The European Union should play its unique role in Israel-Iran conflict in Middle East peace efforts and reduce dependence on the United States, said a scholar from a Brussels-based think tank while commenting on the intensifying Israel-Iran conflict.
As the division between the EU and the U.S. has been exposed amid the escalating Israel-Iran hostilities, European experts have argued that the European side should reflect on its the reliance on the United States in terms of the security issue.
Sven Biscop, director of the Europe in the World program at Egmont – Royal Institute for International Relations, said that European countries must develop autonomous military capabilities.
"In my view, that means that all the European forces of NATO together should be able to operate, if necessary, without American help, no longer being shown the dependence on the United States. And also we will have to act very urgently, whereas it would have been wiser to start to rebuild our forces a few years earlier," Biscop said.
Biscop said the EU should take an active part in the Middle East and the Gulf to guard against spillover effects from the region and push for an agreement among all parties concerned.
"Unfortunately Europe, for the moment, has little influence in the Middle East and the Gulf. We must play a more active role again in the Middle East and the Gulf, because it's in our neighborhood. And if things go wrong, the early spillover effects will hit us first. So I think in the past, we have not paid enough attention to the region, and this is something to be corrected. I think we should make our position clear that what we want is a balanced regional agreement, a consensus between all the key players. From the European point of view, we don't have to choose sides in this, we just need all the parties to come to an agreement," he said.
The conflict enters the seventh consecutive day on Thursday. Israel carried out fresh waves of airstrikes in Iran on Wednesday, with the Israeli military saying it was targeting nuclear-related facilities and weapons sites.
Overnight, Iran launched two missile barrages at Israel, triggering air raid sirens across the country and sending millions to shelters. Security officials said several missiles were intercepted, while others sparked fires. There were no reports of casualties, according to emergency services.
The current hostilities began with Israeli airstrikes on Iran on June 13. Nearly 600 people have been killed in Iran and 24 in Israel since the aerial conflict erupted, according to official figures.
EU needs greater independence on Iran-Israel conflict: scholar
China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region has reclaimed the top spot in global IPO market rankings for the first time since 2019.
According to global professional services firm KPMG, funds raised from initial public offerings in Hong Kong tripled from a year ago to over 272 billion Hong Kong dollars in 2025.
It noted half of the funds raised were from companies on the Chinese equity markets' A+H listing, referring to dual listings where a mainland Chinese company has its shares traded on both a stock exchange in the Chinese mainland and the Hong Kong's exchange.
A record number of 17 A+H listings were completed in 2025. With a backlog of 92 dual-listing applications, Hong Kong is likely to maintain its IPO momentum into next year.
"The Hong Kong market is always an exciting market, because it only takes perhaps one or two companies to make it the number one market in the world. And it's always been competitive with the U.S. markets. I don't think there's another market out there that could actually compete with the U.S. markets. It's been an exciting year for Hong Kong [market]. They've had a number of listings over there and it's become the alternative right now to the U.S. markets, especially for some of the Asian companies, Chinese [mainland] specifically," said Drew Bernstein, co-chair of advisory firm MarcumAsia.
When asked about next year, Bernstein said artificial intelligence will be in the spotlight.
"I think everybody's got their focus right now on AI. I haven't seen a lot of companies that are actually selling AI and making money. But obviously, the hardware people are making a lot of money right now. And that's where the focus is. Particularly in places like China, you've seen what the government is promoting right now is globalization for these companies. I think that's going to be a big push for the markets right now, because with globalization, you also have to globalize your finance part of the company. And it's going to force a lot of the companies to become more mature. There's also a bunch of them lined up right now for 2026. So I think it's going to be a pretty interesting year for IPOs. When the market is rich with IPOs, it's good for all the markets," he said.
The expert expressed optimism about the Asian economy, predicting that the region will produce many unicorns in the coming years.
"I'm very optimistic about more listings from Asia. I use Asia rather than just China, because probably 40 to 55 percent of our business right now is coming from places like Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan. The interesting part about that is, my guess would be 20 to 30 percent of it is still Chinese. I've said for some time right now that I think going forward, at least for the next five or 10 years, the majority of the industry-disruptive unicorns will be coming from Asia," he said.
Hong Kong reclaims top global IPO market ranking
