Category: Asia Pacific

2014 has been a Big Year for APEC

The APEC summit has only just ended, but like the return of hazy skies over Beijing, clouds of uncertainty surrounding the regional forum have again drifted overhead. This is familiar weather for APEC, a grouping that has faced questions about its future for well over a decade. On the face of it, China’s year of hosting APEC has given a level of attention to the regional grouping that should stand it in good stead for the foreseeable future. However, if in years to come we look back to identify the year that APEC peaked, perhaps 2014 is that year.

Defining the Asian ‘region’ a Challenge at APEC

With considerable pomp and circumstance – and at considerable expense – it fell to China to host the annual APEC summit this year. If it lives long in the memory at all, the meeting will probably be remembered for a handshake between Xi Jinping and Shinzo Abe; a greeting that seemed to take place in an emotional vacuum stripped of the warmth that sometimes accompanies human interactions. Outside of diplomatic niceties though, there was a telling reminder of how hard it remains to build anything approaching a viable consensus in the region.

The Challenge of the Intra-ASEAN Thai-Cambodia Conflict

The Thai–Cambodia dispute over the Preah Vihear temple (called Phra Viharn in Thailand) is one of the worst intra-ASEAN conflicts on record. At least 34 people were killed during intermittent hostilities over the three years. 11 November 2014 marks the first anniversary of the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) reinterpretation of its judgement dispute. The ICJ’s decision on 18 July 2011 to reconsider its 1962 ruling ended a three year armed border conflict, from 2008 to 2011, over the area around the temple.

ASEAN Chairmanship is a Golden Opportunity for Myanmar

The 25th ASEAN Leaders’ Summit will be held in Naypyidaw this week back-to-back with related meetings of the East Asia Summit and other groups, bringing world leaders to Myanmar. For some of them it will be the first time in the country and for Myanmar a unique occasion to show its commitment to complete the country’s transition to democracy and ‘normalisation’ with the international community, after decades of difficult political and economic relations.

Clear Challenges Exist at the Next ASEAN Summit

On 12 November 2014, ASEAN leaders will gather in Naypyidaw, Myanmar’s new capital, for their twice-yearly summit.

High on the ASEAN agenda for this November’s summit is, of course, the South China Sea. Failure to achieve consensus on the subject in the 2012 ASEAN Ministerial Meeting (the annual formal and regular meeting of the association’s foreign ministers) under the Cambodian foreign minister’s chairmanship caused the non-issuance of the joint communiqué, something that had never happened before — or since.

China’s Place in Asia Post-APEC

On 10 November 2014 a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will convene in Beijing, followed in rapid succession by the East Asia Summit in Naypyidaw and the G20 in Brisbane.

Much of what will be said and done at these events will implicate the tectonics of nascent global governance set in motion by China’s campaign for greater influence in Asia.

An APEC History Lesson and its Potential Future

APEC leaders will meet in Beijing in November, 25 years after the APEC process was launched in Canberra in 1989. Some early hopes have been met, while others have been dashed.

APEC and the Trans-Pacific Partnership

The race is on between the United States and China to dominate the rules-setting game for trade by being the first to be able to announce plans for a free trade area in the Pacific Rim. China hopes to use its position as chair of APEC this year to propose that a feasibility study on a Free Trade Agreement for the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), first mooted in 2006, be pursued. In other words, negotiations towards an FTAAP would commence, for all practical purposes.

The Free Trade Challenges Facing APEC

If the APEC meeting can agree on the proposed regional free trade plan and a reasonable implementation schedule, it would take a leap into faster regional growth and prosperity.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on November 10-11 will take place amidst the rebalancing of China, the United States and the integration of Southeast Asia, which is causing substantial system friction.

The APEC Summit Looms Large for Asian Geo-politics

Regional economic cooperation in Asia and across the Pacific was developed around the idea of open regionalism and building the capacity for regional development in the global, multilateral trading system. Global institutions — the GATT and then the WTO — underpinned Asia’s confidence in deeper integration into the international economy and successful trade and industrial transformation through trade, economic reform and multilateral or unilateral liberalisation.