During World War II Japan found that control of islands offered some strategic advantages, but not enough to force the United States to reduce each island individually. Moreover, over time the islands became a strategic liability, as Japan struggled to keep them supplied with food, fuel and equipment. The islands of the SCS are conveniently […]

  Duterte needs one eye on Beijing while dealing with Rosneft, observers say The Philippines is following Vietnam in courting Russia as an oil and gas exploration partner in the South China Sea, where China also lays claim to the waters. Observers said that while relations with Beijing are high on President Vladimir Putin’s agenda […]

  Before he ended his official visit in Russia last Saturday, President Rodrigo Duterte received a doctorate’s degree in diplomacy, an honoris causa conferred upon him by the Moscow State Institute of International Relations University. This was the first honorary degree that the 74-year-old President Duterte ever accepted. The honorary degree on diplomacy is quite […]

  “WHO LOST China?” With the fall of the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek, the defeat of his armies and the flight to Formosa, that was the question of the hour in 1949. And no one demanded to know more insistently than the anti-Communist Congressman John F. Kennedy: “Whatever share of the responsibility was Roosevelt’s […]

  MOSCOW – President Duterte has found an ally in Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in his view against antagonizing China over concerns that would affect their dealings with Beijing. “I cannot fight China. It would be a war which I can never win,” the President said during his speech before the Filipino community here […]

  In a recent article (A tweet is just a tweet, Sept. 16), we used parts of the song “As time goes by” to describe the US-China trade war. On the surface, the US-China conflict appears to be a tariff battle. However, upon closer observation, one can see that it goes beyond the trade war. […]

  President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday reiterated that the Philippines cannot assert its rights in the disputed West Philippine Sea with China because it is like a war that the country “can never win.” “I cannot fight China. It would be a war which I can never win […] I do not have the might,” […]

  AS SOUTH CHINA SEA tensions continue to escalate between Beijing and Vietnam, an expert has revealed how the Philippines has employed to try and assert its own dominance on the disputed territory. Dr Namrata Goswami, Senior Analyst and Author, argues that Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte could be playing Russia against China, and both nations […]

  Hong Kong (CNN)As China paraded some of its most powerful weaponry during celebrations marking the Communist state’s 70th anniversary on Tuesday, the United States Navy tested its newest piece of firepower in the Pacific. In the waters off Guam, the USS Gabrielle Giffords fired off a Naval Strike Missile (NSM), a sea-skimming cruise missile […]

  MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines and the United States should revise its 1951 Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) to counter China’s actions in the disputed South China Sea, analysts said. Adrien Chorn and Monica Michiko Sato of the CSIS Southeast Asia Program noted that the existing treaty between the two countries is not clear on […]