Foreign Policy Update – USA Gov Policy

CYPRUS

This week Clarke Cooper, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs, was in Greece conducting talks concerning the current security environment in the East Mediterranean region. He said the US needs to see further assurances from Cyprus on its “ability to deny port access to Russian naval vessels.” According to Cooper, as Cyprus takes a greater role in the Eastern Mediterranean and expanded responsibilities supportive of European Union as well as NATO requirements, “we do need to be more interoperable with them, and that does require addressing the portage issue.” In September Russia held two naval exercises in the energy-rich Eastern Mediterranean, with Russian warships conducting firing exercises. The head of the Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade in Moscow, Igor Korotchenko, said the exercises were designed as “a show of force by Russia against NATO.”

CHINA

“…the Chinese Communist Party is highly capable, ambitious, and hostile to our basic political principles: democracy, openness, and individual dignity,” according to David Stilwell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. At an address this week at the Hoover Institution Stillwell spoke about the Trump Administration’s 2017 National Security Strategy, which is centered on the observation that we are in “a geopolitical competition between free and repressive visions of world order.” Influence and interference operations are fundamental to how the Chinese Communist Party engages with the world. Stillwell said we can’t think of China as simply a trade partner or the home of a great civilization. The Chinese Communist Party’s strategy implicates private as well as governmental targets around the world, he added, and it why all institutions in American society need to “understand that strategy and adopt measures to manage risk, counter coercion, and protect free expression.”

HONG KONG

“The United States strongly condemns the arrest and detention of three student democracy activists and calls on Hong Kong authorities to release those that remain detained immediately,” according to Secretary of State Pompeo in a statement. The Beijing-controlled Hong Kong government continues to stifle dissent, repress public opinion, and use law enforcement for political purposes. There have been a number of arrests, detentions, and harassments of pro-democracy protesters.

Pompeo said the People’s Republic of China has “violated its international obligations under the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration,” while the Chinese Communist Party and its Hong Kong proxies crush the promised autonomy of Hong Kong, and “eviscerate Hong Kong’s respect for human rights,” including the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

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IRAN

“Instead of using its natural resource wealth to improve living conditions for the Iranian people, the Iranian regime prefers to pawn its oil to fund the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and support its terror proxies as they sow chaos and destruction around the Middle East. We will not let that happen,” according to Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in a statement release on October 31, 2020. The US also condemned attacks by the Iranian-backed Houthis against Saudi Arabia. The attacks were launched indiscriminately towards Riyadh, and risked the lives of innocent civilians, including Americans. Pompeo said: “These acts demonstrate that the Houthis are not serious about seeking a political solution in order to bring peace to Yemen. The United States calls on Iran to stop smuggling weapons to the Houthis in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and to stop enabling the Houthis’ aggressive acts against Yemen and towards its neighbors, including Saudi Arabia.”

MALDIVES

Secretary Pompeo announced that the United States is opening its first permanent embassy in the Maldives. He said the United States wants to continue to build out what has been a “really important” security and diplomatic relationship. The Maldives are located just southwest of India and are in a strategic area where China is increasing its naval activity and influence operations.

DARIA NOVAK served in the United States State Department during the Reagan Administration, and currently is on the Board of the American Analysis of News and Media Inc., which publishes usagovpolicy.com and the New York Analysis of Policy and Government. Each Saturday, she presents key updates on U.S. foreign policy from the State Department.

Illustration: Pixabay

Quick Analysis

Russia Expanding Aggression

President Putin is using more than one pathway to enter Europe and undermine the West. While most of the world watches the conflict he initiated in Ukraine, the Russian government is actively pursuing a second front in a little noticed campaign in Cyprus. Although the corrupt Cypriot government ended its issuance of “golden passports” in 2020, Russian intelligence is functioning quietly there to transform this EU country into a Russian beachhead of illicit economic activity aimed at penetrating the capitalist West, according to Paul Goble of the Jamestown Foundation. Cyprus is not a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nor does it receive as much attention as those countries who are member states. That adds to its allure as a prime location for Russia to attempt to gain a European foothold. Last week a NATO report, cited in the European Daily Monitor, noted that Russian intelligence agents have been plotting to destroy European infrastructure across the continent to disrupt states supporting Ukraine. It further suggests that Putin’s immediate goal is to lay the framework for a future move against the security organization’s members. Hungary, in particular, is another country garnering Moscow’s attention as it opposes the Western response to Russian aggression. Russia is focusing its intelligence efforts on other European, non-NATO member countries in addition to Cyprus, including Austria, Malta, and Ireland. The NATO report suggests that Moscow has had success in disseminating the Russian political narrative in these states to advance its campaign against the West. The island of Cyprus is proving to be a good target for Moscow as it is an ethnically divided island that is part of the EU since 2004. Northern Cyprus, officially called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a de facto state that is only recognized by Turkey. The division precludes it from joining NATO. As Goble suggests, “it offers Russia troubled waters in which to fish.” Over the last 20 years, he points out, Cyprus’ challenges have opened it to a massive influx of Russian citizens, who now comprise approximately 10 percent of the island state’s population. Over 2,900 residents are Russians who entered until the “golden passport” program that allowed wealthy or well-connected Russians to move to Cyprus. It also provided them with documentation to travel freely throughout Europe! Although less visible on the world’s radar than the war in Ukraine, Moscow is also being helped by Cyprus’ banks opposition to seizing Russian assets and its support in evading Western sanctions. Russia has placed tens of billions of US Dollars there for money laundering. It has been more than two years since a single Russian “diplomat” has been deported and, in fact, the Embassy has grown to over 300 staffers on this tiny island state of only 1.2 million people. The Russian embassy in Nicosia has advanced communications antennae on its roof and opened a consulate on the northern end of the island. Moscow’s Ambassador, Mura Zyazikov, is a lieutenant general in the FSB with no diplomatic experience. The FSB, SVR (Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service), and GRU are actively using the island as a base of operations against NATO Member states, Israel, and other Western allies. Moscow backs pro-Russian political parties who in turn influence Cypriot decisions on education, language, and other issues. “Dmitry Khmelnitsky of the Dossier Center says that its findings should be of concern not only to Cyprus but to the West as a whole. Those who ignore what Moscow is doing because Cyprus does not follow the EU sanctions regime are missing something critical,” says Goble. “Cyprus does not seek to get rid of Russian agents and does not interfere with their work,” Khmelnitsky concludes, “despite the fact that what the Kremlin is doing is so clearly visible.” This has an impact not only on the small island but on the EU, NATO, and the West in general. Earlier this year the Moscow Times reported that when the FBI became more interested in Russian business and oligarchs in Cyprus, at least 10 of the major Russian businesses operating there left. Despite the government of Cyprus’ vow to implement plans for new sanctions against Russia, it continues to ignore Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine and to shield the wealth of the 50,000 wealthy Russian citizens and oligarchs residing there. Daria Novak served in the U.S. State Dept. Illustration: Pixabay