China’s top diplomat Wang Yi sought guarantees of freedom and safety of international navigation through the Strait of Hormuz in a phone call with his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, on Wednesday. The call marked Beijing’s latest diplomacy effort on the Iran war as a US naval blockade of Iranian ports intensifies global energy disruptions and adds uncertainty in the Strait ...

China has issued its first map pinpointing seabed chemical elements in the country’s eastern waters as Japan also races to tap undersea rare earth resources and deep-sea minerals. The Chinese Ministry of Natural Resources published the results of marine geological surveys over the past two decades for the seas, state broadcaster CCTV reported on Tuesday. The result was an atlas ...

US military leaders painted a picture of Chinese military threats, spanning Taiwan and space, as they briefed Congress on the military readiness for the financial year 2027 on Wednesday. The People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) “invasion rehearsals and live-fire exercises near Taiwan and around the region” had illustrated “the need for combat-ready naval forces in the Indo-Pacific”,...

A stretch of awkward diplomacy is unfolding in the Indo-Pacific. After India’s 2025 term as the Quad’s rotating chair ended without a leaders’ summit, New Delhi is planning to host a foreign ministers’ meeting that could be framed as a leaders-level discussion, even if the top leaders do not attend, according to two people familiar with the matter. The move is seen as a way to e...

Washington’s senior envoys to the United Nations took a victory lap in Senate testimony on Wednesday over the US-inspired cuts and efficiency drive at the multilateral agency, even as they slammed its inability to end the conflict in Ukraine, stem the Iran war started by the US and Israel or curb China’s growing clout. Mike Waltz, US ambassador to the UN, touted the US$570 milli...