[…] With NATO’s heads of government and state summit at Vilnius, Lithuania, next month, the focus of this piece will be on Ukraine. The difference is, this time, some answers will be provided regarding the summit.
But first, why did Li duck a meeting with Austin?
The snub is a real-life example of the irrationality of the Sino-American relationship. In 2018, the U.S. sanctioned Li before he became minister of defense this March. Did the U.S. forget that sanction? If not, why was it unable or reluctant to change that status as a signal to show a dialogue was deemed important, especially after China buzzed a U.S. warship and “performed an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” against a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft over the Taiwan Straits?
On the same note, in negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine, how does one conduct diplomacy when Russia’s president has been declared a war criminal? No answers are there either. Läs artikel