Politics

Amidst the ever-evolving global politics, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) convened their inaugural summit in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the end of October 2023. This summit signaled evolving ties between the two blocs at a time when the focus of attention of the whole world is on Israel’s genocide in Gaza. ASEAN comprises ten member countries which include Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. The organization was founded in 1967. Meanwhile, the foundation of the GCC was laid in 1981, and it consists of Oman…

On November 3, 2023, the 10th anniversary summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) began in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. The summit was attended by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov, and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Also attending the summit were representatives of the observer countries to the OTS, namely Chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

After months of tensions and hostile statements from both sides, the rivalry between the Sudanese army, led by Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the chairman of the Sudanese Sovereign Council serving as president, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group led by his former deputy on the Sovereign Council, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (alias Hemedti), erupted into open armed clashes on 15 April this year. At the heart of the current crisis, notes the Arab Centre for Policy Studies in Qatar, is the ongoing struggle between the two aforementioned…