Contrary to the European trend, Germany has increased its arms exports to Israel in the second half of the year.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Germany, which has longstanding historical ties with Israel, became Europe’s largest arms supplier to Israel between 2019 and 2023.

The first few months of this year saw a decrease in export licenses, reportedly due to rising civilian casualties during Israel’s military actions in Gaza and Lebanon. However, since August, the German government has approved arms exports valued at €94.05 million, as reported by dpa on Thursday, citing the German Foreign Ministry.

This amount is more than double the €45.74 million in exports from the beginning of the year to October 13, according to data provided by the Economics Ministry to the Bundestag’s economic committee last week.

Germany’s increased exports come at a time when other EU countries are moving to reduce arms supplies to Israel. Two weeks ago, French President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to arms exports used in the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon, even though France is not a major supplier. Italy and Spain, two of Israel’s top 10 suppliers, have stopped signing new export contracts, while the UK has suspended export licenses for military operations in Gaza.

Did Germany seek assurances?

Last year, the German government approved arms exports to Israel worth €326.5 million. Most of the export licenses were granted immediately following Operation Aqsa Flood on October 7.

However, government data shows that only €14.42 million worth of deliveries were approved between January and August 21.

During a parliamentary debate earlier this month, the main opposition party, the CDU, accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz of tacitly halting exports to Israel. In response, Scholz stated that Germany “has supplied weapons and will continue to supply weapons,” adding that decisions had been made to “ensure further deliveries in the near future.”

Investigations by the Bild newspaper revealed that Green ministers in Germany’s coalition government temporarily halted new arms exports to Israel in March over concerns about compliance with international law. The German government had requested written assurances from Israel that the weapons would be used in accordance with international law. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock recently confirmed that such a letter had been received.

In the Russian city of Kazan, the annual summit of the BRICS countries took place, the sixteenth since its founding, in 2006. It was attended by 36 States, 22 presidents, including the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro Moros, and six international organizations, between them the United Nations, represented by its Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, traveled to Kazan accompanied by Foreign Minister Iván Gil, Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, and other officials such as the Minister of Communication, Freddy Ñáñez.

The Venezuelan president praised the emergence of a bloc of emerging countries such as the BRICS, which in his opinion, “has become the epicenter of the new world, the pluripolar world, the world of the future.” Likewise, Maduro invited the BRICS countries to develop a UN reform plan.

The BRICS are a very enriching space for dialogue, said Maduro, “a permanent search to build a new international order; A new era has emerged, new superpowers and countries to which we aspire to have our independence respected, I came from the modesty of Venezuela to propose several ideas:

– The BRICS emerged at a time when there was a change of era, with the emergence of new superpowers.

– Establish an economic agenda with bolder and more practical solutions and steps for international trade, we need a new global monetary system.

– It is urgent to refund the United Nations System, #UN, which is dying with every bomb that falls on the Arab and Muslim peoples due to fascism; It cannot be that the Court of Justice only serves for Communiqués, but there are no actions against massacres.

Commander Chávez told us: “the time has come for a new, pluripolar, multicentric world,” which is why I assure you that the BRICS can count on Venezuela and the Bolivarian force for our historical project,” said president Maduro.

The President of Venezuela also participated in the first plenary session of the summit of the Outreach/BRICS Plus formats, in which he proposed a new global financial system and insisted on the need to advance in the consolidation of the BRICS Bank.

According to press statements by President Maduro, the Venezuelan delegation participated in more than 200 meetings, in which meetings with other state leaders stand out, such as the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin; the President of the Palestinian Autonomous Government, Mahmoud Abbas; the President of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko; the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed Ali; the President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; the President of Bolivia, Luis Arce and the President of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, among others.

“Our countries, #Iran and #Venezuela, have always maintained this unbreakable unity, we continue to give a message to the world with giant steps to consolidate the construction of the #MultipolarWorld. We are a unitary bloc that is moving towards a geopolitics without colonialism or hegemony!”

In these meetings, positive assessments emerged about the Venezuelan president. Vladimir Putin of Russia recognized Venezuela as “one of Russia’s old and reliable partners in Latin America and the world in general,” Belarusian President Lukashenko expressed his admiration for Maduro’s leadership and his confidence in the ability of Venezuela to obtain victories at the international level, this last specific quality is required by the members of the Brics for the election of new members.

The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded this year to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. Since then, it has been known as “BRICS+”. Although the entry of new members into the organization was not part of the agenda, President Vladimir Putin, in September 2024, stated that thirty-four (34) States They wanted cooperation “in various forms,” ​​including some from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS former republics of the Soviet Union), Africa, South America and Southeast Asia. Among these states is Venezuela, which participated in the summit. as a guest, like the other countries that do not make up the bloc.

Once the small-format meeting concluded, the BRIC member countries met with the invited countries.

Final declaration XVI BRICS summit

The BRICS Summit concluded its meeting with a declaration containing 134 points, of which the following stand out:

• Reform of the United Nations (UN). The countries of the BRICS group reaffirmed their commitment to the comprehensive reform of the UN.

• Encourage the use of national currencies.

• They reaffirmed their commitment to deepening economic cooperation to achieve a lasting, sustainable, balanced and inclusive recovery in this area, in search of an improvement in the global economy.

• Create a new investment platform, which allows the existing institutional infrastructure of the New BRICS Development Bank (NBD) to be used more effectively to increase the flow of investments in the BRICS countries and the mechanisms of the Global South.

• Express concern about sanctions and their negative impact on the economy and global trade.

• Promote the entry of Palestine into the UN, based on the concept of the coexistence of two States, based on international law.

• Promote a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and “urgently and without preconditions release all hostages and detainees on both sides, (…) and ensure unrestricted, sustainable and large-scale delivery of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip “, it was specified in the document.

• Reaffirmation of commitment to the conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, based on the ideal that peace and security in these regions must be achieved and maintained in accordance with and with full respect for international law and the Charter of the United Nations.

• Guarantee mediation in the Ukrainian conflict, in search of a peaceful solution through dialogue and diplomacy.

• Strengthen the non-proliferation and disarmament regime, recognizing its role in maintaining global stability.

• Prevent the deployment of weapons in space and the threat or use of force against targets located in space.

No new members and Brazil’s veto

The XVI BRICS Summit has also marked the path that new applicants to enter the bloc must follow. The BRICS leaders have decided to only grant the status of “partners” and not “members” to those countries that meet certain criteria; In addition, these new members will not have the right to vote, only the members will have it. In the BRICS there is no right to veto, but it is necessary to reach a consensus among all the founding members.

It is important to note that at this XVI BRICS Summit the incorporation of new members to the bloc was not discussed and that the final declaration of the meeting does not reflect a list of new countries to join the BRICS. However, from the bilateral meetings and press conferences, especially from the statements of the Russian president, it was learned that the Brazilian government was opposed to Venezuela being included in a list of possible future partners at this time. of the block.

The Member States (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the current Partner States (Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia) have already agreed on a first list of possible new partner countries, to start the path towards enlargement. “We have agreed with the partners that in the first phase, taking into account a possible enlargement, we will follow the path of agreeing on a list of partner countries. Such a list has already been agreed upon,” Putin said.

After the negotiations at this summit, and the support expressed by the member states with the right to vote, the following countries have been left with the possibility of becoming “BRICS partners”, after meeting the bloc’s expansion criteria: Algeria, Belarus , Bolivia, Cuba, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Afghanistan, Nicaragua and Venezuela would not have had the support of Brazil to join the list of candidates.

Controversy over Brazil’s position

Putin was in charge of explaining that Lula had been responsible for Venezuela not being on the list of possible new partners of BRICS. Putin said that although he thinks differently from Lula because he does recognize Maduro as the legitimate president of Venezuela, the decisions of the BRICS are made by consensus, so he wants Venezuela and Brazil to be able to resolve their differences.

Among the antecedents that led to Brazil’s current position, we find the request of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry to the Venezuelan government to grant safe conduct to the six (6) Venezuelan opponents who confined themselves to the residence of the Argentine Embassy in Caracas. Let us remember that Argentinian president Javier Milei, after breaking relations with Venezuela, left the custody of the Argentine diplomatic residence in charge of Lula, but Venezuelan government withdrew that possibility when assassination plans against President Maduro and Vice President Delcy Rodríguez, devised by the coup plotters, were discovered.

Also, the statements of Prosecutor Tarek William Saab in which he accused the leaders of Chile and Brazil of being functional agents of the CIA, continued to forge a climate of tension and low-intensity conflict that damaged the already fragile bilateral relationship between Caracas and Brasilia. This despite the fact that our Foreign Ministry distanced itself from the Attorney General’s statements.

However, the most important fact that triggered Brazil’s position remains that, in a clear act of interference in the internal affairs of Venezuela, Lula has maintained that he will not recognize any winner of the Venezuelan presidential elections of July 28, until the government of Venezuela or the opposition shows the electoral minutes. This interventionist position by Lula is proof that mutual trust has been lost and that the relationship between Venezuela and Brazil is going through its worst moment.

Faced with Brazil’s de facto veto, Venezuelan Foreign Ministry, Yván Gil, has issued a statement highlighting the importance of Venezuela for the BRICS and the Global South, while at the same time exposing Lula’s questioned actions.

Despite this bilateral impasse between Caracas and Brasilia, the incorporation of Venezuela into the BRICS must be seen as a long-term objective, as a process that will require a different diplomacy and further strengthen alliances. Venezuela’s entry into the BRICS is not a utopia; sooner rather than later, it will be a reality.

After years of work, plans to register ‘foreign influence agents’ operating in the UK, similar to those in the US, have been temporarily shelved as the new Labour government in London seeks to reassess its relationship with Beijing.

The Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) became law last year as part of efforts to protect British politics from ‘malign foreign actors.’ Countries such as Russia, Iran, and China were expected to face further scrutiny under the scheme, but its implementation has now been delayed until next year.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to POLITICO that the policy on China, including the FIRS programme, has been paused until the completion of the government’s ‘China audit,’ which is expected early next year.

Labour blames conservative government for delay

Controversy erupted last week after Labour Security Minister Dan Jarvis blamed the previous Conservative government for the delay.

Jarvis claimed that the Conservatives had “completely failed to take the necessary measures” to implement the plan and that IT solutions for registration were “not ready.”

His comments followed a letter from his Conservative predecessor, Tom Tugendhat, who questioned the delay and said he had been ready to launch the scheme in autumn 2024. Tugendhat argued that there was no reason the scheme couldn’t be launched before the end of this year, even considering the upcoming UK general election.

Is the Starmer government changing its China policy?

Conservative MP Alicia Kearns, the former chair of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, told POLITICO that the ‘necessary preparatory work’ had been completed ‘well in advance’ of the election, and described Labour’s claims as ‘completely unfounded.’

Kearns suggested that Labour’s ‘softening position’ on China was responsible for the delay.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited Beijing last week as part of a broader diplomatic initiative to review economic and political relations with China.

Treasury allegedly ordered to go ‘soft’ on China

The same official, quoted earlier, indicated that the review, expected to conclude in January, will provide ministers with clear guidance on areas of policy where closer engagement with China is possible.

Another government official, also speaking anonymously, said he was not aware of the specific details of the FIRS programme but noted that the shift in approach towards China had been prompted by the Treasury.

The FIRS programme, designed to align the UK with ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence allies such as Australia and the United States, will require individuals engaging in political activities on behalf of a foreign power in the UK to register. Once a country is placed in the ‘advanced’ tier, ministers will be able to extend registration requirements to cover a wider range of activities and individuals working on behalf of foreign government-controlled organisations.