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 […]
Mekong Delta Adopts Water-Saving Irrigation
By Le Thanh Binh HO CHI MINH CITY | 28 March 2024 (IDN)—The Mekong Delta region in South Vietnam is a major food production base for the country. Approximately two million hectares of land are allocated for rice and fruit farming, and about a third of this land is regularly affected by drought and salinity […]
No China Railway as Marcos Tilts Towards the US
By Kalinga Seneviratne DAVAO, Philippines | 22 March 2023 (IDN)—After being elected to the presidency in a landslide vote in June 2016, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte visited China in October and declared that his country was realigning its foreign policy to move closer to China. He was accompanied by 400 Filipino business executives and returned […]
India-China Geopolitical Battle Intensifies in the Indian Ocean
Analysis by Kalinga Seneviratne SINGAPORE | 17 March 2024 (IDN)—China and the Maldives signed a military assistance agreement earlier this month. Indian troops have started withdrawing from the Islands. Simultaneously, China, Russia, and Iran are holding war drills in the Indian Ocean. Though the geopolitical battle in the Indian Ocean is intensifying, it could assist […]
Online Activism in China
By Jan Servaes BANGKOK| 15 March 2024 (IDN) —There are already more than 1 billion netizens in China, more than 3 times the population of the USA and almost one and a half times that of Europe. This means that about 20% of the world’s internet users, or almost 1 in 5, live in China. […]
UN-ANDI’s Work on “Making the Charter a Reality” Within the UN
By Shihana Mohamed* NEW YORK | 2 March 2024 (IDN) — The UN Asia Network for Diversity & Inclusion (UN- ANDI) commemorated the 78th UN Day virtually on 27 October 2023 with a Panel Discussion on “Making the United Nations Charter a reality: focusing on the UN-ANDI Recommendations in the report of its survey on […]