Author: Defenceline Webdesk

When a massive flood hit Nepal on August 26, Nepali social media split almost immediately into two camps of grief and anger. One camp blamed the government of China, saying hundreds of Nepalis – over 1,400 as of the last count – died because the warning had simply failed. Commentators accused China of sitting on satellite and disaster monitoring data that could have bought Nepal precious minutes of warning.  A second, more painful narrative came from survivors and local officials themselves: yes, the word had reached them that flood was coming down. There simply wasn’t enough time to react before…

Two leading U.S. congressmen have called on the Trump administration to undertake further investigations into Southeast Asia’s scam industry, claiming that government-led crackdowns are leaving many important enablers untouched. The request was conveyed in a letter by Brian Mast (R-FL), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the Select Committee on China, dated Tuesday. In the letter, which was addressed to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, the pair requested further actions to combat scam operations in Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar. In particular, Mast and Moolenaar requested a…

On September 15, PNS Hunain, a Pakistan Navy corvette, collided with an Indian Navy warship, INS Kolkata, in the north Arabian Sea, 220 kilometers east of Oman. The following day, India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned Pakistan’s top-most diplomat in New Delhi, Chargé d’Affaires Saad Ahmad Warraich, to the foreign ministry to protest the “unacceptable and unprofessional conduct” of ​Pakistani naval units. “While the incident, which took place in international waters, did not cause any major damage, the conduct of the Pakistani naval ship was in direct contravention of Article 10 of the Agreement between India and Pakistan on…

Live fire test of a new soveriegn British turbojet engine developed in seven months. Credit: Crown copyright / UK Ministry of Defence. The UK is working with a local metals start-up, Alloyed, to develop a family of turbojet engines This new engine family will offer between 30 and 2,000 newtons of thrust Small engine development will allow the UK to fill an enduring capability gap, allowing the country to accelerate the production of UAS and cruise missiles in a time of crisis The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced it has rapidly delivered a new turbojet engine family with the…

It has been a year since Nepal’s 2025 Gen Z uprising. It was spontaneous. No one could have predicted that a youth-led protest whose demands centered on good governance and reversal of a social media ban would turn so deadly, resulting in 76 deaths. Within two days, the old political establishment had been swept aside, leaving the country in a political vacuum. The then prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, had to literally run for his life. The uprising brought to the fore its own set of leaders. They were young, ambitious, and passionate, and untested politically — and this lack…

India hosted the 18th BRICS Summit with considerable success and impact. This year’s summit generated consensus on several major issues that concern not only BRICS members but also much of the world beyond the U.S.-dominated West. In the wake of this summit, one can legitimately argue that BRICS is emerging as a formidable grouping capable of challenging the global hegemony of the United States and the G7. More importantly, it is evolving into a global platform that can help its members move, as India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi put it, from being “rule takers” to becoming “rule makers.” India achieved…

China’s recent 8th Silk Road Maritime International Cooperation Forum kept the spotlight on Chinese overseas ports, a subject of continuing attention in the news, among think tanks, and in scholarly circles. Although the bulk of commentary emphasizes a geopolitical angle, others devote attention to the economic value of China’s overseas ports presence, especially in countries that have welcomed Chinese investors, contractors, and terminal operators. Among other gains, they expect greater connectivity, employment growth, and shifts to higher value-added activities.  For its part, China touts economic returns from its ports such as higher transport volumes, increased exports, and workforce development in…

Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang military exercises were difficult for ordinary citizens to ignore this year. Mobile internet was deliberately slowed for 30 minutes to simulate wartime communications disruptions. Troops barricaded Guangfu Bridge, a key route connecting New Taipei City with the capital, setting up metal barriers and barbed wire as they rehearsed stopping enemy forces from advancing into Taipei. Hospitals also practiced moving medical operations underground as part of exercises designed to keep essential services running during a conflict. These scenes showed how Taiwan’s preparations for a possible war are moving beyond conventional military exercises and increasingly into the spaces…

Pakistan’s Global Industrial & Defence Solutions (GIDS) has begun marketing upstream inputs for use in third-party loitering munitions (LM) and drones. At its pavilion at the 2026 African Aerospace and Defence exhibition (AAD 2026), GIDS is showing the BMS-123 rocket booster motor, a booster motor connector, a loitering munition warhead and a range of fuzes. These inputs are not as attention-grabbing as major platforms such as the Shahpar-3 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), but they signal a shift in how GIDS – the commercial arm of the National Engineering and Scientific Commission (NESCOM) – is approaching the global loitering munition and…

Headlines have for years been touting the emergence of Asia as a global powerhouse in data center development. The nature of headlines is that all too often they prove to be horrendously wrong in the long or even the short run – but when it comes to data centers in Southeast Asia, they are repeatedly getting validated.  The Asia-Pacific’s data center development pipeline reached a record 26.5 GW in the first half of 2026. Southeast Asia accounts for roughly half of the capacity under construction: Malaysia leads with 1,039 MW, followed by Thailand with 859 MW.  All this investment is…