🌍 Macron’s big finance goals

Hi there Intriguer. We’re all law-abiding citizens here, but remember that time you went to Wales and “handled salmon under suspicious circumstances”? Yeah, that was illegal. Or when you briefly stopped smiling between negronis in Milan? Turns out you broke an old law. Oh, and your weekend plan to serve beer to a moose in Alaska? You might wanna hit pause on that one too (yep, illegal).

Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:

• 🇫🇷 France’s Macron takes on climate finance.

• 🇦🇷 Argentina’s lithium exports get supercharged.

• ➕ Plus: The US-India relationship in the spotlight, how the papers are covering the Xi-Blinken meeting, and why Germany hates debt.

1. 🇰🇷 South Korea: President Yoon Suk Yeol set off for France on Monday to convince the International Bureau of Expositions to let South Korea host the 2030 Expo. His trip will also bring him to Vietnam for a three-day state visit.

2. 🇨🇭 Switzerland: Swiss citizens voted to cut fossil fuel use and move towards decarbonising their economy by 2050 in a highly anticipated referendum. Switzerland imports around three-quarters of its energy needs.

3. 🇧🇩 Bangladesh: Dhaka has announced it’ll let the Bangladeshi currency float freely for the first time ever to secure extra IMF funding. Nigeria adopted a similar policy just last week.

4. 🇩🇴 Dominican Republic: Santo Domingo says it never approved (nor knew about) Canada’s plans to establish a police aid office in the Dominican Republic. Canada intended the office to support police in neighbouring Haiti, where gang violence has surged.

5. 🇺🇬 Uganda: Over 40 people, mostly students, have died following an attack on a Ugandan school in Mpondwe, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Authorities blame the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group affiliated with ISIS.

🇫🇷 France | Geo-economics

Macron has big plans for international finance

50 world leaders are gathering in Paris this week for the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, an initiative of Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley and French President Emmanuel Macron.

French officials say the two-day summit, which starts on Thursday, is designed to re-orient global financial institutions (like the International Monetary Fund and World Bank) around some key goals:

1. ⛓️ Alleviating the growing debt burden on poorer nations, and

2. 🚧 Supporting their development, while also

3. 🌿 Helping them transition away from fossil fuels.

The idea is to address criticism that:

• Western-led institutions are inefficient and inflexible

• China’s lending saddles the poor with too much debt, and

• Wealthy nations aren’t helping with finance like they promised.

In response, this Paris summit is promising to get creative. For example:

• 🇧🇧 Barbados is proposing a two-year moratorium on debt repayments in the wake of natural disasters, and

• 🇫🇷 France is proposing an emissions tax on global shipping companies to help finance the energy transition.

Intrigue's take: The challenge here is huge: poor countries are now spending more on interest payments than hitting their climate goals; the developed world was already missing its pledges to help, before COVID and the Russo-Ukraine war struck; and tired voters seemingly want concrete wins at home more than ethereal wins abroad.

So a bit of creativity is probably essential.

Also worth noting:

• Confirmed attendees include Kenyan President William Ruto, Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and EU head Ursula von der Leyen.

• Ajay Banga, the new head of the World Bank, says addressing climate adaptation and mitigation is one of his top priorities.

📰 How newspapers covered…

The last-minute meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken

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🇦🇷 Argentina | Critical minerals

Argentina’s lithium exports soar

Argentina’s lithium exports hit an all-time high last month, and grew 234% last year. With three active mines and an additional 38 in development, Argentina is now the fastest-growing lithium producer in the world.

Lithium is key: prices are now roughly seven times what they were in 2020, as the world scrambles to secure critical inputs for the energy transition.

In fact, just last week, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen was in Buenos Aires to sign a raw materials deal with President Alberto Fernández.

Intrigue’s take: Clearly Argentina has something the world wants. And in return, Argentina stands to get something it needs: the government is seeking to avoid a currency devaluation before elections this October, and for that it needs… you guessed it, foreign currency.

Also worth noting:

• Argentina has rolled out incentives to foster mining investment with the aim of hitting $10B in annual mineral exports by 2030. That figure was at $3.9B last year and is on track to reach $6B this year.

• Dozens of international miners are now operating in Argentina, including China's Ganfeng and the US-based Livent, which have both agreed to supply lithium for BMW’s EV batteries.

➕ Extra Intrigue

We’re very online, so you don’t have to be.

• Why is the US still paying billions to Russia?

• Germany reappraises its financial fetish

• Facebook is stifling speech in Vietnam ($)

• Wardrobe diplomacy

• The Philippines had to make a bad choice ($)

🗳️ Poll time!

💬 Quote of the day

The US has been willing to look past India’s financial support for Russia during the course of the war. But how much longer will that policy last? Check out our interview with India expert Richard Rossow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever to get the answer.

Yesterday’s poll: What's the best geopolitics-related TV show you've seen?

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ 🇺🇸 The Diplomat (2023-) (20%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇫🇷 The Bureau (2015-2020) (9%)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 🇺🇸 The West Wing (1999-2006) (27%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇩🇰 Borgen (2010-2022) (7%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇺🇸 Homeland (2011-2020) (14%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇮🇱 Fauda (2015-) (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇬🇧 Spooks (2002-2011) (5%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇫🇷 The Spy (2019) (4%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🇮🇱 Tehran (2020-) (4%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!) (8%)

Your two cents:

• ☝️ Many of these suggestions came from our exclusive Intrigue community on WhatsApp. To join the conversation, just share the Intrigue with five folks using your unique referral link above!

• ✍️ R.L: “I haven't seen any of these, but I'm writing them all down as recommendations!”

• Honourable mentions: Madam Secretary, Designated Survivor, Shock and Awe, Babylon 5, Okkupert.

✍️ Corrections corner

When taking you around the world in sixty seconds yesterday, we included the Australian flag in a story about Thailand. Sorry, Australia and Thailand! And thanks to the many Intriguers who let us know 🙏