In a wide-ranging, two-hour year-end briefing on Friday, Washington’s top diplomat Marco Rubio offered pragmatic remarks on China, signalling a tonal shift in the administration’s approach towards Beijing amid broader “America first” priorities for 2026. While detailing a recalibration of US foreign policy, Rubio’s comments on China marked a notable evolution from both his own…
China now has the largest naval fleet in the world, and its growing numbers of nuclear-powered submarines are an integral part of its efforts to project power beyond its coastal waters. But the view from Beijing is growing more complex as a handful of US allies in the Pacific also ramp up deployment of nuclear-powered…
After nearly a year waiting to meet US President Donald Trump, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sought to argue his country’s strategic value Monday – only for the “America first” leader to dominate the encounter by opining that Beijing had no plans to invade Taiwan and posed no real threat in the Indo-Pacific. “China doesn’t…
US President Donald Trump’s summit in Alaska last month with Russian leader Vladimir Putin failed to revive long-stalled nuclear negotiations or advance efforts to preserve the last major arms control pact between Washington and Moscow, which is set to expire in February. Trump’s subsequent push for trilateral “denuclearisation” talks involving China elicited a firm refusal…
The US’ waning interest in regional relations and its weakening ties with India are eroding American-led alliances in Asia, creating openings for China, a prominent Japanese defence researcher has warned. Masayuki Masuda, head of the China division at Japan’s National Institute for Defence Studies, a research body under the Ministry of Defence, said the shift…
At the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin this week, the choreography was striking. Chinese President Xi Jinping, flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, unveiled proposals for a development bank, expanded BeiDou satellite services, and cooperation in green technology, artificial intelligence and infrastructure. The message was unmistakable: the…
The US appears to be strengthening its allied deterrence against China by deploying its Dark Eagle hypersonic missile, a move that could “further intensify” regional rivalry, Chinese experts have warned. The United States Army Pacific, a service component for America’s Indo-Pacific Command, confirmed on the weekend that it had deployed a Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW)…
The United Kingdom and Australia will sign a new five-decade treaty to cement the AUKUS submarine pact and bolster shipbuilding in both countries as the Trump administration continues to scrutinise the ambitious technology-sharing deal. The new pact is expected to be announced by Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Richard…
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -An Australian AI startup developing software for crewless boats said it has been granted one of the first AUKUS exemption licences by the Australian government, allowing it to share information with defence contractors in the U.S. and Britain. Defence officials have said Australia will rely more on autonomous systems to…
You’ve got to raise an eyebrow at the chutzpah of the United States demanding to know how Australia would behave militarily in the event of a Chinese conflict with Taiwan when its own president is the epitome of unreliable and unpredictable. It’s the equivalent of one partner in a marriage demanding that they receive an…