Weekly Significant Activity Report – December 13, 2025

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1. SS: This post analyzes some significant geopolitical developments from  December 6 and December 13 involving Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.

   Major events for this time period included:

   1. Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks with the leaders of Indonesia, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey this week in a surge of diplomacy.
   2. China increased its military and diplomatic pressure on Japan and Taiwan this week amid an intensifying feud between the countries.
   3. The Aviation Industry Corporation of China conducted the first test flight of the “Jiutian,” an ultra large unmanned aerial vehicle purportedly capable of serving as a drone mothership.
   4. Top Chinese AI startup DeepSeek is allegedly using Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips to train its large language models, undermining previous claims to be leading China’s domestic self-sufficiency in AI development.
   5. China releases new policy for Latin America and the Caribbean days after US declares a revival of the Monroe Doctrine.
   6. Iran arrests Nobel Peace Prize recipient Narges Mohammadi amid an ongoing crackdown on human rights activists following the 12-Day War.
   7. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi admits that Iran’s nuclear sites remain badly damaged and destroyed six months after the 12-Day War, suggesting that the Iranian nuclear program has been set back much further than early estimates anticipated.
   8. North Korea has installed thermal shielding around a five-megawatt nuclear reactor at its Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center amid an expansion of the complex, suggesting efforts to conceal advancements in its nuclear program.

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