Last week Estonia and Latvia followed Lithuania and quit what used to be known as 16+1, as the Czech Republic and other participating countries become increasingly vocal in their scepticism of the initiative.
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After the Ukraine crisis, Moscow has learnt that narratives on a potent “China-Russia alliance” can be weaponised to influence the decision-making of its targets and leverage concessions from countries alarmed by China’s rise. Thus, this narrative has been often purposefully advanced by Vladimir Putin and instrumentalised by agents of influence, such as those of the Valdai Discussion Club, as a pretext to return to “business as usual” with Moscow.
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The Arctic is occupying an increasingly important position in connectivity between Asia and the Nordic-Baltic countries. This is not least because climate change opens up new economic opportunities to make use of the region’s vast resources and develop the northern transport routes. Along with possibilities, the need to ensure peaceful, norms-based and environmentally sustainable development in the Artic region poses a complex challenge
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Since the conclusion of the Treaty on Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation in 2001, the balance of power between China and Russia has appreciably shifted in favour of the former, but their common definition of the enemy and the complementarity of their core interests remains as strong as it ever was.
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After seven decades of liberal order and three decades of American unipolarity, it may be difficult to imagine that the current rules-based international system, supported by liberal norms and values and organised around a set of multilateral institutions, could eventually give way to something radically different. But in Beijing, political and intellectual elites have engaged in intense discussions about building a new world order.
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One of the demands of the protesters in Hongkong is for ex-con chief, Carrie Lam, to withdraw the extradition law that brought the people to the streets in the first place. “So far, Lam has said that the bill is dead, but the protests are not pleased with the usage of a non-legal term that does not carry any judicial weight,” Frank Jüris, junior fellow of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute of ICDS commented on Vikerraadio (Estonian Public Broadcasting) on 15 August.
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Protests in Hongkong are part of ongoing long-lasting process, where China is trying to control and limit Hongkong civil society, which is protecting the civil rights of its citizens and special status of Hongkong under the “One country, two systems” principal, Frank Jüris, junior research fellow of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute of ICDS commented in ETV (Estonian Public Broadcasting, ERR) programme “Ringvaade” on 13 August.
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“China has found ways how to evade the US posed tariffs. One example of it is using the method of transhipment, where Chinese produced goods are first imported to South East Asian countries, where they are given the final touch before reaching the destination market in the US,” Frank Jüris, junior research fellow of the Estonian Foreign Policy Institute at ICDS commented the US-China trade war on Kuku radio.
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