Turkey’s approval of Finland NATO membership

After several months of delay, on the 30th of March 2023, Turkey’s Parliament voted unanimously to officially allow Finland’s membership into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This event represents a major shift in the international balance of power, with Finland abandoning decades of non-alignment, to become the 31st member of the Western defense alliance (Erlanger, 2023). Thought it should be noted that the membership will only be formalized during the next NATO summit, taking place in July in Lithuania (Gardner, 2023).

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Greece Expands Fence along the Border with Turkey: What Does the Extension Project Include?

The extension of the fence to the Evros, according to Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is a project of utmost importance since it will contribute to further preserving the external borders of both Greece and the European Union in an effort to prevent migration flows, concentrating on strengthening military and police presence at the frontier and modernizing military hardware (ProtoThema, 2023).

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Russia and China praise their close cooperation in Moscow

The Chinese president Xi Jinping arrived on the 20th March 2023 in Russia to talk to President Putin about the Chinese-Russian relations and the war in Ukraine. President Xi stayed for two days and had several official talks. The visit came the day after an arrest warrant was issued for Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court (ICC) (UN News, 2023). This being the case, although neither Russia nor China are members of the Court, this seemed to put Putin under a lot of pressure, in terms of meeting the positive expectations for the outcome of the meetings.

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Rheinmetall, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman Sign an F-35 LOI

On February 17th, German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall signed a letter of intent (LOI) with American companies Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman regarding Germany's freshly procured F-35 fighter jets.

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