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Taliban has won the war in Afghanistan, says Lord Dannatt, former British army head

The Taliban has “prevailed” in its battle with the West in Afghanistan, said General Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army as it emerged all UK and U.S. troops will be withdrawn on Sunday. Writing in The Telegraph, General Lord Dannatt said: “Ultimately, Taliban force of arms has …

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Blinken Meets Top Tajik, Uzbek Diplomats, With Afghanistan In Sharp Focus

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the top diplomats of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan on July 1, with Afghanistan high on the agenda as U.S. forces prepare to exit the war-torn country and Washington seeks Central Asian partners. The meetings in Washington come as the Taliban has taken control …

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Austin Approves Plan to Transfer Authority, Retrograde Should be Done by End of August

As part of the drawdown process from Afghanistan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III approved a plan to transfer authority from Army Gen. Austin S. Miller to Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said today. Miller is the commander of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan and the …

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JEF defence ministers set direction for cooperation on northern European security

Defence Minister James Heappey and fellow Ministers from the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) member nations have signed a new Policy Direction for the multinational force. 1 July 2021 JEF Ministers gathered in Helsinki, Finland today to set the roadmap from which the JEF’s 10 northern European nations will evolve to …

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Russia Working on Updated Concept for Security in the Persian Gulf, Lavrov Says

Russia first unveiled a ‘Security Concept for the Persian Gulf Region’ in mid-2019, in the aftermath of a series of dangerous and destabilising incidents including tanker seizures, sabotage attacks, and the shoot down of a $200 million US spy drone over Iranian airspace – which nearly prompted Washington to launch …

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China’s nuclear deterrence buildup cannot be tied down by the US: Global Times editorial

Commenting on a report in the Washington Post about China’s nuclear capability building, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Thursday that the build-up of nuclear forces had become more difficult for China to hide and it appeared to be deviating from decades of nuclear strategy based on minimal …

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What Erdogan’s Tilt to the West Means for Russia–Turkey Relations

Turkey’s president is trying to sound more helpful to the West. But his broader policy objectives have not changed. On 14 June, US President Joe Biden met Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Brussels. Ankara had long anticipated the meeting, as the transfer …

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France, Germany and the ‘Russia Engagement’ Game

Despite the failure of their initial proposals to engage in a summit with Russia, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron are still promoting the idea. Far from leading to a productive dialogue with Russia, the Franco-German proposal will only continue to divide the EU and NATO. They …

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Poland and the US: An Alliance of Democracies, Readjusted

Poland’s apprehensions that its interests may be sacrificed as a result of the recent US–Russia summit are misplaced. Still, both Washington and Warsaw need to work harder on their relationship. As US President Joe Biden’s recent tour of Europe concluded, it became clear that the analysis of some very senior …

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The Centenary of the Chinese Communist Party: Looking Forwards Not Backwards

Undoubtedly, China’s communists have achieved a great deal. But the party remains nervous about its hold on power, and hesitant to implement necessary political and economic reforms. Given the inauspicious start of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – worried about police surveillance, it moved its founding meeting from Shanghai to …

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