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Craft matters in small ways like how a coffee is brewed, and in not so small ways like how your money is cared for. Which is why for 160 years, UBS has elevated banking to a craft, tailoring unique strategies that combine human expertise with the latest technologies. All happening across 24 time zones and and 12 key financial hubs. With you at the heart of it all, UBS advice is our craft. You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 3rd February 2026 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with U. Hello, this is the Globalist broadcasting to you live from Midori House in London. I'm Georgina Godwin. On the show ahead, we'll join our team at the Global Government Summit in Dubai to give us a flavour of the event. Ben As a nation that has always looked beyond our shores to connect with the world, Singapore now looks beyond our skies to the infinite possibilities of space. We'll get the lowdown on the Singapore airshow and go very high up for the launch of a national space agency. We'll flick through the day's papers and hear how Japan is boosting aid for town development. Also ahead, recent political changes in the United States have led more travelers to seek more destinations and that is a great opportunity for us. We'll hear about Spain's annual global tourism fair and have a hit of business news. That's all ahead here on the Globalist. Live from London. First, a look at what else is happening in the news. The United States and India announced a trade deal cutting U.S. tariffs to 18% in exchange for India halting Russian oil purchases and buying more American energy. Russian strikes hit Kyiv and Kharkiv overnight, damaging apartment blocks and energy infrastructure as freezing temperatures grip Ukraine. And satellite images suggest Egypt has deployed advanced Turkish combat drones near the Sudan border, signaling a deeper military role in the civil war. Do stay tuned to Monocle Radio throughout the day for more on those stories. Now this week, Monac, Radio Cafe and editorial departments are in Dubai for the World Government Summit. And one of those people is our head of Radio, Tom Edwards. He's on the line now. Good morning to you, Tom. A very good morning to you, Georgina in London. Is it, is it a bit grey, a bit overcast there? Oh, don't rub it in. I know you're in Dubai. The weather's beautiful, you're having a lovely time. Just describe to me because I'm sort of imagining you've got like a little pop up studio there. Absolutely, Georgina. It's really right in the heart of The WGS site. And obviously we sort of gamed the scenarios last year. It's even better this year. We have our cafe on one side with the team serving the best coffee on site, of course. And then, you know, here's our radio studio and it's, you know, we're right in the heart of the action. So people are stopping by, people are popping in. Prime Minister of Spain Pedro Sanchez literally just walking past our booth. We did try and collar him. He's a busy man, Gina. He's got things to do, but it's been incredibly busy. And I think one of the amazing things about wgs, this was proven last year. You know what they're very, very, very good at in the uae, particularly at Dubai, particularly this event is convening, convening people. All different points of view, different perspectives. Big corporates, governments, various kind of policymakers, opinion stakers. And what's really powerful is people are happy to chat, you know, and you've been to enough junkets in your time sometimes to just sort of run up and ask people to come and have a conversation. Doesn't pay off. But it really does work rather well here. Tom, I'm wondering about the atmosphere, because we all know that the Middle east is on a bit of a knife edge at the moment, and you've got all of these very influential people there at a time which really is very sensitive. Is there? Is there? Are you getting that in the atmosphere? Well, listen, Georgina, I think that is, of course, that's front and center, isn't it? That's what is shaping the discourse here. And actually, if you'll do me the service, I'll bring in our golf correspondent, Insman Rashid, who's standing alongside me here in our booth, who's actually been musing about this very topic. I'm sure Monocle Minutes subscribers will have been reading it insy. That is kind of the prism through which all the conversations are happening, all the perspective, the lens through which everyone's looking is, you know, what is the state, the stability of the broader region at the moment. Yeah. And I think it's very hard to ignore. Good morning to London and good morning here in Dubai. It's very, very hard to ignore the backdrop of which this world government summit falls on. We've spoken a lot about Donald Trump's armada here in the Middle East. It's on standby, waiting for a potential attack on Iran. And then we know an Iranian retaliation would most possibly mean a Gulf nation is struck or a US base in a Gulf nation is struck. So, I mean, you know, we are in Dubai, we're in the uae. There is a big US military base down the road in Abu Dhabi. So it falls on a pretty precarious backdrop, but even away from the region and wider diplomacy, just last week in Abu Dhabi, we had the trilateral conversations between the United States, Ukraine and Russia, the first time the three of those countries have met. And Abu Dhabi, the UAE was the host to that. And just like they're playing host today and over the next few days, it is an idea of really to streamline conversation about diplomacy, about what is happening in the world, but also looking towards the future and the future of government. It's a heavy topic throughout this world, government summits. But just this morning, right, you know, who have we had in the studio? We've had the President of Estonia pop in. I've been speaking to the Prime Minister of Latvia, the Spanish Prime Minister's walk past. We've seen His Highness the Duke of Edinburgh walk past as well. And then, you know, on the complete flip side, our editorial director has been speaking to the boss, the CEO of Hugo Boss, the boss of the boss of leaders of aviation companies as well. That is kind of this incredible nexus, this confluence of all these different points. Is it just on that point, though? Listen, I know you're eager to speak more to some of the potential brokers of some of these deals. This is a great opportunity as well. Of course, there are all these tensions that will be reflected in the narrative, but there's a further opportunity for UAE broadly to. To cement its reputation as a very sharp sort of practitioner of soft power, but also with some real diplomatic chops. There are meetings that take place here that are, oh, you know, you can't possibly get these two people in a room. This is a real opportunity if we're looking for positives. You know, I think that the trilateral talks that happened last week were. Came at a pretty interesting time, just ahead of the world Government summit. But absolutely, the UAE will want to stamp his foot on the ground and say, look, we here in the Gulf, and particularly here in the uae, are this mediator in chief. We're the ones who can bring everyone around the table. We're the ones who can actually get proper dialogue and conversation done. So that's something that I think they're very, very proud of. Of course, we've got to remember they've got their own issues here in the Gulf as well. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have got incredibly strained ties at the minute. It's the conversations that they're having. Well, they're not actually having conversations with each other, but the conversations that are going on around Yemen and the relationship between the UAE and Saudi is, Is very difficult at the minute. So, yes, whilst they are playing this kind of mediator in chief role for many issues around the world, they've obviously got their own conflicts as well. And I'll be keeping an eye out to see actually whether we're see any Saudi delegations come to the world government summit over the next few days. But look, it's busy, there's a lot going on, there's a lot of hustle and bustle. Who's this? Who was passing by that my siren song drew to the mics? It's Monocle's editor in chief, Andrew Tuck. Good morning, Andrew. Good morning, sir. How are you? I'm not doing too badly. Georgina is listening in to us, obviously back, back on the ranch at Midori House in London. But Andrew, just tell us a little bit about some early reflections. You've had a day, I think, just to sort of get up to speed a little bit insofar as you can with your busy schedule. The sun is shining. I told Georgina about that. What's just from the first few hours of your. Your. Of your time here in Dubai. Well, it's kind of comical because, you know, normally you're trying to spot the person in a crowd who's the most important person to get a hold of here. We just looked out the window and Pedro Sanchez was walking, walking past. And then I, I don't know, he's from Tonga, I believe. A very nice gentleman in a, in a full kind of like flower regalia around his neck and things. So there are so many PMs and Prime Ministers and ministers and interesting people here and then they're just so. It's quite hard to explain the crush of people. I just tried to jump in to see a little talk, then I had to kind of like bribe my way in almost because they were doors of bar does. I know I'm going to interview this guy's Monocle Goodie bags sure do come in handy. Let me in. So I think it's just, it's just the quantity of people here, the opportunity to have these conversations and speaking to some people here today who are in government institutions here in Dubai. Even for them, it's like the world comes here. They can, they can, they can generate so many leads and conversations and ideas and as we know, they're good hosts. So, yeah, interesting being here. Well, and maybe just from Both of you just quickly know, not wanting to sort of bury one's head in the sandins. You've already been describing a sort of, you know, fairly fragmented backdrop just you know, in this, in the immediate geography around where we are. But there is something pretty can do, pretty positive about the, the vibe. Andrew. You know, we barely started day one of the, the, the summit proper but I don't know, optimistic, feeling confident that actually we'll get some positive discourse but more than that we might actually get some intentional policy shifts. There's a tremendous can do atmosphere. Are you confident it will deliver? Yeah, I'd say that the questions for World Government Summit for many of these summits is, you know, there's a big connection to AI and the future here, which is all great. Sometimes you do find some of the people coming up to speak at these events. They're a little bit kind of like salesman in a way. They're like, they're predicting the end of the world like in 12 weeks because of AI and things. Technology moves at a much slower pace, things happen at much slower pace. So I was very pleased to say there's just been a panel now about why we need to keep writing and the value of holding on to human contact and another panel which is about don't fear you're missing out all the time, like take you find your own pace to deliver change. So I think maybe there's a bit of kind of humanism coming into the, into the conversations issue. You told me the inventor of FOMO is here. Not only is he here, but he is going to come to, he is going to come on the radio. Not only does he have fomo, he will tell you what FOBO means as well. I have tremendous fomo, so I'm so sorry to wind you up but I am so jealous of you right now that I'm just going to shut this conversation. Thank you so much to Tom Edwards, to Insaman Rashid and of course to Andrew Tuck. They're all in Dubai and do listen out for interviews coming out from our pop up studio there at the World Government Summit. And if you are in town, why not pop in for a coffee? As Tom says, it's the best caffeine you'll get at the venue. This is the Globalist, One of the world's most influential aerospace and defence exhibitions. The Singapore Air show began at the Changi Exhibition Centre. It brings together aircraft manufacturers, defence firms and government and military leaders from across Asia, Europe and the United States. It's a key platform for industry Deals and strategic conversations about the future of global aviation. This year the biannual event takes place against a backdrop of rising defence spending in the region, ongoing supply chain problems in commercial aviation and growing interest in space technology. One company drawing particular attention is comac, China's state owned aircraft manufacturer, which is using the show to push its ambitions beyond the domestic market and challenge Boeing and Airbus. Well, I'm joined now by Ryan Finnerty, US Defence reporter for Flight Global. He's at the show in Singapore. Ryan, hello to you. Hi Georgina. What's the overall focus then of the Singapore Airshow? Yeah, well, the Singapore Air show is typically a military focused show. So you're seeing defense companies, military aviation companies here, either offering new products or meeting with existing customers in the region. A lot of the manufacturers are from the US or Europe, so this is a great opportunity for them to come to Asia and meet with customers in this part of the world. But as you mentioned, there is a big effort from Chinese aircraft manufacturer COMAC to try and expand its footprint in the industry and the Singapore Air show is a big venue for them to do that. There's also been a growing presence at the show of some of the emerging aviation technologies like large drones for delivering cargo and some of the new electric aircraft that are kind of in the development process. And just staying with China, there's a state owned defense manufacturer, avic. Avic, they're not typically present, but they are very much there. What's the interest in that? Yeah, AVIC is sort of the umbrella company that controls all of the Chinese state owned defense companies that manufacture their various military aircraft, including fighter jets. It's not a company we typically see at events in North America or Europe because of security concerns amongst Western governments. But in Singapore, this is a very unique venue and we do see American and European and Chinese manufacturers, defense manufacturers, under the same roof just down the hall from one another. And AVIC is always interesting because much like COMAC on the commercial side, China is really seeking to expand its export market for military aircraft and those are produced by avic and they're on the hunt for international customers. And so Singapore, Singapore Airshow is a great opportunity for them to do that. In fact, I was just kind of milling around the AVIC booth earlier today because they have a large model of the J35A Stealth fighter, which is China's answer to the American F35 fighter made by Lockheed Martin. And it was really interesting to see how many different delegations of military officers from the Middle east and Asia, South Asia in Particular were coming to the A Vic booth and shaking hands with the Chinese officials and hosing with the J35. So definitely a lot of interest in that aircraft, it seems. And China's on the hunt for its first export customer for that. So definitely a very interesting venue and a lot happening the Chinese export market. And Ryan, what are you seeing in terms of sort of cutting edge developments in defensive aviation? The big topic, I would say, all over the world in military aviation is the development of these uncrewed fighter jets that can operate autonomously without a pilot on board. You know, a pilot might push a button and direct it to engage a target with a missile or to go and do reconnaissance or to provide wingman support, but there's not a pilot on board. These are far more advanced than the drones we're used to thinking of from the global war on terror and the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, which were remotely piloted and did relatively simple tasks. These are really meant to be kind of a much closer equivalent to a fighter jet and can do a lot of those same missions. These are being developed predominantly in the U.S. but there are some efforts underway elsewhere in the world. Australia has a quite advanced aircraft that is developing with Boeing. Turkey also has some of its own domestically developed uncrewed fighter jets that it's working on. The umbrella term for these is kind of collaborative combat aircraft, or cca, so you'll hear that acronym thrown around. This is really where a lot of the focus is in military aviation. And as these come online, most of them are in flight testing right now. They're expected to start to being fielded operationally in the next few years. It's really being viewed as a potential generational change in how air combat operations are conducted where you'll have human pilots, whether they're fighter pilots or some kind of support pilot, working with these uncrewed fighter jets and being able to task them to do maybe missions that are too dangerous for a human to fly into or to just give them extra support when conventional aircraft isn't available. So that's really the big focus from both governments and defense manufacturers right now in the aviation space. And what does that tell us about the current global situation? I mean, it clearly seems that things are ratcheting up. Is there a sense of unease there? I wouldn't say that there's a sense of unease here in Singapore. Obviously everyone's aware of the war underway in Europe and Ukraine, and there's a lot of uncertainty, I think, around Taiwan and how China plans to achieve its stated aim of bringing Taiwan under the control of Beijing, the Chinese Communist Party. But, you know, Singapore is sort of a neutral country. It's not an official treaty ally of the United States like other countries in East Asia are Japan or South Korea or Australia. And then obviously in Europe, all of the NATO countries are treaty allies of the United States. Singapore is a partner of the United States. There's a lot of collaboration on military exercises and training and. And sales of defense equipment between the United States and Singapore. But there's sort of this lesser partner status. And so that's what allows this kind of extra leeway to have Chinese companies here in Singapore. I think Singapore, although they are, that does give them an added degree of vulnerability. It's a kind of status that people here are comfortable with. They have a strategy for how they address that maybe more ambiguous status. And I think it's something that people are relatively comfortable with here. So I wouldn't say there's any feeling of unease around the air show. At least I understand that the Singapore Air Force is taking up a lot of space. I mean, is Singapore trying to send a message to the region with that? I wouldn't say that they're more present than they are in any previous year. Obviously, the show had kind of gone dormant for a few years around the COVID 19 pandemic, and the previous edition in 2024 was kind of getting back on its feet. So there were some maybe more limited presence of aircraft and militaries in 2024. But from what I understand, this is a pretty normal appearance. It is the Singapore Air Show. So the Singaporean. The Republic of Singapore Air Force is kind of typically been the main actor in participating. So they're here in force. But I wouldn't say they're necessarily trying to convey more of a message than they normally do, which is that Singapore does have a strong advanced military. It's the kind of richest and most developed country in Southeast Asia, and it has the most advanced military capability in the region. This air show is a venue for showing it off. There's also. There's aircraft and military officers from Singapore's partners. Australia is here with F35 fighters. Singapore does a lot of its military training in Australia, where there's more space for the pilots and forces to train. So that's kind of a display of solidarity and partnership. But there's also military demonstration teams from China and some of the other countries in Asia and South Asia. So I would say it's a very multicultural experience, and it feels very much like a place where the whole World is welcome and generally a harmonious atmosphere at the air show. How much influence does a show like this have on the direction of the aviation industry? Yeah, I would say it kind of depends on which sector of the industry you're looking at on the commercial side. So this is manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus who are selling passenger planes to airlines. These shows can be quite significant. They typically are a venue where major new sales orders are announced and these are huge sources of revenue for Boeing and Airbus and China hopes comac as well going forward. But they're also kind of an indicator of what strategies the airlines will be pursuing. So that can be quite interesting to see who's buying what aircraft. On the commercial side, you know, what's size and capability on the defense side, military sales, sales of military hardware in particular the aircraft are government to government transactions. The manufacturers themselves are almost the middlemen. So it's something that's being negotiated between the United States government and the Singaporean government, for example. So these are things that take place over months and years. Sometimes there's announcements at the air shows, but typically those are things that are happening behind the scenes. So on the defense side, the air shows are really an opportunity for us to sit down with executives from the defense companies and hear who they're speaking with, who they're meeting with, what kind of strategic emphasis they're putting on within their company in terms of either research and development or applying resources to increase production and what feedback they're getting from their customers. So it's a little bit of a bifurcation there. On the defense side, I would say it's almost more of fact finding and a temperature check of the industry. Whereas on the commercial side you do get really some of these big announcements and some kind of strategic indicators of what's happening. And Ryan, just briefly, I know the two day space summit ends today and at the end of the show we're going to focus on that. But aside from going beyond this world, what for you is the highlight of the show? For me, I think just seeing all of the different countries, military officers and manufacturers from so many different countries in one place, that's really uncommon. I would say it's only in at Singapore air show and maybe some of the trade shows in the Middle east where you'll have that there's no representatives from Russia here at this event, but they are sometimes present in the Middle East. So there's not many events where you could potentially see Russian, Chinese and American corporate executives. But also aircraft, there are Russian origin aircraft as well. As Chinese and American flying here in the flying displays. Seeing clearly some, some keen interest in the J35 at the AVIC Pavilion, I think was quite noteworthy for me. So that's what I've been looking at and kind of that's what caught my attention this week thus far. Ryan, thank you very much indeed. That's Ryan Finnerty, U.S. defense reporter for Flight Global at the show in Singapore. And as I said, the inaugural Space Summit is being held alongside the Singapore Air show this year for the first time, in fact, and we'll have more on that later in the program. Now, still to come, Preserving culture and enticing tourists out of crammed cities. Why Japan is putting money into heritage regeneration. This is the globalist. Craft is a matter of perspective, a unique outlook and obsessive attention to detail. With UBS's Chief Investment Office Houseview, we're focused on identifying the latest investment opportunities and market risks to help you achieve your financial goals. So you get the big picture broken down into thought provoking insights delivered daily and curated by over 200 globally connected, locally active analysts. UBS Banking is our craft. Foreign. 26 here in London. I'm Georgina Godwin and with me in the studio is Steve Crawshaw, author, journalist, formerly Human Rights Watch UK director. His latest book is called Prosecuting the Powerful. You can hear him talk about it on Meet the Writers and he is here to have a look through the newspapers. Steve, good morning to you. Good morning. Nice to be here. What a busy, busy news day. I mean, yes, so much going on and I got used to it, but not got used to it, that this tsunami day after day. Yeah, yeah. Now we've just been hearing from our team in the Middle east and of course the global government summits going on there. We've got the Singapore Air show going on so much and in Abu Dhabi tomorrow, those talks, those trilateral talks are meant to restart between Ukraine, Russia and the us. But the FT has a story today saying that they've agreed with Western partners that any consistent Russian violations of a future ceasefire agreement would trigger a coordinated military response from Europe and the us. Now, that's potentially huge news. But you have caveats. Yes, I mean, it kind of is huge news. The thing is, we've seen for the past couple of years Western governments trying to sound very robust. Oh, we would put peacekeepers on the ground. We would do this, we would do that. But you're right, it is important in a way. It's actually perhaps the most interesting bit that you also emphasized a bit is that the US Allegedly is part of. Because of course we've seen that Trump and his people have kind of peeled off in so many obvious ways. But I think it is important as a signal to put in like this can't just go on and there will be consequences. I think that's what they're trying to say. What that would actually mean in practice, we don't know. I was actually struck by a tiny detail within the FT story which quotes the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrei Sibicha as saying that the talks that have already been happening and as you say continuing this week have a different tone of voice. And he said, we are no longer getting these quote, unquote, unquote, pseudo historical lectures. And that of course is what both Putin and his people have been doing, just making things up about basically why Ukraine should never have existed in the first place. And he was saying that's now onto a more practical level that I genuinely take comfort from, that they actually want to do something instead of on the one hand giving lectures and on the other hand bombing people in freezing temperatures. Which of course continues. Yeah, absolutely. Well, there's a similar lack of clarity around what's happening between the US and Iran. It's again, it is an extraordinary story. Iran has been such a dramatic story which to some extent has dropped out of the headlines now. But I think wrongly, because this is something which obviously affects the future of Iran, but in a sense affects the whole Middle east and whole world. So you've got two almost opposite stories in some ways of are we closer to some kind of off ramp, that there's going to be no conflict? Or on the other hand, the huge implications that the Iranians actually are thinking they may indeed be bombing. So a couple of pieces I was looking at, there's a piece in Haaretz, the Israeli paper, which we often talk about in these circumstances in terms of its reporting on Israel, but on Iran it's interesting as well. And it makes the obvious point that Trump faces muddled options on Iran as diplomats race to craft an off ramp from the war and that peace in Harrods by their Washington correspond says it's hard to imagine any sort of effort that would allow all parties to save face, even if both the US and Iran are reluctant to take the major step towards all out conflict. And it talks about the difficulties for Trump as well if he gets involved in some new foreign adventure, as it were, that they don't really care, they don't care at all about the aspirations of the protesters who have been so Enormously courageous in recent weeks and months, as, of course. But in parallel to that, we have a Reuters exclusive, which I think is extremely interesting, where Reuters, talking to multiple sources, has Iranian officials talking of their fear that the regime can indeed collapse if Trump goes ahead. Now, if you were talking about a reasonable, sensible president, you would think, oh, this will therefore affect their thinking. Actually, we have no idea which way Trump will go. But basically, there's a phrase there of saying that the fear has gone, the fear has collapsed, which has happened, of course, in so many other contexts before that. At some point, you can do these terrible things to me, but this is really the end. So maybe there's an off ramp, but maybe there is an if that bombing, unlike last year's bombing, which actually hardened the regime, the Iranian officials themselves are telling Reuters that we're worried that the whole thing would collapse because people would regain new energy with their protests. Now, a lot of people say that Trump's foreign interventionism is merely a distraction from the Jeffrey Epstein case. And of course, we've seen a big dump of new files from that case. Lemon says, far from clarifying the case's many gray areas, these files have only deepened the confusion. And we're just seeing this spread and spread. It's taking in so many people, really is. So I guess all of us are feeling the same thing of, like, really, I can't get my head around this. So every single paper has many different pages, and you can choose everything from, you know, the British royal family to the Norwegian royal family, to French government government ministers, to Lord Mandelson, former deputy prime minister, forced to. Well, he's given up his membership of the Labour Party, which sounds a bit remote, but will he be forced out of the House of Lords, in other words, out of the establishment of power. But as you say, it is interesting, that Le Monde piece makes the. The basic summary is that this is a poisoned well fueling every conspiracy theory. And I think it's difficult to disagree with that, to be honest, because it's so extraordinary that we see that people who are so different, both in the world of finance, in the world of politics and the world of royalty, all of these people had these transactional deals with E.M. stein turned a blind eye, sometimes, may have been participating, but otherwise were turning a blind eye, and none of it mattered because he has money and helicopters, and in turn, they could bring him certain things. So I think it's very, very bad for politics overall, let alone, of course, the suffering of those who went through the crimes committed by Epstein Steve, we have to stop, but I just want you to point readers to this lovely article in the Guardian about Margaret Calvert. It is a lovely one. It's basically the national treasure, as the piece describes it. A lovely piece in the Guardian, which in the print edition has the fabulous headline, I shot the serif, the woman who created sans serif font, which is used to this day on British motorways. And so, and how that happened against the establishment, they said, no, no, no, serifs is how things should be. And she kind of fought through. There's lots of lovely stories about the graphics that we have on those signs and how her family cow is partly represented on our signs today. A very, very nice portrait piece. She's now just turning 90 and there's a lovely portrait piece of her. Steve Crawshaw, author, journalist and formerly Human Rights Watch UK director, thank you very much indeed. This is the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now here's what else we're keeping an eye on today. The United States and India have agreed a new trade deal that cuts US tariffs on Indian goods from 50% to 18, with India committing to halt Russian oil purchases and expand imports of American energy technology and agricultural products. The announcement made by President Trump after a call with Prime Minister Modi still lacks formal legal documentation and clear timelines for implementation. Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv and Kharkiv overnight, hitting apartment blocks, a kindergarten and key energy infrastructure as temperatures fell well below freezing. The attacks come as Ukraine, Russia and the United States are due to resume three way talks in Abu Dhabi aimed at exploring a possible path towards a negotiated settlement. And satellite images suggest Egypt has deployed advanced Turkish combat drones to a Remot airbase near the Sudan border, signaling a deeper military role in the civil war. Analysts say the move reflects Cairo's growing concern over rapid support forces, advances in Darfur, and the risk of instability spilling across its southern frontier. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. In Kyoto, 835 in Zurich. Now, Japan is planning a major expansion of subsidies for towns using historical and cultural assets to attack tourists, attract tourists. I beg your pardon, as the government seeks to spread visitors beyond overcrowded cities such as Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. So the Tourism Ministry wants almost all municipalities to qualify for funding, covering full building, renovations, roads, stone pavements and the preservation of local festivals. The move comes as inbound tourism hit a record 42.7 million visitors last year, and there's a target of 60 million a year by 2030. Well, joining me to discuss this is Michael F. Sheridan, who's associate professor of Tourism and Hospitality Management at Temple University in Japan. Michael, thanks for joining us. How effective do you think this policy will be as a tool for regional development and reversing rural decline? Is it badly needed? It is needed. It's a good step towards strengthening regional economies. What we're going to see is by expanding these subsidies for historical town development, the government is getting away from only funding those nationally designated sites that we're all too familiar with. And what we're going to do is we're going to shift that funding to local sites and local landscapes. This will open the eligibility to almost everyone across Japan and that will help smaller towns invest in things like you mentioned, like restoration events and infrastructure that they couldn't afford otherwise. And then what we're going to see is that over time, this will help boost the local economy, hopefully preserve community identity and encourage the youth to visit, to stay, to return, which is a vital part of the future of tourism in Japan. And is this also being taken, is this also happening because there is massive kind of over tourism in the, in the main centers? It is. So what is happening is Japan is facing a level of tourism now. It's not the level of intensity that we see in some cities like Venice or Dubrovnik, but we're seeing it. And so what we're going to be trying to do is shift this overcrowdedness from these popular destinations like you mentioned Kyoto and Tokyo, where they see congestions on trains, pack streets and feed it into our local areas. So that's exactly what the government wants to do. They want to spread out the tourists a bit. Now, some cities have actually tried managing over tourism by doing things like adding accommodation taxes in the hopes of slowing demand or to help fund some of the local services. I've actually read some places working with Google to remove bus routes from Google Maps and the hope there is to ease overcrowding on small buses, prioritizing residents trying to go about their lives over tourists who fill them on the way to the attractions. And just finally, is Japan investing fast enough in local infrastructure, including Transport, to support 60 million visitors by 2030? Well, they're trying. So a couple of things that are that are underway. First and foremost, if you're not familiar with the legalization recently of gaming gambling here in Japan, we're seeing our very first casino being built off the coast of Osaka. And with that, the infrastructure that goes around it. But also when we are able to diversify some of this funding, then we're able to spread it out throughout other parts of Japan that are in need of this infrastructure and transport support. Michael, thank you very much indeed. That's Michael F. Sheridan there. And this is Monocle Radio, Spain's annual global tourism fair. Fito took place over the weekend. And our Madrid correspondent, Liam Eldris was there. He brings us a report recorded at this very busy, noisy, vibrant event. My name is Pablo Menoni. I'm from Uruguay. I'm the Minister of Tourism of Uruguay. And I'm here in Madrid, in Pitu, trying to explain people why to go down to Uruguay. It's a long journey, 12 hours in a direct flight from Madrid to Montevideo. Montevideo is the capital of Uruguay, but it's worth it. We have a kind of red wine. It's called Tannat, and it's hard, strong, and believe me, it's unique in the world. You must try it. It's worth going down to your wife. Do you have any samples on the stamp? Yes, I do. Oh, really? You should try it. Okay, good. We have a deal. Okay, good, good, good. We have a deal. I'll wrap the interview up quickly. We still have a capacity to grow, you know, our main airport has a capacity of 4 million passengers per year, and we only are receiving 2 million passengers a year. So we have plenty of capacity in terms of connectivity. There's also a lot of turbulence in the world at the moment, and a lot of people are seeking calm places to escape and find some peace. Is that Uruguayan? Yes. Our kindness, our people is so warm. You should try it. We are calm, calm people and our security also. It's a kind of a brand that we. We try to promote. And if you are trying to go to a. You're looking at quite, quite its place. Uruguay is that place. I guess it's an opportunity to those people who are trying to travel to the north and have some immigration issues. I do inquiries to go to Uruguay. Try Uruguay. So I see that political, geopolitical situation as an opportunity to people to go down to Europe and know Yoruba. Maria del Sol Velazquez. I'm from Peru. We know we are known for Machu Picchu and that it's incredible, it's amazing. But there's more destinations that are also amazing, like our rainforest, like our mountains in the south, in the center, and all the coast that we have with lots of cultures that are praying us. We are living history, that we have a breathtaking nature, excellent cuisine that will take your breath away, and that you will live an authentic experience in Peru. I have to say, you. You even brought some authentic Peruvian food here, of course, which I'm going to talk into now. Yes, this is amazing. This is from actual the Amazon. It's made of banana and some onions and also something that it's like cecina with. It's like cooked under the sun, something like that. It's very tasty. It's very nice. And this is part of the Amazon, but, you know, there's. All the regions have something different in their cuisine and makes it really, really. My name is Harris Witpek. I'm the Minister of Tourism for the Republic of Guatemala. I see some great opportunities which are being expressed by growth. We've had 11% growth in international arrivals last year, and that was on top of 15% the previous year. So something clearly is happening. I think that recent political changes in the United States have led more travelers to seek more destinations. And that is a great opportunity for us. And we're actively courting those travelers from Europe, from Canada, and from other parts of the world. And we're incredibly lucky to be a country that is directly connected to 3,000 years of history. Guatemala's pre Hispanic past is very present. You know, the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal, they're as important as an important representation of the ancient Mayan culture as the pyramids are in Egypt or as. Or Angkor Vada or any of those destinations. So we have that. But then we have 25 different linguistic communities in Guatemala. It's a very vibrant indigenous culture that is incredibly talented. Guatemalan textiles are among the most prized in the world. So we feel that we have these ingredients to really distinguish ourselves from other destinations in the region that have beautiful beaches and, you know, nature and everything. But we have that plus the culture with contemporary design that is being done now in Guatemala. I think we have a great story to tell, and it's just another way of telling the story of our destination and a great way of attracting the type of traveler that will want to spend more time in the country, spend more money in the country, and connect more to us as a culture. I am Mateo Estrella and I am the Vice Minister of Tournament tourism from Ecuador. Ecuador is the most mega, diverse country in the world. In a small territory of 250,000 square kilometers, we have a vast biodiversity in four natural worlds. The Amazon, the Andes Mountains, the Pacific coast, and of course, Galapagos Islands. I love the variety of people that we have in ecuador. We have 14 different indigenous nationalities in the country with different language, different culture, different foods. And I think that's very, very interesting in this Small country. Ecuador is not a mass tourist country. Ecuador is a country where we embrace the principles of sustainability and now we are moving to regenerative tourism where visitors have the obligation to live leave the place in a better shape that they found and that is very important for us. The luxury in Ecuador is the luxury of not having mass tourism or having authenticity, biodiversity and of course a country that is very open to receive visitors. Ecuador is the first country in the world that recognize the rights of nature as you and me we have human rights in nature as well have a right and you know, 25% of our land is protected as a national park, as an area and a protected area and we are very proud of that situation because we are in the long of the world, in the middle of the world as well and we have a very nice and rich country to show people around the world One place that is off the beaten track that's semi secret or secrets Maybe a personal favorite of you I know being a government representative you can't play favorites but just from a personal standpoint where should I go or where should one of our listeners of course Cuenca. Cuenca is a hiding pressure that's where you're from, no? Yeah, I knew it in southern Ecuador and really is a very nice city and yes I am from Cuenca but that truly talking Cuenca is a really amazing city a colonial city world heritage named by UNESCO and really is an amazing place to visit. My name is Arisol Andrari I am the coordinator of international markets of the Brazilian Tourism Board I've been in the industry for quite time some some time but I've never seen such a boon We've been experiencing over the past three years and I have numbers to prove this in the last decades Brazil was receiving about 6 million tourists every year but last year we broke a great record we reached over 9 million tourist visiting Brazil this is mainly due to more air connectivity so you can fly more directly to Brazil so you have like more connections everywhere and also because of promotion of a very strong promotional strategy besides Rio I would highlight the city of maybe Brasilia, right? Brasilia is located in a very desert like place It's a very dry place, it was built in the savannah but the interesting thing is that there are some oases around it and I'm gonna highlight here Chapada dos Villaderas which is a place you find like amazing and massive waterfalls tens of waterfalls in the same region and it's just great and it's a very mystical place as well. Because people say it has a connection with the universe. It has also very good energy. So you can do both. You can visit the capital of Brazil, very important historically and for the architecture as well, and visit these oases and waterfall falls and enjoy the nature of Brazil in the same place. That was our Madrid correspondent Liam Elderus reporting from Fittor. This is the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Iq, EQ and AI. Three components key to the craft of innovation at ubs. Because to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving age, you need a partner with decades of experience, endless passion for the work and a finger on the pulse of leading technologies. Bridging human expertise with artificial intelligence, all to elevate you. UBS banking is our craft. I'm joined now by Vicki Price, who's an economist and a former joint head of the UK Government's economic Service, to bring us our business hit today. Vicky, good morning to you. Good morning. It's quite exciting time today in the UK because it's interest rate decision week. Tell us more. Well, that's right. I mean, we're going to hear about that on Thursday. And of course there had been expectations a little while ago that we're going to see quite a substantial drop in interest rates over the, of course, course of this coming months. But so we've seen an increase in inflation suddenly, which has worried the bank of England. We got a cut in December, of course, by 0.25% to 3.75%, which was the sixth cut thing since August 2024. You know, so there has been already a movement to reduce rates because basically inflation had been coming down. But now it looks like it's slightly more debatable, you know, when exactly the next cut will be. So the general expectation is there isn't going to be anything happening. So though it is exciting, it's more exciting about seeing exactly how the votes go. It was very tight last time. It's likely to be, you know, probably overwhelmingly this time for hold. What does it mean for the future? The markets will need to adjust. If we start seeing a reversal of the increase in inflation that we've just been seeing coming in the next few months, then you can see those cuts accelerating. People differ. Something that could be, you know, two quarter point cuts over the next six months. The economy needs it and that's the important thing. The economy absolutely needs a bit of a boost in terms of growth. We had some rather negative monthly data recently, although things look a little bit better now. It's one of the reasons actually why the government is Working quite hard to get that reset with Europe become, you know, something a bit more concrete. So lots of meetings now being scheduled to get closer because, of course, we, we do know that our trading partners remain in Europe, remain the most significant ones in terms of connections that we have. And our exporters are looking for this and waiting for some improvement to take place. Now in our headlines today, we're reporting on this tariff cut by the US benefiting India. It's cut from 18% from, I think, 50. But this is quite transactional. India has had to agree to end Russian oil purchases, but more importantly perhaps to buy American. Yes, but of course, remember that quite a lot of the, of the tariff decisions have been made before and concessions have been given by the US after their very initial, very substantial hike in what they intended to charge for imports from other countries had been buying more US goods, particularly lng. And that has been going on, of course, in Europe for some time now. And a lot, a lot of promises to invest in the US So it's very transactional, just as you say. What is happening, of course, course, with India, it just shows how important trade is and how important for India in particular, given its position now in the world is because, of course, they had been threatened with tariffs. They had tariffs of 50% to the US and now they are seeing a decrease of that, although we still have to see some of the details coming out, which we're not absolutely certain exactly how it's going to work. But there is a big, big move, therefore, of concessions by the US which is the way, of course, President Trump seems to work, so raises things or threatens and then gets concessions when he gets back to some greater normality. But for the US it's good news, of course, because of course, India is lowering its own imports to anything coming from the US Supposedly to zero. And of course, yes, buying more oil from energy, certainly more generally from the US Is how it's going to be. Now, whether that materializes is another issue. But, but they seem to be stopping buying, buying it from Russia, which I think is a very, very important development, which has already been happening, by the way they had reduced their purchases and that now crystallizes it. Yeah. And of course, that lowering of tariffs by the US On India has really calmed things down in gold and Asian stocks. They're on the rebound. Yes, because India is really quite important, but also, so it's a direction of tariffs. If it's showing that the whole sort of tension is easing, I think that's really, really important for those countries. All around India. India of course, is very, very significant as a part of the supply chain, if you like, as a purchaser of products. And it's really interesting also in terms of what may be coming into the, the content is, if you like, overall in terms of the movement of funds into India, of course there will also be some movement supposedly from India into the us but what it means is that we're getting more integration perhaps happening again. And I think that's very, very good for the region as a whole. Vicki very quickly I'd like to have a look at Elon Musk's SpaceX confirms that it's taking over Xai. Yes, well, all that is of course very complicated because it's two bits owned by Elon Musk which are all being put together by Elon Musk into something bigger. And the value of that new company is expected to be over a trillion dollars, I think 1.125 or something like that, if you put them together. Now the question is, you know, why did he need to do that? Exactly. And there are suggestions that he might in fact IPO bits of it or some of it, but it gives it extra strength and of course we just look at all this with amazement. I mean those figures are so extraordinary and, and what he has done is so, quite so amazing. But the interesting thing is that he's scaling down a little bit, what he's doing with Tesla, which of course, you know, given everything that's been happening, makes probably quite a lot of sense. Vicki, thank you very much indeed. That's Vicky Price there. And this is the Globalist on Monocle Radio. It's 1553 in Singapore, 7:53 here in London. And now as mentioned earlier, it's the final day of the inaugural Space Summit at the Singapore Airshow, bringing the fast growing space economy into the spotlight. Held at Marina Bay Sands and organized by Experia Events, the summit has has focused on how satellite services, regulation and commercial space are reshaping aviation, defense and everyday infrastructure across Asia. With forecasts putting the global space economy at around $1.8 trillion by 2035. The message seems to be that space is no longer niche, it's becoming part of a mainstream economic policy. Well, I'm delighted to be joined in the studio by wonderful friend of Monocle. She is Tira Schubert, she's a journalist and she's a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. Good morning. Good morning, Georgina. Now it's been announced that Singapore is launching its own national space agency. Tell us why. Oh, well, this is a very clever move by Singapore. Now Singapore is going to join the other 70 countries around the world that have space agencies, but it will be one of the smallest and it is going to concentrate on bringing in even more business to Singapore. This is what they're brilliant at. They have a fairly small budget initially, but there's already 70 companies working in Singapore that are involved in the space sector. Satellites are now considered part of a critical infrastructure for any country and Singapore's right in the middle of some difficult geography. So are they putting this space agency together to regulate those 70 or so companies or is there real ambition to build sovereign space capability? I mean, it doesn't have a launch site, it doesn't have a launch site and it won't have a launch site. But it is going to pull in, it's going to create a commercial sector that will be based in Singapore because Singapore has been very, very clever in attracting business and then using it to grow their own economy. So they need to have satellites for security and for commercial reasons. It's dual use. Right. So the government points to strengths in advanced manufacturing, in microelectronics and in AI. Which of those matter most for space? They both matter equally. And the R and D, the $200 million that is put into research and development initially in this new space agency that's going to be launched on April 1 will concentrate on both of those sectors. And by the way, it's headed by a woman. Not many of the international space agenc are headed by woman. Ngheem Lee Ma. That's fabulous. Now this was announced at the inaugural space Summit. Who was there? Well, there's. And that just opened a few hours ago. There's more than 20 international space agencies, including the European Space Agency, which represents all of the European countries. And there's also more than 200 different companies attending that are involved in the aerospace and the space industry. But there's another aspect of this that's really important, which is the outreach. Now so many times when there's conferences like this, there's announcements, yes, there's going to be outreach for education. But in Singapore, this is really significant because Singapore is a knowledge based country in a way that no other country in the world is. They're number one in maths and science in the global educational charts. And that is why so many companies and countries come and invest in Singapore. That's how they make their money. Well, talking about investment, global investment in space tech hit record levels last year. So is this the next industrial race? It is one of the next industrial race. And as you say, in 10 years, the amount of is going to approach $1.8 trillion, according to one paper by McKinsey. And that means that it's growing faster, twice as fast as GDP every year in the rest of the world. Extraordinary. And. And Tira, you've been fascinated by space forever. Do you feel you'll ever get there? I want to get there. I'm afraid that. I'm afraid that with the International Space Station being dismantled now, in another five, another four years, they're going to start taking it apart. It will come back crashing into Earth. But there would be fewer spaces for people like me, I'm afraid. No journalists in space so far. So far are. Watch this space. Tira Schubert, thank you very much indeed. And that's all we have time for on today's show. Thanks to our producers Angelica Jupson and Tom Webb, our researcher Anneliese Maynard, and our studio manager, Christy o', Grady, with editing assistance from Jack Jewers. After the headlines, there's more music on the way and the briefing is live at midday in London. We'll be hearing from our team on the ground in Dubai there at the World Government Summit. Once more, more. The globalists will return at the same time tomorrow. I'm Georgina Godwin. Thanks for listening. 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