Chinese military personnel take part in a rehearsal ahead of a parade commemorating the eightieth anniversary of victory in World War II in Beijing on August 20, 2025. (Pedro Pardo via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
US Commerce Secretary Howard William Lutnick and Japanese Minister for Economic Revitalization Ryosei Akazawa shake hands on on September 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)
Arleigh Burke–class guided-missile destroyer USS Chafee (DDG 90) sails in formation during the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise on July 28, 2022. (DVIDS)
A formation of Dongfeng-41 nuclear missiles takes part in a military parade celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing on October 1, 2019. (Xia Yifang via Getty Images)
Senior lecturer in the Department of Security Studies and Criminology at Macquarie University, Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute
A microchip and Taiwanese flag displayed on a phone screen are seen in this multiple exposure illustration photo on April 10, 2023. (Jakub Porzycki via Getty Images)
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, National Leader and Chairman of the People’s Council of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev meet at a high-level trilateral summit in the Awaza National Tourism Zone of Turkmenistan on August 22, 2025. (Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev attend a welcoming ceremony prior to their talks at the Ak Orda Presidential Palace, on November 27, 2024, in Astana, Kazakhstan. (Getty Images)
People walk in Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on September 13, 2022, two days before the city hosted a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. (Alexander Nemenov via Getty Images)
An aerial view of a cargo ship passing by the Cheniere Energy liquefied natural gas plant on February 10, 2025 in Port Arthur, Texas. China, the world's largest importer of liquefied natural gas, has announced that it will be placing a 15% tariff on U.S. liquefied natural gas in retaliation to President Trump's ruling to impose tariffs on Chinese commodities. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida during the NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 12, 2023. (Photo by Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states leaders' summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 3, 2024. (Photo by Sergei Guneyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan Mukhtar Tleuberdi, and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Alexander Khvtisiashvili attend a press conference after a ministerial meeting on Trans-Caspian connectivity in Aktau, Kazakhstan, on November 25, 2022. (Photo by Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Taliban security personnel stand guard as a burqa-clad woman walks along a street at a market in the Baharak district of Badakhshan province. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
Markazi Jamiat Ahle Hadees Pakistan activists protest in Lahore after Iran launched an airstrike in Pakistan's south-west Baluchistan province on January 19, 2024. (Arif Ali/AFP via Getty Images)