Raffaello Pantucci is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.

When Russia hosted a meeting with senior Taliban leaders in Moscow this week -- after both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping sent junior deputies to an earlier G-20 leaders' meeting on Afghanistan -- it raised the question of whether this is part of a broader strategic plan for how Beijing and Moscow plan to work together on the world stage.

Afghanistan represents

TOKYO -- As Japan tries to bring more government functions into the digital age, local authorities in Tokyo are starting to leave behind the floppy disks they used for decades to store and move data.

Meguro Ward plans to put all work involving floppies and other physical storage media online in fiscal 2021, and Chiyoda Ward plans a similar transition within the next few years. Minato Ward moved its payment procedures from floppies to online systems in 2019.

That officials in Japan's capital are --

HAMBURG, Germany -- Shoe distributor Hamm Market Solutions had to be sure this year's fall/winter collection would arrive in Germany from its supplier's factory in southern China's Guangdong Province in time -- or face having to dispose of 84,000 pairs of casual footwear at a steep discount.

Werner Prigandt, the company's logistics chief, knew it would be risky to move the shoes by sea, Hamm's usual method, given widespread delays from congested ports and a

HONG KONG -- Trading in Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing's new mainland China equity derivatives has almost quadrupled in the four days since their launch, pointing to investors' thirst to hedge their exposure to shares listed on the world's second-largest stock market.

The China A50 Connect futures contract, which ends Singapore Exchange's monopoly on offshore China stock derivatives, debuted on Oct. 18 with the highest first-day trading by value of any futures contract from the HKEX, the world'

Husanjot Chahal and Ngor Luong are research analysts at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

When Joe Biden hosted the leaders of the other Quad nations in Washington in late September -- Japan, India and Australia -- one of the key statements to come out of the summit dealt specifically with technology design, development, governance and use.

Technology cooperation is at the core of the Quad's agenda: a shared commitment to ensuring "an open, accessible and secure technology ecosystem" in the Indo-

TOKYO -- Nikkei Inc. announced Friday that it will add Nexon, Murata Manufacturing and Nintendo to the Nikkei 225 Global Exposure 50 Index on Oct. 29 in a regular reshuffle of the index.

The announcement came after Murata Manufacturing and Nintendo were added to the Nikkei Stock Average, or Nikkei 225 on Oct. 1, following a regular review based on new selection rules. Nexon had already been added to the 225-issue index on Oct. 29, 202

MUMBAI -- Subhash Chandra, the gutsy and influential founder of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, India's biggest listed TV media empire, with a market valuation of 300 billion rupees ($4 billion), was once labeled "India's Rupert Murdoch.'' So when he appeared on prime time news early this month in the middle of a corporate battle with Zee's largest shareholder, everyone expected fireworks.

Instead, the viewers of Zee News, a channel owned by Chandra, were appalled to see

TASHKENT -- Uzbekistan goes to the polls on Sunday with incumbent President Shavkat Mirziyoyev looking certain to repeat his resounding victory of 2016 and secure a second term at the head of Central Asia's most populous country.

Following a lackluster campaign that saw four government-approved opponents pitted against the president, the only real question appears to be whether Mirziyoyev will better the 90% share of the vote he won last time around.

Since taking over the presidency, after the death of longtime leader Islam Karimov,

TOKYO -- Car and parts makers are working to develop more sustainable batteries for electric vehicles, part of efforts to reduce total carbon emissions, trace the lifetime of their products and cope with tighter global regulations.

Executives from Nissan Motor, Denso and Bosch this week shared the roads they are taking to carbon neutrality at the Japan Ceatec expo.

Nissan is focused on reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the production of battery cells by replacing the current fuel mix that provides its electricity with renewables. The automaker has expanded a solar farm at