 Hello and welcome to daily debrief brought to you by People's Dispatch. I'm Pragya. Today we discuss the first China Arab Summit which is ongoing in Saudi Arabia. China and the Gulf Cooperation Council are also meeting. We'll bring you the relevant aspects of these discussions on this show. Next we've had enough that's the message from primary healthcare doctors in Madrid, Spain and finally the International Olympics Committee has said it won't lift sanctions on Russian and Belarusian athletes. High-level discussions are on between visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of the GCC in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. China's foreign ministry has called it the biggest diplomatic initiative between China and the Arab world. Xi's overtures to the Arab world are being seen as a significant intervention in shaping the region's orientation in the coming days. We'll go straight over to Abdul from People's Dispatch who's here with us to discuss what's happening there. So, Abdul, what are the main points of this discussion? Well, there are many things. First, the meeting, three days meeting, two and a half days meeting is divided into two basic parts. One is a bilateral emphasis on bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and China and they have already signed various deals worth around 30 billion dollars which basically expands from Belt and Road Initiative to the technology to cooperation in the fields of infrastructure, development and so on and so forth. It is a fact that the Saudi Arabia is trying to diversify its economy and investing away from the oil and gas fields which is basically the traditional dominant economic areas in Saudi Arabia and they are looking towards China to basically invest and provide other kind of support there. So, that is one part of this particular visit in the Arab world. The other is a very significant move of two different summits. One, specifically with Gulf Cooperation Council, the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council as a whole, they create the largest trading block with China. GCC and China are basically already involved in a huge bilateral trade but there is an attempt made to make it even bigger while there are discussions on creating a free trade agreement between the GCC and China. So, that is one part. Apart from that, there is an attempt by China to create a strategic relationship between GCC as a whole and China. So, that is one. As far as the summit between the Arab countries and China is concerned, they are primarily looking towards expanding the existing cooperation in areas such as built-in root cooperation, sorry, initiative, global development initiative, global security initiative. These are the different terms used by Chinese. These are the different kinds of large scale programs devised by the Chinese to create a global cooperation network with the developing countries all across the world. As for the Chinese perspective, Arab world is a very significant area where there is a huge prospect of creating strong and deeper roots of bilateral and multilateral relationships. Right. So, such a big diplomatic initiative. What would be the significance beyond the trade ties that they are trying to talk about? Well, there are many geo-strategic and geopolitical aspects of these different summits which are ongoing there. Particularly given the fact that in the last few months or maybe years, we have seen a realignment in the region when it comes to the global politics. Earlier this year, when Biden visited Saudi Arabia, there was an objective of kind of reducing, preventing OPEC to not reduce the overall oil production. We noticed that the Saudis did not give much importance to what the US was willing to. I was asking to. Given then there are other indications in which it is quite visible that the overall Arab countries are not very happy with the US attempts to constantly intervene. The US is involved in wars in Syria, US is involved in war in Yemen. It was involved in the war in Iraq. It has military presence and there is a constant talk about how US has used its influence, economic power and military power in the region to create conflicts, to kind of add to prolong the conflicts and has not been able to achieve any development when it comes to the core areas of conflict in Palestine and in other areas. So given the larger and also economically the investment which the Arab countries have been looking for from US and its European allies has not materialized. In that particular context, given the fact that China is an economic emerging power and it is emerging as the second largest economy and it is much more willing to invest in developing countries, there is some kind of vibe to shift towards orientation shift towards look east policies. So most of the Arab countries are trying to diversify their sources of investment and reduce their dependence on the United States and China, they see China as an alternative. So in that particular context, this summit is very significant and it may have, we are not sure about it but it may have a larger impact on the regional reorientation and the change in the global dynamics as well. Right, Abdul. Thanks a lot for joining us with that update. Thousands of health workers have been protesting in Madrid since November 21. Doctors working in primary healthcare have joined these protesters. They say longer working hours in public health translate into poor quality of healthcare. They say Madrid spends much less on health services than the rest of Spain. The strikers say it is not just about wages but recruitment across levels. They're warning that private healthcare cannot substitute underfunded public healthcare and they say that working conditions are at their worst state today, worse than even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Anna from People's Dismatch has been following the strike and she's here to tell us what the problems and demands are. Anna, thank you so much for joining us. Anna, what seems to be happening in Madrid seems to be a very, very important strike. The doctors have joined the healthcare workers in their protest. Can you just give us the reasons for the protest and also some of the reactions? What have been the responses? So, yes, you're quite right. This is something that actually has been building up for a couple of months now. We can say one of the major events that happened was on November 15 when thousands of people in Madrid protested against a reform of emergency services and in protection of universal and public healthcare. And so one week after that, so on November 21, doctors in primary healthcare, so family physicians and pediatricians in particular, launched a strike, an open-ended strike in order to warn about the worsening working conditions that they were facing because of lack of investment in this part of healthcare and also to advocate for improvements to be made to the system. So this is a strike that's now finishing its third week. There are no signs that it's going to end, so it's something that's really, you know, the doctors are quite stubborn and they're quite decisive in the actions that they're doing. So it's something that will be interesting to follow in the weeks to follow as well. And so as I said, the reasons behind both the protests and the strike are quite interesting because if we look at the healthcare system in Spain, Madrid is one of the richest regions in the country, yet it's one that invests less in healthcare than any other part of the country. And this is particularly true for primary healthcare, which we know is very important because, you know, it's the first point of contact that people have with the healthcare system. And according to the doctors who are on strike, Madrid only invests in the primary healthcare system a bit more than 10% of the overall health budget, which is very, very low. It's low even in comparison to other regions in Spain, where that mean is closer to 14%. And 14% is in itself not too much. And the 14% has been raised as an issue during a campaign on International Health Day or People's Health Day just this year. So activists and health workers have advocated for municipalities and regions to raise the investment in primary healthcare at least to 25%. So Anna, what's actually very curious about this is that when there is a region which already is spending the least compared to other the mean of the other regions, then why is it seems that, in fact, the funding is also the sticking point in the negotiations. And the other thing that we noticed was that the protesters are saying that, look, this is not just about wages. We want more recruitment. Can you just explain some of these aspects? Yes. So again, you're absolutely correct, you know, and it's something that we have seen in strikes by health workers, not only in Spain, but in other parts of the world. So one key issue that health workers are stressing when they go on strike is that they're striking not for themselves, they're striking for their patients, they're striking for public health systems, which can cope with the needs of people who are coming there. And so this is one of the spins that the governments who are not pro worker oriented usually do is that they say that the workers are only only interested in their own interests and that by striking, they actually are putting their patients patients in danger. So it's according to the reports, according to the impressions by the workers in Madrid now, this might not have been so much the case in this instance. But it is true that the government, the regional government in Madrid, which is right wing and which has been in power for several years now, has tried to spin the story about the strike in another direction. So it's saying that, you know, while they don't want to actually negotiate about the funds that the primary health care system needs, they're saying that it's a political strike, that it's a strike which was orchestrated to damage them before the local election comes next year. So this is something that they're also seeing on the ground. And which is of course also a depiction of how the local government feels about health care. It's a political decision, of course, not to invest in health. It's something that, you know, it damages the public health system. And it prioritizes, it gives us a lot of space to private to the private sector. And this is something that we know it's true in Madrid, where the regional president Isabel Diaz, so she has made several statements, and she has actually made several steps which essentially put the private sector over the public. It's not a surprise. Therefore, that the local government doesn't actually want to do much. At least they don't want to take any concrete steps in this negotiations. And so the negotiations at the moment are quite stalled. It's not quite certain what's going to happen in the next days. There have been reports that the government has offered the physicians some things. So for example, one of their grievances is about the number of people they see each day. Because it's a very high number, they're not able to dedicate more than a couple of minutes to each patient. And so allegedly, the government is saying, okay, so we'll cap the number. And you will have to see most 34 patients at most if you're a family doctor, if you're a pediatrician, 24 kids. But at the same time, they're not making sure to explain what's going to happen to the other people, because it's not that, you know, the people just go to the doctor because they want to have fun. They actually need the doctor. So if you cap the number, where are the rest of people going to go? And that's something that the physicians also want to, you know, for the government to address. It's not only about making empty promises. It's also about showing that there's a material base for implementing the things that they're saying they want to do. Right, Anna. Thanks a lot for that update. Thanks. International Olympics Committee Chief Thomas Bach has said it will stick to excluding Russia and Belarus. The IOC's ban had kicked in after the Russia-Ukrainian War began in February. Does it mean these countries are excluded from the qualifying process for the 2024 Paris Olympics? But Bach has also said that the IOC will try to find ways to fulfill what he called the unifying mission of sports. What could this mean? We asked Siddhan Dane. All right, Siddhan, thanks for joining us. Siddhan, what has the IOC actually said? There's a statement which according to the IOC Chief, the teams should be banned, but the players should be included. Is this actually something feasible? Yeah, so there is a precedent to it, Pragya, at the Olympics for sure. For example, it happened in the case of Indian athletes as well, when the Indian Olympic Association was actually banned because of misgovernance issues or interference, third-party interference. So at the Winter Olympics, where Shiva Keshavan, who was a multiple-time Olympian, was participating, in fact, the Indian flag was not on Florida or hoisted at the Games Village until they were midway through the event itself, when the ban was kind of rescinded and then that whole ceremony took place and then they were allowed to compete under the national flag. So there is a precedent in the Olympics for athletes whose Olympic associations are banned to compete at the Games under the flag of just the Olympic flag. So the credit for their medals, etc., etc., doesn't go to the country, but the athletes themselves are allowed to compete. But the issue here is far bigger than that because the sanctions on Russian as well as Belarusian athletes extend much further than just the Olympic Committee. So according to the IOC and the instructions that it has given to the various international sports federations, athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to participate in events at all, which means their qualification for the Olympics itself is in jeopardy or is in doubt at the very least. There are, of course, there's over a year left for the Paris Olympic Games, but this is the year, it'll be a crucial year, 2013, 2023, sorry, when a lot of qualifying events will take place for, there are 32 different sports that are going to be held in Paris, over 10,000 athletes will compete, 50% men, 50% women. So over the next year, we'll know exactly who is competing and who is not. And as of now, the IOC had its executive board meeting yesterday was, I think, the last day at Lausanne, where it said quarters are in Switzerland. And as of now, they said they had extremely deep and detailed discussions on the subject, but they unanimously feel that this is not the time to be lifting the sanctions that have been imposed on both these countries. Actually, this has been a subject of much debate even earlier. And I think there's been some kind of a sanction imposed, a sort of penalty imposed on one of the boards or associations which tried to ban Russian and Belarusian authorities. Yeah, it's a bit confusing actually what's going on in various different sports. Tennis, for example, has taken a stand where individual athletes from these two nations were not allowed to participate. Now, while the Olympic Olympic Association itself has imposed these sanctions on Russia and Belarus, at the same time, they have come out against the tennis tours or Wimbledon in particular, saying, you know, there's no reason or it's not fair for you to have excluded these athletes from participating. So I think it's a question of who is actually in charge in terms of running or who are the powerful parties that are running each of these federations. And I think we can see where the strengths lie more with Western Europe and those parts of the world. In those cases, the voices or the vocalizing of this Russia ban cause has been the loudest. Sebastian Koh, for example, the British athlete who heads World Athletics at the moment, he simplified the situation by saying, you know, it's quite simple, get out of Ukraine and you get to play. Unfortunately, I think the scenario on the ground in Ukraine is far more complex than just that. And while the Olympics might be a major factor in the world, I don't know how much it will determine the wider decision making process with regards to Russia's operations in Ukraine and of course, how the wider political scenario unfolds as well. That means how long the war continues and what the IOC decides next. The IOC also has made it clear that at this point they do not want to make any kind of firm comment on Russia or Belarus's participation at the Olympics itself, because there is still a lot of time and like the spokesperson has said, the situation is changing sometimes on a daily basis. So they will, you know, they'll give it some time, see how things go and then probably come to a decision much closer to the date. Right, Sadan, thanks a lot for joining us. Many thanks. And that's all we have for you today. Thank you for watching Daily Debrief. We look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. 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