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Off the Radar News Roundup

Judah Grunstein | Bio | 19 Nov 2009

- China plays both sides of the DMZ, hosting the speaker of the ROK Parliament and a high-level DPRK military envoy at the same time.

- New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key has refused to meet with the Dalai Lama, explaining, "The reason simply is I've decided that I wouldn't get a lot out of that particular meeting.I've seen him in the past, I may see him in the future." If there's a foreign policy equivalent of Maslow's pyramid of needs, defending human rights would figure on the high end. That's why the Dalai Lama will have an easier time getting meetings during times of prosperity than in times of hardship.

- Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou said he's in no rush to reach a final political settlement with China, citing the removal of Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan as one condiiton for final talks.

- Ukraine is dipping into IMF loan money to fend of a repeat of last winter's "gas wars."

- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated that Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu does not trust Turkey in the way that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert did. The interesting thing here is the way identifying the problem as Netanyahu, and not Israel, in some ways downgrades it to a personal issue, as opposed to an affair of state. Erdogan also judged a French mediation role as unlikely to pass muster in Damascus.

Researched by Kari Lipschutz.