The 30^th Conference of the Parties (COP30), opening in Belém, Brazil, on November 10^th 2025, convenes at a perilous moment. 

The South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting (SPDMM) is the only forum that brings together defense ministers from the wider South Pacific — including Chile, which is hosting it for the first time. This heterogeneous group of countries with varying resources, capacities, and interests — Australia, Chile, Fiji, France, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and Tonga — are united by their shared determination to strengthen cooperation on maritime security and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief (HADR) activities.

France and Germany are facing parallel demographic shifts that could reshape the future of their economies and their social models. These shifts reflect broader European patterns but are magnified by the central role both nations play in EU governance and competitiveness.

While the EU tries to navigate a myriad international challenges, France is experiencing historic political disarray. What impact will instability in Paris have on Europe's geostrategic capacity?

With economic security as a major concern, the EU has recently turned to “derisking” from China. The EU strategy entails reducing critical dependencies and vulnerabilities, including in EU supply chains, and diversifying where necessary, while recognizing the importance and need to maintain open channels of communication.

From the outset of its “special military operation” (SVO) against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russia, which possesses one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals, has adopted aggressive deterrence measures and a resolutely menacing rhetorical stance.

In two rounds of voting, on September 27 and October 11, 2025, the citizens of Gabon elected the members of both their local councils and the new national assembly. This marked almost the final stage of political transition, little more than two years after the coup d’état that had overthrown the more than five decades old dynastic regime of the Bongos — Omar, the father, who died in office in 2009, and then his son Ali, who is now in exile.

In the competitiveness and energy transition battles, the European Union (EU) must master a determinant factor: skills.