Singapore and Israel are notably absent.
Britain will work hand-in-hand with the US with regards to fighter jets, nuclear weapons and spy agency cooperation.
But America doesn't trust Britain's blood sausage and haggis, or its traditional unpasteurised cheeses. And Britain doesn't trust America's chlorinated chicken, GMOs or guns.
One of the US's largest naval bases is in Singapore, they are one of the very few countries allowed by the US to buy F35s (F35s are interconnected, so being given entry into the F35 program means being given entry to the entire intranet used to manage it), and plenty of US Naval officers cross-train and study with Singaporean naval officers at NUS.
A major driver for Singapore's initial growth was the fact that it is the de facto Oil Refinery hub in ASEAN - much of the oil that is extracted in Malaysia or Indonesia has had to be routed to Singapore at some point.
It has the benefit of having a strong financial service sector thanks to a business law system that strives to maintain parity with that in the UK and the US, but it's a very narrow industry that most Singaporeans don't partake in.
Also, Singapore has always had strong economic relations with it's neighbors Malaysia and Indonesia (even at it's worst points). Most of the business leadership in both countries are ethnic Chinese with blood relations in Singapore, which made it easier for Singapore to leverage it's position.
A major downside I've noticed in SG when I've travelled there a bunch is the lack of a truly strong innovation ecosystem. Sure there are plenty of startups, but most of them are just Chinese or Indian startups that are leveraging a Singapore CoLo to simplify investment. Much of the actual R&D and even leadership capacity remains in China or India.
SG is a very hierarchical country and that really limits their innovation capacity. Back in my undergrad, I knew 5 A*STAR candidates and a couple other bonded service candidates - of them maybe 50% returned to Singapore, and those that did were from households who owned a house (iykyk). The rest got offers with tech companies here in the US and broke bond. Even in the SAF, races segregate into their own units (eg. Ethnic Malays are de facto banned from airforce and high clearance positions).
it’s a different enough area geologically and politically, there is a reason everyone calls the region the middle east.
Do you imagine people calling the Earth flat because "everyone says it is"?
The East in the Middle East (and frankly also the ‘Middle’) has nothing to do with it being in Asia.
If it did, Japan would likely be the Middle East. Or maybe Thailand, depending.
Instead, Japanese and Chinese are typically referred to as ‘East Asians’.
Usually, if someone is going to say anything at all about West or Central Asians, they tend to be referring to the ‘stans and/or Mongolia. Since Russia’s a bit… special. And takes up most of the rest.
The more you know.
I don't think there is any need for sarcasm. It's common knowledge that there are 6-7 continents (depending on how you want to count the Americas).
And most people in the English speaking world would be very confused if you tried - just like you were, when you tried to say it was because the Middle East was in East Asia.
"you tried to say it was because the Middle East was in East Asia". I didn't. This is what I said (quoted): "Middle East is a region in Asia". And you said "The Middle East is in Western Asia" which supports my point.
Most people in the English speaking world get confused with basic math (as indicated by studies by the OECD and Santander among others) or world geography (especially concerning territories outside the western world, this seems to be anecdotally true in the US).
Just a small correction.
India is not a signatory to NPT. There's no violation.
Just because you aren't a party to an agreement doesn't mean you aren't in violation of it.