This July, as the COVID-19 pandemic pressed on for a second year, Xi Jinping had a clear message to deliver to the world in his speech honoring the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s founding. “We will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us,” China’s …

Moscow is pleased with the results of the new phone talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, Putin’s aide has said. Putin has, however, warned the US against escalating Russia sanctions policy. In a statement released after the phone talks between the Russian leader and his …

Will the United States (US) adopt the No First Use (NFU) policy? Those who had followed the Presidential/election campaign of Joe Biden and who generally read the formal and rhetorical statements of the leaders as truth, seemed optimistic. However, a closer scrutiny matched with the harsher reality or dynamics of …

Olaf Scholz, who succeeded Angela Merkel as chancellor on December 8, pledged [in a telephone call with China’s President Xi Jinping] to strengthen economic ties with China, but he failed to mention human rights or the destruction of democracy in Hong Kong. The telephone call will disappoint those who had …

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India has bridged some recent policy gaps between Moscow and New Delhi, but structural problems will continue to bedevil the relationship demanding a very calibrated approach to bilateral ties from both countries. The structural problems embedded in the uncertain international situation are reflected in …

On 24 December 2021, after procrastinating for more than a month, Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno finally announced his country’s decision to not send a government delegation to the Beijing Winter Olympics in February 2022. This follows a US-led move to boycott the Olympics to protest human rights violations …

Islamist militant attacks increased this past year in the Sahel region, leading to political instability that saw a coup in Mali, an attempted coup in Niger, and calls for Burkina Faso’s president to resign. Burkina Faso experienced the deadliest terrorist attacks since the conflict began, but analysts say the worst …

The year 2022 could see an escalation of tensions between Iran and the United States if nuclear talks aimed at reviving the stalled 2015 nuclear deal collapse. While analyst believe an agreement is still reachable as ongoing negotiations are entered into the new calendar, the United States and EU countries …

Russia has used increasingly strict legislation on “foreign agents” (a term which has connotations of spying) and “undesirable organisations” to curtail, complicate, or prohibit the activities of organisations which promote human rights and monitor their violation, including that of freedom of religion and belief. This “indirectly affects the people human …

The ancient Romans used to say: ‘Si vis pacem, para bellum’ (‘If you want peace, prepare for war’). Josep Borrell Fontelles, the European Union’s (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, paraphrased this aphorism at last year’s 10th EU–African Union meeting when he suggested that arming African partners …