In Geopolitics Today: Tuesday, November 1st
Pakistan to Import 300,000 Tonnes of Russian Wheat, The US Pushes its Allies to Join Chip Restrictions Against China, and other stories.
Pakistan to Import 300,000 Tonnes of Russian Wheat
The government of Pakistan has approved a deal worth an estimated $112m to import 300,000 tonnes of wheat from Russia in order to meet its domestic shortfall.
Under the deal endorsed by the Economic Cooperation Committee of Pakistan, the wheat will be supplied by Prodintorg, a Russian state corporation. The deal comes as Pakistan struggles to balance its economy and manage the aftermath of devastating floods that have affected some 33 million of its people.
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Russia Withdraws from Grain Export Deal with Ukraine
Russia has halted its backing of the UN and Turkish mediated grain deal between Kiev and Moscow. Russia has accused Ukraine of using the safety corridor outlined in the terms of the grain export deal to launch attacks on the Russian naval base in Sevastopol, Crimea.
Ukrainian, Turkish and UN authorities agreed to continue grain shipments to and from Ukraine despite the Russian decision. Turkey has gone further by calling on Russia to reconsider the decision during a recent phone call between the two countries' defence ministers. The UN maintains that there were no ships inside the corridor that night and Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack on Sevastopol last weekend.
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The US Military Oversees Arms Transfers to Ukraine
US military forces are now present in Ukraine to conduct onsite inspections that seek to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the military aid their receive.
The effort is part of a broader campaign announced by the US State Department that is meant to make sure that weapons transfers to Ukraine don’t end up in the hands of Russian troops or other enemy combatants. So far there are said to have already been several inspections, and they are being done by the US defence attaché to Ukraine and the US Office of Defense Cooperation in Kiev.
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Kazakhstan Invests in Green Hydrogen
Kazakhstan plans to start producing green hydrogen after concluding a $50 billion project with Svevind Energy Group. Electricity will be generated by solar panels and wind turbines to separate hydrogen gas from water, with production expected to start by 2030.
Svevind Energy Group — the company behind Europe’s largest wind farm in Sweden — has now committed to build a 20 gigawatt green hydrogen plant that is expected to be one of the world’s largest. The deal between Svevind and the Kazakh government is aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on fossil fuels, building energy ties between Kazakhstan and the European Union, and cultivating political cooperation between Brussels and Astana.
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The US Pushes its Allies to Join Chip Restrictions Against China
The United States is urging its closest allies to follow its lead on restricting the export of advanced semiconductors and related technologies to China, intensifying the pressure on chipmakers worldwide.
Tokyo has already begun internal discussions on the issue at Washington's request, with officials reportedly weighing which restrictions can be adopted by Japan at a limited cost. Elsewhere, the European Union and South Korea are facing similar pressure from Washington, which anticipates that bringing allies on board with the restrictions will make it that much more challenging for China to acquire advanced semiconductors.