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North Korea-Russia relations: Recent trends
On 13 September 2023, Kim Jong-un, leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea), met with President Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome (spaceport) in the Amur region in Russia's far east. Although very little is known about what they discussed, many observers assume that one of the topics involved hammering out the details of a deal whereby North Korea would help Russia replenish its stocks of artillery shells and send a considerable number of workers to staff Russian ...
Russia’s war on Ukraine [What Think Tanks are thinking]
The Ukraine Defence Contact Group (Ramstein group) of 54 countries supporting Kyiv in its struggle against Russia’s military aggression meets on 21 April to discuss sending more military equipment to Ukraine. As President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in regions of Ukraine under Moscow’s military occupation, Russian forces stepped up heavy artillery bombardments and air strikes on the devastated, symbolically important Ukrainian city of Bakhmut. Poland, Ukraine’s neighbour and staunch ally ...
The latest on Russia’s war on Ukraine [What Think Tanks are thinking]
Ukraine and its Western allies say Moscow is waging an unprovoked war of conquest that has destroyed Ukrainian cities, killed thousands of people and forced millions more to flee their homes. As Russian troops push forward in waves with a new offensive in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, Russia and Ukraine are locked in the bloodiest infantry battle in Europe since World War II. Ukraine has been urging its allies in the EU and the US to increase the delivery of weapons as it is running out of ...
Ukraine: Awaiting Russia’s offensive [What Think Tanks are thinking]
During his first visit to the European Parliament and the European Council, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to the European Union to provide his country with aircraft and other military equipment needed to repel Russia’s further military aggression. Greeted with a standing ovation in the European Parliament, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was not only defending its own independence, but also the ‘European way of life’. EU leaders vowed to stand by Ukraine with steadfast support, but ...
Introducing the definitive VAT system for B2B cross-border trade
Value added tax (VAT) is a consumption tax borne by the final consumer. It is an important source of revenue for national governments and the European Union (EU) budget. However, the existing rules governing intra-Community trade are 25 years old and the current common EU VAT system is still ‘transitional’. This framework presents problems such as vulnerability to fraud, compliance costs for businesses and also a heavy administrative burden for national authorities. It is under review along the lines ...
The financing of the ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and Syria (ISIS)
Threatening both its caliphate project and its sources of funding, the series of military setbacks that the so-called Islamic State group (IS) as suffered for several months have called into question the group’s very existence. That is not to say that its offensive capabilities will be neutered – the organisation will remain able to employ ’low-cost‘ terrorist attacks to target civilians throughout the Middle East, Africa, Europe, America or Asia. In mobilising Member States to fight against terrorism ...
ISIL/Da'esh and 'non-conventional' weapons of terror
The European Union and its Member States must prepare for the possibility of a chemical or biological attack on their territory by the self-styled 'Islamic State' in Iraq and the Levant (known variously as IS, ISIS or ISIL, and by the Arabic acronym 'Da'esh'). Since the beginning of October 2015, terrorist attacks in Ankara, the Sinai Peninsula, Beirut, Paris and Tunis, for which ISIL/Da'esh has claimed responsibility, have cost the lives of 500 people. Immediately following the latest attack in ...
India's armed forces - An overview
India has the world's third-largest armed forces in terms of personnel numbers. However, although India was also the seventh-biggest spender on military equipment in 2014, the country has a problem of deficiency in equipment. India's defence procurement is still dominated by imports, as the domestic industry is handicapped by inefficiency. New Delhi is thus the world's largest importer of military equipment. Attempts in the past to reform the national security system have also failed.
The Impact of the 'Defence Package' Directives on European Defence
In its conclusions on the Common Security and Defence Policy, the December 2013 European Council stressed the importance of ensuring the full and correct implementation and application of the two defence Directives of 2009. The present study intends to provide the Parliament with an initial perspective regarding the state of implementation of the Directive 2009/81/EC on defence and security procurement (Part.1) and the Directive 2009/43/EC on intra-European Union transfers of defence-related products ...
Minerals from conflict areas: Existing and new responsible‐sourcing initiatives
The example of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) demonstrates how mineral extraction in developing countries may fuel or aggravate internal armed conflicts characterised by extreme levels of violence. In an effort to sever the linkage between mineral extraction and conflict finance, the UN and the OECD have developed guidelines for companies sourcing minerals from conflict areas. While the US has introduced legally binding requirements for corporations, the EU has yet to enact similar legislation ...