The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is trying to lower any possible animosity from China over an upcoming visit to the United States by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. President Tsai will stopover in California and New York later this month before embarking on an official mission to Central America. …

The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was pivotal during what was a tumultuous year in NATO history, but the countries of the alliance rose to the challenges of Russia’s brutal aggression, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said today, as he unveiled his annual report for 2022 during a news …

Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has led to a renewed focus on the geopolitical importance of the Black Sea. What the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has overlooked is Russia’s use—often in coordination with Iran—of the Caspian Sea to advance its war aims in Ukraine. The Caspian Sea …

The Defense Department announced in January that 31 M1A2 Abrams tanks would be delivered to Ukraine, but officials had speculated it would take about a year to make that happen. Now, they say, the U.S. will instead send M1A1 Abrams tanks from refurbished hulls already in U.S. inventory, and the …

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a surprise visit Tuesday to Kyiv, engaging in dueling diplomacy with Asian rival President Xi Jinping of China, who met in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin to promote Beijing’s peace proposal for Ukraine that Western nations have all but dismissed as a non-starter. The …

Sudani on his first visit to Ankara, stressed the importance of Iraq’s sovereignty in the two countries’ fight against terrorism. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Premier Mohammed Shia al-Sudani on Tuesday lauded the cooperation between the two countries but reported only limited progress on the contentious bilateral rifts. …

The deal follows the Islamic Republic escalating its attacks on Kurdish groups in Iraq amid the ongoing protests in Iran. Iran and Iraq signed a security agreement on Sunday. The deal follows Iran’s cross-border attacks on Kurdish groups in Iraq and demonstrates the Islamic Republic’s continued sway over its neighbor. …

The most successful Kurdish political experiment in West Asia is unravelling due to increasing divisions between the KDP and PUK, the two biggest political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan. Iraq’s Kurds, as with other mainly Iranic populations across western and southern Asia, are busy preparing to celebrate Nowruz on March 21, …

The move continues a trend reversing aspects of Kurdish autonomy gained since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq For the first time since 2002, oil revenues from Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) will be transferred to a bank account supervised by the Iraqi central government, state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA) …

Tehran and Riyadh recently agreed to restore diplomatic relations under the auspices of China Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said on 15 March that investments in Iran could happen “very quickly” following the signing of a normalization agreement. “There are a lot of opportunities for Saudi investments in Iran. We …