Despite heightened expectations, significant Chinese assistance to Afghanistan is unlikely to materialise soon. The Taliban’s takeover of Kabul on 15 August has strengthened speculation regarding a rising Chinese role in Afghanistan to replace the US-led coalition’s two-decade-long presence. The Taliban have recently called Beijing a ‘top ally’. China played its …

NATO has its problems, and the emergence of a European defence identity is an imperative. But the severing of transatlantic links is never the answer. No one has forgotten that French President Emmanuel Macron referred to NATO in 2019 as ‘brain dead’. In Brussels, there were comments on this decidedly …

Iran-backed forces in Syria said on Thursday they would respond forcefully to an Israeli strike over Syria’s Palmyra area in the province of Homs on Wednesday evening in the second such strike within a week. The Syrian defence ministry said in a statement that one soldier was killed in the …