For many United States (US) allies, Secretary of Defense James Mattis is the last of the Trump administration’s so-called grownups in the room. At Asia’s main annual security forum he got a warm reception for his firm defense of the rules-based order the US helped to build after World War II.Increasingly, though, Mattis’s reassurance is not enough.

United States (US) Defense Secretary James Mattis described India as the “fulcrum’’ of security in the Indo-Pacific region as he traveled this week to an annual security conference in Singapore, attended for the first time by an Indian leader.But if Mattis was hoping that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would use the platform to join the US, Japan and Australia - a grouping known as the Quad - in a more muscular challenge to China’s regional expansion, he was disappointed.

The on-again, off-again summit between United States (US) President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un now appears increasingly likely to take place but it’s not yet clear what kind of agreement, if any, the two leaders will be able to reach.North Korea has ruled out the so-called “Libya model” where it loads its nuclear program onto planes bound for the US right away, with Kim saying Thursday the issue should be “solved on a stage-by-stage basis.” Trump insists that the end goa

The once irrefutable fact that North Korea is closed from others across the globe is now a thing of the past. Akin to a persona non grata before, the country is now slowly turning heads and is aiming to be accepted by the international community.

United States (US) President Donald Trump pivoted from his abrupt cancellation of a planned summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying it may still happen on the originally scheduled 12 June date.Trump told reporters on his way to board the presidential helicopter that US officials are in talks with North Korea after the country’s “very nice statement” on Friday.“We are talking to them now,” Trump said Friday, adding that the summit with Kim may proceed and “it could even be the 12th

Thailand is the only country in Southeast Asia to have never been colonised. It is perhaps a testament to the strength and resilience of the country in doing away with any foreign interference on its shores. However, Thailand has had interactions with colonial powers before, as can be seen when the United States of America (US) established relations with then Siam in 1818. The Treaty of Amity and Commerce, which formalised diplomatic relations, was also signed by both countries in 1833.

As Muslims around the globe usher in the holy month of Ramadan, an all-too familiar narrative rears its head once again.

Southeast Asia has been a significant venue for strategic competition between the United States (US) and China for a long time. The great power tussle between the two is best conceptualised in the dual hierarchy model posited by Princeton University Professor of International Affairs, Gilford John Ikenberry.

Last month, US President Donald Trump enacted steel and aluminum tariffs aimed squarely at China. On April 2, China retaliated with tariffs on 128 American products. Trump then announced 25% tariffs on another 1,300 Chinese products, representing some $50 billion of exports.

At approximately 4 a.m. Syrian time, a unilateral US-led effort joined by the French and British, launched more than 100 missiles towards the Syrian capital of Damascus. The primary targets – two chemical weapons storage and production sites and another research facility said to be involved in the development of chemical weapons. The strikes come as a response to the alleged chemical weapons attack by the ruling regime, on civilians in the Damascus enclave of Douma.