Work is ​continuing with Türkiye and Italy regarding ⁠the ⁠SAMP-T air defense system, ​French President ​Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.

“We have work underway on a Franco-Italian basis, along with Turkey, which ⁠is ⁠technical work and which is continuing,” said Macron ⁠at the NATO summit in Ankara.

His remarks followed reports suggesting France is willing to consider a possible sale of SAMP-T to Türkiye following years of opposition, clearing the way for more substantive ⁠talks with Ankara.

The shift in position followed ⁠talks between French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during a summit on June 25.

Earlier on Wednesday, Macron met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for talks on bilateral ties and regional and global developments, Türkiye’s Communications Directorate said.

During the meeting, Erdoğan said the time had come for Türkiye and France to raise their mutual trade targets, adding that Ankara would continue efforts to advance cooperation “in every field.”

Erdoğan also stressed the importance of strengthening NATO’s European pillar to preserve the “Transatlantic Bond” among allies, saying this could be achieved “without eroding our alliance ties and without causing unnecessary duplication.”

He added that Türkiye would support the EU’s defense initiatives on the basis of those principles.

Last week, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said Türkiye was “evaluating all options” to boost its air defenses, including the potential purchase of Patriot systems from Washington ⁠or SAMP-T systems.

Güler said Ankara remained open to cooperation involving technology transfer and joint production. Technical and political talks with the relevant countries are taking place “from time to time,” he added.

Türkiye, France and Italy launched cooperation on a possible long-range air-defense program in 2017 to 2018, including studies into co-development and co-production.

However, the project stalled as ties between Ankara and Paris deteriorated over Syria, Libya and disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean involving Greece and Greek Cyprus.

The SAMP-T, also known as Mamba, is produced by the Franco-Italian Eurosam consortium, bringing together MBDA France, MBDA Italy and Thales.

The system can track dozens of targets simultaneously, intercept multiple threats at once and is the only European-made system that claims to be able to intercept ballistic missiles.

Often described ⁠as ⁠Europe’s closest counterpart to the U.S. Patriot system, it divides analysts on its efficiency, who point to its lack of combat use over the years.

Türkiye has NATO’s second-largest army and has for years been ramping up investments as it seeks to have its own fully fledged missile defenses. It is meanwhile producing components for its integrated, multilayered “Steel Dome” air defense system.

Beyond Paris and Rome, the SAMP-T has only been exported to Singapore, although it has been transferred to Ukraine in recent years and France deployed it to help the United Arab Emirates (UAE) defend itself against Iranian missile attacks this year.

Italy sent the system to Türkiye in mid-June as part of NATO defense planning.

Any deal would likely center around the new generation of the system, which is being rolled out to the French and Italian militaries.

While Italy has long been in ⁠favor of sharing the SAMP-T with Türkiye to deepen defense industry cooperation, Turkish officials have for years privately and publicly regarded France as the principal political obstacle to the program.

Momentum has returned over the past ⁠year as Ankara has intensified efforts to strengthen its missile defense capabilities amid regional instability and NATO allies have reassessed defense cooperation and capability needs.

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Oil prices rose almost 6% after U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the interim agreement with Iran is “over,” although he would allow discussions to continue.

Trump made the comments following U.S. strikes on Iran in reaction to attacks on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz. The price of Brent crude oil jumped 5.6% to more than $78 a barrel. U.S. benchmark crude surged 5.8% to $74.55 a barrel.

“For me, I think it’s over,” Trump responded when asked about the status of the ceasefire. “It’s just a waste of time dealing with them,” he said on the sidelines of the two-day NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Crude prices had declined recently from spikes well above $100 a barrel to around the levels they were at before the war with Iran began in late February.

Iran and the United States agreed as part of their interim deal on ending the war to allow ships to pass through the strait without paying charges for 60 days. But Tehran has insisted it must control the vessels’ routes and vowed to later charge fees for passage. That would upend decades of practice in the waterway. The ships attacked Tuesday all appeared to be using a route close to Oman’s shore, rather than one ordered by Tehran.

The upsets for oil markets have coincided with waves of worries that the craze for artificial intelligence-related shares has pushed prices past the amount of gains in productivity and profits likely to result from massive investments in computer chip production capacity and data centers.

“As such, geopolitical headlines will likely determine market sentiment over the coming hours. A further deterioration in the situation could weigh further on equity valuations along with rising stress in technology,” Ipek Ozkardeskaya of Swissquote said in a commentary.

In share trading, Germany’s DAX shed 1.1% to 25,191.69 and the CAC 40 in Paris gave up 0.9% to 8,358.67. Britain’s FTSE 100 slid 0.8% to 10,579.09.

The future for the S&P 500 edged 0.1% lower and that for the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4%.

In Asian trading, Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 lost 2.1% to 66,819.05, while the Kospi in South Korea shed 5.4%, to 7,246.79.

The South Korean index has soared and then fallen back, briefly surpassing the 9,000 level last month and then succumbing to bouts of heavy selling of big AI-related tech shares like Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Samsung fell 6.3% early Wednesday after dropping about 7% the day before. SK Hynix shed early gains to drop 5.7%.

Taiwan’s Taiex rose 0.6%.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng rose 3% to 24,193.56.

Hong Kong traded shares of Chinese AI model startup Zhipu, known also as Z.ai and traded as Knowledge Atlas Technology, rose nearly 14% on Wednesday.

A six-month lock up period for “cornerstone” investors after its $558 million trading debut in Hong Kong in early January expires this week. State-owned China National Radio reported late Tuesday that nearly 70% of Zhipu’s cornerstone investors are committed to stay on, despite previous worries that the lock up period expiration could trigger a sell-off of shares. Zhipu’s share price has risen more than 1,300% since its January trading debut in Hong Kong.

The Shanghai Composite index declined 0.5% to 3,970.88.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 8,785.10, while India’s Sensex lost 0.7%.

On Tuesday, the roller-coaster ride for AI stocks whipped back down, dragging Wall Street lower.

The S&P 500 fell 0.4%, though the majority of stocks within the index rose.

The drops for stocks in the artificial-intelligence industry dragged the Nasdaq composite 1.2% lower, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2%.

Advanced Micro Devices sank 6.5% and Intel shed 9.7%. Micron Technology lost 4.7%.

SpaceX, which owns the xAI business, fell 6.8% in its first day of trading after it was included in the Nasdaq 100 index .

In other trading early Wednesday, the U.S. dollar rose to 162.26 Japanese yen from 162.11 yen. The euro climbed to $1.1426 from $1.1414.

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Bao Zhang began driving for a Chinese ride-hailing app this year after losing his job as a software tester and says ​the weak job market gives him little hope of returning to the tech sector.

His story is increasingly common in China, where tens of millions are shifting from formal employment into the gig economy as meager unemployment insurance, record numbers of graduates and a shortage of jobs squeeze opportunities.

“Those ⁠who used to take taxis now have to drive them themselves,” said the 30-year-old, who ⁠works from 7 a.m. until nearly midnight in Beijing to earn about 6,000 yuan ($885) a month after vehicle rental and charging costs.

The China New Employment Forms Research Center, a think tank, estimates the number of people in flexible employment – without a permanent full-time contract – rising to 320 million this year from 280 million in 2025, a cohort almost as large ​as the U.S. population and about 44% of China’s workforce.

Gig economy acts as China’s safety net

Analysts say China’s gig economy has become ​a ⁠crucial employment buffer as the property crisis wipes out construction jobs and manufacturers shed workers through automation and cost-cutting amid tariffs, overcapacity and price wars.

Increasingly, it hires educated youth and white-collar workers squeezed by weak domestic demand and AI adoption.

“The proportion is extremely high,” said Yang Zhan, a cultural anthropology expert at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “It’s no longer limited to rural migrants and has spread to the middle class and university graduates.”

“China is upgrading manufacturing, and many industries that used to absorb large numbers of workers are being phased out. Then there is AI,” Zhan said.

China’s human resources ministry and the State Council Information Office, which answers media queries on behalf of the cabinet, did not immediately respond to comment requests.

As elsewhere, gig economy work mitigates the income shock of losing a formal job.

But in China, one government adviser said the rise of gig jobs – where social insurance contributions are not mandatory – heightens long-term risks to an inadequately funded welfare system.

A 2019 Chinese Academy of Social Sciences report warned that the national pension fund could run out by 2035 as the population ages. A 2024 update said delaying retirement could push depletion back eight to nine years.

“It may not be easy to find a solution,” due to unstable incomes and contracts in the gig sector, said the adviser, suggesting Beijing should support the formal services industry to create better jobs.

Growing burden

Central government transfers that plug social insurance budget gaps roughly ⁠trebled over ⁠the last decade to about 3 trillion yuan, doubling as a percentage of total expenditure to 10%, a Gavekal Dragonomics analysis showed.

A second government adviser said further taxing gig workers, many of them rural migrants, to reduce the burden, would be “highly unreasonable.” Birth subsidies could be a preferable long-term fix, he said.

Only two of the 12 flexible workers Reuters interviewed said they were voluntarily contributing, while two others said they paid through formal part-time jobs outside their gig work. The rest said they preferred to save on their own.

“I can take control, rather than wait for decades for others to pay me,” said Angel An, 24, who earns more than the average ride-hailing driver by promoting her services to tourists in Shanghai and nearby Suzhou on social media.

Zhang suffers recurring ankle and knee pain from long hours in traffic, but has chosen not to buy medical insurance, adding that pension felt “too far away” and would be small anyway.

Gig jobs lack the pay and security many Chinese expect, said HSBC Asia economist Frederic Neumann, warning this drags on consumption and growth.

“A whole new generation is growing up unaccustomed to the security and confidence that their ⁠parents for a long time enjoyed,” Neumann said.

Low participation

A December 2025 government report found that by end-2024 only 70.6 million flexible workers were enrolled in the urban employee pension scheme, which supplements basic retirement benefits. Most migrant workers contribute small amounts only to the basic scheme, where payouts can be as low as 163 yuan a month.

There are no estimates for how many gig workers pay into all social insurance schemes – pension, medical, work injury, unemployment, maternity and housing – but the numbers ​are likely much lower.

A Peking University survey of 30,000 delivery workers found fewer than 10% would support mandatory social security contributions, which would cost employees about 10% of their income and employers roughly a quarter.

“The ​urgent priority is to make it easier for flexible workers to be included in the employee social security system,” said Nomura’s chief China economist Ting Lu, who estimates only tens of millions are fully enrolled.

“We need to reduce anxiety,” he said, “so that they save less and consume more.”

Zhan, the anthropologist, said the government faced a tough trade-off between making the industry’s employers ⁠contribute more to needed welfare improvements ‌and preserving their ‌ability to create jobs.

“The government very much needs the platform economy to absorb workers,” and maintain social stability, Zhan said.

Significant regulatory changes could ⁠cause “a major shock” to the industry’s profits, she added.

Wage pressures

Although China’s unemployment rate has hovered around 5%-6% for a decade, gig ‌work has helped keep those numbers in check because anyone working even one hour a week is considered employed.

Yet an influx of gig workers is increasingly outpacing demand in some sectors, slowing incomes.

The think-tank report said China’s 16 million food delivery riders saw their ​income rise 11% on average to 37.3 yuan per hour in ⁠2025, but wages shrank 1.8% for the 37.2 million ride-hailing drivers.

At least four cities, including the tech hub of Shenzhen, have issued warnings of ride-hailing ⁠market “saturation” since April.

The second government adviser said authorities only meant to raise awareness and not to prevent people from taking more such work, as “that would become a social stability issue.”

Li, a cleaner in his ⁠early 50s who delivers food until 10 p.m. ​for an extra 40-100 yuan a day, suspects the growing number of riders is compressing earnings per order, but has “no choice” but to keep going.

“At my age, without education, what could I possibly do? In Beijing, most college students also have to deliver food,” said Li, who only gave his surname.

Russians are queuing up to adapt their cars to run on liquefied petroleum gas ​after Ukrainian attacks on refineries have ​created nationwide ⁠fuel shortages, increased gasoline prices and led to long lines at filling stations.

Egor Popov, whose Garant-Gas company fits equipment to convert cars to run on LPG in Moscow, said demand had multiplied.

“We have a waiting list until September,” he said.

Even before domestic gasoline prices rose to levels that have on occasions exceeded those in the United States and Europe, LPG ⁠in ⁠Russia was already relatively cheap and abundant, making Russia the global leader in its use in the form of propane or butane for fuelling cars.

According to the World Liquid Gas Association, the industry’s lobby group, Russia used around 3.5 million metric tons of LPG as car fuel in 2024.

According to ⁠Russian official data, motor fuel accounted for 54% of Russia’s LPG consumption last year. Just over a third was used as ​feedstock in the petrochemical industry.

Sergei Medvedev, who runs another ​company called Medvedev GBO that carries out refits, also said it was receiving far more inquiries ⁠than ‌it ‌could deal with.

“We had 276 calls ⁠in a day, but could ‌only process around 30 or 40,” he said.

Medvedev added LPG ​had obvious advantages.

“No queues, ⁠with prices 50% or two thirds ⁠lower than gasoline at filling stations.”

Butane and propane, ⁠produced during natural ​gas processing and crude oil refining, are less emissions intensive compared with gasoline.

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Türkiye urged NATO members Tuesday to eliminate defense trade restrictions and sanctions among allies, arguing that closer industrial cooperation is essential to strengthening military readiness and collective security.

“We must work together to eliminate trade restrictions and sanctions in the defense sector among allies,” Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz told the NATO Defense Industry Forum ahead of a gathering of NATO’s leaders in ⁠Ankara.

“If we want to enhance the alliance’s level of military readiness and strengthen our collective security, we must work together to remove these senseless sanctions and restrictions from the table.”

For much of the past two decades, Ankara has expressed frustration over its Western allies’ failure to provide adequate defense systems against missile threats despite Türkiye being a major NATO member.

Ahead of the NATO summit, its top officials reiterated that defense trade restrictions between NATO allies must be removed and expressed strong interest in joining Europe’s defense initiatives.

Calling for broader international collaboration, Yılmaz said Türkiye views defense cooperation not only through exports but also through joint production, design and technology development with allies.

He also urged greater integration of Türkiye into European defense structures.

“All bilateral restrictions among allies should be lifted, and Türkiye, which makes a significant contribution to NATO’s European pillar, should be able to participate in all European defense and security initiatives, particularly those of the European Union,” he said.

Without such cooperation, production capacity would expand more slowly and costs would rise, Yılmaz added, arguing that a more resilient Euro-Atlantic security architecture depends on aligning industrial capacity, technological expertise and operational experience toward common strategic goals.

“Türkiye is ready to play a role in this framework as a strong, reliable and contributing partner,” he said.

Türkiye aims to ‘play in 1st division’

Türkiye currently ranks 11th among global defense exporters and aims to enter the top 10 in the near future.

“Using a football analogy, Türkiye aims to play in the first division,” Yılmaz said.

Defense and aerospace exports have surpassed $11 billion over the past 12 months, with more than half of shipments destined for NATO allies and European Union member states.

The Turkish defense industry is now producing advanced systems across the air, land, naval, cyber and space domains.

Türkiye injected billions of dollars to transform from a nation heavily reliant on equipment from abroad to one that is a major exporter and where homegrown systems now meet almost all of its defense industry needs.

The country currently exports more than 230 defense systems to 185 countries.

As of Tuesday, Türkiye is hosting 32 NATO leaders, as well ⁠as officials from the Gulf and Asia-Pacific region, for a summit that it hopes will emphasize alliance unity and bolster deterrence.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to pull his country out of the ​alliance while Washington has moved to withdraw troops, planes, ships and weapons from Europe ​due ⁠to tensions among allies over burden-sharing, defense spending and U.S. complaints about allies’ lack of involvement in Iran war.

Türkiye’s Yılmaz said the alliance was entering what he described as a new phase, or “NATO 3.0,” in which the burden of defense spending would be shared more equitably among members.

Last year, allies ​agreed on a defense spending goal of 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035.

“The next challenge is to transform higher defense spending into concrete capabilities and the industrial production capacity required to support them,” said Yılmaz.

He added that manufacturing capacity must be expanded rapidly and in a coordinated manner across the alliance.

‘Billions of dollars’ in pledges

As the summit kicked off, allies started to reveal large-scale defense pledges, with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte announcing new investments by member states.

The pledges included a push to spend $40 billion on NATO’s drone defense capabilities over the next five years and to train more soldiers as drone operators.

Tuesday’s pledges are “worth tens of billions of dollars and growing,” Rutte said.

The NATO chief also called for a “bonfire of red tape,” urging allies to slash administrative hurdles to rapidly expanding the alliance’s defense capabilities.

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France’s rising borrowing costs are fueling concern ​among investors and economists that its public debt of 3.5 trillion euros ($4 trillion) could spiral higher just as political jockeying ahead of next year’s presidential election makes fiscal reform unlikely.

They cite the ⁠risk of a “snowball effect,” in which the average interest ⁠rate paid on government bonds exceeds economic growth, causing debt to rise relative to the size of the economy unless the government runs sustained primary budget surpluses.

“If nothing is done, the public debt could ​reach 203% of GDP by 2050. Strict budgetary discipline is therefore essential to stabilize ​public ⁠debt,” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Secretary-General Mathias Cormann told journalists in Paris last week.

Public debt topped 3.5 trillion euros in the first quarter, reaching 117.5% of GDP, according to official data. That is close to levels seen during the COVID-19 crisis and leaves France as the only eurozone country yet to reduce its debt burden from post-pandemic highs, the Cour des Comptes public audit office said.

France could in theory reverse the dynamic through stronger growth or primary budget surpluses. But with a fragile government that struggled to pass a 2026 budget through the deeply divided parliament, neither appears likely in the near term.

Credit rating firm Moody’s expects debt ratios to deteriorate further among Europe’s five biggest borrowers – Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

“The increase in interest payments relative to public debt will be greatest for France,” Moody’s Senior Vice President Sarah Carlson said at ⁠an ⁠economics conference in Aix-en-Provence last Thursday.

Keeping up with interest bill

Interest payments on the public debt reached 66 billion euros last year and are rapidly becoming the state’s biggest expense, likely to surpass the education and defense budgets.

The Cour des Comptes warned last week that the bill could approach 100 billion euros by 2029 as debt issued during years of ultra-low interest rates is refinanced at higher borrowing costs.

It has urged the government to detail how it will reduce the budget deficit from around 5% of GDP this year to the European Union’s 3% ceiling and eventually return to a primary surplus.

Without such a surplus, France risks having to borrow increasing amounts simply to cover interest payments ⁠as debt grows.

“If we aren’t able, we risk literally suffocating under the weight of interest,” said Carine Camby, a senior auditor at the Cour des Comptes.

Even then, reducing debt can take years. Italy, despite running primary surpluses for much of the past two decades, remains one of the ​most indebted advanced economies along with the United States and Japan.

Ahead of preparations to pass the 2027 budget in ​parliament this autumn, the premium investors demand to hold French rather than German bonds has returned to highs seen after last October’s suspension of a pension overhaul, overtaking the Italian-German spread.

Political constraints

The debt burden is becoming a ⁠political battleground ahead of ‌next year’s ‌presidential election, with leading centrist contenders Edouard Philippe and Gabriel Attal making fiscal discipline central ⁠to their campaigns.

A lawmaker from the far-right National Rally, Kevin Mauvieux, ‌secured backing from the lower house’s finance committee on Thursday for a report sounding the alarm on the debt snowball effect.

“The longer we wait, the ​more painful the consequences will be,” he told ⁠lawmakers.

Finance Minister Roland Lescure responded by urging opposition parties, including the National Rally, to ⁠support the government’s 2027 budget when it comes before parliament in September.

Several minority governments have fallen trying to pass budgets since ⁠a snap parliamentary election ​in 2024 produced a hung parliament, keeping pressure on French bonds.

Economists expect bond-market volatility to remain elevated ahead of the election next year. Morgan Stanley recommended on Friday that clients reduce exposure to French debt, citing fiscal concerns.

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