U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter, right, and Vietnam’s Defense Minister Phung Quang Thanh review the guard of honour during a welcoming ceremony at the Defense Ministry in Hanoi, Vietnam, on June 1. The U.S., Russia, France, the U.K. and other countries are all jockeying to sell military equipment to Southeast Asian countries. Hoang Dinh Nam/Reuters/Landov […]
The South China Sea ranks high on any list of the world’s geopolitical hotspots. But though the region has been volatile for centuries, the last two decades have witnessed a subtle shift in the underlying drivers of conflict. Through most of the second half of the twentieth century, the biggest threats to regional stability were […]
India will soon be supplying naval vessels to Vietnam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday, the first significant military transfer to Hanoi at a time when it is embroiled in a territorial dispute with China. The announcement came after Modi held talks with his visiting Vietnamese counterpart, Nguyen Tan Dung, during which the two […]
(Reuters) – Taiwan is considering stationing armed vessels permanently on a disputed South China Sea island, officials said, a move bound to renew friction in a region claimed almost wholly by China, with Vietnam already dismissing such a plan as “illegal”. The potentially energy-rich Spratly islands are one of the main flashpoints in the South China Sea, with claims […]