Latest news with #internationalorder
NHK
14 hours ago
- Politics
- NHK
Japan, Lithuania leaders agree to work together to bring peace to Ukraine
Japan's Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru and Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda have agreed to work together to try to bring peace to Ukraine and to deal with various other matters. On Monday, Ishiba met with Nauseda in Tokyo. The Japanese prime minister said the two countries share a warm and strong bond that is symbolized by the "Visas for Life," which were issued by Sugihara Chiune during World War Two. When he was working in Lithuania, the Japanese diplomat saved many Jewish people who were fleeing Nazi persecution. Ishiba said he hopes that he and Nauseda can work more closely together to try to maintain and strengthen the free and open international order based on the rule of law. Japan's Foreign Ministry says the two leaders concurred that unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force are unacceptable anywhere. They agreed to cooperate to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. They reportedly shared serious concerns about the advancement of military cooperation between Russia and North Korea. They also agreed to cooperate further on a wide range of issues, including security, transportation, shipping and renewable energy.
Japan Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan to name China as its biggest strategic challenge
The government, in its upcoming basic economic and fiscal policy guidelines, will position China as the biggest strategic challenge to efforts to strengthen the international order based on the rule of law, sources said Wednesday. It is unusual for the annual economic and fiscal policy guidelines to criticize China for its coercive behavior toward neighboring countries. A draft of the guidelines points out that China is using economic coercion, including through trade, and that the spread of yuan-based settlements through its Belt and Road initiative could impact the role of the dollar. The draft also expresses strong concern about China's attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, as well as its actions against peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Regarding U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, the draft states that the government will patiently continue negotiations to urge the Trump administration to reconsider the tariffs. The draft calls for all possible measures to cope with the tariffs' impact on the Japanese economy. In response to growing calls for a consumption tax cut, the draft indicates that the government will pursue wage increases that outpace inflation by expanding the overall economy, rather than increasing people's take-home pay through a tax cut that lacks a funding measure.
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump's negotiations with Putin mean Europe needs to prepare for a second cold war
It is always painful to abandon longstanding certainties. The transatlantic security bond has, for 76 years, been one such certainty. Since 1949, generations of Europeans and North Americans have lived with the confidence that political leaders on both sides of the Atlantic shared a strong commitment to the international rules-based order, democratic principles, and a common vision of ' Europe whole, free and at peace'. Notwithstanding sporadic disagreements between individual allies, and regular requests from the US for Europe to bear a fairer share of the military burden, the allies' vow to defend each other in case of need and maintain a credible military deterrent was never called into question, and neither was the willingness of any given occupant of the Oval Office to come to the aid of a Nato member if they were attacked. Now, Donald Trump and his Maga acolytes have brutally shattered this certainty. The transatlantic partnership is unravelling in front of our eyes: in the space of 100 days, Trump has undermined Nato's collective stance on defence; hit the global economy with tariffs; threatened the territorial integrity of dedicated allies Canada and Denmark; interfered in the internal affairs of allies with his brazen support for European right-wing populist parties; and departed from well-established multilateral bodies including the World Health Organisation, the International Criminal Court and the UN Climate Change Conference. In a series of hammer blows, Trump has shattered the rules-based global order. Shockingly for Washington's longstanding European allies, the Trump administration is prepared to hand on a plate to Vladimir Putin, the most brutal aggressor Europe has faced since Hitler, two major Russian foreign policy goals: the decoupling of America from European security, and the neutralisation of Nato. Trump's attempts to ram a so-called 'peace deal' down Ukrainian and European throats, side with the Kremlin and its authoritarian supporters in UN votes, suspend cyber operations against Russia, and acknowledge Moscow's illegal annexation of Crimea while halting critical military intelligence for Ukraine, underscore Washington's departure from the Nato consensus on Russia and Ukraine. While European leaders are trying desperately to keep Trump on side, hoping he will pressure Putin into coming to the negotiating table, their potential diplomatic breakthrough in Istanbul flopped. Trump is deeply agnostic about the fate of Ukraine, and is ready to recognise a Russian sphere of influence in Eastern Europe – the US-Ukrainian 'minerals' deal does not change this fact. While it was a clever move by the government in Kyiv to bind Washington, to some degree, to Ukraine's future, the fact is that without cast-iron security guarantees, Trump's commitment to Ukraine will remain lukewarm at best. This US foreign policy shift is fundamental. It goes much deeper than military and financial burden-sharing. For Trump, the geopolitical sphere is a jungle in which only those with a 'winner takes all' approach can survive. Enlarging America's geoeconomic sphere of influence, keeping China (as its most daunting strategic competitor) at bay, and aggressively pursuing profitable business deals are Trump's foreign policy objectives. Europeans and Canadians must confront the new geopolitical reality with clarity. Fear is a mind-killer. Denial is not a strategy. Neither is polite subordination, or whitewashing Trump's actions. While some European governments support the concept of transatlantic burden-shifting, they still look to Washington to provide them with a generous five-to-10-year timeframe to build up Europe's defence capability, hoping that the US withdraws in good order. This is naive at best. Rather, the assumption must be that Trump has pulled the US defence rug from under Europe's feet, and that Europe must stand alone or fail. This means it is imperative for Europeans and Canadians to keep Nato functioning, and to increase Europe's capabilities quickly. Currently, the European Union is unable to generate a comparable warfighting capability. If Ukraine is to be supported and Russia deterred, Europe and Canada must accept Trump's decoupling from European security as a fact and start developing a concrete roadmap for a reinvigorated Nato that Europeans will lead in the future. The list of issues to be tackled is hard and long: how can the alliance function in the presence of disruptive US actions, a reduced US force posture in Europe, and a smaller US financial contribution to Nato's common, civil and military budgets? How can the allies fill the gaps left by the US in Nato's command structure, the alliance's vitally important backbone? How can we replace the US's critical strategic battle-winning enablers and, most critically, US troops assigned to Nato's battle groups in Poland, Latvia, Romania and Bulgaria? And how can we maintain a credible nuclear deterrence posture? The challenge at hand may look overwhelming. But with sufficient political will, overcoming it is feasible. A European-led Nato command structure could be trimmed down and adapted. A general defence plan, combined with a rigorous exercise programme, could help to gear Nato's military posture towards what it must be prepared for in the first place: to fight a modern conventional war across all domains. A much more synchronised capability development programme, worked out in close cooperation with the European Union, could fill gaps in command and control, reconnaissance and surveillance, military mobility, and other areas of European military weakness. Now is the time for 'action this day', as Churchill would have said. The opportunity presented by the Nato summit in June must not be squandered by supplicant European leaders begging for a sign from Trump that all remains well. That horse has bolted from the stable. Rather, they must present a rigorous strategy for how a Europe that is free and secure from the long-term existential threat posed by Russia can be achieved without US participation. The first step in such a strategy is to provide the means, capabilities and expertise to support Ukraine in defeating Russia, and to provide the country with credible security guarantees. Only when Putin and his successors recognise that Ukraine will never become part of a new Russian empire can there be lasting peace in Europe. The way ahead will be hard. European societies must rebuild the resilience they possessed during the Cold War, which will mean sacrifice, hard work, moral courage, and exemplary political leadership. However, the alternatives are grim. Capitulation to the Trump agenda spells suicide for European security and democracy, the rolling back of Nato from its post-1997 boundaries, and the establishment of Putin's 'new Yalta', in which Russia, once again, dominates Eastern Europe. This would mean almost certain war between Europe (and Canada) and Russia. But such a catastrophe is not inevitable if Europe is prepared to fight a second cold war to avoid an even bigger global disaster. As Carl von Clausewitz wrote: 'The first, the supreme, the most far-reaching act of judgement that the statesman and commander have to make is to establish the nature of the kind of war on which they are embarking.' European leaders have had more than three years to recognise that the Russian way of war and diplomacy is one that is based on the brutal application of raw power and terror. Now they must turn the tide. By unleashing the right will, energy and determination, Europe is more than capable of outmatching Russia. Above all, Europeans must believe in their own power.
Russia Today
13-05-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
Fyodor Lukyanov: Russia doesn't need Western approval to shape global history
The 9th of May Victory Day celebrations in Moscow once again captured international attention – despite the many other global events vying for the headlines. This wasn't simply about pageantry or military symbolism. The Red Square parade was, as always, a statement: a public expression of one country's position in the evolving global environment. Whether critics will admit it or not, events like this provoke reactions – and that in itself signals relevance. Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, the memory of that conflict is being viewed through new lenses. It was, undeniably, a world war – its consequences reshaped the international order. The creation of the United Nations was its most formal legacy, but the broader historical impact extended far beyond. The war marked the beginning of the end for the colonial system. From the late 1940s onward, decolonization accelerated rapidly. Within three decades, colonial empires had all but disappeared, and dozens of new states emerged across Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Their paths varied, but they fundamentally changed the structure of global politics. Looking back from 2025, one could argue that this wave of decolonization – driven by the global South – was no less historically important than the Cold War or the bipolar superpower confrontation. Today, the role of the so-called 'global majority' is expanding quickly. These nations may not dominate the international system, but they increasingly form a vibrant, influential environment in which all global actors must operate. The presence of guests from Asia, Africa, and Latin America at this year's parade in Moscow was a symbolic confirmation of that shift. It signaled that the world has definitively moved beyond the Cold War structure, which framed international life around a North Atlantic-centric axis. Equally important was the fact that this reconfiguration was highlighted in Moscow – through Russia's own initiative. It reflected not just commemoration, but transformation. A similar event is expected in Beijing in September to mark the end of the war in the Pacific theater. Together, these ceremonies highlight how the geopolitical center of gravity is gradually shifting away from its traditional Western base. As time distances us from the largest war in human history, its meaning doesn't diminish. On the contrary, it reappears in new forms. Like it or not, memory has become a political force. It increasingly defines which community a country belongs to. Each nation has its own version of the war – and that's to be expected. This isn't revisionism. It's the natural result of different historical experiences shaped under different conditions. There will never be a single unified narrative of the past, and attempts to impose one are not only unrealistic but dangerous. The focus should be on finding compatibility between differing interpretations, not enforcing uniformity. Using memory as a political weapon erodes the foundations of peaceful international coexistence. This issue is particularly relevant for the global majority, which may one day voice its own historical claims more loudly – especially against former colonial powers in the West. In this context, the growing divergence between Russia and Western Europe over the legacy of the Second World War cannot be ignored. Efforts to preserve and defend Russia's interpretation of the conflict are vital – not to convince others, but for domestic coherence and national identity. Other countries will write their own histories, shaped by their own interests. That cannot be controlled from the outside. The real issue is whether differing historical narratives can coexist. And on this front, it turns out that Russia has a far more productive engagement with many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America than with most in Europe. Many of these countries have their own war stories – ones that align more naturally with the Russian perspective. Unlike in the West, particularly in Europe, where the memory of the war has become a political wedge, countries in the global South tend to see history less ideologically and more as a shared human experience. Even parties in Western Europe that are ostensibly more sympathetic to Russia, such as the Alternative for Germany, are likely to hold radically different positions when it comes to questions of historical memory. If we simplify the picture, the previous world order was built on the shared memory and outcomes of the Second World War. That order is now gone – and so is the consensus that supported it. The current global situation doesn't amount to a new order in the traditional sense, but perhaps a new equilibrium can emerge. This equilibrium won't be based on universal values or unified narratives, but rather on peaceful coexistence among diverse interpretations and interests. Irreconcilable historical differences will remain a source of tension – particularly between Russia and the West – but differing perspectives need not always lead to conflict. With the global majority, Russia finds more space for mutual respect and constructive interaction. These countries do not seek to overwrite Russian memory; they have their own, and they don't clash. That opens the door to new relationships and partnerships, grounded not in conformity but in compatibility. What we are witnessing is the slow dissolution of the Western-centric worldview. In its place is emerging something far more complex and diversified. This shift is not merely the result of the current geopolitical confrontation between Russia and the West, but a reflection of deeper structural changes. It is an objective process – and, for Russia, a potentially advantageous one. As a transcontinental power, Russia has more flexibility than any other state to operate in a multidirectional, multi-civilizational world. The new international environment – whatever form it ultimately takes – will not be shaped by a single hegemonic center. And that reality will force everyone, including Russia, to adapt. But adaptation is not the same as subordination. On the contrary, Russia's unique historical identity and geopolitical position may allow it to thrive in this emerging world – not by conforming to a Western blueprint, but by helping to build something more balanced, inclusive, and representative of the world as it actually is.
News.com.au
11-05-2025
- Politics
- News.com.au
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping stand side-by-side and proclaim new world order
Jackbooted soldiers. Polished guns. Smiles on every face. As the Russian tanks rolled through Red Square to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin stood side-by-side in an open proclamation of a new world order. But the 'friends without limits' were not celebrating the war as we know it. And their commitment to 'adhere to fairness and justice, and be defenders of the international order' rang somewhat hollow. Moscow may be 1200km north of the embattled region of Donetsk. But it's not beyond the reach of Ukrainian missiles and drones. And Putin's anticipated three-day invasion of the breakaway former Soviet Republic is now well into its third year. But such details were swept under the plush red carpets as Chairman Xi engaged in his 11th official visit to Russia after taking China's top job in 2013. The Communist Party chief is now enjoying a constitution-breaking third term. President Putin has also sidestepped, then sidelined, Russia's constitution to maintain his grip on power since 2000. But that didn't stop him from signing a joint statement with Xi yesterday, vowing to 'promote the development of the world toward justice, democracy, and multipolarity'. It's a message being deafened by Russia's ongoing armed assault against Ukraine. And one masked by China's island fortresses and fleet elbowing their way to dominance over the East and South China Seas. But the pair have once again joined forces to dictate on the global stage that they're simply misunderstood. And here's what they said. 'Facing the changes in the world, the changes of the times, and the changes in history, China and Russia must firmly grasp the forward direction of bilateral relations and the general trend of human society's development, step forward courageously, collaborate comprehensively, and make new and greater contributions to promoting the development and revitalisation of both countries and maintaining international fairness and justice.' 'Friends of steel' In 2022, Chairman Xi told President Putin during a flying visit to Beijing that the pair were 'friends without limits'. Two days later, Russia invaded Ukraine. Now Xi has proclaimed the two nations to be 'true friends of steel that have been through a hundred trials by fire'. He promised the 27 other world leaders at the parade that Moscow and Beijing would stand together to counter global 'unilateralism and bullying'. Putin's Russia is under heavy international sanctions for its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine. Xi's China is also under pressure, being the primary target of US President Donald Trump's global tariff campaign. That has created the strategic necessity for the two powers to strengthen their ties, argues Centre for Asia Policy Studies analyst Patricia Kim. Trade between Beijing and Moscow has soared more than 66 per cent since the invasion of Ukraine began in 2021. That's set to grow further, with Xi and Putin expected to sign several agreements this week. This includes establishing a new gas pipeline link from Siberia to deliver about 50 billion cubic meters of gas annually. 'As competition with the United States intensifies, Beijing views Moscow as an essential, if risky, partner,' Kim writes for the Brookings Institution. 'Still, Xi isn't inclined to make new concessions to Putin. Russia's economy is faltering, its military is overstretched, and its diplomatic leverage with the West remains limited. China continues to dominate the economic relationship, and that imbalance isn't likely to change soon — though it's increasingly a source of the Kremlin's resentment.' The two leaders have issued several joint and individual statements since getting together on Friday. For the most part, the messaging has been strictly co-ordinated. But the world has been left no doubt about who wears the pants in this relationship. 'I am willing to maintain close contact with President Putin, to steer and guide China-Russia relations, and to make a positive contribution to promoting global governance,' Chairman Xi asserted Friday. President Putin was more demure. 'I am willing to maintain close strategic communication with President Xi Jinping to provide strategic guidance for the development of bilateral relations, jointly respond to the challenges of complex international situations, deepen comprehensive strategic co-operation, (and) safeguard the common interests of the two countries …' Eliminating alliances 'Xi Jinping pointed out that the world has entered a new period of turbulence and transformation,' President Putin says in the joint statement. 'As long as China and Russia maintain strategic determination and strategic co-operation, then no force can stop the two countries from achieving their respective development and rejuvenation …' This vision of a shared future has been reinforced with a freshly reconstructed view of the past. 'China and Russia, as main theatres of Asia and Europe in WWII, have made decisive contributions to the victory of the World Anti-Fascist War and laid a solid foundation for the establishment of the post-war international order,' Xi proclaimed. The Allies (of which Republican China and Soviet Russia were a part) didn't get a mention. Nor were they represented at the Red Square parade – on the ground or in the VIP pews. However, the lack of mention of the WWII Allied forces has an interesting counterpoint. The Xi-Putin joint declaration took aim at the growing alignment of nations against them. 'Both sides point out that one of the strategic risks urgently needing elimination is the expansion of military alliances by certain nuclear-weapon states in sensitive regions surrounding other nuclear-weapon states,' it reads. This non-China-Russia bloc is 'exerting military pressure or implementing hostile actions that threaten the fundamental security interests of other countries'. Such alliances include the strengthening of ties between India, Australia and Japan. Not to mention growing international support for the Philippines and Taiwan. And allies, while not directly involved in the fighting, have supplied Ukraine with financial aid, ammunition, training and equipment. And that's an affront to Putin. 'Trials by fire' Putin insists Ukraine is the successor to Nazi Germany. That's despite President Volodymyr Zelenskyy being a Jew … 'Despite an almost complete lack of evidence to support these absurd and obscene claims, the 'Nazi Ukraine' narrative continues to resonate among a Russia population that has been utterly saturated in an extreme form of World War II mythology that often borders on religious fanaticism,' says Atlantic Council analyst Peter Dickinson. Putin has spent the past two decades embedding the Soviet Union's World War II struggle at the heart of Russia's national identity. It seeks to embed the notion of ultimate triumph following intense hardship. 'It has proved a highly effective strategy, helping to rebuild Russia's battered national pride and giving new meaning to the country's twentieth-century totalitarian trauma,' Dickinson adds. It's a glorified, nationalistic reinterpretation of history closely followed by China. Chairman Xi is resolute in restoring China's pride after 'a century of humiliation', 'The country endured intense humiliation, the people were subjected to great pain, and the Chinese civilisation was plunged into darkness,' he said at the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 2021. 'Since that time, national rejuvenation has been the greatest dream of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.' In September, Putin will return the favour by visiting Beijing to celebrate its victory over Japan.
