Asia
Thaksin Shinawatra’s Myanmar talks likely driven by politics and money
Former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has presented himself as a possible mediator of Myanmar’s civil war. But Thaksin is likely motivated by his own political and…
In the story of an assassination plot, India decides to shoot the messenger
Whenever anonymous sources are cited in media reports, it’s open to the audience to assume that a leak is deliberate, part of a strategy to send a message. The old saying goes…
Serbia is all aboard for the China ride
Serbia this week became the first European country to pledge to build with China a “community with a shared future”.
China’s President Xi Jinping landed in Serbia on the second…
“Squad” goals: Consolidating the new quadrilateral partnership
A few days ago, US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin hosted his counterparts from three allied nations – Japan, Australia and, crucially, the Philippines – in Hawaii, also home to…
The Philippines and the Digital Silk Road
The Philippines might be struggling against China’s encroachment in the South China Sea, but in the digital world, the two countries are locked in an embrace. China’s so-called …
Helicopter flare up should highlight China’s base instincts
The Chinese air force’s dangerous intercept of a Royal Australian Navy helicopter in the Yellow Sea – what the Defence Department statement calls an “unprofessional interaction”,…
PNG-China: What’s to gain in any policing deal?
A report emerged in the Sydney Morning Herald at the weekend that PNG officials made a last-minute decision not to sign a proposed policing agreement with China. This followed…
Japan is insulating itself from America’s turbulent politics
Japan, the closest US ally in Asia, was in the crosshairs during Donald Trump’s presidency, despite efforts by the late prime minister Shinzo Abe to cultivate a close relationship…
Between the two worlds of an Indian diplomat
Book Review Cosmopolitan Elites: Indian Diplomats and the Social Hierarchies of Global Order, by Kira Huju (Oxford University Press, 2023)
Kira Huju places Indian…
India’s crackdown on journalists a sour note in the festival of democracy
As India goes to the polls to consider re-electing the Bharatiya Janata Party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country’s reputation as the world’s largest democracy is looking…