Russia hosts world leaders for 80th anniversary of defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II

Russia hosts world leaders for 80th anniversary of defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II
Xi Jinping arrives at Vnukovo airport, Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, May 7, 2025, ahead of celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s World War II victory over Nazi Germany. (AP Photo)
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Updated 07 May 2025
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Russia hosts world leaders for 80th anniversary of defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II

Russia hosts world leaders for 80th anniversary of defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II
  • Putin described Chinese President Xi Jinping as ‘our main guest’ at the Victory Day festivities when he discussed preparations for his visit with China’s FM
  • US President George W. Bush attended the 2005 Victory Day parade along with the leaders of France, Germany and other heads of states

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is set to host the leaders of China, Brazil and other heads of states for festivities on Friday marking the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Victory Day, which is celebrated in Russia on May 9, has become the country’s most important secular holiday. A massive parade through Red Square and other ceremonies underline

Moscow’s efforts to project its power and cement the alliances it has forged while seeking a counterbalance to the West amid the 3-year-old war in Ukraine.

“For Putin, this day is important as a demonstration how broad a coalition backing Russia is,” said political analyst Nikolai Petrov.

The lineup of leaders coming to Moscow this year contrasts sharply to some past celebrations that drew top Western leaders at a time of friendlier ties between Russia and the West.

The festivities have been overshadowed by reports of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow and severe disruptions at all four of the capital’s airports, with dozens of flights delayed or canceled, stranding hundreds of passengers.

Tightened security around the celebrations also led to restrictions on cellphone Internet service and reports of outages. Banks and taxi firms have preemptively warned customers about disruption to services over the holidays due to unstable Internet access, and some shops and supermarkets have restricted deliveries due to potential network problems.

Putin described Chinese President Xi Jinping as “our main guest” at the Victory Day festivities when he discussed preparations for his visit with China’s foreign minister. The Russian leader noted that he and Xi are to discuss both bilateral and global issues at their summit in Moscow.

Xi arrived Wednesday for a four-day visit. Putin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov has said they would discuss trade and Russia’s supply of oil and gas to China, as well as cooperation within BRICS — the bloc of developing economies that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa but has since expanded to more countries.

Putin and Xi have met over 40 times and developed strong personal ties to bolster their “strategic partnership” as they both face soaring tensions with the West.

China has offered robust diplomatic support to Moscow after the 2022 invasion and has emerged as a top market for Russian oil and gas, helping fill the Kremlin’s war coffers. Russia also has relied on China as the main source of machinery and electronics to keep its military machine running after Western sanctions curtailed high-tech supplies.

While Beijing hasn’t provided weapons to use in Ukraine, it has backed the Kremlin diplomatically, blaming the West for threatening Russia’s security. China also condemned Western sanctions against Moscow.

Russia, in turn, has consistently voiced support for Beijing on issues related to Taiwan.

Last month, Ukraine reported capturing two Chinese soldiers who were fighting for Russia and claimed there were over 150 others deployed alongside Moscow’s forces. Beijing disavowed official involvement, saying it told its citizens not to enter foreign conflicts. Reports suggested the men were mercenaries answering advertisements.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Mod i, another top ally whom Putin has courted, had been expected in Moscow but he canceled his trip amid tensions with Pakistan after an attack in which gunmen opened fire on tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

India, which has had persistent tensions with China, watched the growing Russia-China relationship with unease but sought to maintain close ties with Moscow. Russia is a major defense supplier for India, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner for Moscow has grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine. Just like China, India has become a key buyer of Russian oil.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also arrived Wednesday, his first official trip to Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine. He twice visited Russia during his previous tenure as president in 2003-10.

Other guests include Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has openly challenged the European Union’s policies over Ukraine. Fico has shrugged off warnings from the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, against visiting Moscow, defiantly saying, “nobody can order me where to go or not to go.”

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic made his first trip to Russia since the invasion, despite EU pressure that visiting Moscow could derail Serbia’s ambitions to join the bloc. He arrived in Moscow on Wednesday after falling ill last week on a trip to the US, which raised questions about his attendance. The Kremlin said Putin will have bilateral meetings with him and Fico on Friday.

Petrov said attendance by European countries despite EU pressure demonstrates “that the Kremlin isn’t just in any sort of isolation but has quite powerful support not only in the Global South but also in the West.”

Putin met Wednesday with the leaders of Cuba and Venezuela, who also came to Moscow. He and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro signed an agreement on strategic partnership and cooperation.

The leaders of Vietnam and Burkina-Faso, plus presidents of several former Soviet nations, also were expected.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the guest list reflects the importance of the holiday and “shows that Russia not only has allies, but a large number of countries that feel close to the spirit of our ideology and world vision.”

Ushakov said Tuesday that leaders of more than two dozen countries are expected, and Putin will hold more than 15 bilateral meetings. The Kremlin also invited US Ambassador Lynne Tracy, although “whether she will be present at the parade, we will see on May 9,” Ushakov said. The State Department didn’t confirm whether any US officials would attend.

Ushakov said Wednesday the presidents of Laos and Azerbaijan weren’t coming after all. Laos President Thongloun Sisoulith fell ill with COVID-19, Ushakov told Russia’s Life news outlet, and Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, who the Kremlin said in March had accepted an invitation, had to attend events at home.

Relations between Moscow and Baku cooled after an Azerbaijani airliner crashed in Kazakhstan in December, killing 38 of 67 people aboard. Aliyev said it was shot down over Russia, albeit unintentionally, and rendered uncontrollable by electronic warfare. He accused Russia of trying to “hush up” the incident for several days. Putin apologized to Aliyev for what he called a “tragic incident” but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility.

Aliyev hasn’t attended the Moscow parade since 2015, the Russian daily Vedomosti reported.

When Russia’s ties with the West blossomed after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, many Western leaders attended Victory Day celebrations. In 1995, US President Bill Clinton, British Prime Minister John Major and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien were among the guests.

US President George W. Bush attended the 2005 Victory Day parade along with the leaders of France, Germany and other heads of states, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on Red Square for the 2010 parade.

Ties with the West were badly strained after Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow backed a separatist insurgency. Western leaders stopped coming to the event.

US President Donald Trump, who this year upended Washington’s policy of isolating Russia over the war, hasn’t ruled out visiting Moscow someday, but will not be attending on Friday.


Ireland moves to ban trade with Israeli-occupied territories

Ireland moves to ban trade with Israeli-occupied territories
Updated 8 sec ago
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Ireland moves to ban trade with Israeli-occupied territories

Ireland moves to ban trade with Israeli-occupied territories
  • Spokesperson: ‘The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory’
  • FM Simon Harris: ‘When this small country in Europe makes the decision, I do hope it inspires other European countries to join us’
DUBLIN: The Irish government approved Tuesday the drafting of a bill to ban the import of goods from Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law, an unprecedented move for a European Union member.
The move comes after the International Court of Justice last year said Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip was illegal under international law, in an advisory opinion the Irish government said guided its decision.
“The government has agreed to advance legislation prohibiting trade in goods with illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory,” a foreign ministry spokesperson told AFP.
“It is the government’s view that this is an obligation under international law.”
The settlements include residential, agricultural and business interests that lie outside Israel’s internationally recognized borders.
Before the cabinet decision, Foreign Minister Simon Harris told reporters he hoped other EU countries would follow Ireland’s lead.
“What I hope today is when this small country in Europe makes the decision and becomes one of the first countries, and probably the first country, in the Western world to consider legislation in this space, I do hope it inspires other European countries to join us,” said Harris — also Irish deputy prime minister.
Last May, Ireland — along with Spain, Norway and, a month later, Slovenia — recognized the Palestinian state, drawing retaliatory moves from Israel.
Last month, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris might move to recognize a Palestinian state as early as June.
Tuesday’s move by Dublin comes a week after the EU ordered a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, a cooperation deal signed in 1995 that forms the basis for trade ties with Israel.
EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said “a strong majority” of the 27 member states at a foreign ministers’ meeting backed the move in a bid to pressure Israel.
An Irish import ban would be symbolic and of minimal economic impact, as trade volumes with the territories — limited to goods such as fruit, vegetables and timber — were worth less than one million euros ($1.1 million) between 2020 and 2024.
It “breaks a decades-long, failed deadlock at EU level of criticizing the settlements as illegal and a barrier to peace on the one hand, while providing them with crucial economic support on the other,” said Conor O’Neill, head of advocacy and policy at Christian Aid Ireland, who helped draft a previous version of the Irish legislation in 2018.
“After decades of saying and repeating that illegal settlements are totally illegal and that the EU is opposed to them, this is the first time that words are being matched with action,” O’Neill told AFP.
The foreign ministry spokesperson said an update on the draft legislation would be brought to the government “in the coming weeks.”
The bill is not expected to pass into law before autumn.

UN says it has no information over Gaza aid group deliveries

UN says it has no information over Gaza aid group deliveries
Updated 27 May 2025
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UN says it has no information over Gaza aid group deliveries

UN says it has no information over Gaza aid group deliveries

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it had no information on whether the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US-backed aid group, had actually delivered any supplies inside the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

The little-known group, which has stirred controversy since surfacing in early May, announced on Monday it had begun distributing truckloads of food in the Gaza Strip.

But officials from the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, and UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said they were unaware whether any aid had actually been distributed.

The UN and international aid agencies have said they will not cooperate with the GHF, amid accusations it is working with Israel without any Palestinian involvement.

“It is a distraction from what is actually needed, which is a reopening of all the crossings in to Gaza; a secure environment within Gaza; and faster facilitation of permissions and final approvals of all the emergency supplies that we have just outside the border that need to get in,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke told a press briefing in Geneva.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma told journalists aid to Gaza was still “very, very far” from what was needed: a minimum of 500 to 600 trucks per day loaded with food, medical aid, fuel, water and other basic supplies, she said, speaking via video-link from Amman.

Israel, which recently stepped up its offensive against militant group Hamas, drew international condemnation after implementing a blockade on March 2 that has sparked severe food and medical shortages.

Humanitarian aid has begun trickling back into Gaza in recent days after Israel lifted the 11-week blockade.

Touma said no UNRWA supplies had gone in since March 2, while Laerke said he had no information on how many UN trucks had passed through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the last 24 hours, partly because Israel does not allow them to have a fixed presence there.


17 bodies found in abandoned house in Mexico

17 bodies found in abandoned house in Mexico
Updated 27 May 2025
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17 bodies found in abandoned house in Mexico

17 bodies found in abandoned house in Mexico
  • Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to locate the bodies last week in Irapuato
  • Knives, machetes, pickaxes, and shovels were also found

MEXICO: Missing persons investigators found 17 bodies in an abandoned house in a central Mexican region plagued by criminal violence, the state prosecutor’s office said.

Ground-penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to locate the bodies last week in Irapuato in Guanajuato state, according to a statement released late Monday.

Knives, machetes, pickaxes, and shovels were also found.

Five of the victims — four men and one woman --- have been identified as missing persons, according to prosecutors.

“Their families are being informed,” a Guanajuato state official, Jorge Jimenez, told reporters.

Guanajuato is a thriving industrial hub and home to several popular tourist destinations, but it is also Mexico’s deadliest state due to gang turf wars, according to official homicide statistics.

Criminal violence, most of it linked to drug trafficking, has claimed around 480,000 lives in Mexico since 2006 and left more than 120,000 people missing.

Civil society groups formed by relatives who denounce government inaction risk their own lives searching for remains in unmarked graves, often in areas where cartel gunmen are active.

Much of the violence in Guanajuato is linked to conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in the Latin American nation.

Guanajuato recorded more than 3,000 murders last year, the most of any Mexican state, according to official figures.

That was equivalent to just over 10 percent of the nationwide total.


German army must use new funds responsibly, auditors say

German army must use new funds responsibly, auditors say
Updated 27 May 2025
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German army must use new funds responsibly, auditors say

German army must use new funds responsibly, auditors say
  • In March, Germany’s parliament approved plans for a massive spending surge
  • Key recommendations include a thorough review of tasks, prioritization of defense-critical duties

BERLIN: The German army must undergo significant organizational and personnel reforms to effectively utilize increased defense spending, the country’s federal audit institute said on Tuesday in a special report.

In March, Germany’s parliament approved plans for a massive spending surge, largely removing defense investment from the rules that cap borrowing.

The Bundesrechnungshof report highlights that despite relaxed debt rules, the Bundeswehr must prioritize its core mission of national and alliance defense while reducing administrative processes.

“’Whatever it takes’ must not become ‘money doesn’t matter!’” said Kay Scheller, president of the institute, emphasising the need for responsible financial management and increased efficiency in defense spending.

Key recommendations include a thorough review of tasks, prioritization of defense-critical duties, and restructuring the Bundeswehr to focus on “more troops, less administration.”

The Bundesrechnungshof recommends careful justification of financial needs, conducting efficiency analyzes, as well as maintaining a balance between time, cost and quality.

“It is crucial that these funds are used responsibly to significantly increase the effectiveness of defense spending,” Scheller said.


GCC, ASEAN leaders hold first trilateral summit with China

GCC, ASEAN leaders hold first trilateral summit with China
Updated 27 May 2025
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GCC, ASEAN leaders hold first trilateral summit with China

GCC, ASEAN leaders hold first trilateral summit with China
  • GCC, ASEAN leaders agree to increase trade volume to $180 billion, engage in FTA negotiations
  • Strategic cooperation between the regional blocs was established during their 2023 Riyadh summit 

KUALA LUMPUR/DUBAI: Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Association of Southeast Asian Nations convened in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday for the second ASEAN-GCC Summit and a historic three-way meeting with China.

The ASEAN-GCC Summit and the inaugural ASEAN-GCC-China Trilateral Summit were held alongside the 46th ASEAN Summit, which Malaysia is hosting as the Southeast Asian bloc’s chair this year.

Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who opened the sessions, said the ASEAN-GCC relationship would be “key in enhancing inter-regional collaboration, building resilience and securing sustainable prosperity for all.”

Strategic cooperation between the 10-member grouping of Southeast Asian nations and the alliance of six Gulf states was established in October 2023, when they held their first summit hosted by Saudi Arabia.

Their meeting in Kuala Lumpur — and the inclusion of China in the talks — comes against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty, recently heightened by global tariffs imposed last month by US President Donald Trump.

While most countries were granted a 90-day reprieve from the measures, Southeast Asia’s major economies have since been engaged in efforts to diversify their trading networks.

ASEAN and GCC representatives — including Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Al-Thani, the crown princes of Bahrain and Kuwait, and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan — have agreed to increase bilateral trade and engage in free trade negotiations.

The GCC is now ASEAN’s seventh-largest trading partner, with total trade reaching $130.7 billion in 2023.

“We aim to increase this figure to $180 billion by 2032, as there remains substantial untapped potential in bilateral trade and investment,” Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid, who is also the president of the current session of the Supreme Council of the GCC, said during the summit.

“We would like to underscore the importance of continuing cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, investment and the arts, and we look forward to the positive outcomes of free trade agreement negotiations between both sides, which will open up investment opportunities and support regional development.”

As the Southeast Asian and Gulf leaders were joined by Beijing’s delegation, led by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Anwar welcomed the tripartite meeting as a “landmark moment” in international cooperation.

“I am confident that ASEAN, the GCC and China can draw upon our unique strengths to shape a future that is more connected, more resilient and more prosperous for generations to come,” he said.

“ASEAN has long demonstrated that regionalism, anchored in consensus, respect and openness, can succeed. We have thrived in our longstanding partnerships with the GCC and China. Today, we have the opportunity to elevate these ties.”

The combined economies of the GCC, ASEAN, and China now total nearly $25 trillion, with a combined population exceeding 2 billion.

“China has long been a very strategic partner with ASEAN, being the largest trading partner of all ASEAN countries, and it has long taken part in ASEAN-related meetings ranging from ASEAN Plus to ARF (ASEAN Regional Forum),” Dr. Oh Ei Sun, principal advisor at the Pacific Research Center in Kuala Lumpur, told Arab News.

“China has the technology, GCC the money, and ASEAN the market ... As protectionism and unilateralism are on the rise globally, these groupings see the need to strengthen multilateralism, not the least with bringing themselves closer together.”

Amid global turbulence, economic fragmentation and shifting power dynamics, the Kuala Lumpur summits showed the growing ambitions of Southeast Asia and the Gulf region to play a more influential role in international markets and geopolitical affairs.

“This isn’t just another summit, it signals that these regions want a bigger say in how the global economy is run and despite the external factors,” said Kamles Kumar, associate director at Asia Group Advisors in Kuala Lumpur.

“The Global South is no longer content to be on the sidelines.”

China’s participation could be seen as Beijing’s intent to stay close to rising regional alliances, especially in the face of US policies.

“It’s about influence with securing energy links with the Gulf and reinforcing trade ties with ASEAN, while positioning itself as an indispensable partner in South-South cooperation,” Kumar said.

“There is a recognition that momentum is shifting. The quiet push for deeper ASEAN economic cooperation, including conversations around regional supply chains, green infrastructure, and trade integration, is drawing attention. China’s presence underscores that no major player wants to be left out of what comes next.”