Germany, France and the UK have voiced concern over China’s recent coastguard activities near Taiwan, warning they threaten regional stability and freedom of navigation. The U.S. also urged Beijing to reduce pressure on Taiwan.
Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS De Ruyter arrived in Kochi during an Indo-Pacific deployment alongside a senior Dutch naval delegation. The visit includes talks with the Indian Navy, training exchanges, shipyard visits and a PASSEX exercise.
INS Sahyadri has reached Manila after conducting drills with the Philippine Navy, as part of its ongoing Indo-Pacific deployment involving multiple bilateral and multilateral exercises.
India and the United States have signed a new ten-year framework to guide their major defence partnership, covering cooperation in technology, industry and military coordination, during a meeting at the ADMM-Plus in Kuala Lumpur, with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh saying the framework “will provide policy direction to the entire spectrum of the India-U.S. defence relationship.”
The U.S., Republic of Korea and Japan held their first-ever trilateral summit in a move towards a closer alliance against the security challenges posed by China and North Korea in the Indo-Pacific.
Ankit Panda, Senior Editor at The Diplomat reviews new constructs like the ‘Indo-Pacific’, the ‘Quad’ and Indo-U.S. relations with Saurabh Joshi at the Shangri-La Dialogue 2018.
