An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operation test on February 23, 2021, at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. (US Space Force)
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania Oana-SilviaȚoiu speaks during a joint press conference with the minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine on August 7, 2025, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Getty Images)
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)
A man walks past Taiwanese flags on Democracy Boulevard at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei on October 15, 2024. (I-Hwa Cheng via Getty Images)
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)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan Island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in Fujian Province, China, on October 15, 2024. (Adek Berry via Getty Images)
Chinese President Xi Jinping waves during a meeting with Vietnam’s Communist Party General Secretary To Lam at the Office of the Party Central Committee in Hanoi on April 14, 2025. (Nhac Nguyen via Getty Images)
The Japan Air Self-Defense Force held an F-35 aircraft delivery ceremony at Komatsu Air Base in Japan on April 26, 2025. (F-35 Joint Program Office via JASDF and DVIDS)
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during the Twenty-second IISS Shangri-La Dialogue on May 31, 2025, in Singapore. (Yong Teck Lim via Getty Images