China’s president is back in the spotlight. After retreating to the beaches of Beidaihe for an annual not-so-secret meeting with senior Chinese leaders and officials, and after weeks of absence from the front pages of the People’s Daily, President Xi Jinping is front and center again, performing his usual displays of strength. He appeared at the end of a three-day Central Military Commission meeting, delivering a speech that offered the usual pomp and circumstance about the People’s Liberation Army and how it should resist corruption and how it should remain steadfastly loyal to the Chinese Communist Party. But perhaps more interesting are the reports from Bloomberg and Sinocism that Xi emerged from his Beidaihe conclave convinced that the United States, for all its talk on compromising on trade, is trying to keep China weak. If true, it would suggest upcoming low-level U.S.-China talks on trade won’t go anywhere.
Unknown assailants conducted four separate attacks in Chechnya on Monday, each featuring a different attack profile – a car ramming, a suicide bombing, a shootout and a knife attack. None of them appear to have been especially successful. The suicide bomber succeeded only in killing himself, and in total only one police officer died. Events such as these are not unheard of. What makes this particular spate of attacks notable is the attempt at coordination.
The Turkish lira is not out of the woods yet. Off of downgrades to Turkey’s foreign currency sovereign credit rating by Standard & Poor’s and its long-term issuer rates by Moody’s, the lira was down 1.5 percent to about 6 on the dollar in trading on Monday. It’s better than the lows of last week, but it’s also a confirmation that the central bank’s efforts to allay the concerns of the market are not yet working. The latest of these measures, reportedly agreed to on Friday but announced only on Sunday by Qatar’s central bank, is a currency swap deal that al Jazeera estimates will be worth around $3 billion. This is part of the $15 billion Qatar pledged to invest in Turkey last week.
Honorable Mentions
- Grexit is finally here, though not the one most feared: Greece officially left its third and last European bailout program on Monday.
- Japan’s defense minister met with India’s defense minister in New Delhi to discuss ways to enhance military cooperation. His next stop is Sri Lanka.
- Russian military forces in the eastern and central military districts were placed on high alert in a snap combat readiness check ahead of planned military drills.
- German and Russian media are rife with speculation about potential ramifications of the Merkel-Putin visit from over the weekend.
- Brazil deployed soldiers and extra police to quell riots in Brazil against Venezuelan refugee camps, while Ecuador attempted to stem the tide of Venezuelan migrants by enforcing new entry requirements.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this analysis misstated a provision of the Qatar-Turkey deal. The $3 billion debt swap is part of the $15 billion investment pledge. We have updated our figures accordingly.
