#india-china-water-dispute

#india-china-water-dispute

The Iranian choke hold on the Strait of Hormuz evidently had a lot to do with it. By cutting off roughly one-fifth of the world's oil supply over the past five weeks, Iran's blockade of that narrow waterway caused an energy crisis and fears of a global recession that the White House could not abide for long.

When meeting United States President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in September, Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, opened a briefcase with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif standing next to him. Inside were a set of glistening minerals. Their display was part of Pakistan's latest offer to the Trump administration: The country was willing to open up its minerals to US investment.

Landbridge Group, owned by Chinese billionaire Ye Cheng, has controlled Port Darwin, located in Australia's remote Northern Territory, since 2015 under a 99-year lease agreement. Australian authorities reached the $350m lease deal with Shandong province-based Landbridge in the hope the port's expansion would revitalise the economy of the largely rural territory. But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged to return the port to Australian control during campaigning ahead of national elections in May last year, saying the facility should be run by a local company or the government.

Ex-players and politicians urge the ICC to step in and mend ties amid the ongoing regional cricket crisis. Pakistan's decision to boycott their T20 World Cup game against India has been termed a political move, with cricketers and politicians in both countries and around the world urging the International Cricket Council (ICC) to resolve the dispute. The Pakistani government on Sunday issued a statement saying its men's cricket team will participate in the global tournament but will not take the field in the match against archrivals India on February 15.

The seizure, which occurred on Thursday about 170km from the south-western port city of Nagasaki, came after the skipper refused an order to stop for an onboard inspection, according to media reports. A Japanese fisheries agency vessel intercepted the Chinese boat and its 11 crew after spotting it in Japan's exclusive economic zone an area within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coastline.

The United States' top nuclear arms official on Friday accused China of carrying out an undisclosed nuclear detonation in 2020, arguing that recent secretive underground tests by China and Russia have given Washington reason to conduct "parallel steps" as a decades-long moratorium on nuclear testing among major powers is unraveling.