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Asia
China
Monday, September 01, 2025 Chinese President Xi today pressed his vision for a new global security and economic order that prioritises the Global South, in a direct challenge to the United States, during a summit that included the leaders of Russia and India. Xi was hosting more than 20 leaders of non-Western countries at a summit in the Chinese port city of Tianjin for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a China-backed initiative given renewed impetus by the presence of Russian President Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Putin and PM Modi were shown holding hands as they walked jovially towards Xi before the summit opened. The three men stood shoulder-to-shoulder, laughing and surrounded by interpreters. If the U.S. president and his acolytes thought they could use tariffs to pressure China, India, or Russia into submission, that (encounter) says otherwise” wrote Olander, editor-in-chief of The China-Global South Project, a research agency. Beijing has used the summit as an opportunity to mend ties with New Delhi. Modi, visiting China for the first time in seven years, and Xi agreed on Sunday their countries are development partners, not rivals, and discussed ways to improve trade. We must continue to take a clear stand against hegemonism and power politics, and practise true multilateralism, Xi said. Global governance has reached a new crossroads, he added. Xi did not set out any concrete measures in what he called his “Global Governance Initiative” – the latest in a series of policy frameworks from Beijing geared to promoting China’s leadership and challenging the U.S.-dominated international organisations that took shape after World War Two. Earlier, Xi also pushed for what he described as more inclusive economic globalisation amid the upheaval caused by Trump’s tariff policies, touting the SCO’s “mega-scale market” and economic opportunity. Xi called for the creation of a new SCO development bank, in what would be a major step towards the bloc’s long-held aspiration of developing an alternative payment system that circumvents the U.S. dollar and the power of U.S. sanctions. Beijing will provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) of free aid to member states this year and a further 10 billion yuan of loans to an SCO banking consortium. China will also build an artificial intelligence cooperation centre for SCO nations, which are also invited to participate in China’s lunar research station, Xi added. Separately, Xi will preside over a massive military parade on Wednesday in Beijing where he is expected to be joined by Putin and North Korean leader Kim. That parade will feature China’s latest military technology in a show of force. Putin, whose country has forged even closer economic and security ties with China amid the fallout from the Ukraine war, said the SCO had revived genuine multilateralism, with national currencies increasingly used in mutual settlements. This, in turn, lays the political and socio-economic groundwork for the formation of a new system of stability and security in Eurasia, Putin said. “This security system, unlike Euro-centric and Euro-Atlantic models, would genuinely consider the interests of a broad range of countries, be truly balanced, and would not allow one country to ensure its own security at the expense of others.” After the summit, PM Modi shared a ride with Putin in the Russian leader’s armoured Aurus limousine en route to their bilateral meeting. China and India are the biggest buyers of crude oil from Russia, the world’s second largest exporter. Trump has imposed additional tariffs on India over the purchases but not on China. (Source: DD News, an Indian Hindi-language public broadcast television news channel / Reuters – United Kingdom)
Iran
Monday, September 01, 2025 UN Security Council permanent members China and Russia backed Iran today in rejecting a move by European countries to reimpose UN sanctions on Tehran loosened a decade ago under a nuclear agreement. A letter signed by the Chinese, Russian and Iranian foreign ministers said a move by Britain, France and Germany to automatically restore the sanctions under a so-called snapback mechanism was legally and procedurally flawed. China and Russia were signatories to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, along with the three European countries. Iran and the E3 held talks aimed at a new nuclear agreement after Israel and the U.S. bombed Iran’s nuclear installations in mid-June. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva last week did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran. The Europeans launched the snapback mechanism last week, accusing Iran of violating the deal, which had provided relief from international financial sanctions in return for curbs to Iran’s nuclear programme. President Trump pulled the United States out of the agreement in his first term in 2018. Iran has long since broken through the limits on uranium production set under the 2015 deal, arguing that it is justified in doing so as a consequence of Washington having pulled out of the agreement. The deal expires in October this year, and the snapback mechanism would allow sanctions that were lifted under it to take effect again. (Source: DD News – India / Reuters – United Kingdom)
NATO
September 1, 2025 In June, following pressure from President Trump, NATO countries formally committed to spending 5 percent of GDP on defense by 2035: 3.5 percent on 'core' defense spending and 1.5 percent on 'non-core' defense spending on bolstering critical infrastructure and civil preparedness. The United States 'needs to pivot to the Indo-Pacific'. That means its European allies must shoulder the main responsibility for Europe’s conventional defense - but America remains committed to NATO and will provide certain strategic enablers. Poland, the Baltics, the Nordics, and Germany - all plan to reach 3.5 percent of core defense spending well before 2035. Countries that are increasing their defense spending and may be able to reach 5 percent by 2035 – France, Greece, North Macedonia, Hungary, Czechia, Romania, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Albania, and Montenegro - all agreed to reach the 5 percent target by 2035. Countries that say they will reach the 5 percent number by 2035 but whose paths to 5 percent are hazy - Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, Croatia, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Canada - all agreed to spend 5 percent by 2035; however, they were all well below the 2 percent threshold in 2024 and have historically been unreliable defense spenders. Slovakia - despite being at 2 percent in 2024 - hinted that it would not increase defense spending to 5 percent of GDP. Many of these countries also face serious financial and political constraints that will make the 3.5 percent target difficult to attain. Their path to reaching the goal is less clear. The country that altogether refuses the new defense spending goal is Spain. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Beaver, a Senior Policy Advisor for defense budgeting at The Heritage Foundation; Kurzweil, a member of Heritage’s Young Leadership Program.
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