Daily Multilateralism
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
The United Nations Security Council received an update on the situation in Syria from the UN special envoy, Norwegian diplomat Geir Pedersen, who recently returned from a series of meetings in Damascus. After the closed session, U.S. officials warned against the Syrian regime’s plans to hold elections in early 2021:
We believe the regime’s hope is to invalidate the work of Special Envoy Pedersen and our calls, the Council’s calls, for a negotiated political transition. Syria is wholly unprepared to carry out elections in a free, fair, and transparent manner that would include the participation of the Syrian diaspora. This is why we need to the Constitutional Committee to work, and why we need the UN to accelerate its planning to ensure Syria’s upcoming elections are credible.
Meanwhile, a possible covid-19 outbreak among UN diplomats may lead to new restrictions on meetings at UN headquarters.
After internal debate, the European Union has decided to back Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for the top post at the World Trade Organization. The EU’s decision leaves the only remaining contender, Korean minister Yoo Myung-hee, with diminishing prospects of securing the job. The decision in Brussels comes on the heels of reports that Japan has also decided to back Okonjo-Iweala. The U.S. position on the leadership race remains unclear. Korea’s president reportedly sought Canadian support for Yoo in a recent phone call.
The World Bank’s loan negotiations with South Africa have reportedly hit a snag. Government debt levels in the country have been rising in recent years. As the Bloomberg story notes, South Africa has approached several multilateral lenders:
South Africa this year has turned to multilateral lenders for the first time since the end of apartheid, overcoming political opposition from within the ruling party, as it tries to kick-start an economy forecast to contract the most in nine decades. Finance Minister Tito Mboweni is expected to outline plans to fund a revival in output when he presents the medium-term budget on Wednesday and is under pressure to earmark more money to bail out state companies.
So far the country has borrowed $1 billion from the New Development Bank, the lending arm of the BRICS group of nations, $4.3 billion from the International Monetary Fund, 5 billion rand ($310 million) from the African Development Bank and $50 million from the World Bank.
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, called on Greece and Turkey to resolve their dispute over maritime rights in the eastern Mediterranean in accordance with the international law of the sea. Greece is a member of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but Turkey is not. For years, Turkey has insisted that Greece not claim the twelve-mile territorial sea that UNCLOS permits around its Aegean islands.
In the wake of inflammatory comments last week by President Trump, the African Union is making a new effort to resolve the dam dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia. The Trump administration had attempted to broker a deal, but it quickly foundered.
Briefly noted:
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe gave Ukraine’s elections a clean bill of health.
As “Quad” cooperation increases, the United States and India signed a new military cooperation agreement.
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is reportedly ready to help Russia’s ailing railways.
Germany may be phasing out its civilian nuclear program, but it remains an engaged member of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Estonia and Poland have put forward candidates to lead the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.