Author: Defenceline Webdesk

As tariffs once again become bargaining tools for major powers, one of ASEAN’s key weaknesses is the fragmentation of its market across national tariff regimes. The revival of the Common External Tariff (CET) proposal, rejected four decades ago, raises a fundamental question: can ASEAN move beyond a mere “collection of assembly hubs” to become a higher-value-added economic region and a negotiating actor in its own right? A Customs Union Proposal Rejected 40 Years Ago ASEAN’s economic integration has been built on the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA), agreed in 1992 and implemented through the Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme…

SINGAPORE – The first batch of Taiwan’s new-build Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 fighter jets have arrived on the island, the country’s military announced today. Taiwan’s Military News Agency reported that the two jets arrived at Chihhang Airbase near the eastern city of Taitung on Friday. Photos published by the agency showed the two single-seat F-16s carrying the serial numbers 6727 and 6728 landing at the base.  The jets are the first of 66 F-16 Block 70, which were ordered by Taiwan in 2019. The aircraft will join the Republic of China Air Force’s (ROCAF) 7th Tactical Fighter Wing based…

Footage from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) through September 2026 has shown the Pakistan Army and its paramilitary forces operating several types of light armoured vehicles (LAV), including Chinese Dongfeng designs. The Army’s US-origin MaxxPro mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles have also become a routine sight in the province’s counterinsurgency (COIN) operations. Most troop movements, however, still rely on soft-skin or lightly protected pickups. Locally sourced vehicles from Heavy Industries Taxila (HIT) remain scarce in the field. This tracker updates Quwa’s April retrospective on the Army’s LAV program and July brief on HIT’s wheeled armoured vehicle programs with the latest sightings, program status,…

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has replaced his foreign minister with a career diplomat, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw more than a dozen other posts change hands. In yesterday’s reshuffle, Prabowo appointed Arrmanatha Nasir, Indonesia’s former permanent representative to ‌the United Nations in New York, as the country’s new foreign minister. The outgoing foreign minister, Sugiono, was shifted to the post of coordinating minister for human development. In this latest change to his “Red and White Cabinet,” Prabowo appointed three new coordinating ministers and a new minister of industry. He also reshuffled a handful of deputy ministerial posts and leadership…

Last month, an Interagency Agreement (IAA) between the Department of War and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) became a political flashpoint. Stories raged of a “Pentagon cash grab,” of military plans to “tap huge sums,” and “outrage” over funneled research dollars. Ultimately, this was a misread of the situation. While it is understandable there would be concern about this administration’s handling of the NIH budget given previous cuts, these headlines mistook a legal, highly efficient acquisition mechanism as a hostile takeover. In truth, this kind of agreement is exactly what the United States government needs to be doing more…

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“What is the use of a fire brigade which vanishes from the scene as soon as the first smoke and flames appear?” asked Abba Eban, addressing an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly soon after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War had ended. In a fiery speech, the foreign minister of Israel lashed out at the U.N. for pulling peacekeeping troops out of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip.  The “disastrously swift” withdrawal, Eban argued, had endangered the “national survival” of the Jewish state. Israel’s Six-Day War was nevertheless a spectacular military success. The Israel Defense Forces neutralized three…

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WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has quietly replaced Marc Berkowitz as space policy czar, with his former deputy Michael Gancio now serving as acting assistant secretary. Gancio has a background in intelligence, according to his official DoD biography, most recently serving as an advisor to Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The decision wasn’t formally announced, although two sources said he left the position on Wednesday. As of Thursday, the Defense Department’s website had been updated to reflect the changeover; Berkowitz’s biography now shows he is the “former” assistant secretary, and Gancio’s lists him as…

President Vladimir Putin’s mid-August visit to the Kuril Islands, his first as Russia’s leader, inflamed a decades-old territorial dispute with Japan and drew worldwide attention to the two countries’ border in the northern Pacific. But over the past several years, Russian forces have been increasingly active far to the south, around Japan’s southwestern-most islands, in a demonstration of the Russian military’s reach and its willingness to challenge its rivals on its own and alongside China. The dispute centers on the southernmost islands in the Kuril chain, which Japan calls its Northern Territories and says the Soviets seized illegally after Tokyo’s…