Morning Multilateralism

Thursday, July 16 2020

• A senior United Nations official warned the Security Council about the dangers posed by an oil tanker, the FSO Safer, which has been stranded off the coast of Yemen. The vessel is under the control of Houthi rebels, who have resisted international efforts to visit the ship. UN official Mark Lowcock offered some context:

  The Safer is carrying 1.1 million barrels of oil. That’s about four times as much oil as was discharged in the Exxon Valdez disaster – a spill the world still talks about thirty years later.

• UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres wants a tougher, more connected version of multilateralism:

  Today’s multilateralism lacks scale, ambition and teeth--and some of the instruments that do have teeth show little or no appetite to bite, as we have seen in the difficulties faced by the Security Council….We need a networked multilateralism, in which the United Nations and its agencies, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, regional organizations such as the African Union and European Union, trade organizations and others work together more closely and effectively.

• The European Union’s top court invalidates an agreement on the transfer of electronic data between EU countries and the United States. The New York Times offers context:

  The decision is the latest twist in a long-running campaign by privacy-rights activists in Europe who want to prevent companies from moving their personal information to countries with looser data protection rules. The efforts stem from revelations in 2013 by the American former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden about how U.S. government surveillance programs collected electronic communications from private businesses.

  See here for a summary of the court’s decision.

• A former Spanish foreign minister, Ana Palacio, is alarmed about the state of the NATO alliance. She sees evidence of unraveling in recent France-Turkey tension and inconstant U.S. leadership.

• “Let my inspectors go”: The director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, warns of consequences if the agency is not given access to several Iranian sites. Grossi, a long-time Argentine diplomat, took the helm in December 2019. At that time, he pledged a higher public profile for the agency. “On some issues of global significance, the voice of the agency is rarely heard,” he lamented.

• Several candidates to be the next director general of the World Trade Organization met with WTO members and with the press. Citing the multiple crises facing the organization, the candidates urged speed in member-state deliberations. The remaining candidates are holding press conferences today. For streaming access to these sessions, see here.

• Very briefly noted:

  • According to the Russian news agency TASS, Syria has applied to become an observer state at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

  • The IMF appoints a new secretary and a new head of its European department.

  • The World Bank is skeptical of some of Indonesia’s planned regulatory reforms.