Japanese politicians are often driven to act by gaiatsu—the Japanese word for “external pressure”—and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga got a welcome dose of it in Cornwall, England, last week when his fellow G-7 summiteers endorsed holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo next month. Read More Here
No middle power in Asia is as important as Japan. This is especially true in Southeast Asia, where Japan is not only a leading source of infrastructure investments and overseas development assistance (ODA), but also enjoys tremendous good will among both opinion leaders as well as the broader public. Read Here | Japan Times
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga received renewed commitments from the United States to the two sides’ alliance and the kudos due to the first foreign leader to be greeted by US President Joe Biden in Washington. Read Here | Asia Times
A more assertive China is extending its influence across the Indo-Pacific and around the world. Existing alliances and institutions aren’t up to the task of addressing the consequences, and domestic politics across the region mean that an “Asian NATO” is off the table. That’s where the Quad comes in… Read Here | Foreign Affairs
It’s the 50-year anniversary of “The Ping Heard Round the World,” a Time Magazine headline in their April 26, 1971 edition. An unexpected invitation for the United States table tennis team to visit China in that year led to Nixon’s visit in 1972, which dramatically changed the course of history. The full story, however, is much […]
China and Japan have decades of experience in managing their regular diplomatic crises, but escalating tensions over Taiwan and territorial disputes in the East China Sea are creating a new test for Asia’s most powerful giants. Read Here | South China Morning Post
Whither the “Quad”? Is the Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue—a loose grouping of likeminded Indo-Pacific nations—a military coalition in the making? Maybe—but how tight that fellowship becomes is largely up to Communist China, the provocateur that brought disparate partners together in the first place. Read Here | The National Interest
The Sydney Opera resumed live performances and the city of Melbourne recently hosted the Australian Open tennis tournament with fans (mostly) in attendance. Japan is back to planning the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics, while China focuses on the Beijing 2022 Winter Games. Having been hit by COVID-19 first, Asia is also recovering first. At the pandemic’s […]
Ahead of an all-crucial meeting with high-ranking Chinese officials later this week in Alaska, top Biden administration officials are rallying regional allies for a united front against the Asian powerhouse. In their first foreign trip (March 15-18), the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have embarked on “two plus […]
The major Indo-Pacific powers of Australia, India, Japan and the United States concluded on Friday the first-ever summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, better known as “Quad.” The 90-minute event, conducted virtually due to Covid-19 restrictions, paves the way for a de facto “Asian NATO” amid growing concern over China’s increasingly assertive behaviour in recent […]
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