KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia:Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s travel to a three-country strategic engagement stint is aimed at shoring up public and diplomatic image of the country, deepening trust and strategic mutual dependence, and regaining soft power and geopolitical influence in the region amidst growing tension with the US and worsening tension in the South China Sea against the backdrop of the water cannoning incident with the Philippines.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia: Strategically located within India’s necklace of diamonds counter balancing strategy against China’s trings of pearls encirclement, Malaysia forms an integral plan of India’s Act East Policy.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia--The US is not able to fully fulfill its obligations towards allies in the Asia-Pacific region due to increased attention on the Ukrainian crisis.
NEW YORK, U.S.--The West is in for yet another shock as the Biden administration seems to be turning to the Iranian regime -- and approached the illegitimate government of Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela -- to purchase their oil instead of increasing US domestic oil production.
BEIJING, China--A day after a US dual aircraft carrier group entered the South China Sea attempting to flex its muscles against China, an F-35C stealth fighter jet had a landing mishap on one of the carriers during flight operations on Monday, with analysts saying on Tuesday that the accident exposed the exhaustion of the US military, which has been flaunting its prowess against China at the cost of the physical and mental health of its troops and high technical risks.
WASHINGTON, U.S.--For weeks, the eyes of the world have been on a Russian troop buildup near Ukraine, as Western officials struggle to decipher Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intent: beef up his attack on Ukrainian sovereignty, or bluff his way to key concessions?
NEW DELHI, India--In a major announcement last month, Italy said Europe's Tempest and Future Combat Air System (FCAS) will eventually merge.
HONG KONG, China--“What would Winston Churchill say?,” protested China hawk Michael Pillsbury when Michael Anton, a former national security official in the Trump administration, asked him what he would do if China sank a US aircraft carrier. I reported the exchange in a November 3 analysis, “Sleepwalkers in the South China Sea.”
PARIS, France--South Korea has test fired a ballistic missile from its new KSS-III class AIP (Air Independent Power) equipped submarine.
NEW YORK, U.S.--China, through investments in and ownership of ports, is expanding its global maritime reach, and its appetite for ports shows no signs of diminishing. As of July 2020, Chinese firms reportedly "(partly) owned or operated some ninety-five ports across the globe."
"The Middle East has oil, China has rare earths", Deng Xiaoping said in 1992. Nearly three decades later, the world is almost completely dependent on China for rare earth materials. They constitute key elements in large swaths of modern technology from consumer electronics to military equipment and green technology: Mobile phones, computers, fighter jets, guided missiles, solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles, among others. While demand is soaring, China is virtually their worldwide exclusive producer. "To extend Mr Deng's comparison, it is as if the Middle East not only sat on most of the world's oil but also, almost exclusively, refined it and then made products out of it," wrote The Economist in 2019.
MANILA – Major powers are wading deeper into the South China Sea in a series of moves that promise to rile China while answering US calls for like-minded nations to counter jointly Beijing’s rising assertiveness in the crucial and contested maritime area.