Author: Defenceline Webdesk

On September 16, Tajikistan’s lower house of parliament considered a draft resolution on withdrawing from the International Criminal Court (ICC) at an extraordinary session. The parliamentary press service reported only that “corresponding decisions were taken,” naming neither the sponsor nor the rationale and saying nothing about a plenary vote. The domestic steps required for the withdrawal under Tajik law have not been made public. Internationally, Article 127 of the Rome Statute requires written notification to the U.N. secretary general, with withdrawal taking effect one year later; the U.N. treaty database still lists Tajikistan as a state party. Tajikistan’s ICC membership…

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung blamed his own shortcomings for a steep loss of public support. His approval rating fell to 37 percent in a Gallup Korea poll released that morning, the lowest level since he took office in June 2025. At a standing news conference at the presidential Blue House on September 18, Lee described the decline as puzzling at first.  “In the end, I came to think that all of it, taken together, was because of my own shortcomings,” Lee said. And in opening remarks, he noted that he had been flustered by the disappointment that followed the…

On September 20, North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area on its east coast, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The first, detected around 3 p.m. KST, flew about 450 kilometers (280 miles). The second, fired about 5:50 p.m. KST, flew more than 600 kilometers (373 miles). Both are presumed to be from the Hwasong-11 series. It was North Korea’s second missile launch in eight days. On September 12, one day after the Japan-South Korea-U.S. Freedom Edge exercise ended, North Korea fired several short-range ballistic missiles from the same area, which it described as…

When Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Egypt from September 1-2, much of the international attention focused on the security and geopolitical significance of the moment. The visit came amid continued instability across the Middle East and was widely interpreted in the context of China’s expanding regional engagement and growing diplomatic role in an area historically shaped by significant U.S. involvement.  Security considerations are undoubtedly an important dimension of the relationship. Yet they are not the only lens through which to understand China-Egypt ties. Egypt’s importance in Africa-China relations is also rooted in the longevity of its diplomatic ties with China.…

Republicans are still pushing for a record-setting $1.5 trillion defense budget, but the way ahead on Capitol Hill is not yet clear. Source link

Since the signing of the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement (MJDA) in mid-August, the pact’s founding members – i.e., Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Türkiye – have faced tests from Iran and Yemen that increasingly suggest this new regional framework is likely to fail. Granted, one could foresee that the MJDA would not lead to joint combat operations (e.g., due to the absence of inter-services integration, expeditionary assets, and/or no joint headquarters or imperative for active wartime coalitions). However, that in itself was not the MJDA’s gap; rather, as with the bilateral Saudi-Pakistani defence framework before it, it was the lack of…

In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. military’s future in Hawai‘i has become a topic of growing debate given the upcoming expiration of leases for around 46,000 acres of military base land. The armed forces leased the lands from the state of Hawai‘i in the 1960s for 65 years at a token fee of $1. The leases start expiring in 2028. Some unsurprisingly want to see these territories returned. The U.S. military played a key role in seizing indigenous lands after overthrowing the Hawaiian monarchy in the 19th century. The military still occupies around 25 percent of the…

The United States has demonstrated impressive combat power in the conflict with Iran. And yet, when Iranian authorities shut down the country’s internet and communications earlier this year during the nationwide anti-regime protests and Operation Epic Fury, the US was unprepared to help Iranian civilians combat their government’s repressive tactics.  That remains a flaw in America’s ongoing campaign and should be one of the key takeaways from the Iran conflict. The US government must take steps to avoid repeating these shortcomings and develop plans to enable civilians to freely communicate in any country where a shutdown is possible. The internet…

After the significant mass uprising of 2024, Bangladesh has had two governments, yet there has still been no bilateral visit between the heads of government of Bangladesh and India. A possible India visit by Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Tarique Rahman came under discussion ahead of the recently held BRICS summit. In the end, neither the Bangladeshi prime minister nor any representative from Dhaka attended the summit in New Delhi.  It could be said that Bangladesh’s absence from the BRICS summit came amid a broader recalibration of Dhaka-Delhi relations following the 2024 political transition. After the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-led government assumed…

WASHINGTON — The Navy has tapped a captain, rather than an admiral, to be its next chief of information to oversee the service’s public affairs programs. Capt. Tamara Lawrence, the current acting chief of information, will take over the post, where she will be “instrumental in shaping how the Navy communicates, now and into the future,” Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao said in a statement on Friday. “I have the utmost confidence in her ability to impact the service in such positive and lasting ways, and I am excited to watch her in action,” Cao said. Lawrence graduated from Duke…