In Geopolitics Today: Friday, September 2nd
G7 Agrees to Impose a Price Cap on Russian Oil, India Launches First Domestically-Built Aircraft Carrier, and other stories.
G7 Agrees to Impose a Price Cap on Russian Oil
The G7 group of the most industrialized nations have agreed to finalize and implement a price cap on Russian oil. The move marks a critical step toward putting downward pressure on global energy prices and denying Russia revenues. The G7 invited countries to provide input on the design of the price cap, seeking a broad coalition to maximise effectiveness.
The G7 finance ministers confirmed they will seek to facilitate maritime transportation of Russian crude oil and petroleum products globally on the provision that such services would only be allowed if the oil and petroleum products are purchased at or below the the price cap. This cap is set to be determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap. Russia has already said it would not be selling its oil to any country that chooses to adhere to a price cap.
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Eritrea Re-joins Ethiopian Forces in Tigray Offensive
Ethiopian and Eritrean forces began a new offensive across four areas of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region. Reports of fighting mean that a truce in the country’s civil war is unravelling as the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) accused the Ethiopian and Eritrean militaries of opening a new offensive.
Eritrea joining the conflict would signal an escalation in hostilities in Tigray. The Eritrean military was heavily involved in the initial months of the conflict, but the country’s participation seemed to draw down after the TPLF launched a major counteroffensive in June last year. Last week, Ethiopia’s air force announced that it had shot down a plane ferrying weapons that crossed the border from Sudan, whose government is at odds with the government in Addis Ababa over Ethiopia’s construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.
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India Launches First Domestically-Built Aircraft Carrier
India’s Prime minister Narendra Modi has commissioned the country’s first domestically designed and built aircraft carrier — the INS Vikrant. INS Vikrant represents a significant step forward in India’s ambitions to build a robust and self-reliant defence sector. The warship has been built using equipment and machinery supplied by India’s own defence companies, as well more than 100 small and medium enterprises.
Commissioning the carrier, built at a cost of roughly $3 billion, Modi said the ship represented the process of India shedding its colonial past. The 47,400-ton warship will undertake landing trials with India’s fleet of Russian-made MiG-29K fighter aircraft and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2023. India plans to eventually equip the carrier with more than two dozen new fighters, with France’s Rafale-M and the US’ F/A-18 Block III Super Hornet currently being considered.
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Risks in Isolating a Popular China
At a time of rising Sinophobia, the Berlin-based think tank Mercator Institute for China Studies has published a study on perspectives of China in Germany and elsewhere in the world. The paper surveyed experts from Bangladesh, Chile, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey to describe their respective countries’ perspectives on China.
Their findings demonstrate that actors outside the usual grouping of rich, liberal market economies view the shifting global dynamics differently. In fact, while publics in G7 countries have an increasingly negative perception of China, this view is generally not shared by other countries. On the contrary, in some places China enjoys even greater popularity than the United States as non-western elites appreciate Beijing’s reluctance to lecture governments in Africa, Asia and Latin America.