President Obama’s trimming of stops on a trip to Asia this month has raised questions locally about the US government’s two-year-old re-balancing of resources to the region, a shift embraced by allies such as Japan and the Philippines as their common rival China looms larger. Read Here – Christian Science Monitor
For all the flurry of recent activity in ASEAN–India relations, the status of the relationship remains decidedly mixed. Read Here – The Diplomat
The leaders of India and Pakistan have pledged to work together to halt a recent upsurge of violence in Kashmir, according to senior officials. Read Here – BBC Read Here – The Daily Times, Pakistan
Yesterday’s elections in Sri Lanka’s Northeastern Province is the most significant step the government has taken since the end of the civil war four years ago to address grievances of the Tamil community. Read Here – The Heritage Foundation The TNA Tsunami: Rebalancing The Equation – The Island
Voters in Sri Lanka‘s north thronged polling stations on Saturday in an election that threatens to rekindle animosity between the government and ethnic minority Tamils, four years after the military crushed separatists and ended a 26-year war. Read Here – Reuters
It turns out that Burma may need China after all. Reformers had hoped that the transition from a military regime to democracy would bring in new foreign investment to help Burma wean itself from support from its massive neighbor to the north, which was its main patron during decades of international isolation. But it hasn’t quite turned out that […]
Among the contradictory narratives and fluctuating fortunes, one thing, at least, is clear. When Asian leaders insist that their country’s claim to a contested territory is historically indisputable, they are never right. Read Here – The Diplomat
The Indus Water Treaty must move beyond its logic of compensation and water sharing between India and Pakistan to address the energy and ecological concerns of Jammu & Kashmir Read Here – The Hindu
It is in Sri Lanka‘s own long-term interests to engage constructively with the many concerns raised by Navanethem Pillay during her recent visit there Read Here – The Hindu
Korea’s real challenge is one of reinvention: to find a new economic model to replace its previous dependence on exports. For years, Koreans buzzed about catching up to the developed world. Now that they largely have, the question is what comes next. If Korea is having the economic equivalent of a midlife crisis, my conversations […]
looking beyond borders 