MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS-Week Ahead 31 Oct-6 Nov

Monday 31 October:

• South Korea-US: The militaries of the US and South Korea engage in operation Vigilant Storm, the largest-ever joint air drills between the two counties. The exercise continues until 4 November, with around 240 warplanes flying 1,600 sorties 24 hours a day. The drills come as North Korea has engaged in the most missile launches on record in 2022. Pyongyang claims that the aerial exercises are a rehearsal for an invasion and a proof of hostile policies from the South and the US.
• Nordics: Prime ministers, foreign and defence ministers, and lawmakers from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden meet in the Finnish capital Helsinki for a week-long meeting. Theme of this year’s summit is ‘The future of the Nordic Region’s role in the world’. There could be some upheaval during the summit, with Denmark holding a general election on 1 November.
• Russia:Russian President Vladimir Putin holds meetings with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan at the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The Kremlin has stated this is intended to calm tensions and ‘strengthen stability and security in the Transcaucuses’. However, both Azerbaijani and Armenian have raised questions of Russia’s reliability the region given its focus on the war in Ukraine.

MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS-Week Ahead 31 Oct-6 Nov.pdf