BRICS News

If it’s a trade war you want, it’s a trade war you’re going to get …
… but global investors won’t be happy.
File photo of US President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping
China has fired back at the US on Wednesday calling a list of some 1,200 Chinese products drafted by Washington for fresh tariffs as “the grossest violation of the [World Trade Organization] rules”.
The list, released Wednesday, includes hundreds of high-tech products, and is designed to curb China’s quest towards global technological superiority.

After only three exclusive prospecting orders (EPOs) in December, 100 are expected by end June

Kim’s surprise visit to Beijing is being seen as preparation to a North Korean-US Summit [Image released by North Korea’s KCNA]
China’s national news agency Xinhua is reporting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s trip to Beijing yesterday was focused on discussions with President Xi Jinping to find a way to dismantle Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons.
The three-day visit, which wasn’t reported until the third day, was the first such trip for Kim Jong Un and came at the invitation of Xi to de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

This is the second visit of the Qatar Emir to Moscow in as many years [PPIO]
In a sign of Moscow’s growing influence in the Middle East, and for the second time in two years, the Emir of Qatar has met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss bilateral cooperation and joint efforts to tackle crises around the world, as well as to look at ways to cooperate in energy markets.

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov has promised to retaliate to Western expulsion measures [PPIO]
Russia has fired back at the US and its European allies for expelling its diplomats over the alleged poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England.
A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry called the European and US measures “prejudiced, biased and hypocritical”, and said Moscow will definitely respond.

It took 15 years, a decade and a half, two generations, and millions of lives destroyed, for people in and around Iraq to start talking about “improving conditions on the ground.”
The mere utterance of these words, in all different variations, dialects and accents, is desperately sought after music-to-the-ears for those who orchestrated and benefited from the destruction of everything in the land between the two rivers.
Remember, this was a war waged under the premise of rebuilding and democratization.

Climate change and desertification will exacerbate the negative effects of conflict on food security for needy people [Sara Mohamed]
The United Nations Security Council is being urged to tackle the link between conflict and hunger.
At a special session of the council, the 15 members heard how hunger and famine continue despite huge technological advances because wars lead to the erosion of humanitarian laws and access of the most needy to food security.

Beijing has strongly criticized the Trump administration for pushing tariffs on billions of dollars of imported goods from China but said it would fight to the end to protect its interests.
File photo of US President Donald Trump with Chinese President Xi Jinping
The Foreign Ministry on Friday said that it did not want a trade war with the US and that any such development would harm both countries, but vowed to retaliate on hundreds of US exports.

Russian President Vladimir Putin Chinese President Xi Jinping (centre) and President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj [Image: PPIO]
Days after both Chinese and Russian Presidents were re-elected, the Russian energy giant Gazprom announced that a mammoth gas project between the two countries was nearing completion.
In May 2014, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping singed a landmark $400 billion gas deal under which Gazprom will supply the China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) 38 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas every year for 30 years.

Account deficit to GDP has narrowed in South Africa, according to 2017 statistics
The South African current account deficit on the balance of payments narrowed to 2.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from 2.8% in 2016, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) said in its latest Quarterly Bulletin.
On a quarterly basis however, the current account deficit widened to 2.9% of GDP in the fourth quarter from 2.1% in the third quarter as import growth outpaced export growth resulting in a narrowing in the trade surplus in goods.