Trending
Thailand and Cambodia agree ceasefire after weeks of deadly clashes
27 December 2025
Latest
Latest
- Thailand and Cambodia agree ceasefire after weeks of deadly clashes
- Zelensky to meet Trump on Sunday for crucial Ukraine talks
- Opinion: Can the South Caucasus continue to manage geo-political rivalries in 2026?
- Pope on Christmas Day: "Peace is a shared responsibility"
- Season's Greetings from commonspace.eu
- Putin in meeting with Nikol Pashinyan
Region
Global
Stories in this section cover various issues and stories from all around the world.
Trending
Zelensky to meet Trump on Sunday for crucial Ukraine talks
27 December 2025
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with US president, Donald Trump, in Florida on Sunday (28 December) at 3.00 p.m. local time, in what many see as crucial talks on the future of Ukraine.
Over the weekend, Russia has continued its attacks on Ukraine, with the Ukranian air force warning that a drone and missile threat is in force for the entire country.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk.
Ukraine's president last met President Donald Trump at the White House in October
Ukraine has sought to secure guarantees from the US as part of a peace deal, and Zelensky has suggested that a demilitarised "free economic zone" is a potential option for areas of Donbas that Russia has failed to take by force.
On Friday, Zelensky told reporters that the 20-point plan was 90% complete: "Our task is to make sure everything is 100% ready."
He wrote on social media: "We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the new year."
But in an interview with Politico, published on Friday, Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart "doesn't have anything until I approve it".
"I think it's going to go good with him. I think it's going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin," Trump said.
He also said he expects to speak with the Russian president "soon".
Filter archive
Trending
Saudi Arabia to strengthen partnerships with Hong Kong, China
3 July 2023
Saudi Arabia is keen to strengthen its partnernships with Hong Kong and mainland China, the Saudi communications and IT minister Abdullah Al-Swaha said on Sunday (2 July).
Speaking at the "One Gateway Shared Vision — Hong Kong x Saudi Arabia" event in Hong Kong, Abdullah Al-Swaha said closer collaboration would help boost the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform agenda, a strategic framework to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil and diversify its economy, and develop public service sectors such as healthcare, tourism, education, infrastructure and recreation.
"Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia are going through very promising transformations, where both economies are financial hubs in their own regions. We have an opportunity to build an innovation bridge, to leapfrog into the future with an innovation-based economy," he said.
A "pro-partnership and pro-openness" Saudi Arabia was willing to do business with "any partner that can comply with our security and regulatory requirements," he said.
Saudi authorities would look to work closely with Hong Kong across a range of sectors, including health sciences and biotechnology, environmental, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and smart cities, he said.
Al-Swaha's visit to Hong Kong the Arab-China Business Conference held in Riyadh last month, at which Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih said the Kingdom could serve as China’s gateway to the Arab world.
Trending
Kyiv under Russian attack as African leaders arrive on peace mission
16 June 2023
Leaders and representatives of seven African countries - South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, Uganda, the Republic of the Congo, Comoros and Egypt - as well as the African Union chief Azali Assoumani, have arrived in Kyiv on Friday (16 June) to promote an African peace plan aimed at ending the ongoing war in Ukraine.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is among the African delegation, and arrived at Kyiv's Nemishaeve railway station where he was greeted by Ukraine's special envoy for Africa and the Middle East, Maksym Subkh, as well as the South African ambassador to Ukraine, Andre Groenewald.
According the Reuters news agency, the full peace proposal, which has not yet been made public, includes suggestions of a full withdrawal of Russian troops, the removal of all tactical nuclear weapons from the territory Belarus, the suspension of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, and broad sanctions relief. After arriving in Kyiv, African leaders headed to the Kyiv suburb of Bucha to pay there respects to the some 458 people who were killed during a brief Russian occupation in the opening weeks of the full-scale invasion last year, and are buried in a mass grave there.
Trending
Commentary: Kazakhstan throws a lavish party in honour of multilateralism
13 June 2023
"Such big jamborees as the Astana International Forum happen often, and are – more often than not – considered as talking shops with limited results. They are usually a part of a branding exercise by countries that can afford them. Most participants forget about them the moment they leave, and the impact beyond that is often negligible," writes commonspace.eu in this commentary. However, "the Astana International Forum marks the emergence of a new Kazakhstan on the international stage. This year’s event was the first. Future forums will be a good gauge for how this new Kazakhstan is performing." Writing for a blog on Al Jazeera on the eve of the opening of the forum, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister, Serik Zhumangarin described the Astana International Forum as “a global event aimed at renewing the culture of multilateralism”, and said that it was a part of Kazakhstan’s multi-vector foreign policy which seeks to engage countries in the north, south, east and west.
Trending
Arab countries and China sign 30 deals worth $10bn at business conference in Riyadh
12 June 2023
Arab League countries and China have signed some 30 deals that total $10bn. This came on the first day of the 10th Arab-China Business Conference taking place in the Saudi capital Riyadh, on 11-12 June.
The 30 investment agreements cover a wide range of areas, including technology, renewables, agriculture, real estate, minerals, supply chains, tourism, and healthcare. According to the Saudi Investment Ministry, the Saudi government also signed deals with a number of Chinese entities in areas such as automotive research, development, manufacturing and sales, development of tourism and other apps, and production of rail wagons and wheels in Saudi Arabia.
The biggest deal reached totalled $5.6bn, and was struck between Saudi Arabia's Investment Ministry and Human Horizons, a Chinese developer of autonomous driving technologies and manufacturer of electric cars.
Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong-based Android developer Hibobi Technology Ltd signed a $266 million deal to develop tourism and other apps.
Trending
Oil prices rise as OPEC+ announces output cuts after Vienna meeting
5 June 2023
The group of oil producing countries, OPEC+, has pledged oil output cuts amid flagging global oil prices.
Following the announcement made on Sunday (4 June) after a meeting of OPEC+ in Vienna, Brent crude oil rose by as much as 2.4% before settling at around $77 a barrel in Asia trading on Monday.
In accordance with the agreement struck, Saudi Arabia announced that they would cut daily barrel production from 10 million barrels per day (bpd) to 9 million bpd in July, as well as extending their volunatary cut in oil production of 500,000 bpd until December 2024.
Russia's 2023 quota currently stands at around 10.5 million bpd, but in 2024 will reduce to approximately 9.3 million bpd, consisting of a reduction of 650,000 barrels per day as well as the voluntary cut of 500,000 bpd.
Brent crude oil rose by as much as 2.4% before settling at around $77 a barrel. Global oil prices spiked following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, however, prices have fallen to pre-February 2022 levels. In an attempt to shore up global oil markets, OPEC+ have announced a couple of rounds of cuts in oil production.
In October 2022, OPEC+ agreed to cut production by two million bpd, about 2% of global demand.