Global Pulse

标签： Asia

亚洲

  • World Cup 2026: For some fans, the tournament ends at the US border

    World Cup 2026: For some fans, the tournament ends at the US border

    As Tunisia’s national football team prepares to step onto the pitch in Kansas City for their third group-stage match at the 2026 FIFA World Cup on June 25, one of the side’s most loyal followers will be forced to watch from afar, stuck in Mexico after U.S. entry requirements derailed his long-planned journey.

    Mohamed Sadok Fradi, a 35-year-old diehard supporter who has followed the “Eagles of Carthage” to the past two World Cup tournaments in Russia and Qatar, has had his streak of attending every major tournament cut short by the Trump administration’s stringent travel restrictions for citizens of several Middle Eastern and African nations, including Tunisia. Fradi, who has long viewed the World Cup as a unique global force that brings people of all backgrounds together, says the current U.S. rules are not just unnecessarily burdensome—they directly contradict the unifying spirit the tournament is meant to embody.

    “I declined to even apply for a U.S. visa because I refuse to accept that football fans have to jump through all these unnecessary hoops just to cheer on their team,” Fradi told Middle East Eye in an interview from Monterrey, where Tunisia played their first two group-stage matches. “A fan should be able to simply buy a ticket, grab their flag, and go support their country. That’s how it’s supposed to work.”

    When the World Cup kicked off across the three co-host nations of the U.S., Mexico and Canada last week, thousands of Tunisian fans made the long journey to North America, packing the streets of Monterrey in bright red team jerseys, waving massive national flags and beating traditional drums to rally for their side. But for hundreds of these traveling supporters, the adventure has stopped at the U.S. border.

    Since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term, the U.S. has implemented sweeping travel bans targeting multiple majority-Muslim and African countries, alongside steep increases in visa processing fees. Earlier this year, Washington expanded its contentious Visa Bond Program, which requires travelers from 50 nations—including Tunisia—to put down deposits of as much as $15,000 to receive a tourist visa, with the entire sum forfeited if a visitor overstays their approved entry period.

    While the U.S. State Department eventually issued a limited waiver exempting World Cup ticket holders from the bond requirement and offered priority visa processing through FIFA, this exemption only applied to fans who submitted their applications before an April 15 deadline. Thousands of fans missed the cutoff, leaving them stuck with no path to enter the country for the match.

    Fradi, who traveled 23 hours from Qatar to reach Monterrey and is still adjusting to the journey, called the U.S. process exclusionary, and a direct contradiction to FIFA’s core slogan that “football unites the world.” His experience at the 2018 Russia and 2022 Qatar World Cups, where both host nations streamlined entry for all ticket holders, made the current barriers even more disappointing, he said.

    “This is the third World Cup I’ve attended, always following the national team, but it has never been as difficult or complicated as it is with the U.S.,” Fradi said. “This tournament has so many unnecessary complications when it comes to access and hospitality. I wish Mexico were hosting the entire World Cup on its own—only Mexico.”

    Many Tunisian fans have echoed Fradi’s praise for Mexico’s streamlined entry process, which saw Tunisian citizens wait less than a month for tourist visas. Travelers holding valid visas or permanent residency from the U.S., Canada, Japan, the U.K. or any Schengen Area country are even granted full entry exemptions, making the cross-country trip from Monterrey to Kansas City far less stressful for the few fans able to go.

    Anwar Sbissi, a Tunisian fan who is a Canadian citizen and plans to attend the Kansas City match, warned that the energy in the stadium will never feel the same without the full traveling contingent of Tunisian supporters. He added that the $15,000 bond requirement pushed countless fans to cancel their trips, meaning the stands will likely be dominated by Tunisian supporters already living in the U.S. rather than the traveling fan base that has followed the team across the tournament.

    Anis Ghozzi, a Tunisian expatriate based in Montreal, is going a step further and boycotting the U.S. leg of the tournament entirely. Holding a Free Palestine flag at pre-match celebrations in Monterrey’s popular Barrio Antiguo district ahead of Tunisia’s opening game, Ghozzi cited multiple reasons for his boycott, including the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, and recent tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Canada and Mexico.

    “I’d rather spend my money here in Mexico than put a cent into the U.S.,” he said.

    Even for fans who have managed to secure a valid U.S. visa, uncertainty remains. U.S. border officials retain full authority to deny entry to any traveler, even those with approved documentation, and recent high-profile incidents—including Somali referee Omar Abdulkadir Artan being turned away at Miami International Airport—have amplified fears of last-minute denials.

    Faten Drira, a traveling fan who plans to cross into the U.S. with her husband after Tunisia’s matches in Monterrey, says she still has no idea if her visa will be enough to guarantee entry.

    “I hope I can go to America,” she said in a nervous tone. “I understand they don’t accept everyone. I have my visa, but we’ll see.”

    FIFA President Gianni Infantino sought to downplay concerns ahead of the tournament, telling reporters after a May meeting with Trump administration officials that the U.S. would be open to the world during the World Cup. But the on-the-ground experience for hundreds of Tunisian fans tells a different story, turning a unifying global celebration into a source of frustration and disappointment for supporters who just wanted to cheer on their team.

  • India thumps the Dutch and Australia routs Bangladesh at Women’s T20 World Cup

    India thumps the Dutch and Australia routs Bangladesh at Women’s T20 World Cup

    The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup at Headingley, Leeds delivered two lopsided group-stage results on Wednesday, headlined by a career-defining all-round performance from India’s Shafali Verma that silenced recent critics and secured the biggest run victory in India’s Women’s World Cup history.

    India faced the Netherlands in the first-ever T20 meeting between the two sides, and the Indian batting unit turned in a historic performance, posting a tournament-best total of 209 for five off their 20 overs. The outing belonged to Verma, who entered the match facing growing questions over her 2024 form: her average this year sat at just 23.13 runs, a sharp drop from 52.12 in 2023 when she reestablished her reputation as one of the game’s most dangerous big hitters. After a disappointing six-run dismissal against Pakistan in her prior outing, Verma bounced back to score her first fifty of the tournament, finishing with 55 off 34 balls that included 10 fours. She was dropped in the cover field exactly as she brought up her half-century, and her opening stand with star Smriti Mandhana reached 115 runs in the 12th over before the partnership broke.

    Mandhana matched Verma’s aggressive form, notching back-to-back World Cup fifties with 74 runs off 47 balls, highlighted by four consecutive boundaries off Dutch bowler Silver Siegers. After India’s batting set an imposing target, the team’s spin attack dismantled the Netherlands’ batting order, with Verma adding another layer to her historic day: the 25-year-old finished with three wickets for 20 runs from her off-spin, making her only the third player in Women’s World Cup history to score a half-century and take three wickets in a single match, joining West Indies’ Hayley Matthews and South Africa’s Sune Luus. Slow left-armer Shree Charani put the finishing touches on the collapse, taking four wickets for 19 runs including three wickets in a single over, as the Netherlands slumped from a solid 96-3 to be all out for 114 in 17.3 overs. The 95-run margin marked India’s largest victory by runs in any Women’s T20 World Cup to date.

    Speaking after the match, Verma addressed her recent form slump, saying: “Happy to be back with some runs. I just practiced hard to get my shots again. When balls were not coming on I just went for singles so it was a mature innings.”

    In the earlier match on the same Headingley pitch, six-time tournament champions Australia maintained their unbeaten start to the competition, chasing down a low Bangladesh total of 77 for eight in just 9.3 overs to secure a nine-wicket win. On an overcast day suited to seam bowling, Australia’s bowlers dominated from the first over, with Kim Garth taking two wickets in the powerplay, while captain Sophie Molineux and star all-rounder Ellyse Perry, named player of the match, each claimed two wickets. Bangladesh collapsed to 27 for five by the eighth over, flirting with their own World Cup record low total of 46, but battled through to pass the mark in the 15th over. Opener Georgia Voll bounced back from a duck on her tournament debut against South Africa to finish unbeaten on 45 off 32 balls, including a towering six over the bowler’s head, to guide Australia to an early victory. Australia will next face the Netherlands on Saturday.

    Injury updates emerged as a major side story on the day, with multiple key players sidelined for upcoming matches. Australia’s Phoebe Litchfield, who opened the tournament with a 50 against South Africa, will miss the next three matches with a quadriceps injury, while star all-rounder Ash Gardner missed the Bangladesh clash with an ankle sprain. Host nation England suffered a significant blow, as captain Nat Sciver-Brunt will miss two matches after re-injuring her left calf; she was forced to retire hurt on 48 against Ireland on Tuesday. India also lost young all-rounder Shreyanka Patil during Wednesday’s match, after she appeared to twist her ankle and had to be carried from the field.

    Bangladesh captain Nigar Sultana acknowledged her side’s struggles in the batting department after the defeat, noting that the team has faced long-term challenges developing power-hitting talent: “We have been looking for a few players like power hitters. It’s pretty difficult to find batters like that.”

  • Watch: Japan’s unusual course on avoiding a bear attack

    Watch: Japan’s unusual course on avoiding a bear attack

    Across Japan, 2024 has already seen an unprecedented spike in human-bear conflicts, with total confirmed bear attacks on people hitting a record high that far outpaces any previous year recorded in national wildlife data. As dangerous encounters between humans and these wild animals become increasingly common in both rural and semi-urban areas, regional authorities are stepping up emergency preparedness to protect local communities and visitors.

  • ‘Why bother?’: Trump no longer feels the need to seize Iran’s uranium

    ‘Why bother?’: Trump no longer feels the need to seize Iran’s uranium

    Just one day after formalizing a ceasefire memorandum of understanding with Iran to end the unprovoked war launched jointly with Israel in February, U.S. President Donald Trump has dramatically softened his long-stated top priority for the conflict: seizing Iran’s stockpiles of highly enriched uranium. Speaking Tuesday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in France, Trump asserted there was “no rush” to recover the nuclear material from sites targeted by U.S. airstrikes in June 2025.

    In comments that contradicted months of public messaging from Trump and his senior national security team, the president downplayed both the urgency and the value of the uranium he had once framed as an existential threat requiring immediate military action. “Taking the highly enriched uranium is something the U.S. wants psychologically, but not enough to prioritize extracting it right away,” Trump said, even suggesting that a case could be made that the effort to seize the material was not worth the logistical challenge at all.

    Noting that only the United States and China possess the specialized heavy equipment required to extract the uranium, Trump added: “Frankly, to go get it—we’re going to go get it—but to go get it is a big deal. You could make the case, ‘Why do you even bother?’ because it’s not very valuable, you know. It’s probably half a million dollars worth, it’s not very valuable stuff.”

    Trump’s shift comes 24 hours after he and Iranian officials announced the MOU that halted hostilities, a conflict during which Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global energy supplies and sending oil prices soaring across international markets. The president told The New York Times that the agreement caps Iran’s uranium enrichment at levels that can never be repurposed for military use. However, anonymous White House officials speaking to The Washington Post clarified that full details of Iran’s nuclear program oversight remain unresolved, with formal negotiations set to unfold over the next two months. The question of whether nuclear talks would proceed separately from ceasefire negotiations had been a major sticking point for U.S. negotiators in the lead-up to the MOU.

    When pressed on criticism that the new agreement fails to secure any new nuclear concessions that were not already enshrined in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)—the Obama-era deal that Trump abandoned during his first term, which traded sanctions relief for nuclear limits—the president pushed back. He reiterated that the new deal permanently restricts Iran’s uranium enrichment to nonmilitary purposes only.

    Supporters of the administration, including former National Security Council chief of staff Alex Gray, have defended the agreement as a historic breakthrough, claiming it marks the first time the U.S. has permanently blocked Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon. Iran has consistently maintained, even before the February invasion, that its entire nuclear program is intended exclusively for peaceful civilian energy purposes.

    But foreign policy analysts say Trump’s Tuesday comments expose inconsistencies in the administration’s justifications for the war. Foreign policy analyst Logan McMillen argued that the president’s downplaying of the uranium is an implicit admission that the material was always a false pretext for the conflict. “The real purpose was to punish Iran for the crime of being an independent economic power that refused to participate in America’s petro economy,” McMillen said.

    CNN’s Aaron Blake points out that this latest shift is far from the first time Trump has sent contradictory messages about Iran’s nuclear program. Just weeks ago, Trump wrote on social media that Iran’s uranium would be unearthed by U.S. experts—working with Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency—and destroyed. But as far back as April, he told Reuters that U.S. strikes had left Iran’s uranium buried deep enough that he “didn’t care” about its location. Two weeks after that April comment, he insisted the U.S. “had to take that nuclear dust,” then told Fox News later that destroying the stockpile was “not necessary except from a public relations standpoint.”

  • Spinners Zampa and Davies shine as Australia wins opening T20 vs Bangladesh

    Spinners Zampa and Davies shine as Australia wins opening T20 vs Bangladesh

    In the opening fixture of a three-match Twenty20 international series between Australia and Bangladesh hosted in Chattogram on Wednesday, a disciplined spin attack from the visitors laid the foundation for a four-wicket victory, with slow bowlers Adam Zampa and Joel Davies sharing six wickets between them to dismantle the home side’s batting lineup.

    A notable milestone also marked the match: leg-spinner Nikhil Chaudhary, the first India-born male cricketer to earn a cap for Australia’s national team in six decades, chipped in with one wicket to cap his historic appearance. Australia’s spin unit dominated from the middle overs onward, bowling Bangladesh all out for just 131 runs inside 19 overs.

    Chasing a modest total, Australia got off to a rocky start, losing returning opener Mitchell Marsh — who was back in the side after missing the preceding ODI series with an ankle injury — and fellow opener Josh Inglis in quick succession. But Cooper Connolly, whose match-winning 149 in the final ODI rescued Australia from a potential series sweep just days prior, stepped up again to anchor the run chase. Striking four fours and three sixes, the batter compiled a steady 47 runs to steer Australia closer to the target.

    Connolly shared a valuable 40-run third-wicket partnership with Tim David, who contributed 20 runs, before he was caught off the bowling of Abdul Gaffar, who claimed his maiden international wicket on his T20 debut. The left-arm fast bowler finished his opening outing with strong figures of 2 wickets for 32 runs. Australia ultimately crossed the finish line in 18.2 overs, finishing on 133 for 6 to claim the first win of the series.

    For Bangladesh, the match was played under new leadership: regular captain Litton Das was forced out of the fixture with a calf injury sustained in the third ODI, forcing Tawhid Hridoy to step in as stand-in skipper. Hridoy won the pre-match toss and opted to bat first, but the decision failed to pay off, as no home batter could mount a sustained resistance against Australia’s controlled spin attack. While Bangladesh got off to a promising start at 39 for 1 after the first five overs, Zampa and Davies sparked a dramatic batting collapse that saw the home side lose seven wickets for just 60 runs, capping their disastrous batting performance.

    The second match of the three-match T20 series is scheduled to take place this Friday, with Bangladesh looking to bounce back and level the series before the deciding final fixture.

  • All the ways Iran beat Trump into submission

    All the ways Iran beat Trump into submission

    Three months after the United States and Israel launched a large-scale military campaign against Iran, the outcome has defied nearly all early expectations: the Islamic Republic has demonstrated far greater strategic resilience than Western military analysts predicted, and has now seized the upper hand in the conflict’s political and diplomatic landscape. This unexpected reversal of fortune, outlined by two leading war studies scholars from King’s College London, offers a stark lesson in the dynamics of asymmetric conflict between vastly mismatched military powers.

    When the joint US-Israeli military operation launched in late February 2026, almost all outside observers forecast a swift collapse of the Tehran government. The conflict was lopsided from the start: Iran faced two nuclear-armed adversaries with the world’s most sophisticated military technology, and the scale of the invasion surpassed any military pressure Iran had endured in nearly a century.

    For weeks, US and Israeli air and missile forces carried out relentless bombardment across Iran. Precision airstrikes and targeted assassinations eliminated top political and military leadership, including long-time supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran’s conventional air and naval forces were all but destroyed, hundreds of missile launchers and air defense systems were reduced to rubble, and the country’s internal security infrastructure suffered catastrophic damage. Thousands of tons of munitions were dropped on Iranian nuclear facilities, missile production plants, and drone manufacturing sites. While Iran quickly moved to install new leadership and mobilize its remaining military assets for a counterattack, the regime faced an undeniable existential threat in the opening weeks of the war. At that time, the idea that Iran could avoid full surrender, retain its political sovereignty, and even gain negotiating leverage against the world’s most powerful military alliance seemed impossible. Yet that is exactly what has transpired.

    Jerusalem-based Middle East analyst Daniel Sobelman explains that for a weaker military power to avoid defeat in an asymmetric conflict against a far stronger adversary, it must shift the “balance of vulnerability” in its favor. That requires two core steps: preserving critical retaliatory military capabilities, and systematically exploiting the structural vulnerabilities of the opposing side. This strategic logic has long been central to Iranian military planning: Iranian officials have repeatedly emphasized that shifting the balance of vulnerability is the foundation of asymmetric deterrence and wartime strategy.

    While Tehran’s pre-war deterrence posture failed to prevent the US-Israeli invasion, Iranian commanders successfully rewrote that balance over three months of sustained fighting. By inflicting unacceptable costs on the attacking coalition and exploiting unforeseen vulnerabilities, Iran not only survived the onslaught but forced the US and Israel to the negotiating table for a ceasefire.

    By April, it became clear that the US and Israel could not force Iran to surrender – a goal US President Donald Trump had publicly framed as forcing Iran to “cry uncle”. The coalition failed to achieve its core objective of regime change, and it never succeeded in destroying Iran’s entire stockpile of missiles and attack drones.

    Iran absorbed the devastating initial blows, but retained enough retaliatory capacity to launch consistent missile and drone strikes against Israeli population centers and US military bases across the Persian Gulf. It also targeted critical energy infrastructure in US-aligned Arab Gulf states, undermining Washington’s stated core goal of protecting its regional allies and throwing the Gulf’s reputation as a stable hub for energy production into chaos. These strikes sent a clear message to regional states: aligning with the US in this conflict creates major security risks, not protection.

    Most impactfully, Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz to commercial shipping, cutting off one of the world’s most critical arteries for global oil, natural gas, and fertilizer trade. The closure triggered immediate cascading disruptions to global energy and food supplies, spreading the cost of the conflict far beyond the Middle East. Iran also forced the US, Israel, and Gulf allies to expend massive stockpiles of precision munitions – a slow-to-replenish resource that created a new critical vulnerability for the coalition to pressure.

    To escalate pressure on the coalition, Iran has issued further threats to raise the economic and human cost of the conflict: it has warned it will expand attacks on energy and infrastructure targets across Israel and the Gulf, and could target critical undersea internet cables running through the Strait of Hormuz. It has also threatened to mobilize its Houthi allies in Yemen to disrupt shipping through the Bab al-Mandab Strait in the Red Sea, another critical global trade chokepoint.

    It is true that the US and Israel achieved many of their stated short-term military goals: they severely degraded Iran’s nuclear program, conventional military capabilities, and domestic defense industries. But Iran successfully blocked the coalition from achieving its overarching strategic goals, and inflicted massive strategic, diplomatic, military, political, and economic costs on the US, Israel, their Gulf allies, and the global economy.

    Tehran still remains at a major conventional military disadvantage, and remains vulnerable to future US and Israeli airstrikes. But as things stand today, it holds a clear upper hand at the political and strategic level. Iran has forced the Trump administration to seek an exit from the conflict, retains the ability to reclose the Strait of Hormuz at will, and can still strike critical targets across the region at any time.

    Iran has also moved to revamp its Axis of Resistance network, which includes Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemeni Houthis, as a core pillar of its deterrence and wartime strategy. Tehran recently announced the creation of a new “security belt” for the alliance, and unveiled a new doctrine for a “unified resistance front” that mandates a coordinated retaliatory response from all members to any attack on any single part of the network.

    Looking ahead, Tehran is expected to leverage its current perceived strategic advantage to strengthen its position both on the battlefield and in negotiations with Washington. Its goal is not just to survive the conflict, but to emerge with a stronger long-term strategic position that allows it to rebuild and expand its key retaliatory capabilities, particularly missiles and drones, while continuing to exploit the vulnerabilities of its adversaries.

  • Turkish state broadcaster drops veteran World Cup commentator over Iran-New Zealand mix-up

    Turkish state broadcaster drops veteran World Cup commentator over Iran-New Zealand mix-up

    A veteran sports commentator has lost his spot on Turkey’s national public broadcaster TRT’s 2022 FIFA World Cup coverage team over an on-air gaffe that mixed up two competing Group G teams, broadcaster officials confirmed this week.

    The error unfolded during Monday’s tightly contested Group G match between Iran and New Zealand, which ended in a 2-2 draw between the two sides. In the opening minutes of TRT’s live broadcast, commentator Murat Ekrem Çimen, a 30-year veteran of sports media named by local Turkish outlets, incorrectly attributed Iran’s offensive plays to New Zealand and mislabeled New Zealand’s in-game maneuvers as Iran’s.

    In an official statement released late Tuesday, TRT announced that Çimen had been immediately removed from the network’s World Cup commentary delegation based in the United States, and will not take part in any further match coverage for the duration of the tournament. The network added that a full internal investigation into the incident is ongoing.

    TRT framed the mistake as a clear violation of the network’s official broadcasting standards, noting that the error was particularly notable given Çimen’s decades of experience in sports journalism. “We apologize to our viewers and the public for this error,” the statement read. “It is unacceptable for TRT that someone with over 30 years of experience in sports broadcasting would make such a mistake.”

  • New Zealand squanders strong starts as England’s green attack strikes at The Oval

    New Zealand squanders strong starts as England’s green attack strikes at The Oval

    On the opening day of the third and decisive Test match between New Zealand and England at The Oval, the Black Caps capped their most productive batting session of the ongoing England tour with a frustratingly underwhelming result, ending Wednesday at 291 for seven wickets after squandering multiple promising starts against a drastically inexperienced English bowling attack.

    England entered the clash holding a 1-0 series lead, having secured an 115-run victory in the opening Test at Lord’s. That result came under intense scrutiny after match officials rated the Lord’s pitch “unsatisfactory”, and the psychological impact of that win appeared to linger in New Zealand’s batting performance Wednesday. On a pitch that shed its early hostile, fast-bowling friendly conditions as the day progressed — matching pre-match expectations — six of the Black Caps’ seven wickets came courtesy of soft, unforced dismissals that gifted the underprepared English side easy breakthroughs.

    The casualty list of wasted starts reads like a who’s who of New Zealand’s batting core: captain Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, who stepped into the key number three batting slot vacated by retired former skipper Kane Williamson, all-rounder Rachin Ravindra, and wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell — the first New Zealand batter to register a half-century in this series — all threw away solid foundations after getting set at the crease.

    By the close of play, only Glenn Phillips remained unbeaten on 49, alongside fast bowler Kyle Jamieson who had notched six runs. The final hour of the day delivered the most dramatic action of the opening session, with star England fast bowler Jofra Archer delivering a relentless, probing spell to test Phillips that had crowds on the edge of their seats.

    England’s bowling unit, which took the field at Lord’s for the first Test, has been decimated by a combination of player suspensions and injury ahead of the Oval clash. That left Archer — playing his first Test match since the Christmas break last year — to lead a vastly inexperienced group: Josh Tongue, Matthew Fisher (playing just his second Test at international level), and Sonny Baker, one of three debutants named in England’s bowling line-up.

    Against expectations, the young group performed far better than many pundits predicted, consistently delivering fast, line-and-length bowling that kept New Zealand batters under pressure. That said, wayward bowling that resulted in 44 extras meant the free gifts from New Zealand’s batters were matched by England’s unforced errors, with the 44 extras tying for the third highest individual score on New Zealand’s innings card at stumps.

    Even part-time spinner Jacob Bethell got in on the action, delivering the first spin bowling of the entire series for England and claiming an eye-catching two wickets for just eight runs from his five overs, further highlighting New Zealand’s generous dismissal rate. Baker, the lively young fast bowler, claimed the wicket of Ravindra, while both Archer and seamers Dom Mitchell chipped in with one wicket apiece. Archer’s final eight-over spell of the day, which conceded just 22 runs without taking a wicket, delivered the high-tempo, high-stakes drama that woke a dozing packed crowd and gave the home side momentum heading into Day Two.

  • Putin hosts leaders of Southeast Asia at Russia-ASEAN summit

    Putin hosts leaders of Southeast Asia at Russia-ASEAN summit

    A high-stakes two-day Russia-ASEAN summit has opened Wednesday in the Russian city of Kazan, where President Vladimir Putin is hosting top leaders from the 11-member Southeast Asian bloc to deepen economic, political and people-to-people ties across the partnership. This year’s gathering carries special significance, as it commemorates 35 years of formal relations between Moscow and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a milestone that both sides have framed as a cornerstone of their evolving engagement.

    ASEAN has maintained official dialogue partner status with Russia for decades, holding annual top-level meetings to align on shared priorities. This summit is tasked with advancing the existing Russia-ASEAN strategic partnership, exploring new avenues for collaboration that span trade, investment, and regional governance. Ahead of the official leadership talks, a pre-summit business forum brought together private sector representatives from both sides. In a welcome message to attendees, Putin emphasized his expectation that the forum would unlock new opportunities for expanding mutually beneficial trade, investment, and industrial cooperation, while strengthening direct, open dialogue between Russian and ASEAN business communities.

    Kremlin foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov outlined the summit’s full agenda to reporters, noting that leaders will not only review progress on existing cooperative initiatives but also exchange candid views on pressing global and regional security challenges. A core unifying theme set to emerge from the gathering, Ushakov highlighted, is a shared commitment to building a fair, democratic multipolar global order rooted firmly in the principles of international law and the United Nations Charter. Beyond plenary discussions, the schedule includes one-on-one bilateral meetings between Putin and individual ASEAN leaders to address country-specific priorities and collaborative projects.

    The ASEAN bloc includes 11 diverse member states with varied geopolitical alignments: the Philippines, which currently holds ASEAN’s annual rotating presidency, is broadly aligned with the United States, while other member states maintain deep trade and security ties with both Russia and China. Since global energy prices spiked in the wake of heightened geopolitical conflict that disrupted regional oil markets, a number of major ASEAN economies including the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam have either moved to import Russian crude oil or publicly expressed interest in expanding purchases of the commodity, underscoring the practical economic drivers shaping the bloc’s engagement with Moscow.

  • China releases white paper on global governance

    China releases white paper on global governance

    On June 17, 2026, China’s State Council Information Office officially released a landmark white paper in Beijing titled *More Just and Equitable Global Governance: China’s Principles, Proposals and Actions*, laying out the country’s long-held stance, actionable proposals, and ongoing commitments to reforming and improving the global governance system. The document comes at a time of rising global fragmentation, growing governance deficits, and intensifying cross-border challenges that demand coordinated collective action from the international community. Its core goal is to clarify China’s approach, build broader consensus among nations, and strengthen collective capacity to address shared global risks, ultimately laying the groundwork for a more inclusive and fairer global governance framework. As the white paper emphasizes, global governance is a collective undertaking that shapes the long-term well-being of all people around the world. The pursuit of a just and equitable system has been a shared aspiration of communities across every region for decades, and China has consistently positioned itself as an active participant, dedicated contributor, and responsible builder of the global governance order. Central to China’s modern approach to global governance is the vision of a global community with a shared future for mankind, put forward by President Xi Jinping in the new era. Under this guiding vision, China advocates for a global governance system rooted in the principles of extensive consultation, joint contribution, and shared benefits. It also promotes true multilateralism, with the aim of nurturing an equal and orderly multipolar world and driving economic globalization that is universally beneficial and inclusive to all nations. In 2025, President Xi Jinping launched the Global Governance Initiative (GGI), a framework crafted to address the two defining questions of the current era: what kind of global governance system the world needs, and how to reform and improve existing governance structures to meet modern challenges. Since its introduction, the initiative has garnered remarkable international support: nearly 160 countries and international organizations have backed the proposal, and more than 60 nations have joined the GGI’s Group of Friends. The white paper notes that the international community recognizes the GGI sends a powerful, clear message: the world must reaffirm its commitment to multilateralism, unite divided forces, and work collectively toward a fairer global future. Aligned with the growing global push for greater democracy in international relations, the GGI has renewed international confidence in the practice of multilateralism, at a moment when multilateral institutions face unprecedented pressure and skepticism. It provides a clear, practical roadmap for upgrading global governance, offering much-needed stability and positive momentum to a world grappling with geopolitical turbulence, economic uncertainty, and overlapping transnational crises. The white paper underscores that the core foundation for effectively implementing the GGI is unwavering respect for the authority and central role of the United Nations in global affairs. For the initiative to succeed, major powers must step up to their international responsibilities, and all countries must come together in cooperative partnership to address the growing deficits in peace and development across the globe. All nations, the document stresses, should firmly uphold the international system centered on the United Nations, protect the international order rooted in international law, and abide by the basic norms of international relations grounded in the purposes and principles of the UN Charter — rejecting attempts to fragment the global order through exclusionary blocs and frameworks that serve narrow national interests. Structured into five core sections, in addition to a preface and concluding chapter, the white paper opens by outlining the severe, complex challenges facing the contemporary world. It moves on to explain how the GGI responds to these pressing modern challenges, before detailing China’s existing contributions to advancing more inclusive global governance. It then lays out the vision for guiding global governance reform toward a more prosperous and equitable future, and closes by calling for collective action at this critical juncture in global history. The release of the white paper comes as China prepares to host the inaugural Xiong’an Global Governance Forum, marking another key step in advancing dialogue and cooperation on global governance reform among the international community.