World

French President Emmanuel Macron is making an eye-catching drive to strengthen partnerships with Central Asian states, seeking to boost Europe’s influence in a strategic region where China, Russia, Turkey and the United States are already jostling for supremacy.

Macron held talks in Paris earlier this month with Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who was making a rare visit to a Western capital, and on Tuesday hosted Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev at the Elysee Palace.

Last year, Macron hosted Tajik President Emomali Rahmon in Paris in an extremely unusual visit and also held telephone talks with the leader of Tajikistan on Saturday.

The flurry of diplomacy between Paris and the key Central Asian capitals come as France reassesses its ties with the former Soviet region in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron had previously sought to cultivate a viable relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Astana, Dushanbe and Tashkent have taken an at best ambivalent stance on the invasion. They have shown no enthusiasm but have stopped short of full-throated condemnation that would irritate their ex-Soviet masters in Moscow.

Their ties with Russia are also of interest to Paris, which is keeping an eye on a possible negotiated solution to the invasion of Ukraine. 

Tokayev held talks in Moscow with Putin the day before travelling to Paris.

Tokayev’s visit aims to “consolidate our relationship and expand our dialogue in a context that is also difficult for the countries of Central Asia”, said a French presidential official who asked not to be named.

“We continue to … show our Central Asian partners the importance we attach to their region, wedged between China and Russia, and which needs to open up new horizons,” added the official.

– ‘Lacking competitiveness’ –

A Kazakh government source told AFP: “We firmly support the territorial integrity of Ukraine” in the face of the invasion.

“We don’t support sanctions as a matter of principle. But we are not allowing our territories to be used for evading sanctions,” the source added.

Meanwhile the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a regional military alliance of which Kazakhstan is a member, is also in crisis. 

A CSTO summit in Armenia earlier this month collapsed in near acrimony.

Cultivating such ties means Paris is also hosting leaders who are under fire for rights violations at home.

Tokayev comes to Paris fresh from an election in which he won a second term with a crushing 81.3 percent. 

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the vote “took place in a political environment lacking competitiveness”.

Around 230 people were killed when Tokayev violently suppressed protests in January over living costs.

Mirziyoyev is meanwhile credited with opening up Uzbekistan after the death of its post-Soviet leader Islam Karimov.

He has pushed through significant economic and social reforms but his regime is accused by aid organisations of trampling on people’s basic rights.

– Diversify partnerships –

In a typical French touch, the visits by Rahmon and Mirziyoyev have both been accompanied by blockbuster exhibitions of cultural treasures rarely seen outside Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

While China and the US have vied with Russia for influence in the region since the fall of the USSR, Turkey has in recent years shown an awakened interest in nations with which it shares close cultural and linguistic ties.

Ankara has revived a body known now as the Organisation of Turkic States and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with whom Macron has a tense relationship, has been a regular visitor to the region.

Analysts say that in the short term Europe is keen to promote energy ties with Central Asia, especially with hydrocarbon-rich Kazakhstan, as supplies from Russia dwindle. It also values the region’s role as a key pipeline hub.

“What interests the Europeans in Central Asia are energy resources while Russian hydrocarbons are under embargo … and the transport corridors between China and the European Union,” said Michael Levystone, associate researcher at the IFRI think tank. 

“(Meanwhile) the sanctions against the Russian economy encourage the countries of Central Asia to diversify their partnerships on the international scene,” added Levystone, whose Paris-based organisation specialised in Central Asia. 

The Kazakh source said: “In light of the current uncertainties regarding energy security in Europe, Kazakhstan is determined to continue to play a role as a reliable and trustworthy energy partner.”

Britain on Tuesday summoned the Chinese ambassador in London for a rebuke after the arrest and alleged assault of a BBC journalist covering Covid protests.

Zheng Zeguang was called in to the foreign office after the incident involving Ed Lawrence in Shanghai, which Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had called “deeply disturbing”.

“It is incredibly important that we protect media freedom,” Cleverly told reporters at a NATO meeting in Romania, confirming Zheng had been summoned.

“It is something very, very much at the heart of the UK’s belief system,” the foreign minister said.

“It’s incredibly important that journalists are able to go about their business, unmolested, and without fear of attack.”

Lawrence was hauled away by police late Sunday while filming a protest against Covid restrictions, one of many that have rocked China in recent days. 

The BBC said he was assaulted by police before being released several hours later.

China hit back at British alarm over the journalist’s treatment and after Downing Street urged police show respect towards the Covid protesters.

“The UK side is in no position to pass judgment on China’s Covid policy or other internal affairs,” an embassy spokesperson said, before Zheng was summoned, noting Britain’s own high death rate.

The government in London also this month expressed concern after reports emerged of Beijing operating undeclared police outposts in foreign countries including Britain.

– ‘Golden era over’ –

A senior Chinese diplomat was summoned to the foreign office last month after his consulate colleagues in Manchester, northwest England, were accused of beating up a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester.

The incidents have fuelled political pressure in Britain on the new government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to get tough with China.

But Sunak is treading a fine line between defending freedoms and antagonising the world’s second-biggest economy.

In a speech on Monday, he said the so-called “golden era” of UK-China relations trumpeted by former prime minister David Cameron was “over”.

But Sunak also called for “robust pragmatism” in dealing with Britain’s competitors, disappointing critics who want him to go further in confronting Beijing.

Separately on Tuesday, the UK ousted Chinese nuclear firm CGN from construction of its new Sizewell C nuclear power station, which will now be built only with French commercial partner EDF.

That came after UK government departments were ordered last week to stop installing Chinese-made surveillance cameras at “sensitive sites”.

The week before, a Chinese company was forced to divest most of Britain’s biggest semiconductor maker, Newport Wafer Fab.

Sunak’s spokesman declined to say if national security factors drove the decision on CGN.

But he told reporters: “Certainly we think it’s right that the UK has more energy security, energy independence.”

The Italian who ran on to the World Cup pitch wearing a T-shirt in support of Ukraine and Iranian women is a football player with a history of similar stunts.

Mario Ferri, 35, who calls himself “The Falcon”, interrupted the Portugal-Uruguay game on Monday when he sprinted on to the pitch wearing a blue Superman T-shirt with “Save Ukraine” on the front and “Respect for Iranian Woman” on the back. 

He also carried a rainbow-coloured flag adorned with the words PACE, meaning peace in Italian.

“I’m BACK,” wrote the footballer on his Instagram page, where he describes himself as a “modern pirate”.

Ferri said he wanted to send “important messages”, including for Iran “where I have friends who are suffering, where women are not respected”.

“FIFA banned rainbow captain’s armbands and human rights flags in the stands, they blocked everyone, BUT NOT ME, like a Robin Hood,” he wrote.

“SAVE UKRAINE. I spent a month in the war in Kyiv as a volunteer and saw how much those people are suffering,” he wrote, adding that “breaking the rules for a good cause is never a crime”.

Italy’s foreign ministry confirmed Ferri had been briefly detained following the pitch invasion, before being “released by the authorities without any further consequences”.

Gay rights and the use of the rainbow flag have been a simmering issue at the World Cup in Qatar, where homosexuality is illegal. The rainbow features in both the flag for LGBTQ rights and the peace flag. 

According to the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper, Ferri has played football in India, Jordan, San Marino, the Seychelles and Switzerland.

In 2010, Ferri invaded the Club World Cup pitch in Abu Dhabi during an Inter-Mazembe game furling an AC Milan scarf.

Four years later during the World Cup in Brazil, he again sported his Superman T-shirt as he ran onto the field during a Belgium-USA game.

The T-shirt read “Save the children of the favelas,” or the slums of Brazilian cities, with underneath it “Ciro lives”, in memory of Naples fan Ciro Esposito who shot by an ultra before the Coppa Italia final. He later died.

In 2017, Ferri threw a Naples scarf in the face of Juventus player Gonzalo Higuain during a Naples-Juventus match. 

“I decided to avenge the Neapolitans for Higuain’s move to Juventus,” he told Corriere dello Sport.

“I said, ‘Traitor!’ and left.”

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg warned Tuesday that Russia was using winter as a “weapon of war” against Ukraine, as Western allies meeting in Bucharest planned to help Kyiv mend its ravaged power grid.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was to announce “substantial” financial aid to help Ukraine deal with damaged infrastructure on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO’s foreign ministers.

A senior US official said the assistance would “not be the end” and pointed out the Biden administration had budgeted $1.1 billion for energy spending in Ukraine and neighbouring Moldova.

A Russian campaign of missile strikes has severely damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and plunged millions into darkness as the country braces against the first snows and chill winds of winter.

Stoltenberg said “the message from all of us will be that we need to do more” to help Kyiv fix its gas and electricity infrastructure and provide air defence to help it protect itself better.

He said he expected Russia to carry out more attacks on Ukraine’s grid as the Kremlin suffers defeats on the ground and warned Europe should “be prepared for more refugees”. 

“Russia is actually failing on the battlefield. In response to that they are now attacking civilian targets, cities because they’re not able to win territory,” Stoltenberg said at the start of the two-day meeting. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was to meet his NATO counterparts to urge them to send more weaponry for Kyiv and assistance in coping with Moscow’s attacks.

– ‘Keep calm, give tanks’ –

“This targeting of civilian infrastructure, of energy infrastructure is obviously designed to try and freeze the Ukrainians into submission,” said British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. 

“I don’t think it’ll be successful.”

Allies have given arms worth billions of dollars to Ukraine, but Kyiv is pleading for more air defence, tanks and longer-range missiles to push the Kremlin’s forces back.

But there are growing concerns that weapon stores in some NATO countries are running low as stockpiles have been diverted to Ukraine. 

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said his request to fellow NATO ministers was simple: “Keep calm and give tanks”. 

Germany, which currently chairs the G7, has convened a meeting Tuesday afternoon on the sidelines of the NATO gathering to discuss the energy crisis caused by the war in Ukraine.

The United States will call on the other member countries to strengthen their aid in this area, according to the US official.

– ‘Door is open’ –

NATO says the meeting in Bucharest will showcase its unity on continuing to support Ukraine as Moscow’s war against its neighbour drags on into its tenth month. 

The alliance will not, however, make any progress on Ukraine’s request to join, first made some 14 years ago when NATO first pledged that Kyiv would one day become a member.

Stoltenberg insisted that the “door is open” to new members but said the focus now was on assisting Ukraine in its fight with Moscow. 

NATO has bolstered its eastern flank in the face of Russia’s war by sending more troops and equipment to countries like Romania, neighbouring Ukraine.

Romania has been hard hit by the war and around two million people fleeing Ukraine have passed through the country.

Non-NATO Moldova, which has also seen blackouts caused by the fallout from the attacks on neighbouring Ukraine, will attend the alliance’s talks on Thursday along with Bosnia and Georgia. 

Besides the war in Ukraine, the ministers will take stock of progress in the accession of NATO candidates Finland and Sweden, already ratified by 28 of the 30 member countries but which remains suspended awaiting the green light from Hungary and Turkey.

The Finnish, Swedish and Turkish foreign ministers were meeting on the sidelines of the meeting, but Ankara has played down hope for any quick breakthrough. 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she will not withdraw her defamation suit against journalist Roberto Saviano, in an interview published Tuesday, despite criticism that her position of power makes it an unfair trial.

The far-right leader told the Corriere della Sera daily she was confident the case would be treated with the necessary “impartiality”. 

Meloni sued anti-mafia reporter Saviano for alleged defamation after he called her a “bastard” in a 2020 televised outburst over her attitude towards vulnerable migrants.

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party was in opposition at the time, but took office last month after a nationalist campaign that promised to stop migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa.

Press freedom watchdogs and supporters of Saviano have called for the trial, which opened this month, to be scrapped.

“I don’t understand the request to withdraw the complaint on the pretext that I am now prime minister,” Meloni said.

“I believe that all this will be treated with impartiality, considering the separation of powers.”

She added: “I am simply asking the court where the line is between the legitimate right to criticise, gratuitous insult and defamation.”

Saviano, best known for his international mafia bestseller “Gomorrah”, faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

The case dates back to December 2020 when Saviano was asked on a political TV chat show for a comment on the death of a six-month-old baby from Guinea in a shipwreck.

He blasted Meloni, who in 2019 said that charity vessels which rescue migrants “should be sunk”.

Saviano is not the only journalist Meloni is taking to trial.

One of the country’s best-known investigative reporters, Emiliano Fittipaldi, said last week the prime minister has sued him for defamation.

That trial is set to start in 2024.

Watchdogs say such trials are symbolic of a culture in Italy in which public figures intimidate reporters with repeated lawsuits, threatening the erosion of a free press.

British airline EasyJet on Tuesday confirmed a third annual loss in a row, which was however far less than during the worst of the Covid pandemic.

The no-frills carrier, which flies mainly across Europe, posted a loss after tax of £169 million ($203 million) for its financial year to the end of September.

That compared with a net loss of £858 million in 2020/21, EasyJet added in a statement.

The Covid pandemic ravaged global aviation, grounding planes worldwide and forcing airlines to slash thousands of jobs in 2020.

Demand has recovered sharply after most lockdowns were lifted. However, airlines and airports are struggling to recruit sufficient staff after having axed so many positions.

“EasyJet has achieved a record bounce back this summer,” chief executive Johan Lundgren said in the statement.

He added that during the current “tough” economic climate, consumers would still look to go on holiday but seek out value, helping the no-frills carrier to do better than more established rivals.

“Legacy carriers will struggle in this high-cost environment,” Lundgren said.

EasyJet revenue soared to £5.8 billion from £1.5 billion. 

Passenger numbers more than trebled to almost 70 million.

“Freed from the holding pattern restrictions of the pandemic, EasyJet is beginning to emerge from the clouds,” said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.

“The outlook is also relatively upbeat, with revenue per seat for next year expected to increase by more than 20 percent.”

EasyJet’s share price was however down more than four percent following the results update.

“EasyJet is doing everything it can to accelerate its recovery from Covid, but there just isn’t enough momentum to swing the company back to positive earnings,” said AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould.