National Security & Defense

Amid joint Iran‑Russia naval drills in the Strait of Hormuz that defense consultants say Tehran used to covertly reposition strike drones, U.S. surveillance and strike assets — including MQ‑9 Reapers and MQ‑4C Tritons — have been spotted off Iran’s coast while CENTCOM released photos of F/A‑18s from USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R. Ford moved toward the Mediterranean. Poland has urged its citizens to leave Iran, and President Trump said the U.S. will either negotiate a deal on Iran’s nuclear program or secure one “one way or the other.”

President Donald Trump told reporters this week that he is "talking" to Chinese President Xi Jinping about potential U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, an admission analysts say appears to contradict one of Washington’s long‑standing "Six Assurances" pledging not to consult Beijing on such sales. The remark comes weeks after the Trump administration approved a record $11 billion weapons package for Taipei and ahead of Trump’s planned April visit to China, prompting concern in Taiwan that future U.S. support could become a bargaining chip with Beijing. William Yang of the International Crisis Group warned that openly discussing Taiwan arms with Xi could set a "dangerous precedent" by inviting Chinese demands or vetoes, while Lev Nachman of National Taiwan University noted that the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiqués and the Six Assurances are the three pillars that have underpinned U.S.–Taiwan ties for decades. China, which claims Taiwan and regularly sends warships and warplanes near the island, has already condemned the recent U.S. arms deal, and Xi has told Trump that "the Taiwan question is the most important issue in China–U.S. relations" that Washington must handle with "prudence." The episode underscores growing unease among security experts and in Taipei that Trump’s personal diplomacy and deal‑making instincts could erode hard‑won, if deliberately ambiguous, guardrails in U.S. policy toward the Taiwan Strait.