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US climate envoy John Kerry met Tues- day with his Chinese counterpart at annual United Nations climate negoti- ations in Egypt in a further hint of im- proving relations between the world's top two polluters, seen as vital for sub- stantial progress against global warming. e meeting between Kerry and Chi- na's top climate official Xie Zhenhua raised prospects for a full-fledged re- sumption of climate talks between the two countries, which Beijing put on hold three months ago in retaliation for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Tai- wan. Kerry and Xie met for about 45 min- utes at the Chinese delegation's offices in the COP27 conference zone. Neither side revealed much after it was over. e Chinese officials left without comment- ing. "We had a very good meeting," Ker- ry said. It was "much too early" to talk about any remaining differences, he said. "But we're gonna go to work." A day ear- lier, Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed with U.S. President Joe Biden to resume the talks. Other geopolitical tensions flared up. A handful of European Union dele- gates walked out of a plenary speech by Russia's special climate representative, Ruslan Edelgeriev, and a small group of Ukrainian and Polish activists briefly dis- rupted a Russian side event. "ey are killing us daily and they are here in the heart of international talks. ey are accepted like normal people, but they are not," activist Svitlana Ro- manko shouted at the event as she was led away by security. Government ministers are pushing for a substantial climate deal by the time the meeting is supposed to wrap up on Friday. Officials from developing na- tions, meanwhile, have been increasing- ly lashing out in anger and frustration at wealthy countries at the gathering, known as COP27, condemning them for not doing enough to cut back emissions or help them cope with a warming Earth. e Associated Press obtained a first draft of the overarching decision pro- posed by Egypt, which touches on many of the points that delegations say are important to them, including reducing emissions, adapting to climate change, providing funding for poor nations suf- fering loss and damage caused by ex- treme weather, and sticking to the limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. It doesn't explicitly mention a propos- al from India calling for a phase down of fossil fuel use, disappointing green groups. Last year's Conference of the Parties, or COP, ended with a call to phase down coal. "While this is merely a skeleton of the Egyptian presidency's draft of a COP cover note, Greenpeace is shocked that it has no backbone," the environmental group said in a statement. EU climate chief Frans Timmermans said the bloc's position is that "obvious- ly we're all in favor of phasing down any fossil fuels" but this shouldn't undermine the goal of ending use of coal, the most polluting fossil fuel. Egyptian diplomat Wael Aboulmagd, speaking for the chair of the meeting, said a more detailed draft of the so-called cover decision would be circulated fol- lowing consultations with delegations later Tuesday. He didn't rule out a call to end fossil fuel use in the final text. Another major sticking point has been the issue of "loss and damage," with de- veloping countries demanding richer in- dustrialized nations — whose emissions have been the main cause of climate change — pay for damages already being wreaked on them by climate-related dis- asters. China and a broad group of developing countries known as the G77 put forward a proposal to create a such a fund into which developing nations would pay. e draft proposal, seen by e Associ- ated Press, calls for the fund's rules to be finalized by the next U.N. climate talks in 2024. e U.S. and other developed countries have made clear they won't agree to a fund that implies legal liability for cli- mate change. A string of officials from poorer coun- tries — particularly island nations — ex- pressed their fury at the reluctance in speeches or in remarks to journalists Tuesday. Delaying tactics anger "people like our- selves who are at the frontline, in the front of the impact of climate change and sea level rise, when in fact we do not cause climate change," Seve Paeniu, the head of the Pacific island nation of Tuva- lu's delegation, told the Associated Press. e ambassador of Antigua and Bar- buda to the U.N. said his nation won't leave the summit without the establish- ment of a "loss and damage" fund, and he slammed developed nations for continu- ing to use or even ramping up fossil fuels. "e system is being gamed at our ex- pense … and the expense of future gen- erations," Conrod Hunte said, denounc- ing "the inaction of many developed countries." e climate change minister of Nauru, another Pacific nation, denounced what he called pressure on vulnerable coun- tries to compromise. "We have allowed ourselves to become props in environmental campaigns," Rennier Gadabu said, in one of the more powerful speeches to delegates. "e decision makers, those with real powers, simply do not care," Gadabu said. "ey do not care about the com- munities that will be displaced and de- stroyed. ey do not care about the food and water shortages that ravage poor countries. All they care about is power, pure and simple." Samoa's prime minister appealed to countries to respond as strongly to the threat of global warming as they did to the coronavirus pandemic. Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa said her coun- try and other Pacific states are "at the mercy of climate change and our surviv- al hangs in the rush of the climate hour- glass." Timmermans said the EU is willing to address demands for "loss and damage" money "including new funding arrange- ments," he said, but indicated this would take time. ere were also some pledges for im- proved greenhouse gas emissions reduc- tions targets, which didn't satisfy green groups. Timmermans said the EU is raising its target for emissions reductions by 2030, albeit slightly to 57%, from the existing 55% pledge, compared with 1990 levels. He said the increase showed the EU was not "backtracking" on its commitments because of the energy crisis sparked by Russia's war in Ukraine. Environmental groups compared the EU's increased target to breadcrumbs, saying a fair share should be at least 65% by 2030. Turkey's environment minister Murat Kurum, meanwhile, said its target is ris- ing to 41% from the existing 21% goal. Green groups said while the numbers look good that's because Turkey had been proposing to raise its emissions by a third in the same time frame, so the higher amount would need a bigger cut. Also Tuesday, Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate slammed world leaders who persist in backing new fossil fuel projects despite science warnings that this will push temperatures across the planet to dangerous highs. Envoys from the US and China, the world's top polluters, meet at COP27 US climate envoy John Kerry 5 FOREIGN NEWS 17.11.2022 In the three years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, Malta recorded a current account surplus averaging 5.5 per cent of GDP, underlined by a strong service net export balance. However, the COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the current account balance leading to a current account deficit in 2020 and 2021. During the first quarter of 2022, Malta has similarly recorded a current account deficit, although this has decreased significantly from the previous quarter by 4.1 percentage points. percentage of trade in goods

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