CND Press Roundup - 7 January

• European warning
• Germany, France and Britain have said they are “deeply concerned” at Tehran’s stepping up of uranium enrichment, warning that the move carries “very significant” risks. In a joint statement, reported by Al Jazeera, the European trio said: “We strongly urge Iran to stop enriching uranium to up to 20 percent without delay, reverse its enrichment program to the limits agreed in the [agreement] and to refrain from any further escalatory steps which would further reduce the space for effective diplomacy.”

NATO 

• Key areas for 2021
• NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has outlined NATO’s key areas of focus for the new year, in an address to the Christian Social Union (CSU) group’s meeting in the German parliament. The ongoing covid pandemic, NATO’s military presence in Afghanistan, arms control, and transatlantic relations will be at the top of the Alliance’s agenda this year, he said. 
• European defence
• Max Bergmann, Senior Fellow at the Centre for American Progress and a former Obama State Department official, has argued in Foreign Affairs that Joe Biden should support an agenda of EU ‘strategic autonomy’, encouraging Europe to “integrate their defense capabilities through the EU.” With integrated EU defence, he writes, “NATO would likely be a stronger alliance and the EU a better global partner to the United States. The Biden administration should encourage this integration process to begin.”
• Stoltenberg on Washington chaos
• Stoltenberg said yesterday that the outcome of the “democratic [US presidential] election must be respected”, calling scenes in Washington “shocking”, The Hill reports.

Gulf relations

• Qatar position 
• After securing a deal with Saudi Arabia and its allies to end a three-year long dispute, Qatar has suggested that it will not alter its relations with Iran and Turkey—signalling that it has made few concessions. The Qatari foreign minister told the Financial Times that Doha has agreed to cooperate on counter-terrorism and “transnational security” with the Saudis and Emiratis, but that “bilateral relationships are mainly driven by a sovereign decision of the country… [and] the national interest.” 

Climate 

• Stabilisation of climate?
• A new report by scientists suggests that global heating may be stabilise within a couple of decades if net zero emissions is reached, challenging assumptions that further heating will be locked in for generations even if emissions are rapidly cut. Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University involved in the research, told the Guardian: “What this really means is that our actions have a direct and immediate impact on surface warming. It grants us agency, which is part of why it is so important to communicate this current best scientific understanding.”

To read/watch: 

• Nuclear diplomacy in the Biden administration (Rebecca Davis Gibbons, European Leadership Network) 
• Will the Sudden EU-China Deal Damage Relations With Biden? (Steven Erlanger, New York Times)
• The Debate over Sizewell C (video)