New Delhi / AFP US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and his Indian counterpart agreed on Tuesday to strengthen their cooperation on maritime security, as concerns grow in Washington over Beijing’s growing military ambitions. Carter is in New Delhi to bolster a strategic relationship Washington considers crucial in the face of what it sees as China’s rising assertiveness, particularly in the ...

BEIRUT / AP Pro-government forces in Syria launched an offensive on Tuesday to retake a strategic hilltop village south of Aleppo from insurgents, including Al-Qaida’s local affiliate. Al-Manar TV, run by Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces, reported the offensive to retake Tel Al Ais. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist-run monitoring group, ...

Libreville / AFP The number of children used by Nigeria’s Boko Haram to stage suicide bombings has risen more than 10-fold in one of the most “horrific” aspects of the insurgency, the United Nations said on Tuesday. Experts said the group, which has been weakened by a multinational military offensive, is now trying to spread terror by using children for ...

As Republicans head toward what could be a stalemated convention, they might recall how the party healed itself in 1952 in what was known as the “winter of discontent.” The Republicans drafted a military leader, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, as their presidential candidate. The looming showdown between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz is a potential “train wreck,” to quote my ...

In its drive to diversify economy, the UAE’s government has outlined several strategies, notably the scheme to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by giving foreign investors attractive incentives. Annual Investment Meeting (AIM), a world leading emerging markets’ FDI platform, is being held in Dubai within this context. It connects the top FDI investors, experts, and practitioners in the world. The ...

Brennan O’Connor SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS Investor confidence in the long-delayed Dawei special economic zone (DSEZ) is growing after Japan signed on as a third equal partner with Myanmar and Thailand this December. Japan’s backing may finally kick start construction of the billion dollar project that has been crippled by funding shortfalls since 2013. If it’s ever finished, the deep-seaport ...

In a number of recent discussions I’ve been a part of, “nationalism” has been repeatedly raised to describe China’s policies toward its territorial disputes with its neighbors. Also, this term has often appeared in international media stories about China’s stance in the East and South China Seas disputes. The idea is that “nationalism” is unnecessarily — or even dangerously — ...

One hopes that Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe enjoyed their meeting last week with Barack Obama, because the show of unity that the South Korean, Japanese, and U.S. leaders displayed in opposition to North Korea’s nuclear defiance would simply not be possible in a hypothetical Trump administration. Instead, Donald Trump, the front-runner to serve as the Republican candidate in this ...

Mariah A.V. Hays / Hannah E. Haegeland SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The fourth and likely final Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) again highlighted the greatest security threat to the world: nuclear terrorism. U.S. President Barack Obama and other world leaders in the Summit have consistently championed the “central and unique role“ of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as the lead ...

BLOOMBERG Stocks rose with commodities, while the yen and government bonds slipped, as oil’s advance above $40 a barrel boosted economic optimism. The MSCI All-Country World Index pared gains after the International Monetary Fund cut its global expansion forecast. Metals prices jumped, helping push the Bloomberg Commodity Index to the highest this month. The yen fell versus most of its ...