Play The Diplomat‘s Quiz: How Well Do You Know the Asia-Pacific?

According to the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms, China exported a total of 461 tanks from 1992 to 2013, whereas Russia sold 1,297 tanks during the same period. The United States is still the leading tank export of the world with 5,511 sales, followed by Germany with 2,680 exported armored fighting vehicles.

The Kyrgyz parliament voted in favor–83 to 23–of the proposed “foreign agents” bill. This was the first reading of the bill–which has been in the works since 2013–and it will need to pass two more readings and get the president’s signature before becoming law.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s famous opposition politician and democracy advocate, will visit China from June 10-14, at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party, Xinhua reported last week. It will be Suu Kyi’s first visit to China, representing a break-through in China’s ties with her opposition party, the National League for Democracy. China had a close relationship with Myanmar while it was under military rule – with Suu Kyi under house arrest.

Carter said that the Department of Defense would be launching a new Southeast Asia Maritime Security initiative. He said Congress had already taken steps to authorize up to $425 million dollars for these maritime capacity-building efforts.

After the rise and consolidation of Islamic civilization, one of the Islamic World’s most important and largest cities along with Baghdad and Cairo was the eastern Persian city of Merv (Persian: مرو‎, also known as Marv or Mary), today located in southern Turkmenistan. Yet while Cairo and Baghdad are still going strong (though Baghdad spent most of the time after its destruction by the Mongols in 1258 as a mere provincial town), what of Merv?

According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the greatest obstacle to foreign investment in the Cambodian economy is the country’s deep energy shortfall. In 2002, 80-85 percent of rural households were without power in Cambodia, and rice millers were forced to import electricity from Vietnam and Thailand at significantly marked-up rates. According to Cambodia’s Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Energy, the situation has not improved much in more than a decade, with only 26 percent of households nationally supplied with electricity and the capital of Phnom Penh accounting for approximately 80 percent of consumption.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Bangladesh this weekend, where he signed, among other agreements, a resolution of the long-standing land border dispute between the two countries. Modi and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina signed 20 agreements and memorandums of understanding on issues as diverse as infrastructure, energy, health, and education. The two leaders additionally consulted on counter-terrorism cooperation, boosting trade, and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries. Modi and Hasina additionally broached the sensitive issue of Teesta River water-sharing. On the security front, one of the more interesting agreements to emerge from Modi’s trip so far has been a bilateral agreement that will grant Indian cargo vessels use of the China-backed Chittagong port and Mongla port in Bangladesh.

U.S. officials said on Thursday that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) had been hacked by a foreign entity, potentially compromising the personal information of 4 million current and former government employees. According to the Wall Street Journal,China is believed to be behind the hack, although the investigation is not yet finished. The U.S. government did not confirm exactly what data was stolen in the attack, which was first noticed in April.

Artificial islands have a distinct meaning in international law. Under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) sovereignty over artificial islands can only be exercised by a coastal state in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Article 56 states, “In the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State has…jurisdiction… with regard to: (i) the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations and structures…” Article 60 gives the coastal state “exclusive right to construct… artificial islands.” And Article 80 extends this provision to artificial islands on a coastal state’s continental shelf.

Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar confirmed on Sunday that India will only purchase 36 instead of 126 Rafale fighter jets from France, an announcement that appears to finally bury the much hyped “mother of all defense deals” for good.