Central Asia & Caucasus Data

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.” Napoleon Bonaparte’s maxim may well have been in the minds of policymakers in Moscow and Beijing these past weeks, as the US war in Iran dragged on. And now that a 14-day ceasefire between Tehran and Washington is in effect – with both sides claiming The post Iran has weakened US in the great power game appeared first on Asia Times.

If you want to understand why the general election in Hungary April 12 will be geopolitically significant, and how today’s geopolitics are different from any previous time in the 80 years since World War II, you have only to learn which two governments have been openly supporting the incumbent Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban. Shockingly, The post Time to give the Trump-Putin-Orban axis a slap in the face appeared first on Asia Times.

China has staked roughly US$145 billion in investments and construction contracts across the Middle East, while Iranian oil alone accounts for 13–14% of its imports. Yet Beijing maintains no permanent military presence in the volatile region, with its only overseas base in Djibouti, thousands of miles away. The result is a structural mismatch at the The post China’s Middle East billions still woefully reliant on US gunboats appeared first on Asia Times.

The discovery of a suspected Chinese unmanned underwater vehicle (UUV) in the Lombok Strait is not a routine maritime incident. It is a breach of Indonesia’s strategic space. Found by a local fisherman inside Archipelagic Sea Lane II (ALKI II), the device — marked with “CSIC,” linking it to China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation — points The post Indonesia can’t stay silent on China’s UUV incursion appeared first on Asia Times.