From August 26 to 30 this year the most recent (53rd) summit of the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) took place in the Pacific island state of Tonga. The summit was a significant development in the Indo-Pacific theater of the “Great World Game.”

An important event has taken place in US-China relations. From 27 to 29 August this year, Jacob Sullivan, the U.S. National Security Advisor, paid a visit to China. This political figure is the second most responsible person in this sphere of state activity. Therefore, it is not surprising that this event has also become significant for the current stage of development of the “Great World Game”.

In a remarkable development in the Indo-Pacific political puzzle, on August 20 this year Japan and India held a 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi in which the foreign and defense ministers of both countries took part. It was the third meeting of its kind, the first of which took place in New Delhi in November 2019. The original decision to create this bilateral platform was taken following a series of reciprocal visits by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart at the time, Shinzo Abe.

The fifth meeting of the US-China Financial Working Group (FWG) was held in Shanghai on 15-16 August. Against the backdrop of generally rising tensions in bilateral relations, such an event is truly significant for both countries. We decided to highlight this event because it is a symbol of the existence of a reasonable approach to maintaining business relations despite their constant escalation…

On August 14 of this year, Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida announced that he will not run for head of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party at the end of the three-year term provided for in the party’s charter. This is a remarkable event in the current life of the country.

The four-day visit of a Vietnamese patrol vessel to the Philippines began on 4 August. The purpose of this visit is to conduct joint exercises in the waters of the South China Sea. It is worth stressing once again that the water area is one of the most vulnerable zones in the entire geopolitical space.  Moreover, it is on its territory that the current stage of the “Great World Game” is being played out.

The situation in South Asia over the past few weeks has been marked by a number of notable events, of which the dramatic developments in Bangladesh deserve special attention. Her departure was provoked by mass demonstrations in which students and other young people played a decisive role…

Italian Prime Minister Giorgiа Meloni paid a visit to China from July 27 to 31, serving as a suitable occasion to discuss both some aspects of bilateral relations between these countries and the geopolitical background against which such a remarkable event took place.

July of this year saw a multitude of noteworthy events along the line of Japanese foreign policy. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa visited Europe again. She did so ‘again’, as she visited Europe only two and a half months earlier together with her boss, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

In Pakistan, a de facto nuclear-armed state, there are growing signs of a sharp deterioration in the domestic political situation. Generally speaking, it is not easy to identify a period of at least a few years in Pakistan’s domestic political life over the past two to three decades that could not be defined as a “crisis”…

The Taiwan issue has seen a number of notable developments in recent weeks, both on the island itself and in the wider region.

A number of recent events have indicated the increased diplomatic activity of China and Japan, two leading Asian powers, with island countries located in the Pacific Ocean.