Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used a three-country tour of Southeast Asia in the late May and early June to tout his “Act East” policy. In Indonesia, he signed a deal to develop the country’s Sabang port at the mouth of the strategic Malacca Strait, while pledging to boost security and maritime cooperation. And in an address to the Shangri-La Dialogue, a forum on Asian security issues in Singapore, he pledged India’s commitment to free navigation and a rules-based order for maritime security in Asia. In an email interview, Anubhav Gupta, the assistant director of the Asia Society Policy Institute [...]
In this week’s Trend Lines podcast, WPR’s editor-in-chief, Judah Grunstein, and managing editor, Frederick Deknatel, discuss President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal. For the Report, Hilal Mir talks with WPR’s senior editor, Robbie Corey-Boulet, about the insurgency in the India-administered Kashmir Valley, where violence is surging again and al-Qaida and the Islamic State are believed to be making gains. If you like what you hear on Trend Lines and what you’ve read on WPR, you can sign up for our free newsletter to get our uncompromising analysis delivered straight to your inbox. [...]
The historic inter-Korean summit on April 27 drew global attention, but it overshadowed another important meeting that began the same day between two other neighbors in Asia with their own fraught history. Billed as an “informal summit” between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Wuhan, China, it was a welcome development in their strained relationship that revealed the domestic priorities driving both countries in the short term, as well as the strategic undercurrents that are shaping the Asia-Pacific. Modi’s visit to the central Chinese city of Wuhan was seen by some as an effort to [...]
