China’s role in Sri Lanka, which has grown remarkably in recent years, is poised to expand geographically as well. Hitherto, Beijing’s projects were confined to the southern parts of the island. It is now making inroads into the Northern Province and the rubber, tea, and coconut plantations of the central highlands.
Are America and Pakistan finally breaking up? The short answer is no. As much as both states are fed up with each other, they remain far too co-dependent to simply walk away. What we are seeing instead is a tough and protracted re-negotiation over the terms of the relationship. The question of Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan is not necessarily the hardest issue…The far bigger question… is what India and Pakistan’s role will be in the emerging cold war between the US and China.
After becoming prime minister, Imran Khan received a goodwill message from the president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani. It read like a routine gesture, but both Kabul and Islamabad have reached a point in their deadlocked relationship where they want “real peace”, that is, for the Taliban to end their aggression.
On January 13, 1842, Assistant Surgeon William Brydon, bloodstained and exhausted , reached the British Fort at Jalalabad. When asked where the rest of the army was, he managed to reply “I am the Army.” Thus the British learned their 20,000-man army in Afghanistan had been wiped out. Though it is perhaps the most famous example of a Western army being defeated by a mountain people, it is certainly not the only one.
If then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte was known as “The Punisher” for his tough tactics on crime, Sara Duterte-Carpio, his daughter and now incumbent mayor of the same city, has captivated Filipinos as “The Puncher.”
Info graph courtesy Global Times
The reaction to this week’s announcement by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo of a US$113 million infrastructure fund is that it was more than a tad underwhelming. When set against potentially upwards of US$1 trillion in financing for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – to which the new US fund is a thinly veiled response – that certainly seems the case. Yet the outlines of an Indo-Pacific infrastructure strategy that looks potentially more promising can also be seen.
Is US President Donald Trump really going to amp up trade tariffs against China? And with its back against the wall, will Asia’s biggest, most influential economy use a sharp currency devaluation as a form of retaliation? In Southeast Asia, home to some of the world’s most China-dependent economies, astute market watchers say they are as clueless as the man on the street when it comes to these two questions. But one thing is certain, they say: in the financial markets, bearish “animal spirits” have taken hold…
India Prime Minister Narendra Modi meeting with the President of China, Xi Jinping, on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit, in Johannesburg, South Africa on July 26, 2018. Photo/PIB
Chinese President Xi Jinping said that China is willing to consolidate and develop a closer development partnership with India. He made the remarks while meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the 10th BRICS summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was their third meeting in three months.
With the United States-North Korean Summit taking place earlier this month, the world is faced with the prospect of a newly-opening North Korea. In this shift, Delhi’s diplomacy can be seen as an effort to play the role of a mediator. It would be a step towards having a say in North Korea’s economic and political makeup, possibly tugging Pyongyang out of the Sino-Pakistani orbit that it currently is in.
