The mother of all trade deals to America’s new defence strategy, the dismissal of a PLA princeling, Prabowo’s Peace Board support, ASEAN’s rejection of Myanmar junta’s poll victory and the deadly serious business of marriage in China – we present the latest news and views from our region.

India and the EU have agreed to create a free trade area covering almost two billion people, repudiating Donald Trump’s belligerently protectionist approach to trade.

The new pact was an enormously consequential free trade agreement, The Indian Express said in an editorial. It underlined India’s desire to seek deeper global integration within a predictable, rules-based framework – at a time when Trump had taken a wrecking ball to the trading system.

The Financial Express used more moderate language but conveyed a similar idea, saying both the India and the EU sought to hedge against fickle ties with the US.

It quoted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as saying the free trade deal would represent a quarter of the world’s economy.

The Hindu newspaper said the pact would see the EU drop tariffs on 99.5 per cent of items India exported to the region, with most tariffs going to zero immediately the agreement came into force. India had given concessions on 97.5 per cent of the value of goods it traded with the EU.

“We have delivered the mother of all deals,” EU President Ursula von der Leyen said. “This is a tale of two giants – the world’s second and fourth largest economies… A strong message that co-operation is the best answer to global challenges.”

Modi said: “India has concluded the largest free trade agreement in its history.”

India and the EU had also launched a security and defence partnership, The Statesman newspaper reported. It covered intelligence sharing, defence manufacturing, maritime safety and co-operation in the domains of space and cyber.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent slammed the trade deal, saying Europe was funding Russia in the Ukraine war. India bought Russia oil, refined it and sold it to Europe.

“They are financing the war against themselves, he said. “We have put 25 per cent tariffs on India for buying Russian oil. Guess what happened…The Europeans signed a trade deal with India.”

An explainer in The Indian Express said the trade talks were launched in 2007 but most progress was made in the past six months. By July last year negotiators had covered barely seven of the pact’s 21 chapters – then they managed to wrap up all the remaining chapters by last week.

“US tariffs may have accelerated the India-EU trade negotiations but India and the EU managed to narrow differences by re-evaluating negotiating positions amid rapid geo-economic shifts that have even left multilateral bodies such as the World Trade Organisation scrambling for relevance,” the story said.

US defence strategy makes China a top priority but doesn’t mention Taiwan

The 2026 US National Defence Strategy outlines the aim of deterring China through military strength but there is a striking omission: it does not mention Taiwan.

The strategy, issued late last week, promises a strong denial-based defence against China along the first island chain – stretching along the East Asian coast from the Kuril Islands in the north and including Japan, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, the northern Philippines and Borneo. But the document does not mention the island at its centre.

An analysis in The Diplomat, the Asian news magazine, notes that the text says Donald Trump seeks stable peace and direct engagement with........

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