By Matthew Russell Lee, Scoop
UNITED NATIONS, November 8 – In Beijing, President Xi told his US counterpart Trump that "the Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate China and the US." Trump said Xi agreed to enforce all UN Security Council resolutions on North Korea. Meanwhile as to the UN, where China is for now without a Permanent Representative or Number One Ambassador, Inner City Press is exclusively informed that Liu Jieyi's successor will be China's current ambassador in Geneva, Ma Zhaoxu.
While formal Chinese diplomatic spokespeople say it is not yet decided, others closer in the loop exclusively tell Inner City Press it is. Ma Zhaoxu, on a topic dealt with by the Security Council on November 8, Yemen, met in September with Hadi's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Abdul Malik Al Mekhlafi. We'll have more on this. Trump in Seoul described starvation and rape, in lines not released in advance in the White House's summary. This comes as at the UN a draft resolution is pending in the Third (human rights) Committee in pending, referring obliquely to the case of American Otto Warmbier, here. Trump himself cited "fine American" Warmbier. In the run up to the UN Peacekeeping meeting in Canada in a week's time, Canada still hasn't made its long promised commitment to UN DPKO and other countries are trying to find or re-find their role, like Japan. Ending a deployment in South Sudan, duty logs went missing and a Defense Minister had to resign. Now those remaining are pitching Japan's continuing commitment, most recently to the Toronto Star. First, this set up on what the UN has said about the summit: on November 1, Inner City Press asked UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric, UN transcript here: Inner City Press: Canada had made a… had said that it would be making some pledge to UN peacekeeping. There's been a lot of back-and-forth about it. Now they have a conference coming up on 14 November in Vancouver. So, some people are saying that's kind of a deadline. I wanted to know if you have any response to… they're committing police to Colombia but not through… apparently through the UN Mission there. They seem to see that it's… they think it would be better to do so bilaterally. And can you give any up… do you have any… do you think that that's the right way for countries to go given that there's a UN Mission there? And do you have any update on… on discussions between the UN and Canada in terms of getting the… something real… Spokesman: The discussions are continuing. We will have the Head of our Peacekeeping Department and I believe the Head of the Field [support] Department, Mr. Lacroix and Mr. Khare will both be in Vancouver for this meeting." And so will Japan. In fact, as pitched to the Star, “Canada and Japan are very closely co-operating on this file,” said Kohei Nakamura, director of the international peace co-operation bureau in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But why are these two cooperating? How? Cynics might say that both want to be perceived as helping the UN - Japan still wants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, and Canada now wants an elected seat - but are reticent to put their troops in harm's way. If there are two more sizzle than steak commitments, it will be harder to critique either of them. A less cynical analysis holds open the possibility of an innovative new commitment from Japan. Masaki Noke, director general of the International Peace Co-operation Headquarters in the government cabinet office, may have telegraphed it, telling the Star that "capacity building is very pertinent area." But capacity building where? For whom? Watch this site.
