RT News - November 13th 2022 LATE

Six people have been killed, at least 53 others wounded as an explosion rocked a busy pedestrian street in central Istanbul, in an incident that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called a bomb attack that “smells like terrorism”. Ambulances were fast to the scene on the crowded Istiklal avenue. Police have cordoned the street off. The blast happened in the Beyoglu district of Turkey’s largest city, had been crowded as usual at the weekend with shoppers, tourists and families. Pres. Erdogan said the explosion appeared to be a “heinous attack” and pledged that its perpetrators would be punished.

Western policies are trying to weaponize the region. That's the warning to Asian and Pacific countries from Russia's foreign minister, as the ASEAN summit wraps up. *

A peace deal after two years of violence achieved through dialogue. Officials from Ethiopia and the Tigray region agree on a ceasefire and open the door to humanitarian aid.
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* Via RT website 13 Nov, 2022 11:18

---- NATO seeks militarization of Asia-Pacific – Moscow ----

The US-led bloc and others have already managed to sow doubt among nations in the region, the Russian Foreign Minister warns

While Asia-Pacific nations remain divided on security, NATO is actively working to cement its position in the region, Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

“NATO no longer says that it’s a purely defensive alliance,” the diplomat pointed out, speaking on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh on Sunday.

Since the end of the Cold War, the US-led military bloc has moved its “defensive line” closer to Russia’s borders on several occasions, Lavrov said. At the Madrid summit this summer, the alliance announced “that they have global responsibility and that the security of the Euro-Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific is indivisible,” he added.

“In fact, they are now claiming that they’ll play a leading role [in the Asia-Pacific region] and are already shifting the so-called defensive line to the South China Sea,” the minister pointed out.

Washington and its allies have been trying to militarize the region, Lavrov said, offering a reminder of the AUKUS defense pact, which was signed between the US, UK and Australia last year. Attempts are currently being made to incorporate New Zealand, Japan and Canada into this bloc, he added.

Those actions are “obviously aimed at containing China and resisting Russia’s interests in the Asia-Pacific,” the minister said.

“There is no consensus in ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) on how to proceed in the security sphere in this region. So, if the goal of the Americans was to sow doubt among ASEAN members and try to undermine their unified position, then they’ve achieved it,” Lavrov concluded.

According to the foreign minister, he has “frankly” outlined those concerns, which are also shared by China, to the participants in the East Asia Summit.
https://www.rt.com/news/566442-nato-asia-pacific-lavrov/
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Via RT website 13 Nov, 2022 13:36

--- IMF boss warns US against building economic barriers --

The division of the world economy into rival blocs will hurt all parties involved, Kristalina Georgieva says

Attempts by the US to build economic barriers to achieve their geopolitical goals will end up hurting them and the rest of the world, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva has said.

“My concern is a deepening fragmentation in the world economy,” Georgieva said in an interview with the Washington Post on Saturday. “We may be sleepwalking into a world that is poorer and less secure as a result.”

If the rivalry between the US and China splits the global economy into opposing camps, it’ll shrink by 1.5%, or more than $1.4 trillion annually, she said, adding that the losses in percentage terms for the Asian region will be twice as large.

Bulgarian-born Georgieva recalled that she had “lived through the first Cold War on the other side of the Iron Curtain. And, yeah, it is quite cold out there. And to go in a second cold war for another generation is… very irresponsible.”

The IMF chief said the tariffs on Chinese goods that had been imposed under former US President Donald Trump and kept in force under Joe Biden were one of such counter-productive measures. She didn’t mention the sanctions imposed on Moscow over the conflict in Ukraine or the attempts by Washington and its allies to put price caps on Russian energy.

Some diversification of supply chains might be necessary, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, but when it goes “beyond economic logic, it would be harmful for the US and the rest of the world,” Georgieva pointed out.

“It is important to think through actions and what they may generate as counter actions carefully, because once you let the genie out of the bottle, it’s hard to put it back in,” she warned.

However, the IMF chief suggested that a complete split between the US and China would likely be impossible. The annual trade between the world’s two top economies currently stands at $600 billion, and they’re deeply interconnected, she explained.
https://www.rt.com/news/566448-imf-georgieva-us-china/
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Via RT website 13 Nov, 2022 13:35

India to double trade with Russia – media

The use of the Indian rupee for trade settlements is expected to speed up the process, the Indian Express reports

India is eager to double its trade with Russia despite calls from Western states to join their anti-Russia sanctions regime, the Indian Express reported on Sunday, citing minutes from a recent high-level meeting between Russian and Indian officials.

“The department of commerce mentioned that it was ready to support the initiative, and on the basis of feedback from various exporters and business entities, it was confident of doubling India-Russia trade within the near foreseeable future,” the document stated, as quoted by the news outlet.

According to the report, Indian authorities believe the use of the Indian rupee for trade settlements will help boost mutual trade. The country is expected to start trading with Russia in rupees in the near future, as top lender State Bank of India agreed to facilitate the new mechanism back in September. Also, earlier this week the Indian government officially allowed international trade settlements in Indian rupees, according to the country’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The volume of trade between the two countries has increased substantially this year, mainly due to a sharp rise in India’s imports of Russian oil. India used to import less than 1% of its total crude oil from Russia, but since the start of the year, it has come to cover about 22% of its oil needs with Russian fuel. Last month, Russia became India’s largest supplier of oil, overtaking Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Earlier, Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said India and Russia are moving towards an annual trade turnover of $30 billion. In 2021, the trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $12 billion, a historic high at the time, according to Russian trade representative in India, Alexander Rybas.
https://www.rt.com/business/566443-india-russia-trade-double/
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Via RT website 13 Nov, 2022 13:13

---- Yellen outlines US plan to trap Russia on oil ---

Moscow may face a shut-in of oil supplies if it does not agree to the price ceiling, US Treasury Secretary says

Russia may have no choice but to sell its crude at a price set by the US and its allies if it wants to avoid a shut-in of supplies, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Bloomberg News on Saturday.

“They’re going to be looking for buyers, and we think they’re going to have a hard time selling all of it… Our estimation is there would be some shut-in on December 5 unless they’re willing to accept a price at or below the cap for buyers around the world,” Yellen explained in the interview.

December 5 is the date when the EU ban on seaborne Russian oil is scheduled to come into force. On the same day, the Group of Seven leading economies – the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and Japan – are expected to ban their companies from insuring, financing and providing vessels for transportation of Russian oil, unless the cost of shipments is lower than the established price cap. The actual cap level has not yet been agreed-on, but earlier reports suggested it could be set at $60 per barrel, as opposed to the current market price of around $95.

Moscow repeatedly said that it will not supply oil to countries that approve a price cap.

“The price should be formed by the market based on the balance of supply and demand… We will not supply oil to countries that will use the price ceiling. This is a bad precedent that could at any moment be extended to other suppliers, to all global trade,” Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak warned last month.

The country has a number of buyers for its oil, including China and India, which have been boosting purchases of the Russian fuel ever since statements of banning it or capping its price have started to come from the West.

While Yellen believes that the price cap may trap Russian oil into agreeing to the mechanism, some industry experts say up to 90% of the fuel could continue to flow outside the cap mechanism, as Russia uses options to sidestep sanctions. For instance, it has an entire fleet of its own oil tankers and could expand it further with Chinese and Indian ships, while it could also apply for insurance to companies in the Middle East and Asia, which would eliminate a need for cooperation with the cap-minded Western states.
https://www.rt.com/business/566438-us-oil-cap-trap-russia/
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