US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi starts a tour of four Asian countries on Sunday, her office has said, without mentioning Taiwan amid speculation she might visit the self-ruled island claimed by China. “Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading a Congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region, including visits to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan,” her office said in a press release on Sunday. The statement said the visit would include those countries, but did not specify whether Pelosi, who is number three in the line of United States presidential succession, might make other stops. “The trip will focus on

SINGAPORE -- Chinese State Councilor and Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Sunday delivered a speech on China"s vision of regional order at the 19th Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. Wei said the world is facing multiple crises rarely seen in history, and the way forward is to uphold and practice multilateralism and build a community with a shared future for mankind. "China's development is unstoppable," Wei said, adding that China is rock-solid in its commitment to pursuing peaceful development. China's development is not a threat to others. On the contrary, it is a huge contribution to global peace and development, the

Lloyd Austin tells key security summit that Beijing’s military activities around Taiwan threaten stability.United States Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has reiterated that the US will stand by its allies and partners in the Asia Pacific as he accused China of “provocative and destabilising” military activity around Taiwan, and an increasingly “coercive and aggressive” approach to its wide-ranging maritime claims in the Asia Pacific. In a nearly hour-long address to the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Austin stressed that the US was committed to the “rules-based international order” and would work in partnership to maintain peace and stability in the region. He