标签： Asia

The long-running territorial standoff between Russia and Japan reignited this week, after Moscow delivered a formal diplomatic protest to Tokyo over harsh Japanese condemnation of President Vladimir Putin’s historic visit to the disputed Pacific Kuril Islands chain.

The flashpoint of the conflict centers on four southern Kuril Islands, which Moscow controls and Japan claims as its Northern Territories. The Soviet Union seized the archipelago from Japan in the closing days of World War II, and the unresolved dispute has prevented the two nations from signing a formal peace treaty to end World War II hostilities for nearly 80 years.

Last week, Putin made his first ever visit to Iturup – one of the four contested southern islands, which Japan refers to as Etorofu. The trip immediately triggered sharp pushback from Japan’s top leadership. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi called the visit “absolutely unacceptable” and said it directly contradicted Japan’s long-held territorial claims. Takaichi added that the trip would further fray already strained bilateral relations, which have been soured by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and warned Moscow must face the consequences of its actions.

Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi echoed the prime minister’s stance, issuing a “strong protest” and asserting that the entire Northern Territories, including Etorofu, are Japan’s inherent territory under both historical precedent and international law.

In response to the Japanese criticism, Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned Japanese Ambassador Akira Muto on Tuesday, where Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin delivered Moscow’s formal counter-protest against what it called the “anti-Russia statements” from Takaichi and Motegi.

According to an official statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Galuzin made clear to Muto that Russia’s sovereignty and jurisdiction over the southern Kuril Islands is “absolutely unshakable.” The ministry emphasized that the territories were granted to the Soviet Union as a legal outcome of World War II, a status enshrined in Allied wartime agreements and the Charter of the United Nations. “Any attempts by the Japanese side to directly or indirectly call this obvious reality into question are absolutely unacceptable and unlawful,” the statement read.

Galuzin also noted that Tokyo has aligned itself with Western-led sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine conflict, and confirmed that “Moscow reserves the right to take appropriate countermeasures” in response to Japan’s recent actions.

For decades, sustained diplomatic efforts to reach a mutually acceptable settlement to the territorial dispute have failed to produce tangible progress. Over the years, Moscow has significantly strengthened its military deployment across the Kuril Islands, a move widely seen as a reinforcement of its uncompromising claim to the archipelago.

Speaking during his visit last week, aboard a Russian warship participating in Pacific military drills, Putin reflected on the shifting state of bilateral ties. He noted that Russia had previously built constructive working relationships with multiple former Japanese leaders, including the late former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who invested significant political capital in advancing closer ties and narrowing differences between the two nations. However, Putin said that dynamic shifted after Japan imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, when Tokyo officially designated Russia as “a source of primary threats” to Japanese national security.

Despite the recent escalation, Putin reaffirmed that Moscow remains open to diplomatic engagement. “Russia remains ready to cooperate with all its neighbors, including Japan and other states in the region,” he said.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – In a landmark ruling that has reignited debate over legal rights and political justice in the South Asian nation, Pakistan’s Supreme Court issued a binding order Tuesday directing state authorities to transfer imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan to a private Islamabad hospital for a comprehensive independent medical assessment. The ruling comes after months of sustained outcry from Khan’s family, personal medical team and political allies over alleged inadequate care and restricted access to treatment for the incarcerated ex-leader.

A three-judge constitutional bench handed down the order, stipulating that Khan must be moved to Islamabad’s prominent Shifa International Hospital in the coming days. The assessment will be conducted by an independent medical board that includes independent specialists as well as Faisal Sultan, one of Khan’s own personal physicians, a provision designed to address longstanding claims that Khan has been blocked from receiving care from doctors of his own choosing. Beyond the medical order, the court also ruled that prison officials must grant Khan weekly in-person visits with family members and regular telephone access to his two sons, a reversal of strict access limits imposed earlier this year.

Within hours of the Supreme Court’s ruling, authorities permitted one of Khan’s sisters to visit him at his current place of detainment, a high-security prison in the nearby garrison city of Rawalpindi. The harsh access restrictions put in place earlier this year were officially justified by government officials citing intelligence warnings of a potential security attack on the prison facility.

The court’s decision is the outcome of a petition filed by Khan months ago, in which he requested transfer from the Rawalpindi prison to a formal medical facility and expanded access to his personal doctors, legal team and immediate family. According to Khan’s lead counsel Salman Akram Raja, the court explicitly grounded its order in constitutional protections: the right to adequate medical care is enshrined in Pakistan’s constitution, and the court ruled that Khan’s current health status left no room for delay.

In a precautionary statement, Raja urged Khan’s massive base of supporters to refrain from gathering outside Shifa International Hospital when the ex-prime minister is transported for treatment, to avoid disrupting care for other patients at the facility.

Khan, a former international cricket star who pivoted to politics and won the prime ministership in 2018, has remained in prison since 2023 following a conviction on corruption charges that he and his supporters deny as politically motivated. He was removed from office in April 2022 through a parliamentary no-confidence vote, a move he has repeatedly claimed was orchestrated by a U.S.-backed conspiracy involving his domestic political rivals and former Pakistani army chief Qamar Javed Bajwa. All parties named – Washington, the Pakistani military and his political opponents – have flatly denied the allegations.

Earlier this year, Khan was transported multiple times to a public government hospital for treatment of a progressive eye condition. Concerns over his health reached a fever pitch in late January, when his family announced he had lost roughly 85% of the vision in his right eye – a claim that federal officials immediately disputed. Authorities later walked back the dispute partially, stating that Khan had recovered roughly 70% of his vision and that his condition was stabilizing.

Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), issued a statement welcoming the Supreme Court’s ruling, calling it a long-overdue response to months of legitimate concerns about the former leader’s health and access to care, and urging the government to implement the court’s order without any delay.

Notably, the federal government has announced it will challenge the ruling. In televised remarks to the press, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar stated that the cabinet had reviewed the medical provisions of the order and would file a formal application requesting the Supreme Court review its own decision. Tarar questioned the scope of the ruling, arguing that if it set a precedent for private medical care for prisoners, it would raise equity concerns: thousands of incarcerated Pakistanis live with chronic medical conditions, and almost all receive treatment exclusively in public government facilities, he noted.

Despite more than two years of sustained legal and political pressure and his current imprisonment, Khan remains one of the most influential and polarizing figures in Pakistani politics, and retains a large, loyal popular following across the country.

In the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, high-stakes anger over systemic corruption in government recruitment exams has forced a major climbdown from the state government, after 16 days of a life-threatening hunger strike by a leading student activist pushed officials to meet one of the movement’s core demands.

Devendra Nath Mahto, one of the most visible faces of the mass protest that launched on July 25, ended his fast at a Ranchi hospital where he had been admitted last week following a dangerous decline in his health. The decision came after state chief minister Hemant Soren announced late Monday that the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission-Combined Graduate Level (JSSC-CGL) examination would be scrapped, matching an earlier cancellation of the state’s preliminary civil service exam that was marred by manipulation allegations.

The unrest rocking Jharkhand is rooted in the uniquely high value of public sector employment across India. For millions of young job seekers, government roles offer unrivaled job security and long-term stability, driving candidates to spend years studying, attending costly coaching classes, and retaking exams until they hit the official age limit for eligibility. In recent years, however, the recruitment process has been roiled by repeated scandals: widespread reports of pre-exam question paper leaks, coordinated cheating rings, and manipulated result tabulation have left qualified candidates locked out of opportunities, while drawn-out recruitment processes can stretch on for years even for test-passers, prolonging uncertainty.

The current wave of protests in Jharkhand ignited after last month’s release of preliminary civil service exam results. Candidates raised alarm when answer sheets circulated online showed that top-scoring applicants had answered fewer questions correctly than lower-ranked test-takers, stoking widespread accusations of deliberate result manipulation. The unrest came on the heels of a larger mass protest in New Delhi that ultimately forced the resignation of India’s federal education minister, amplifying public pressure on Soren’s ruling coalition government.

Days before Mahto ended his hunger strike, the state government had already agreed to cancel the preliminary civil service exam and launch a probe through the Jharkhand State Criminal Investigation Department (CID). That investigation has already led to multiple arrests, including the head of the Jharkhand Public Service Commission. But protesters refused to stand down, demanding two additional concessions: the full cancellation of the JSSC-CGL exam, and a federal probe into all alleged recruitment malpractices led by India’s top investigative body, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Soren’s Monday announcement addressed two key demands beyond the JSSC-CGL cancellation: all exams administered by private contractor TSR Data Processing Private Limited (TDPL), which won the state contract to run the tests, will also be scrapped, and a broad probe will be launched into all recruitment exams conducted by the state since 2014. It remains unclear what will happen to candidates who have already secured jobs through these older exams if the investigation uncovers widespread irregularities. Soren also told reporters that “many shocking facts are emerging” from the ongoing investigation, though he declined to share further details while the probe is active. A new committee will also be convened to propose sweeping reforms to Jharkhand’s entire public examination system to prevent future corruption.

The announcement triggered spontaneous celebrations among the hundreds of protesters who have camped at a Ranchi stadium since the protest began in late July, with crowds dancing and cheering in response to the government’s concessions. But the movement is far from over: while Mahto has ended his hunger strike, many activists say demonstrations will continue until the state government agrees to hand the entire investigation over to the CBI. “Until that demand is met, we will not move from here,” student activist Ravindra Paswan told Indian news agency ANI.

The recruitment scandal has put Soren’s ruling alliance – made up of his Jharkhand Mukti Morcha party, the national Indian National Congress, and several smaller regional parties – on the defensive. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has publicly sided with the protesters throughout the unrest, turning the scandal into a major political flashpoint ahead of upcoming electoral contests. Complicating matters further, the government’s decision to cancel the JSSC-CGL exam has already sparked backlash from candidates who passed the exam and have already taken up their government posts, leaving the state government navigating competing claims from aggrieved test-takers on both sides.

In the wake of an unexpected, uncoordinated announcement from former U.S. President Donald Trump ordering substantial cuts to the annual U.S.-South Korea Ulchi Freedom Shield military exercises, South Korea finds itself grappling with growing public anxiety and deepening questions about the long-term reliability of its decades-long security alliance with Washington.

The drama unfolded just hours before the 11-day drills — a routine defense training event designed to boost combined readiness against evolving North Korean threats — were set to kick off Monday. In a social media post that caught South Korean officials completely off guard, Trump justified his order by pointing to what he claimed was a positive personal relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and retaliated against South Korea for its refusal to join the U.S. in military action against Iran. Trump added that he viewed the exercises as unnecessarily costly and argued they sent a needlessly hostile message to Pyongyang, which he claimed had remained respectful and non-threatening during his tenure.

This abrupt move, which bypassed all prior consultations with South Korean leadership, has reignited long-simmering doubts about U.S. commitment to the alliance, a partnership first forged amid the chaos of the 1950-1953 Korean War. For many South Koreans, this latest development compounds a steady erosion of trust that has already been fueled by Trump-era trade tariffs and a 2023 immigration raid in Georgia that detained hundreds of South Korean workers. A recent joint survey from South Korea’s JoongAng Ilbo newspaper and the Seoul-based East Asia Institute underscores this shifting sentiment: for the first time since polling began in 2017, more South Korean respondents (46.4%) labeled the U.S. an untrustworthy partner than a trustworthy one (45.4%).

On Tuesday, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung addressed the growing unrest during a regular Cabinet meeting, emphasizing that a robust alliance with the U.S. remains the core foundation of the country’s national security. Lee, a liberal leader who has long pushed for greater South Korean self-reliance in defense, noted that “national security will be further strengthened when the alliance is solid,” adding that building South Korea’s own independent military capabilities will only boost its value and standing as a U.S. ally.

Prior to Trump’s announcement, both South Korean and U.S. military officials had confirmed the 2025 drills would match the scale of previous years, incorporating tactical lessons from modern conflicts — including North Korea’s battlefield deployments alongside Russia in the Ukraine war — and reiterated that the exercises are strictly defensive in nature. Even after Trump’s order, it remains unclear which segments of the 11-day training will be scaled back.

North Korea has already responded sharply to the drills, with its Foreign Ministry accusing Seoul and Washington of planning more aggressive provocative actions and vowing to counter the exercises with a new, upgraded level of nuclear deterrent.

For its part, the Lee administration has sought a cautious path forward. On Monday, Lee’s presidential office expressed hope that the friendly rapport between Trump and Kim would open the door to meaningful denuclearization dialogue and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula. This stance, however, has drawn fierce backlash from South Korea’s main conservative opposition party, the People Power Party. Party spokesperson Park Chung-kwon argued that the country’s entire security framework is being shaken to its core, noting that South Korea relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella to defend itself against nuclear-armed North Korea, hosting roughly 28,500 U.S. troops on its territory to uphold that security commitment.

Experts note that Kim Jong Un has shown little inclination to return to nuclear talks with the U.S. after high-profile 2019 negotiations collapsed. In the years since the talks fell apart, Kim has expanded North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, deepened his diplomatic and military alignment with Russia amid its war in Ukraine, and has shown no interest in reengaging without major U.S. concessions.

Analysts like Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Seoul’s Ewha University, frame Trump’s approach to alliances as transactional: “Trump thinks of an alliance as an investment that should pay regular dividends, or a rainy-day fund he can withdraw from when another project isn’t going well.” Easley added that South Korean leaders have come to expect constant renegotiation of ties with the Trump administration that links economic and security issues, forcing Seoul to respond cautiously to the unexpected shift.

Leading South Korean media have echoed public anxiety, with major daily Hankook Ilbo noting in a Tuesday editorial that Trump’s order “reveals the stark reality of a faltering Korea-U.S. alliance, fueling public anxiety.” The paper added, “It’s absurd that the U.S. appears to treat North Korea more respectfully than its ally South Korea.”

In a clarification following Trump’s announcement, Lee’s office confirmed that South Korea and the U.S. are currently in close discussions over Seoul’s practical and military contributions to upholding freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy chokepoint, a topic that ties back to Trump’s reference to Iran.

In a startling public comment made during an interview with Fox News on Monday, former President Donald Trump issued an unprecedented violent threat against Oman, a longstanding U.S. ally in the Middle East, stating that his administration would launch devastating bombing strikes on the country if it obstructs Washington’s efforts to reach a deal with Iran to reopen the critical Strait of Hormuz. The strategic waterway has remained fully closed to most commercial shipping since Trump launched what the original reporting describes as an illegal military campaign against Iran in late February. The threat comes amid ongoing talks between Tehran and Muscat over a potential framework for joint oversight of the strait, a negotiation that has put Oman directly in the crosshairs of U.S. pressure.

When pressed by the Fox News interviewer about the bilateral Iran-Oman discussions, Trump responded bluntly: “if Oman gets in the way” of reopening the strait, “we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” This is not the first time Trump has targeted Oman over the strait dispute, as Trita Parsi, a senior analyst with the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, pointed out, noting the U.S. leader previously issued threats against the nation when it put forward compromise proposals for strait governance.

To date, the U.S. military’s large-scale military operations against Iran have failed to force the reopening of the strait, despite the depletion of massive U.S. munitions stockpiles. Military sources speaking to The Military Times confirmed that the U.S. has deployed nearly its entire inventory of Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) and Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM) in the campaign, with no breakthrough to show for the expenditure of firepower.

The ongoing closure of the strait, which accounts for roughly a fifth of global oil trade, has triggered fresh upward pressure on global energy prices. Shipping data compiled by maritime analytics firm Kpler, cited in a Monday Reuters report, shows that commercial traffic through the waterway came to a near-complete halt over the most recent weekend: only five commodity-carrying vessels transited the strait on Saturday, with no transits registered at all on Sunday. Before the start of Trump’s military campaign, an average of 130 vessels passed through the key chokepoint on a daily basis.

Market reactions have followed swiftly. During trading hours on Monday, Brent crude oil prices climbed above $89 per barrel, while data released by the American Automobile Association (AAA) shows that the average retail price of gasoline across the United States has now risen to $4.06 per gallon, up five cents from the $4.01 average recorded just one week prior.

Adding to regional tensions, the Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Iranian hardline leadership, which has seen the conflict unfold in its favor so far, has developed a confidential strategy to escalate hostilities. According to the report, Iran used a June ceasefire with the U.S. to rebuild its military capabilities and prepare for larger-scale offensive operations. Citing intelligence from Arab sources, the outlet noted that Tehran’s core strategic goal is to impose sufficiently high costs on the U.S. military to deter future large-scale attacks like the 12-day conflict Tehran endured last year and the ongoing current hostilities.