Argus Geopolitical Intel

Osaka is to to host the G20 Summit scheduled as the incumbent President, scheduled for June 28 & 29, welcoming leaders from 37 countries and international organizations. On February 4, just 150 days before this historical event, the Kansai Promotion Council for the 2019 G20 Osaka Summit and the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau co-sponsored the “G20 Osaka Summit Forum” in Osaka.  The host country of the G20 summit leads the group over the course of one year from December through the following November as the G20 presidency. The G20 presidency also organizes relevant ministerial and working group meetings. It is the first time for Japan to take on the G20 presidency. Click Here for more information

Image Credit: ©Airbus 2017 | Photo by S. Ramadier Airbus and China Aviation Supplies Holding Company (CAS) have signed a General Terms Agreement (GTA) covering the purchase by Chinese airlines of a total of 300 Airbus aircraft. The GTA was signed in Paris by Guillaume Faury, President of Airbus Commercial Aircraft and future Airbus CEO, and Jia Baojun , Chairman of CAS, in the presence of visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron . According to Airbus’ latest China Market Forecast for 2018 to 2037, China will need some 7,400 new passenger and freighters aircraft in the next 20 years. It represents more than 19 percent of the world total demand for over 37,400 new aircraft. By the end of January 2019, the in-service Airbus fleet with Chinese operators totaled some 1,730 aircraft, of which 1,455 are A320 Family, and 17 are A350 XWB Family planes. The new GTA comprises of 290 A320 Family aircraft and 10 A350 XWB Family aircraft, reflecting the strong dema...

Image Credit: Creative Commons Two Russian military aircraft have landed in Venezuela 's main airport on Saturday [23/03/2019] reportedly carrying "a significant number of troops" and vast amounts of military equipment, three months after the two nations held joint military exercises.   The party line delivered via Sputnik , Russia's news agency is that the aircraft are in Venezuela to "fulfill technical military contracts" Russia has long been an ally of Venezuela, supporting the South American nation with billions of dollars and backing its military & oil industries. Russia has also been politically vocal by opposing a US plan to issue crippling sanctions against Maduro ´s government.

Image Credit: Creative Commons Theresa May will make a last ditch plea to European Union leaders for a postponement to Brexit and try to persuade the other 27 countries to delay the UK's exit beyond 29 March albeit "a matter of great personal regret". Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn is also coincidentally due in Brussels for separate Brexit talks. The worry is that European Council President Donald Tusk has already said he believed the EU would agree to a short extension, but this would only be if Mrs May's deal is signed off by MPs next week. While another EU summit could be called in an emergency if needed, he said.   Mr Tusk went on to say that the "question remains open" as to how long a delay the other EU leaders would support. The upshot is that if May cant get parliamentary support for the third "meaningful vote" (if she can get it passed Speaker, Burcow ) then there will be no extension to Article 50 and the UK will come bouncing out of the...

Image Credit: Creative Commons Hungary 's total defiance of EU policies will face a new test on Wednesday when the European Parliament's biggest bloc decides whether to expel the Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban , part of the centre-right European People's Party bloc. For many right-wing, anti-immigration parties, Mr Orban is a hero for regularly castigating Brussels. Parodied by many as Europe's Trump , as he sees the EU "threatened" by Muslim migrants, who are kept out of Hungary.

Image Credit: Creative Commons Boeing should have addressed the issues after the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October by grounding all 737 MAX aircraft ahead of any FAA concerns. The problems appear to relate to a policy by Boeing to avoid 737 pilots having to re-certify their credentials to qualify to fly the new MAX generation.  Aircrews were totally ignorant of the existence of the aircraft's automated systems and were therefore unable to turn them off. It finally took Trump to issue an executive order to ground all Boeing 737 MAX Series with immediate effect - probably the best decision by him in his so far un-illustrious Presidency.

Image Credit: Creative Commons Germany's two largest financial institutions Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank have convened formal talks about a merger ending months of speculation. A merger could result in massive cost savings, in particular by closing branches. But critics say integrating the firms would be "complicated and risky".  The German government which owns a 15.5% stake in Commerzbank, acquired after the bank was bailed out following the financial crisis, seems to be in favour of a deal. German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz has urged the two to consider merging, as he believes Germany needs a national champion in the banking sector. Combined the banks would have one fifth of Germany's High Street banking business and control €1.8 trillion of assets, such as loans and investments.

Image Credit: Creative Commons AssociatedPress : Three months after Sudan ese protesters rose up against President Omar al-Bashir , the longtime autocrat has bound himself more tightly to the military and refuses to bow to their demands. The wily 74-year-old has remained in power through three decades of war and sanctions, the secession of Sudan ’s oil-rich south in 2011 and an international arrest warrant for genocide and war crimes linked to the Darfur conflict. But since December he has faced the biggest protests of his long rule, with political parties and unions demanding his removal and demonstrators chanting slogans from the 2011 Arab Spring .

GEO´_Compass™ - Country Report SRI LANKA 2020 ... Sri Lanka (Formerly Ceylon) officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the south-west of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo. Sri Lanka's documented history spans 3,000 years, with evidence of prehistoric human settlements dating back to at least 125,000 years. Belize is an independent and sovereign country located on the north eastern coast of Central America. To receive the full Report direct to your inbox please Click Here to Register Free

Image Credit: Creative Commons This time last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel and Russia had agreed to cooperate on withdrawing foreign forces from Syria. If confirmed, it would mean that Russia has agreed to force the Iranians out of Syria, a significant development for both Israel and the war itself, made even more critical, with the looming talks between Turkey, Iran and Russia to find a settlement. Russia has yet to confirm or deny Israel´s position but it seems highly unlikely that Israel would commit such a school boy error. Israel wants Iran out of Syria, but it also wants accommodation with Russia. And the two countries have already shown some degree of cooperation in their Syrian operations. Israel has likely provided Russia with advance notice of its airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria, and so far, Russia has not blocked or notified the Iranians about the strikes.

Image Credit: Creative Commons GEO´_Insights™ The Reality Inside Maduro´s Venezuela ...  To receive the full Report direct to your inbox please Click Here to Register Free

Image Credit: Creative Commons Facebook appears to be recovering from a 14+ hour hiatus affecting all its products leaving them mostly inaccessible across the world. The company's main social network, its two messaging apps and image-sharing site Instagram were all affected. Facebook has yet to offer an explanation for the outage. The last time Facebook had a disruption of this magnitude was in 2008, when the site had 150m users compared with around 2.3bn monthly users today. The problems began yesterday afternoon [13 March 2019] and only showed real signs of recovery this morning. They meant core platforms many people rely on every day to communicate were rendered mostly useless.

Image Credit: Creative Commons The head of the Saud i human rights commission has said that the KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ] had brought the "perpetrators of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi " to justice; having rejected any international role into the probe. Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban told the U.N. Human Rights Council that those accused of the "heinous crime" and "unfortunate accident" at its Istanbul consulate had attended three hearings so far with their lawyers present, but gave no names or details. Khashoggi , a columnist for The Washington Post and a critic of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul on 2nd October last year, provoking an international outcry. Saudia Arabia 's uncooperative approach has been consistent since Khashoggi was murdered. The kingdom first started with repeated denials, claiming that Khashoggi was not killed at all. A...

Image Credit: Creative Commons Hundreds of protesters have marched through the Algeria n capital Algiers demanding President Abdelaziz Bouteflika ' s immediate resignation. Mr Bouteflika has dropped his bid for a fifth term, but protesters are demanding he step down now, accusing him of a ploy to prolong his 20-year rule.

Image Credit: Pixabay Chinese hackers are alleged to have targeted universities around the world in a bid to steal naval secrets. A total of 27 institutions, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are understood to have been singled out by a cyber-espionage group. Security research company iDefence says hackers sent malicious emails to their targets. A report by the Accenture-owned unit iDefense, first obtained by the Wall Street Journal, claims Chinese hackers carried out a targeted campaign against institutions in the US, Canada and South East Asia. While the full list of universities has not been revealed, iDefense says they share a common interest in research on underwater warfare technology - particularly the launching of submarine missiles. The attackers used a technique called "spear phishing", which involved sending emails that were made to look like they had been sent by other universities, but which contained malware that allowed the hackers to ...

Image Credit: Creative Commons Venezuela 's President Nicolás Maduro has vowed to defeat a "crazed minority" that wants to remove him from power. In a challenge to opposition leader Juan Guaidó , he called for "anti-imperialist marches" on Saturday to coincide with anti-government protests. Mr Maduro's comments were the first since Mr Guaidó defied him and returned to the country on Monday. Separately, the US said it was considering imposing new sanctions to pressure Mr Maduro to give up power .

Image Credit: Creative Commons Former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has left prison in Japan on bail, more than three months after being arrested. A Tokyo court made the surprise ruling to allow his release setting bail at 1bn yen ($8.9m). Mr Ghosn has been charged with financial misconduct and aggravated breach of trust, but denies wrongdoing. The 64-year-old left the detention centre surrounded by guards, wearing a cap and white medical face mask. He was also wearing overalls and orange, reflective braces, making him barely recognisable by comparison to the smart-suit, shirt-and-tie attire he sported when running a global car-making empire with 470,000 employees, selling 10.6 million vehicles in 2017 from 122 factories.

Image Credit: Creative Commons The opposition centre-right Reform party has won Estonia 's general election, beating the ruling Centre. Reform, led by former MEP Kaja Kallas , took about 29% of the vote to 23% for the Centre in Sunday's ballot. Meanwhile the far-right Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE), which has called for a referendum on EU membership, came a close third. Ms Kallas - set to be Estonia's first female prime minister - said all coalition options were on the table, she went on to insist EKRE were "not a choice for us". Nearly a quarter of Estonia's 881,000 eligible voters cast their ballots by e-voting. Results from e-voting gave Reform an even higher score.

Image Credit: Creative Commons GEO´_Insights™ What really happened to flight MH 370, Our Investigation To receive the full Report direct to your inbox please Click Here to Register Free