WORLD THIS WEEK

The Middle East: Biden’s visit to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and West Bank

What happened?

On 13 July, US President Joe Biden landed at the Tel Aviv airport on his historic tour of the Middle East. On 14 July, Biden held highlevel diplomatic talks with Israel’s Prime Minister Yair Lapid to form the Jerusalem US-Israel Strategic Partnership Joint Declaration. Investments in Israel’s security, Iran’s nuclear threat, the I2U2 summit, reaffirming the two-state solution and broadening Abraham accords were the key tenets of the declaration.

He also stated: ‘the connection between the Israeli people and the American people is bone deep’. To conclude Israel’s visit, Biden inaugurated the Meccabiah games or the ‘Jewish Olympics’, one of the world’s largest sporting events.

On 15 July, Biden traveled to the West Bank and visited a hospital. Later, in a meeting with the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas, Biden approved a total aid of USD 316 million going to hospital networks in Gaza and West Bank, Palestine’s refugees, and coping with grain shortage due to the Ukraine war.

Addressing the killing of Palestine-American reporter, Shireen Abu Akleh Biden stated: ‘The United States will continue to insist on a full and transparent accounting of her death and will continue to stand up for media freedom everywhere in the world’. However, Palestine’s authorities are angry with the tour, calling it a ‘mere lip service’ since Biden failed to mention Israel’s attacks on Palestine and involvement in the killing of Abu Akleh. Protesters gathered in Gaza asking Biden to go home, and journalists showed up to the press conference wearing Abu Akleh t-shirts in solidarity.

On 15 July, Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia, the most tense part of the tour. Relations between the US and Saudi Arabia went cold after the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a Saudi dissident. Eighteen Joint agreements were signed with King Mohammed Bin Salman in oil, clean energy, healthcare, and space. Biden discussed opening Saudi’s airspace to all states, including Israel. He also attended the Jeddah Security summit, which involved the GCC+3 grouping.

What does it mean?

The US has firmly declared its Israel-friendly positioning in the Middle East, with warm ties and Biden being described as a ‘Zionist’ by Lapid. Biden has reaffirmed his commitment to the region and has pushed for new agreements that will change the pattern of relations between states in the Middle East. The opening up of airspace by Saudi Arabia to Israel hints at the first step in normalizing ties between the two rival states. However, a possible Israel- Saudi relationship could prove volatile and unstable, given that Saudi does not recognize Israel. American presence and mediation remain necessary to foster any possible re-construction of diplomatic ties between the two states.

The Joint Declaration signed by the US and Israel presents statements aimed at Iran’s nuclear program. Biden has utilized this tour as a pressure tactic to force Iran into an agreement since the ongoing JCPoA talks have resulted in a stalemate. However, since Israel does not believe diplomatic talks alone are necessary, Biden may now push for stronger sanctions in the deal. A growing anti-Iran sentiment has angered Iran and it has accused the US of spreading ‘Iranophobia’ in the region. However, this is likely to impact Iran’s relations since states like the UAE are clear in their stance: ‘open to cooperation but not against any one nation’.

To conclude, a short tour of the Middle East will not change power balances in the region in the short term. However, it does open up possibilities for a potential shift in relations in the long term.

Twitter announces legal battle against Musk

What happened?

On 12 July 2022, Twitter Inc announced the initiation of a legal battle with Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, after he announced on 8 July, his intention to backtrack on the deal to buy twitter at $44 billion. Musk claims that the company violated the agreement by not responding to requests for information on the spam/fake accounts, citing it as a material breach. In their lawsuit, Twitter declares that Musk broke the terms of the deal, and was really backing out due to financial reasons. They also claim that he broke the US Securities rules when he failed to disclose his nine per cent holding in Twitter. In April 2022, Musk announced his interest in buying Twitter at a share price of $54, by 25 April, the value remained at $52. However, on 13 July, following the lawsuit news, the value stood at $37.

What does it mean?

Elon Musk’s tweets are slated to be used as evidence in the case. Twitter mentioned that the losses faced by Elon Musk's Tesla in the past months is the real reason for backtracking on the deal alone. They claim that Musk is faltering on the deal simply because he does not want to buy Twitter anymore. The value drop of Twitter is an unfortunate collateral that is the outcome of Musk using Twitter for altering the value. The US Securities and Exchange Commission has been observing the proceedings of the Twitter deal, one could expect their intervention in the case. The SEC has been critical of Elon’s similar behaviour in the past. Since the deal has already been signed, the case may be extremely difficult one for Elon Musk. Many of the cases of this kind, usually end up in parties re-negotiating the terms of the deal or with one party paying the settlement to walk away. The lawsuit is expected to be a showdown on Wall Street.

ALSO IN NEWS

China: President Xi Jinping visits Xinjiang

On 15 July, the Asahi Shimbun reported that Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to the northwest province of Xinjiang amid worries over the country’s incarceration of one million or more people from predominantly Muslim ethnic local minorities. Xi described Xinjiang as a “core area and a hub” in China’s plan to create ports, trains, and power plants linking it to economies spanning from Central Asia to Eastern Europe. The Uighur and Kazakh communities living in the region have been subject to a broad crackdown by the government of Xi after a spate of violent separatist activity.

Solomon Islands: Manasseh Sogavare meets the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand at the Pacific Islands Forum

On 13 July, the Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for the first time since signing a security agreement with China that alarmed US allies due to the country’s military interests in the Pacific islands. The leaders met in separate bilateral meetings that took place on the side-lines of the four-day Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji, to discuss China’s ambition for stronger security ties in the region as well as how to raise more international financing and support to combat the effects of climate change and rising sea levels.

The Pacific Islands: Naval exercises conducted in the South China Sea

On 16 July, the US Navy stated that the USS Benfold, a US Navy destroyer, conducted a second “freedom of navigation” exercise in a week close to the disputed Spratly islands. The ship was “driven away” earlier on July 13 from the disputed Paracel Islands by China’s military. The US regularly engages in such operations in the South China Sea to protest what it claims are obstruction to lawful passage set up by China and other claimants. The US Navy said: "On July 16, USS Benfold (DDG 65) asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law.”

Sri Lanka: Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigns and Acting President appointed

On 15 July, the speaker of the parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana announced that President Rajapaksa had officially resigned. He said: “I have accepted the resignation,” “I hope to complete the process of electing a new President within seven days,” After the President’s resignation, Ranil Wickremesinghe, former Prime Minister was sworn in as the Acting Prime Minister. According to the BBC, Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives in a military airplane and then reached Singapore. On 14 July, Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Gotabaya Rajapaksa has been allowed entry into Singapore. It said that he is on a private visit and has not asked for asylum and has not been granted asylum.

India: I2U2 Summit

On 14 July, I2U2 members the US, UAE, India, and Israel held a summit. India agreed to provide land for food parks across the country that will be jointly developed by the US, UAE, and Israel. The members agreed to bring in private investments in different sectors including water, energy, transportation, health, space, and food security. A joint statement issued said: “U.S. and Israeli private sectors will be invited to lend their expertise and offer innovative solutions that contribute to the overall sustainability of the project. These investments will help maximise crop yields which, in turn, will help tackle food insecurity in South Asia and the Middle East.”

United Nations: Global population expected to reach eight billion in November 2022

On 11 July, the United Nations released the World Population Prospect report which predicts that world population would reach eight billion on 15 November 2022, 8.5 billion by 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and peak at 10.4 billion in the 2080s. The report noted that the population growth rate had been the slowest since the 1950s, after dropping to less than one per cent in 2020. According to the report, eight countries namely, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania would lead the increase in global population until 2050.

About the Authors

Lavanya R is a Postgraduate scholar at Christ (Deemed to be University). Akriti Sharma, Harini Madhusudan, Rashmi Ramesh and Ankit Singh are PhD Scholars in the School of Conflict and Security Studies at the National Institute of Advanced Studies. Avishka Ashok, Abigail Miriam Fernandes, Apoorva Sudhakar, Padmashree Anandhan, Rishma Banerjee and Emmanuel are Research Associates at NIAS. Arshiya Banu is a research intern at NIAS.