By Ramesh Jaura* BERLIN | 10 June 2024 (IDN) — Iran is gearing up for a new presidential election to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who lost his life in a helicopter crash on May 19. Iran’s Interior Ministry has released the final list of candidates for the presidential election scheduled for June 28. According to Iran’s […]
First Korea-Africa Summit Paves Way for A New Era of Cooperation
By Taro Ichikawa TOKYO | SEOUL | 6 June 2024 (IDN) — Three decades after Japan organised the First International Conference on African Development (TICAD)—in collaboration with the United Nations, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Union Commission (AUC), and the World Bank—its immediate neighbour and former colony (South) Korea convened its first […]
Promotion of Technology Will Not Help the Poor to Access Water
By Kalinga Seneviratne BANGKOK | 4 June 2024 (IDN) — The recently concluded 10th World Water Forum (WWF) in the Indonesian tourism island of Bali focused on adoption of technology—that will include desalination plants and solar power—as the savior to provide safe drinking water to millions of the poor communities across the world. But activists […]
Is China Grabbing the South China Sea?
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 8 May 2024 (IDN) — Napoleon warned us that China was a sleeping giant best left, undisturbed. No longer. As is clear from the visit of President Xi Jinping to France this week, the giant is well awake, even happy to pay a ceremonial visit to Napoleon’s tomb, affirming […]
It’s China, Stupid! Why the West Is Courting India
By Herbert Wulf* This article was issued by the Toda Peace Institute and is being republished with their permission. BONN, Germany | 24 April 2024 (IDN) — India votes. In the world’s largest democracy, with almost a billion voters, parliamentary elections are being held from April 19 to June 1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is […]
China-Nepal Military Relations: Risks and Opportunities for India
By Atul Kumar* Observer Research Foundation (ORF) Website carried this article on 20 April. The writer was an expert, who took part in Raisina Debates organised by the New Delhi-based organisation. SYDNEY | 21 April 2024 (IDN) — On 9 March 2024, a Chinese military delegation headed by Major General Zhang Baoqun visited Nepal. They […]
The Fall of Myawaddy Is the Latest Humiliating Defeat for Myanmar’s Military Regime
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK | 18 April 2024 (IDN) — Operation 1027 has caused a change in Myanmar. Since October 2023, the advance of the anti-junta coalition of the Arakan Army (or AA, a mainly Rakhine group), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (or MNDAA, a predominantly Kokang group, a Han Chinese minority) and the […]
Wanted: A 21st Century Concert in Asia Involving China, Japan and India
By Jonathan Power* LUND, Sweden | 16 April 2024 (IDN) — The widespread perception that China is or will become soon an aggressive, expansionist power is simply wrong. It is propaganda, rather than fact, a kind of right-wing agitprop. Far from being an aggressive power, China is a defensive one, and has long been so. […]
Understanding China’s Changing Climate Change Rhetoric
By Gu Bin Joyce* SINGAPORE | 13 April 2024 (IDN | EastAsiaForum) — China, under President Xi Jinping, has demonstrated a critical shift in its rhetoric on climate change. Unlike his predecessors, who emphasised climate equity and China’s identity as a developing country, Xi’s rhetoric constructs China as a global climate change leader. Despite China’s […]
Indian Ocean “Zone of Peace” Sinking in Troubled Waters
By Thalif Deen* UNITED NATIONS | 8 April 2024 (IDN) — Just after a group of mercenaries tried to unsuccessfully oust the government of the Maldives in 1979, I asked a Maldivian diplomat, using a military jargon, about the strength of his country’s “standing army”. “Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked […]