Stranded in the deteriorating East Asian security environment, South Korea is witnessing unprecedented turbulence. The nuclear build-up in North Korea has baffled the South Korean security elite. While policy options have been floated to reduce South Korea’s insecurity, measures to change the status quo could potentially intensify Seoul’s vulnerability and expose it to strong reactions from adversaries. A premature declaration […]

Nothing can stop U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing this time. Not the Chinese military’s “unsafe” moves in the South China Sea. Not a war of words over Chinese fentanyl exports. And not even the revelations of a multibillion-dollar Chinese spy base in Cuba. In a dramatic about-face over the weekend, the Biden administration reversed its denials […]

Since the beginning of 2023, Pakistani politicians have repeatedly asserted that a ‘deal’ with the IMF is anywhere from days to weeks away. However, earlier this week, the IMF rejected Pakistan’s request for a loan, as per Pakistani media reports[1]. Herein lies an open secret. Pakistan is close to defaulting on its international loans, with official forex reserves of $4.09 […]

According to a Reuters report, Pakistan has paid for its first government to government import of discounted Russian crude in Chinese currency. It is a significant shift in its US dollar dominated export payments policy. Discounted crude offers respite as Pakistan faces an acute balance of payments crisis, risking a default on its debt obligations. The foreign exchange reserves held […]

The word ‘ally’ despite its length and extrinsic appearance, is disproportionately more involved, tightly knit and cannot be indicative of the growing relationship between India and the U.S. This understanding is even more imperative ahead of the Modi-Biden meet in Washington D.C., where Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi will be on an official state visit. Given the growing influence […]

Author Brahma Chelani, a professor of strategic studies at the Center for Policy Research in New Delhi and a former adviser to India’s National Security Council said in an article ‘Uneven U.S. treatment of Bangladesh and Pakistan makes little sense’ published n the Nikkei Asia published on June 12 that the USA has adopted a double standard policy towards Bangladesh. […]

The leader of a regional affiliate of the Islamic State terrorist outfit was reportedly killed in Afghanistan this week in an area along the border with Pakistan, intelligence officials in both countries confirmed to VOA. Sanaullah Ghafari, the so-called slain emir of Islamic State Khorasan, or IS-K, has led the terrorist group since June 2020. He was widely known as […]

Islamic State on Friday claimed responsibility for an explosion inside a mosque in northern Afghanistan the day before, the militant group said in a statement. The blast inside a mosque in northern Afghanistan on Thursday killed at least 11 people during the funeral of the Taliban’s provincial deputy governor, who died in an attack earlier this week, officials said.

Attacks by TTP have been rising since peace talks with government broke down in November Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in a gun battle with Taliban militants near the Afghan-Pakistan border on Saturday, the latest violent incident in the restive, semi-mountainous frontier region. Pakistan’s army has been battling an escalating number of attacks from Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or the Pakistani Taliban […]

The link between the Afghan Taliban and proscribed militant outfits Al-Qaeda and Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) remains “strong and symbiotic”, a report published by the United Nations (UN) said. The fourteenth report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team of the UN Security Council’s 1988 Taliban Sanctions Committee — released on Friday — noted that a “range of terrorist groups […]