Media Interventions

Europe restored sovereign access to space with the first launch of the Ariane 6 heavy-lift rocket on Tuesday, after years of delays and retirement of the previous launcher had left the continent without guaranteed access to orbit, and kept a French spy satellite grounded.

America has protected Europe with is nuclear umbrella for more than 70 years. In the era of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the continent is quietly debating a different nuclear future.

France is headed for a hung parliament after none of the political parties that contested Sunday’s parliamentary runoff vote managed to secure an outright majority — a situation that could put the country on a path for months of political gridlock.

To be sure government spending reaches the battlefield in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is suddenly putting high priority on purging Defense Ministry officials accused of corruption. Russia's war in Ukraine has turned out to be a powerful anti-corruption initiative — at least at the Ministry of Defense.

On April 25, a Long March 2F rocket briefly lit up the dark desert sky above Jiuquan Spaceport in northwest China, carrying three Shenzhou-18 astronauts to the Tiangong space station. Such missions, including crew handovers, have become remarkably routine for China.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany would not prohibit Ukrainian attacks on Russian military targets, saying Ukraine "is allowed to defend itself."

French President Emmanuel Macron will visit his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Sunday in what is seen as the highest level of diplomatic courtesy gestures.

Franco-German symbolism, rather than bickering over policy, will briefly take centre stage when French President Emmanuel Macron meets German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin on Sunday (26 May) during a three-day state visit, the first in 24 years. 

Speech by Héloïse Fayet at the EuroMesCo annual conference

Japan PM's low-key visit to Paris yielded significant bilateral initiatives. French President Emmanuel Macron rolled out the red carpet to greet Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, hoping to somehow persuade him to curb his country's support for Russia's war in Ukraine and to play by international trade rules.

As Xi travels through EU this week, automakers weigh whether to fight or team up with cheaper Chinese rivals.

• Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Nigeria were first on the itinerary for Tokyo’s top diplomat this week, with Japan’s Indo-Pacific strategy front of mind
• Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa‘s 10-day tour is calling at Sri Lanka and Nepal last – where the China-India rivalry is sure to be high on the agenda