Latest news with #UrsulaVonDerLeyen
South China Morning Post
2 hours ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
‘We're not billiard balls': how China's EU charm offensive fell flat
For half a year, a heated debate has raged over whether US President Donald Trump 's return to office would push Europe and China closer together. Pragmatists, realpolitikers and Beijing's allies argued that the EU could not afford a trade war with both of the world's largest economies while footing the bill for a hot war in Ukraine For months, EU leaders fuelled the speculation by voicing openness to deeper trade ties with Beijing, in a dramatic rhetorical shift from the previous three years of hostilities. But the debate appears to have been settled this week with a resounding 'no'. Behind-the-scenes impatience with China's failure to put any meat on the bones of a much-vaunted charm offensive has spilled into the public realm. Brussels, staggered by Beijing's failure to move even an inch on its trade gripes, has had enough. 'The current global trading system is not working as it should. Guard rails are clearly missing. On this point, Donald is right,' said Ursula von der Leyen at this week's G7 summit in Canada , referring to China's accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 as 'the biggest challenge' facing the global order.
South China Morning Post
4 hours ago
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Chinese and EU trade officials hold talks after von der Leyen outburst
Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao and European trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic held a video call on Thursday, as the two sides strive to keep a lid on simmering economic tensions and pave the way for a leaders' summit in Beijing. Advertisement 'Both sides agreed to work together to lay the groundwork for key economic and trade items on the China-EU agenda this year,' the Ministry of Commerce said in an online statement released on Friday. The two officials discussed a series of topics during the call, including export controls, market access, and the European Union's tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles , it added. The call came just days after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered a hawkish critique of China during the Group of Seven (G7) summit in Canada on Monday. During a session on the global economy at the G7 summit, which was also attended by US President Donald Trump, von der Leyen accused Beijing of offering 'massive subsidies with the aim to dominate manufacturing and supply chains', calling it a 'distortion with intent'. Advertisement She also raised concerns over China's industrial overcapacity and accused Beijing of 'weaponising' its dominant position in the rare earth supply chain to 'undermine competitors in key industries'.
Al Jazeera
4 hours ago
- Business
- Al Jazeera
EU squeezes Russia financially to reach ‘peace through strength' in Ukraine
The European Commission floated a plan last week to phase out all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027. The plan, unveiled on Tuesday at the end of the Group of Seven summit in Canada's Kananaskis resort, would immediately ban new contracts to buy Russian gas. It would allow existing short-term contracts to run their course by next June, and cut short any long-term contracts at the end of 2027. 'To achieve peace through strength, we must put more pressure on Russia to secure a real ceasefire, to bring Russia to the negotiating table, and to end this war,' said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. 'Sanctions are critical to that end.' Russia unleashed 32 missiles and 440 drones on Kyiv as the plan was unveiled, killing 26 people and injuring 134. The attack damaged railway infrastructure and lit fires. Odesa was also hard hit. '[Russian president Vladimir] Putin is doing this deliberately – right during the G7 summit. It's a clear signal of total disrespect toward the United States and other partners calling for an end to the violence,' said Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha. Putin had done the same right after a phone call with Trump on Sunday, sending 183 strike drones and 11 missiles of different types into Ukraine. The European Union has dramatically reduced its imports of Russian energy during the war – by almost 80 percent, according to the commission. But it still spent about 22 billion euros ($25bn) buying 19 percent of its gas and about 3 percent of its oil from Russia last year. The Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air recently estimated that eliminating that revenue would deprive the Kremlin of 22 percent of its gross revenues. Hungary and Slovakia have been the main holdouts, arguing against an outright import ban. They argue that being landlocked, they have few alternatives to Russian oil and gas. Slovak premier Robert Fico called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy 'an enemy of Slovakia' in January because Ukraine shut down the Yamal pipeline that carries Russian gas across Ukraine to Slovakia. The only remaining functional Russian pipeline to Europe is TurkStream. The day before the commission's announcement, Hungary vetoed a statement of support for the ban. The EU banned Russian coal and oil imports in 2022, and has since planned to ban gas. The EU and G7 in December 2022 also launched a $60 per barrel price cap on Russian oil sold to anyone else in the world, by threatening to uninsure tankers selling above that price. 'It is no secret that we wanted the price to be lower,' Estonian then-premier Kaja Kallas, now the EU's foreign policy chief, wrote on Twitter. 'A price between 30-40 dollars is what would substantially hurt Russia,' she said. There was speculation that the EU and G7 would lower the cap to $45 this week. That's because even if the EU were to stop buying Russian energy, Moscow would still make an estimated 215 billion euros ($248bn) from sales to others. But the EU announced it was shelving the plan due to rising energy prices – partly the effect of Israel's war on Iran. The current $60 cap 'had little effect' while oil was cheap, 'but in the last days, we have seen that the oil price has risen [and] the cap in place does serve its function,' von der Leyen told reporters on the sidelines of the G7 meeting. 'So for the moment, there's little pressure on lowering the oil price cap.' Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disagreed. 'If Russian oil is sold at no more than $30 a barrel, then Moscow will suddenly sound peaceful,' he wrote on the Telegram messaging platform. That is estimated to be Russia's cost of extraction, leaving it no profit margin to help it prosecute wars. Russia partly circumvented the oil cap by purchasing a 'shadow fleet' of tankers not insured in EU and G7 countries. On Tuesday, the UK sanctioned 20 tankers in addition to 100 last month. The next day, Australia imposed restrictions on 60 vessels, its first targeted sanctions strike on the shadow fleet. On Friday, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he and Democrat Richard Blumenthal were working with the Trump administration to finalise a sanctions package that would impose secondary sanctions on countries that still import Russian energy. 'We now have more than 84 co-sponsors in the Senate and 70 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives on a bill to impose severe sanctions and tariffs on Russia and its financial backers,' Graham wrote in a column. That figure was up from 50 senators on April 1. Trump has opposed sanctions, preferring to cajole rather than confront Putin. Zelenskyy decried that approach in an interview with US outlet Newsmax on Saturday. 'Today, America's dialogue with the Russians resembles a warm conversation,' he said. 'Let's be frank: this will not stop Putin. A change of tone is needed. Putin must clearly understand that America will stand by Ukraine, including by imposing sanctions and supporting our army.' Politico reported on Thursday that the EU was also considering transferring about 200 billion euros in frozen Russian assets from the Euroclear system in Belgium to a 'special purpose fund'. Currently, Euroclear can only invest through the Belgian central bank, which is safe but offers low returns. The new fund would be allowed to make riskier investments, potentially increasing income that could be directed to support Ukraine. Russia has continued to assault Ukrainian positions over the past week, making tiny gains. Zelenskyy told Bild last week that Ukrainian and Russian forces were in day 18 or 19 of a Russian offensive designed to create a breakthrough. The Ukrainian side had defeated a key section of the Russian advance, preventing Russian units from coming together, he said. Russian troops seized the village of Horikhove in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region on Saturday. That, and other Russian incremental gains, have come at a great cost to life. Britain's Defence Intelligence on June 12 estimated that Russia had suffered a million casualties in the war, of whom 40-50 percent were likely irrecoverable losses – killed, missing and presumed dead or irrevocably wounded. Some 200,000 of those casualties were estimated to have been inflicted in the first five months of this year, suggesting that Russia's casualty rate is rising. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, broke down Russian casualties and found they have roughly doubled each year of the war. Based on Ukrainian General Staff figures, it estimated that in 2022, Russian forces sustained 340 casualties a day, rising to 693 casualties a day in 2023 and 1,177 casualties a day in 2024. This year, Russian daily casualties have averaged 1,286.
Russia Today
a day ago
- Business
- Russia Today
Brussels making EU ‘as uncompetitive as possible'
Officials in Brussels are completely undermining the EU's competitiveness, according to Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and presidential envoy. His comment follows the European Commission's proposal to eliminate all Russian oil and gas imports within two years. EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen unveiled the plan, which is backed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, on Tuesday. It seeks to ban all new gas contracts with Russia, and presents measures to facilitate the end of Russian oil imports by the end of 2027. 'EU Commission bureaucrats seem obsessed – with making the EU as uncompetitive as possible on the global stage,' Dmitriev, who is also the Russian president's special envoy for investment and economic cooperation, wrote on X. 'Mission accomplished or still in progress?' The comment came in response to criticism from Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who warned that the plan represents 'a serious violation' of Hungary's sovereignty. He claimed that the EU is 'ready to dismantle Hungary's secure and affordable energy supply.' EU Commission bureaucrats seem obsessed—with making the EU as uncompetitive as possible on the global stage. Mission accomplished or still in progress? The legislation seeks to apply EU trade law mechanisms to imports of Russian oil and gas, enabling Brussels to bypass potential vetoes from countries such as Hungary and Slovakia. Energy prices across Europe soared following Ukraine-related sanctions in 2022. Jorgensen said the latest phaseout is not about Ukraine, but because 'Russia has weaponized energy' against the EU. Moscow has called the sanctions illegitimate and counterproductive. Russian President Vladimir Putin has set the lifting of sanctions as a condition for resolving the Ukraine conflict. The Kremlin also noted that Russia has been a reliable energy supplier to the bloc. Russia, once the EU's main gas supplier, sharply reduced exports three years ago amid Western sanctions and the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage. Its share of EU pipeline gas fell from over 40% in 2021 to around 11% in 2024. While most EU countries have cut Russian gas, landlocked members, including Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Serbia, still rely on limited supplies through various exemptions. Meanwhile, Russian LNG imports to the EU have surged, making up 17.5% of the bloc's supply last year – second only to the US at 45.3%. France, Spain, and Belgium took in 85% of these shipments, according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump's Envoy to China Calls Out Threat of Foreign Supply Chains
(Bloomberg) -- The US wants to revamp its trading relationship with China and the world by bringing many critical supply chains back onshore, the American ambassador to Beijing said. Security Concerns Hit Some of the World's 'Most Livable Cities' JFK AirTrain Cuts Fares 50% This Summer to Lure Riders Off Roads How E-Scooters Conquered (Most of) Europe Taser-Maker Axon Triggers a NIMBY Backlash in its Hometown NYC Congestion Toll Cuts Manhattan Gridlock by 25%, RPA Reports 'Unfettered globalization has increasingly created single-source supply chain vulnerabilities,' David Perdue, who assumed his post last month, told a dinner in Washington on Thursday. 'We have all witnessed the extent to which our businesses have become overly dependent on China for components, inputs, intermediate goods and even entire supply chains,' he said, adding that American leaders had been 'blind to the hollowing out of many US strategic industries.' The assessment echoes criticism by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said at the recent Group of Seven meeting that the world is experiencing a new 'China Shock.' Her accusation, which drew a sharp retort from Beijing, took aim at what von der Leyen characterized as China's use of its quasi-monopoly over some sectors as both a bargaining chip and a weapon to undermine competition. Perdue took a more measured view, noting in his comments that President Donald Trump doesn't blame China for pursuing its own national interest. 'President Trump's vision is to have a trading relationship with China that is based on reciprocity, fairness and respect — one in which the United States puts the American people first, just as China does for its own people,' he said via a video message to the annual dinner of the US-China Business Council. In earlier remarks at the same event, China's ambassador to the US, Xie Feng, made a case for America to become a partner and not a rival to his country, calling for the removal of still 'unreasonably high' tariffs imposed by Trump. Xie also argued that the trading relationship between China and the US was a 'two-way street,' and neither side was getting ripped off. While the US had a goods trade deficit with China, American companies generated a lot of revenue in China, which in turn ran a shortfall in its services trade with the US. For Perdue, however, the lopsided commerce between the world's two biggest economies can't go on as before. 'We must remedy the current imbalance in our relationship,' he said. 'If the United States is to pursue its own national interest in global trade while ensuring the dollar's place as world's reserve currency, then our economy cannot be so dependent on foreign supply chains that can be severed at any moment.' Ken Griffin on Trump, Harvard and Why Novice Investors Won't Beat the Pros Is Mark Cuban the Loudmouth Billionaire that Democrats Need for 2028? How a Tiny Middleman Could Access Two-Factor Login Codes From Tech Giants The US Has More Copper Than China But No Way to Refine All of It Can 'MAMUWT' Be to Musk What 'TACO' Is to Trump? ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Sign in to access your portfolio
