|
Negotiations Continue Around Conflict in Ukraine
Yesterday saw the US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin meet Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. This comes after Washington announced that they would provide a further $322m in military aid to Ukraine, in addition to $165m in ammunition. This means that the total level committed by the US now totals $3.7bn since Russia invade Ukraine on 23rd February. While this is a considerable sum, in the interest of context the request for defence spending in the US for FY2023 is set to be $773bn, hence the assistance to Ukraine makes up around 0.5% of this. Nevertheless, Joe Biden is expected to request additional financial assistance to Ukraine sometime this week while the House will be deliberating over a bill from World War two which would streamline the ability for the US to get military materiel over to Ukraine.Today, Blinken and Austin have headed over to Germany with representatives from over 40 countries as they discuss efforts to increase assistance to Ukraine. Most of these countries will be the 30 Nato member states and will include ministers of foreign affairs from these countries. This comes as Germany have agreed to supply Gepard anti-aircraft systems to Kyiv and the UK will send a further 120 armoured vehicles, anti-tank missile launchers and air defence systems, however Zelensky has continually asked for more materiel.Elsewhere today, Vladimir Putin will speak with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Moscow which comes as dialogue between Kyiv and Moscow appears to have stalled. Ukraine is urging the UN to ensure that Russia will respect a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians out of Mariupol and hence much of the meeting is expected to focus on this issue. As Putin meets Guterres, the Kremlin’s losses are evidently mounting with the UK’s Defence Secretary Ben Wallace citing 15,000 Russian troops having been killed thus far. Tensions also appear to be escalating in the Kremlin with Sergei Lavrov stating that weapons heading to Ukraine will “be a legitimate target” for the Russian military and that risks around the prospect of a Third World War are “serious”. Its worth considering how military conflicts can spill over from one country to another when a belligerent force attacks the supply chains of their opponent in another territory. One notable example was the US’ bombing of Loas and Cambodia during the Vietnam war as they attempted to cut off the Ho Chi Minh Trail supply chain. Hence, as negotiations around the world continue today, the very real possibility of further escalations ought not be underestimated. Bloomberg has more:
Musk’s Forty-four Billion Dollar Bid Business Insider has more:
Bank of Israel Turn to Renminbi More generally, the equivalent value of $11.7 trillion USD is held across the globe in reserve currencies and since the end of the Second World War the USD has assumed the de facto title as the world’s reserve currency. Nevertheless, since the launch of the Euro, the predominance of the USD as a reserve currency has slowly decreased from around 71% of the global share in 1999 to 59% in 2021. Furthermore, in recent years the CCP have sought to further internationalise the renminbi. According to the Report on the Internationalization of RMB in August 2020, The People’s Bank of China continue to advocate growing the renminbi’s share as a currency reserve by addressing convertibility issues and creating pools of offshore liquidity.
Have a great day. |
