From the very beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, Japan has taken one of the toughest positions towards our country, repeatedly condemning Russia’s actions in Ukraine, imposing several sets of sanctions, regularly updating them and adding new positions. For example, on 1 March 2024, Japan once again tightened sanctions against our country, adding 12 more individuals and 36 organisations to the “black list”, including Kalashnikov, Almaz-Antey, Uralvagonzavod, etc…

On 21 March this year, Indonesia officially announced the results of the general election held on 14 February, which elected a new President and Vice President, as well as the composition of the central parliament and local governments in all 38 provinces of the country. The official results of the most important part of the single day’s voting, for President and Vice-President, do not differ much from the exit polls published a day later.

U.S. President Joe Biden seems to be using a foreign acquisition of an American company as a rallying point for his upcoming re-election bid. Biden says Nippon Steel’s acquiring U.S. Steel will be a threat to national security, and the loss of a “national treasure.” The question is, “Is this Japanese buyout really the central issue?” By the time you’re done reading this report, you’ll understand why it is not…

From 19 to 23 March, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, who only took up the post in February this year to replace Victoria Nuland, who resigned, travelled to Japan and Mongolia. In this context, let us make a few preliminary but, it would seem, fundamental observations. First, given Campbell’s initial specialisation (both in his previous diplomatic work and in research organisations)…

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 recent trip by Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to South Korea and Japan, which began on March 5, represents a significant development in the political game being played out in the Indo-Pacific region. Particularly since the role of the main “local” players in the region, already very significant today, is only likely to increase with time. Not least because the regional influence of the present leading global power is set to decline, a process which the present author…

The Indian leadership’s foreign policy has traditionally been characterised by a multi-vector and independent foreign policy, intolerance of any external pressure or imposition of foreign recommendations and advice. New Delhi can afford such an independent foreign policy, given India’s status as a major Asian power, its claim to a certain global role and its self-confidence as the world’s third largest economy. And no major power would dare dictate its terms to India, knowing that such an action would inevitably be met with rejection…

From the very beginning of the Special Military Operation, Japan has taken one of the harshest anti-Russian positions, imposing several sets of sanctions, regularly updating them and adding new ones (curiously, there is currently no postal communication between Russia and Japan). At the same time, Japan has repeatedly condemned our country’s Special Military Operation and emphasised its commitment to fully support Ukraine and the Zelenskyy regime. But is everything so unambiguous?

News of the European Union’s most recent sanctions on companies and people from Russia, India, Iran, China and Syria should be cause for alarm here in Europe. Somehow, however, the people of the EU seem resigned to their fate in every regard. One can only consider the point at which Russophobia will become mandatory in countries aligned with Britain, Germany, France, and especially the United States. I only wish this level of lunacy was unprecedented. Perhaps then, we would be in less danger of history repeating itself. I, for one, am not optimistic…

The two leading world powers, the United States and the People’s Republic of China, are the main players in the games over Taiwan. At the same time, the presence of other recently emerging “power centres” is becoming increasingly visible. First of all, Japan and India. Of these, the former’s relations with Taiwan are now of an ordinary interstate nature. This is also true of Japan’s relations with its “big brother”, the United States…

Several events directly or indirectly related to Japan, which have taken place since the beginning of 2024, provide an opportunity to reflect once again on the positioning of this country in the surrounding political space. Where its active presence is becoming more and more noticeable. First of all, there was the 7.6 magnitude undersea earthquake that occurred on 1 January 2024 near the Noto Peninsula on the west coast of Honshu Island. In terms of magnitude…

Japan is currently facing a number of serious political and economic challenges, forcing the country’s political-military leadership to respond accordingly. On January 30, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida presented an extensive policy report on the Japanese government’s plans for 2024 at the regular session of the country’s parliament, which meets once a year.  In the foreign policy section, Fumio Kishida outlined the following trunk lines…