D.C. parties & Ukraine hunkers down
Greetings from Washington D.C.!
It feels like the capital city social calendar is back in full swing — with the number of events, happy hours, coffee and lunch meetings returning to those pre-pandemic times. Still, I always carry a little fear in me that each time inside somewhere, without a mask, may be the last time I’ll do it, or the final time before I’m felled by COVID again.
I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy while also managing to enjoy all the meetings and meet ups we seem to love in this city.
I’m back state-side for more than a month and half, and the foreign policy news from Washington D.C. is always varied and can change on a moment’s notice.
The explosion in Poland, spilling over from Russia’s war in Ukraine, spiked anxiety mid-week, last week, but was quickly tamped down to avoid a larger-scale conflict and — what appeared to be — officials eager to move on and avoid confronting the question, what if it hadn’t been a mistake?
While U.S. and Europe (and Russia) seemed to breath a sigh of relief that the spillover in Poland did not trigger a military reaction from NATO, the crisis temporarily overshadowed the more devastating reality of how Ukrainian’s are, as one woman told me, preparing to face the hardest winter of their lives.
The massive barrage of Russian rockets and the cross border explosions seemed to raise the urgency for Congress to take up President Biden’s funding request for Ukraine.
I had a chance to team up with The Hill’s budget reporter, Aris Folley, on how a divided GOP is tip-toeing around the White House request for more Ukraine aid.
But before those stories, I had the chance to sit down with Britain’s Ambassador to the U.S., Dame Karen Pierce, who granted me the freedom to ask a wide-range of questions from drilling down on the specifics of U.S. and U.K. cooperation to her experiences — good and bad — with her Russian counterparts.
“I think there’s something very important, representationally, about people like the Russians, like dictators, like rapists, seeing powerful women in powerful, and well understood high level positions,” Pierce said. “Because it shows that something is going right, and I think that can give hope and comfort to other women who may not be so fortunate. But I would hope it would also put some of the perpetrators on notice that they can’t have it all their own way.”
There have been many stories in between those highlighted here, and a few interesting ones! I’ve listed those below.
While the elections finished and the holiday season is set to begin, I hope everyone is able to go into their Thanksgiving vacation with calm, preparedness, and little to no travel issues.
—Laura
Personal: Laura.Kelly516@gmail.com
Work: LKelly@thehill.com
Twitter: @HelloLauraKelly
Blinken to travel to Qatar for World Cup under shadow of human rights criticisms
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Qatar to attend the World Cup as it kicks off in Doha while also launching a bilateral dialogue with Qatari officials.
Blinken is the first official the Biden administration has announced it is sending to the soccer tournament, which is taking place under a shadow of controversy and human rights criticisms, even as Qatar is being commended for efforts to address such concerns.
British envoy: UK ‘looking closely’ at trade with US absent major agreement
November 14, 2022
Dame Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to Washington, says the United Kingdom is not holding its breath for a free trade agreement with the U.S. in the wake of Brexit, a rare thorn in the “special” relationship.
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“The British government has said that they understand President Biden’s desire to focus on domestic issues, so we have not got a timetable for pushing negotiations on a free trade agreement,” she said.
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Pierce said that the U.S. and U.K. “share perspectives and we share proposals” on each country’s relations with China, and “we look for points of alignment — of which there are many — and where we disagree, it’s a good opportunity to talk about why we disagree and can we better align on certain aspects.”
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“We can have some quite fierce arguments about individual policies,” she continued, “but fundamentally the bedrock is always there and the direction of travel is always the same, and it’s always up, even if individual issues cause a bit of a blip.”
Retired Marine generals call on Schumer to compensate Beirut bombing victims
November 15, 2022
Seven retired four-star generals from the U.S. Marine Corps are urging Senate leaders to include victims and the families of victims from the 1983 Beirut attack on the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in legislation delivering $3 billion to 9/11 families.
The generals are calling for the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act to be amended to include the families of victims of the Beirut terrorist attack.
“None of us object to further helping 9/11 families, but we do object to inadvertently leaving the Beirut families behind,” the military leaders wrote in the letter, sent last week and obtained exclusively by The Hill.
Saudi Arabia unfazed by US backlash on oil as Russia reaps benefits
October 21, 2022
Saudi Arabia shows no sign of backing down in the face of U.S. pushback to its decision to cut oil production, part of Riyadh’s strategy to flex its foreign policy influence more forcefully.
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Experts say Riyadh is trying to find a balance between the U.S. and Russia, concerned that Washington is retreating from the Middle East but cautious to avoid severing the relationship completely.
“The Saudis have tried to thread the needle between the Americans and the Russians, in part because they are distrustful of the United States,” said Samuel Ramani, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a long-term rift, it’s just going to be one of those major ups and downs in the American-Saudi relationship, and, today, here’s another down.”
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“They’ve been really interested in strategic diversification, in reaching out to other powers,” said Hussein Ibish, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
“Over the last 10 to 15 years, [Riyadh] slowly developed this sense that the U.S. is checking out, even though it has this huge military apparatus in the region, it’s sort of checked out in a way.”
Thanks for making it to the end!
I had a chance to visit the “Iran Rising” protest art exhibit that was on display in Georgetown over the weekend. The two-day gallery showing was deeply emotional and a grassroots effort organized by local, Iranian women and the National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI).
