In numerous essays, Hugh White has argued that the US-led Asia Pacific order, which he rightly views as a source of peace and growing prosperity over the past seventy years, is increasingly outmoded. As daily events in the South China Sea attest, the current order is increasingly contested. White fears an Asia caught in the middle of a dangerous US–China rivalry that could spark conflict between the two nuclear powers.
With its rapid economic growth and integration into the global economy over the last 3 decades, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has emerged as a major economic power and an important source of growth for the world economy. Now it is the second-largest economy at market exchange rates and the largest exporter in the world.
Times of crisis are a chance to discover who your true friends are. Ukraine learned this lesson two years ago. While it was largely Euro–Atlantic nations that spoke out against Russia’s actions in Crimea, Ukraine also found a supporter in Japan.
Officials have announced that Japan and Ukraine are arranging for Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to visit Tokyo ahead of the G7 summit in May. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has continued to voice support for Ukraine in light of the ongoing conflict in the country’s eastern regions.
One concerning aspect of China’s rising prominence is its troublesome relations with its neighbours. It has fought both real and legal battles on territorial and ideological grounds on several fronts including in India, Vietnam and on the Korean peninsula in the past, and currently is causing controversy with its maritime expansion. However, one break in this pattern is the country’s long-standing relationship with Nepal.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited Kyrgyzstan and praised the government for its commitment to democracy, according to Deutsche Welle. Germany pledged additional money to Kyrgyzstan to combat the Islamic State’s growing influence in the region. Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Erlan Abdyldaev stated that his government needs more aid to combat the spread of radicalism.
As Vietnam suffers its worst drought in nearly a century and Cambodia faces a water shortage that could jeopardise the livelihoods of 1.5 million people, debates have been reignited over the mega dams built along the Mekong.
Asia’s recent decades of economic growth have depended, among other things, on a remarkable period of regional peace and stability. The region will only keep growing if that can be sustained. We cannot take this for granted. The peace we have known has resulted from an unusual situation that emerged in the early 1970s, when China decided to follow Japan in accepting the United States as the primary strategic power in Asia. That has meant that US primacy has been uncontested by any major regional power in Asia, eliminating major-power rivalry as a source of tension and conflict.
In February 1987, a pair of junior American diplomats arrived in pre-democratic Mongolia to lay the groundwork for establishing a US embassy — no simple task in Ulaanbaatar, the world’s coldest capital. When the embassy opened a year later, its American staff resided in a ramshackle apartment building that they nicknamed ‘Faulty Towers‘. Much has changed since then.
Mongolia is now home to Australia’s newest embassy, housed in a modern complex in central Ulaanbaatar, whose skyline today boasts gleaming office towers erected by the nouveau riche.
Bilateral investment treaties have been a source of political controversy in recent years. This is clear from the alarming increase in the number of disputes between investors and governments.
The treaties create an unequal distribution of rights and obligations between developed countries, which are the source of most foreign direct investment, and developing countries, which are mainly recipients. They lead to the increased risk of litigation and have a negative impact on the net benefit of investment to recipient countries.
It may have taken 24 rounds of negotiations, but Chinese officials announced on Wednesday that a US-China bilateral investment treaty (BIT) is close to being signed. According to the Chinese Minister of Commerce, Chen Deming, many of the key stumbling blocks that have held up the deal may have been resolved. Chen’s statements came in an interview with China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency.
