NSSG’s Intelligence team has followed closely the unfolding events in Israel. If you are looking to understand how it started? /what is happening? / and what are the implications for companies? Our brief analysis will help you understand this pivotal regional event and its origins, the complexities of its implications, and the political, social, and cultural factors that contributed to its escalation. Here is the information we’ve gathered for you.
We are providing constant situation updates on the conflict between Israel and Gaza that you can follow at the below link.
NSSG continues operating on the ground in Israel and Jordan, providing its clients with evacuation and travel management services. Contact us for more information.
We have great news to share with you all as we embark on a new growth path at the international level, after a capital infusion from Avante Corp. (Avante), an acknowledged Canadian-based high-end security services firm.
This strategic partnership was signed off on September 21, 2023, with the purpose of accelerating both companies’ worldwide expansion. We aspire to increase our international market leadership, as reputed risk management provider, and to set new professional and ethical standards in the risk management industry.
Back in 2017, when we set up NSSG in Bucharest , Romania we were only dreaming to become a leader in providing integrated services in risk management, crisis management, remote medicine, due diligence, and travel risk management. Our efforts in making this dream come true have been acknowledged.
NSSG’s strategic vision remains that of leaving a mark in the risk management industry through new and innovative approaches, an ethical and diverse organisation, and genuine and honest internal and external relationships. Since 2017, while focusing on emerging and complex markets, NSSG has cemented its global reputation for its cutting-edge risk management solutions, bespoke advisory and support services, and unwavering dedication to corporate customer satisfaction. Its clients are Fortune 500 corporations operating globally.
“We have aimed high from the beginning to become a market leader in risk management at the international level through bespoke and innovative services carried out with passion and ethics. The partnership with Avante makes us proud. It is a transformative milestone for NSSG as we look to expand our global corporate risk management offering, and it is 100% in line with our initial growth plan. Our shared values, vision, and passion for quality and risk management innovation will make this collaboration successful. We trust that Avante’s core client base will benefit from our bespoke services, cutting-edge applications, creativity, and ethical take on this challenging business. Our international corporate clients will also benefit from this partnership, as we will leverage Avante’s Control Centre and integrate the surveillance platform into our activity.”, were the thoughts shared by our CEO and Founder, Alessandro Martello.
Manny Mounouchos, CEO of Avante, also expressed enthusiasm about this strategic move, stating that “This partnership aligns perfectly with our corporate strategy of diversification and accelerated growth outside of our core Toronto market. We are excited to join forces with NSSG and believe that this collaboration will unlock new opportunities for both companies. This transformative acquisition will pave the way for several of our technology platforms to be quickly adopted globally by NSSG’s existing clients.”
Avante and NSSG will closely cooperate to expand their business operations, leverage new technologies and innovations to benefit their clients and improve services. The management of NSSG, through the shareholders’ agreement, will maintain day-to-day control of the business.
Through the partnership with Avante, NSSG anticipates new growth opportunities and the ability to provide its clients with an even broader spectrum of service verticals, utilising Avante’s innovative technology and world-class Command and Control Centre. Avante is recognised in Canada for its established and diversified business lines and its innovation across various service sectors, including its quickly growing Corporate Security division, Avante Black.
Key highlights of this partnership include:
1. Synergy in Services: Clients of Avante and NSSG will benefit from a wider array of risk management and security services, ranging from traditional manned security to modern technology-driven solutions to a broad range of corporate security platforms.
2. Global Expansion: Both companies will leverage their respective global networks to offer seamless risk management and security solutions to corporate clients on a larger international scale.
3. Innovation and Expertise: The collaboration will harness synergies from each party’s expertise in innovation and technology to remain at the forefront of the security industry.
4. Operational Efficiency: The partnership will enhance operational efficiency, ensuring the continued delivery of exceptional risk management and security services.
About NSSG
NSSG is a distinguished risk management provider headquartered in Bucharest, Romania, with offices in New York, Cairo, and Kyiv, representations in Saudi Arabia, Italy, Israel, and the United Kingdom, and a worldwide clientele. From strategic advisory to implementation solutions for multinational companies operating in challenging environments and complex political jurisdictions, NSSG offers a wide range of integrated corporate risk management solutions, with a strong focus on technological advancements and integration with existing corporate security platforms. NSSG has established itself as a trusted partner to Fortune 500 companies in the risk management industry.
About Avante Corp.
Avante Corp. is a Toronto-based provider of high-end security services. We acquire, manage, and build industry-leading businesses that provide specialized, mission-critical solutions that address the needs of our customers. Our businesses continuously develop innovative solutions that enable our customers to achieve their objectives. With an experienced team and a proven track record of solid growth, we are taking steps to establish a broad portfolio of security businesses to provide our customers and shareholders with exceptional returns. Official website: AvanteCorp – Avante Corp Inc. [XX].
In this special report on Ukraine, we review the events over the past year and will be exploring what variables can impact the development of the conflict as well as listing different scenarios for how the war might end.
After the first year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an end to hostilities and a peace treaty appear to be a distant prospect. The two sides’ pre-conditions to start negotiations are diametrically opposed.
Fighting is likely to continue for the coming year, but three main variables will influence the trajectory of hostilities: arms supplies and their effective use, resolve and willingness to fight, and government stability.
The ways these variables combine will impact outcomes on the battlefield, which will in turn set the stage for varying political outcomes.
Three scenarios are explored:
Lastly, economic and business implications for Ukraine are analysed, with a look at specific industries that are set to gain and lose from the war outcomes. Recommendations are given to hedge risks and take advantage of specific opportunities.
Business as usual, as we knew it in Russia, is unlikely to make a comeback for years to come. Currently, the war in Ukraine continues to develop actively, and although negotiations between the two parties are ongoing, their positions are disparate, despite claims to the contrary.
For 30 years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western companies and investors have been drawn to Russia and other former Soviet republics such as Ukraine and Belarus, seeking lucrative opportunities. On February 24, geopolitical risk skyrocketed following Russia’s full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine, while an unprecedented range of sanctions imposed on Moscow altered cost-benefit calculations for companies to operate in the Russian market for years, if not decades, into the future. Everything from freezing the assets of Russia’s Central Bank, to severe export limitations, to Western companies’ “voluntary” pullbacks from the local market have thrown the country’s economy in turmoil.
Putin and his team had anticipated a Western response, knowing that their counterparts in the US and Europe would impose sanctions in case of a Russian attack on Ukraine. Preparation for a possible disconnection from SWIFT began in 2014, after the US threatened to disconnect Russia from this inter-banking messaging system following the annexation of Crimea. Nonetheless, it is unlikely that the Kremlin had anticipated that sanctions would be as far reaching as to freeze Russia’s Central Bank assets held in the West, for a total of 300 billion USD. Considering that Russia has approximately 680 billion in foreign reserves, this action severely hampered the Central Bank’s ability to sustain the value of the ruble in the forex markets, while also reducing the finances available to sustain the war effort.
Furthermore, the withdrawal of hundreds of privately-held enterprises driven by profits in the Russian market (with the transfer of significant portions of their employees to countries in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Central Europe) and the subsequent rapid deterioration in standards of living for millions of Russians came as a surprise. As the New York Times has noted, in the West, “society’s expectations for companies have changed since [the times when] Coca-Cola sold drinks in Nazi Germany and Heineken brewed beer in Rwanda during the genocide there.” The Russian leadership failed to realise this.
The evolution of risks for businesses in the post-Soviet space is hard to predict in the mid to long term, due to an array of independent variables involved. However, this is precisely what we intend to do in this article that we invite you to download for reading.
Tensions in the Nile River basin are rising, as a decade-old dispute promises no solution in the near future. The struggle for the rich waters of the Nile River is an unambiguous portrayal of the significance of water diplomacy in the 21st century and on the potential for water scarcity as a driver of future conflicts.
With an estimated 115 million population in the Horn of Africa, Ethiopia first started to construct the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile in 2011. Even before the dam’s foundation stone was laid by the late-Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Addis Ababa signed a new water cooperation agreement with most Nile Basin countries. However, Egypt and Sudan refused to override the 1959 Nile Water agreement, which protected their historical share of the Nile’s waters. The two countries claimed that the new arrangement proposed by Ethiopia would not only cancel their right to veto projects upstream, but also threaten the allocation of 55.5 billion cubic metres of water to Egypt and 18.5 billion to Sudan, as per the original agreement.
In the years that followed, a series of tripartite talks failed to produce progress and brought up more disagreement over the dam. After months of suspension in negotiations, a new round of talks between Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia was held in Cairo in 2018 to discuss filling the GERD’s reservoirs and its rules of operation. However, the negotiations once again ended in deadlock with Ethiopia’s rejection of the Egyptian proposal, citing divergence in questions of sovereignty, leading Egypt to call for the internationalisation of the issue. President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt highlighted the importance of finding common ground and resolving the dispute by underscoring that the Nile River is a lifeline to millions of people. Any limitation in its water flow downstream could pose an existential threat to Egypt. As a result, Cairo had once again called for international intervention to avoid the eruption of a massive conflict given the years-long stalemate in negotiations.
The picture of Major General Chris Donahue — taken through a night-vision device as he was boarding a C-17 cargo plane at Kabul Airport on the night between 30-31 August 2021 — has already acquired historical significance. General Donahue was the last US soldier to leave Afghanistan, formally putting an end to the United States’ presence in the country just short of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11.
The picture of Donahue was compared on several news articles and social media to the one of the last columns of Soviet armoured vehicles leaving the country through the bridge on the Amu Darya river in 1989, or to the painting titled “Remnants of an Army” which depicts Dr. Brydon as, wounded on his horse, he approaches the garrison in Jalalabad—being the only soldier to survive the disastrous British invasion of Afghanistan of 1839-42. The bottom line of the comparison between the three images was that, once again, a superpower was defeated in Afghanistan.
Even though—considering the historical precedents and the slow but steady advance of the Taliban through Afghanistan’s rural districts—this outcome was always deemed as a possibility, the rapidity of the collapse of the Afghan Government and its security forces surprised both national and international observers. In only 11 days, the Taliban launched an offensive that allowed them to take over the whole country—with the exception of the Panjshir valley—and make their triumphant entrance in Kabul, just as sitting President Ashraf Ghani sought refuge abroad, leaving his country without a guide.
In this short article, we will analyse the elements that made the Taliban victory in Afghanistan possible and what its international implications in the medium and long term will be.
Dear Partner, Friend, Colleague,
as you certainly agree, the last year and a half have been extremely challenging, but at the same time, offered us some great opportunities.
For us, at NSSG, it mainly gave us the chance to prove what is in our DNA: being resilient and ready to catch the opportunity, but never opportunistic.
We also had the chance to realize that the image of NSSG was not properly reflecting who we are and who, without compromises, we’ll always be, so we’ve decided to tailor a brand new suit on us.
A common brand that will be worn by North Star Support Group, our main risk management firm and its sister company North Star Service Group Egypt focused on the provision of support services across the MENA region, by North Star Journey Management that very soon will be renamed North Star Medical exclusively providing advanced medical solutions in challenging environments and by North Star Technologies that is going to play a central role integrating high tech solutions in the provision of our services. But stay tuned because a new Star of the group will be soon born!
Again, with this rebranding, we wanted something tailor-made perfectly fitting on us, as tailor-made will always be our relationship with you.
Alessandro Martello, CEO & Founder NSSG
#NSSGmakesthedifference
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is facing significant setbacks due to the new international norms caused by the growing impact of the CoVid-19 pandemic and global economic slowdown that has occurred these last several months. In fact, the economic and financial structuring of the Belt and Road Initiative has shown severe weaknesses in the way in which the BRI was originally formed. After all, it provided both struggling and developing nations with hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, while enabling Beijing in its quest to build up its global power projection and leveraging capabilities. However, the CoVid-19 pandemic and global economic slowdown resulted into a liquidity crisis for many of these same nations that Beijing showered with cash throughout the years. The big concern for these loan recipient nations is that part of the agreements with Beijing required them to put up their national assets and infrastructures such as ports, mines and other crown jewels as collateral.
This has evolved into a very difficult situation for both the indebted countries and for China as there are major decisions to be made on all sides, whether in the form of debt restructuring, delaying of repayments, or even debt forgiveness. The latter would be a very difficult choice for the Chinese government as it would place significant strain on both their own financial system and domestic status at home in regard to relations with the Chinese people. However, Beijing is also in a position where they will have to weigh the risk on how it would impact their future international standing, image, global power projection, and leveraging capabilities.
In addition, it will require them to also weigh the risk of these dilemmas and consider how they will impact China’s future economic growth, in light of increasing global discontent over their handling of the CoVid-19 pandemic. It will also be dependent on other issues where discontent has grown in abundance lately. One example is the recent passing of a controversial national security law that violates the long-term agreement that allows Hong Kong to remain autonomous until 2047. The list also includes growing geopolitical friction with the United States and several other global players such as Taiwan, India, Japan, South Korea, and the European Union on issues such as trade, security, border skirmishes, and other growing regional disputes.
The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a $1 trillion plus infrastructure financing program that is aimed at building a series of global trade zones that connects more than 60 countries to Beijing’s economic web. It would resemble a modern version of the ancient silk road but would combine both land and sea trading routes. However, China’s lending has far exceeded that of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and this also includes both hidden and underreported loans made by their government. Pakistan has been a big beneficiary of China’s Belt and Road Initiative plan. However, their foreign minister recently requested in April 2020 that it was imperative to restructure the payments of billions of dollars in loans that were borrowed for projects pertaining to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
CPEC is a signature project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In fact, it is often considered being the flagship of the BRI project, which is why a wide variety of eyes are focused on watching how the China-Pakistan relationship evolves. This is especially imperative in a world where CoVid-19 and geopolitical friction can play a heavy influencer in the future outcome of events. The program was launched in 2015 between China and Pakistan with the intention of connecting a network of land and sea routes between Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Gulf region, Africa, and Europe. The connection would especially allow for Chinese routes to go through Afghanistan and Pakistan as well. In fact, CPEC would enable Pakistan’s, Gwadar Port, located on the Arabian Sea in southern Balochistan, to become a key hub that connects China’s routes to the Middle East. This will be especially beneficial to Beijing in their ongoing quest to secure new routes for oil importation.
The CPEC program is also being streamlined in light of recent news of the phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Both Pakistan and Afghanistan are part of this strategic corridor for China and the CPEC deal consists of $87 billion worth of infrastructure projects, with the intention of benefitting Pakistan over a period of time. However, 5 years later, only a quarter of projects that make up of roughly $20 billion have been spent on mainly transport and energy infrastructure. Also, the China-Pakistani relationship has been mixed with a combination of trust issues and financial debt concerns. For instance, the Pakistani government transferred the leasing rights for Gwadar Port to the China Overseas Port Holding Company that grants them with 91% of the port generated profits, while Islamabad would receive just 9%. This would also deny Balochistan’s provincial government any revenue as well.