Written by Xuan Dung Phan
India should aid Vietnam in further developing infrastructure in the deep-water Cam Ranh Bay port (Hanoi has reportedly asked New Delhi for such assistance) and, having established a network of military facilities overseas and drastically modernised its naval assets, India is certainly in a position to lend its support.
Read MoreIn March we invite articles that seek to explore issues relating to the South Pacific and its importance for the region in the months and years ahead. In addition to articles focused on specific issues such as recent developments in the Pacific Islands Forum, we also welcome features that examine issues such as climate change, trade, resources, governance, technology, sports diplomacy and great power competition.
Read MoreWritten by Kunal Singh
Demarcation of the Line of Actual Control and hence the border in the western sector will not be easy but both sides should be willing to make some adjustments because the larger strategic gains accrued exceed, by a big margin, minor territorial losses. While a package deal may not be on the table or even on the mental radars of the leadership in each country, it should be, as it is the only thing that makes sense for everyone.
Read MoreWritten by Ingrid Rafaele Rodrigues Leiria
Seoul should use its high technology capabilities (in green and digital initiatives) to promote worldwide sustainable development, therefore, the Korean New Deal and the adaptation of eco-diplomacy must become an essential pillar of South Korea’s future foreign policy.
Read MoreWritten by Gaurab Shumsher Thapa
Although the NC has denounced Oil’s move for snap elections as unconstitutional, it has also stated that is will not shy away from elections if the Supreme Court decides to dissolve the lower house. Sensing increasing instability, several royalist parties and groups have accused the government of corruption and protested on the streets for the reinstatement of the Hindu state and constitutional monarchy (to reinvent and stabilise Nepal’s image and identity).
Read MoreWith Happymon Jacob
When one looks at Sino-EU relations from New Delhi, it seems that the EU is not so critical of Chinese policy. The EU wants to do business with China and Brussels is not very keen to push back on Beijing's aggressive behaviour or criticise its conduct toward smaller countries in the Indo-Pacific. The CAI, which replaces 16 existing economic agreements with Beijing with a single major agreement is perhaps indicative of this.
Read MoreWritten by Niranjan Marjani
Owing to a focus on continental South Asia, Indonesia has long remained a neglected entity in India’s regional foreign policy. However, as the geopolitical realities of the Indo-Pacific region continue to change in the face of a rising and assertive China, India and Indonesia are looking to coordinate their security policies and increase trade.
Read MoreWritten by Michael Trinkwalder
However, if the EU truly wishes to make its Eastern members commit to a common strategy, its Western members will also have to give up on their jealously guarded ‘special relationships’ with China. A strategy devised between Paris and Berlin alone might be more ambitious, but it would do little good if it left half of the Union out in the cold.
Read MoreWritten by Aadil Brar
Amid a destabilising security environment, China has limited opportunities to provide a different model for the region and the growing involvement of European powers in the Indo-Pacific will only further complicate these plans. To date, the United Kingdom has said that they will hold naval drills with Japan; France has committed to play a growing role in the Indo-Pacific and expanded cooperation with India, and Germany has formally adopted an Indo-Pacific strategy.
Read MoreWritten by Michael Brodka
The repression has escalated since 2017 and includes the forced labour and ‘re-education’ of 11 million Uyghurs residing in Xinjiang. However, more disturbing are the reports of the mass sterilisation of Uyghur women that, along with corresponding birth statistics, show that China is undertaking demographic repression of the Uyghur minority.
Read MoreWritten by Collin Koh
For Southeast Asian countries that also operate coastguards, now is the time to review the need for navies to relinquish certain tasks that coastguards might perform more effectively. This is especially the case where capacity (quantity) is more critical than having the most hi-tech warships bristling with weapons performing constabulary missions that simply require a presence.
Read MoreWritten by Kabir Taneja
A common target — such as ISIS — will only strengthen and build security cooperation and a common strategic agora in the Indo-Pacific and aid the development of a future geopolitical architecture which can be mutually beneficial for all like-minded participating nations.
Read MoreWritten by Gerald C Brown
Outside of the South China Sea, Taiwan’s occupation would put China right at the doorstep of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, the string of small islands stretching from Taiwan to the Japanese mainland, including US military bases in Okinawa. Many of the islands would become far closer to China than Japan and would be well in range of Chinese Anti-Access/Area-Denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
Read MoreWritten by Hunter Marston
Kurt Campbell, who Biden named Coordinator for Indo-Pacific Affairs, was an integral architect of the Obama administration’s “opening to Burma”. He will likely have some sleepless nights once again designing US Myanmar policy. It is unclear what options Washington now has left beyond widening sanctions against the military.
Read MoreWritten by James Borton
Despite significant oceanographic advances and a continuous flow of ocean data, marine research has failed to ameliorate the competing South China Sea claims nor navigate the sustainable stewardship of ocean resources.
Read MoreWritten by Andrew Chubb
This brief, broad-brush picture emerges from the Maritime Assertiveness Times Series (MATS) project, which is compiling corresponding data on other states in the South China Sea, as well as an East China Sea series. Data collection and coding is still in progress, but once complete, the project will enable us to ask an array of new questions on the dynamics of maritime disputes in East Asia.
Read MoreWritten by Zachary Abuza
Then there is the issue over what vaccine people are getting: elites and wealthy states will dominate the highly effective vaccines by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, while poorer people will have to make do with Chinese vaccines that have significantly lower efficacies.
Read MoreWritten by Bich T Tran
As the two countries share a socialist ideology, Hanoi has built close party-to-party relations with Beijing which serve as conduits to tone down the South China Sea disputes. Although Vietnam might agree with the core objectives of the Quad, it is less likely to be enthusiastic about publicly adding its name to a group that seeks to counter China.
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