South Korea, the US, and Japan held a trilateral dialogue on space security in Seoul on Wednesday. The dialogue focused on issues related to space security, particularly regarding threats in the space domain, national space strategies, and the responsible use of space. They also aimed to promote “safe, secure, and sustainable use of outer space and enhancing the resilience of space systems.”
The US Department of Defence and the Indian Ministry of Defence participated in the first investor strategy session of the India-US Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS-X) on Wednesday. They discussed “harnessing private capital to drive defence innovation” and equipping both countries’ armed forces “with the capabilities to defend a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Suriname is hoping to strike a deal with China by mid-December over rescheduling interest payments on its debt beyond 2024, its Foreign Minister Albert Ramdin said on Wednesday. “At the technical level, [the Chinese side] has reached the ‘maximum,’ based on what the rules and procedures of the EXIM bank allow, which is why I am here: to convince them it’s time to take this to the next level and see what can be done,” Ramdin said during an interview in Beijing.
The US military carried out an airstrike on a site held by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and allied troops in eastern Syria on Wednesday, the Pentagon reported. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said that two US F-15s bombed a weapons storage facility in eastern Syria at President Joe Biden’s direction, adding that the “precision self-defence strike” was retaliation for a series of attacks against American troops in Iraq and Syria by proxies of the IRGC’s Quds Force.
A US MQ-9 unmanned aerial aircraft was shot down off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday, a US official told the media sources. Houthi spokesman Yahya Saria stated, “Our air defences have managed to shoot down a US MQ-9 drone, which was carrying out hostile reconnaissance activities in the airspace over Yemeni territorial waters as part of US military support for the Israeli regime.”
On Wednesday, five US Republican presidential candidates hit the stage in Miami for the third GOP primary debate. Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy sparred over the use of Tiktok, with Haley calling him “scum” when he pointed out her daughter’s alleged use of the app. The debate focused extensively on foreign policy, mainly on what each contender would do to continue funding Ukraine and the threat posed by China.