December 19, 2021 South East Asia
Russian President Vladimir Putin had been isolated on Ukraine in a series of major summits throughout December, but that changed significantly on Wednesday when his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping offered his strong support, strengthening an emerging Moscow-Beijing axis. The Chinese premier’s alliance with Putin — one of the key factors …
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December 19, 2021 India, South East Asia
Cognizant of India’s growing strategic denouement with Russia, visibly so in 2021, in wake of Russia’s outsized priority to China and pivot to Pakistan in its South Asian policy formulations, Russian President Putin made a significant six-hour dash to India, to rebalance Russia’s fraying strategic partnership with India on December …
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December 19, 2021 Eurasia
Older Russians blame NATO for rising tensions between the Kremlin and Western powers over Ukraine, according to a public survey conducted this week by an independent Moscow-based pollster. Across all age groups, half of those polled by the Levada Center believe the United States and other NATO nations are “the …
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December 19, 2021 Eurasia
While much of the world wonders when Russia will invade Ukraine, the US Senate’s number 2 ranking member on the Armed Forces committee has added something new: When will the US invade Russia? Senator Roger Wicker disclosed that a US invasion of Russia is on the table. He spoke on …
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December 19, 2021 South East Asia
The crown jewel of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increasingly looks like a powder keg that has exploded. Mass protests have for the past month swept Gwadar, a Chinese-dominated Pakistani port city 90 kilometres from the border with Iran that has long been plagued by intermittent protests and Baloch …
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December 19, 2021 South East Asia
The Chinese military has been holding more live-fire drills in the contested South China Sea this week, state media reported, while accusing the United States of “saber-rattling and making provocations.” The military exercises come as Washington has amplified its concerns about China’s “aggressive actions.” This week the top U.S. diplomat …
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December 19, 2021 Eurasia
NATO has wrestled with how to defend its Baltic member states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania ever since their accession to the Alliance in 2004. All three militarily weak countries sit uncomfortably close to NATO’s main adversary, Russia. Making matters even worse, they are tenuously connected to the rest of …
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December 19, 2021 Eurasia
A fateful week is ending today for international security with the Russian Foreign Ministry releasing the two documents on security guarantees that Moscow had proposed to Washington as the basis for discussions to ease the tensions over NATO’s eastward expansion and to cease the alliance’s deployments close to Russia’s borders, …
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December 19, 2021 Africa, Eurasia
Le président français a reporté in extremis son déplacement au Mali, prévu le 20 décembre prochain, au cours duquel il devait rencontrer le président putschiste, le colonel Assimi Goïta Un conseil de défense sanitaire s’est réuni vendredi après-midi autour d’Emmanuel Macron en vue de prendre de nouvelles décisions pour tenter …
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December 19, 2021 Eurasia, South East Asia
India’s regional strategic planning was thrown into disarray by the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. China has been a growing focus of India’s planning, but the Taliban takeover returns India’s attention to the historic rivalry with Islamabad. Pakistan’s close relations with the Taliban give Pakistan long sought “strategic depth” against New …
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