Asia Watch Archive

Starting Sunday, Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit France, Hungary, and Serbia, his first trip to Europe in nearly five years.

Prabowo Subianto seems to have cleared the final obstacle to becoming Indonesia’s next president.

After four years on the job, China’s ambassador to Canada, Cong Peiwu, is leaving Ottawa.

April elections and exits could alter the Indo-Pacific's political makeup from South Korea to Singapore, with further votes across India and Solomon Islands scheduled for later this month.

As headlines this week warn of further fighting between Iran and Israel, the list of potential and ongoing global ‘flashpoints’ grows larger, creating challenges for some governments — and opportunities for others.

The Russia-Ukraine war, a civil war in Myanmar, hostilities in the South China Sea, tensions over Taiwan, and now, a potential Middle East conflict all command the increasingly divided attention of diplomats around the world.
 

Leaders of Japan, the Philippines, and the U.S. convene in Washington, D.C., today for a historic trilateral summit. The meeting comes as China and the Philippines feud in the South China Sea and the U.S. works to fortify ties with states that can offset Beijing’s influence in the region.

Last Sunday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled an ambitious C$2.4-billion investment to “secure Canada’s AI advantage,” with the bulk of the funding to enhance computing capabilities and build technological infrastructure for researchers.

Washington and London applied sanctions on a hacker group reportedly tied to the Chinese Ministry of State Security last week, alleging that Beijing sponsored a co-ordinated cyberespionage campaign that targeted

The Sierra Madre, a rusting World War II-era vessel, is again at the heart of renewed tensions between China and the Philippines in the South China Sea.

From March 18-20, South Korea hosted the third Summit for Democracy, a U.S.-initiated gathering of experts and leaders focused on addressing ‘democratic backsliding’ worldwide.

South Korea’s increasingly active role in global democracy promotion underscores its emerging status as a ‘Global Pivotal State’ — a concept that South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol advanced after he rose to power in 2022.

The abrupt resignation of Vietnam’s president, Vo Van Thuong, on March 20 — the second such resignation in two years — has rattled some foreign investors and raised questions about the country’s political stability. Although the presidency is largely a ceremonial role, Thuong was nonetheless the second-most powerful leader in the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).

Thousands of people are fleeing Myanmar to avoid a military draft that will force them to fight against an armed opposition that has recently made inroads against the country’s ruling military junta.

On February 10, the junta — which overthrew Myanmar’s democratically elected government in 2021, sparking a civil war — revived a decade-old conscription law. All men aged 18–35 will be conscripted for a minimum of two years; women are exempted for the time being. The first group of 5,000 conscripts will be drafted by mid-April.
 

India’s election commission announced Saturday that India’s next election — the world’s largest, featuring up to 968 million registered voters — will unfold in seven phases from April 19 to June 1.

India is inking a new trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association, a grouping of four non-EU economies: Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Once the deal is in force, India will lift tariffs on most industrial products in exchange for about US$100 billion in investment over 15 years.

China wrapped up its annual meetings of the Chinese People’s Political and Consultative Congress and National People’s Congress, commonly known as the ‘Two Sessions,’ on Monday. On the economy, Beijing announced a target GDP growth rate of “around five per cent,” the same target set for 2023.

On Saturday, Japan’s lower house approved a draft budget for the next fiscal year valued at C$1 trillion (112 trillion yen).

This week, Australia hosted an ASEAN leaders’ summit in Melbourne on climate and clean energy, trade, and maritime security, particularly in the South China Sea.

On Tuesday, Australia announced plans to increase its fleet of warships from 11 to 26 vessels — a number not seen since the end of the Second World War — by the mid-2040s.

Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly met with Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar at the Munich Security Conference over the weekend. Neither side issued a readout, but Joly tweeted that the “frank discussion” centred on Canada-India relations. Jaishankar said the conversation “understandably focused on the present state of our bilateral ties.”

One of the world’s most exclusive security conferences kicks off on Friday at the ritzy Hotel Bayerischer Hof in Munich. Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly will reportedly attend the 60th Munich Security Conference, as will U.S. Vice President  Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and secretaries-general from NATO and the UN.