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Off the Radar News Roundup

Judah Grunstein | Bio | 18 Nov 2009

- After meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao calls the G-2 appelation premature, saying everyone should remain "sober-minded" about it.

- After going online in August 2009, the Chinese Defense Ministry's Web site was cyberattacked 2.3 million times in the first month. Payback? (Much more of interest in a People's Daily interview with the site's editor.)

- China and Vietnam signed an agreement definitively demarcating their 800-mile land border, a process that took 10 years. They agreed to continue negotiations regarding their maritime boundary disputes. It's important to remember when considering China's rise that in addition to domestic separatist movements and the unresolved cross-Strait situation, China has a host of disputed land and maritime borders with serious strategic implications.

- China's vice premier was in Damascus to sign trade and aid deals. Access to markets is about the only leverage the U.S. has in Syria.

- Japan's DPJ seems to be steadily walking back from its confrontational stance on the Futenma base closure agreement.

- New Delhi issued a statement in response to the U.S.-China joint declaration's pledge to "support the improvement and growth of relations between India and Pakistan," saying it considered the matter a bilateral dispute that did not call for a third-party role. India is very, very sensitive about this sort of language. Including it in the Obama-Hu statement seems like yet another U.S. diplomatic protocol gaffe. Who's in charge of the language here?

- Pakistan is set to unveil the home-built JF-17 fighter jet, jointly developed with China. Islamabad has already decided to buy the next-gen fighters from China outright.

- Georgia considers re-opening its only legal border crossing with Russia to trade.

- Medvedev restates last year's targets for Russian military. Kind of like restating New Year's resolutions.

- A UAE delegation will visit Ukraine in two weeks to scout farm-leasing deals. Soon we will all be growing wheat for oil sheiks?

- Mozambican opposition claims massive fraud in recent landslide election victory for incumbent president.

- Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed disappointment over U.S.-China climate change declaration.

Researched by Kari Lipschutz.