NEWS WRAP

Diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy

• Last-ditch diplomacy | President Biden stated "as long as there is hope of a diplomatic resolution that prevents the use of force... we will pursue it" in response to the build-up of an estimated 150,000 Russian troops along the borders of Ukraine and Belarus. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined Australia and other countries in moving their embassies from Kyiv and urging the evacuation of its citizens. READ MORE HERE
    
• First US embassy in the Solomon Islands | Following his visit to Australia, US Secretary of State Blinken continued his Indo-Pacific tour last week with a visit to Fiji and talks with the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan in Hawaii. The trip ended with the announcement of the first US embassy in the Solomon Islands, the release of the administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy, as well as the presentation of a united front between the United States, Japan and South Korea against North Korean missile tests. READ MORE HERE
   
• Trump tax firm blasts returns | Accounting firm Marzars USA broke from its long-term relationship with the Trump Organization, stating their financial statements concerning the former president’s business between 2011 and 2020 were unreliable. As part of the New York State Office of the Attorney General’s investigation, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was charged last year for crimes related to an alleged tax fraud scheme. READ MORE HERE
   
• Afghan money going to 9/11 families | Around US$7 billion worth of funds belonging to the former Western-backed Afghanistan government and frozen in the United States are set to be seized by the White House. President Biden signed an executive order on Friday announcing half the funds would be used to support the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis while the other half would go to families of 9/11 victims with legal claims against the Taliban. The move has been met with criticism as Afghanistan delves deeper into economic crisis. READ MORE HERE
   

• Freedom convoy catching on | Inspired by the ‘freedom convoy’ of Canadian truckers who successfully blocked the trade link between Canada and the United States for seven days in protest of vaccine mandates, a loose and haphazard US version of the protest is being planned for March. Ontario declared a state of emergency in response to the protests, implicating US$235 million worth of US-Canada trade each day and forcing US car manufacturers to scale back their production. READ MORE HERE
   

• Gun company to pay Sandy Hook families | The families of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012 are set to receive over AU$100 million from gun company, Remington Arms in an insurance settlement. The settlement comes after nine families sued Remington Arms for its marketing campaign for the AR-15 weapon used in the massacre and saw the sales of the gun rise from 100,000 in 2005 to 2 million by 2012. READ MORE HERE

   

ANALYSIS

US Indo-Pacific power depends on restraint in Ukraine

Ashley Townshend
Director, Foreign Policy and Defence, United States Studies Centre

As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Australia this week for a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue foreign ministers’ meeting, his message will be that Washington can walk and chew gum at the same time. Amid escalating US-Russian tensions over the standoff in Ukraine, the Biden administration is eager to convince its Indo-Pacific allies and partners that it is still focused on their part of the world.

But Washington’s top diplomat may find himself stuck in a vice. In Canberra, New Delhi, Tokyo, and key Southeast Asian capitals, there are growing concerns that the crisis in Ukraine is distracting the Biden administration from Indo-Pacific challenges and could embroil the overstretched superpower in yet another long engagement. Back in the United States and parts of Europe, however, prominent voices are calling on the administration to show greater “strength” against Russia, both in support of Ukraine and as a signal of US resolve to the rest of the world. These dynamics pull in very different directions.

To safeguard the United States’ credibility and strategic position in the Indo-Pacific, the Biden team must continue to act with restraint over Ukraine. This doesn’t mean abandoning Kyiv, ignoring NATO’s security concerns, or looking the other way from the invasion of a sovereign country. But it does mean keeping the Ukraine crisis in a global strategic perspective—and addressing it in a disciplined way that preserves finite attention and resources for Washington’s “priority theater.”

This is an excerpt from an article published by Foreign Policy

BY THE NUMBERS

Ontario truckers halt US$2B goods

As the United States biggest trading partner in 2021, it is estimated that the seven-day blockade of the Ambassador Bridge between Ontario and Detroit halted over US$2 billion worth of goods crossing between the two countries.

An estimated 30 per cent of annual trade between Canada and the United States crosses the Ambassador Bridge with 10,000 trucks crossing daily carrying US$325 million in goods. 

Read more By the numbers analysis here

VIDEO

What can the Cold War teach us about strategic competition? A conversation with historian Hal Brands

Did you miss last weeks webinar? The USSC was joined by historian Hal Brands in conversation with USSC Senior Lecturer Dr Gorana Grgic to discuss his new book, The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us about Great Power Rivalry Today.

Catch more analysis on the United States on the USSC YouTube channel.

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

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