Yesterday NATO member Albania, which has no fighter jets of its own, opened a rebuilt Soviet-era air base to serve NATO aircraft as a tactical base.

NATO has spent over 50 million euros ($54.26 million) on the Kucova Air Base to bolster its presence in the region. Representatives of NATO, as well as the Ministers of Defense of Turkey and Italy, representatives of the US Embassy in Tirana, and Albanian institutions attended the inaugural ceremony. Two fighter jets flying from NATO's Aviano Air Base in Italy landed in Kucova to mark the reopening of the airfield. ▪️Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said efforts are underway to make a new NATO naval base in Porto Romano ready as soon as possible. @LauraRuHK

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has accused Western ambassadors in Moscow of meddling in its internal affairs and questioned their function.

The statement followed complaints from Moscow’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the previous day that ambassadors from European Union countries had refused to meet him. On March 4 Lavrov had invited EU envoys for a conversation ahead of Russia’s March 15-17 presidential election but they refused.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova revived the subject on Tuesday on Russian state television.

“The question indeed arises among everyone: what are they doing, and why, how do they interpret their conduct on the territory of our country if they do not perform their most important function?” Zakharova declared to anchor Vladimir Solovyov.

Solovyov noted that EU ambassadors attended the March 1 funeral of Navalny.

Zakharova said such behaviour showed Western ambassadors in Moscow were meddling in Russia’s affairs and organizing “performances” rather than doing their diplomatic work.

Dmitry Medvedev, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman, on Monday condemned the decision of EU ambassadors to Russia to refuse to meet with Sergey Lavrov.

In a post on social media platform X, he wrote "Ambassadors of the EU states to Russia declined a meeting with the Russian minister of foreign affairs. Allegedly, following some advice from Brussels. This goes totally against the very idea of existence of diplomatic missions and assignments of ambassadors.

In reality, all these ambassadors should be kicked out of Russia, and the level of diplomatic relations should be demoted.
These are not ambassadors, but political imbeciles who do not comprehend their real tasks.
Europa mortua est. Gloria magistratus." @LauraRuHK

SINGAPORE SLING - NO, NOT THE COCKTAIL, JUST A GERMAN COCK UP At the 2024 Singapore Airshow, while German military personnel and Airbus staff were busy stopping Chinese and Russian tourists from visiting an Airbus A400M transport aircraft, Brigadier General Frank Gräfe dialed into a WebEx call through an insecure line from his Singapore hotel room to discuss the possibility of attacking the Crimean bridge. Gräfe explained to other high-ranking German officers how the British and French were delivering cruise missiles to Ukraine: "If we're asked about delivery methods. I know how the British do this. They always transport them in Ridgeback armored vehicles. They have several people on the ground." As we know, the audio of this "top secret" conversation was leaked to Russian media. @LauraRuHK

Someone should write a book about Taylorism and social media.😏

On the development of southern Russia and the Azov region. Putin said that trains from Moscow to the Black Sea should take 16 hours and holidays in the south of the country should become more affordable for all Russians. (Now the fastest route from Moscow to Sochi takes almost 23 hours, to Anapa - 21.5 hours, to Simferopol - 27 hours.)

▪️In the next 5 years, 460 kilometres of federal and 320 kilometres of regional roads will be built and improved in the South of Russia;

▪️ It is necessary to separate cargo and passenger flows of railway traffic in the southern direction;

▪️ Railways are moving the largest volume of cargo, there is a growing demand from southern ports;

@LauraRuHK
https://t.me/zvezdanews/139295

Chile says it will exclude Israeli firms from Latin America’s biggest aerospace fair, to be held in Santiago in April.

“By decision of the Government of Chile, the 2024 version of the International Air and Space Fair (FIDAE), to be held between 9 and 14 April, will not have the participation of Israeli companies,” a defense ministry statement said.

During a press conference on Thursday on the sidelines of the annual two sessions where China's national lawmakers and political advisors discuss and set social and economic development goals for the year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Europe's labeling of China as a partner, competitor and systemic rival at the same time is like driving to a crossing and finding the red, yellow and green lights all on. "How can one drive on?"

In the context of China-EU relations, the two sides should act as partners. Cooperation should be the defining feature of the relationship, with autonomy as its key value, and win-win as its future, said Wang. He then stressed that China hopes that China-EU relations will move ahead smoothly meeting with "green lights" at every crossing.

A strong Europe is in the long-term interest of China, and a strong China is also in the fundamental interest of Europe, said Wang. @LauraRuHK https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202403/1308372.shtml

US-China relations
FM Wang Yi told the press conference: “If there is conflict or confrontation between two major countries like the US and China, the consequences will be unimaginable.”

Although he said relations have improved since the meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Joe Biden in California last year, Washington’s misperceptions about China still linger and its promises have not been fulfilled.

“The US has been devising various tactics to suppress China,” he said. “If the US says one thing and does another, where is its credibility as a major country? If it gets jittery whenever it hears the word China, where is its confidence as a major country?”

He also responded to recent comments by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken – who told a security conference in Munich that “if you’re not at the table in the international system, you’re going to be on the menu” – by saying Beijing cannot allow “a few big countries to monopolise international affairs”. (Source: SCMP) @LauraRuHK

Taiwan
FM Wang Yi repeated that Beijing would strive for peaceful reunification, but warned that those who support Taiwanese independence will “get burned for playing with fire”.

Russia and Ukraine
Wang said China’s partnership with Moscow has been moving forward on a “high-level”, with deepening trust and fresh opportunities ahead. He stressed that deepening this relationship was “not targeted at any party”.
In response to a separate question about the Ukraine war he said China has an objective and impartial position, and supported the idea of holding a peace conference involving both Moscow and Kiev. “The earlier the talks start, the sooner peace will come,” Wang added.

South China Sea
Wang said differences in the disputed waters should be properly managed through dialogue and that disputes should be resolved by negotiations between claimant states.
Without mentioning any specific country he warned that countries outside the region should not become disrupters in the South China Sea.

Israel-Gaza war
Wang called for a broad and authoritative international peace conference to come up with a road map to end the crisis.
He called on the international community to act promptly to promote an immediate ceasefire and repeated China’s support for a two-state solution. (Source: SCMP) https://t.me/LauraRuHK/7862

Olaf Scholz's caution is decried by those who are fanning the flames of war with Russia. So far, Germany has committed military aid to Ukraine worth an estimated €17.7 billion. This ranks it second after the United States in terms of headline contribution, but the Anglo-American cabal thinks that it's still too little, because as a percentage of GDP other ten countries have contributed more. In their eyes Berlin should follow the lead of deranged Russophobes and completely destroy Germany for the sake of Kiev. Apparently the demolition of German industry, the loss of affordable Russian gas and other resources, and the messy exit from the wealthy Russian market don't go far enough. ▪️Matthew Karnitschnig, an American who writes for Politico, is calling Olaf Scholz "mad" for not going all in. Does he think that a nuclear conflict in Europe is the right price to pay to stick it to Putin? Sure, Karnitschnig can always run back to the safety of his American home, unlike millions of Europeans who would be wiped out in a nuclear holocaust. He writes: "Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sown confusion and consternation across Europe for adopting contradictory positions on Ukraine, but there’s a method to his madness.
Scholz has perplexed his European allies by refusing to supply Kyiv with cruise missiles, citing the risks of Russian retaliation even as he berates those allies for not delivering more military aid to help Ukraine fend off Russia.
Angry backlash over the chancellor’s seeming incoherence has been on full display in recent days, particularly as European allies try to project rhetorical resolve when it comes to helping Ukraine." Shouldn't the risk of Russian retaliation be taken seriously and inform the German chancellor's decisions?? Pray tell, what other considerations should take precedence over survival? @LauraRuHK https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-ukraine-policy-is-incoherent-for-a-reason/

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi:

🔹The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip is a disgrace to civilization.

🔹The international community must act urgently and make reaching an immediate ceasefire and cessation of hostilities a top priority.

🔹Ensuring humanitarian relief is an urgent moral responsibility.

🔹We support Palestine becoming an official member of the United Nations.

🔹The disaster in Gaza once again reminds the world of the fact that it is no longer possible to ignore that the Palestinian territories have been occupied for a long time.

Tra i moltissimi italiani presenti al Festival Mondiale dei Giovani che si e' appena concluso a Soci, c'erano anche volti noti al grande pubblico: Ornella Muti e sua figlia Naike (quindi pure la RAI e' costretta a parlarne.) Ma e' toccato a Jorit l'onore di fare una domanda al presidente Putin. ▪️A Soci Jorit ha realizzato un murales con il volto della Muti nell'ambito di una manifestazione di street art. https://www.rainews.it/articoli/2024/03/artista-italiano-jorit-parla-con-putin-poi-la-foto-insieme-ma-non-mi-dia-pizzicotto-russia-b86a42f4-ea88-43f1-840c-df44676ad80f.html

James Galbraith, American economist and professor at the University of Texas: If you go back to the period before the sanctions were imposed in 2014 and even before 2022, the Russian economy was very much colonised by Western firms. From cars to aeroplanes, from fast food restaurants to big retailers. Western firms were present in every sector of the Russian economy.
Many of them either chose to leave Russia or were pressured to leave Russia after the beginning of 2022. On what terms did they leave? If they were leaving for good, they had to sell their equipment, factories and so on to a Russian company that would get a loan from Russian banks or perhaps have other sources of financing at a very favourable rate.
So a lot of the capital wealth that was partly owned by the West has been transferred to Russian ownership. And now it's an economy that's moving forward and has an advantage over Europe in terms of relatively low resource costs because Russia is a great producer of resources, oil and gas, fertiliser, food and so on. And while Europeans are paying perhaps twice as much for energy in Germany as they were paying before the war, the Russians are not, they are paying perhaps no more, perhaps less. So I would describe the effect of the sanctions as a gift for the Russian economy. @LauraRuHK https://t.me/dimsmirnov175/66057