The Group of Twenty (G20), a consequential plurilateral grouping, is the creation of 21st-century diplomacy. So far, it has commanded much space in international discourse. It has also facilitated regular annual interactions among key world leaders on global issues, serving as an indicator of their willingness to collaborate to address shared challenges. The G20 comprises 19 countries, the European Union (EU) and the African Union (AU). As the premier forum for international cooperation, it accounts for approximately 85 per cent read more

During August and September, the Houthis, the armed militant group in Yemen, hit several ships, ports and oil installations in Saudi Arabia, disrupting oil traffic from the Red Sea. In early September, drones launched from Iraq hit and shut down the Saudi East-West pipeline, which moves part of Saudi Arabia’s oil output to Red Sea ports. Since the start of the U.S.-Iran war, which has disrupted oil flows from the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia had relied on the Red Sea read more

The recent attacks in Saudi Arabia, allegedly carried out by non-state actors in Iraq and Yemen, aligned with the Iranians, failed to trigger the much-touted "Article 5" of the newly-signed Mecca Accord and did not result in Pakistan and Turkiye coming to the aid of Saudi Arabia to defend against the outside military aggression. Skeptics of the Mecca Accord have been quick to dismiss the Mecca Accord itself, in light of these recent developments as being completely ineffective and worthless. read more

Ethiopia is in anew crisis that could possibly reorder the Horn of Africa, already fractured by several conflicts. The current catastrophe is not merely a resurgence of the civil war in Tigray. The renewed insurgency of this September has brought together seven varied ethnic militias that were often at loggerheads but which have now come together under the name Alliance for Survival with the stated aim of ousting the elected government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Addis Ababa. They read more

At the Sept 1-4 annual Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian Pacific port of Vladivostok, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov announced that Russia-China bilateral trade grew by 22% in the first half of 2026 and exceeded $135 billion. Bilateral trade had fallen by 6.9% in 2025 after a record high of $245 billion a year earlier, on account of a reduction in the value of Chinese crude imports from Russia and a fall in Russian imports of Chinese read more