A Sri Lankan court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of US$916,537 held at the state-owned Bank of Ceylon and its return to Taiwan’s Far Eastern International Bank, the bank from which
The student radicals of Paris in 1968 used to chant: “Be realistic – demand the impossible.” It was a clever slogan for a moment of revolution. But what happens when revolution is not an
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Another G20 summit convenes this week in Johannesburg, but the mood surrounding it says more than the agenda ever will. The forum was born not out of ideology but necessity. Its creation
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Donald Trump is not, by instinct, a president who seeks war. But he is a president who believes deeply in projecting strength. And in the US, strength is almost always performed on
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A year has passed since November 2024, when Donald Trump won the US presidential election for the second time. And it makes more sense to start the clock there, rather than on
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US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would only meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin once the terms of a potential deal were clear. Moscow agrees that such a meeting
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Several leading Western countries – Britain, Canada, Australia, and a group of EU members led by France – have announced their recognition of Palestinian statehood. They justified the move by saying that
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France is once again in crisis. Francois Bayrou’s government failed to win a vote of confidence in the National Assembly and has resigned. President Emmanuel Macron has promised to quickly propose another
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Historical anniversaries often provide the backdrop for diplomacy to become spectacle. This week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin was deliberately staged ahead of China’s grand parade marking 80 years since
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In the early 1980s, former US President Jimmy Carter visited Stockholm. At a reception he approached Stig Ramel, the long-serving executive director of the Nobel Foundation, and asked with some bitterness why
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It has been a long time since a diplomatic event drew as much global attention as Friday’s meeting between the Russian and US presidents in Alaska. In terms of its significance for
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This week marks the 50th anniversary of a landmark event in European diplomacy. In 1975, the leaders of 35 countries, including the United States, Canada, and almost all of Europe, gathered in
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The second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul, and the events leading up to them, offer a clear snapshot of the current state of the conflict. It is
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The recent conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin has clarified the emerging diplomatic structure around Ukraine. What we are witnessing resembles the first reading of a play –
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Eighty years is a long time. Over such a span, the world changes almost beyond recognition, and events that once felt close fade into legend. Yet while history may become distant, its
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Everyone is expecting news on a Ukrainian settlement this week. The diplomatic activity is real and intense, and the visible signs suggest something significant is underway. There is little point in trying
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