South East Asia

Iran, Saudi Arabia to resume relations in China-brokered deal

The deal to resume diplomatic ties was brokered by China and follows Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit to Beijing. Saudi Arabia and Iran have agreed to resume bilateral relations, in a rare breakthrough brokered by China. The two countries will also reopen their embassies after years of diplomatic freeze. The …

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Joint Trilateral Statement By The Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia, The Islamic Republic of Iran, And The People’s Republic Of China

In response to the noble initiative of His Excellency President Xi Jinping, President of the People’s Republic of China, of China’s support for developing good neighborly relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran; And based on the agreement between His Excellency President Xi Jinping …

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How The US Lost The Plot In Afghanistan – Analysis

The new Republican-controlled House of Representatives has begun its investigation into America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mike McCaul, best summed up the logic behind the investigation: “What happened in Afghanistan was a systemic breakdown of the federal government at …

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China: Congress Approves Third Presidential Term For Xi Jinping

China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, nodded through approval for a third presidential term for ruling Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on Friday, paving the way for him to wield power in the country’s top jobs indefinitely. Some 3,000 unelected delegates to the congress voted unanimously for Xi, …

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China’s Hidden Tech Revolution

In 2007, the year Apple first started making iPhones in China, the country was better known for cheap labor than for technological sophistication. At the time, Chinese firms were unable to produce almost any of the iPhone’s internal components, which were imported from Germany, Japan, and the United States. China’s …

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US-trained Afghan special forces recruited by Wagner Group in Ukraine: Report

New reports of US-trained Afghan special forces joining the fight in Ukraine, but on the Russian side, are emerging. The Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor firm that has played a vital role in the battle for the town of Bakhmut in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, is …

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In a US-China confrontation, West Asia will bow out

The prospect of a US-China war has entered the realm of reality. Increased provocations from US military and political officials regarding the status of Taiwan – which China considers to be part of its historic territory – have heightened the possibility of confrontation in recent years. With only 13 out …

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La réunion de Valdai : L’Asie occidentale à la rencontre de la multipolarité

Lors de la réunion du Club Valdaï en Russie – la réponse de l’Est à Davos – des intellectuels et des personnalités influentes se sont réunis pour définir les développements actuels et futurs de l’Asie occidentale. La 12ème « Conférence sur le Moyen-Orient », qui s’est tenue au Club Valdaï …

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The Great US-China Tech Decoupling: Perils Of Techno-Nationalism – Analysis

The United States and China have entered a phase of competition for technological advantage, intensified by pandemic-induced supply chain vulnerabilities as well as a fundamental reorientation of global power dynamics where technology has come to play an unprecedented role. According to Eric Schmidt, the former Google leader, “Many Americans still …

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At the Brink of War in the Pacific? The Nightmare of Great Power Rivalry Over Taiwan

While the world has been distracted, even amused, by the diplomatic tussle around China’s recent high-altitude balloon flights across North America, there are signs that Beijing and Washington are preparing for something so much more serious: armed conflict over Taiwan. Reviewing recent developments in the Asia-Pacific region raises a tried-and-true …

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