Day: February 24, 2023

United States first lady Jill Biden on Friday ended her first visit to Namibia on a hopeful, encouraging note, stressing the power of youth in a nation where youth unemployment hovers at an alarming 40%.

“Each generation inherits the world in their time,” she said, standing before 1,300 students who packed into a shady courtyard at the public Namibian University of Science and Technology.

“We often tell young people that you’re the future,” she said. “And it’s true. But sometimes, that message can sound like: ‘wait.’ Wait for some far-off finish line that makes you wiser or more powerful. Wait for your communities to listen to what you have to say. Wait, while others build the future around you. I know, however, that these things you want to change now. There are problems that you can solve now. And you have gifts to offer the world now.”

It has been a whirlwind three days for the first lady, who landed in the southwest African nation Wednesday and used her time to focus on women’s empowerment, children and education.

She also praised the nation’s vibrant democracy, established and run by the same party since independence in 1990.

“I’m proud to be standing here, standing with a strong democracy. And as [Namibian first lady] Monica [Geingos] said yesterday, a young democracy working together. As Joe [Biden] said at the summit, African voices, African leadership and African innovation are all critical to addressing the most pressing global challenges and realizing the vision we all share: a world that is free.”

But this gentle nudge toward Western democratic ideals may not cause governments to budge from their deep ties to the East, said Ndumba Kamwanyah, a lecturer at the University of Namibia. Like many African nations, Namibia’s independence struggle had support from the former Soviet Union. And the war memorial Biden visited shortly after landing, along with the imposing State House, were built by a North Korean company.

“Of course, officials they said that, you know, they don’t want to choose a side, but deeply I think, from an analytical perspective, I think that they are leaning toward the Russian position,” he told VOA.

Still, Katherine Jellison, professor of U.S. women’s history and gender history at Ohio University, says Jill Biden’s soft touch could steady U.S. relations with African nations.

“I think it’s important that some high-profile member of Bidenworld visit Africa right now because we need to shore up our friendship with African nations and our relationships with African nations at a time when the Chinese have an eye on cultivating more of those relationships,” she told VOA. “So it’s an excellent idea if we want to maintain a good working relationship with African nations that we put out that friendly hand.”

And Kamwanyah says, watch this space:

“It will depend on the outcomes of that engagement, in terms of what other initiatives that will follow suit after her visit. So, I think it’s important that, you know, in a day or two days after she leaves, it will become clearer in terms of the concreteness of the engagement.”

Biden will spend two more days in Kenya, promoting women’s empowerment, children’s issues and the hunger crisis afflicting the Horn of Africa.

Source: Voice of America

Russia’s blunders on the battlefield in Ukraine are scaring away longtime partners and other countries that have come to depend on Moscow for weapons systems, munitions and maintenance, according to a key State Department official.

Far from solidifying Russia’s preeminence as a world power and a choice weapons provider, Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Jessica Lewis warned the Kremlin’s decision to launch a massive invasion of Ukraine has instead saddled Moscow with a “strategic failure” that is reverberating across the globe.

“We are seeing countries coming to us and saying [they] may need to diversify in ways they haven’t before off of Russian equipment,” Lewis told the Defense Writers Group during a meeting Friday in Washington, on the anniversary of the Russian invasion.

“They are seeing the failure of Soviet and Russian doctrine in the war [in Ukraine] but also seeing, raising questions I will say, about the equipment that Russia is providing and Russia’s ability to keep providing that equipment,” Lewis said, adding, “We think that this moment in time presents an opportunity for us.”

Lewis declined to share specifics about the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on U.S. foreign military sales over the past year. But she said there has been a “tectonic shift” that started first with U.S. allies on NATO’s eastern flank before spreading.

“We have deepened and strengthened our relationship with India,” Lewis said, noting New Delhi’s long-running dependence on Moscow for military systems.

“I feel very good about where that [U.S.-India relationship] is going,” she said. “We are making very good progress on that front.”

Lewis also cited Ecuador as a “good example” of a country with lots of Russian-made military equipment that has now turned to Washington.

“There are countries that we see in Africa that are interested,” Lewis added in response to a question from VOA. “I’ve had countries in the Indo-Pacific region come to me.”

Some of these countries, she said, are looking to replace Russian equipment and systems that no longer work. Others simply are looking for a more reliable partner, which has the added benefit of freeing up equipment that can be sent to Ukraine and used immediately.

“That is actively happening,” Lewis said, when pressed by VOA.

U.S. arms sales have been on the rise. Data shared by the State Department last month showed foreign governments bought $205.6 billion in U.S.-made military equipment for fiscal 2022, a 49% increase from the previous year.

Some of the increase has been driven by a desire to move away from Russian-made systems, but the extent to which that desire is connected to the Russian military’s performance in Ukraine is unclear.

“This surge has mainly been driven by increased purchases in Asia and Eastern Europe, as countries in these regions look to the United States to lessen their dependence on China in the former case and replace legacy Russian systems that have been transferred to Ukraine in the latter,” Henry Ziemer, a program coordinator and research assistant at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA by email.

“In Latin America, which is generally marked by small or shrinking military budgets, there does not appear to be a similar surge in interest in U.S. military equipment,” Ziemer said.

There’s also debate over the extent to which Russia’s overall defense exports have been hurt.

“There is some evidence that Russian arms exports have declined, although it is a bit too soon to tell,” said Ryan Brobst, a research analyst at the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

“Russia has continued fulfilling existing contracts for arms exports, although there are reports of delays in delivery,” Brobst told VOA by email, adding, “Russia has been documented using export models of tanks in Ukraine.”

Russian state arms exporter Rosoboronexport said last August that revenue from defense exports was expected to drop by about 26% in 2022, though by November, Russian state media quoted President Vladimir Putin as saying Moscow had secured $8 billion in sales, calling it a good result.

Despite such claims, however, U.S. officials remain optimistic that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will cost Moscow money and influence.

In particular, they argue Russia’s struggles in Ukraine combined with the success of Ukrainian forces using U.S. systems and with U. S. support have highlighted to countries why they may be better off getting their arms from Washington, as opposed to Russia or even China.

“This total package approach where people get the training, the maintenance and the sustainment over many years … [is] part of what we offer that China and Russia don’t offer,” Lewis said.

Source: Voice of America