Pakistan plans to increase its defense budget by PKR 100 billion for the next fiscal year, reaching PKR 2.665 trillion, as part of an IMF-backed reform program. The budget also projects a significant rise in federal revenues and combined government spending.
Pressure from Washington was likely to have played a decisive role in Taiwan’s opposition parties backing a sharply expanded special defence budget last week, analysts said, as concerns mount in Taipei ahead of a summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. The anxiety centres on potential concessions from Trump this week in exchange for economic gains from Beijing, which views Taiwan as a core interest and the “biggest risk” in ties with the US, and has kept...
Internal splits over defence spending are widening within Taiwan’s main opposition party, the Kuomintang, ahead of this year’s local elections. The party is facing growing pressure from the United States over its response to a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$40 billion) special defence budget put forward by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party to fund the purchase of arms from the US and the development of domestic weapons. Washington’s de facto ambassador in Taipei, Raymond Greene, last week...
Policy analyst Rob York argues that US efforts to push allies toward greater defense autonomy may backfire, as allies like South Korea and Israel praised as 'model allies' are now involved in policies (like potential strikes on Iran) that could drag the US into unwanted conflicts. The challenge for post-Trump US policymakers will be restoring American importance among like-minded countries.
