Diplomacy

US president Joe Biden on Tuesday (15 June) visited the European institutions in Brussels for meetings with European Council president, Charles Michel, and European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen.

The leaders of NATO countries, representing thirty member states in Europe and North America, have identified China as a “systematic challenge” and promised to work together to address this. NATO leaders reaffirmed the Alliance’s dual-track approach of defence and dialogue towards Russia. They also pledged to continue to support NATO partners Ukraine and Georgia, bringing them closer to the Alliance.

With the geopolitical focus shifting towards the Indo-Pacific region and China's growing assertiveness, Indo-European relations become increasingly important. In this op-ed for commonspace.eu, Alex Petrosyan looks at how the EU and India are taking their co-operation to a higher level with the Connectivity Partnership launched in May, and why even closer relations are necessary.

Yemen’s Houthi movement has expressed its willingness to engage in a comprehensive prisoner exchange with the Yemeni government, said Abdul Qader al Murtaza, chairman of the Houthi administration's Committee for Prisoner Affairs. 

"We look forward to working alongside our G20 partners and with all relevant International Organisations to secure a cleaner, greener, freer, fairer and safer future for our people and planet". This was stated by the leaders of the G7 countries when they ended their meeting in Cornwall in England on Sunday (13 June).

In a complicated diplomatic exercise involving US and Georgian diplomats, Armenia and Azerbaijan on Saturday implemented "an exchange" that whilst humanitarian in nature also has deep diplomatic consequences.

G7 leaders met in Cornwall, in the South of England on Friday (11 June) to discuss the main issues of our time.  They are later today expected to commit to using all their resources in an effort to ensure the devastation caused by a pandemic like Covid-19 is never repeated in a declaration that sets out a series of measures intended to achieve this.