Global Outlook

After the summit talks in Geneva on 17 June, Russian and US presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden held separate and contrasting press conferences. Biden made it clear his staff had given him a prepared list of reporters on whom to call, strongly suggesting questions and answers drafted in advance to minimise gaffes by a president whose thoughts can wander sometimes.

Two years ago, in July 2019, the Toda Peace Institute published the ‘Toda Pacific Declaration on Climate Change, Conflict and Peace’. So far, the Declaration has attracted more than ten thousand endorsements (and Toda warmly welcomes further endorsements).

The South Korea-US summit on May 21 came to a successful conclusion. It served as an opportunity for making the two countries’ alliance more reciprocal and comprehensive.

The risk of nuclear war is real. A ‘no first use’ policy of nuclear weapons would actually bolster US security – and underpin its global leadership role.

Even before the new US administration has sorted its political priorities—a necessity after four erratic Trump years—it is already forced to show the flag on foreign policy. Recently, the war between Israel and Hamas, at the same time the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the complicated relationship with Russia, the dysfunctional relations within NATO, the sensitivities of the German government resulting from disagreements over the North Stream 2 gas pipeline, and so on.

For more than thirty years, a majority of people in Myanmar have seen Daw Aung San Suu Kyi as their legitimate leader. Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won the 1990 elections for a national assembly that was never allowed to meet. On November 8 2015 and November 8 2020, the NLD again twice won by a landslide. Yet, when the elected MPs were to convene in Naypyidaw on 1 February 2021, they were instead placed under arrest.