US President Donald Trump on Monday demanded that Iran compensate the victims of attacks, conflicts and domestic repression he blamed on Tehran, adding a new condition to negotiations over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. The demand came after Iran reiterated that Washington must compensate it for damage caused by more than five months of US and Israeli strikes before the strategic waterway can be fully reopened. “It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from...

The China-India-Pakistan triangle has never been short on danger, but Islamabad’s new defensive alliance has added another variable to an already volatile situation. Last week, Pakistan, Turkey and Saudi Arabia signed a pact in Mecca in which they agreed to treat an armed attack on one as an attack on all. The three governments have described it as defensive and not directed at any particular state. Analysts said its main significance for India lay less in whether it would be invoked, but in how...

Beijing is stepping up efforts to challenge the Western concept of the “tribute system”, arguing that foreign frameworks distort ancient Chinese diplomacy and misrepresent the country’s contemporary global rise. China is redoubling efforts to define its own practices, experiences and ideas through original, home-grown social science language rather than through what it says are Western conceptual lenses. The theory was forged and made popular in the US decades ago as a means to interpret both...

The head of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Department, Liu Haixing, hailed China and Cuba as “good brothers” during a meeting with Cuban officials in Havana, in a show of solidarity as Washington ramps up pressure on the island. According to an official Chinese readout, Liu on Sunday held talks with Emilio Lozada Garcia, the Communist Party of Cuba’s international relations chief, describing China and Cuba as “good friends, good comrades and good brothers” and saying ties were at an...

New Delhi has issued names for 27 locations in Arunachal Pradesh on its official maps, including sensitive sites near the disputed border with China, in a move that an analyst warned could complicate efforts to repair bilateral ties. The Indian government announced the move on Friday, just a day after officials from the two countries held a working-level consultation in New Delhi to discuss border management and reaffirm the need for peace along the Line of Actual Control. Beijing has long...

Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey signed a Nato-like defence agreement in Mecca as the United States’ war on Iran prompts countries in the region to rethink security arrangements. The Mecca Joint Defence Agreement stipulates that “any armed attack against any one of the three states shall be regarded as an attack against them all”, the three countries said in a joint statement. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz...