photo of the sailor on Times Square stealing a kiss from a nurse. We’ve seen athletes steal...

Among the several ways to judge a person's fitness for office are the enemies he has made. In the case of John Bolton, President Trump's choice to become national security adviser, those who oppose his appointment -- liberals, neocons and some Republicans all with differing worldviews and questionable foreign policy experience -- appear to say more about his qualifications than those who support him. A New York Times editorial said that at least Bolton speaks his mind, though it also said it didn't like what was on it. The Times and their ideological sister publication, The Washington Post, have spilled...

This happened November 9th. Is just being publicly released now: -- On Thursday Nov. 9, when President Trump and his team visited Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chief of Staff John Kelly and a U.S. Secret Service agent skirmished with Chinese security officials over the nuclear football. I've spoken to five sources familiar with the events. Here's what happened, as they describe it: When the U.S. military aide carrying the nuclear football entered the Great Hall, Chinese security officials blocked his entry. (The official who carries the nuclear football is supposed to stay close to the president at all...

News item | 05-02-2018 | 11:13The Netherlands and Turkey have recently held talks at various levels. At this stage, these talks do not yet offer a perspective to normalizing the bilateral relations. Minister Zijlstra: 'Recent talks offered Turkey and the Netherlands an opportunity to come closer to each other, but we have not been able to agree on the way normalization should take place.' Therefore the Dutch government has decided to officially withdraw the Netherlands’ Ambassador in Ankara, who has not had access to Turkey since March 2017. As long as the Netherlands has no Ambassador to Turkey, the Netherlands...

The NY Times published an interesting piece today on the burden of regulations and how they apply to one mid-sized apple farm in upstate New York. What’s interesting is that the piece while not anti-regulation, is certainly skeptical of the increasing volume of regulations and the burden they place on small businesses forced to comply with a litany of over-lapping requirements from several different agencies.

If you were born anywhere north of Baltimore, you won’t believe a word of this. And that’s unfortunate, because the survival of our America may depend on enough Americans realizing I’m right. There are, indeed, those who brandish the Confederate flag with the same diseased passion as some Germans revere the swastika. That same crowd will spring to their feet defiantly when the band plays “Dixie.” And there are those who would gladly volunteer to take their shotguns and guard the local statue of Gen. Robert E. Lee during the overnight shift. Don’t deny it, You All, there are such...

WASHINGTON: The United States (US) looks unlikely to follow through on a threat to relegate Britain to second-class trade status once its ally leaves the European Union, as it weighs the potential costs of undermining the countries close diplomatic and military ties. President Barack Obama had warned ahead of Thursday's "Brexit" referendum that Britain would move to the back of the queue on US trade priorities if it voted to leave the bloc, well behind a much larger US European trade deal now under negotiation. But in the face of a severe financial market reaction to the vote to...

WASHINGTON: The United States (US) looks unlikely to follow through on a threat to relegate Britain to second-class trade status once its ally leaves the European Union, as it weighs the potential costs of undermining the countries close diplomatic and military ties. President Barack Obama had warned ahead of Thursday's "Brexit" referendum that Britain would move to the back of the queue on US trade priorities if it voted to leave the bloc, well behind a much larger US European trade deal now under negotiation. But in the face of a severe financial market reaction to the vote to...