John Kerry s visit will advance the UAE-US bilateral action on climate
US climate envoy John Kerry attends the Regional Climate Dialogue in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. This is Mr Kerry s first visit to the Middle East, and Asia, since being appointed to the role. Courtesy: Office of the UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change
Delegates at the talks in Abu Dhabi.
Abdullah Al Nuaimi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment and John Kerry, US climate envoy at the dialogue.
Abdullah Al Nuaimi, UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, at the Regional Climate Dialogue.
The dialogue comes during a critical year in the global fight to halt rising temperatures. Courtesy: Office of the UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change
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It should come as no surprise that China and Iran signed a 25-year agreement this week. It has been touted many times in recent years, although negotiations over the details have remained a secret. What is interesting, however, is the timing. It comes within 100 days of US President Joe Biden taking office and his desire to reconfigure America’s relations with both countries. Now, it seems Beijing and Tehran have moved past the era of fearing US sanctions following the departure of Mr Biden’s predecessor, Donald Trump.
The strategic agreement covers multiple areas, including politics, the economy and military and defence co-operation. China has also agreed to joint drills, port development in Iran and $450 billion worth of investment in energy, petrochemicals and other sectors.
Should swiftly vaccinating as many people as possible be an endeavour that brings us all together, around the world? Or is it in reality yet another arena for political one-upmanship and great power contestation?
China’s President Xi Jinping was quite clear when he addressed the World Health Assembly in May last year. The vaccines China developed, he announced, would be a “global public good”. Shortly before, one of the country’s top virologists, Major General Chen Wei, said their efforts would be a “contribution to humankind”.
Plenty have reason to be grateful for the results so far. According to officials, by the end of February China had provided free vaccines to 69 countries and was selling doses to 28 more. Serbia – with a population of seven million – had received one and a half million Sinopharm vaccines by the middle of that month, with more promised. The UAE, which tested Sinopharm and found it 86 per cent effective, started rolling out free inoculations to
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When I first became interested in international relations the world was a radically different place. The Cold War was still on. This was a world divided into economic and political blocs. It was also an era marred by brutal proxy wars. The “superpower rivalry”, as it was known, between the US and the Soviet Union influenced co-operation between nation-states and their peoples. This dynamic shaped the world around us and it came to define how diplomacy was done.
This international order also dictated the role of a diplomat. During this time, diplomacy was based around conventional tools that prioritised the advancement of national interests, such as security and prosperity.