Southeast Asia
Vietnam as ASEAN Chair and UNSC non-Permanent Member
Vietnam took the charge as ASEAN chair from
its predecessor Thailand in November 2019, and the agenda for the year 2020 is diverse
and challenging. The...
Russia-Indonesia: 70 years of friendship
“Jauh di mata, dekat di hati .” This is how Lyudmila
Georgievna Vorobieva, Russian ambassador to Indonesia, characterized the
relationship between the two countries.
In fact, in the...
South China Sea of brewing troubles and its implications for India
For years, China, Brunei, Taiwan, Malaysia,
Philippines, and Vietnam have contested overlapping claims to hundreds of coral
reefs, features, and islets in the South China Sea....
Political advantage through aid or trade: India’s knee jerk on Malaysia and Turkey
In today’s market economy, no country can
live in economic isolation (sakoku). The USA (or its proxy India)
has a flexible format to dub or delete...
Youth for Youth: YALPI in Thailand
BANGKOK -
100 young people from all over ASEAN and Asia spent their weekends in
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand thinking of the best possible ways to
improve ASEAN...
Formal Recognition for the Rohingya Genocide
Today,
January 31st, is Franz Schubert's birthday and, as I write, the strains of the
final movement of his last symphony "The Great" play in the
background...
Indo-Pacific Region: A hotspot of rivalry
The Pacific
region in post-Cold-War period is fast changing its strategic complexion. This
region had been under United States’ influence. But, the USA and its proxies
like...
Curing Malaysia’s National Psychosis
Malaysia
has reached a chronic situation where the police are using the court system to
suppress alternative points of view by banning closed door meetings of...
Indonesia’s economic diplomacy: From hope into doubt
The dawn of
2020marked as a new era for Indonesian foreign affairs, as the Indonesian
government issued a new foreign policy direction shortly after Retno Marsudi
re-elected...
Ripples of 1MDB scandal likely to complicate Malaysian ties to key Gulf states
Disclosures of taped phone calls
between embattled former prime minister Najib Razak and a person believed to be
United Arab Emirate crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed...