As the international community ponders how to approach the Myanmar crisis, China has revamped its engagement in hopes of strengthening China-Myanmar relations.
Photo: Thomas De Cian / NurPhoto via Getty Images
As Myanmar enters its third year of civil unrest since the 2021 military coup, international players are still developing strategies for how to address the growing crisis in Myanmar.
Concerted diplomatic efforts were invested during preparations for the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, formally held on July 27 and 28, and President Vladimir Putin was grandstanding, networking and entertaining his guests non-stop from Wednesday afternoon to Saturday evening.
Putin greets Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traore during the Russia-Africa Summit in July 2023 in Saint Petersburg. Photo: Getty Images
His main intention was to demonstrate the width and depth of Russia’s ties with the continent. And as a result, the first major setback was that only 17 heads of state and 10 prime ministers (out of 54 African states) attended the event (The Moscow Times, July 25).
Photo: Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images
Generative AI: From same, same but different to different
The decision to withdraw from the international arrangement guaranteeing the safety of grain exports from Ukrainian ports, announced in Moscow on July 17, signifies a significant effort to escalate non-kinetic hostilities to break the pattern of slow-moving defeat in this war of attrition.
Wheat fields in midsummer (August) in Ukraine. Photo: Raimond Spekking / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly expressed dissatisfaction with the benefits that Ukraine harvested from the grain deal, allegedly at the expense of the Russian portions of the agreement, and mainstream Moscow commentators argue that the cancellation was not a surprise and that hopes for rehabilitation are in vain (Rossiiskaya gazeta, July 18).
On 30 June, the UN Security Council had been expected to extend the mandate of the UN’s mission in Mali (MINUSMA) for a further year. On 16 June, however, the Malian foreign minister asked the UN to withdraw from the country.
A Dingo tank of the Bundeswehr, the German armed forces, enters Camp Castor after returning from a trainings mission on March 6, 2017 in Gao, Mali as part of the U.N.-led MINUSMA.(Photo: Alexander Koerner/Getty Images)
The outcome of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11 and 12 left the Russian leadership confused and anxious. The controversial issue on Ukraine’s membership in the alliance was left pending, as had been planned.
Joe Biden and Volodomyr Zelenskyy at NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023. Photo: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Thus, some official mouthpieces in Moscow and many “patriotic-military” bloggers have rushed to pronounce the meeting as an “epic fail” (Izvestiya, July 12; Topwar.ru, July 15).
Debates among more serious experts, however, suggested that Ukraine received greater support for its desire to join NATO than it could have expected and that a further step in consolidating the United States leadership within the alliance was achieved (Russiancouncil.ru, July 13)Read More
Kristin Bergtora Sandvik and Maria Gabrielsen Jumbert identify a problematic lack of engagement with AI in the humanitarian strategies of donor countries and offer a set of pointers for framing conversations on AI in aid policy.
Artificial intelligence robot hand and human hand. Image: Getty Images.
While Norway aims to support the struggle for democracy and peace in Myanmar, the Norwegian immigration authorities prevent meaningful collaborations.
Logo of the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (Utlendingsdirektoratet, UDI) on a sign in Oslo, Norway. Photo: Brage Aronsen.
The summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11 and 12 will likely not produce any sensational joint decisions; it is set, nevertheless, to signify a major step in reconfiguring and reinforcing the European security system.
Vilnius July 11: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife attend a dinner hosted by the President of Lithuania, Gitanas Nauseda within the NATO Heads of State and Government Summit. Photo: Mustafa Kamaci/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has shaken this system badly, and NATO, which used to be just one of the structures in this complex institutional architecture, has taken on a pivotal role in restoring the material and normative foundations of common security.
Ensuring and demonstrating the unity of allies is always a central task of such meetings, but this summit has the harder task of consolidating the purpose of this unity — to invest all necessary efforts in empowering Ukraine to defeat Russia’s aggression and restore its territorial integrity.
The Kremlin pins its hopes for prevailing in the long war on splits in Western solidarity, and it is about to receive an unequivocal message that time is not on its side.Read More
The resonance from the June 24 mutiny attempted by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the boss of the notorious Wagner group, remains strong, despite the attempts by President Vladimir Putin to demonstrate a swift restoration of stability in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during his meeting with African leaders on June 17, 2023 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. Photo: Getty Images.