MACRON ON FIRST OFFICIAL CHINA VISIT
In Mandarin, Emmanuel Macron’s name is rendered “Makelong,” or “the horse vanquishes the dragon”— an encouraging image for the French president as he heads to China on Sunday hoping to forge closer ties with President Xi Jinping. During the three- day trip which begins Monday, Macron plans to seek a “strategic partnership” with Beijing, notably on terrorism and climate change, an official in the president’s office said. In particular, France is hoping Beijing will join it in playing a decisive role in implementing the Paris accord to fight climate change after the US pullout pledged by President Donald Trump. Although China is the world’s biggest polluter, it is also the biggest investor in clean energy technologies. Macron also said this week that China had a key leadership role to play in easing the crisis provoked by North Korea’s nuclear program, following Trump’s escalating war of words with Kim Jong-Un. Macron will also ask Beijing to help support the G5 Sahel force being created with forces from Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mauritania, tasked with fighting jihadist forces spread across an area of desert the size of Europe. China has already become a key business partner across Africa, with total investments reaching $31.6 billion in 2016 in projects including railways, highways, ports and power stations.
TURKEY TO REOPEN ICONIC ‘IRON CHURCH’ AFTER REVAMP
ISTANBUL: The leaders of Turkey and Bulgaria are Sunday due to reopen the Bulgarian St Stephen’s Church in Istanbul after seven years of restoration, in a gesture of harmony in an often turbulent relationship between the two neighbors. The Bulgarian Orthodox church in Balat, a historic Istanbul neighborhood on the shores of the Golden Horn traditionally home to Christians and Jews, was built in 1898 after its original wooden structure was destroyed in a fire. Made out of cast iron, the iconic ornate building has been dubbed the “Iron Church.” For President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who hosts Bulgaria’s conservative Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, the ceremony will be a riposte to charges that Turkey’s Islamic- rooted government does not do enough to protect the rights of Christian minorities and their heritage.
ECUADOR LAWMAKERS PICK NEW VP
QUITO: Ecuadorian lawmakers on Saturday picked a new vice president, Maria Vicuna, to replace Jorge Glas, who has been jailed for six years for graft. Vicuna, who has been in the post on an acting basis, won the support of 70 of the 137-member legislature. She was to be sworn in Saturday (Sunday in Manila). Glas, 48, automatically lost his title on Wednesday because he was absent from his post for more than the three months permitted under Ecuador’s constitution—because of his incarceration and pre-trial detention. He is the highest-ranking Latin American politician to be convicted and imprisoned in a regional scandal involving a Brazilian construction group, Odebrecht, which gave bribes to secure public works contracts. He was given a six-year sentence on December 13 by Ecuador’s Supreme Court after being found guilty of receiving $13.5 million in Odebrecht kickbacks. He says he is innocent and will appeal. But, taking into account his detention since October 2 pending his trial, he has not been able to carry out his duties for over three months.