The signing of a protocol on the development of the international multimodal corridor Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey by the participants was one of the outcomes of the Ministerial Meeting on Transport of the member nations of the Economic Cooperation Organization, which took place on November 3 of this year in Tashkent. The document outlines plans for organizing cargo transit from the Asia-Pacific region to Europe via the nations that make up the corridor and for setting up the right environment to increase cargo turnover amongst the four nations. When the project is completed…

During this year’s regular Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) regional forum in San Francisco from November 11 to November 17 the primary focus of attention was what was going on on the sidelines of the summit. That is, outside the summit and its agenda. But the same can be said for nearly all of the existing international forums, whose regular gatherings are becoming more and more like pointless rituals. Negotiations “in a narrow group” of a few key players who approached them are far more informative than “collective” actions with a predetermined agenda in terms…

The war in Gaza has further deepened the gulf between Western states and the developing world. The thousands of civilian deaths caused by Israeli bombardment in the Palestinian enclave, exactly 20 years after the tens of thousands killed by the American invasion of Iraq, will long epitomise the hypocrisy and double standards of the West. The wealthy Western powers, accustomed to exploiting Asia, Africa and Latin America since colonial times, are trying their best to maintain their economic advantages and keep the States of the Global South under their control. Over the past 30 years…

Relations between Russia and the African nations are more important now than they have ever been. In the upcoming years, this direction is expected to gain even more significance. Although the development of truly cordial relations between Russia and Africa is still ongoing, how do you get to ensure that this interaction has a truly strong added value? Russia’s connections with Africa have long-standing and important foundations in a wide range of areas. Naturally, military and technological cooperation are among them. This field of activity is more relevant and efficient today than ever before…

Minutes after the news that Ali Bongo Ondimba had once again won the presidential election in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, on 30 August this year, a group of military officers announced onGabon 24 television channel that he had been removed from power, the results of the election annulled, the Government dissolved, the borders closed and a Committee for the Transition and Restoration of State Authority established. The committee, which was headed by the Commander of the Republican Guard, General Brice Oligui Nguema, comprised members of the regular army, the Republican Guard and other security forces…

The aftermath of Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October has left Israeli companies devastated as settlers face an unfamiliar situation, unprecedented in the absence of government financial injections and aid for them. More than a month into the Hamas operation, the war in Gaza has had a devastating effect on Israeli business activity, with hundreds of companies on the verge of bankruptcy. Economists and financiers estimate that the initial cost of the Gaza war to Tel Aviv is $51 billion, or about 10 per cent of Israel’s GDP. Israel’s Labour Ministry reports that some 765,000 Israelis…

Mongolia hosted official activities held by the Mongolian government as part of the “Mongolia Transport Week 2023” in early November 2023. Participating in the “week” were the nation’s prime minister, the Speaker of the State Great Khural, the Minister and Vice Minister of Road and Transport Development, representatives of major foreign and Mongolian corporations, the Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia…

Fumio Kishida, Prime Minister of Japan, conducted a second quick tour of the Southeast Asian sub-region from November 3 to November 5. Malaysia and the Philippines were the nations that were visited this time. Tokyo’s priority on fortifying its position in the sub-region as a whole was reaffirmed by the tour, even if specific bilateral concerns were discussed in each of these countries. Tokyo, for its part, views that as a crucial middle link in the larger “south-westward movement” of Japanese foreign policy, which has been noticed for a long time by the NEO…

On November 3, 2023, the10th Anniversary Summit of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) was held in Astana. The event was attended by the heads of the OTS member states and the leaders of the OTS observer states. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed the leaders of the OTS member states (Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan) and the OTS observer countries (Turkmenistan and Hungary). As we all know, Turkey was the only internationally recognized Turkic state in the world before the collapse of the Soviet Union. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991…

The 25^th meeting of the Intergovernmental Russian-Mongolian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was held on 23 October 2023 in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. The meeting was jointly chaired by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation V. Abramchenko and Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Economic Development of Mongolia Ch. Khurelbaatar. The main results of the meeting, although not notable for the abundance of new agreements and programmes, were marked by the emergence and return to the field of bilateral…

The historic Summit of Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was held towards the end of October in Riyadh. By all accounts, it was the first in history to draw up a new strategic plan for closer integration of two substantial and influential blocs. Two well-known figures chaired the summit: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud and Indonesian President Joko Widodo. The Riyadh conference established platforms for political discourse, security cooperation, climate change mitigation…

Mongolia signed a number of international air transport agreements in October 2023. So, on October 17 of this year, the General Directorate of Civil Aviation of Mongolia signed a memorandum of understanding with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and an air service agreement with Vietnam, both of which stated that the parties were willing to give up their airspace to allow free passage for their aircraft. A similar agreement was signed the day before with the Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s aviation authorities. A week earlier, namely on October 10, 2023…