On October 27 U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo spoke with Shekhar Gupta, editor-in-chief of India’s news website The Print in an interview that descended into an anti-China diatribe by Pompeo, who was fed soft-touch questions. Pompeo refused to abide by conventionally courteous diplomatic practice in referring to “the government” of China, preferring, like Trump, to…
Central to the last foreign tour of US State Secretary Mike Pompeo in a number of Asian countries was a visit to India, where he and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper participated in another two-way meeting in the form of “2+2″. During the negotiations in Delhi, a wide range of issues related to both American-Indian…
The US-centralized empire functions like a giant blob that absorbs nations and turns them into imperial client states. Once absorbed, it is rare for a country to escape and rejoin other genuinely sovereign nations. The new president-elect of Bolivia, Luis Arce, has told the Spanish international news agency EFE that he intends to restore the nation’s relations with…
After 40 years of “strategic ambiguity” in its partnership with the United States, Taiwan has taken the unprecedented move of calling Washington for “clarity” on whether it would be defended in the event of armed conflict with China. The Washington Post reported last week a senior Taiwanese representative to the U.S. as saying: “We need…
On September 11th, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi and UK Secretary of State for International Trade Elizabeth Mary Truss announced during a video conference that they had successfully wrapped up three months of talks on signing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which will enter into force in the beginning of next year. This does…
North Korea’s acquisition of nuclear weapons has changed the nuclear balance in Northeast Asia. But it hasn’t altered the way politicians and diplomats approach the question of arms control and disarmament in the region. The debate among influencers continues to revolve around two versions of “more of the same.” Containment advocates argue that North Korea…
