While German Foreign Min. Johann Wadephul was announcing new measures yesterday against Russia in response to an armed drone at the Leipzig airport, including increased pressure on Russia's shadow fleet, and while Czech Foreign Min. Petr Macinka was preparing to summon the Russian ambassador in protest over the Leipzig event, the heads of member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) were meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Their declaration, which isn't yet available in English, shows the world in quite a different light. It devotes a paragraph to energy cooperation and to the SCO's commitment to the development of a "non-discriminatory global energy market." The West, as witnessed by Wadephul's statement yesterday and by Donald Trump's support for the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, wants anything but a non-discriminatory global energy market. Czechs and other Europeans will find out just what such a market is once they're excluded from it. [ Organisation oil natural gas ]
Glossary of difficult words
shadow fleet - an unofficial network of aging, poorly maintained maritime vessels used by sanctioned nations - most notably Russia and Iran - to secretly export oil and other commodities and to bypass international trade restrictions.