The 2023 G20 Summit: Addressing Russia’s War Against Ukraine.

On 9-10 September, world leaders gathered at the 18th G20 Summit to discuss the prevalent issues facing the world in New Delhi, India. This year’s edition theme: ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘one earth, one family, one future’. Issues of global economic growth along with climate concerns, digitalisation, and gender equality were on the agenda (European Council, Council of the European Union, 2023). However, one topic overshadowed all others: Russia’s war against Ukraine (Bose et al., 2023).

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Slow But Steady Progress On Ukraine’s Path Towards NATO And EU Accession As Joint Declarations Get Signed In Athens

On 21 August, as part of his tour around European capitals, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stopped in Athens for a bilateral summit with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The two signed a joint declaration to reiterate their mutual commitment to Ukraine’s efforts to access NATO in the short-term period (Ekathimerini, 2023). At the same time, while stressing the vital nature of Kyiv’s domestic security to ensure stability in the Euro-Atlantic area, the parties expressed their full support for the newly established NATO-Ukraine Council as a forum to further expand cooperation and consolidate Kyiv’s entrance in the Euro-Atlantic family (Interfax Ukraine, 2023). Along these lines, the text of the declaration begins with Greece acknowledging Ukraine’s achievements towards integration with NATO, with special regard to Kyiv’s armed forces’ efforts in the realm of military interoperability (Amna, 2023).

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A New Military Junta Rises To Power In ex-French Africa: Gabon’s Long-Standing President Is Ousted Based On Election Fraud And Corruption Accusations

On Wednesday 30 August, a group of men in army uniforms unseated Gabon’s long-serving president Ali Bongo Ondimba just a few minutes after he won re-election in highly contested presidential elections (Yeung, 2023). The vote had seen the governing Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) consolidating its majority in both houses of parliament, thus guaranteeing Ali Bongo over 64% of the votes cast and a third consecutive term in office (Bonny, 2023). Whilst seizing power, the newly established junta declared the election to be fraudulent, temporarily curtailed the Internet to allegedly prevent the spread of misinformation, shut the country’s borders ‘until further notice’, refused to allow vessels to leave the post of the capital Libreville, imposed a nightly curfew and dissolved ‘all the institutions of the republic’ (BBC News, 2023; Yeung, 2023; VOA News, 2023; Rédaction Africanews, 2023).

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The Camp David Pact: United States, Japan and South Korea establish an institutional basis for a trilateral security partnership in the Indo-Pacific

On 18 August, U.S., Japanese and South Korean leaders held a trilateral summit at the Camp David presidential retreat, in Maryland, to agree on a new security pact to expand security and economic cooperation, while establishing a bulwark against the two greatest security threats in the Indo-Pacific region, i.e., North Korea and China. The choice of such setting had a two-fold significance: first, following the footsteps of the US-brokered peace between Israel and Egypt in 1978, it marked the opportunity for Tokyo and Seoul to consolidate a long-meditated rapprochement after decades-long grievances between them. In this line, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol decided, not without domestic discontent, to put past the memories of Japanese occupation in the early 20th century. Secondly, it reflected the relevance attached by President Joe Biden to the initiative, especially given China’s central focus of his foreign policy.

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Italy Might Join the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) Initiative

On 24 August, La Tribune reported that France and Italy agreed on proposing to Germany Rome’s inclusion, represented by Leonardo, a prominent Italian defence company, in the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) programme (Cabirol, 2023). The MGCS aims to develop a future land warfare system that includes a Main Battle Tank (MBT) around 2040 (Oestergaard, 2021). This news was unsurprising since Italian participation had already been envisaged (Valpolini, 2020; Arivella & Moran, 2022). Until now, Paris has opposed the inclusion of other states. However, this move reflects an effort to restore balance in the initiative’s power dynamics, taking advantage of the fruitful history of Franco-Italian defence industrial cooperation (Defence Industry Europe, 2023; Meta Défense, 2023).

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