By Sam Beltran As the Asia-Pacific’s power dynamics continue to evolve and shift, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to China promises to be a test of his country’s ability to walk the fine line between economic self-interest and strategic resolve. His trip, which began on Saturday, unfolds against the backdrop of Australia’s deepening security […]
Read MoreBy Park Chan-kyong Russia’s appeals to North Korea for military manpower have taken on new urgency with Sergey Lavrov’s weekend trip to the country. The Russian foreign minister’s visit, his first to North Korea since 2009, signalled Moscow’s growing reliance on its neighbour for troops and engineering support, analysts say – suggesting that Kim Jong-un’s […]
Read MoreBy Hadi Azmi and Joseph Sipalan A fresh quandary may be brewing in Malaysia’s ruling People’s Justice Party (PKR), after Deputy President Nurul Izzah Anwar joined a march calling for judicial independence while her party weighs disciplinary action on her peers for demanding an investigation into alleged meddling in the country’s judiciary. Nurul Izzah, the […]
Read MoreBy Sam Beltran A Filipino documentary spotlighting the daily struggles of fishermen, naval cooks and coastguard personnel in the contested South China Sea has earned international recognition, with its director telling This Week in Asia that the award was a validation of honest storytelling in the face of political pressure from Beijing to cancel its […]
Read MoreBy Tom Hussain Once bound by history to Iran and Russia, Azerbaijan has been actively reconfiguring relationships with its neighbours in a bid to stake a claim as a major player in Eurasia – even at the cost of ratcheting up diplomatic friction with its former colonial rulers. Emboldened by the decisive seizure of Nagorno-Karabakh […]
Read MoreBy Park Chan-kyong America’s highest-ranking military officer has called for closer trilateral defence ties with South Korea and Japan in response to what he described as an “unprecedented” military build-up by North Korea and China. The remarks by General Dan Caine, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, come amid growing pressure on Seoul […]
Read MoreBy Huw Watkin For much of its history, Australia’s identity has been defined by distance – geographical, political, psychological. Now, with global tensions rising, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is testing whether that distance might yet be a source of strength. The answer, he seems to believe, lies in recalibrating Australia’s relationships with friends and rivals […]
Read MoreRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a visit to North Korea on Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The ministry published on Telegram a picture of the two men together, in a meeting it said had taken place in the North Korean port city of Wonsan. On Saturday, Lavrov warned […]
Read MoreBy Yashraj Sharma New Delhi, India – Just moments before a fatal Air India crash on June 12, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel-control switches in the cockpit mysteriously moved from the “run” to the “cutoff” position, an early investigation into the disaster has revealed. Flipping to cutoff almost immediately cuts the engines. The investigation’s report, […]
Read MoreBy Hadi Azmi and Joseph Sipalan Southeast Asian leaders have called on the Myanmar junta to refrain from holding elections until it satisfies a “wish list” for peace by the country’s stakeholders, as the Asean bloc wraps up a meeting of foreign ministers. In closing remarks on Friday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations outlined […]
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