Prime Minister Fumio Kishida delivered the keynote speech at last weekend’s Shangri-La Dialogue — and that’s a big deal. The annual meeting, convening in-person for the first time in two years, is the opportunity for officials and experts to discuss and assess regional security, to get the lay of the land and lay down markers.
Beijing has slammed the U.S.-proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), calling it an attempt by Washington to lure Southeast Asian countries to “decouple from China.” U.S. President Joe Biden has been hosting a special two-day summit with leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that ends Friday. At the summit, it’s expected that the
China and the Solomon Islands have both confirmed they signed a controversial security pact that has sparked concerns about China’s rising influence in the Pacific region. The confirmation came as a U.S. delegation led by the National Security Council Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell was heading to Honiara to discuss regional security issues. Solomon Islands Prime
The Solomon Islands prime minister has actually told lawmakers that a controversial security agreement with China is “ready for signing” without exposing the information, saying just that his government had actually not been pushed to let China build a marine base in the nation. Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare made the remarks to Parliament late Tuesday,
A file photo revealing ocean surveillance ship USNS Effective sitting in dry dock at Yokosuka, Japan, Sept. 13, 2007. The ship is currently deployed to the South China Sea. Credit: U.S. Navy Spy ships The USNS Bowditch is a Pathfinder-class survey ship that has typically been deployed in the South China Sea. The USNS Effective
