With global attention focused on Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s territorial expansionism in Asia – especially its expanding border conflict with India – has largely fallen off the international community’s radar. Yet, in the vast glaciated heights of the Himalayas, the world’s demographic titans have been on a war footing for over two years, and the chances of violent clashes rise almost by the day.The confrontation began in May 2020.

When the Quad was first conceived as a strategic coalition of the Indo-Pacific’s four leading democracies, many doubted that it would amount to much.

The United States (US) government has once again accused government officials and security forces/services in countries like China, India, Russia, and even the Philippines, of committing human rights violations based on the recently released State Department’s 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. The report has once again accused China of "genocide and crimes against humanity” for its treatment of the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religi

The World Trade Organization (WTO) chief hailed Wednesday a breakthrough between the European Union (EU), the United States (US), India and South Africa on waiving intellectual property rights on COVID-19 vaccines.Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said the compromise was a big step forward in a bid to end the logjam at the global trade body.However, she cautioned that some of the details on waiving WTO rules on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) still needed to be fleshed out – a

India’s COVID-19 infections led by the Omicron variant may see a sharp rise in the coming weeks, some top experts say, noting that the variant is already in community transmission and hospitals are seeing more patients despite a decline in cases in major cities.India on Monday reported 306,064 new infections over the last 24 hours, the health ministry said, about an eight percent decline from the average daily cases reported in the last four days.

This was supposed to be the Asian century, with the ascent of China being only one – albeit a major – part of the story.

As the world’s largest, strongest, and longest-surviving dictatorship, contemporary China lacks the rule of law. Yet it is increasingly using its rubber-stamp parliament to enact domestic legislation asserting territorial claims and rights in international law.

On Tuesday, India reported 7,579 coronavirus cases - the lowest rise in 543 days, despite huge festival gatherings in recent weeks.“Even after [Hindu festival of] Diwali, we are not seeing a surge,” Dr M D Gupte, former director of National Institute of Epidemiology, was quoted as saying in media reports, attributing it mainly to the presence of antibodies in a huge majority of Indians through natural infection.“I think we are much safer now,” Gupte said.According to government surveys, nearl

United Nations (UN) climate change summit host Boris Johnson, on Sunday hailed a last-ditch agreement to tackle global warming but said he was disappointed it did not go further on tackling use of high-polluting coal.Nearly 200 countries on Saturday pledged to speed up the fight against rising temperatures, after two weeks of non-stop negotiations.British Prime Minister Johnson called the 11th-hour deal "truly historic" and said it signalled "the beginning of the end for coal p

After India’s recent defeat by Pakistan at the T20 World Cup cricket tournament, Indian bowler Mohammed Shami confronted vicious trolling on social media. It was the latest display of the Islamophobic bigotry that has consumed Indian society under the rule of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Shami had performed poorly in the match. But so had 10 other Indian players in the rout by Pakistan. Shami was singled out because he is Muslim.