Good morning. Here’s your Daily Situational Awareness for Tuesday, 21 June 2022.
TODAY’S BRIEFING:
- READ TIME: 2 min 48 seconds
- Russia-NATO INTSUM
- Indo-Pacific INTSUM
- Geopolitical INSTUM
NATO-RUSSIA INTSUM
RUSSIA: NEVER TRUST WEST AGAIN: Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said relations with the West are at an all time low, unlikely to improve quickly, and a direct result of the ‘special operation’ in Ukraine. “Yes, it will be a long crisis. We will never trust the West again,” he said.
GERMANY TO REOPEN COAL POWER PLANTS: Germany’s government is passing emergency legislation to reopen 10 gigawatts of coal-powered electricity. The move comes as Russia slashed gas supplies to Germany by 60 percent. Russia continues to manipulate gas flows for geopolitical leverage, hoping to reduce Western support for Ukraine.
LITHUANIA BLOCKS RUSSIAN SUPPLY TRAINS: Lithuania is blocking Russian trains from passing through Lithuanian territory, preventing supplies from reaching Russia’s Kaliningrad Oblast. Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said, “Their consequences will have a serious negative impact on the population of Lithuania.” Russia believes Lithuania’s rail blockade is at the behest of NATO. Lithuanian rail operators deny they are preventing cargo from reaching Russian territory.
US-CHINA/INDO-PACIFIC INTSUM
SOUTH KOREA LAUNCHES DOMESTIC PRODUCED NURI ROCKET: Earlier today, South Korea launched its domestically developed and produced Nuri rocket to deliver a specialized surveillance satellite into orbit. South Korea’s newly demonstrated space capability puts it in the new global market for satellite delivery systems and provides its military with an intermediate-range ballistic missile platform.
CHINA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS NEW MISSILE DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY: Over the weekend, China’s defense ministry claimed it had carried out a successful test of a new “ground-based midcourse anti-missile intercept technology.” No further details of the test were provided, but China has been ramping up research on its future missile defense systems as part of its military modernization plans. China’s last test of its midcourse intercept capability was in February 2021.
CHINA-QATAR IN TALKS ON MAJOR LNG CONTRACTS: According to a report from Reuters, China’s national oil majors are in advanced talks with Qatar to invest in the North Field East expansion of the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) project and buy the fuel under long-term contracts. The deal, if approved, would be the first major energy deal between the two nations. Qatar, a major LNG exporter, is seeking to expand its market share into Asia while China is attempting to find alternate energy sources to tame price volatility brought about by COVID restrictions and the conflict in Ukraine.
GEOPOLITICAL INTSUM
NICARAGUA APPROVES RUSSIAN MILITARY DEPLOYMENT: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega approved the deployment of Russian military forces to Nicaragua last week. The deployment would mean a continuing deployment of 230 Russian troops who will conduct a “train-advise-equip” with the Nicaraguan military. The U.S State Department labeled the Russian deployment a provocation by the Nicaraguan regime, which was sanctioned last week by The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control over corruption and election irregularities.
CHINA BLOCKS U.S. EFFORT TO LABEL PAKISTANI TERRORIST LEADER A “GLOBAL TERRORIST.”: China put a last-minute block on a joint proposal by the U.S. and India in the United Nations Security Council to label Pakistan-based terrorist Abdul Rehman Makki as a “Global Terrorist” under the ISIS and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee. Makki had already been designated a terrorist leader by the U.S. State Department. Makki is the brother-in-law of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) Chief and was the mastermind behind the 2011 terrorist assault on Mumbai that killed 175 and wounded 300.
IN TODAY’S EARLY WARNING: Mike notes the latest major financial firm predicting a recession, and looks at deteriorating U.S. food security. You can get access to his daily report here: https://forwardobserver.com/subscribe
— END REPORT