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On January 6, Indonesia was admitted as a full member to Brics, a multinational bloc now comprising 10 key developing economies spanning Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. With the incorporation of the world’s fourth most populous nation, this burgeoning and loosely coordinated grouping features six out of the world’s 10 largest countries by population. […]
Pete Hegseth, US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of defence, told Congress on Tuesday that he would ensure the Pentagon recognised the Chinese Communist Party as “front and centre” among foreign threats to the US, in a confirmation hearing that largely focused on his character and past conduct. Hegseth refrained from surprising foreign policy […]
Indonesia has become the first Southeast Asian country to join Brics as a full member. Together with its Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) counterparts Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, Indonesia was invited last October to be a Brics “partner country”, a category created at the Kazan summit with a path to full membership. Among them, […]
China’s top envoy to Southeast Asia took a veiled swipe at US-led alliances in the Asia-Pacific, calling them ideology-based undermining of “peace and stability” in the South China Sea and East Asia regions. Hou Yanqi, China’s ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, referred to “Cold War mentality and geopolitical confrontation between major powers” […]