India's defense minister said his country's growing defense ties with Southeast Asia are not meant to counter China, ahead of a meeting yesterday with his Malaysian counterpart.
The defense links are part of India's "Look East" policy to expand trade and other ties with the 10-country ASEAN, Indian Defense Minister A.K. Antony told reporters after he arrived in Malaysia on Sunday for a three-day visit.
India, a former ally of the former Soviet Union, had long paid little attention to Southeast Asia in its foreign and defense policy. But with India becoming a major economic power, New Delhi has established closer defense ties with the US, as well as its allies in Asia.
Antony said India's trading activity has expanded hugely in Southeast Asia over the past few years.
Most of the trade -- including oil deliveries -- goes by sea, and maritime security is paramount for India and its neighbors, he said.
"We are all interdependent. To us, the sea is really important. The Indian Ocean is very important," Antony said.
"We feel there is immense potential for ASEAN countries and India to work together in many fields" including defense, he said.
However, he rejected suggestions that India's "Look East" policy was meant to counter its main rival China's immense political, economic and strategic influence over the region.
"We are not entering into any kind of military alliance with any country," said Antony, who was scheduled to meet with Malaysian Defense Minister Najib Razak and Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar on Monday. He leaves for India today.
"India's Look East policy is nothing against China," he said, adding that New Delhi's rapidly warming ties with Washington also are not "at the expense of any old friends."
Indian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Najib Razak said yesterday that Malaysia has awarded a US$1.08 billion railway contract to an Indian company.
While the contract awarded to the Indian Railway Construction Co is not related to defense, it is a reflection of the growing ties between the two countries in all fields, Antony said.
"This is a signal that they are encouraging Indian investment. That means all-round [cooperation]: defense, trade, commerce, education, health services," he told reporters.
The two sides said a 31-member Indian Air Force team will arrive in Malaysia next month to train pilots on Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 MKM fighter jets -- a rare foreign project by the Indian armed forces.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
RSS