A Saga-In-Progress: Challenges and Milestones on Our Way Toward the Nordic Core Values and Principles of Family Medicine/General Practice

Summary: Late in 2020, the Nordic Colleges of General Practice published a joint statement specifying what General Practitioners stand for and intend to act upon, our Core Values and Principles. In this article, the authors describe and analyze challenges and milestones encountered on our 50-year journey toward the creation of that document.The shaping of Family Medicine/General Practice as an academic discipline began in the 1960's. During an initial, descriptive phase, the new specialty was defined, its educational curricula formulated, and the core competencies required to earn the title, Specialist in Family Medicine, were identified. Focus was not yet placed directly on the relationship between viable working principles and values, however.Then, the 1978 WHO Alma Ata Declaration affirmed health to be a fundamental human right, with primary health care as the heart of sustainable health care systems, indirectly mandating that the field of Family Medicine deliver value-based health care. A major step in that process was taken in 2001: The Norwegian College of General Practice launched their statement identifying the seven theses, Sju teser, that characterize the principles, purposes—and core values—of General Practice. Later, the Nordic colleges worked together to formulate the 2020 joint statement.We are confident that Family Medicine will continue to provide sustainable, relationship-based care, and to protect the human side of medicine. Sharing core values and principles can help us mobilize as effective advocates for our discipline and for our patients, the citizens whom we serve.

Joint Initiatives Instead of Multilateralism: A New Reality for the WTO?

The article examines the complexities of the negotiation function of the WTO, in which consensus in decision-making plays an important role. The author systematizes the possibilities and limitations for incorporating the results of plurilateral negotiations (i.e., with a limited number of participants) held within the framework of the so-called joint statement initiatives into the organization's law. The article also analyzes the prospects for integrating specific joint initiatives (internal regulation in services, simplification of investments in development, e-commerce) into the WTO system. The article emphasizes that despite standard features, all initiatives are unique in their content, format, and history and are at different stages of readiness, for Russia, which takes an active part in these joint initiatives, bringing the negotiations to a conclusion. The article criticizes joint initiatives from their primary opponents (India and South Africa), who insist that plurilateral initiatives' participation ignores existing multilateral mandates reached by consensus. Thus, they destroy the multilateral system.The purpose of the article is to review conceptual and practical approaches to forming new trade rules in the WTO system in the context of the multilateral crisis. The author concludes that plurilateral agreements can become a way out of the crisis in the negotiation function of the WTO, as well as the basis for future trade agreements in the system of organization. However, for plurilateralism to be effective and sustainable, it must be linked to multilateral norms and principles. Any plurilateral approach must allow flexibility in forming the basis for negotiating trade rules at multilateral level. It seems that if in the near future the WTO does not take decisive actions to adjust the rules and procedures for the new agreements, the prospects for advancing negotiations and maintaining the relevance of the leading institution of the international trading system will become even bleaker.

UZBEKSO-CHINESE COOPERATION AND ITS PROSPECTS

The article highlights the issues of Uzbek-Chinese cooperation in the years of independence and its prospects. In particular, the measures taken between the two countries in the field of trade, economic and investment, security, cultural, humanitarian, energy, transport and scientific and technical cooperation. The two countries agreed onpromising tasks, the legal basis of which is the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership, signed in 2005, and the Joint Declaration on the Comprehensive Deepening and Development of Friendship, Cooperation and Partnership in 2010. Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership, Joint Declaration on Further Deepening and Development of Bilateral Strategic Partnership in 2013, Strategic Partnership Development Program for 2014-2018 and Joint Statement signed in 2016

EU-US cooperation in tech council likely to be limited

Significance In their joint statement the two partners stressed their common interest in: ensuring that new technologies reflect and reinforce their democratic values; resisting unfair trading practices of ‘non-market economies’; and working with like-minded countries on technology issues in multilateral forums. However, the statement added that the TTC would not affect either side’s regulatory autonomy. Impacts Bilateral trade tensions could escalate if both sides use industrial policy to boost their domestic tech sectors. To safeguard supply chains, both sides may impose procurement restrictions to favour local tech suppliers or exclude non-domestic firms. EU leaders could support EU-based cloud providers, especially for storing public data, thereby challenging US corporate dominance.