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Chairman of the Russian Business Group B20: G20 Summit Will Resolve Pressing Global Issues

President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin | Asharq Al-Awsat
President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin | Asharq Al-Awsat
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Chairman of the Russian Business Group B20: G20 Summit Will Resolve Pressing Global Issues

President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin | Asharq Al-Awsat
President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs Alexander Shokhin | Asharq Al-Awsat

The President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and Chairman of the Russian Business Group B20, Alexander Shokhin, stressed that the effective approach on cooperation undertaken by the G20 under Saudi Presidency will contribute decisively to pressing global issues.

G20 cooperation looms over issues like addressing the coronavirus pandemic, saving the international economy, and helping poor countries.

Shokhin added that it also works on strengthening Saudi-Russian economic relations and simplifying international cooperation in various sectors of the global economy.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, the Russian diplomat noted that the G20 had unlocked better opportunities for cooperation between Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Despite all challenges that surfaced in 2020, the space for practical cooperation between Russia and the Kingdom is expanding, said Shokhin.

He mentioned a host of areas that are open for increased cooperation, and they included building on a circular carbon economy, investing in infrastructure, developing nature-based solutions, advancing digitization, and implementing comprehensive industrial modernization.

“I am sure that the new level of understanding that we have reached in our countries, despite all the challenges this year, will provide new opportunities for our practical cooperation in fields of common interest,” Shokhin asserted to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Regarding the expected plan for channeling G20 Summit results to benefit joint Saudi-Russian projects, Shokhin said it lies at the core of making use of multilateral institutions for international cooperation.

This, according to Shokhin, will reduce the risks of inappropriate and separate policies aimed at gaining unilateral benefits.

“Lessons learned and experiences gained this year will help find the best way to succeed at a time of fundamental change and challenges,” Shokhin said on the framework produced by the G20 2020 Riyadh Summit.

Shokhin also said he believes that the concept of the circular carbon economy developed by the Saudi Presidency at the B20 will lead to the sustainable development of the global energy sector, enabling a balanced and sustainable development of various sectors of the global economy.

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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
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Hochstein to Asharq Al-Awsat: Land Border Demarcation between Lebanon, Israel ‘is Within Reach’

AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon
AFP file photo of Amos Hochstein speaking to reporters at the Grand Serail in Beirut, Lebanon

The former US special envoy, Amos Hochstein, said the maritime border agreement struck between Lebanon and Israel in 2022 and the ceasefire deal reached between Israel and Hezbollah at the end of last year show that a land border demarcation “is within reach.”

“We can get to a deal but there has to be political willingness,” he said.

“The agreement of the maritime boundary was unique because we’d been trying to work on it for over 10 years,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“I understood that a simple diplomatic push for a line was not going to work. It had to be a more complicated and comprehensive agreement. And there was a real threat that people didn’t realize that if we didn’t reach an agreement we would have ended up in a conflict - in a hot conflict - or war over resources.”

He said there is a possibility to reach a Lebanese-Israeli land border agreement because there’s a “provision that mandated the beginning of talks on the land boundary.”

“I believe with concerted effort they can be done quickly,” he said, adding: “It is within reach.”

Hochstein described communication with Hezbollah as “complicated,” saying “I never had only one interlocutor with Hezbollah .... and the first step is to do shuttle diplomacy between Lebanon, Lebanon and Lebanon, and then you had to go to Israel and do shuttle diplomacy between the different factions” there.

“The reality of today and the reality of 2022 are different. Hezbollah had a lock on the political system in Lebanon in the way it doesn’t today.”

North of Litani

The 2024 ceasefire agreement requires Israel to withdraw from Lebanon and for the Lebanese army to take full operational control of the south Litani region, all the way up to the border. It requires Hezbollah to demilitarize and move further north of the Litani region, he said.

“I don’t want to get into the details of other violations,” he said, but stated that the ceasefire works if both conditions are met.

Lebanon’s opportunity

“Lebanon can rewrite its future ... but it has to be a fundamental change,” he said.

“There is so much potential in Lebanon and if you can bring back opportunity and jobs - and through economic and legal reforms in the country - I think that the future is very bright,” Hochstein told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Hezbollah is not trying to control the politics and remember that Hezbollah is just an arm of Iran” which “should not be imposing its political will in Lebanon, Israel should not be imposing its military will in Lebanon, Syria should not. No one should. This a moment for Lebanon to make decisions for itself,” he added.