Courtesy: Ludovic MARIN / AFP
Macron’s 2025 tour of Southeast Asia was intended to reinforce France’s strategic commitment to the Indo-Pacific. By engaging with three key ASEAN members - Vietnam, Indonesia, and Singapore - France wants to forge partnerships beyond its traditional transatlantic ties. Its Indo-Pacific vision is based on its territorial presence, economic interests, and diplomacy values, which it hopes will be an alternative to the binary logic of U.S.-China rivalry.
Courtesy: Embassy of India, Berlin
New German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s early decisions suggest that foreign and security policy will be defining features of his chancellorship. The coalition agreement reflects a conservative yet pragmatic response to changing global dynamics.
Courtesy: Gateway House
Geopolitics is increasingly intertwined with the economic destiny of South Asia. Even before the U.S. tariffs were rolled out, growing polycrises had hit the global economy, which has been struggling since the pandemic. South Asia seems a relatively bright spark of regional trade and growth. This paper analyses South Asia’s trade architecture in the backdrop of a sluggish world economy in the 2020s, and makes recommendations for closer regional economic integration.
Courtesy: East Asia Forum
The traditional power structures of ‘unipolarity’ or ‘bipolarity’ prevalent over the past 80 years are no longer appropriate to describe the current global order, with more countries increasingly supporting the evolving multipolar world. With the old ‘rules-based’ order becoming less relevant, emerging powers like India have an opportunity to draft more equitable rules to match their multipolar intentions.
Courtesy: Körber-Stiftung
The world is undergoing profound transformations that are not being driven only by the United States, China or Russia. Small and medium-sized States are carving out a legitimate place for themselves in the emerging new order. This second edition of our annual Emerging Middle Powers Report is a reminder that the signs of the times are showing a new momentum for middle powers.
Courtesy: President of Russia-Events website
Europe has reduced its reliance on Russian gas following the war in Ukraine, and its chief supplier Russia is mired in western sanctions. What does it mean for Russia? It has certainly changed the fortunes for American gas to be sold to Europe: as of 2023, the US had become the world’s top exporter of gas.
Courtesy: Oxford University Press
The India Middle-East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) announced during India’s G20 leaders’ summit in September 2023 aims at security and ease of connectivity by multi-modal physical, digital and energy corridors connecting India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Europe. Like many of the connectivity projects created around the world today, IMEC’s origins are 2,300 years old, ancient routes that connected the Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea
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Recent state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia in east Germany saw the far-right Alternative for Democracy (AfD) and the left-wing Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) make significant gains in vote share. With German federal elections just a year away, major parties like the ruling CDU and SPD which have seen voter support erode considerably, will now have to re-strategise to stay relevant in Germany’s transforming political landscape.
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The European Parliament elections have thrown up a win for the right-wing parties – quite a change from the previous centre-left composition. There will be repercussions for the EU and domestic policies of the member countries. Is this election an indication of a future Europe turning right, or is it a reaction to domestic situations individually within states?
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Recent changes in Belgian and EU tax law and regulation have resulted in some Antwerp-based Palanpuri Jain diamond traders shifting base to the newly booming Dubai diamond market. But Antwerp dominates the diamond business for this enterprising community, where 400 families continue to stay and use it as a gateway to the European market for diamonds cut and polished in Surat and Mumbai in India.