Japan’s ruling party voted for Fumio Kishida to replace PM Suga. PM Suga will be stepping down after serving only for a year since taking office last September. Fumio Kishida was Japan’s former Foreign Minister who won the governing party leadership election on Wednesday. He will be the next Prime Minister facing the imminent task of addressing a pandemic hit economy. He will also be responsible to ensure a strong alliance with Washington to counter increasing regional security risks. Mr. Kishida is the new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, beats the popular Vaccination Minist
On Tuesday, North Korea fired an unidentified projectile towards the sea off its east coast. Amid Pyongyang’s, South Korea’s military said that the United States and South Korea called for a scrap of their “hostile policy”. Further details were not provided by South Korea and Japan’s defense ministry said it appeared to be a ballistic missile and failed to give detailed information. Just before the announcement, North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations appealed to the United States to abandon its hostile policy towards Pyongyang and to cease denying Pyongyang's right to sel
In Germany’s national election, the center-left Social Democrats have won the biggest share of the vote ever. They narrowly beat outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Union bloc. Olaf Scholz is the Social Democrats candidate who is the outgoing vice-chancellor and finance minister who pulled his party out of deep fall. He said the outcome was “a very clear mandate to ensure now that we put together a good, pragmatic government for Germany”. Merkel will stay in as a caretaker role till the new successor is sworn in. The Union bloc said that it will reach out to the smalle
As Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s government moves closer to the United States and its allies, India’s long-haul military is getting a new life. These US allies will strengthen their defense cooperation against China. On Friday, Mr. Modi is scheduled to attend the quad leaders meeting with Australian and Japanese leaders at the White House. In the meeting, they will be undertaking the largest reorganization of the Indian army since its Independence in 1947. It will be with little coordination as the US and UK will be working with Australia to place more nuclear-powered submarines i
On Thursday, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken after speaking with Pakistan, China, and Russia said that he believed the world was united by pressing the Taliban. He mentioned them as key players with Afghanistan’s new rulers. The Secretary of State told the reporters that he thinks there is a very strong unity of approach and unity of purpose. Blinken met with his Pakistani counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and held talks on Wednesday evening with ministers of China, Russia, and the other four Security Council veto-wielding nations. As part of its claim to l
On Thursday, Australia announced the pursuit of nuclear submarines and the start of the AUKUS cooperation group between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, aimed at promoting information exchange and further cooperation between Canberra's strategic partners. This deal is likely to have serious consequences for Canberra's neighbors, especially Indonesia. The Australia-Indonesia relationship has continued to grow despite periodic disruptions. On September 9, both sets of foreign and defense ministers met in Jakarta for the seventh "2+2" meeting to upgrade the bilateral agre
The US has ruled out including India or Japan in the newly formed trilateral security partnership with Australia and Britain. The Indo-Pacific region is ready to face the challenges of the 21st century. The joint formation of the trilateral security alliance AUKUS was announced on September 15 by US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and British Prime Minister Borris Johnson. The AUKUS alliance allows Australia to get a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines for the first time. On Wednesday, at a press conference, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that
South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) held a meeting of its ministers that was scheduled in New York. According to a source on Saturday, the meeting is a sideline of the high-level 76th United Nations General Assembly session that was canceled. The member-states reportedly disagreed on Afghanistan’s participation with Pakistan’s support. Pakistan insisted that the Taliban should be allowed to represent Afghanistan. With the disapproval of the proposal, India and other members objected that led the meeting to be annulled. Nepal was the host for the meeting that saw a
On Tuesday, the United States President Joe Biden in the UN General Assembly used his first address to declare that the world stands at an “inflection point in history”. He said that it needs to move quickly and cooperatively to address the festering issues of the pandemic, climate change, and human rights abuse. Biden asserted that the US is “not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs” amid the growing China tensions. He did not mention China directly but acknowledged increasing concerns regarding the growing tensions between the two nations. The president of t
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was raised to power again but failed to gain majority seats. The party got the most seats as compared to other parties but the results were similar to the election two years back. The party was leading with 157 seats which were the same as their win in 2019. According to a report, they were short by 170 seats to win a majority in the House of Commons. With 121 seats, the conservatives were elected which was again similar to their number in 2019. With 29 seats, the leftist New Democrats were leading with a gain of five seats. Quebec-based Bl