Category: Economic Relations

International Investment Law’s Future Includes Asia

European and North American capital exporting countries have shaped international investment law for most of its history. They pushed for the customary international minimum standard of protection, forged the classical model of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) and now drive the present recalibration of international investment law.

Despite counter-proposals from the ‘South’ over decades, the making of international investment law has been essentially a transatlantic enterprise with the ‘North’ as predominant global rule-maker.

China Unhappy over the PCA South China Sea Ruling

China’s reaction to the Permanent Court of Arbitration’s relatively harsh ruling against it on the South China Sea has been angry. The court upheld nearly all of the 15 points on which the Philippines approached the Court in 2013. China boycotted the proceedings, questioning the Court’s jurisdiction and publicly claiming historic rights to the South China Sea and its resources. The Court rejected this claim, concluding ‘there was no legal basis for China to claim historical rights to resources’.

South Korea’s Bridge Between the U.S. and North Korea

US and North Korean diplomats attended the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialogue (NEACD) in Beijing on 22 June. Despite having talked at dinner, the US State Department insisted they did not ‘meet’ with North Korean officials. Also in June, Han Song-ryol, Director-General of the department of US affairs at North Korea’s Foreign Ministry, reportedly met with retired US ambassador Thomas Pickering in Sweden. So do these diplomatic movements mean we should expect some change on the Korean peninsula? Unfortunately, they do not.

China and the Philippines Historic Window of Opportunity

After the South China Sea arbitration ruling, uncertainty and friction may increase in the region. However, the economic promise of China’s rise and the Asian century will only materialize with peace and stability in the region.

On July 12, the international court in The Hague ruled in the dispute between China and the Philippines over the South China Sea. In international media, the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) has been characterized as a sweeping rebuke of Chinese claims in the South China Sea.

Changing Russia and Japan’s Status to Friends

According to conventional wisdom, regarding Russia–Japan relations there is no prospect for the resolution of the territorial dispute between these ‘distant neighbours’ over the Northern Territories/southern Kuril Islands. However, the words and actions of both countries’ leaders in recent times may be cause for optimism.

I See Your (Article) 7 and Raise You 50

Due to an unlikely string of events, the UK had sorted out its government more than two months quicker than it had looked likely in the immediate aftermath of the referendum when Cameron resigned.

However, to the frustration of others in the EU, May not only named Johnson, who insulted nearly every country, as the Foreign Minister, indicated she is in no hurry to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty that formally begins the negotiations of the separation. 

Is China’s South China Sea Stance Moving Closer to UNCLOS?

Beneath its surface-level bluster, China’s authoritative response to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) arbitration this week contained welcome hints that China may be subtly, and under cover of a strong stance on its South China Sea territorial sovereignty, bringing its South China Sea maritime rights claims into line with UNCLOS.

Countering 70 Years of U.S.-Japan Relationship Building, Trump Presses On

Donald Trump has defied all expectations about the US presidential election by emerging as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. For Japan, his extreme rhetoric brings to the fore a fundamental question as to the future of the US alliance system and its global leadership: will US alliance relationships be weakened as part of the retreat to isolationism espoused by Trump? Or will those alliances be reconfigured to reflect the shifting geopolitical landscape?

Shooting for Summit Success in Beijing

The annual China-EU Summit is a great opportunity for Beijing and Brussels to align complementary investment agendas. Failure is no longer an option.

The annual EU-China Summit will take place in Beijing in mid-week. The high stakes are reflected by high-level participation, which includes the European Council President Donald Tusk, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy.

The South China Sea, The Hague, The Ruling

Any day now, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague will hand down its judgment in the case brought by the Philippines about the validity of some of China’s claims in the South China Sea. Attention is focused mostly on the tribunal’s ruling on Beijing’s claim to some kind of ill-defined ownership of all the waters that lie within the famous ‘nine-dash line’.