Economic development

• The Kremlin has opened up discussions with the Taliban before, and Russia was one of the few nations to accredit a diplomat when the organisation took control of Afghanistan.
• But Afghanistan’s political and economic crisis and western sanctions on Russia due to the Ukraine war mean both sides have something to gain from a stronger relationship.
• A few months later, Vladimir Putin signed a decree implementing the UN resolution and imposing sanctions against the Taliban.

Interests and goals

• The Taliban wants international sanctions to be withdrawn, to take Afghanistan’s UN seat and for frozen assets to be released, which will help the country’s economic development.
• Russia taking the Taliban off their terrorism list would be a first step toward international recognition for the current Afghan government.
• Russia’s 2023 foreign policy plan mentions prospects for Afghanistan’s integration into “the Eurasian space for cooperation”.

Russia’s relationship building

• The increasing cooperation between the Taliban and Russia has implications in terms of the ongoing rivalry between Russia and the west.
• Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, Moscow has tried to get other nations to support its strategic view of why the war is happening.
• This version of history and policy positions Russia as a protector of traditional religions and values and places it among major world civilisations, contrasting it with the “godless” west.

Intigam Mamedov does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• The flow of cheap and deadly fentanyl over the border into the US has also fuelled an opioid epidemic that has killed over 1 million Americans since 2000.
• It is a dark side to the so-called “Mexican miracle” that transformed the country’s economy between the 1940s and 1970s.
• Stimulated by the Mexican and US governments’ promotion of infrastructure improvements and mass migration, the drug trade fuelled further lawful economic development throughout the country.

Cops, cartels and cash crops

• Many of Durango’s battled-scarred and poverty-stricken former miners adapted to the national and global turbulence by turning to opium poppies, a profitable (and since 1920, illegal) cash crop.
• Sap from opium poppies provides the raw material for drugs like morphine and heroin.
• In response, US officials like Harry J. Anslinger promoted a “crusade” against the drug trade on both sides of the border.
• In 1944, a joint US–Mexican expedition uncovered the largest opium plantation ever discovered in Mexico: the size of 325 football pitches.

Cold war Mexico

• As the second world war gave way to the cold war, Latin American countries (often with US financial assistance) promoted urbanisation, industrialisation, infrastructural expansion, population growth and transnational economic integration.
• Between 1950 and 1970, Mexico’s one-party state invested massively in public services and industrial and agricultural development.
• But they helped connect the poppy fields of Durango to the rest of northern Mexico and the US border too.

The ‘heroin highway’

• It consolidated Durango’s importance as a Mexican drug-production centre and transformed Chicago into the biggest heroin-trafficking hub on the continent.
• The cash that trafficking organisations earned wholesaling heroin in the US was reinvested locally in everything from cattle ranches to construction companies and even an airline.

• Instead, these were completely intertwined with the economic growth, infrastructure development and mass migration that characterised the Mexican miracle.
• The story of the modern US–Mexican drug trade is not just about brutal violence and lives cut tragically short.

Nathaniel Morris received part of the funding for this research from the Leverlhulme Trust. He is affiliated with the Mexico & Central America Program of Noria Research.

• Despite an overall challenging economic environment and the associated recessionary trends in some customer industries, Masterflex succeeded in achieving new record levels in earnings.
• In the 2023 financial year, Masterflex SE generated revenue of EUR 101.1 million (previous year: EUR 100.3 million) and can look back on a successful and robust business development despite a noticeable economic headwind in some of its customer industries.
• Operating EBIT also reached a new record level in the 2023 financial year, growing by 10.5% to EUR 12.6 million (previous year: EUR 11.4 million).
• Order backlog as at December 31, 2023 remained at a high level of EUR 20.5 million (previous year: EUR 22.8 million).

• Dr. Chana Poomee, along with the TCMA Board, outlined the long-term direction of TCMA, which is a collaboration nexus of leading Thai cement producers.
• TCMA, over the next two years, 2024-2026 will accelerate its efforts to join forces with all sectors to achieve the key missions in four areas:
  1.
• Accelerating the expansion of maximize resource-efficiency mining practices according to the Minerals Act B.E.
• TCMA, with this action aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions not less than 6.9 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2030.