At Davos, EU vows pragmatism with Trump

At Davos, EU vows pragmatism with Trump
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, appears on a screen as she speaks at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 21 January 2025
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At Davos, EU vows pragmatism with Trump

At Davos, EU vows pragmatism with Trump
  • The EU’s first priority will be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate with Trump

DAVOS: EU chief Ursula von der Leyen declared Tuesday that Europe was ready to negotiate with US President Donald Trump but the bloc will also seek to improve ties with China and other nations as global competition heats up.
Von der Leyen insisted that the United States remains an important partner, taking a conciliatory tone in a speech to the annual meeting of global elites in Davos, Switzerland.
The EU’s “first priority will be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate” with Trump, she said.
“We will be pragmatic, but we will always stand by our principles. To protect our interests and uphold our values,” she said.
Trump returned to the White House on Monday, bringing with him fears he will deliver on promises to slap heavy tariffs on China and US allies including Canada and the European Union.
After his inauguration, Trump said he may impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico as early as February 1.
He also announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, which the European Commission president defended as the “best hope for all humanity” and vowed “Europe will stay the course.”
China’s Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang — also a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s apex of power that rules the country — will speak immediately after von der Leyen.
The EU chief reiterated her commitment to free trade during her speech, pointing to recent deals with Switzerland, the Latin American bloc Mercosur and Mexico.
Von der Leyen also said she and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to “upgrade” their partnership.
She stressed that Europe “must engage constructively with China — to find solutions in our mutual interest” despite escalating trade tensions between the two.
“2025 marks 50 years of our Union’s diplomatic relations with China. I see it as an opportunity to engage and deepen our relationship with China, and where possible, even to expand our trade and investment ties,” she said.

China is taking a cautious approach to Trump.
After Chinese President Xi Jinping’s conversation with Trump by phone on Friday, he said he hoped for a “good start” to relations with the new administration.
Although Trump said he would undertake sweeping trade penalties against China, he has also indicated he wants to improve ties — and even stepped in to reverse a US ban of Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok on national security grounds.
Ukraine is also keeping a very close eye on what Trump’s second mandate will involve.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to call on world leaders and company executives to maintain — and even ramp up — their support for his country’s fight against Russia.
Zelensky on Monday said he is hopeful Trump will help achieve a “just peace.”

Embattled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will also address the forum, likely his last as leader ahead of elections next month.
Also speaking on Tuesday will be conservative leader Friedrich Merz, the favorite to succeed him as chancellor.
Europeans are fretting the most about Trump’s return while countries from Brazil to China and India to Turkiye believe he will be good for their countries and global peace, according to a survey last week from the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
The report accompanying the survey of over 28,500 people across 24 countries serves as a warning for European leaders to act cautiously.
“Europeans will struggle to find internal unity or global power in leading an outright resistance to the new administration,” the ECFR report’s authors said.

Middle East conflicts will also be high on the agenda as Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani speak in separate sessions during the first full day of the forum.
As a fragile ceasefire holds in the Israel-Hamas war, the WEF will host a discussion on how to improve aid delivery to the Palestinian territory of Gaza and how to kickstart the reconstruction and recovery after heavy bombardment.
Despite suggestions Trump’s return would overshadow the forum that began on the same day as his inauguration in Washington, WEF President Borge Brende said the president had brought fresh interest to the gathering.
“It has increased the interest in Davos because people feel they need to come together to better understand what’s on its way,” Brende told AFP in an interview.


Zelensky wants plan with US to ‘stop Putin’ before talks with Russia

Zelensky wants plan with US to ‘stop Putin’ before talks with Russia
Updated 8 sec ago
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Zelensky wants plan with US to ‘stop Putin’ before talks with Russia

Zelensky wants plan with US to ‘stop Putin’ before talks with Russia
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday he wanted to agree a position with Washington to “stop Putin” before holding talks with Moscow.
The comments came after US President Donald Trump held a long phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said the sides had agreed to begin negotiations on Ukraine immediately.
Zelensky and senior Ukrainian officials are undertaking a series of meetings this week with Trump allies in Kyiv and Brussels and at the Munich Security Conference.
“The Ukraine-America meetings are a priority for us,” said Zelensky.
“And only after such meetings, after a plan to stop Putin has been worked out, I think it is fair to talk to the Russians.”
Trump also spoke with Zelensky in a call that the Ukrainian leader had described as “meaningful” and broad.
But on Thursday he said that while he believed Ukraine was Trump’s priority, it was “not very pleasant” that the US leader had spoken with Putin first.
The Ukrainian leader also said that Trump had told him he had wanted to speak with both Putin and Zelensky at the same time, without elaborating on why that had not happened.
Zelensky also said he had told Trump that without security guarantees Russia was likely to attack Ukraine again.

Trump to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for first meeting since taking office

Trump to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for first meeting since taking office
Updated 47 min 13 sec ago
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Trump to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for first meeting since taking office

Trump to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia for first meeting since taking office
  • Announcement came after phone conversation in which Trump ang Putin discussed ending Ukraine war
  • A date for the meeting “hasn’t been set” but it will happen in the “not too distant future,” US president said

RIYADH: US President Donald Trump will see his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia for their first meeting since taking office in January.

Trump’s announcement came after an almost 90-minute phone conversation with the Russian leader, where they discussed in ending the nearly three-year Moscow offensive in Ukraine.

“We ultimately expect to meet. In fact, we expect that he’ll come here, and I’ll go there, and we’re gonna meet also probably in Saudi Arabia the first time, we’ll meet in Saudi Arabia, see if we can get something something done,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

A date for the meeting “hasn’t been set” but it will happen in the “not too distant future,” the US president said.

He suggested the meeting would involve Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “We know the crown prince, and I think it’d be a very good place to meet.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov earlier announced that Putin had invited Trump and officials from his administration to visit Moscow to discuss Ukraine.

“The Russian president invited the US president to visit Moscow and expressed his readiness to receive American officials in Russia in those areas of mutual interest, including, of course, the topic of the Ukrainian settlement,” Peskov said.

The invitation followed Trump’s announcement Wednesday that peace talks would start “immediately” and that Ukraine would probably not get its land back, causing uproar on both sides of the Atlantic.


Afghan held after suspected ramming attack injures 28 in Germany

Afghan held after suspected ramming attack injures 28 in Germany
Updated 13 February 2025
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Afghan held after suspected ramming attack injures 28 in Germany

Afghan held after suspected ramming attack injures 28 in Germany
  • Passenger car drove into street demonstration of striking workers in Munich
  • Incident comes on eve of high-profile international conference in Germany city

MUNICH: An Afghan asylum seeker was arrested after a suspected car ramming attack injured at least 28 people in the southern German city of Munich on Thursday, police said.
The incident comes on the eve of a high-profile international conference in Munich and amid an election campaign in which immigration and security have been key issues after a spate of similar attacks.
A passenger car drove into a street demonstration of striking workers from the Verdi trade union near the city center and was then shot at by officers, said the deputy head of Munich police Christian Huber.
The driver, a 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker, was arrested at the scene, Huber said.
Earlier a fire service spokesman told AFP that several of those hurt were “seriously injured, some of them in a life-threatening condition.”
The state premier of Bavaria Markus Soeder told a press conference that the incident was “just terrible” and that “it looks like this was an attack.”
Soeder’s Bavarian CSU party and its national sister party the CDU have demanded tougher curbs on migration after a series of similar attacks which have shocked the country.
“This is not the first incident... we must show determination that something will change in Germany,” Soeder said. “This is further proof that we can’t keep going from attack to attack.”
The ground at the scene of the incident was littered with items including glasses, shoes, thermal blankets and a pushchair.
Eyewitness Alexa Graef said she was “shocked” after seeing the car drive into the crowd “which looked deliberate.”
“I hope it’s the last time I see anything like that,” she said.
An eyewitness who was among the striking workers told the local BR42 website that he “saw a person lying under the car” after it drove into the crowd.
The president of the Verdi union Frank Werneke said in a statement: “We are deeply upset and shocked at the awful incident during a peaceful demonstration by our Verdi colleagues.”
The incident comes a day before the city is due to host the high-profile Munich Security Conference.
US Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky are among those arriving on Thursday to attend the two-day security meet.
The latest suspected attack comes amid an already inflamed debate on immigration after several similar incidents, most recently in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last month.
Two people were killed in a knife attack including a two-year-old child.
After that attack a 28-year-old Afghan man was arrested whom authorities say has a history of mental illness.


UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina

UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina
Updated 13 February 2025
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UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina

UN estimates 1,400 killed in Bangladesh protests that toppled ex-PM Hasina
  • Actual number of casualties is at least double what UN investigators initially assessed
  • Special tribunal in Dhaka to rely on findings in proceedings against former government

DHAKA: At least 1,400 people were killed in Bangladesh during student-led protests last year, with the majority shot dead from military rifles, the UN’s human rights office said in its latest report investigating the events that led to the ouster of the country’s longtime prime minister.

Initially peaceful demonstrations began in early July, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for the allocation of civil service positions. Two weeks later, they were met with a violent crackdown by security forces and a communications blackout.

In early August, as protesters defied nationwide curfew orders and stormed government buildings, former prime minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government.

The new interim administration, led by Nobel-winning economist Muhammad Yunus, has pledged to cooperate with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure justice and accountability for all the violence committed during the month-long uprising.

UN investigators arrived in Bangladesh in late August and on Wednesday released their first fact-finding report.

“OHCHR assesses that as many as 1,400 people could have been killed during the protests, the vast majority of whom were killed by military rifles and shotguns loaded with lethal metal pellets commonly used by Bangladesh’s security forces,” they said in the document.

“Thousands more suffered severe, often life-altering injuries. More than 11,700 people were arrested and detained, according to information from the Police and RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) provided to OHCHR.”

More than three-quarters of all deaths were caused by firearms “typically wielded by state security forces and not readily available to civilians in Bangladesh.”

The number of casualties is at least double what was initially assessed by the investigators, who also indicated that around 3 percent of those killed were children subjected to “targeted killings, deliberate maiming, arbitrary arrest, detention in inhumane conditions, torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”

The UN’s human rights office has concluded that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024, the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”

A special tribunal in Dhaka, which in October issued arrest warrants for Hasina and her Cabinet members and began trial procedures in cases related to the killings, said it will rely on the OHCHR’s findings and recommendations in its proceedings.

“It will facilitate the ongoing trial in the International Crimes Tribunal. The information we have received through the investigation aligns with the UN report, which will also validate our findings. This will add credibility to the results of our investigation,” the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, Tajul Islam, told Arab News on Thursday.

Established in 2010 during Hasina’s rule, the International Crimes Tribunal is a domestic court tasked with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The most important takeaway of the report was that it had identified the ousted prime minister and her government as the “responsible authority” behind the rights abuses, Islam said.

“The report clearly identified the attacks as widespread and systematic, targeting students and civilians. Sheikh Hasina and her administration were the primary orchestrators of these attacks, utilizing all of the state’s security and law enforcement ... Since it (the probe) was conducted by the UN, it has a neutral character.”


Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit

Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit
Updated 13 February 2025
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Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit

Sri Lanka, UAE agree to boost economic ties, investment during Dissanayake visit
  • Sri Lanka president was in Dubai to address the World Governments Summit
  • UAE was Sri Lanka’s 8th largest source of foreign direct investment in 2019

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka and the UAE have signed an agreement to strengthen economic ties during President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s first visit to the Middle East, his office said on Thursday as the island nation seeks to attract more foreign investment.

Dissanayake, who secured the country’s top job in September, returned to Colombo on Thursday after addressing the main session of the 2025 World Government Summit in Dubai and meeting with other world leaders, including UAE Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.

The UAE visit was his third international presidential trip, after India and China.

In Dubai, Sri Lanka and the UAE reached an agreement on reciprocal promotion and protection of investments, the president’s media division said in a statement.

“The purpose of this agreement is to facilitate and strengthen foreign investments between the two nations by ensuring investor rights protection, promoting economic cooperation, and establishing comprehensive investment protection mechanisms, dispute resolution frameworks, and policy structures,” it said.

The deal was signed by Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath and the UAE’s Minister of State for Financial Affairs Mohamed Bin Hadi Al-Hussaini.

It is expected to “contribute to strengthening global economic partnerships and creating opportunities for exploring new investment prospects in Sri Lanka.”

The island nation of 22 million people is still struggling to emerge from the 2022 economic crisis — the worst since its independence in 1948 — and the austerity measures imposed under a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Under Dissanayake, Sri Lanka’s new left-leaning government is working to fulfill his campaign promises of sweeping reforms, including to revive the economy.

Its latest deal with the UAE is part of the country’s “commitment to enhancing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and fostering a more attractive investment landscape,” the president’s media division said.

In 2019, the UAE was the 8th largest source of FDI in Sri Lanka.

M. Shiham Marikar, secretary-general of the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka, said the agreement offers “substantial benefits” for Sri Lankan businesses.

“This partnership is a vital step toward fostering economic growth, securing foreign investments, and strengthening trade relations between Sri Lanka and the UAE,” Marikar told Arab News.

“One of the most significant advantages is enhanced market access to the UAE and the broader Middle Eastern region … The agreement also paves the way for new partnerships and joint ventures, particularly in high-potential sectors like tourism and real estate. Moreover, Sri Lankan businesses, especially SMEs, will benefit from greater access to foreign capital, funding opportunities, and new markets.”