The Middle East has historically stood at the crossroads of geopolitics, even for China’s vision. The Persian Gulf provides China with over a third of the oil it imports;[1] Qatar is China’s most significant source of imported gas, and Turkmenistan is the second.[2] Nowadays, China is the largest trade partner of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates
Russian President Vladimir
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met in Kazan, Russia, during the latest BRICS (a loose political economic grouping originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit, held on October 22–24 (Kremlin.ru, October 23; see EDM, October 28). This follows an earlier meeting between th
commercial satellite imagery
the only country with a broad defense agreement with Bangladesh, Dhaka has also inaugurated a Chinese-built naval base for the Bangladesh Navy at Pekua in Cox’s Bazar in 2023, BNS Sheikh Hasina, where two Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) officers were in attendance. According to a CSIS report entitled “Submarine Diplomacy,” publ
Hollen and Merkley issued
On September 20, 2024, US Senators Cardin, Murphy, Van Hollen, and Merkley issued a letter to Yunus directly, urging reforms and accountability in Bangladesh. The letter stated: “While many celebrate this new chapter in Bangladesh, a concerning volume of those celebrations have turned violent, with documented reports of reprisals targeting police
Yunus received much fanfare
A Slow Start to a Quick Fix: Yunus’s Interim Government Yunus received much fanfare after being sworn in as Chief Advisor to the Bangladesh interim government on August 8, 2024, only three days after Hasina’s resignation and flight for refuge in India. The eighty-four-year-old Nobel Laureate was invited to lead the new transitional government a