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BERLIN/MUNICH — Leading politicians, military officers and diplomats from around the world gather in Munich on Friday for a security conference that will be dominated by the wars in Israel and Ukraine as well as fears over the U.S. commitment to defending its allies.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy are among the top officials attending the Munich Security Conference (MSC), an annual global gathering focused on defense and diplomacy.

Israel’s President Isaac Herzog and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh are also expected to attend the conference, which begins on Friday and runs until Sunday at the luxury Bayerischer Hof hotel in the southern German city.

The conference takes place as the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, in which more than 28,000 Palestinians and about 1,430 Israelis have been killed, enters its fifth month with no end in sight.

It also takes place shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine enters its third year.

Both wars have ignited fears that will likely be addressed at Munich about possible regional spillover.

“The world has become more dangerous,” Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General of the NATO Western defense alliance told Reuters on Wednesday.

British Foreign Secretary David Cameron said officials from European countries that help to fund the occupied Palestinian territories and key Arab and Gulf states would meet on the sidelines of the Munich event to start discussing the future for Israel and the Palestinian people after a potential ceasefire.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also expected to join.

“There are lots of things we need to start talking about now,” Cameron said in remarks to Britain’s House of Lords.

“Whether it’s about this question of how you offer a political horizon to people in the Palestinian territories, or indeed, how we deal with Israel’s very real security concerns.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he would set foot on German soil for the first time to give a keynote speech at the conference, after refraining from doing so as he grew up in a family of Holocaust survivors.

“I will do everything for Israel’s security, securing our future and returning the hostages,” he said.

Ukraine aid bill faces hurdles

Zelenskyy is expected to plead for more support for Ukraine as the U.S. House of Representatives stalls a multibillion-dollar military aid package for the country.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher,” said one senior State Department official, saying the delay was already being felt on the battlefield. “Our support is absolutely essential in achieving the objectives Ukraine has.”

European and U.S. officials are increasingly warning of the risk Russian President Vladimir Putin could attack other countries if his military operation in Ukraine is successful.

“It is clear Putin will not stop at Ukraine,” a second U.S. State Department official said.

No Russian officials were invited to the MSC, for the second year in a row, as they did not seem interested in meaningful dialogue, organizers said.

Trump casts shadow

The event comes as the U.S. commitment to defending its allies more broadly is in doubt as the prospect of a reelection of former President Donald Trump looms.

Such worries have re-ignited a push in Europe for more strategic autonomy. Until recently the idea was championed by only a handful of countries, in particular France, but is gaining traction and will likely be addressed at the security gathering.

Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, suggested last Saturday he would not defend NATO allies who failed to spend enough on defense, prompting consternation in Europe.

Harris is scheduled on Friday to deliver what aides have billed as a major speech on “the importance of fulfilling the U.S. role of global leadership” before meeting with U.S. lawmakers, Zelenskyy and Scholz.

Harris is also likely to be closely watched for her ability to lead after a Department of Justice special counsel report last week described U.S. President Joe Biden, 81, as an elderly man with a “poor memory.” Trump is 77.

Other big international issues will also feature at the conference, such as conflicts in the Horn of Africa increasing food insecurity and displacing millions, and relations between the West and China.
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washington — The space-based weapon U.S. intelligence believes Russia may be developing is more likely a nuclear-powered device to blind, jam or fry the electronics inside satellites than an explosive nuclear warhead to shoot them down, analysts said on Thursday.

The intelligence came to light on Wednesday after Representative Mike Turner, Republican chair of the U.S. House of Representatives intelligence committee, issued an unusual statement warning of a “serious national security threat.”

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that Washington had new intelligence related to Russian nuclear capabilities and attempts to develop a space-based weapon, but added that the new Russian capabilities did not pose an urgent threat to the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken echoed this view on Thursday, saying “this is not an active capability.”

Analysts tracking Russia’s space programs say the space threat is probably not a nuclear warhead but rather a high-powered device requiring nuclear energy to carry out an array of attacks against satellites.

These might include signal-jammers, weapons that can blind image sensors, or — a more dire possibility — electromagnetic pulses (EMPs) that could fry all satellites’ electronics within a certain orbital region.

“That Russia is developing a system powered by a nuclear source … that has electronic warfare capabilities once in orbit is more likely than the theory that Russia is developing a weapon that carries a nuclear explosive warhead,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association advocacy group.

A 2023 U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report said Russia is developing an array of weapons designed to target individual satellites and may also be developing “higher-power systems that extend the threat to the structures of all satellites.”

The Kremlin on Thursday dismissed a warning by the United States about Moscow’s new nuclear capabilities in space, calling it a “malicious fabrication.” 

The nuclear threat

Non-nuclear anti-satellite weapons have existed for years.

Russia in 2021 followed the United States, China and India by testing a destructive anti-satellite missile on one of its old satellites, blasting it to thousands of pieces that remain in Earth’s orbit.

Exploding a nuclear weapon in space would be another matter entirely.

Brian Weeden, an analyst at the Secure World Foundation, said Russia would undermine its credibility if it detonated a nuclear weapon in space, a possibility with profound implications for both military and commercial satellites.

“The Russians have spent 40 years in the U.N. bashing America about wanting to weaponize space, and place weapons in space and pledging that they would never do it,” Weeden said.

“If they do [detonate a nuclear device in space], they’d lose everything. All the countries that are supporting them on Ukraine and getting around sanctions, boom,” he added.

James Acton, a nuclear expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank, said for Russia to put a nuclear weapon in orbit would be a “blatant violation of the Outer Space Treaty.”

The 1967 treaty, to which the United States and Russia are parties, bars signatories from placing “in orbit around the earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction.”

Violating the treaty, Acton said, would further undercut efforts to revive U.S.-Russian arms control after Russia’s 2023 decision to suspend participation in the New START treaty, which caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads each can deploy.

Analysts said anti-satellite weapons could cripple military and commercial communications, undermining the armed forces’ ability to operate as well as global positioning systems (GPS) that everyone from Uber drivers to food delivery services use.

“The Russians think we’re blind if we don’t have access to our satellites and it’s probably true,” said a former U.S. intelligence official. “Our ability to rely on satellites is a major advantage in a potential confrontation but also a major vulnerability.” 
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phnom penh, cambodia — The Swedish government will phase out bilateral development cooperation with Cambodia by the end of this year, raising concerns among civil society groups likely to see their budgets shrink.

In 2023, the Swedish government provided about $17 million to civil society groups in Cambodia focusing on strengthening human rights, democracy and the rule of law, according to data from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).

The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs pointed to the war in Ukraine as forcing the country to refocus its foreign aid when it made the announcement in December, but the decision comes as Western donors have criticized Cambodia’s democratic backsliding over the past decade.

“The Swedish government wants Sweden’s development assistance to be used as effectively as possible, and that it is used where it does the most good. Limited resources and increasing needs abroad mean that the government must set difficult but necessary priorities for Sweden’s development assistance,” the ministry told VOA Khmer in an email in January.

“The Swedish government has therefore decided to phase out our bilateral development cooperation with Cambodia during 2024. The phasing-out of the bilateral development cooperation will be done in a responsible manner, and in dialogue with other donors and partners to minimize negative consequences,” it added.

Pen Bona, a spokesperson for the Cambodian government, played down Sweden’s decision and any potential impact on the Cambodian population.

“They [donors] see and evaluate that Cambodia doesn’t need the NGOs to continue working on [those issues] since the government has worked on that,” Pen Bona said in a phone interview on February 8.

“Some NGOs make bad reports about Cambodia to receive funding,” he added.

A group of 100 civil society associations — including communities, unions, youth networks and media organizations — wrote a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, saying they were “seriously concerned” about the announcement.

The decision, the Cambodian civil society groups said, “will have an immediate and devastating impact on civil society organizations and other nongovernmental entities that have stringent labor and other legal obligations to their staff members and the Cambodians they serve,” read the letter, dated January 18, obtained by VOA Khmer.

The letter said the decision to phase out funding would affect more than 30 organizations and multilateral institutions that rely directly or indirectly on this support and would be “detrimental to tens of thousands of Cambodians who look to Sweden as a reliable partner in the promotion of human rights, democracy, gender equality, youth empowerment and rule of law.”

The groups called on the Swedish government to reconsider the decision or give the NGOs more time to find alternate funding sources. 

“Sweden’s decision to phase out SIDA funding for Cambodia will also leave a vacuum in the country that will be filled by geopolitical players like China and Russia whose interests may not align with those of Sweden, impacting Sweden’s efforts to strengthen Cambodia’s economic growth,” the groups said.

In a response letter, Diana Janse, state secretary to Johan Forssell, Sweden’s minister for international development cooperation and foreign trade, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine represents a paradigm shift with extensive political, economic and humanitarian consequences.

“In conjunction to this, the government has decided to reduce the number of countries that we have bilateral development cooperation with — Cambodia regretfully being one of them,” Janse wrote to the NGOs in a letter obtained last week by VOA Khmer.

“We have, as you point out, been a long-term supporter of human rights and democracy in Cambodia. We will therefore do our utmost to ensure a responsible phasing out,” she said.

Effects on women

Sdeung Phearong, executive director of the Banteay Srei Organization, which works on women’s empowerment, told VOA Khmer in a phone interview on February 8 that her organization had received funds from SIDA that account for about 15% to 30% of core funds. The backing has been channeled through an international NGO.

“The decision [to phase out] will impact the women victims who receive assistance from us,” she told VOA Khmer, adding that her organization had received funding from SIDA for more than 10 years.

“It is so immediate,” Sdeung Phearong said, calling on the Swedish government to reconsider or delay the decision until 2025 or 2026 so the NGOs in Cambodia have more time to seek replacement donors.

Pech Pisey, executive director of Transparency International Cambodia, an NGO, said in a phone interview on February 7 that his group would also be affected by the decrease in Swedish funding. Besides the global security needs and challenges, Pech Pisey said, Sweden was facing the reality that “there is no positive change” in fundamental democracy and human rights in Cambodia.

The Swedish government closed its embassy in Phnom Penh and phased out bilateral cooperation with Cambodia in 2021.

“The democratic space in Cambodia has been severely restricted in recent years. This has made it difficult to pursue broad and close cooperation,” Peter Eriksson, then the Swedish minister for international development cooperation, said in November 2020.

The Swedish ministry said on January 25 in an email to VOA Khmer that it would continue to be a strong voice for human rights and democracy in Cambodia through its role in the European Union.
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Istanbul/Washington — Journalists in Turkey are welcoming a recent Constitutional Court ruling that revoked bans on online access to hundreds of news articles.

Last week, the court published a ruling that lifted the bans, stating that the restrictions are unconstitutional and violate freedom of expression.

Lower courts had blocked the stories, citing Article 9 of Law No. 5651, which enables such bans or removal of content in cases of personal rights violations. Press freedom advocates and journalists have long said that the measure was used as a form of censorship against digital media.

In its recent ruling, the Constitutional Court examined 502 orders to block access to websites and articles from 2014 to 2023. Of those, 352 were appealed by the Freedom of Expression Association, the IFOD.

“We have been following this issue since 2014,” Yaman Akdeniz, IFOD’s co-founder and human rights lawyer, told VOA.

The banned news articles were from several independent digital media outlets, including BirGun, Diken, Gazete Duvar, Arti Gercek and sendika.org.

A list of banned stories compiled by IFOD included articles concerning President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his family, his Cabinet members and politicians from his ruling Justice and Development Party.

Cautious welcome

While welcoming the decision, Berkant Gultekin, BirGun’s digital broadcast coordinator, is taking a cautious stance.

“It is a good decision on paper, but we will see over time how it will affect the news production process in Turkey,” Gultekin said.

“Even if the Constitutional Court decides in favor of journalists, we cannot say, ‘We are free now,’ as the government decides which ruling the judiciary will implement,” Gultekin said, noting that the court’s rulings in other, unrelated cases are worrying.

Turkey has recently experienced a judicial crisis over the continued imprisonment of ex-parliament member Can Atalay. Atalay was elected to parliament in May 2023 from the Workers’ Party of Turkey, or TIP, while serving an 18-year prison sentence on charges of trying to overthrow the government.

In October and December, the Constitutional Court, in separate decisions, ruled for the release of Atalay. Elected parliamentarians in Turkey enjoy legislative immunity as stated in the constitution. Still, the top appeals court, the Court of Cassation, dismissed the rulings, and Atalay’s status as a lawmaker was stripped away by parliament last month.

Banu Tuna is the secretary-general of the Journalists’ Union of Turkey, or TGS, which was a plaintiff in the case that sought to repeal the bans on access to digital content.

“Of course, we are pleased with our result, but will this decision protect other outlets from being censored in the future?” Tuna asked.

While welcoming the Constitutional Court’s ruling in the access ban case, she said Atalay’s situation is an example of problems facing Turkey’s judicial system.

“We essentially fulfilled our duty, and the Constitutional Court confirmed we were right,” she said. Tuna added that from this point on, the issue is what the Constitutional Court decisions mean for other courts and to what extent such decisions are implemented.

Diken, an independent media outlet, filed at least 118 applications to the Constitutional Court asking it to revoke access bans.

“The ruling has recorded our right to inform and people’s right to be informed, which we have defended from the very beginning,” said Erdal Guven, the editor-in-chief of Diken. “Yet, it is difficult to say that everything is all right.”

Local courts in Turkey have banned access to several VOA Turkish Service stories.

The Access Providers Association, an organization that implements media bans in Turkey, informed VOA Turkish that an Ankara court lifted a 2021 access ban on a news story, citing the recent ruling.

The content, however, is still not accessible in Turkey since a ban on VOA Turkish’s domain name over a licensing issue has been in effect since August 2023.

In January 2022, the Constitutional Court ruled that Article 9 of Law No. 5651 constituted “a structural problem” that caused the violation of freedom of press and expression. According to the court, the measure’s scope and limits were not clear, and the bans were placed without any input from affected media outlets.

The court gave parliament a year to come up with a solution, but lawmakers have taken no action on the matter.

This past January, the Constitutional Court decided to annul the measure, saying it limits freedom of the press. However, the repeal does not take effect until October.

IFOD’s Yaman Akdeniz has criticized the Constitutional Court for taking this long to annul the measure and decide on the caseload that has been growing since 2014.

“Since the article will be in effect until October 10, criminal judgeships of peace will continue to make decisions before the March 31 elections. The danger of censorship continues,” Akdeniz said. March 31 is when local elections are due to be held.

BirGun’s Gultekin also points out that lower courts can still implement access bans very quickly.

“[The courts] can issue an order to block within a few hours. The number of blocked news has recently reached five or six a week; I do not know the exact number,” Gultekin said.

This article originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — China and Russia have doubled down on their “no-limits partnership” in recent weeks, with leaders from both countries vowing to maintain “close personal interaction” and the Chinese ambassador to Russia revealing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to visit China this year. 

During a Feb. 8 call, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin celebrated the deepened bilateral engagement and cooperation between China and Russia in various sectors and criticized what they called “U.S. interference in other countries’ affairs.” 

In addition to the call between Xi and Putin, China’s ambassador to Russia, Zhang Hanhui, told Russian state media Sputnik Feb. 10 that Putin will visit China this year and that the two leaders are expected to hold several meetings during the year.

“Putin’s visit to China [this year] will definitely take place [and] China looks forward to his arrival,” Zhang said in the interview. 

Some analysts say Beijing and Moscow hope to use their recent interactions to show the world they are “strongly aligned with each other.” 

They want to show “that they have each other’s back because they both feel pressure from the U.S.,” Ian Chong, a political scientist at National Singapore University, told VOA by phone.

Since Russia and China share the goal of replacing the U.S. and weakening coordination between Washington and its allies, other experts say Beijing and Moscow believe that it is in their interests to further deepen bilateral ties. 

“While there are frictions between Russia and China, they have been fairly successful in weakening democracies and exploiting their systems,” Sari Arho Havrén, an associate fellow at London’s Royal United Services Institute, told VOA in a written response, adding that the relationship between China and Russia brings more positives than negatives to both countries. 

Despite the mutual commitment to deepen ties, some recent developments may limit the degree of cooperation. Several media outlets reported that the EU is preparing to propose sanctions on three Chinese companies and four companies in Hong Kong for supporting the Russian military. 

The sanctions would be part of EU efforts to close loopholes that may allow Russia to obtain military technologies required for its weapons manufacturing. In response to the news, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it considers the sanctions imposed by the EU “unacceptable.” 

“China strongly opposes the application of illegal sanctions or ‘long-arm jurisdiction’ against China because of China-Russia cooperation,” the ministry said in a statement shared with some media outlets, adding that Beijing “will take necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises.” 

In addition to the proposed sanctions, some Chinese banks have reportedly either ceased operations with Russian or Belarusian companies or tightened regulations around transactions with Russia to comply with Western sanctions on Russia.

In response to the development, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko said Moscow is confident that payment issues with China will be solved, adding that trade between China and Russia is expanding successfully.

Despite the closeness of their political relationship, some experts say the EU sanctions on Chinese companies and some Chinese banks’ reluctance to deal with Russian entities show that the commercial relationship between Beijing and Moscow is quite complex. 

“Chinese businesses and the Chinese government are very careful about not getting punished by international sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU,” Philipp Ivanov, a senior fellow at Asia Society Policy Institute, told VOA in a video interview. 

He said that while diplomatic visits between the two countries will continue, Beijing will try to carefully manage the commercial activities between China and Russia.

“At the moment, it’s hard to see [recent developments] having a huge impact on trade [between China and Russia], but China may adjust its approach [to manage its trade relationship with Russia] in the mid- to long-term,” Ivanov said. 

Since this month marks two years since Putin and Xi declared the “no-limits partnership” between China and Russia, Ivanov said the close bilateral relationship may have reached its peak. “Russia and China are politically and diplomatically very close and their economic and trade ties are growing,” he told VOA. 

However, “since Russia can’t offer anything else to China apart from what’s already offering in terms of energy and commodities, there’s not a lot else that they can do together,” Ivanov said, adding that one area to observe is how Beijing and Moscow coordinate their strategic interests. 

As Switzerland prepares to facilitate possible peace talks on the Ukraine war, all sides are looking at how China positions itself in the process. Following his visit to Beijing earlier this month, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said he hopes China can contribute to the potential peace process by leveraging its close relationship with Russia.

Despite the aspirations expressed by Switzerland, Chong in Singapore said China may prefer to maintain its vague position on Ukraine, which is that all parties will strive to “create favorable conditions for the political settlement of the crisis.” 

“Both Beijing and Moscow may be betting on the possibility of former U.S. President Donald Trump returning to office [in November,] which could reshuffle things to the advantage of China and Russia,” he told VOA. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Albania and then to Germany this week for the Munich Security Conference. Among issues he will likely face in Europe is the stalling of military aid to Ukraine in the U.S. House and former President Donald Trump’s comments threatening to abandon some NATO allies if he is reelected. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports from the State Department.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted a virtual meeting with allies on Wednesday to discuss support for Ukraine as the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion nears. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has the latest.
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ROME — Pope Francis urged Catholics to forgo worldly trappings and focus on essentials as he opened the season of Lent with a traditional Ash Wednesday Mass on one of Rome’s historic seven hills.

He criticized people’s tendency to lay bare their lives on social media, deploring “a world in which everything, including our emotions and deepest feelings, has to become ‘social.'”

Instead, the faithful should enter their “inner chamber” to find time for quiet reflection and prayer, the 87-year-old pontiff said in a homily.

Lent is a 40-day period of penance that leads to Easter, the most important Christian festival, which celebrates the day on which Christians believe Jesus rose from the dead.

It represents the 40 days Jesus is said in the Bible to have spent fasting in the desert. During the season, Catholics are asked to fast, remember the needy and reflect on mortality.

“Life is not a play: Lent invites us to come down from the stage and return to the heart, to the reality of who we are,” Francis said.

“Let us not be afraid to strip ourselves of worldly trappings and return to the heart, to what is essential.”

He spoke at a service held in the Basilica of Santa Sabina on Rome’s Aventine Hill, preceded by prayers in a nearby church and a procession of cardinals and bishops.

Mass goers, including the pope, had ashes sprinkled on their heads in the Ash Wednesday ritual that, for the world’s more than 1.35 billion Catholics, serves as a reminder of mortality.
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Turkish security forces are detaining hundreds of people in the aftermath of an Islamic State attack on an Istanbul church. Authorities are warning of further attacks against Jews and Christians. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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PARIS — A Paris appeals court ruled Wednesday that former President Nicolas Sarkozy was guilty of illegal campaign financing over his failed 2012 reelection bid, confirming a previous ruling by a lower court, but his lawyer said he would take his case to France’s highest court.  

Sarkozy was handed a one-year prison sentence, half of which was suspended, that can be served through alternative means, such as wearing an electronic bracelet without going to jail.  

Sarkozy, 69, had been handed a one-year prison sentence in 2021 when first found guilty, although that was suspended while he launched his appeal. The new appeal will again mean the sentence is placed on hold. 

“Today’s ruling is highly questionable. That is why we will appeal to the Cour de Cassation,” his lawyer Vincent Desry told reporters, reiterating that Sarkozy was innocent.  

The Cour de Cassation is the country’s highest court, and its rulings typically focus on whether the law has been applied correctly rather than on the facts of the case. Appeals to the court can take years.  

Sarkozy was in court on Wednesday to hear the verdict but left without commenting to waiting reporters. 

President from 2007 to 2012, Sarkozy has remained an influential figure among conservatives and is on friendly terms with President Emmanuel Macron — despite a string of trials and investigations linked to various legal issues surrounding his campaign finances.  

He has always denied accusations that his party, Les Republicains, then known as the UMP, worked with a public relations firm named Bygmalion to hide the true cost of his campaign — marked by lavish show events previously unseen in French politics.  

During a hearing, Sarkozy put the blame on some members of his campaign team: “I didn’t choose any supplier; I didn’t sign any quotation, any invoice,” he told the court. 

France sets strict limits on campaign spending. Prosecutors allege that the firm invoiced UMP rather than the campaign. They say Sarkozy spent $45.9 million on his 2012 campaign, almost double the permitted amount.
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TBILISI, Georgia — Armenia said on Tuesday that two of its soldiers had been killed by Azerbaijani fire along the heavily militarized border, the first fatal incident since the two sides last year began negotiating a deal to end more than 30 years of intermittent war.

Armenia’s Defense Ministry said in a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app that two of its soldiers had been killed and several more wounded at a combat post near the southern Armenian village of Nerkin Hand.

Azerbaijan’s border service said in a statement that it staged a “a revenge operation” in retaliation for a “provocation” it said Armenian forces had committed the day before.

It said that further “provocations” would be met with “more serious and decisive measures from now on.”

“The military and political leadership of Armenia is fully responsible for the incident.”

Azerbaijan’s Defense Ministry said that Armenian forces Monday evening fired at Baku’s positions along a northwestern section of the border, around 300 kilometers from Nerkin Hand. Armenia’s Defense Ministry denied that such an incident took place.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in conflict for over three decades over Nagorno-Karabakh.

Azerbaijan in September retook Karabakh in a lightning offensive, prompting a rapid exodus of almost all of the territory’s Armenian inhabitants, and a renewed push from both sides for a treaty to formally end the conflict.

Although fatal exchanges of fire between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been common for decades, the border had become more peaceful since the start of talks, with little serious fighting since the collapse of Karabakh in September 2023.

The peace talks have in recent months appeared to stagnate, with both sides accusing the other of sabotaging the diplomatic process.

 
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