Free Republic

China is not a strategic adversary of the United States, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said during a news roundtable yesterday. “I do not see China at this point as a strategic adversary of the United States,” Gates said. “It's a partner in some respects. It's a competitor in other respects. And so we are simply watching to see what they're doing.” Chinese government officials announced last week that the Chinese military budget would increase 17 percent. This would be the 19th year of double-digit growth in defense spending, DoD officials said. China will budget roughly $45 billion for defense....

NEW DELHI: India is livid with anger over the Sino-Bhutan border talks that took place during the second week of July. It has caused a flutter in South Block. Hackles in the Indian military have been raised. That is why it dispatched its Director General of Military Operations, Lt Gen Madan Gopal, to Bhutan to meet the King. And the King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, himself will arrive next Monday at New Delhi to explain what transpired between the two countries. He will have to do some hard explaining when he meets the National Security Advisor, M K Narayanan who is...

Kathmandu: A European rights group has said its team was barred from meeting two senior Maoist leaders from Nepal being held in Indian prisons. The team travelled through India in March to participate in a conference organised by the World People's Resistance Movement (Europe and South Asia), a London-based organisation. The delegation wanted to meet Nepalese Maoist leader C. Prakash Gajurel aka Gaurav, jailed in Chennai after he was arrested with a fake passport, and Mohan Baidhya alias Kiran, arrested in West Bengal where he had undergone a cataract operation. The team also tried to visit Beur prison in Bihar...