RomanaVlahutin
@RVlahutin
🇪🇺&🇭🇷Amb, ex EU Spec Envoy Connectivity, geostrategy @GMFUS, EU foreign security policy, enlargement,strategic infra. Temp Bruxelles but South European soul
EU was created to secure peace in Europe, not the world, making EU an inherently introspective project, a grand compromise machine. Geopolitical power needs agility, strategic nerve, willingness to make sacrifices, will to win. My take @IPQuarterly ip-quarterly.com/en/europes-geo…
"Both big guys in the international community, China and the EU should keep their bilateral relationship growing in the right direction, and work together to usher it into an even brighter next 50 years." Big guys???
President Xi Jinping met with President of the European Council António Costa @eucopresident and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen, who are in China for the 25th China-EU Summit. This year marks the 50th anniversary of China-EU diplomatic…
The global trade war is ending. Today's global flash PMIs for Jul. '25 show the inflationary impulse from tariffs on the US is also ending. Upward pressure on output (blue line, top left) & input (red line, top left) prices is fading. No sign of supply chain disruptions anywhere.
The Russians are changing the ethnic composition of the Sahel, massacring Berbers & Fulanis: "Mali’s armed forces and the allied Russia-backed Wagner Group have carried out numerous “summary executions and enforced disappearances of ethnic Fulani men.” jurist.org/news/2025/07/m…
Russia is weaponizing migration to destabilize Europe, using violence and human trafficking networks in Libya. Western intelligence considers Russia’s actions in Africa—especially in Libya—the second-most urgent threat after its war in Ukraine. united24media.com/world/putins-m…
World's most competitive economies, 2024. 1. 🇸🇬 Singapore 2. 🇨🇭 Switzerland 3. 🇩🇰 Denmark 4. 🇮🇪 Ireland 5. 🇭🇰 Hong Kong 6. 🇸🇪 Sweden 7. 🇦🇪 UAE 8. 🇹🇼 Taiwan 9. 🇳🇱 Netherlands 10. 🇳🇴 Norway 11. 🇶🇦 Qatar 12. 🇺🇸 USA 13. 🇦🇺 Australia 14. 🇨🇳 China 15. 🇫🇮 Finland 16. 🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia…
China’s Century of Demographic Reversal A 2025 population forecast by Tsinghua University and the Southwest University of Finance and Economics outlines a long-term demographic headwinds for China. Here are the four key takeaways: songxichen.com/Uploads/Files/… 1. China’s Population…
Oil pipeline from where to where, across whose territory exactly? 🤔
Hungary, Russia and Serbia Sign Agreement to Build a New Oil Pipeline. New Economic Alliances are forming in Europe. 🇭🇺🇷🇸🇷🇺
Chinese-made engines are being covertly shipped via front companies to a state-owned drone manufacturer in Russia, labelled as "industrial refrigeration units" to avoid detection in the wake of Western sanctions, according to 3 European security officials reuters.com/business/aeros…
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𝗔𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮’𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲, 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲’𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲. Europe’s future depends more on Africa’s demographic transition than it may realise. In our latest blog, Dr Jakkie Cilliers and Dr Julia Baum, together with Dr Gijsbert Werner, unpack why advancing Africa’s demographic…
The role of intellectuals is to challenge authority, not serve it.
FT reporting EU close to accepting 15% US tariffs with some bells and whistles. As I suspected the Japan deal changed the equation: “Japan made clear the terms of the shakedown,” said one EU diplomat. “Most member states are holding their noses and could take this deal.”
Bingo. Germany was aligning on France’s proposal to escalate-to-deescalate with retaliation. If a Japan style deal is on the table for the EU, I imagine Germany will dither again. Merz and Macron discussions this evening in Berlin could be really consequential.
Someone joked earlier, what if EU & US make a trade deal during EU China summit. Doesn't seem so far fetched now! EU & US are closing in on a trade deal that would impose 15% tariffs on European imports, similar to the deal Trump struck with Japan on.ft.com/453f9r1
Happy AI Action Plan Day! 📢 Big news in AI policy: the White House just dropped its AI Action Plan and it has real implications for healthcare and biotech. While the spotlight’s on defense and infrastructure, there’s a clear call to action for healthcare: • Regulatory…
US-Japan car trade deal: Japan is relieved. Detroit disappointed. Europe perplexed. Korea sad.
China is trying to take over Libya
"The Railway Project Implementation and Management Authority in Libya has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to resume work on the country’s national railway project. The agreement was signed on July 12 in…
“If you're early on in your career and they give you a choice between a great mentor or higher pay, take the mentor every time. It's not even close.” — Stanley Druckenmiller
France every 3.5 months spends as much in pensions as Russia annually on its military !!
Les dépenses militaires russes sont impressionnantes... Mais c'est seulement 3 mois et demi de dépenses de retraite en France.
The war in Ukraine has been going on for almost three and a half years, yet Russia has gained less than 1% of Ukraine’s territory since 2024, writes @martinwolf_ on.ft.com/4o2GrX7
This is a very realistic assessment but even for joining the US, EU must develop far more robust power projection capacity. Nobody wants / needs a weak ally.
If Europe doesn’t join the US amid the Cold War 2 between America & the Dragon-Bear, it will be the biggest victim of “self-cannibalization” within the West in the context of the great power competition and the Bifurcation of the Global System. Europe‘s decline will be systemic.