On May 28, 2023, Police arrested six cadres of the Tritiya Sammelan Prastuti Committee/Tritiya Prastuti Committee (TSPC/TPC), a splinter group of the Communist Party of India (CPI-Maoist), along with weapons, near the Donki-Hesatu-Barwahi tri-junction under Herhanj Police Station limits in the Latehar District of Jharkhand. The arrested cadres, who had had reportedly gathered near Donki-Hesatu-Barwahi, to carry out some attacks, […]

The Government of India on June 4, 2023, has notified a Commission of Inquiry under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, to inquire into the incidents of violence in the state of Manipur on May 3, 2023, and thereafter. The Commission chaired by Justice Ajai Lamba, former Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court with Himanshu Shekhar Das, Indian Administrative Service […]

Assessments of Southeast Asia’s economic outlook published by the Asian Development Bank and the International Monetary Fund in 2023 find reasons for optimism. ‘Developing’ Asia will lead the world in economic growth over the next two years. Southeast Asian economies weathered the pandemic relatively well, notwithstanding hardship due to lockdowns. The geopolitical challenges brought by increasingly antagonistic competition between the […]

China’s State Councilor and Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu shared with a world audience what can be considered as the country’s definitive Taiwan policy position going forward. Speaking at the 20th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on 5 June he emphasised that the “one-China principle has become the consensus of the international community and the basic norm governing international relations” […]

China’s defense minister said at a major regional security forum on Sunday that Beijing seeks dialogue over confrontation, hours after a Chinese warship was accused of nearly hitting a U.S. destroyer in the Taiwan Strait. General Li Shangfu said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore that China’s leader Xi Jinping proposed a set of so-called Global Security Initiatives (GSI) which […]

Clashes erupted over the border between Afghanistan and Iran over the weekend, leading to a Taliban official threatening to conquer Iran amid increased tensions and an ongoing water dispute. Videos and pictures circulating on social media have shown Afghanistan’s Taliban forces and Iranian border forces firing at each other near a border post, killing at least one Taliban officer and […]

Analysis of Beijing’s relationship with Moscow tends to focus on official statements and diplomatic behaviour. But what do Chinese experts have to say about the matter? And how might they be advising their government? The dynamics of Beijing’s relationship with Moscow remain as opaque as the inner workings of the Chinese Communist Party. As a result, we rely on body-language […]

As the rivalry between these nuclear powers heats up, long-standing border tensions risk a dangerous escalation. The December 2022 clash between Chinese and Indian troops along the two countries’ 2,100-mile-long contested border — known as the Line of Actual Control (LAC) — highlights a worrying “one step forward, two steps back” trend. This brawl was the worst since 2020, when […]

An ongoing power struggle for the position of ambassador at the Afghan embassy in New Delhi underlines India’s diplomatic quandary about the nature of its engagement with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has not issued any public statement regarding the dispute between representatives of the previous Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban’s Islamic […]

“The world is not just Europe and America,” Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson declared on April 10, 2023, implicitly echoing the views championed for years by the senior leadership of the Islamic Republic regarding the ostensible rise of China and Russia. Indeed, the moment when Iran shifted from a traditional balancing relationship between East and West to decisively embrace Russia and […]