Four-nation grouping Quad on Tuesday launched a major new initiative for the Indo-Pacific that allows the partner countries to fully monitor the waters on their shores and help ensure peace and stability in the region, a move that comes amid China's increasingly intimidatory behaviour.
The government is looking to give Bharat Global Ports a certain amount of domestic exposure after it set up the state-owned consortium to increase India's global maritime heft, officials aware of the development said. The intended domestic exposure is meant to give the consortium experience and build its credentials for international projects.
'The background for the Saudi-Pakistan agreement is the fact that the regional security order has collapsed due to the Israeli attack on Doha.' 'The Americans have largely abandoned their security guarantee for West Asia and the region has no choice but to look at alternatives.'
Maritime resources will be key to sustained growth and development of nations across the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in the ongoing century, he said delivering his keynote address at the IOR Defence Ministers' Conclave held on the margins of Aero India-2021, India's premier defence and aerospace show.
Announcing the hotline, the Chinese defence ministry said as agreed upon by the defence departments of China and Japan, the two sides have recently completed the construction of a direct telephone line for the sea and air liaison mechanism and will maintain communication on the arrangement for the launch.
Lou also spoke about China's tensions with neighbouring countries without directly mentioning the eastern Ladakh border standoff with India since May 2020 which resulted in the Galwan Valley clash in June of that year.
Soon after he was sworn in by Vice President J D Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Penny Wong from Australia and Japan's Iwaya Takeshi for his first multilateral meeting as the top American diplomat.
Ever since the Quad started taking shape in 2007, China has been saying that the four-member grouping will be bound to fail. But much to the chagrin of Beijing, it picked up pace in the recent years emerging as a premier strategic group especially challenging China's assertiveness in the disputed South China Sea.
The 'mediation' by the United States from behind the scene on the diplomatic track appears to be once again working, which calls on both Delhi and Islamabad to show restraint and pull back from a military confrontation, notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'We condemn recent illicit missile launches in the region that violate UN Security Council resolutions. We express serious concern over recent dangerous and aggressive actions in the maritime domain. We seek a region where no country dominates and no country is dominated one where all countries are free from coercion, and can exercise their agency to determine their futures,' the declaration said.
Jailed journalist Mahesh Langa, already facing multiple charges, has been booked in a fresh case for allegedly extorting Rs 40 lakh from a real estate agent by threatening to malign his image and implicate him in a false case. This is the fifth FIR registered against him since his arrest in October 2023 for an alleged Goods and Services Tax (GST) scam. The latest case was registered based on a complaint by Janak Thakor, a real estate agent, who alleged that Langa threatened to write negative articles about him and trap him in a false case unless he paid the money. Langa has been in jail since his arrest in October and is facing charges in four previous cases registered by Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, and Rajkot police.
The India-Japan joint naval exercises are a strategic signal for China, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
'It has the potential to sow seeds of furthering discord when the direction of the discourse is aimed at propagating the perceived supremacy of 'cultural nationalism' from a distant past over the prevailing dominance of 'Constitutional nationalism',' argues N Sathiya Moorthy.
The Quad also vowed to work towards a free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific, a region that has seen increasing Chinese military muscle-flexing in the last few years.
"This trip will advance the Biden-Harris administration's rock-solid commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in Washington, DC on Wednesday.
The maritime row between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea has flared up as Manila with tacit United States backing lined up its naval ships at the disputed island to challenge Chinese claims over it, leaving a perplexed Beijing to mull military options.
Amid growing concerns over China's tough stand on various foreign policy issues including maritime disputes and passports with controversial maps, Beijing has sought to assure its neighbours asserting that it has established friendly relations with them.
China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea. Beijing is also involved in a maritime dispute with Japan over the East China Sea.
Tensions between China and Japan over disputed islands in the East China Sea intensified on Tuesday after two armed Chinese maritime vessels reached close to the area protected heavily by the Japanese coast guard.
He said India would continue to actively pursue and promote its geo-political, strategic and economic interests on the seas, in particular the Indian Ocean.
China on Tuesday warned that it reserves the right to take "further actions" over its maritime dispute with Japan even as fresh anti-Japan protests erupted across the country forcing top Japanese firms to remain padlocked.
The hacking of Bangladeshi websites including its largest online news site bdnews24.com has triggered the war, which is expected to again speed in days to come.
No such decision has been taken either in the Indian Ocean or South China Sea.
China has taken a position of non-acceptance and non-participation on the jurisdiction by the International Court of Arbitration in a case the Philippines has brought against China's claims to nearly all of the South China Sea, Abraham Denmark, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for East Asia, told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Quad is not against anyone, but for a rules-based international order and respect for sovereignty, in a veiled reference to China.
The trigger that led Japan and the Philippines to ink the deal was because of the deteriorating security situation in the South China Sea. China's coast guard increased the frequency and intensity of incursions into Philippine waters, provoking the Philippines to take countermeasures to deter China, explains Dr Rajaram Panda.
The Quad has come of age and its agenda covering areas like vaccines, climate change and emerging technologies makes it a force for global good, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the first summit of the coalition. In his opening remarks, he also talked about shared values and promoting a secure, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
In a surprise development, a top Chinese military general has cast aspersions on the People's Liberation Army (PLA)'s much-publicised 'real combat-oriented exercises' as 'fake combat capabilities' at a time when Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered it to prepare for 'maritime military struggles' to win wars.
India's 10-year bilateral contract with Iran for the operation of Chabahar Port is likely to bring in an investment of approximately $370 million. This comprises a direct investment of $120 million from India for infrastructure development and a $250 million line of credit to Iran, Business Standard has learnt. With the $120 million committed for port development, India is set to procure advanced equipment, such as rail-mounted quay cranes, rubber-tyred gantry cranes (also known as transtainers), reach stackers, and forklifts.
China has dispatched two of its maritime security vessels to patrol the waters of disputed islands in the Pacific Ocean, amid attempts by Japanese politicians to buy land there.
The world needs to wake up to this new dimension of war at sea and be prepared to face the 'unknown enemy' who have the advantage of attacking at their choice of location and time, cautions Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The India-US joint statement said as responsible stewards in the Indo-Pacific region, Trump and Modi agreed that a close partnership between the United States and India is central to peace and stability in the region.
With East Asian countries remaining locked in a tussle over mineral-rich South China Sea, India today said the dispute should not override the interests of the region and favoured an "open, inclusive and rule-based" architecture to govern the maritime region
Singh emphasised that the Indo-Pacific is no more a maritime construct, but a full-fledged geo-strategic issue, and that the region is facing "a complex web" of security challenges, including boundary disputes and piracy.
A state-run Chinese newspaper on Wednesdy included India among the nations which supported China's stand on the strategic South China Sea after Beijing rejected the verdict of a United Nations-backed tribunal that struck down the Communist giant's claims of "historical rights" in the disputed area.
China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific region, has been opposing the Quad alliance since its formation.
Xi, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, called the progress China had made under his watch "truly remarkable
Although the Malabar is a routine exercise which has been carried out for several years now, security experts attach a lot of traction to it in view of China's assertive behaviour in the South China Sea, observes Rup Narayan Das.
India skipped the Belt and Road Forum in May this year due to its sovereignty concerns.
Reports (not denied by India) that the USA had 'for the first time provided real-time details to their Indian counterparts on the Chinese positions and force strength in advance of a PLA incursion' into Tawang at the LAC in December 2022, helping India thwart China's expansionist designs, show how operationally effective the USA-India friendship has become on the ground. A engaging excerpt from Sreeram Chaulia's must-read new book, Friends: India's Closest Strategic Partners.
