European Union split down the middle.

0:00 Speaker 1 What is today is Mariosonomo, a banker out of Zurich, London, New York, and he usually gives us an update on Sunday mornings and Mario, what is going on in Europe?

0:16 Speaker 2 Yes, good morning, Cats around table. A lot of interesting things continue to happen in Europe. This past week saw some very large demonstrations in the Czech Republic where hundreds of thousands of people showed up to protest the failed energy policy of the country, which has resulted in astronomically high energy bills that the people cannot afford. Spain has

0:41 also been seeing protests, specifically professionals protesting about working rights and conditions regarding the cost of living there as well. France continues to see huge protests in the streets where people are upset about the increase the retirement age from sixty two to sixty four. So generally speaking, we are seeing some unrest in Europe. Across Europe. I think one

1:11 of the things we need to touch on today is a visit that the NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg had earlier this past week in the Ukraine, where he basically said that the upcoming summer NATO conference in Lithuania, Ukraine’s joining of NATO will be discussed, and the view and the statements that have been presented from both sides, meaning the

1:36 Ukraine and NATO, is that the Ukraine should become a member of NATO. Of course, Russia has responded to that and said that in fact, if that does happen, it only proves the case as to why they did invade the Ukraine in order to protect their interests in their country, and they said that if in fact that were to happen,

1:56 this war will continue indefinitely. We can touch on one other thing as well, and that is specifically in Turkey we’ve seen, or rather in Turkia we have to say the name correctly. We’ve seen two things happen this week.

2:09 We’ve seen that the Biden administration has actually approved a very limited upgrade to their F sixteen fleet, and specifically that in communication statements that the F sixteen fleet was not going to be modernized or upgraded are in fact true. However, they did give them an upgrade on the communications, meaning these jets can now communicate with each other better in

2:31 the skies. We also did see and it looks like the Biden administration is trying to soften the blow on the Hawk Bank, the Haulk Bank situation. There was a bank there which was going to be charged in the US criminal courts for evading sanctions against Iran and specifically for trading with Iran. It looks like now the prosecutors

2:55 in the US are going to relook at that case and they’re going to most likely not proceed with an actual indictment of the bank. It’s important to point out that that specific bank, the son in law of President Erdigon is involved in it, so this is actually a pretty big development. One other thing we can also touch on,

3:15 and this is where we should probably end our discussion today, and that is specifically Germany and France and the different direction they are both taking with respect to what President Macron referred to as European autonomy, specifically a Europe that’s not going to be a vassal state of the US. Germany, for their part, and specifically through Foreign Minister Berbach and

3:38 her recent visit to China. She came back and she actually made some pretty pretty bold statements, and specifically that even though China remains Germany’s greatest trading partner, she does not believe Germany should trade with China at any cost.

3:57 Her view is that Germany should trade with China only if China actually accepts the responsibility it has towards working working towards peace in the world, and particularly using its influence over Russia and the war in the Ukraine. This is very different than the position that Francis Macron has taken, and specifically that Europe needs to remain autonomous. Europe should

4:22 not be getting involved in situations in Taiwan and specifically if Europe cannot resolve the issue in the Ukraine, why is it basically following America down the path of getting involved in other conflicts that take it out of its that take it out of its part of the world region of influence. So we see in Europe now a

4:44 Germany and a France which are on completely different sides of the spectrum, specifically with future foreign policy engagement and wars.

4:56 Speaker 1 So I don’t mind, I’m just trying. I’m trying. Look at this, Mario. I’m foundos at this from one hundred thousand feet Europe represented by France and Germany, one of more independent Europe and more independent ec and then you have China in Russia, are allying with the oh Bet communities or the Middle East communities. So does that mean

5:34 US is isolated?

5:35 Speaker 2 I mean, as it stands right now, it looks like the only real allies the US has. And we’ve seen this, by the way, with the League of those Pentagon papers, where we saw that Egypt, who is a strong ally of the US, was actually planning on secretly selling weapons to Russia rather ammunitions to Russia. It looks like the

5:55 only real people that are standing next to the US at the moment are the Europeans. And this comes back to what we’ve said for many programs now that it doesn’t benefit the US to only have Europe on its side, and it doesn’t benefit the Europeans to basically only have the Americans. Both people need to actually work with different

6:20 countries in the world in order to be able to achieve their goals.

6:26 Speaker 1 Well, Mario, you know, I mean I am concerned because it looks like the Saudis are aligning themselves in one way and we don’t really know where Chucky stands. And well, I think we’re dealing with serious business, Mario.

6:47 Speaker 2 Yes, I think we are. I think the situation’s not good. We know we’ve seen now a couple of weeks ago, Honduras, which was one of fourteen countries that actually had an embassy of Taiwan in it, has told the Taiwanese embassy to essentially shut down and to remove their personnel because it’s now going to align itself with China, whom it

7:07 has said, is actually going to invest in Honduras. It’s going to provide them with energy, it’s going to provide them with investments. So you know, we’re now seeing the Chinese actually coming into our part of the world, or rather the American part of the world in this hemisphere, and actively involving themselves.

7:27 Speaker 1 We’re out of time. But one more statement I wanted to make. It looks like Pakistan is starting to buy from China or Russia a more crude oil.

7:36 Speaker 2 Yes, they’re buying discounted cruit from the Russians. That’s correct, and that comes as no surprise. Many countries in the world are doing that, and the Russians are going to essentially flood them with cheap crude, cheap natural gas, and plenty of wheat to keep their people fed, fed and not hungry. This, of course will have an impact on

7:54 the relations with the US.

7:56 Speaker 1 Thank you, Mario Kunomo. We’ll catch up again real soon.