This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- China’s Xi Jinping and Obama endorse ‘new model’ of relationship
- Churchill and FDR never met Hitler
- Pakistan strongly protests Friday’s drone strike
China’s Xi Jinping and Obama endorse ‘new model’ of relationship
Xi and Obama having informal shirtsleeve discussions (Reuters)
Saying that his meeting with China’s president Xi Jinpingwas “terrific,” President Barack Obama met with the Chineseleader for several hours on Friday and Saturday. Priorto the meeting, both leaders endorsed a “new model” ofU.S.-China cooperation. Prior to the meeting,Obama said:
“This will give me an opportunity to reiterate how theUnited States welcomes the continuing peaceful rise of China asworld power and that in fact it is in the United States’ interestthat China continues on the path of success.
The United States seeks an international economy and seeks aninternational economic order where nations are playing by the samerules, where trade is free and fair and where the United Statesand China work together to address issues like cybersecurity andprotection of intellectual property.”
Xi also called for “a new model of major country relations,” and said,
“I’m confident that our meeting will achieve positiveoutcomes and inject fresh momentum into the China-U.S.relationship.”
Churchill and FDR never met Hitler
Neither American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt nor British primeminister Winston Churchill ever met Germany’s Fuhrer Adolf Hitler faceto face. However, Churchill’s predecessor, Neville Chamberlain didmeet Hitler face to face in Berlin, and came back to Britain promisingpromised a new model of British-German cooperation. The agreementsaid:
“We, the German Führer and Chancellor, and the BritishPrime Minister, have had a further meeting today and are agreed inrecognizing that the question of Anglo-German relations is of thefirst importance for our two countries and for Europe.
We regard the agreement signed last night and the Anglo-GermanNaval Agreement as symbolic of the desire of our two peoples neverto go to war with one another again. We are resolved that themethod of consultation shall be the method adopted to deal withany other questions that may concern our two countries, and we aredetermined to continue our efforts to remove possible sources ofdifference, and thus to contribute to assure the peace ofEurope.”
The agreement met with worldwide praise, and was considered to be ahistoric turning point in German-British relations, in thatdisagreements would be solved by diplomacy and negotiation.
After the war, Hitler’s comments on the meeting were revealed:
“Well, he seemed such a nice old gentleman, I thoughtI would give him my autograph as a souvenir.”
Pakistan strongly protests Friday’s drone strike
Pakistan summoned the U.S. Charge d’Affaires on Saturday to protestFriday’s drone strike (see “8-Jun-13 World View — U.S. snubs Pakistan with new drone strikes in Waziristan”). Pakistan’s Ministry ofForeign Affairs issued the following statement:
“On the Prime Minister’s [Nawaz Sharif] instructions,the US Charge d’ Affaires, Ambassador Richard Hoagland wassummoned this afternoon to the Foreign Office by Special Assistantto the Prime Minister and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,Mr. Tariq Fatemi to lodge a strong protest on the US drone strikecarried out in North Waziristan on 07 June 2013. The US officialwas handed a demarche in this regard.
It was conveyed to the US CdA that the Government of Pakistanstrongly condemns the drone strikes which are a violation ofPakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The importanceof bringing an immediate end to drone strikes was emphasized.
It was also pointed out that the Government of Pakistan hasconsistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive,entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights andhumanitarian implications.
It was also stressed that these drone strikes have a negativeimpact on the mutual desire of both countries to forge a cordialand cooperative relationship and to ensure peace and stability inthe region.”
Friday’s drone strike killed a key Pakistani Taliban commander, Mutaqialias Bahadar Khan, along with six suspected militants. The dronestrikes are extremely unpopular with the Pakistani people, many ofwhom blame the frequent terrorist violence on the drone strikes. Thedrone strikes were a major issue in the recent elections that broughtNawaz Sharif to power, and he has demanded several times that theyend. However, this puts him in apparent conflict with Pakistan’s armyand intelligence services, who are thought to favor the drone strikesas an important tool in the fight against the Taliban. Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dawn (Pakistan)
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