Three developments stood out on Türkiye’s international agenda last week. The first was President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Kazakhstan. Another agenda was Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s interview with Al Jazeera where he made assessments regarding Iran. And the other topic was the “normalization” between Türkiye and Armenia. President Erdoğan in Kazakhstan President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan paid a visit to ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer Labor export has been a progressive solution to Vietnam’s demographic and economic pressures for decades. Overseas workers’ remittances are significantly responsible for country income, curtail unemployment, and often fund investment in housing, education, and healthcare by their families. Foreign work is the portal to economically transformative mobility for some young Vietnamese, especially youth from rural provinces. ...

By Yiğit Saner The question of how the war against Iran will reshape relations between Tehran and the Gulf states has become one of the most critical issues on the West Asian agenda. From the very first day of the war, Iran targeted American bases in the region as well as Gulf territories from which attacks against it were launched. ...

Relations between the European Union and Türkiye are continuing to be tense. Despite the customs union, a long tradition of cooperation between the sides on a number of issues, both the progress of Türkiye’s membership and its inclusion into a debated European Security Architecture seem to be stalled. We spoke about the reasons for that with Professor Vişne Korkmaz from ...

By Orçun Göktürk, from Beijing, China The world’s attention was focused on U.S. President Trump’s visit to Beijing on May 13-15. While some commentators argued that a new phase of ceasefire had begun in US-China competition, others focused on Washington’s attempt to seek Beijing’s assistance in overcoming its difficulties stemming from the war against Iran and the crisis in the ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer Even as maritime commerce continues at the center of economic stability across Southeast Asia and indeed globally, the cyber infrastructure that powers this sector has itself become as vulnerable to cyber-attack. In maritime navigation and logistics in ports, customs databases, or energy terminals, the maritime sector is becoming more digitized—but far too frequently without proper defense. ...

By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent visits to Central Asia and his diplomatic initiatives centered on the Organization of Turkic States have gone down in history as one of the most notable pillars of the multi-layered foreign policy strategy Türkiye has shaped in recent years. In particular, the defense, energy, logistics, and technology-centered relationships developed with ...

By Yasin Okyay On May 6, the Romanian government collapsed following the passage of a no-confidence motion jointly introduced by social democrats and nationalists. The motion by the Social Democratic Party (PSD) and the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), gained 281 yes votes in the 464-seat Parliament, marking the end of the coalition government of the National Liberal ...

According to recent international media reports, NATO, now teetering on the brink of disintegration, is preparing to launch a massive propaganda attack by tapping into the film and television industry. Producers, directors, and screenwriters were reportedly invited to three separate high-level meetings in Los Angeles, Brussels, and Paris. On the agenda was the acceleration of NATO’s “cultural” initiatives and several ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer Vietnam is at a crossroads in its development trajectory. With almost 70% of its population within the under-40 cohort, Vietnam has a demographic window that other countries would be jealous of. Its young, energetic, and rapidly urbanizing working population has catapulted Vietnam to become one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. But to maintain that rate of ...

By Tehran Tapdigov A meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump was held in Beijing. Executives from several major American companies, including Tesla and Apple, also participated in the dialogue held at the Great Hall of the People. According to reports, the talks lasted for a little over two hours. It was also stated that the ...

By Mehmet Enes Beşer Just Energy Transition Partnerships (JETPs) are a new ambitious model of climate finance—a call to unlock billions of dollars to facilitate developing economies to transition away from coal without abandoning livelihoods and support sustainable development. Two of Southeast Asia’s most coal-dependent countries, Vietnam and Indonesia, were among the earliest to sign JETP agreements with donor governments ...