World leaders reacted to the death of Henry Kissinger, a former U.S. secretary of state who influenced geopolitics under two presidents.

Kissinger died Wednesday at 100.

“Deeply shocked and saddened to learn of Dr. Kissinger’s passing at 100,” Xie Feng, China’s ambassador to the United States said in a post on X, formerly known as twitter. “My deepest condolences go to Nancy (Kissinger’s wife) and her family. It is a tremendous loss for both our countries and the world. The history will remember what the centenarian had contributed to China-U.S. relations, and he will always remain alive in the hearts of the Chinese people as a most valued old friend.”

Kissinger made two trips to China before accompanying U.S. President Richard Nixon on his groundbreaking visit to Beijing in 1972 to meet with China’s Communist Party chairman, Mao Zedong. During the visit, the United States and China formalized diplomatic relations after a break of 23 years.

In Japan, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke of Kissinger’s role in Asia, saying he was responsible for “significant contributions” to peace and stability, in a post on X.

Kishida mentioned Kissinger’s work in China and added, “I’d like to express my most sincere respect to the great achievements he made. I also would like to offer my condolences.”

European Council President Charles Michel called Kissinger a “strategist with attention to the smallest detail,” in another post on X. He declared him “A kind human and a brilliant mind who, over 100 years, shaped the [destinies] of some of the most important events of the century.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin called Kissinger “a wise and farsighted statesman,” in a telegram to Kissinger’s widow, Nancy, according to Reuters.

“America has lost one of the most dependable and distinctive voices” on foreign affairs, said former President George W. Bush, striking a tone shared by many high-level officials past and present.

“I have long admired the man who fled the Nazis as a young boy from a Jewish family, then fought them in the United States Army,” Bush said in a statement. “When he later became secretary of state, his appointment as a former refugee said as much about his greatness as it did America’s greatness.”

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he was “in awe” of Kissinger.

“Of course, like anyone who has confronted the most difficult problems of international politics, he was criticized at times, even denounced,” Blair said. “But I believe he was always motivated not from a coarse ‘realpolitik,’ but from a genuine love of the free world and the need to protect it. He was a problem solver, whether in respect of the Cold War, the Middle East or China and its rise.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog said as he met U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Tel Aviv that Kissinger “laid the cornerstone of the peace agreement, which (was) later signed with Egypt, and so many other processes around the world I admire.”

Blinken said Kissinger “really set the standard for everyone who followed in this job” and that he was “very privileged to get his counsel many times, including as recently as about a month ago.”

“Few people were better students of history,” he said. “Even fewer people did more to shape history than Henry Kissinger.”

French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that “Henry Kissinger was a giant of history. His century of ideas and of diplomacy had a lasting influence on his time and on our world.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz reflected on Kissinger’s impact on the relationship between the U.S. and Germany, his native county. Kissinger was a Jew who fled Nazi rule with his family in his teens.

“His commitment to the transatlantic friendship between the USA and Germany was significant, and he always remained close to his German homeland,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on X.

Some information in this report came from Reuters, Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads back to Israel on Thursday, where he says he will work to help prolong a cease-fire so more hostages can be released and more humanitarian aid can be delivered to Gaza. At the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Blinken tried to reassure allies of continued U.S. support for Ukraine as Kyiv prepares for another winter of fighting. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Henry Kissinger, the former National Security Advisor and Secretary of State whose global influence long outlasted his time in office under former President Richard Nixon, has died at age 100, at his home in Connecticut. His death was announced by his consulting firm and no cause was given. Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on the life and legacy of a controversial and celebrated American statesman.
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Member countries are divided over the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s annual foreign ministers’ meeting on Thursday, with Baltic nations and Ukraine refusing to attend over the presence of Russia’s Sergey Lavrov.

The 57-member OSCE is the successor to a Cold War-era organization for Soviet and Western powers to engage but is now largely paralyzed by Russia’s ongoing use of the effective veto each country has.

The U.S. and its allies are seeking simultaneously to keep the OSCE alive and hold Russia to account for its invasion of Ukraine. They are attending while making a point of denouncing Moscow’s actions, a stance that some of Ukraine’s closest allies have little truck with.

“How can you talk with an aggressor who is committing genocide, full aggression against another member state, Ukraine?” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told reporters on Wednesday in Brussels, where he attended a NATO meeting.

Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are siding with Ukraine on the issue. Russia’s Tass news agency reported Lavrov arrived in Skopje on Wednesday after a circuitous five-hour flight that avoided the airspace of countries that have barred Russian aircraft.

Borrell addresses friction

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said he understood unease about Lavrov attending the meeting in Skopje, North Macedonia. But he said it was a chance for Lavrov to hear broad condemnation of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“Your decision to allow Lavrov to participate is in line with our common objective to keep multilateralism alive,” Borrell told North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Dimitar Kovacevski at a joint press conference in Skopje.

“Lavrov needs to hear again, from everyone, why Russia is being condemned and isolated,” Borrell said. “Then he will be able to come back to the Kremlin and report to the Kremlin master.”

Estonia had been due to take over the annually rotating OSCE chairmanship, but Russia blocked it for months. A last-minute deal for neutral Malta to take over the chairmanship must be formally approved at the meeting on Thursday and Friday.

Concern on support for Ukraine

The OSCE issue reflects broader diplomatic questions about Ukraine. While only Belarus regularly sides with Russia at OSCE meetings, this week’s absentees worry that Western powers’ commitment to Ukraine is wavering.

The United States has been trying to reassure them while arguing that the OSCE, which upholds standards that Russia has agreed to, is the right place to hold Moscow to account.

“First of all … we have no planned interactions with Russia. We will also not accept any return to business as usual in the midst of this aggression, which has resulted in the largest land war on the European continent since World War II,” U.S. Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter told reporters.

“A lot has been done to expose Russian atrocities, and I expect that that will be the theme, of condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, in all its forms,” he said.

It later became clear, however, that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken would attend only meetings with his counterpart from North Macedonia and other like-minded countries on Wednesday. He then left for Israel before the Ministerial Council formally began on Thursday.

The OSCE is not the only international body where the West and Russia meet. Lavrov still attends Group of 20 events around the world and the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

In terms of substance, the stakes in Skopje are low. With the chairmanship settled, the main open issue is whether four top OSCE officials, including Secretary-General Helga Schmid, will have their terms extended.

The absentee countries, however, fear that Lavrov will use the meeting as a platform.

“It just so happens that the aggressor country is having a veto, and in a sense trying to hijack the agenda of the OSCE,” said Latvian Foreign Minister Krisjanis Karins. “I think that is simply wrong.”
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Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drone production in the country has surged. Ukrainian businesses have shifted from manufacturing products for peacetime to producing equipment for wartime. From Kyiv, Myroslava Gongadze explains how Ukrainian ingenuity is altering the course of the war. Camera: Eugene Shynkar.
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Media law experts say a $700,000 settlement reached this month in the case of a Los Angeles, California, journalist arrested by sheriff’s deputies is a record agreement because it requires law enforcement to brief deputies on journalists’ rights. VOA’s Robin Guess reports. Camera: Roy Kim.
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With her frail husband as a silent witness, Rosalynn Carter was celebrated by her family and closest friends Wednesday at her funeral in the same tiny town where she and Jimmy Carter were born, forever their home base as they climbed to the White House and traveled the world for humanitarian causes. 

The former first lady, who died November 19 at the age of 96, had her intimate funeral at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, where she and her husband spent decades welcoming guests and where a wooden cross Jimmy Carter fashioned in his woodshop is displayed. Earlier tributes were held in nearby Americus and in Atlanta. 

The former president was in attendance in his wheelchair, with her one last time in his life. 

Maranatha Pastor Tony Lowden opened the service with a tribute to “the life and legacy of the greatest first lady.” 

Rosalynn Carter wasn’t “just the first lady of the White House,” he told the gathering. “She served every nation around the world.” 

The pastor, describing her competitive streak, spoke to the mourners in what he imagined to be the voice of Rosalynn Carter: “She would say to you today, ‘don’t grieve for me, for now I’m free. … Jimmy tried to beat me here. I got here first. I won the prize. Tell him I beat him and I’m waiting on him.'” 

“But,” Lowden continued, “she would say ‘don’t stop. There’s too many homeless people in the world. There’s still too many people who don’t have equal rights.’ … She would tell you don’t stop. Become that virtuous woman. And men, if you’re listening, make room for the virtuous woman.” 

She will be buried in a plot she will one day share with her husband of 77 years. The former president, now 99, left home hospice care to attend Tuesday’s memorial, where two other presidents and all the living first ladies joined the extended Carter family, as well as Wednesday’s more intimate hometown funeral.

Vernita Sampson, a school bus driver and Plains native, drove a group of area high school students, all wearing Future Farmer of America jackets, to downtown Plains to pay tribute to the former first lady and soak up the history of the day.

“They were people you could relate to, not this high standard where they were up here and, you know, we’re all down there,” said Sampson, 58. “We never get used to death, no matter who we are or how long you have lived,” but she said she and the students came “to celebrate that she did live a long life, a very happy and productive life, that gives you joy.”

At the service, the mourning came with affectionate stories of life with Rosalynn Carter and some laughs.

“It occurs to me that dad got used to mom disagreeing with him because she was really good at it,” son Jack Carter said. “And she became a partner in the true sense of the word, where they had equal footing.”

Jimmy Carter met his future wife only a few days after her mother delivered her.

“She was born just a few years after women got the right to vote in this small town in the South where people were still plowing their fields behind mules,” grandson Jason Carter said during the memorial service Tuesday at Atlanta’s Glenn Memorial Church. 

Coming from that town of about 600 — then and now — Rosalynn Carter changed lives across America and the developing world, her grandson said. Jimmy Carter’s closest political adviser and a political force in her own right, she advocated for better mental health care and underappreciated caregivers in millions of U.S. households. Traveling overseas, she fought disease, famine, and the abuse of women and girls.

The Atlanta events reflected the grandest chapters of Rosalynn Carter’s life. Mourners viewed her casket steps from The Carter Center she and her husband co-founded after leaving the White House, then she was honored at a service filled with the music of a symphony chorus, a majestic pipe organ and fellow Habitat for Humanity ambassadors Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood. President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and the first ladies joined Jimmy Carter and their four children in the front row, in front of more than 1,000 congregants in suits, ties and dresses.

Church members, who were included in the invitation-only ceremony, rarely talk of “President Carter” or “Mrs. Carter.” They are supporting “Mr. Jimmy” as he grieves for “Ms. Rosalynn.”

Lowden, the Carters’ longtime friend and personal minister, also officiated Tuesday, emphasizing that Rosalynn Carter’s work, from the Georgia statehouse when Jimmy Carter was governor to the 120-plus countries that she visited, was an extension of her faith.

After the funeral, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren walked alongside an SUV carrying Jimmy Carter as Rosalynn Carter was carried from Marantha for the last time through the town where she lived for more than 80 of her 96 years.

The motorcade passed holiday lights and decorations including a photo collage in front of the downtown tree featuring the “First Lady of Plains.” 

The route also included the old high school where she was valedictorian during World War II, Plains Baptist Church where she and the former president were once outliers arguing for racial integration, the commercial district where she became Jimmy’s indispensable partner in their peanut business, the old train depot where she helped run the winning 1976 presidential campaign, and Plains Methodist Church, where as an 18-year-old in 1946, she married young Navy Lt. Jimmy Carter.

The route ends in what locals call “the Carter compound,” property that includes their one-story ranch house, the pond where she fished, and security outposts for the Secret Service agents who protected her for 47 years.

She will be buried in view of the front porch of the home where the 39th American president still lives. 
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British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has accused his Greek counterpart Kyriakos Mitsotakis of public “grandstanding” over the ownership of Parthenon sculptures. 

The two leaders have been at odds with one another after Sunak canceled a scheduled meeting between the two just hours before it was set to take place. 

In a weekly question period with the house of commons, Sunak told parliament that Mitsotakis had broken a promise that he would not publicly bring up the sculptures.

“Specific assurances on that topic were made to this country and then were broken,” Sunak said. “When people make commitments, they should keep them.” 

Greek officials denied that any such promise had been made.

In an interview with British television on Sunday, Mitsotakis called for the return of the sculptures so they could be displayed beside the rest of the sculptures still in Athens. He also said that removing them was like cutting the “Mona Lisa” in half.

Athens has long urged the British Museum to return 2,500-year-old sculptures, known in Britain as the Elgin Marbles. The Marbles were taken from the Parthenon temple by British diplomat Lord Elgin in 1806, when Greece was under Ottoman Turkish rule.

Greek officials have said Mitsotakis only promoted a longstanding position, and he called Sunak’s cancelation of the meeting disrespectful.

Mitsotakis said the cancelation was “an unfortunate event,” but he added that “the move will not hurt relations between Greece and Britain in the longer term.”

The Greek leader also went on to say the cancelation of the meeting had a positive side to it and that his calls for reunification of the sculptures have gained more attention.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday will tout his “Bidenomics” agenda, contrasting his economic vision with that of so-called “MAGA” Republicans, in remarks at CS Wind, the world’s largest wind tower manufacturer, in Pueblo, Colorado.

CS Wind is expanding with a new $190 million facility that it directly attributes to the passage of 2022’s Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate and energy bill. The company said the expansion is set to be completed in 2028 and will create 850 jobs.

Pueblo is a district represented by Republican Representative Lauren Boebert, a supporter of former President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again agenda and a harsh critic of Biden’s economic policies. Boebert voted against passing the IRA, calling it “dangerous for America.”

“I am very proud of the work that CS Winds is doing there in Pueblo and the jobs that they’re creating,” Boebert said during an interview Tuesday with local network KKTV. “But as I stated, this will cost the taxpayers overall from the Inflation Reduction Act hundreds of billions of dollars. This bill was a complete scam.”

In a statement, the White House said that Biden is “delivering on his promise to create opportunities and jobs in communities too often left behind, while self-described MAGA Republicans like Representative Lauren Boebert continue to undermine their constituents by trying to block the President’s agenda.”

His remarks highlighting Bidenomics come as Americans rate the president poorly on his handling of the economy. Only 32% of those polled approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, according to a Gallup poll released Tuesday. His approval rating remains at 37%.

With many voters saying the economy is a top concern in the 2024 election, the White House has been ramping up messaging that Biden’s economic policies have steered the country away from recession, highlighting positive economic growth, a declining rate of inflation and continued low unemployment.

U.S. inflation continues to fall and is lower than in comparable economies in Europe. However, after a two-year period of the highest inflation in decades, Americans are feeling the pain from prices of goods that are still higher than they were four years ago. They’re also finding it difficult to find affordable credit, as the Federal Reserve imposes higher interest rates to fight inflation.
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The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on a virtual currency mixer the Treasury Department said has processed millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from major heists carried out by North Korea-linked hackers.

The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said virtual currency mixer Sinbad, hit with sanctions on Wednesday, processed millions of dollars worth of virtual currency from heists carried out by the North Korea-linked Lazarus Group, including the Axie Infinity and Horizon Bride heists of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lazarus, which has been sanctioned by the U.S., has been accused of carrying out some of the largest virtual currency heists to date. In March 2022, for example, they allegedly stole about $620 million in virtual currency from a blockchain project linked to the online game Axie Infinity.

“Mixing services that enable criminal actors, such as the Lazarus Group, to launder stolen assets will face serious consequences,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said in the statement on Wednesday.

“The Treasury Department and its U.S. government partners stand ready to deploy all tools at their disposal to prevent virtual currency mixers, like Sinbad, from facilitating illicit activities.”

A virtual currency mixer is a software tool that pools and scrambles cryptocurrencies from thousands of addresses.

Sinbad is believed by some experts in the industry to be a successor to the Blender mixer, which the U.S. hit with sanctions last year over accusations it was being used by North Korea.

The Treasury said Sinbad is also used by cybercriminals to obscure transactions linked to activities such as sanctions evasion, drug trafficking and the purchase of child sexual abuse materials, among other malign activities. 

Wednesday’s action freezes any U.S. assets of Sinbad and generally bars Americans from dealing with it. Those that engage in certain transactions with the mixer also risk being hit with sanctions. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday there is “strong bipartisan support” for Ukraine in the United States and sees “no sense of fatigue” among NATO allies continuing their support as the country enters its second winter of war against Russia.

“Some are questioning whether the United States and other NATO allies should continue to stand with Ukraine as we enter the second winter of Putin’s brutality. But the answer here today at NATO is clear, and it is unwavering. We must and we will continue to support Ukraine,” Blinken said during a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday.

Since the war began, the United States has provided about $77 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial and military aid, according to Blinken. He noted that Washington’s European allies have provided more than $110 billion in support of Kyiv.

‘Ultimate membership’

Ukraine’s path to NATO membership was discussed during Wednesday’s first foreign minister-level meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council. Blinken also held separate talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

The top U.S. diplomat said the allies reaffirmed their policy that “Ukraine will become a member of NATO when all allies agree and when conditions are met.”

In a separate press conference, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the member state laid out recommendations to Ukraine’s reforms.

“Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before. We will continue to support them on the path to membership and will continue to support Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” Stoltenberg told reporters at NATO headquarters.

The United States is hosting the next NATO summit in Washington from July 9 to 11, 2024. Blinken discussed priorities for the meeting with his counterparts as the alliance celebrates its 75th anniversary next year.

A senior U.S. official told reporters that a significant portion of the discussions leading up to the Washington summit would aim to ensure that Ukraine is making the necessary progress toward “ultimate membership” in NATO “when conditions are right.”

The bloc’s member states have suggested to Ukraine “a set of governance reforms,” including strengthening anti-corruption agencies and authorities.

The NATO-Ukraine Council was inaugurated at the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 12, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other heads of member governments also in attendance.

It convened for the second time in late July to discuss Black Sea security following Russia’s withdrawal from a deal overseeing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.

The third meeting was held in October to discuss substantial assistance to Ukraine and to ensure Ukraine’s forces are fully interoperable with NATO.

The NATO-Ukraine Council is the joint body where allies and Ukraine sit as equal participants to advance political dialogue.

North Macedonia

Wednesday afternoon, Blinken leads the U.S. delegation to NATO member North Macedonia, which is hosting a meeting of foreign ministers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, or OSCE, in its capital, Skopje.

Blinken said he is supporting OSCE’s “determination” to “advance European security,” despite “Russia’s flagrant violations.”

Blinken is slated to hold talks with North Macedonia Foreign Minister Bujar Osmani before heading to the Middle East later in the evening.

Bulgaria has given permission for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s plane to cross its airspace enroute to Skopje following North Macedonia’s request, allowing him to attend the OSCE ministerial meetings.

This has sparked an immediate outcry from Ukraine and the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, who will boycott the gathering due to Lavrov’s expected attendance.

“We obviously respect every country’s ability to make its decision about whether they should attend or not. We think it’s a useful forum to engage with OSCE members and are going to attend for that reason,” a senior State Department official told reporters on Tuesday.

When asked if Blinken would have any encounter with Lavrov during the OSCE meetings, the official said, “We do not expect one.”

After Skopje, Blinken will make his third trip to the Middle East since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. The U.S. is seeking an extension of the Israel-Hamas truce to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and getting more hostages released.

 
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