Extracts. Iranian FM Highlights Relations with China Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi has said that the relations between Iran and China have kept developing over the past three decades, the official IRNA news agency reported on Friday. Kharazi made the remarks on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the diplomatic relations between the countries, which fell on Thursday. He noted that Iran and China have witnessed a "broad horizon of multi-faceted cooperation, which has led to the elimination of many problems in the two countries." The governments and private sectors of both countries are fully entangled in political, economic and cultural cooperation, he added, expressing hope for ever-onward trend of boosting the bilateral comprehensive relations. The Iranian minister thanked China for the warm welcome to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's internationally acknowledged initiative for dialog among civilizations. Iran and China are among the world's first civil societies and " actually pioneered the freedom-seeking moves of different nations in the course of the past millennium," he stressed. "The two great civilizations' mutual influence on each other, as well as all the other living civilizations, has been so deep-rooted and at grassroots level that various historic and political ups and downs have never succeeded in downgrading them," Kharazi said. Iran and China established diplomatic relations on August 16, 1971. Since Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Tehran-Beijing relations have strengthened in various fields. Last year, their trade volume stood at a record high of 2.5 billion U.S. dollars. **** China Urges Strengthening of Biological Weapons Convention Chinese Ambassador for Disarmament Affairs Hu Xiaodi expressed deep regret on Friday that no substantive negotiations took place during the 24th Session of the Ad Hoc Group of State Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention. The 24th Session, which started on July 23 and is scheduled to close today, was expected to conclude a Protocol through multilateral global negotiations to strengthen the Convention. However, the Protocol negotiations are now suffering a serious setback. The reason for this situation is well known, said Hu. The position of one country, which possesses nearly half of all the bio-industry and bio-defense facilities in the world, is making substantive negotiations impossible, Hu added. He said the Chinese delegation remains convinced that a balanced and effective protocol concluded through multilateral negotiations is of critical importance to strengthening the effectiveness of the Biological Weapons Convention in a comprehensive manner. The Chinese ambassador said that no matter what decision will be made in the future, this mandate should serve as the basis and operational direction for our work. "We noted that the country concerned claimed that it has not abandoned its commitment to strengthening the Convention," said Hu, "We sincerely hope such rhetoric will soon be translated into concrete action." **** Kim Jong Il Returns Home After Russian Visit North Korea's leader Kim Jong Il returned home on August 18 after ending a 24-day train journey through Russia, Pyongyang announced. "Kim Jong Il... returned home Saturday after successfully wrapping up his official visit to the Russian Federation," the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and the National Defense Commission said in a joint statement. Kim left Russia at 8:50 am (2250 GMT Friday) via the Friendship bridge into North Korea after attending a reception given for him by the governor of the Primoria region in the far east, Sergei Darkin. "Leaving your country, I'd like to express deep thanks to you for cordial hospitality accorded to us," Kim said in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he held talks during the visit. "Our recent meeting in the first year of the new century has provided a historic occasion of further developing the cooperative relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and Russia and ensuring peace and security in Asia and the rest of the world," said the message carried by the Korean Central News Agency. "I am convinced that the traditional long-standing and close relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries, which have continued generation after generation and century after century, will grow stronger and develop in the spirit agreed upon between the two sides." The DPRK leader, 59, arrived in Russia on July 26 and covered more than 20,000 kilometres (12,000 miles) for his Russian trip. He left Moscow on August 8 after talks with Putin to begin his return trip to Pyongyang. Kim is general secretary of the Workers' Party, chairman of the powerful National Defence Commission. **** Iraq Urges UN to Approve Its Plan to Aid Palestinian Uprising Iraq has called on the United Nations to approve its plan to provide a financial aid of 1 billion euros (some 930 million US dollars) to support the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) reported on Saturday. In a letter to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed urged him to "exert utmost efforts to get the immediate approval" to allocate 1 billion euors from Iraq's oil proceeds to buy food, medicine and other essential needs for the Palestinian people. "The Palestinian people's crisis resulting from the daily Zionist (Israeli) aggression needs to be supported by the international community," Ahmed said in the letter. Ahmed also accused the United States and Britain of blocking the Iraqi aid plan to "inflict more harm on Palestine." Iraq, though under sweeping U.N. sanctions since 1990, announced on December 9 last year to grant 1 billion euros from Iraq's oil revenue under the U.N. oil-for-food program to support the Palestinian people. The program, launched in 1996, allows Iraq to sell oil and use part of the revenue to buy food, medicine and other basic needs to offset the impact of the sanctions, imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of neighboring Kuwait. Iraq has shown vehement support for the Palestinians' anti- Israeli uprising that erupted last September. Nearly 700 people, mostly Palestinians, have been killed in the nearly 11 months of the bloody clashes between the Palestinian protestors and the Israeli soldiers. **** China to Launch 6 Weather Satellites Before 2008 China will begin from next year to launch 6 weather satellites in succession to provide all-round weather service for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. According to Beijing Evening reports, the Fengyun 1 D satellite (Fengyun means wind and cloud in Chinese) is to be launched by Long March 4 rocket carrier before next June. The satellite will offer weather service for 2008 Olympics by providing long and short term weather reports and air environment analysis, says Li Huang, vice director of China Meteorological Administration. As is known from the National Satellite Meteorological Center, China will launch another 5 satellites before 2008, they are FY 2 C in 2003, FY 3 A in 2004, FY 3 B and FY 3 C in 2006 and FY 3 C in 2008. Nearly every year there is a satellite to be launched to guarantee Olympic success. With a service life of 2 to 3 years, these satellites will monitor and forecasts sand storm, tornado, thunder and lightning and air quality, as well as heavy rain, thunderstorm and hailstone. **** Zimbabwean Government to Give Farmers More Land The Zimbabwean government will acquire an extra 8.3 million hectares of land from white farmers to resettle landless Zimbabweans, the East African Standard newspaper reported on Saturday. The program which has so far benefited 100,000 families will continue, Joseph Msika, Zimbabwe's vice president and chairman of Land Acquisition Committee, was quoted as saying at a press conference here. "The question of land is paramount to our people. The white man did not come to Zimbabwe carrying land, that is why they should share their idle land. We have refused to be arm-twisted by the British on the issue," he said. He said that there are 4,500 commercial white farmers occupying 12.5 million hectares of land and 12 million black Zimbabweans living on 16 million hectares. Msika, who was on a brief stopover in Nairobi to Uganda, said that for two decades they attempted to resolve land problems with the British government without success. When the white commercial workers refused to share the land, the government took it from them, he stressed. **** Leaders of 5 African Countries Arrive in Uganda for Smart Dialogue Leaders of five African countries have arrived here to attend the 2001 Global Smart Partnership International Dialogue, scheduled later Saturday at the Speke Resort in Kampala. The leaders included President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Omer al-Bashir of the Sudan, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Bakili Muluzi of Malawi and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa. Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia, Hage Geingob of Namibia, Sibusiso Dlamini of Swaziland and Bernard Makuza of Rwanda, and Zimbabwean Vice-President Joseph Musika also arrived Saturday afternoon. Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi is expected to arrive here Sunday and Botswana President Festus Mogae will be here on Monday. The heads of state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lesotho will not attend the dialogue, but will be represented by high-profile officials. Over 600 participants from 23 countries will attend the four- day business dialogue. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the host patron for and advisor to the Global 2001 Dialogue, which will run from August 18 to 21 under the theme "Enhancing the Climate for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) through Smart Partnership". The delegates will also discuss the challenges and bottlenecks of enhancing FDI. The dialogue aims to bring together government and private sectors to enhance business and investment in the developing world through smart and forward looking partnership. Objectives that smart partnership stands for are described as sustainable, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. The first smart partnership took place in Langkawi, Malaysia in November 2000. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
