Venus Upadhayaya
Venus Upadhayaya is a senior journalist and a 2025 MOFA Taiwan Fellow.
Rubio Emphasizes India-US Strategic Ties Ahead of QUAD Meeting
NEW DELHI — Secretary of State Marco Rubio is on his first official visit to India from May 23 to 26, meeting Indian leaders, visiting key U.S. diplomatic missions, and attending the QUAD foreign ministers’...
Xi-Putin Summit Underscores China-Russia Push for Multipolar World Order: Reports
Just days after the Trump-Xi summit in Beijing, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a high-profile bilateral summit in the Chinese capital on May 19 and 20. According to several expert...
India-Nordic Summit: $100 Billion Trade Framework to Boost Tech, Green Transition and Arctic Cooperation
Leaders from five Nordic countries — Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and Denmark — met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other Indian officials in Oslo on May 19 to deepen strategic and economic ties...
2026 Super El Niño Could Worsen Global Supply Disruptions and Food Insecurity
A powerful El Niño weather pattern associated with rising global temperatures and severe climate disruptions is expected to develop this year, leading to worries that the event — possibly the strongest since 1877 — could...
Trump’s Warning Against ‘Taiwan Independence’ Seen as Tactical Play in Talks With Beijing: Analysts
Update, May 20, 2026: This article has been updated to include comments by a highly placed Taiwanese source. U.S. President Donald Trump did not make any public comments on Taiwan during his recent visit to...
India, Japan Deepen Economic Security Ties With Focus on Semiconductors, Critical Minerals
India and Japan concluded their second Economic Security Dialogue on May 11, agreeing to strengthen industrial and technological cooperation in five key areas: critical minerals, semiconductors, information and communications technology (ICT) including AI and telecom,...
Balikatan Military Drills ‘Directly Relate to a Potential Contingency Involving Taiwan,’ Experts Say
The annual Balikatan military exercises between the United States and the Philippines expanded to an unprecedented scale in 2026, involving seven nations, 17,000 troops, and multiple observer countries. Analysts said the evolution of the drills...
Trump Concludes China Trip as Xi Outlines ‘Four Stabilities’ in Bilateral Ties
President Donald Trump concluded his more than 36-hour visit to Beijing on Friday, May 15, after holding discussions with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on a range of major issues, including Iran, Taiwan, energy supply routes,...
Pakistan’s Mediator Role Questioned After Report of Iranian Aircraft at Air Bases
Pakistan’s credibility as a mediator between the United States and Iran has come under scrutiny after a CBS report alleged that Islamabad quietly allowed Iranian military aircraft to station at its air bases, potentially shielding...
Pentagon Releases Decades of UFO Files After Trump Declassification Order
Nearly a month after President Donald Trump said his administration would release “very interesting” information on unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), the Pentagon on May 8 began publishing previously classified records related to alleged UFO sightings...
Balikatan 2026 South China Sea Exercises Highlight Growing Indo-Pacific Integrated Deterrence
The 19-day Balikatan multinational military exercises, which concluded in the Philippine archipelago and the South China Sea on May 8 (Friday), reflected the growing emphasis on multi-domain coordinated deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region, according to...
US Trade Court Blocks Trump’s Global 10% Tariffs in Win for Small Businesses
A U.S. trade court has ruled against President Donald Trump’s temporary 10 percent global tariffs imposed under a 1970s trade law, delivering a legal victory to small businesses and several U.S. states challenging the measures....