Putin Begins Visit to Turkmenistan for Forum with Regional Leaders, Including Iran

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on a social infrastructure facilities via videoconference in Moscow on September 30, 2024. (Photo by Mikhail METZEL / POOL / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on a social infrastructure facilities via videoconference in Moscow on September 30, 2024. (Photo by Mikhail METZEL / POOL / AFP)
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Putin Begins Visit to Turkmenistan for Forum with Regional Leaders, Including Iran

In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on a social infrastructure facilities via videoconference in Moscow on September 30, 2024. (Photo by Mikhail METZEL / POOL / AFP)
In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting on a social infrastructure facilities via videoconference in Moscow on September 30, 2024. (Photo by Mikhail METZEL / POOL / AFP)

President Vladimir Putin began a visit to Turkmenistan Friday, speaking at an international forum with Central Asian leaders and the president of Iran.
The Kremlin said Putin will discuss the situation in the Middle East with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of the conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat.
Moscow and Tehran signed a $1.7 billion deal for Iran to export drones to Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the US also believes it has transferred short-range ballistic missiles.
The conference is being attended by other regional leaders including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and the heads of the other Central Asian nations, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In his opening remarks at the forum, Putin repeated again that he wants to build “a new world order” with Russia's friends and partners, according to a video shared by the Kremlin.
As well as meeting the Iranian leader, Putin is expected to hold talks with the Turkmen president, Serdar Berdymukhamedov.
Berdymukhamedov, 43, was elected in March 2022 to succeed his father, Gurbanguly, who had run the gas-rich country since 2006.
Turkmenistan has remained largely isolated under autocratic rulers since it became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
 



Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Japanese Organization of Atomic Bombing Survivors

Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
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Nobel Peace Prize Awarded to Japanese Organization of Atomic Bombing Survivors

Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT
Tomoyuki Mimaki, representative director of the Nihon Hidankyo, attends a press conference after the group was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima on October 11, 2024. (Photo by JIJI PRESS / AFP) / Japan OUT

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization of survivors of the US atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for its activism against nuclear weapons.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said the award was made as the “taboo against the use of nuclear weapon is under pressure,” The Associated Press reported.
He said the Nobel committee “wishes to honor all survivors who, despite physical suffering and painful memories, have chosen to use their costly experience to cultivate hope and engagement for peace.”
Hidankyo chairperson Tomoyuki Mimaki, who was standing by at the Hiroshima City Hall for the announcement, cheered and teared up when he received the news.
“Is it really true? Unbelievable!” Mimaki screamed.
Efforts to eradicate nuclear weapons have been honored in the past by the Nobel committee. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons won the peace prize in 2017, and in 1995 Joseph Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs won for “their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and, in the longer run, to eliminate such arms.”
This year's prize was awarded against a backdrop of devastating conflicts raging in the world, notably in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan.
“It is very clear that threats of using nuclear weapons are putting pressure on the important international norm, the taboo of using nuclear weapons,” Watne Frydnes said in response to a question on whether the rhetoric from Russia surrounding nuclear weapons in its invasion of Ukraine had influenced this year's decision.
“And therefore it is alarming to see how threats of use is also damaging this norm. To uphold an international strong taboo against the use is crucial for all of humanity,” he added.
Alfred Nobel stated in his will that the peace prize should be awarded for "the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”
Last year’s prize went to jailed Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi for her advocacy of women’s rights and democracy, and against the death penalty. The Nobel committee said it also was a recognition of “the hundreds of thousands of people” who demonstrated against “Iran’s theocratic regime’s policies of discrimination and oppression targeting women.”
In a year of conflict, there had been some speculation before the announcement that the Norwegian Nobel Committee that decides on the winner would opt not to award a prize at all this year.
The Nobel prizes carry a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million). Unlike the other Nobel prizes that are selected and announced in Stockholm, founder Alfred Nobel decreed the peace prize be decided and awarded in Oslo by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The Nobel season ends Monday with the announcement of the winner of the economics prize, formally known as the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.