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)
The presidents of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates attend the narrow format meeting of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, on October 23, 2024. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)
Vehicles travel along the treacherous Srinagar Leh highway on August 27, 2024, in Ladakh, India. Ladakh is a strategically important region due to ongoing territorial disputes with Pakistan and China. (Yawar Nazir via Getty Images)
Use this for the caption: Flags on display at an India–United States summit meeting on February 25, 2020, in New Delhi. (Pallava Bagla via Getty Images)
Workers install a solar panel at the Adani Group–owned Khavda Renewable Energy Park in Khavda on January 12, 2024. (Punit Paranjpe/AFP via Getty Images)
People wave Indian flags as an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft lifts off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, an island off the coast of southern Andhra Pradesh state, on July 14, 2023. (Photo by R.Satish Babu/AFP via Getty Images)
The Russian foreign minister and the deputy foreign minister of the Taliban government in Afghanistan attend the Moscow Format in Moscow, Russia, on October 4, 2024. (Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty Images)
India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his Japanese counterpart Minoru Kihara leave after the guard of honour ceremony in New Delhi on August 20, 2024. (Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images)
US President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrive for their meeting during the Quad Leaders Summit in Tokyo on May 24, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)