A few months ago, a University of Lorraine research team led by Jacques Pironon and Philippe de Donato set out to assess the level of methane gas in the Lorraine sub-soil, an area that hosts rock formations from the Carboniferous period, about 359 to 299 million years ago.

Their goal was to make an estimate of the total amount of methane present there and see if local production was viable. However, they ended up hitting something unexpected.

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Using Solexperts’ SysMoG, a probe and method for gas measurements in deep boreholes, the group was able to assess, in an environmentally friendly way, the gas dissolved in water in rock formations up to 1200 metres in depth. That’s when they realized that they had discovered what may be the world’s largest white hydrogen deposit.

Different from its manufactured counterparts, that is, grey, black and green hydrogen, white hydrogen is a primary energy source because it is already present in that state in nature. This means that there is no need for extra energy inputs from other gases or substances.

“Following chemical monitoring of the rock strata and accompanying methane deposits, we had been surprised to find that a high proportion of hydrogen was present and that its concentration grew as we descended, reaching 20% at 1250 metres down,” the researchers wrote in a recent article in The Conversation. “Such levels allowed us to speculate that at 3000 metres below the ground, hydrogen content could exceed 90%, according to our modelling. On the basis of the gas data at 1100 metres below ground (14% hydrogen), the Lorraine deposit could contain up to 46 million tonnes of white hydrogen, which is to say more than half of the world’s current annual production of grey hydrogen.”

For comparison, Pironon and de Donato mention that the well in Bourakébougou, Western Mali, is presently the world’s only exploited white hydrogen site and its production is only 5 tonnes per year. Thus, it trails way behind the 80 million tonnes of natural gas-based grey hydrogen globally produced every year.

Modelling work carried out following the discovery is making the scientists think there is a possibility of the Lorraine white hydrogen supply being almost infinite.

They are now mapping the best ways for extracting the gas, a process that starts by proving that hydrogen is evenly distributed in a 490-square-kilometre large basin. To do this, they have deployed the SysMoG probe in boreholes near the existing one at Folschviller where they discovered the presence of hydrogen. The next step is to show that the concentration of hydrogen keeps growing at depths greater than 1200 metres.

Since there aren’t any boreholes in the Lorraine region that allow them to send a probe so deep, they are also seeking the French government’s approval to carry out a deep, 3000-metre excavation to demonstrate that the concentration of hydrogen does indeed grow further down.

“If this is the case, we will confirm the presence of an exceptional deposit of naturally occurring hydrogen, bigger than any discovered elsewhere, and we can make a first realistic estimate of its scale,” the team’s article reads. “A number of commercial and institutional partners, French and international, are interested in financing the project.”

A new transport corridor announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Delhi will become the basis of world trade for hundreds of years to come, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a recent radio address. Can it really?

US President Joe Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman upgraded their frosty relationship from an awkward fist bump last year to a firm handshake as they announced the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). (Biden had once vowed to make Saudi Arabia a global pariah.)

The project launched to bolster transportation and communication links between Europe and Asia through rail and shipping networks, while beneficial for the region, was also telling of American foreign policy, "which, to put it simply, is anything that would further US interests against China," Ravi Agarwal, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine told the BBC.

America does not benefit materially from being part of the project, "but this can be put in the category of the Japan-South Korea summit at Camp David," says Parag Khanna, author of Connectography. The US marked its diplomatic presence at the presidential country retreat by brokering a thaw in the relationship of the two pacific nations in the face of growing Chinese expansionism.

The IMEC is also being seen by many as a US counter to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global infrastructure-building project that connects China with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, Russia and Europe.

Are comparisons with BRI justified?

This year marks a decade since President Xi launched the BRI.

Some say the project's grand ambitions have dwindled significantly, as lending to projects has slowed down amid China's economic slowdown. Countries like Italy are expressing their desire to withdraw, and nations such as Sri Lanka and Zambia find themselves caught in debt traps, unable to meet their loan obligations.

BRI has also faced criticism for a numerous other reasons from its "underlying objectives of gaining strategic influence through developmental footprint… aggressively linking different regions with Sino-centric value chains, inadequate attention to local needs, lack of transparency, disregard for sovereignty, adverse environmental impact, corruption, and lack of sound financial oversight," Girish Luthra, a fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank wrote in a recent paper.

Despite the hiccups the Chinese have achieved a "staggering amount" and IMEC isn't even close to being a "rival" says Mr Khanna, adding that it can at best be a moderate volume corridor.

"It is not a game changer on the scale of BRI. It is a good announcement but you don't look at the proposal and say, oh my god, the world can't live without it," Mr Khanna told the BBC.

You can see why.

China has a 10 year head-start with BRI with total investments under the initiative crossing an eye popping $1 trillion this July. Over 150 countries have joined as partners, which as Mr Luthra writes has significantly expanded its geographical scope "from a regional to a near-global initiative."

IMEC isn't the first effort by the developed west to use infrastructure as a counter to contain China's growing footprint.

The G7 and US launched a Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment in 2022, aiming to mobilize $600bn in global infrastructure projects by 2027. The Global Gateway is the EU's answer to BRI.

Neither match its scale or ambition. However the fact that the past five years have witnessed a surge in these projects in response to China's initiative is evidence that BRI has been a "global economic multiplier," says Mr Khanna.

Some analysts caution against exclusively viewing IMEC through the lens of opposition to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), suggesting that such a binary perspective may not be fruitful.

Its formation gives a further boost to the ongoing trend of transactional partnerships, where countries engage in collaboration with multiple partners simultaneously. "Most countries these days tend to participate in multiple fora and alliances," says Ravinder Kaur, a professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Devil in the detail

IMEC's memorandum of understanding document is thin on detail but an action plan is expected in the next 60 days. As of date all it has done is map out the potential geography of a corridor.

Making it happen will be enormously complex. "I'd like to see an identification of key government agencies who will underwrite the investments, the capital each government will allocate, and the time frames, says Mr Khanna.

A new customs and trade architecture will also be need to be put in place to harmonise paperwork, he adds, giving the example of the Trans-Eurasian railway through Kazakhstan that passes through 30 countries. "That transit is seamless. You need clearances only at the beginning and end of the journey. We don't have this with IMEC."

Then there are also the obvious geopolitical complexities of navigating ties between partner countries such as the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia who often don't see eye to eye. It wouldn't take very much for tactical cooperation of this kind to go awry, say experts.

Giant gantry cranes lined up in Haifa container port, Israel, at sunrise, viewed from cruise ship

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

The corridor will include the Haifa port in Israel

The IMEC will compete with the Suez Canal, the sea-level waterway in Egypt used to transport freight between Mumbai and Europe. "To the extent IMEC improves our relations with the UAE and Saudi Arabia, it will hurt relations with Egypt," economist Swaminathan Aiyar wrote in his column for the Times of India.

Transport by sea through the Suez Canal is also cheaper, faster and considerably less cumbersome. "It may make excellent political sense, but it goes against all the tenets of transport economics," Mr Aiyar adds.

But IMEC's ambitions transcend the narrow scope of trade and economics to include everything from electricity grids to cybersecurity - building on conversations that have taken place in security forums like the Quad, points out Navdeep Puri, a former Indian ambassador to the UAE in a column for The National News.

"If the lofty ambitions outlined in New Delhi can become a reality, they would make a singular contribution to a safer, more habitable planet. For now, let's live with that hope."

The Minister for the Armed Forces James Heappey visited Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia this week to meet with defence leaders and military chiefs, for talks to deepen security and defence cooperation.

In Kazakhstan on Tuesday, he met with officials including Deputy Foreign Minister Roman Vassilenko, Deputy Defence Minister Lieutenant General Sultan Burkutbayevich Kamaletdinov and members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Security of the Mazhilis of Parliament, to discuss future cooperation on peacekeeping missions. The Minister also welcomed Kazakhstan’s support for the sanctions regime against Russia in response to the war against Ukraine.

For over 20 years, the UK has assisted Kazakhstan in building the capability of the Peace Operations Centre (KAZCENT), helping to enable Kazakh deployments on peace support operations such as the UN missions in Côte d’Ivoire, Lebanon and Western Sahara. These efforts have been underpinned by military English language training delivered by the UK.

The minister then travelled to Uzbekistan on Wednesday, where he held regional security talks with the Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Bakhodir Kurbanov, as well as the Commander of the National Guard, General Rustam Jo’rayev, and Special Representative of the President of Uzbekistan for Afghanistan Ismatulla Irgashev. He also laid a wreath at the Victory Park in Tashkent to pay tribute to Uzbek soldiers who lost their lives in World War Two.

His visit concluded in Mongolia, where he became the first British defence minister to visit the country. He met Defence Minister Gürsediin Saikhanbayar and discussed cooperation on peacekeeping missions. The UK and Mongolia have an especially close relationship: our soldiers have served together in Afghanistan and as peacekeepers in South Sudan, and 2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the UK becoming the first Western country to forge diplomatic relations with Mongolia.

Minister for the Armed Forces, Rt Hon James Heappey MP, said:

My visits this week form part of the approach outlined in the recent Defence Command Paper as we build our strategic international partnerships across Asia, in the interests of security and prosperity for everyone.

I’ve held productive discussions with defence ministers and military leaders in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia, laying the groundwork for future cooperation, especially on peacekeeping operations.

As set out in the Integrated Review Refresh 2023, the UK is committed to strengthening engagement with Central Asia and Mongolia to boost their prosperity, security and resistance to Russian interference.

The autumn session of the Parliament of Mongolia began work at the State Residence on October 2.

The opening was attended by President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, representatives of diplomatic missions and international organizations.

The session opened with the ceremony of hanging a portrait of Genghis Khan on the wall.

Then President of Mongolia Khurelsukh Ukhnaa, Chairman of the Parliament Zandanshatar Gombojav and Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai paid tribute to the portrait of Genghis Khan.

Opening the autumn session of the Parliament, Chairman Zandanshatar Gombojav made a speech.

Summary of this week's events on October 2-8, 2023 In Ulaanbaatar:

October 2: at 09:00, the World Bank's "Economic Review of East Asia and the Pacific" report will be presented to the press.

October 2: at 10:00 the regular fall Session of the Parliament will be opened.

October 2: From 11:00 to 17:30, the Human Rights Committee of the Democratic Party will organize the "Human Rights and Prisoner of Ideology" forum and photo exhibition in memory of the former public figure S. Zorig.

October 2: Trade and Investment Forum of Mongolia and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of People’s Republic of China will be held.

October 3-5: Mongolia Mining-2023 international mining and oil exhibition will be held.

On October 4: The regular meeting of the Cabinet will be held at the State House.

October 5: 22nd World Teachers' Day and 59th Mongolian Teachers' Day will be celebrated.

On October 5: "A Summer Flower" tragedy will be performed in honour of the 10th anniversary of "Emotsi" production at the Central Cultural Palace.

On October 6-7: "Open Khuvsgul -2023" activity will be held at Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar.

On October 7-11: Asian Football Confederation Futsal Asia Cup qualifier group D matches will be held at the Buyant-Ukhaa Sports Palace.

Locally:

October 1-3: Judo Junior National Championship will be held in Uliastai, Zavkhan aimags.

On October 2: On the occasion of the Mongolian Teachers' Day Five sports competitions will be held in the city of Choibalsan, Dornod aimag.

On October 6: The first poetry festival "Aglagkhan Talaasaa" (From my dear steppe) named after famous poet Nyamsuren Danzan will be held in Choibalsan, Dornod aimag.

Minister of State for the Armed Forces and Member of the Parliament of UK Mr.James Heappay visited Mongolia yesterday /2023.09.28/ at the invitation of the Minister of Defense of Mongolia G.Saikhanbayar.

During his visit, we had an interview about the possibility of cooperation and development of the defense sector of the two countries, as well as the Russian-Ukrainian war.

"THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OUR TWO MILITARIES IS STRONGER THAN IT'S EVER BEEN"

- There is a Mongolian proverb “If someone arrived when it was raining, he is the lucky one”. Also, it seems like you brought London rain in Ulaanbaatar during your visit.

- I agree with that proverb. It's not much rainier than in Mongolia. Just another thing that the British and Mongolian people have in common is an unstinting belief that skin is waterproof.

What is the purpose of your visit In Mongolia?

To make friends. Five years ago, the UK decided that we were going to change our foreign policy and think more globally about the way that we do our business. We recognized that an ever-larger proportion of our trade would come from the Indo-Pacific region, if you've made that deduction then you start to see actually our security and prosperity are interlinked. So, we need partnerships in the region that are based on trade but are also based on security. And that's why I'm here to talk to the Mongolian government about how we bring that to life.

As we know, this year is the 60th anniversary of the diplomatic relations between our two countries. How would you compare our defense relations of our countries compared to the past defense relations and the current time?

So compared to the past, the relationship between our two militaries is stronger than it's ever been. But that is more of a reflection of the fact that our militaries traditionally haven't had much of a relationship at all.

So, progress has been made in that there is now some relationship. The British Army was here on exercise Han Quest earlier this year. We have opportunities for Mongolian soldiers to train in British military academies. We are looking at how we develop our partnership in support of Mongolia's peacekeeping ambitions. So, we've gone from not very much at all to something, and that's to be celebrated. But the reason I'm here is I think we can do better than something and do quite a lot together. That's in our mutual interests and to our mutual advantage.

So, what is Britain's recent stance on the Russian and Ukrainian war?

So, we're clear that in February 2021 Ukraine was living peacefully within its own borders and its neighbor decided to mobilize 140,000 troops and invade and that's an outrage.

The UK started to donate lethal aid initially with anti-tank shoulder-launched weapons, and in doing that others were encouraged to donate similar systems, and then air defense, artillery, tanks, missiles, and then longer-range missiles, now there's an international coalition in the process of delivering fighter jets of that we're really proud of the role we've played in leading the international community through each of those capability thresholds and growing support for what Ukraine is asking for.

We're full of admiration for the way that the Ukrainian people have taken that international support and through their own courage and determination they've pushed the Russians back from the initial attack on Kyiv. They've pushed the Russians back in Kharkiv. They've held the Russian advance in the Donbass and denied the Russian army Bakhmut and now they are recovering their territory a meter at a time but every day they are moving forward and eventually, they will win I'm certain of that.

The reality is that Putin thinks that he can outweigh the West, that we will all get bored and give up. That won't happen. The UK and the rest of the countries in the world who donate in support of the Ukrainian cause are clear that we'll give whatever it takes for as long as it takes for this to end on President Zelensky's terms.

Meanwhile, Putin deceived the Russian people by telling them that this was a three-day special military operation. Well, over 600 days into his three-day operation, he still hasn't achieved anything that he set out to achieve.

Yet, across Russia, and probably in towns just over the border where they might be reading your reports, there are already graves of Russian soldiers who have died in this illegal war that is entirely an exercise in Putin's vanity. The Ukrainians won't give up. Their donors won't give up. The way to stop further loss of Russian life is for Putin to leave Ukraine.

As you know Mongolia and Russia have a very brotherly and historic relationship and as a neighboring country current war is affecting us economically. I would like to hear your opinion about this.

I believe in a nation's sovereignty and a nation's freedom to choose who its friends are, and what alliances it keeps and it would be hypocritical to argue so passionately for Ukraine and then to not make the same point to you. It's Mongolia's business who your friends are and whether you are friends with the Russians, that doesn't matter, because I think that you are a democracy, you value freedom, you value your sovereignty. You want to be our friend, that’s every reason for me to come and seek to develop and strengthen our friendship.

We as freedom-loving democracies believe that is my right or your right, it is everybody's right to seek whatever relationships internationally they want. But what we saw in Ukraine was Russia somehow thought it had a right to tell Ukraine who its friends could be, and what clubs it could join and so my challenge would be you've heard from me that I think Mongolia should pursue whatever relationships it wishes, but we should be really wary if at any point Russia tries to tell you what relationships you should maintain because that's an erosion of your freedom and sovereignty as a nation.

"WE ARE LIVING IN AN AGE WHERE WE ARE RETURNING TO GREAT POWER COMPETITION"

There has been talk in recent years that there will be a new Cold War happening soon. In your opinion, do you think that could happen?

Not between the West and Russia. No. I think that we have to be really clear that our support for Ukraine is about making sure that Putin fails in Ukraine. There's no desire to weaken Russia or to meddle in Russia's internal affairs. If Putin had never invaded Ukraine, the West would not have mobilized to support the Ukrainians in the way that we have. So I don't see any Cold War emerging there. But I do think that we are living in an age where we are returning to great power competition. I don't think that is necessarily confrontation. In fact, the UK is very careful to say that it's a challenging competition, but it is also a perfectly understandable evolution given how China's economy and prominence on the global stage is growing. But it is, I think, inescapably the case that the US and China are in quite fierce competition. And I think for the rest of us, we're working out how we navigate the opportunity of working with China and allowing China to take its place as a global power, whilst also making sure that we challenge China when they seek to undermine the rules-based order that we all believe in there was a lot in that.

Most of the big international organizations talk about the importance of the world-based international system and world-based governance, but also recently in the regions, other countries, the neighboring countries, want to create their own associations, and how it is going to affect international relations?

So, I think we're sort of in an age of mini-lateralism, everybody wants to establish a group that has a membership that is aligned around a certain issue and they feel that helps them advance their cause either in trade or security or diplomacy. I don't think that's a bad thing. In fact, I think it probably makes our international structures more resilient.

There is an important distinction. The aim of those countries in establishing those mini-lateral groupings is that they support a rules-based international order enshrined in the Charter of the UN, where countries are doing it with a view to undermining the rules-based order that has kept the world broadly safe and prosperous for the last 70 years. I think that we in the UK and many of our friends around the world have a real problem with that because when countries do that, they're not doing that to advance the cause of the international system and to try to make a world that is fairer and safer. They're invariably doing it nakedly in their own national self-interest.

After the Brexit happened what were the advantages or disadvantages? Were there unprecedented results of the Brexit? How do you see that?

Well, the consequence of a referendum, a vote in the UK was that a majority of people decided that they wanted to leave the European Union. And in a democracy, if you ask the public a question, you have to respect the answer that they give you. I think that no matter what part of the debate that people took, it was hotly contested. We made the decision and that has allowed the UK to think about our foreign policy far more broadly than our relationship within the EU.

And as somebody who now has the enormous pleasure of traveling around the world representing the UK interest, what's really interesting is that the whole world saw that as a moment when the UK would reappear and reemerge back into a more global set of relationships. So,I personally didn't vote for it, but I was very clear that if my constituents did, I would follow that. I've served in a government for the last five years that has made it their business to deliver on the will of the British people.

My personal reflection five years on is that the UK is winning new friends around the world. I think that is a fantastic thing and gives us enormous opportunities to trade more widely, to build security and defense partnerships more widely, to have stronger diplomatic relations in all regions of the world. People would say, you could have done all of that anyway, but whichever side of the debate you're on, the fact is, five years after Brexit, the UK, I think, is more influential and trading more widely than we did previously, and I think that's a good thing.

How do you see that Mongolian army and the peacekeeping mission can advance in the international level? How do you see they can develop and play at the international level?

Mongolia is already more than pulling its weight. For a country of your size, you are the 24th biggest contributor to United Nations peacekeeping missions in the world and that's an amazing thing given that there are many more countries that are bigger than you.

So but the fact is that Mongolia wants to develop that even further, and wants to be an even bigger player in UN peacekeeping missions, that means that there's an opportunity for countries like the UK that want to work with Mongolia to develop that peacekeeping contribution. I think, one of the key takeaways from my visit this week, is that there is a real opportunity for the UK army and for the Mongolian army to work together to develop your peacekeeping capabilities and to see you even more engaged in UN missions around the world.

Thank you for your time.

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