Japan-Turkmenistan: a long-standing bilateral partnership and a bridge to Central Asian geopolitics?
On 22-23 January 2024, Turkmen Foreign Minister R. Meredow visited Japan. During this trip, meetings were held with the Japanese Foreign Minister, the Ministers of Digital Transformation; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Economy, Trade and Industry; representatives of Japanese business, the Director of the Foreign Trade Organisation of Japan and the Head of the Export Credit Organisation of Japan. The leitmotif of the talks was the cooperation…
The West’s Technofeudalism Versus the BRICS Growth Forecast
You’ll find an important Russia-India story on page 28 of the Google News results, to care about what’s really happening between the two BRICS nations. Many reading this may not know that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Vladimir Putin on his re-election as the President of the Russian Federation and announced the deepening of a strategic partnership between the two countries. Russia and India – strategic partners – isn’t that page one New York Times stuff? Well, no…
Mongolia’s 2024 budget: a continuation of recent trends
Mongolia adopted its 2024 budget law on October 1, 2023. As part of the preparations for the budget law, an extensive preparatory review of the 2023 figures was performed. These were correlated with the spending plans for 2024, 2025 and 2026, and the results were summarized in a special report published by Mongolia’s Ministry of Finance. The report is primarily a breakdown of Mongolia’s draft budget for 2024. As for the budget itself, the following points made in the report are worthy of note…
Mongolia: A Key Block in the Eurasia Economic Engine
Russia’s glowing potential as a bastion of stability in the new multipolar order seems endless. When the United States and her European allies waged economic war on Moscow, the conventional thinking was that the Russian people would suffer. Today, geography, cultural considerations, and especially the idea of overall beneficial relations all favour the world’s largest country. A look at Russia-Mongolia ties and recent initiatives is further evidence of this…
The Saudi-Iranian agreement in Beijing: on the anniversary of its conclusion
A joint Saudi-Iranian-Chinese trilateral statement was signed in Beijing on 10 March last year. In the statement, Riyadh and Tehran agreed to resume diplomatic relations and open their official missions. They were suspended in 2016 following attacks on Saudi institutions in Iran during protests against Riyadh’s execution of cleric Nimr al-Nimr on terrorism charges. The terms of the agreement also included the unblocking of cooperation in various fields, which was signed 20 years ago. The March agreement came as a surprise, with a number of Middle East experts describing it as “historic”…
How China is using its Soft Power to Increase its Influence
China’s exponential rise in the last two decades has stunned the United States and its allies. China has challenged the status quo established in the world after the Cold War. The interventionist and dictatorial policies pursued by the United States in the post-Cold War unilateral world order tarnished its soft image and created a power vacuum in the world. China’s emergence as the new superpower of the world has not only altered the polarity of global politics but…
Putin’s Recent Speech is Revealing, Sober: Wake-Up Call for the West and HIS Critics
This morning I looked at the reaction in Europe to Putin’s speech, and I came away with the impression that I have been living among lunatics, who sleep and have the same dream all the time. The West just does not want to see the reality in front of them. I want to believe that in the West there are sober analysts, and not just those mental cases that can be heard all the time from the media…
The Horn of Africa in the quagmire of geopolitical rivalry Part Four: Abu Dhabi's invisible influence and the position of its immediate neighbours
According to The Economist, the UAE, which maintains close ties not only with Addis Ababa but also with Somaliland, played a mediating role in the signing of the memorandum discussed by all. From this point of view, an Ethiopian military base in Somaliland could be another step forward in strengthening Abu Dhabi’s influence in the Horn of Africa and the Persian Gulf region in general. It should be noted that Abu Dhabi has been addressing this issue for a number of years…
A promising element of Eurasian transit: the Irtysh international transport route
In 2023, the load on Kazakhstan’s Caspian ports increased by almost 10% to 6.5 million tonnes. This is still far from their maximum capacity of 21 million tonnes. Nevertheless, the country’s leadership has concerns about limiting the transport capacity of the lake in case of further shoaling of its northern sections. The costs of such circumstances promise to be significant. In this regard, in addition to the development of the Middle Corridor (ТМТМ) and dredging…
Prospects for Nigeria’s accession to BRICS
Nigeria is considering the possibility of joining BRICS – according to the statement made by the head of Nigerian diplomacy. What are the prospects of this orientation for one of the main forces of the African continent and for the BRICS themselves, in their updated composition? If on the one hand, there are a number of factors that contribute in favor of Nigeria’s candidacy, a number of other points need to be resolved first as well…
Pakistan’s Burgeoning Ties with Central Asian Republics
For the last few years, Pakistan has shifted its foreign policy from the one based on geopolitics to the one based on geo-economics. A long history of terrorism, political turbulence, and economic instability, caused by Pakistan’s involvement in regional conflicts, were the key drivers behind this shift in the foreign policy outlook of the nation. The decision was announced in Pakistan’s first-ever National Security Policy (NSP) document in December 2021…
Can the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) counter BRI?
Expanding Chinese influence across three continents through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has perturbed its regional and global rivals, India and the United States. The Western bloc – led by the United States – launched the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) at the G20 summit held in New Delhi on 10th September 2023. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, India, the European Union, Italy, the United States, France, and Germany are part of this project and have signed the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for building this 4800 km long trade route…