42nd ASEAN Summit

ASEAN must change or face irrelevance

ASEAN remains ill-equipped to handle the fallout from the tensions in the South China Sea or the potentiality of a full-blown Taiwanese conflict.

Strategic significance of the 6th Indian Ocean Conference in Bangladesh

Against this backdrop, India has been promoting the idea of ‘net security provider’ in South Asia and the Indian Ocean Region (IOR). 

China's ethnocide and the transborder implications of the Uyghur Muslim unrest

Following the attack on a mosque in Kunduz, Afghanistan on October 8, 2021, ISK confirmed the recruitment and mobilization of Uyghur fighters. This was the first time that the alliance between IS-K and Uyghurs was affirmed by IS-K on media platforms.

India making rapid strides in military modernisation - but still far to go

But New Delhi must not be complacent, because a lot more needs to be done in acquisitions and modernisation to match the much larger and more sophisticated Chinese arsenal and to raise India’s politico-diplomatic assertiveness against Beijing's muscle-flexing.

More on Indo Pacific - China Watch

India should be pro-active in supporting the Dalai Lama

China has harmed Tibet, massacred innocent Tibetans and is occupying Tibet for the last several decades with a vice-like grip and suppressing freedom of the Tibetans

Can US-led IPEF reduce India’s China dependency, outbid China-led RCEP?

There are several ways whereby the IPEF will outbid China in the Indo-Pacific region and outweigh India’s China dependency, writes S. Majumder for South Asia Monitor 

Despite the Chinese challenge, American primacy in the Indo Pacific remains unquestioned for now

The short game might be Beijing’s to lose for now, but the long game is certainly Washington’s to squander away, writes Collins Chong Yew Keat for South Asia Monitor 

India, Vietnam ink pact to broad-base ties with China in mind

Vietnam, an important country of the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations), has territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea region. India has oil exploration projects in the Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea. India and Vietnam have been boosting their maritime security cooperation in the last few years to protect common interests.

IPEF: A challenge and opportunity in the Indo-Pacific region

Since the US is not a member of RCEP, the collaborative approach of the US and India will pose a big challenge to RCEP, which falls under Chinese influence, writes S. Majumder for South Asia Monitor

Fearing US influence, China asks Bangladesh to reject ‘bloc politics’

Michael Kugelman, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Wilson Centre, noted in a Foreign Policy Brief that the Biden administration’s growing engagement with countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, and the Maldives, “marks a shift for Washington, which in recent decades has expended most of its diplomatic capital in the region on India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.”

Trade, FDI, and fast-tracking projects: A subdued China belatedly proposes five-point assistance program for Sri Lanka

Beijing also seems nervous as its earlier run, largely on the back of support of the now-discredited Rajapaksa brothers, appears to have come to an end. Unlike earlier, a crisis-hit Sri Lanka in need of assistance is more eager than any time before in recent years to embrace India, the West, and the United States.

Kim's nuclear brinkmanship: Can Quad rise up to the Indo Pacific challenge?

Kim Jong-un's new strategy shifts the region's counter-reaction to a new level of risk that will invite changes in the dynamics of the military spectrum, writes Collins Chong Yew Keat for South Asia Monitor

Quad a significant presence on world stage, says Modi as India joins IPEF economic grouping to check China's stranglehold on supply chains

The summit is taking place under the shadow of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It is also taking place at a time when relations between China and the Quad member countries have become fraught, with Beijing increasingly challenging democratic values and resorting to coercive trade practices.

Modi in Tokyo for Quad Summit, to meet Biden and new Australian PM

A review of Quad initiatives is one of the key agendas for the four world leaders, an Indian government statement quoted the prime minister as saying before his departure. The grouping includes the world’s oldest and largest democracies — Japan, India, Australia and US — and represents a combined GDP of $34 trillion, or 40 per cent of the global total.

UN Rights chief to visit China’s restive Xinjiang province; HRW says need to underscore justice for victims

Bachelet, during her China visit between 23-28 May, will “meet with a number of high-level officials at the national and local levels, civil society organizations, business representatives, academics, and deliver a lecture to students at Guangzhou University,” the statement released by her office said on Friday

Chinese media defends India over wheat exports

But what came as surprise amid this report was the Chinese state media's defence of India after criticism from Group of Seven (G7) nations, ANI news agency said. Global Times, a Chinese government outlet said, "Blaming India won't solve the food problem."

Chinese power companies threaten to quit Pakistan over dues payment of $1.5 billion

Chinese firms also raised objections to Pakistan’s new draft renewable energy policy, which, interestingly, calls for international competitive bidding—something the Chinese have been advocating in the Sri Lankan power sector, mainly to counter Indian influence

China intends to keep boundary issue alive, says Indian Army Chief Gen Pande; efforts to alter status quo will be thwarted

In his book "India-China Boundary Issues", late Indian diplomat R S Kalha observed that, "China will continue its policy of keeping India strategically confined to South Asia with the active assistance of Pakistan, and strategically imbalanced by continuing incursions across the LAC.In such an event, there is little change that there will be any meaningful forward movement in the settlement of the boundary dispute between India and China."

No more body pushing on LAC; Indian, Chinese armies in regular contact, says Indian Army commander

“Earlier, we used to say Chinese have strategic patience. They are ready to wait. Now, the present India has come up a long way and we also have strategic patience and we are also ready to wait,” he said

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