Since the return of the Rajapaksa brothers to office as president and prime minister in Sri Lanka, Colombo’s relations with China have improved dramatically. Earlier in the week, the Sri Lankan Parliament decided to postpone a debate on the controversial Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill that was scheduled for the middle of the week.
Read Here | The Diplomat
The still-unresolved Ladakh crisis has created a new strategic reality for India, marked by renewed political hostility with China, and an increased militarisation of the Line of Actual Control. This new strategic reality imposes unequal costs on India and China.
Read Here | Lowy Institute
When Joe Biden assumed the US presidency in January, many in Pakistan hoped for a bilateral reset. Three months on, there is no such rapprochement in sight as the new administration in Washington delivers perceived snubs rather than engaged olive branches to Islamabad.
Read Here | Asia Times
The idea of a return to great-power competition is related, by its proponents, to calls for national renewal, technological innovation, and a change in military posture such as moving forces from the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific region, with an “increasingly aggressive” China as the rationale.
Read Here | The National Interest
The Indian military is currently undergoing a fundamental transformation. These changes are made possible primarily due to the creation, in December 2019, of the post of a chief of defense staff. Armed with a mandate to create joint theater commands, the current chief of defense staff is at the forefront of an attempted structural and intellectual transformation.
Read Here | WarOnTheRocks
Are the dams on the upper Mekong a far-sighted effort to secure a supply of water and electricity against future need? Or, considering the devastating downstream social and environmental effects of these dams, are they part of a strategy to develop a “hydraulic empire,” maintaining regional power through control over access to water, while also relocating and assimilating minority peoples?
Read Here | The Diplomat
The problems the two countries pose to Washington are distinct, but the convergence of their interests and the complementarity of their capabilities—military and otherwise—make their combined challenge to U.S. power greater than the sum of its parts.
Read Here | Foreign Affairs
Driving the drumbeat are strategic concerns shared with Washington, with possibly some personal ambitions thrown in for good measure. Canberra is seen responding to approaches by Washington to its allies in the Pacific, principally Japan and Australia, to add their weight more openly to the US deterrent…
Read Here | Asia Times
Sri Lanka’s relationship with China has been a controversial discussion during the last decade, dominating both domestic and international political conversations… Yet it is quite clear that Sri Lanka’s closest neighbor, India, and the United States are diligently monitoring these developments in the China-Sri Lanka relationship.
Read Here | The Diplomat
Europeans have long known that the global balance of power is shifting rapidly to Asia, and America’s attention with it. With the transatlantic alliance only barely surviving Donald Trump’s presidency, this may be the last chance to repurpose it for the twenty-first century.
Read Here | Project Syndicate
