After the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director admitted that the agency had “a major communication breakdown” with Iran, a meeting resulted in an interim agreement to store monitoring data. The Iranian nuclear talks are expected to resume but the determination of actors to reach a deal is not yet clear.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier speaking on the 60th anniversary of the day Berlin signed a migration deal with Ankara that allowed tens of thousands of Turkish citizens to find jobs in Germany said that "being German today can mean having grandparents from Cologne or Königsberg as well as from Istanbul and Diyarbakir". He said that German identity now includes "all those who want to live peacefully in this land of law and freedom."

The European Union and Turkey on Thursday (16 September), held their first high level dialogue on climate change. The delegations were led by the European Commission’s executive vice president for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans, and Turkish minister of environment and urbanization,  Murut Kurum. They discussed the necessary steps to fight the devastating effects of climate change and to significantly cut emissions by 2050.

The Ministerial Council of the GCC countries held its 149th meeting yesterday (16 September) where it discussed progress in GCC relations since AlUla agreement was signed. The Iraqi and Yemeni foreign ministers were also present to meet separately with the Council to discuss economic recovery and relations with GCC.

China and the US are still talking but it seems the talk is how to make the crisis or crises on the horizon less risky. In the meantime both sides are preparing for the worst. On Wednesday, the process was taken a step further with the launch of the new AUKUS security arrangement, bringing together the US, the UK and Australia.

Russia remains our largest neighbour and it remains an important global actor. Not from the economic point of view, the economics of Russia is more or less the same size as Italy. It is much bigger in surface, but economically speaking it is a medium-sized state. They have a lot of gas, and gas is becoming more and more expensive. This is good news for them and bad news for us. They have the atomic arm, they have an important army and they use it when they need it. In any case, Russia will not disappear. It will be there and this will not change overnight.