China’s trade-backed charm offensive has reached India and the United Kingdom, as Chinese leaders signed a raft of trade deals with the United Kingdom and a border pact with India that may reduce incidents along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). These follow high-profile trade... MORE

A wave of violent clashes that swept Myanmar’s restive Rakhine State (formerly known as Arakan) in late September left at least five Muslims dead and many members of their community injured and displaced. The epicenter of the violence was the city of Thandwe, which was... MORE

During the first week of October 2013, a high-level delegation of India’s Department of Atomic Energy visited Uzbekistan to discuss bilateral cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. According to several informal reports published in the Indian media, New Delhi expects to sign a four-year... MORE

Although India is not a party to the South China Sea dispute, in recent years—particularly since Secretary of State Hilary Clinton vigorously advocated freedom of navigation in the South China Sea at the Asian Regional Forum meeting in Hanoi in July 2010, and India endorsed... MORE

A senior executive at Russia’s state arms export company, Rosoboronexport, has said that Russia will sign a contract to sell the advanced Su-35 jet to China in 2014, while confirming that the deal is not on track to be finished in 2013 (RIA Novosti, September... MORE

In the week before the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit in Bishkek on September 12, Chinese General Secretary Xi Jinping visited four countries on China’s western flank—Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan—and met their presidents. In between these visits, Xi attended the G20 summit in Moscow... MORE

Numerous institutional factors have driven and incentivized China’s participation in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. Central to executing China’s first instance of protracted Far Seas naval operations has been inter-agency coordination among the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and other military and civil... MORE

With Taiwanese President Ma Ying-Jeou’s approval ratings at record lows­­ following another scandal—one poll held in late September show that only 9.2% of Taiwanese voters approved of his administration­­—it is more likely than ever that the opposition will win the 2014 “seven in one” elections,... MORE

China’s top two leaders went to Southeast Asia last week with a message of regional economic integration, promising to build a “maritime silk road” (haishang sichou zhi lu) across the South China Sea (China News Service, October 3; Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, October 9).... MORE

Over the last few months, Mongolia has hosted or taken part in several multi-national military exercises with the aim to develop the Mongolian army’s peacekeeping abilities, as well as a way to leverage military-to-military ties as a tool of diplomacy. On August 10–13, Mongolia held... MORE