India and neighbours weather the Hormuz blockade

South Asian countries have been badly affected by the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Kavita Chowdhury reports on how fuel shortages are affecting people in India, Bangladesh and the Himalayan region.

Iran’s blackout state

Iran has been under an internet blackout since the war began at the end of February. This follows an earlier 21-day blackout in January during the nationwide uprising against the Islamic Republic. Together, the two shutdowns mean Iranians have been cut off from the global internet for roughly 72 per cent of the year so far. As Nazenin Ansari reports, this suggests that the core conflict in Iran may not be between Tehran and foreign adversaries, but between the Islamic Republic and Iranian society itself.

Pakistan and Afghanistan navigate the Hormuz blockade

The prolonged blockade through the Strait of Hormuz is raising costs and uncertainty across South and Central Asia. Few countries are as exposed as Pakistan and Afghanistan. Yet while the crisis threatens economic disruption, it has created an opportunity for Islamabad to reposition itself as an increasingly consequential diplomatic and logistical actor, as Iftikar Firdous reports.

Dire straits: the farming crisis

In eastern India, the effects of the Iran war are showing up not in fuel queues or port delays but in the calculations farmers make before sowing. The kharif season begins with the southwest monsoon, which advances across India during June. That is when demand rises for urea, India’s most widely used nitrogen fertiliser. If supplies are tight at this time the consequences appear later in weaker harvests. Rahul Jaywant Bhise writes on how the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is turning an energy shock into a fertiliser and food-security crisis across Asia.

Sri Lanka’s recovery hit by Hormuz blockade

Sri Lanka finds itself once again listening anxiously to developments unfolding thousands of kilometres away in the Middle East. The Iran conflict, and wider instability involving Israel, the United States and the Gulf region, has cast a long economic shadow over the island, as Eranga Pereira reports from Colombo.

Is Japan aiming to be a regional power?

Japan was not at the table when Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a ‘constructive relationship of strategic stability’ in Beijing. It did not need to be. At the time of the Beijing talks its navy was engaged in a seven-country naval exercise off the Philippines, writes Howard Zhang.

Trump, the nation builder

President Trump’s state visit to China in May attracted enormous attention across the country. Social media buzzed with commentary, speculation and mockery in equal measure. Lijia Zhang writes that beneath the jokes lies something more serious: Donald Trump has become a symbol of how profoundly Chinese perceptions of the United States have changed.

Life in limbo: Iran under a fragile ceasefire

The bombings may have stopped, but life in Iran feels anything but normal. Weeks after a fragile ceasefire ended the 40-day war between Iran, the United States and Israel, the nation remains trapped in a state of fear, exhaustion and uncertainty, as Fariba Sahraei reports.

The Xi-Trump talks: was anything achieved?

The talks between presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump were important and timely though the mood music was subdued. Expectations were low and were, if anything, underachieved with little more than a few gestures of commercial goodwill. Former British minister for Business, Skills and Innovation Vince Cable reports.

Dire Strait

Bisinomics

India is the world’s third-largest importer of oil. It faces a ballooning economic challenge because of the sharp increase in energy prices and an uncomfortably low level of reserves caused by reduced supplies from the Persian Gulf following the virtual closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Can Asia hope to star at the football World Cup?

With World Cup football finals taking place in June and July in Canada, the United States and Mexico we asked football writer John Duerden what the chances are for the Asian teams taking part.