Indo-Pacific

NATO Reduces Scope of Its Afghanistan Plans

By Thom Shanker, New York Times

After months of tense negotiations over the size and role of a postwar presence in Afghanistan, senior North Atlantic Treaty Organization officials say they are planning a more minimalist mission

China: Don’t Politicize Turkey Missile Deal

By Christopher Bodeen, AP

China said Friday that a controversial proposal to sell a Chinese missile defense system to U.S. ally and NATO member Turkey should not be politicized.

Workshop Focuses on Extended Deterrence in Northeast Asia

On October 24, the Atlantic Council hosted the second not-for-attribution workshop on extended deterrence in Northeast Asia with leading experts in the field, moderated by Barry Pavel, vice president and director of the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security of the Atlantic Council, and Kurt Campbell, chairman and chief executive officer of the Asia Group […]

Ambassador: US ‘Very Concerned’ About Turkey-China Missile Deal

By Today's Zaman and Hurriyet Daily News

From Today’s Zaman: The United States is very concerned about a missile deal between Turkey and China, US Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone has said.

High North or High Tension?

By James Stavridis, Foreign Policy

The recent rise in tension in Russia’s relationship with the other Arctic front-line states — all of which happen to be in NATO — doesn’t help.

Turkish PM Rebukes NATO over China Missile Deal Criticism

By Hurriyet Daily News and Anadolu Agency

From Hürriyet Daily News:  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rebuffed intensified international criticism over Turkey’s choice to agree a missile defense deal with China, a day after NATO declared that it wanted a say in the decision-making process.

Turkey’s Chinese Missile Buy Overshadows NATO Meeting

By Brooks Tigner, IHS Jane's Defence Weekly

Senior NATO diplomats have again stressed that Turkey’s intention to buy a Chinese air defence system must not put its interoperability links to the alliance in question

Moving Out of Af-Pak

By Sherry Rehman

Tomorrow Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, will meet President Barack Obama in Washington, to signal Islamabad’s renewed interest in a broad-based relationship with the US. This will be the first opportunity for both leaders to size up each other’s resolve, identify new areas of cooperation, re-assess perennial issues, and calibrate upcoming challenges. Given that the bandwidth for […]

Advice on Doing Business with Pakistan

By Shuja Nawaz

Dear Mr. President, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is meeting with you on Wednesday with high expectations. He is a pragmatic business-oriented politician with a powerful electoral base who has shown magnanimity and deftness in allowing opposition parties to form governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh provinces, and he backed the election of a nationalist Baloch as the chief minister in Baluchistan. […]