Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Wednesday Japan “cannot accept” China’s drill rig near a gas field disputed between the two countries, according to BBC News. The Chinese drill is the latest episode in the long-running series of conflicts over the disputed Pinnacle Islands. The drill is actually on the Chinese side of the territory, […]
Perhaps Goethe put it best when he wrote that “the romance of politics is best used to numb and to quell the fears of the uninformed.” Maybe Mr. Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia, is a romanticist in light of his recent comments warning of the “instability of war” if his ruling Cambodian People’s Party […]
The PBS Newshour ran a story about the troubled garment industry in Bangladesh last night. However, unlike the mono-narrative run by the majority of news outlets the story laid out wasn’t about how things have gone irremediably wrong in Bangladesh. Instead, the story was about BRAC (formerly the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) the world’s largest […]
Dozens of protesters from all over Japan turned up for the arrival of a shipment of mixed uranium-plutonium (MOX) at the port of Takahama in Fukui Prefecture after its two-month journey from France. According to a Japan Times article, this was the first shipment of MOX fuel since the March 11, 2011, quake/tsunami-triggered nuclear […]
Growing up in the Indian Sub-Continent, we are taught that British India was partitioned on the basis of differing religious ideologies. Hindus didn’t want to be governed by Muslims and Muslims by Hindus, and the Sikhs, well, they weren’t given too much importance, but they were somewhere in the middle too. As is still the […]
Secretary of State John F. Kerry is in New Delhi for the annual U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. He’s receiving plenty of good advice (examples here, here and here) on what he and Salman Khurshid, the Indian foreign minister, can do to energize the nascent strategic partnership that just a few years ago looked so promising but which now is stuck […]
At the sound of a whistle, a Cambodian policeman clad in a sweat stained, light blue uniform and gripping a flashing baton in his hand races out into an intersection to abruptly stop traffic in all directions. The identity of the entourage coming down the perpendicular boulevard — with a police escort of at least […]
The 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a resolution demanding its sister city’s mayor, Toru Hashimoto, retract his comment that Japan’s wartime system of sexual slavery was necessary at the time, according to a Japan Times article. The Osaka mayor said in May the so-called “comfort women” were a “necessary evil” so […]
Economic doldrums mean that India is not much of a destination for global investors nowadays and the flight of foreign capital is depressing the rupee’s value to record lows vis-à-vis the U.S. dollar. Even domestic investorsprefer to put their money elsewhere. The country was the toast of the 2006 World Economic Forum in Davos, with “India Everywhere” […]
In its 65 years of independence, this election year was the first time Pakistan managed to vest power from one democratically elected government to the next – this being the first time the process was not interrupted by a coup d’etat. This is also the first time Pakistan saw the advent of a strong third political party. […]
It’s been a busy week for the United States regarding engagement with Asia; President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping concluded a two-day meeting — or “summit” with a small “s” — at Sunnylands, the former Annenberg Estate in California. This came after the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, and both events signify that U.S. […]
PHNOM PENH — As one approaches the intersection of Norodom and Sihanouk Boulevards in Phnom Penh’s Boeung Keng Kang 1 District, a mansion of impressive size and grandeur can be observed. Located adjacent to, of all things, the North Korean embassy to Cambodia, this awesome house belongs to Hun Sen, Prime Minister of Cambodia. That title […]
Nawaz Sharif’s return to the helm in Islamabad is sparking optimism that a more stable and constructive India-Pakistan relationship is in the offing. But South Asia is a rough-and-tumble neighborhood that regularly eviscerates the best of intentions. Indeed, given the potent brew of pernicious forces acting on bilateral affairs – contiguous but bitterly contested territory, sharp historical […]
Two weeks ago, I used this space to lament the austerity measures currently being implemented in Europe. With the European Common Currency Zone stuck in six consecutive quarters of recession, it’s easy to understand just how sick the continent’s economy is on a macro scale. One country which is certainly not sick these days is Thailand. […]
Citizens of Balochistan protesting the election results Photo Credit: Facebook Balochistan Balochistan – the province comprising some 44 percent of the entire land mass of Pakistan and merely five percent of the population, it is possibly the most ignored province in Pakistan. Balochistan remains the poorest province, while also the most naturally rich with massive […]
