On May 21, 2025, Indian security forces killed Nambala Keshava Rao, known as Basavaraju. He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) banned in the forests of Chhattisgarh. In November, its top military commander, Madvi Hidma, was also eliminated. Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 30, 2026 said in Parliament that India had achieved a virtually Naxal-free India. Long a political ambition, it now constitutes a real operational reality. The numbers are striking. At its peak in 2011, the Maoist insurgency had affected 223 districts across 20 states. As of April 2026, only two districts…
Author: Frank M. Everett
Last year, as part of China’s 15th Arctic expedition, two of China’s manned submersibles, the Fendouzhe and the Jiaolong, carried out what the Chinese news agency Xinhua described as “joint underwater operations” or manned dives under the Arctic ice. This was the first time China had done something like this. For these dives, China brought two of its deep-sea research vessels to the region, which acted as motherships for submersibles. These submersibles then made more than 40 dives over a 56-day period in the central Arctic Ocean, some together and some separately. As we discussed in a longer dissertation on…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the G7 meeting in France on June 17 was expected to stabilize relations that have been troubled over the past year. Trump praised Modi effusively. He told reporters that the two leaders shared “great relations” and that India had “a great friend in the White House” for as long as he was president. However, there is little reason for India to believe that India-US relations will return to the strong partnership that existed before Trump returned for his second term. Trump reassured India of its defense…
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Russia pledged yesterday to expand cooperation on trade, energy and security when they met for a special summit in Kazan. Leaders from 10 of ASEAN’s 11 member states attended the ASEAN-Russia Commemorative Summit, intended to mark the 35th anniversary of relations between Russia and the Southeast Asian bloc. A number of them also held sideline meetings with President Vladimir Putin, who co-chaired the summit with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who currently holds the rotating presidency of ASEAN. Due to its exclusion from high-level ASEAN meetings, Myanmar was represented by a Foreign…
It’s not every day that a public official (or more precisely, their proxies) spends hundreds of thousands of dollars to convince Washington that they should not be treated as a threat actor. According to recent reports, that is exactly what Cambodian Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Sar Sokha did, hiring two U.S. law firms to prevent his designation under U.S. sanctions authorities. But the story has an additional strange twist. Sokha’s concern stems from his inclusion in the HR 5490 sanctions list, which is part of bipartisan legislation introduced in September 2025 to target Southeast Asia’s fraudulent economy. Section…
Global index provider MSCI delivered another negative verdict on the Indonesian economy yesterday, citing concerns over market accessibility, particularly the lack of transparent and reliable inventory data. In its annual Global Market Accessibility Report, MSCI lowered Indonesia’s information flow benchmark to negative, reflecting “structural issues related to opaque shareholding structures and concerns over coordinated trading.” The index provider said these issues “undermine adequate price formation” and impact investors’ ability to “assess true free float and rely on observed market prices for portfolio construction and index replication.” The move comes just a week before MSCI announces its decision on whether to…
Donald Trump has always suffered from Obama Derangement Syndrome because Donald Trump has always felt inferior to Obama, which must create quite a conflict in a mind that seems to have been poisoned by racism and hatred from a very young age.It was fitting that Trump struck a subpar deal with Iran around the same time as the opening ceremony of the Obama Presidential Center was taking place. PolitcusUSA is 100% independent news and opinion. Support us by becoming a subscriber.Trump has lived in Obama’s shadow since the start of his first administration in 2017, and he was once again…
Mortal clashes Tensions between protesters and security forces in Pakistan-administered Kashmir this month highlighted widespread public discontent in the territory and highlighted Islamabad’s continued overreach into the territory. The violent crackdown by the Pakistani state following popular demands for governance reform in the semi-autonomous region has killed at least 15 people, creating a political crisis in Islamabad and prompting the international community to conviction. On the eve of the legislative elections scheduled for the end of July, the unrest in Pakistani-administered Kashmir constitutes a significant domestic challenge for the Pakistani government, which cannot count on any diplomatic effort. activism or…
The wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran are painful reminders of how rare and difficult it is for conflicting parties to reconcile. When President José Ramos-Horta of Timor-Leste spoke at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 30 about what the world must do to achieve peace, his words carried particular weight given his country’s history. Just nine days after East Timor declared independence from Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, Indonesia invaded the new country and occupied it for 24 years, until October 1999. This occupation and the resulting conflict between Indonesia and Timor led to significant civilian casualties. The…
India’s joint air defense doctrine was released on May 29 by Chief of Defense Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan, a day before his retirement. The launch of this doctrine in the aftermath of the May 2025 crisis, which India called “Operation Sindoor” and Pakistan calls “Marka-e-Haq”, reflects the importance New Delhi attaches to integrated air and missile defense in the era of contactless warfare. The doctrine reflects India’s growing desire to adapt its military posture to strengthen its preparedness for limited conventional conflicts and enhance synergy between its three militaries. The doctrine was also unveiled less than a year after…