MULTILATERAL: EU-Ukraine Cooperation & more – 2nd Dec 2025

Saluton from BA! This is the Rorshok Multilateral Update from the 2nd of December twenty twenty-five. A summary of what's going down in the world's major multilateral institutions.

First up this week, on Tuesday the 25th a formal process began to choose the next leader of the United Nations. The leader’s mandate will last five years. Member states have been invited to propose candidates, with a push for gender balance and geographic variety. The United Nations Security Council will pick one nominee. Then the United Nations General Assembly will vote to approve that choice.

Speaking of the UN General Assembly, on Wednesday the 26th, it adopted a sweeping declaration aiming to stamp out human trafficking worldwide, urging nations to go beyond punishing traffickers and tackle the conditions that make people vulnerable.

Pakistan’s representative stressed that poverty, conflict, climate disasters, and lack of legal migration paths help fuel trafficking, often involving children, women, and migrants. He warned that stricter visa or border controls alone won’t solve the problem. Instead, he called for stronger laws plus global cooperation and support systems to prevent people from being exploited.

In more UN-Ukraine relations, on Friday the 28th the International Labor Organization announced it is teaming up with Ukraine’s government and the United Nations on a new plan that will run from twenty twenty-five to twenty twenty-nine. The goal is to help rebuild the country’s job market and modernize its labour system as recovery continues.

The organization will assist with updating labor laws, improving employment services, and supporting both workers and employers.

More about Ukraine, as on Tuesday the 25th the European Union deepened military-industry cooperation with the country. It approved a plan with almost 400 million US dollars earmarked to support Ukraine directly, giving Ukrainian firms access to the EU’s defense procurement programs.

Meanwhile, on Saturday the 29th the African Union suspended Guinea-Bissau from all its bodies after a military takeover in the small West African country. The Union’s Peace and Security Council said it would not accept the overthrow of a democratically elected government. Soldiers declared themselves in control in Guinea-Bissau, stopped the post-election process and ousted the President, who fled to the Republic of the Congo.

Still in Africa, on Wednesday the 26th the World Customs Organization put out a study showing that different regional groups in West and Central Africa use their own sets of rules to decide where a product officially comes from. These rules vary on things like how origin is defined, how borders are treated, and what paperwork traders need.

The status quo is problematic because inconsistent rules of origin make it harder for businesses to trade smoothly across borders. When each group defines product origin differently and requires its own paperwork, traders face higher costs, confusion, and delays. This fragmentation undermines efforts to deepen regional integration, weakens the effectiveness of free-trade agreements, and ultimately reduces the competitiveness of African producers in regional and global markets.

In health news, on Friday the 28th the World Health Organization said that deaths from measles have fallen sharply since two thousand, dropping by almost 90% because of long-running vaccination efforts. However, even with that progress, measles is making a comeback.

Beyond vaccination, to avoid infections, people can reduce their risk by limiting exposure to the virus and improving hygiene practices. Because measles spreads through airborne droplets that can linger for hours, avoiding close contact with infected individuals is important. Good ventilation, frequent handwashing, and covering coughs and sneezes can also help reduce transmission.

Last year, around 11 million people caught measles, and close to 100,000 died, most of them small children. Health officials say the jump in cases is tied to gaps in routine immunization, especially after the pandemic disrupted vaccine programs. Millions of kids still aren’t protected with vaccination, leaving the door open for bigger outbreaks.

Still on health, on Friday the 28th the Food and Agriculture Organization said that fast-spreading animal diseases are becoming a serious threat to the world’s food supply. The group warned that cutting funding now could undo years of progress made in helping countries stop outbreaks.

It pointed out that illnesses like avian flu, foot and mouth disease, and swine fever move quickly across regions because of trade, travel, and environmental changes. These outbreaks can wipe out livestock and disrupt farmers’ incomes and global markets. The organization is pushing for a new worldwide effort to strengthen early detection and prevention, so food systems can stay stable.

In an update to a story from previous shows, on Friday the 28th judges at the International Criminal Court ruled that Rodrigo Duterte, the former president of the Philippines, will stay locked up in custody. Despite his lawyers arguing that his advanced age and health problems meant he couldn’t stand trial, the court rejected their request for provisional release, saying there’s too much risk he could flee or interfere with witnesses.

Duterte was arrested under a warrant that accuses him of crimes against humanity tied to his brutal war on drugs campaign. Prosecutors allege he ordered, authorized or otherwise bore criminal responsibility for widespread, unlawful killings first during his time as mayor of Davao City and then as president of the Philippines.

On an unrelated note, on Thursday the 27th the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned that pension systems will come under increasing strain, as populations age, people live longer, and fewer children are born.

Fewer workers are supporting more retirees, right at a time when many governments already juggle high debt and other spending demands. The report suggests reforms like raising retirement ages and encouraging longer working lives to help keep pensions possible for everyone.

In Latin America, on Wednesday the 26th the Inter-American Development Bank announced a fresh credit line of one billion dollars to help Ecuador upgrade its national power system. The first chunk will go toward improving transmission lines, updating control centers, and making the grid more dependable, especially in areas that are hard to reach. The plan also supports bringing in more renewable energy so the country won’t rely so heavily on older sources.

In some updates on oil, on Sunday the 30th the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners agreed to leave oil production where it is for the first part of twenty twenty-six, at about 3.2 million barrels per day. They also signed off on a new plan to measure how much each country can realistically pump between January and September of next year. Those numbers will later be used to set each member’s production limits for twenty twenty-seven.

To learn more about this story, check out the Rorshok Ocean Update! Link the show notes.

On Thursday the 27th the World Economic Forum released a report laying out how organizations should evaluate and manage AI systems that can act on their own. The document explains that these tools aren’t just simple software. Instead, they can make choices, carry out tasks independently, and interact with the world in ways that require careful oversight. To help with that, the report offers a clear framework for judging how these systems work, how predictable they are, and how much freedom they have.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday the 25th, Thailand’s foreign minister said that it will still be very hard for Southeast Asian countries to fully reconnect with Myanmar, even after the upcoming election. He explained that the vote will not fix the core problems because many opposition figures are barred, several groups plan to boycott, and large areas of the country remain caught up in fighting.

As clashes in Myanmar due to the ongoing civil war on the Thai border have intensified, artillery fire and armed fighters sometimes cross into Thailand, putting civilians in nearby Thai towns at risk. This spillover disrupts the countries’ relationships.

And to close this edition, on Tuesday the 25th a group of authors published an op-ed arguing that US President Donald Trump’s proposed peace plan for Ukraine is a dangerous deal for Europe. They say this is a defining moment: Europe must reject the pact. The piece says the plan favors Russia, ignores Ukraine’s resilience on the battlefield, and risks tossing aside European security in exchange for what the authors see as a misleading peace pitch.

Read the full opinion piece with the link in the show notes!

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

Want to go on a free trip to Lisbon? All you need to do is check out our new, very cool t-shirts, create a personal collection, and sell as many t-shirts as you can with a discount code we’ll give you. The person who sells the most t-shirts with their discount code by Christmas Day will enjoy beautiful Portugal in April. Check out the link in the show notes!

See you next week!