Amid tensions in South China Sea, Modi and Prabowo reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, stability, maritime safety and security, freedom of navigation and over-flight in the region and other lawful use of the sea, including unimpeded lawful maritime commerce. In a joint statement issued a day after the bilateral meeting, th

Defence cooperation is being expanded as both India and Indonesia find synergy in the wake of the need to establish peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. A high-level delegation from Indonesia is likely to visit India soon to fast-track defence collaboration following the ratification of a bilateral defence cooperation agreement. Prime Mi

addition to structural issues that would be challenging to deal with overnight, the PRC is unlikely to be interested in breeding mercenary formations that would drastically degrade its international image and cause problems domestically. More likely, the PRC may continue with the approach that some of its PSCs take in Sub-Saharan Africa, MENA, and

Even though Chinese PSCs are not supposed to be armed on the continent, they often collaborate with local security groups to provide armed protection to assets, leading many Africans to still have a negative image of them. On the continent, there have been controversies with Chinese PSCs, such as incidents in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, and Uganda, wh

a legal point of view, it is difficult to clearly define these groups, with their official status being “volunteers,” which operate under the umbrella of the Russian MoD but whose ultimate allegiance remains somewhat blurred (see EDM, April 4, 9, 16, 30, 2024). The internal and external factors of how Russian PMCs operate highlight general feat