South East Asia

China stands ready to work with all parties to build a closer Belt and Road partnership, President Xi Jinping said Wednesday in a written message to the Asia and Pacific High-level Conference on Belt and Road Cooperation. Xi said the joint building of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) that …

Bangladesh and nations in Southeast Asia are welcoming the Group of Seven’s new answer to China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, saying it will be another source for financing their burgeoning infrastructure needs. But because the U.S.-led Build Back Better World Partnership (B3W) initiative is scant in details, officials of …

Call this another Biden debacle in the making. China, it is evident, is now in no mood for substantive discussions, other than, of course, for the purpose of accepting America’s surrender. American leaders, administration in and administration out, think it is important to meet face-to-face with adversaries, that they can …

The European countries have their own plans, while welcoming the US leadership and resuscitating trans-Atlanticism but not jeopardising their cooperation with China. They will tread softly regarding Washington’s calls to crack down on China. Cooperation in the business circles will not be dented because enterprises will vote with their feet. …

On June 14, 2021, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi spoke at the inaugural Pakistan-Afghanistan Bilateral Dialogue in Islamabad. His tone was mildly aggressive. Talking about USA’s pullout from Afghanistan, Qureshi said: “If the objective of going to Washington is starting a new blame game and holding Pakistan responsible for …

While Obama looked the other way, China militarized a string of atolls in seas around it as part of a long-term plan to forge an aggressive profile against its neighbor and the United States. The Chinese challenge can and must be met both in the global arena and inside the …

The actions of the Beijing government since the earliest days of concern about the disease have shown in stark relief how a closed, authoritarian society tries to deny and shift blame for its misdeeds. How it seeks to co-opt international health agencies. How it tries to bribe foreigners to do …

The setbacks come at a harrowing moment for Afghanistan, just as American and international troops are set to leave the country in coming weeks. The Taliban entered two provincial capitals in northern Afghanistan Sunday, local officials said, the culmination of an insurgent offensive that has overrun dozens of rural districts …

The Afghanistan government’s top peace negotiator has voiced concern that the withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan could cause a “security vacuum, an increased level of fighting and perhaps a slower pace of negotiations,” saying the solution “has to be through negotiations, not through battle.” “The Taliban has unfortunately increased …

The US president has committed to granting Turkey’s requests for support to maintaining troops at Kabul International. US President Joe Biden agreed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s requests to support Ankara’s forces as they retain control of Kabul International Airport after American and NATO troops withdraw from Afghanistan this …