US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s meeting with ASEAN in mid-July, focused on convincing the bloc to confront Beijing, follows a long-running US strategy to transform Southeast Asia into a united front against China. By doing so, nations in the region are encouraged or coerced to antagonize China, despite the growing superpower being their largest […]
Posts Tagged ‘asean’
An Open Letter to BRICS, OPEC, ASEAN, SAARC, BBIN, BCIM & SCO
Now here’s the strategy: simply shut them all out of your economies. Deprive each of these terrorist states of your valuable natural resources, your cheap labor, your huge markets, your unique products and services. Just do it — now, before these inveterate warmongers blow up the world. Respectfully, Your many friends throughout the West Source […]
New US Military Bases in Papua New Guinea and ASEAN
The US Army will have unfettered access to PNG’s territorial waters and airspace following a security cooperation agreement scheduled to be signed on about May 20, Radio New Zealand reported. According to the radio station, which has a draft document in its possession, under the agreement, which is expected to be signed soon by a […]
ASEAN at the center of recent international fora
In the second decade of November this year, the focus of international political life turned to Southeast Asia. There, in Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand, calendar meetings of several international associations were held with the participation of leaders from the region and beyond. The very concentration of such events in Southeast Asia is further evidence of […]
Russia and Cambodia Continue Talks within the ASEAN Framework
At the beginning of August Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister visited Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. During his official trip to that fairly small Asian state – it has a population of 17.3 million – he met with other foreign ministers as part of the dialog between the Russian Federation and the Association […]
US-ASEAN Summit Leaves Washington Empty-handed
The recently held US-ASEAM summit in Washington was meant to serve what an official of the Biden administration called the need for “step[ing] up our [the US] game in Southeast Asia” against China. The underlying logic of this politics of increasing US strategic engagement with ASEAN is a more strategic realignment of the latter’s foreign […]
Will ASEAN Survive the China-US Confrontation?
China has been actively pushing the US out of its place as “world hegemon” for a number of years now. Through soft power – lucrative trade agreements, economic aid, generous loans and investments – the PRC gains partners and allies across the world. The scale of China’s “offensive” is such that the PRC is cooperating […]
US at ASEAN Summit Looks to Turn Region Against Itself
For the first time in four years a US President has attended the annual ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit. In a poorly disguised redux of the Obama-era “Pivot to Asia,” the US seeks to appear interested in contributing to ASEAN in a constructive manner while ultimately attempting to coerce the regional bloc […]
AUKUS and Myanmar Undermine ASEAN Unity
In fact, and as has been repeatedly noted in the NEO, the situation is worsening in South-East Asia, a key region for the global political process today, all ten countries of which form ASEAN. This deterioration comes from the degrading relations between the two global powers, the USA and China. The field of tensions created by […]
The US Indo-Pacific Strategy Displaces ASEAN
Whereas the QUAD and AUKUS aim to place the US at the centre of the Indo-Pacific region as a bulwark against China, these two different yet interconnected strands of US policies are unlikely to be accepted by the ASEAN. Specifically, these projects could overpower ASEAN, as well as neutralising the regional configuration’s own political ambitions […]
Meeting of Foreign Ministers from ASEAN and China
On June 7-8 in the Chinese city of Chongqing an annual meeting was held, bringing together foreign ministers from China and participating nations from ASEAN. This is not the only platform for discussing bilateral relations between the two sides. However, it is the most important after a summit. It is important to note that this […]
Iranian fencers clinch nine medals at 2018 ASEAN University Fencing Championship
Amir Reza Kan’ani, Mohammad Ali Kayhani and Hossein Ja’fari made the Islamic Republic proud on Saturday after they respectively bagged all the available medals in the men’s épée event of the competitions held in the western Malaysian town of Nilai. The épée is the modern derivative of the dueling sword used in fencing. As a thrusting weapon, the […]
Vietnam is Russia’s key ally in Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
The Socialist Republic of Vietnam was at one time one of the poorest countries in Asia. But, as a result of the transformation that the country has undergone in the last few decades, many are now of the opinion that it deserves to be considered as one of the ‘Asian tigers’ – a designation […]
Iraqi Forces Push Into Fallujah City
nsnbc : Iraqi forces, on Saturday, pushed into the city of Fallujah after fierce clashes with Islamic State forces. Preparations for the assault have been underway for days but delayed to minimize the risk for non-combatant civilians. Iraqi military and militia broke through the defenses of the self-proclaimed Islamic State )a.k.a. ISIS, ISIL or Daesh) […]
The American military’s coming collapse – the facts exposed
Mounting evidence presented by high-ranking US military officials to the United States’ Congress make it clear that the American army, once a powerful might backing Washington’s policies around the world, is now slowly, but surely, unraveling. According to The National Interest, the gradual decrease in military spending by a whopping 25 percent over the […]
How did Mexico dodge the Hurricane Patricia bullet?
Mexico dodged a bullet when monster Hurricane Patricia failed to live up to its threat of devastating huge swaths of the country. What saved Mexicans? Experts say Mexico was saved from widespread destruction in big part thanks to the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains, which slowed Patricia’s wrath. The coastal region where it made landfall […]