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The Globalist
Trump says he will solve the Afghanistan-Pakistan crisis ‘very quickly’. Plus: Europe’s rival to Starlink
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Emma Nelson
You're listening to the Globalist, first broadcast on 28th October 2025 on Monocle Radio. The Globalist in association with UV Live from London. This is the Globalist with me, Emma Nelson. A very warm welcome to today's program. Coming up, there is only one left.
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Charles Hecker
Although I heard that Pakistan and Afghanistan have started up, but I'll get that solved very quickly.
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Emma Nelson
But can Donald Trump add a peak steal between the Taliban and Pakistan to his list of triumphs? We'll hear about the latest developments from the talks in Turkey.
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Charles Hecker
Also ahead, we announced that we will.
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Paul Waldy
Be initiating free trade talks with the Philippines.
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Emma Nelson
Canada's Prime Minister has some good news at last. When it comes to trade, will it be the start of a new pivot to asean or indeed just a welcome relief from the troubles of the neighbour in the White House. Plus, European aerospace companies plan a rival to Elon Musk's Starlink, and why Indigo Flight 6E 1703 could mark a return to better days in relations between India and China. That's all coming up on the Globalist live from London. First, a quick look at what else is happening in today's news. The US President and Japanese prime minister have signed an agreement on the processing of rare earths and other critical minerals. Hurricane Melissa, A rare Category 5 storm is approaching landfall in Jamaica with at least 20 people estimated already to have died. And lawyers for the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have filed an appeal against his 27 year prison sentence for attempting to stage a coup after he lost the elections in 2022. Stay tuned to Monacle Radio throughout the day for more on these stories. But first, the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan's government are meeting for a fourth day of peace talks. The negotiations, which are being in Turkey, are aimed at bringing an end to the series of clashes that have led to the deaths of dozens of soldiers and civilians on both sides. And perhaps spotting an opportunity to play his part in another peace agreement, the US President Donald Trump is getting involved. Well, I'm joined now by Lynn o', Donnell, columnist for Foreign Policy magazine and a regular voice on Monaco Radio. Good morning, Lynn. Good to have you.
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Lynn O'Donnell
Hi, Emma.
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Emma Nelson
So just before we start talking about Donald Trump, just establish what the relations between the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan currently are.
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Lynn O'Donnell
It's become quite complex and infused with irony, if I may say. The Taliban, as you know, fought a 20 year war to retain and regain power in Afghanistan that they won in 2021. And throughout those 20 years, they were supported by Pakistan's military and its secret agency, the ISI. And once they came to power in August 2021, the Pakistani authorities thought that they had installed a pliable proxy that could dent India's regional dominance ambitions. But they were pretty quickly assured by the Taliban that that wasn't going to be the case. And since then, the Taliban has transformed Afghanistan into a safe haven for almost two dozen transnational terrorist and jihadist organizations. And that's regularly documented by the United Nations Security Council. And now what it's doing is allowing the Pakistani Taliban to take safe haven along the border, on the Afghan side of the border from where it attacks Pakistan and is supported in its aim of overthrowing the Pakistani state. So that's where we are with that. The Durand line is what the border is known as the Afghan side. The Taliban do not recognize it, the Pakistanis do. And the Afghan Taliban allow the Pakistan Taliban. Are you still with me? To cross that border and launch attacks against Pakistan.
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Emma Nelson
So they are now trying to what, calm down, stop these attacks? There's a dual purpose to this, isn't there? To create a ceasefire at least, but then also hopefully to try to establish something a little bit more stable. So just tell us about the first stage that we're at. Because they agreed a temporary ceasefire earlier on, didn't they, earlier this month. How did we get. What stage of the negotiations are we at now?
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Lynn O'Donnell
Well, they started their second round of peace talks in Istanbul at the weekend and they were expected to sign and release a joint communique of sorts last night, but they didn't. And there is a question over whether or not they'll move into a fourth day. The Pakistani Defence Minister, Khawadja Asif, has already mentioned all out war as a consequence of the Taliban in Afghanistan not abiding by or coming to any agreement. So, you know, it's pretty tenuous, but what you've got is an illegitimate terrorist led organization in the Afghan Taliban that seized control of the territory of Afghanistan and from there has basically supported broader jihadist ambitions. It's close to Hamas, to Hezbollah. It's well supported militarily and financially by the Iranian regime. Firearms and other weapons that were left by the republic. Afghan forces are turning up on other battlegrounds elsewhere, including in Gaza and on the Pakistani controlled side of Kashmir. So these are not what you would call the actions of a genuine state. And nothing that they say can be.
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Emma Nelson
Believed yet we are in a situation where they have to be recognized within the framework of peace negotiations. And we've already seen a set of negotiations in Qatar and now it's moved to Turkey. So why are these moves taking place of location?
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Lynn O'Donnell
Well, Qatar is one of the world's biggest supporters of terrorist organizations. The Taliban has a political office there. It has had for a long time. The Qataris have had an embassy in Afghanistan also throughout the Taliban eras, and they are supporters and funders of the Taliban. The move by Turkey is to be seen. The president of Turkey, Erdogan, wants to be seen as a, as a regional player. And so he's hosting talks there between the Pakistan side and the Afghan Taliban. And that is giving it a cadence of legitimacy. But essentially what Pakistan is doing is negotiating with a terrorist organization that has seized control of a neighboring space.
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Emma Nelson
So how does it go about, or how do the likes of the Qataris and the Turks and the Turkish team actually try to create something durable from.
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Lynn O'Donnell
What you've just described, how do the hosts do that?
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Emma Nelson
How do they mediate this?
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Lynn O'Donnell
Well, they host and encourage. I mean, there are also people on the sidelines who are trying to get the Taliban to agree to ceasefire arrangements. And one of those is what the Pakistanis are insisting on is recognizing the existence on the Afghanistan side of the border of terrorist and jihadist organizations. And the ttp, the Pakistani Taliban, is one of them. Since coming to power in Afghanistan, the Afghan Taliban have allowed the TTP to base itself in Afghanistan and allowing it from there to attack Pakistan. So with no climb down on this, and it's obviously one of the issues that the hosts are trying to get them to come to the table on. There isn't going to be a peace agreement. That's something that Pakistan cannot back down on.
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Emma Nelson
We must mention Donald Trump. He has decided that he can fix this. The American recent history with regards to Afghanistan is checkered. We just need to look back at what happened in 2021, when the Taliban retook Afghanistan, when the United States left. What can Donald Trump do here? And indeed, how welcome is it?
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Lynn O'Donnell
Well, bringing peace to conflict areas should always be welcome, but the United States is in a difficult position here because the Taliban are not a legitimate government. The United States does not recognize them diplomatically. Only one country in the world does, and that's Russia. Other countries have diplomatic presence in Afghanistan in Kabul, and some allow the Taliban to have diplomatic presence on their soil. But America does not recognize the legitimacy of the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan. So what are you going to do? You're going to allow a proscribed organization, it is listed as a terrorist organization. Its leaders are listed as terrorists by the United States and many of them also by the United Nations Security Council. You're going to legitimise them by bringing peace between a terrorist organization and the government of a legitimate state. I just, I don't know how he's going to square that circle.
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Emma Nelson
Finally, very briefly, Lyn, it is really difficult to report from Afghanistan, as you more than than anybody else know. What are you learning now about the fact that this is now being held in the open.
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Lynn O'Donnell
That the these peace talks are going on in the open? Well, this is probably a function of Doha's support. Doha has become Doha as the capital of Qatar. The royal family have become extremely powerful through the use of sponsored media organizations that we know of and influence in Western capitals. So I think it's not a surprise to me that it's happening in the open. But what would be a surprise would be the recognition of the United States for the Taliban's position in this.
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Emma Nelson
Lynne o', Donnell, columnist for Foreign Policy magazine, thank you so much for joining us ON Monocle Radio 3am 3:11am in Ottawa, 7:11am here in London. Now, the crisis involving the trade relations between Canada and the US has been dominating the headlines, but has also arguably stolen the spotlight from some of the success stories that Ottawa may be about to boast about. The Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says talks are beginning on with the Philippines. So to tell us more, I'm joined now by Paul Waldy, Europe correspondent at the Globe and Mail. Good morning, Paul.
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Paul Waldy
Hi there.
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Emma Nelson
So what could be in this deal with the Philippines?
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Paul Waldy
Well, Prime Minister Carney has been talking about this for a while. He met the the Philippine prime minister, president, I should say, a few weeks ago in Ottawa. So he's been touting this. I'm not really too clear what's going to be in the details of this. I don't think Canada, Philippines trade amounts to a whole lot. I think the bigger issue for Carney is now that he's in South Korea or heading to South Korea for the APEC summit, he hopes to meet Chinese President Xi, which would be a huge moment for Canada because, of course, Canadian Chinese relationships have been in really in the gutter for about seven years. So I think if Carney can make any headway on that front, that would be a big boost to diversifying Canada's trade, which of course is what he's all about.
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Emma Nelson
Okay, let's explore this a tiny bit, tiny little bit more that, like you say, the relationship between China and Canada is, is not good. But what do we think that Mark Carney might be able to achieve if, when he meets Xi?
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Paul Waldy
I think what he's looking for is, is some kind of trade off. You know, Canada slapped huge tariffs on Chinese electric vehicle imports back at that time. And, you know, these relationships fell apart over the arrest of a tech executive at the request of the US and then China retaliated. So since then, there's been huge trade war between Canada and China, basically, you know, cutting off most trade. I think what Carney wants to do is maybe offer to reduce some of the tariffs on electric cars in exchange for China resuming purchases of Canadian canola and other agricultural products, which have been really, really critical to Canadian farmers. So that might be a first step. And then I think he would hopefully try and move towards, you know, easing restrictions on other things as well.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. I mean, because his predecessor, Justin Trudeau, placed restrictions on the movement of Chinese capital, for example. How much damage has that actually done between China and Canada? One would imagine that it would perhaps hurt Canada more.
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Paul Waldy
Oh, it's definitely hurt Canada an awful lot more than China. And I think also there were restrictions on movement as well. There were visa restrictions and all kinds of things. And the relationship between Trudeau and China really hit a low. And Trudeau at the time, to be fair, you know, China had basically arrested two Canadian diplomats and effectively held them hostage until the court case with the tech executive got resolved. But that didn't end the dispute between the two countries. So, you know, I think this has really hurt Canadian agriculture, Canadian farmers. China was a big importer of oil, seeds and other products. And I think that's been a really damaging blow to Canadian farmers in particular.
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Emma Nelson
Let's move back to this idea of this sort of forging through with different kinds of trade deals. I mean, you mentioned that there are no great areas of trade between Canada and the Philippines, but those areas of trade that, that, that do function well, what are they? And, and why is it, why is Canada touting this so, so loudly already?
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Paul Waldy
Well, I think, you know, again, I think it comes down largely to agriculture. You know, Canada has traditionally sold an awful lot of its agricultural products to countries in Asia, and I think that's been a big, they've been a big buyer of that. So I think that's probably what a lot of this is aimed at. But I think the bigger picture here is Carney's touting this because his whole focus now is to push for this diversification of Canadian trade. You know, we've been so reliant on the US for so long, 70, 80% of Canada's trade is with, you know, one country. So I think given everything going on with Trump, Carney has made it his mission to try and diversify trade. That's a tall order because it's very hard to simply turn the switch and find new customers elsewhere. So I think he's touting the Philippine deal as the first step in that direction. It's a small step, admittedly, but, you know, maybe for him it's significant enough for him to tout it as, okay, look, at least we're making some progress.
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Emma Nelson
This is an absolute tightrope that Mark Carney has to walk here because we've now got Donald Trump reportedly refusing to meet Mark Carney. To be seen pushing as pivoting towards Asia and indeed to be having a face to face meeting with, with the Chinese, with, with China's leader creates a really, really difficult balance, doesn't it?
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Paul Waldy
Well, it really does. And it's interesting as well because Carney has also made overtures while he was in Kuala Lumpur to the Malaysian government saying, hey, you know, there are other markets out there. You can look to us if you're having problems with the U.S. he's kind of carried that message throughout this visit to Asia. And that is a difficult balancing act as Trump goes to the very same region, the very same meeting, saying, look, you know, he wants US Allies to stand with the US and hold off China. So it's not going to help. And I think, you know, Carney also faces the challenge back at home that several Canadian premiers of provinces are sort of going after Trump and going after the whole free trade argument on that front. And, you know, Canadians kind of saying, yeah, good for them. So I think it's a really tricky spot that Carney's put himself in.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. And he's, you know, he's trying to say, you have to keep your cool. These are high stakes negotiations. Nonetheless, am I right in thinking that Canada is still the, is the last G7 country without a trade deal with the United States? How much damage could this do to Canada?
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Paul Waldy
It's, it's going to be very damaging. I mean, for now, Canada is fortunate and so is Mexico in that the free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the US Remains basically in force and none of these tariffs, these additional tariffs that that Trump has slapped on certainly onto Canada anyway, have really affected that much of the economy because still about 90% of trade falls under the the free trade Agreement. So that hasn't been affected. But that agreement is up for the renegotiation. Nobody expects it to remain in place. Everybody expects Trump to either put more tariffs on or ignore it or do whatever. So I think really the clock is ticking towards a huge day of reckoning for Canada when tariffs do come in across the board, there are no exemptions and Canadians really have to figure out, you know, how do we improve trade within our country and to find new markets.
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Emma Nelson
Paul Waldy from the Globe and Mail, thank you as ever for joining us on Monocle Radio. Still to come on today's program, our.
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Turki Al Marshedi
Added value for the people there, it's the quality of our projects, the amenities and after sales support by creating mixed use project as well quality houses.
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Emma Nelson
We hear how the Saudi developer Ajdan is delivering new neighbourhoods in some of the kingdom's biggest cities. Stay with us. On the globalist.
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Emma Nelson
7:19 here in London almost nudging 7:20. Let's have a look at today's newspapers. Joining me is Charles Hecker, author and Russia analyst. How are you Chuck?
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Charles Hecker
Good morning Ellen.
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Emma Nelson
Again, haven't I to call you Chuck off air but on air you have to be Charles, is that correct?
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Charles Hecker
Charles is just a little bit fancier.
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Emma Nelson
On the air and you're wearing brand new shoes. So I hope you're having a good day. Super comfy, so happy. Right. Okay, that's Charles. What's happening in the papers.
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Charles Hecker
So as you mentioned at the very top of the broadcast with the headline summaries, we're looking at the Times of London at the moment which is tracking Hurricane Melissa. And Hurricane Melissa is a very serious storm approaching Jamaica from the south. It is a category 5 storm which is the most serious and severe category of hurricanes and it will be hitting Jamaica early this morning, Jamaica time with winds of 175 miles an hour hour and will dump up to 2 1/2 meters of rain. That's almost as if you were standing on my shoulders, Emma. It is the third Category 5 storm of the year this year. And here's the biggest challenge for Jamaica. Apparently Hurricane Melissa is moving very, very slowly, which means it will hover over Jamaica for a prolonged period of time. Evacuation orders have been issued and the island is hunkering down very seriously.
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Emma Nelson
The COVID the coverage of this is obviously this, this awful thing that they try and brace for what is happening. And we are seeing reports everywhere of, you know, when what you've just described. And then when you look at the Times's pictures, you see workers board up shop windows as locals brace for the impact of Melissa. And you look at it and there's some plywood being, being put across some windows. And the description of the words are not matching what the pictures are saying.
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Charles Hecker
Just about any island or nation or city or just about any community will be defenseless against a hurricane of this strength. Category 5 hurricanes wreak phenomenal damage, including storms like Katrina in Louisiana, Hurricane Andrew many, many years ago across South Florida. Plywood, sandbags, batteries, phone chargers, all of those will soon be washed away or prove only to be temporary lines of defense against a storm of this magnitude.
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. And when you have the. Let me just scroll down to have a look. One of the lines from the Minister for Energy, Science and Communications saying in a press conference, saying, I'm moving away from saying good morning. And from now until we recover, I will just say, almighty Father, spare us.
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Charles Hecker
That's right. The island is shifting from pragmatism to prayerfulness in the hopes that a higher authority spares them from the worst damage. Jamaica has taken action. One thing about hurricanes is that you see them coming. And evacuation orders have been issued in advance. The island has done everything that it can and now has to wait for the inevitable.
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Emma Nelson
Let's move to the Japan Times. The first summit between Donald Trump and the new Prime Minister of Japan, Sanae Takeichi. She's calling it a new golden age. He absolutely loves her, too. It was quite a meeting.
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Charles Hecker
It really was. I mean, the Japanese absolutely pulled out all of the stops for the arrival of Donald Trump, including a rather shocking figure, and that is that Japan and its capital, Tokyo, mobilized 18,000 police officers to protect Donald Trump. Japan was probably bearing two things in mind as it unwound this incredible security operation, and that is that, of course, President Trump has been the target of assassination attempts twice. And of course, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was felled by an assassin's bullet himself. So Japan seeking to do everything it can not to repeat any sort of security disasters with a visiting president. What's interesting to note is that the ghost of Shinzo Abe hung mightily over this summit and probably worked in Sanae Takeichi's favorite. And that is that one of the reasons that Donald Trump said that he liked her and thought she would be a good prime minister is because she was recommended by and as a protege of Abe San.
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Emma Nelson
And even to the point where the gifts that were given by the Japanese to Donald Trump was they were both golfing pals, weren't they? Abe and Abe and Trump. And so she gave him a golf club that had been Abe's.
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Charles Hecker
Somebody in the Japanese protocol office has been doing their homework. This is probably the best and most well thought out gift you can imagine for a visiting dignitary. And that is a putter used by Shinzo Abe has been gifted to President Trump. And, you know, not only that, but Sanae Takaichi has also promised to nominate President Trump for the Nobel Prize. This seems to be one of the things that all receiving dignitaries have to do when President Trump touches down on their lands. But Japan has also vowed to increase defense spending. It will buy more defense equipment from the United States. What remains to be resolved really is the substance of the relationship between Japan and the United States. And that is how much money will Japan spend investing in the United States and where will that money fall?
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Emma Nelson
Indeed. But Takeuchi is already saying that this is going to be a golden age of relationships between Japan and the U.S. so she hopes. Let's move on to an article in the Financial Times on your patch. Now, the Russian oil producer Lukoil is to sell its international assets. What's going on here, Charles?
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Charles Hecker
That's right. Very selfishly digging something out of my comfort zone. But this is a relevant story because this is Russia's second largest oil producer and it is responding to sanctions that were threatened last week by President Trump that will be imposed within a month's time. Lukoil is selling its international assets. This is a significant move, though. That said, the FT tells us that international operations are only about 5% of turnover for Lukoil's overall business. There will be some tricky moments here, and that is that Lukoil owns two refineries in Bulgaria and Romania and has a 45% stake in refinery in the Netherlands. Lukoil will have to wiggle its way out of those investments without causing too much disruption. Lukoil has permission from the United States authorities. The sanctioning authorities to unwind the ownership of these assets before the sanctions take full effect. So there is a deadline waiting for this to happen.
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Emma Nelson
Explain the context of this, because actually, from the outside, if you're not an expert in A, sanctions and B, Russian oil, what is Lukoil? What is a Russian state oil producer doing with such a large stake outside Russia still? I mean, you talked about, you know, refineries in Belgium.
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Charles Hecker
Well, that's right. Well, what we know is that the energy industry is deeply interconnected internationally and exists across a web of wells, production sites, refineries, distribution sites, storage facilities, and then finally pipelines for delivery. And so it's not surprising to learn that a company the size of Lukoil has tentacles all around the world as part of its operations. The US by sanctioning Lukoil, says that really, you can no longer do business in any of these countries if you are using the American dollar, if you're using American banks, or if you're coming in contact with US citizens, which makes life in an internationalized industry quite difficult.
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Emma Nelson
Finally, you talked about tentacles. This is an Uncle Ungainly segue or a link to a brilliant article in the New York Times which asks one of life's great questions. What do I wear to a Halloween party if I hate dressing up?
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Charles Hecker
That's right. If anybody hasn't noticed, Halloween is coming up in just a few days and invitations will be going out. Or, well, for polite hosts, invitations have already been issued to Halloween costume parties, or as we say here in the uk, fancy dress parties. And the question is, what do you do if you want to go to the party, but you really hate dressing up and putting on costumes? And I guess the news is all really bad. And that is if you've been invited to a party, then you've got to play by the rules if you're going to go. So what the New York Times does is it gives you some advice on what to wear and how you can sort of not dress up as a costume, but say that you really are. And I think one of the most hilarious examples here is actually the husband of the journalist who wrote this story who said that he went dressed up as J.D. salinger, of course, the famous American author who has never been photographed before and nobody knows what he looks like.
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Emma Nelson
Excellent. What I can't get over there is the idea that there's nothing horrifying about dressing up as an author.
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Charles Hecker
I'm dressed up as an author right now.
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Emma Nelson
This one's quite clever. She said, I worn the same long black dress for my closet and simply added different props, which you just think, okay, this is fine. But then she's put a severed head to be Judith with the head of Holofernes. A lot of COBwebs to be Ms. Havisham and bloody hands as Lady Macbeth. I would say that buying a severed head is quite a move, not least. Cause apartments in New York are not big. And you've got to think where you're gonna put the head for 364 other days of the year and not have it look at you every time you open a cupboard.
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Charles Hecker
No, that's right. I mean, some of the lanes that people will go to is quite interesting. I mean, from the ridiculous to the sublime. There's one person who, to avoid dressing up, apparently attached a bunch of crepe paper to an umbrella and carried it around like a parasol. And when she opened it, it made her look like a Jell thing. We have to bear in mind that opening umbrellas indoors in the United States is very bad luck. I'm not sure if that's the case everywhere else, but it's something that you're not supposed to do.
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Emma Nelson
Charles, we wish you the best for any Halloween party that you will be attending. We need to see pictures. That's Charles Hecker, author and Russia analyst. You're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Now a quick look at some of the other stories we're keeping an eye on today. As we've just heard in the Paper Review with Charles Hecker, the US President and Japanese Prime Minister has signed agreement on the processing of rare earths and other critical minerals. The framework was signed during the US President Donald Trump's visit to Tokyo, during which he warmly praised Japan's new Prime minister, Sanai Takaichi. Ms. Takaichi, an ultra conservative elected just last week, spoke of building a golden era with the US Hurricane Melissa, a rare Category 5 storm, is making landfall in Jamaica. Authorities have warned it could become the fastest hurricane to hit the island. Meteorologists have described what they are seeing as satellite history. And lawyers for the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro have filed an appeal against his prison sentence for attempting to stage a coup after he lost the elections in 2022. His lawyers say there are discrepancies in the ruling by the country's Supreme Court. This is the Globalist. Stay tuned. Now, the astonishing influence of of Starlink Elon Musk's satellite network, built by SpaceX, arguably first emerged at the start of Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. There were claims that Mr. Musk was switching Ukraine's access to vital communications and intelligence on and off, leading to blackouts on the battlefield for Kyiv's troops. It is this reliance that has arguably prompted Europe's top satellite makers to try to create a local and indeed more trustworthy equivalent. I'm joined now by Julia Jen, his Monocles writer and researcher. Good morning. Good to have you back in the studio.
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Julia Jenn
Good morning, Emma.
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Emma Nelson
The problem is with Starlink and its inherent trustworthiness, isn't it? And it's absolutely vital to Ukrainian communications on the battlefield.
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Julia Jenn
Yeah, absolutely. So I think this has all come from a place of fear. So I think before 2022, this wasn't something anyone was really thinking about because our relationship with the Americans here in Europe was just so completely different to the position that we find ourselves in now, so. Yes, so exactly. This comes from this fear of, you know, Ukrainians were having these pushing forward on their front lines and then suddenly there were kind of reports, of course, all sort of off the record, but reports that suddenly their satellite was being switched off. And there's a lot of fear around. Also, Elon Musk's dealing with the Russian government kind of. There was a point at which he was sort of spewing out lots of Russian sort of lines, almost as if they'd been generated directly from Moscow on X on Twitter. And so there was this fear that the Europeans were kind of. There's growing there. That was what actually happens in the state of a war when another private company from a different bit of the world that doesn't necessarily have your interests in mind, but maybe is even colluding with your enemy. How do you deal with that situation?
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Emma Nelson
It is that issue of the private sector which is one of the most difficult, dicey areas, isn't it?
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Julia Jenn
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, kind of we talk about sort of tech, kind of tech leaders sort of controlling our world. And actually there's an interesting debate to be had there how much a tech is really influencing things since Elon Musk has now stepped down and is now focusing on his companies again. But that doesn't take away from his sort of political affiliations or political ties with other nation states and, you know, an entire continent relying on Starlink on his own private kind of venture. And I'm sure other sort of continents, other countries around the world are really looking at that and wondering about their own sovereign capabilities.
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Emma Nelson
And this is where Europe is stepping in. Well, the agencies all coming together. So just outline their efforts.
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Jessica Bridger
Yes.
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Julia Jenn
So There was, there have been lots of. I mean, look, in Europe we have so many different satellite makers. There was one that I've interviewed called isi, a Finnish startup that's headed. And they make, you know, low cost, low orbit satellites that are very similar to Starlink in the sense that they allow kind of Earth observation. They're very nimble, very, very, very fast connection. So, you know, Europe has these capabilities and of course we have our own big defense players. Some of the biggest in the.
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Emma Nelson
Was.
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Julia Jenn
This keen effort called Iris 2 that's been on the cards for the last few years since really that debacle with Elon Musk and Starlink a few years ago, back in 2022 and onwards. And this has been on the card, sorry, really being pushed forward. But they're classic European issues coming into play. So different nations wanting their own constellations, not trusting that they can really put all their effort and their money into one. And so this merger that we're going to talk about between the big defence players really brings different countries together, specifically France and Italy, the two that had kind of the most qualms about outsourcing to just Europe in general and brings them all together into play and kind of creates jobs in both countries, etc.
- [35:42]
Emma Nelson
How did they go about doing this? Because you just highlighted the perennial European headache, which is how does everybody agree? And one of the ideas was rotating leadership or making appointments based on nationalities as well. This is going to take a long time, isn't it? It's been estimated that before this thing can get up and running, it's going to take at least two years. And that suggests one thing. Either Europeans are going to be quite slow about this and lack the nimbleness that the private sector in the United States may have. But secondly, there is behind that the underlying assumption that the Russian invasion of Ukraine is not stopping anytime soon.
- [36:19]
Julia Jenn
Yeah, absolutely. So calling into question there the timeline for sure. The thing that we have to really remember is that of course we live in our European bubble where we don't experience the war every single day, but our intelligence chiefs are unfortunately reminding us that war with Russia is possible within the next four to five years. The last kind of warning we had was the German intelligence chief saying that it's possible in the next four years and generally people expect it by the end of the decade. It's vital that Europe has its own sovereign capabilities of just something as simple as just watching sort of launch paths in Russia or wherever they're looking. You need that 24 hours every single day. Of the week. You need that capability of just looking, just being able to see down onto earth and look into kind of different areas of the, of the globe that you're not, you know, you don't have easy access to. You don't have maybe spires on the ground or whatever to be reporting. Exactly. Minute by minute, second by second even. Really, you know, we're talking milliseconds here. This is how fast the satellite satellites update their kind of understanding of what's going on in the globe. And you watch these launch pads and you literally look for a puff of smoke. You know, I was talking to officers in, in the anti ballistic missile base in Poland that is run by the US and it's meant to protect NATO from sort of missiles that are coming from, you know, Iran, Russia, etc. And they literally say, you know, we're looking at that, these bases in foreign countries and we're checking is there has there literally been a puff of smoke that tells us there's been a missile launch. So you need that really early warning system in place.
- [37:56]
Emma Nelson
It does not come cheap, though. I mean, one of the advantages of Starlink is that it's these cheap, tiny satellites that the Europeans just do not build or they might not build.
- [38:06]
Julia Jenn
Yes, well, I mean, there is that capability and as I said, you know, there's this Finnish company, isi that we've been covering here at Monocle, and there is that capability that Europe has, but it's about the impetus, it's about bre, bringing different people, different companies together and also doing it in a clever way, you know, not pouring money away into big projects. One of the big criticism of Iris to this venture between Airbus, Thales and Leonardo is that it is trying to replicate Starlink without thinking about what Europe actually needs. And what Europe needs is the quick ability to be able to look down on Earth, you know, and Ukrainian on the Ukrainian front line, medics use the, this medics. You know, you've got doctors looking at these kind of satellite images and of course you use them for secure communications. You also use them just for drone operations. Going deep, deep, deep into territory, into foreign territory where you don't have easy access to wi fi, etc. So you do have these capabilities in Europe, but it's about using them very cleverly together and bringing people together.
- [39:04]
Emma Nelson
Julia Jenn Monocles Writer and researcher thank you so much for joining me in the studio. You're listening to the Globalist.
- [39:14]
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- [39:51]
Emma Nelson
It's 1539 in Beijing, which is where we head now because the arrival yesterday in Guangzhou of Indigo Flight 6E 1703 from Calcutta was the end of a journey well made by the 180 people on board. But it was also an important step towards improving relations between the two countries. It connected. It has been five years since a direct flight run between India and China has happened. This was the first one. So to tell us more, I'm joined now by Kerry Brown, director of the Lao China Institute at King's College London and author of the Great Reversal. Kerry joins us from Beijing. So, good afternoon to you.
- [40:28]
Kerry Brown
Good afternoon.
- [40:30]
Emma Nelson
Just explain to us how we got here because the problems between India and China were not necessarily geopolitically related when it came to the cancellation of planes. Because this all started in Covid, didn't it?
- [40:43]
Kerry Brown
Yes, that's right. I think China and India have a tetchy relationship. They had a war in 1962. They got an unresolved border issue. When Covid broke out, of course there were recriminations. India was very badly affected by Covid. There was also at the time a lot of arguments about TikTok, Chinese social media company that India banned. So they kind of have a lot of issues between them. And so from that time, they didn't allow kind of flights. There weren't a great deal of flights anyway. But the thing that's changed is that in September, a month ago, Prime Minister Modi came to, I think, with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting which was held in Tianjin near Beijing, had a warm handshake with Xi Jinping, the leader of China. And so they are now in a better kind of situation. Part of that is because they have a joint foe, the United States, which is obviously beating up both on India and China at the moment. And that has brought them together despite their many, many differences.
- [41:50]
Emma Nelson
Indeed. And how have trade relations been affected by these, by things such as having no planes flying directly because they are. They have this. This difficult situation that you've just described insofar as that they are trade partners, yet they are strategic rivals.
- [42:08]
Kerry Brown
Yes, I mean, I think that they use proxies so, you know, they get around these trade barriers. I mean, honestly, the Chinese economy is, I think, three times the size of the Indian economy. And so China is the stronger partner. Although India's growth rate at 7 or 8% per year in the last few years has overtaken China's. So, you know, they kind of can still do a lot together without having direct flights. But I mean, the issue really is that they're constantly kind of vying with each other. I mean, Modi and Xi Jinping have both been in power for 12 years. They're both leading quite nationalistic parties and quite nationalistic countries. And so they really do great against each other in their sort of aspirations to be, be culturally and politically dominant in the Asian region. And that isn't going to ever go away. I mean, they're very, very proud of their respective cultures. But I think India is kind of more beholden to China in many ways than China is to India because China has a stronger economy, a bigger economy, it has much better infrastructure and therefore it's got a lot of the cards that India would like but doesn't currently have.
- [43:19]
Emma Nelson
What they do have though is a relationship with, with Russia. It was described a couple of days ago that India acts as a hinge between Russia and China. So just having this resumption of flights, what does that do to sort of strengthen or indeed deepen the wider relationship not just between India and China, but also with Russia involved?
- [43:42]
Kerry Brown
Yeah. So from the 1950s, India and China agreed on one thing. They were non aligned states states. So they didn't really like formal treaty alliances. They like to have, you know, the kind of freedom to work with different people, different ways. India, despite being a democracy and despite a lot of kind of close alliance with the west, has continued a strong relationship with Russia and continues to get, you know, kind of military and other assistance and give assistance to Russia. And of course China has been probably the biggest supporter or at least has been the biggest helper of Russia during its current war against Ukraine, not overtly, but really supporting it politically. They do that because they both got a common issue which is for China, you know, she has a massive border with India and for India also has kind of, you know, you know, a kind of border with Russia too. So they have to kind of have a pragmatic relationship. Where they do have problems too is the relationship with Pakistan. Obviously India is very irritated when China is over friendly to Pakistan and China has a very good relationship with Pakistan. So that's another issue that they both have to face.
- [44:52]
Emma Nelson
Kerry Brown, director of the Lao China Institute at King's College, London, author of the Great Reversal thank you for joining us on the line from Beijing. You're listening to Monocle Radio now. Last month Munich played host to Expo Royale. It's Europe's largest property and investment fair. And it's a busier Fair where developers, CEOs and local authorities all gather to sign the latest deals, get new tenants and attract new ventures to their regions. Well, one of those making their European debut was Ajdan, which is a real estate development company from Saudi Arabia. With a portfolio spanning commercial, residential, hospitality and entertainment. Expo Royale was a perfect platform to showcase their work. And Monocle's executive producer Carlotta Rebelo caught up with Turkey Almar Shady, who is chief support services officer of Ajdan, to find more about their vision.
- [45:45]
Turki Al Marshedi
Based on the vision of KSA 2030. We are trying to exposure the projects especially from the private sector. We are trying to look about real investors in our projects in Saudi and to present ourselves for European market as well.
- [46:07]
Emma Nelson
You describe yourself as basically curator of lifestyle. You're trying to bet a lot on this idea of real estate and lifestyle. Tell me a bit more about that mission.
- [46:18]
Turki Al Marshedi
Yes, we are creating a normal lifestyle for the people. We have a lot of projects in the main cities in Saudi, Riyadh, Jeddah and Khabar. Our added value for the people there, it's the quality of our projects, the amenities inside our projects and after sales support by creating mixed use project as well quality houses that having a lot of comfortable tools and smart homes for our client as well our customers.
- [46:55]
Emma Nelson
Well, let's talk about some of the projects and we're right in front of the model of one of them. This is Infinity, these three towers and immediately you see all the greenery and all the mixed use that you are describing. Tell me about this project.
- [47:09]
Turki Al Marshedi
Yeah, Infinity, one of our unique projects allocated in Isro region in Al Khobar city in the Turnesh. The whole three towers. It is the few of them. It's to the sea, to the Gulf, Arab. We have three components in the projects. Retail, FMP restaurant and cafes as well offices. Then the residential three towers. Tower number one, it's sold out. We are talking about 142 apartments number two towers. We are talking about 187 apartments. Almost 70% booked from the apartments. We are still thinking about the tower number three. To put it purely hotel. We are talking about the huge lands of the projects. About 46,000 square meter. We are always talking about huge areas to put all our unique ideas and to make something great for the lifestyle, for the people.
- [48:19]
Emma Nelson
KSA is going through this huge building boom and of course it's part of the 2030 vision. And there's a lot of things happening really fast. Tell us how Ashdan's vision goes in line with the 2030 vision and its commitment to changing how cities are in KSA.
- [48:38]
Turki Al Marshedi
We are part of vision of KSA 2030. We are trying to participate building mini housing to increase the owners of the houses for the local people and for the people from outside. And we are looking to add more and more from year to year for the people, for the number of the housing as well for the number of the mixed use projects. If I'll speak about Riyadh project projects, we going to have AJDAN 2. It is a two towers, it is mixed use project as well in one of the prime location in Riyadh, the capital city as well. In Riyadh we have big partnership with Roshan. We have with them more than 1500 Luxurian villas in Riyadh, Jeddah and Mecca as well. We have also in Jeddah one of our unique projects named Grand Square. It is also in one of the very famous road in Jeddah, King Road. We are talking about huge projects in the land and in the pelt areas. In Khobar we have a lot of other projects such as Ashdan Island, Bayfront.
- [50:02]
Emma Nelson
What makes Ashdan different from, you know, your other competitors? Let's say what is the thing you're bringing different to your projects?
- [50:08]
Turki Al Marshedi
We are talking about our quality in the design and in the space itself and in the prices as well. We are very, very good in after sales support. We are not leaving our customer once we'll deliver our product project to them. We are keeping the support of them as long as we can with the quality base and with the great support to them. This is the Ajdan philosophy and this is the Ajdan mindset for their customers.
- [50:41]
Emma Nelson
That's Turki Al Marshedi from Ajdan in conversation with Monocle's Coleta Rebelo. You're listening to the Globalist on Monocle Radio. Finally on today's program, let's stay in the world of urbanism. Jessica Bridger, Monocle's contributing editor in Zurich has been looking at some of the latest news making the headlines in cities. A very good morning to you Jessica. You join us from klosters.
- [51:32]
Jessica Bridger
Good morning, Emma. Indeed. And we have our first snow of the season down in the village this morning.
- [51:38]
Emma Nelson
Tell us all about it.
- [51:40]
Jessica Bridger
We still have leaves on the trees so the trees are golden yellow and you know, the dark green of the evergreens and then there's a beautiful dusting of snow and Everything. It's really kind of magical.
- [51:51]
Emma Nelson
Amazing. Thank you for telling us all about that, Jessica. And obviously you're in a village, but you want to talk to us about cities. But, but actually you want to bring the two together for our first subject, don't you?
- [52:00]
Jessica Bridger
Yeah, I do. I want to talk about how we often only look at cities, but population centers aren't only proper cities. Look at resort destinations like the one I'm in this morning, Cloisters, where a small number of locals often increases exponentially the population when tourists come and part time residents come in season. And rural and resort areas have seen massive development influxes, especially since 2020. Money. And who controls these villages and towns and their tourism infrastructure is a pressing issue now here in Switzerland that really hits the ground in an interesting way where there's a lot of direct involvement of community members in the future of their towns. So we've seen something really interesting this week in Flimslocks Falera, which is in central Switzerland, a famous ski destination, home to the Flimslock ski area, where the communities voted overwhelmingly in 85% at least all in favor to take over the infrastructure of their ski area and keep development firmly in local hands.
- [53:03]
Emma Nelson
The fact, well, it seems like a natural agreement or a natural way of going that if this is your village and you have to manage the numbers coming in happily because they bring in such an enormous source of income and indeed life and vibrancy to a place. But the alternative for Flimslach S Valera was, I think it was a big American company. Now that opens up a whole different argument.
- [53:29]
Jessica Bridger
Doesn't, does. And one big American ski company in particular, which is Vail Resorts, has taken over control of the infrastructure in Andermatt and in Crans, Montana, two other resorts in Switzerland. And the communities turned. They had a high voter turnout and a very high. I vote in favor of keeping community control because when you keep control of the infrastructure in the community, the community retains that control. Whereas if you bring in someone from outside, especially far outside, they bring in a completely different way of managing the infrastructure. And whoever manages the infrastructure in these places manages a lot of what actually goes on.
- [54:11]
Emma Nelson
The tricky part is though, is that running a ski resort costs a lot of money.
- [54:14]
Jessica Bridger
Money, right. And it typically involves a lot of investment. And typically now what we're seeing is as pass prices and as the price of skiing increases, people's expectations for the standards have also increased. So that involves new chairlifts, new runs, and that costs multiple millions of dollars to build. Out. So the promise from a lot of these big companies to the small communities is, well, we can develop your resort further, we can widen the offering, but some of the communities are looking at what that's done to a lot of places. Squeezing out the locals, increasing real estate prices massively, bringing in outsiders who have no regard for the ongoing life of these places. And that's a problem for a lot of places. And they want to see if they can self manage and hit on a way of developing themselves maybe more sustainably.
- [55:07]
Emma Nelson
Let's talk about pedestrianization. I know that you're keen on this subject and the idea of cities transforming themselves by closing areas off to traffic. We're seeing it an awful lot happen, happening in Paris. And next year in the United Kingdom, Oxford street, the UK's biggest, biggest, most sort of high profile shopping street, will be close to traffic.
- [55:25]
Paul Waldy
Yeah.
- [55:26]
Jessica Bridger
And that was just announced formally on Friday this past week. And a team composed of Hawkins, Brown east and landscape architects Aspect Studios, among others, will do the street design for the public realm. And that comes after a lot of public wrangling about how and what we'll be able to access in terms of vehicular traffic. If we look at people with limited mobility or we look at deliveries, we know that there still needs to be a certain flow of traffic or bike lanes, cycle lanes, mopeds, there's all these kinds of transportation and circulation that want to come through these places. But at the same time, we want to create better urban spaces in our cities and take back some of the areas. Up to 80% in some cities is occupied, occupied by automobiles and automobile infrastructure. And cities are saying, well, we can reconfigure our public realm to suit everybody in the city and not just drivers. And Oxford Street's an excellent example.
- [56:26]
Emma Nelson
It is, and it causes lots of problems. And as we have seen in the likes of Paris as well, when you close areas off to traffic, the traffic doesn't go away, it has to go somewhere else. And there are genuine concerns that by stopping the flow of a cog, or indeed a bus or a lorry going down way, all you do is you clog up smaller streets, making life much less pleasant for other people. And there's also that secondary argument that so many cities are designed by, in, in the image of the designers themselves, that the, the scope and space for people who can't get about is absolutely compromised. How do you stop that from happening?
- [57:03]
Jessica Bridger
I think it's going to be city by city, but you need to get traffic planning deeply embedded in the design of the public realm. And you have to plan for the fact that the city still has to function. But you can question some more casual uses of roads by larger vehicles and begin to bring in a new hybrid system where it's not about kicking out one thing or the other in favor of something else entirely. It's about having a better mix and better street design. I think it all looks impossible until we see it done. If we look at Barcelona and what they've done with the superblocks, closing off some of the gridded streets, widening that out to what they're doing with the boulevards, creating, creating a certain hierarchy of who gets to travel on which streets and reclaiming some of the streets, but not all of them for pedestrianization or even nature based solutions such as tree plantings for urban cooling. There's interesting ways to do it and we always think it's impossible. But if we look at Amsterdam, for example, where we love the bike paths in Amsterdam, Copenhagen was inspired by the many, many, many other cities were inspired by Amsterdam and the Netherlands bike paths. But we always think of them as being permanent, but they're not. They only came in the 1970s. Or even urban swimming. Monocle favorite, right? We imagine you look at a dirty river, you look at a clogged street and you wonder. That will never change. It will always be like that. But actually the rivers in Switzerland were cleaned also in the 1970s and 1980s, providing all of this urban swimming, we can do hard things in the urban realm. It's not impossible.
- [58:41]
Emma Nelson
Jessica Bridger in clusters dusted with snow. Thank you so much for joining us on the Globe Globalist. And that's all the time we have for today's program. The warmest of thanks to all my guests and to the producers, Monica Lillis and Carlotta Rebelo. Our researcher was Joanna Moser and our studio manager was Lily Austin. After the headlines. More music on the way. The briefing's live at midday here in London. The Globalist is back at the same time tomorrow. But for now, from me, Emma Nelson. Goodbye. Thank you very much for listening.
- [59:35]
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