The US-China bind: no one wins in a trade war
This photo taken shows people riding an escalator past a poster illustrating a yuan symbol at a train station in Hong Kong. The US Senate passed a trade bill to pressure China into appreciating its currency, adding yet more heat to deteriorating trade relations with its biggest creditor. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Miaojie Yu, Peking University

In early October the US Senate passed a trade bill to pressure China into appreciating its currency, adding yet more heat to deteriorating trade relations with its biggest creditor.

But punishing China — while helpful in appeasing US domestic political demands — will not reverse America’s fortunes. Read more…

ASEAN’s newer members and the Asian noodle bowl
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen addresses journalists after the tripartite meeting with Thailand and Indonesia during the ASEAN Summit at the Jakarta Convention Centre, Indonesia 08 May 2011.

Author: Jayant Menon, ADB

When discussing Laos’ upcoming ASEAN membership with a senior government official in 1995, he insisted the reason his country wanted to join the regional organisation was because Vietnam had just done so.

The response revealed two things. First, Laos, like its neighbouring ASEAN aspirants at the time — Cambodia and Myanmar — did not want to be left behind, and wanted out of the economic wilderness by joining ‘the club’. Second, there was very little appreciation of what membership would entail, let alone what it could evolve into. Read more…

Obama’s regional summitry
US President Barack Obama delivers remarks before a Luau after the APEC summit dinner at in Honolulu, 12 November 2011. Asia Pacific trade and foreign ministers hold talks on expanding free trade, promoting environmentally friendly growth and removing trade barriers. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum

With the APEC Summit in Honolulu, US President Obama has launched a week of regional summitry that is set to lift America’s engagement in Asia and test new directions in regional diplomacy.

After APEC, Obama flies to Australia for a long heralded bilateral summit in Canberra, and then on to Indonesia, to take part — the first time for an American leader — in the East Asia Summit (EAS) in Bali. Read more…

The TPP, APEC and East Asian trade strategies
US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle greet Chinese President Hu Jintao and his wife Liu Yongqing, before their dinner at the APEC Summit in Honolulu, Saturday 12 November, 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Shiro Armstrong, ANU

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement got a big boost around the APEC meeting in Honolulu. A broad framework was announced, progress highlighted, and a 12 month deadline for a deal was set.

The TPP is the first trade agreement which President Obama did not inherit from his predecessors, and it is seen as a means of keeping the US engaged in Asia. Read more…

The revival of the World Bank’s bank
Visiting World Bank President Robert Zoellick smiles during a news conference Thursday Oct. 27, 2011 at suburban Mandaluyong, east of Manila, Philippines. Zoellick welcomed a deal clinched by European leaders to address their two-year debt crisis, saying it may have helped avert the spread of the financial turmoil to emerging markets that provide half of global economic growth. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Stephen Howes, ANU

The founding institution within the World Bank Group is the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

The only part of the institution that was established by the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, the IBRD is the World Bank’s bank. Read more…

Japan enters TPP negotiations
Members of the Japanese Central Union of Agricultural Cooperatives hold a rally against the Japan government joining Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) in front of the National Diet Building in Tokyo, Japan, 04 November 2011, AP.

Author: Deborah Elms, RSIS

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiro Noda has finally announced that his country will seek to participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.

His government was poised to enter the talks earlier in the year, but the decision was postponed in the wake of Japan’s earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster — and even Noda’s announcement this week was delayed multiple times as he tried to shore up support within his own party. Read more…

The sixth East Asia Summit: keeping up the neighbourhood
Foreign ministers and government officials attend the US-ASEAN Regional Forum in Nusa Dua in Bali on 23 July 23 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Maria Monica Wihardja, CSIS, Jakarta

The sixth East Asia Summit (EAS) will take place on 19 November in Bali, with its newest members — the US and Russia — breathing new life into the forum.

While the Summit’s original objective of serving as a forum for dialogue on broad strategic, political and economic issues remains important, the US and Russia’s inclusion has now opened an opportunity for greater geopolitical security dialogue. Read more…

Urbanisation: the driving force behind India’s growth
Indian casual labourers sit outside their temporary homes in front of a construction site hoarding on the outskirts of Hyderabad. Millions of Indian men and women migrate from rural to urban areas each year in search of work, many are employed in the booming construction sector which along with many other industries is riding the wave of nearly nine percent growth in the Indian economy. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sabyasachi Tripathi, ISEC

There are many who consider urban agglomeration — the concentration of a population in a continuous urbanised area — as synonymous with a country’s engine of growth, owing to the advantage of higher productivity rates.

And this is certainly true in the case of India. Read more…

The West’s reaction to Russia−North Korea summit
A group of Russian women welcomes visiting North Korean leader Kim Jong-il at the Bureya Station in Russia's Eastern Siberia on 21 August. The (North) Korean Central News Agency released the photo on Monday, 29 Aug 2011. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Alexander Vorontsov, RAS

The Ulan-Ude summit on 24 August 2011 highlighted Russia and North Korea’s commitment to overcoming the Korean Peninsula nuclear problem — and they must be credited with considerable success.

Kim Jong-il confirmed that North Korea is ready to return to the Six-Party Talks without any preconditions, and both leaders agreed to advance with the construction of a gas pipeline linking Russia and South Korea via North Korea. Read more…

Russia and the DPRK: cooperation in Ulan-Ude
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il meet at Sosnovy Bor military garrison in Zaigrayevsky district outside Ulan-Ude in Buryatia, eastern Siberia, Russia, 24 August 2011. Russian Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov is seen back right. The leaders discussed prospects for the implementation of tripartite economic projects involving Russia, North Korea, and South Korea, as well as economic aid and nuclear disarmament. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Sergei Sevastianov, VSUES

On 24 August, North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-il, met with President Medvedev during a highly-anticipated visit to Russia.

And it would seem that the meeting in Ulan-Ude may have generated positive changes for security and economic development on the Korean Peninsula — and even the rest of Northeast Asia. Read more…

Japan’s confused debate about the TPP
Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba speaks during a debate with scholars on whether to join a US-led Pacific-wide free trade zone in Tokyo on 4 Nov 2011. Japan is close to the final stage of discussions on the possibility of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which in principle would eliminate all tariffs on imports. (Photo: AAP).

Author: Corey Wallace, University of Auckland

Public debate surrounding Japan’s proposed entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) remains as heated and confused as ever.

The rhetoric is far-ranging: while some maintain that Japan risks being permanently left behind economically should it fail to negotiate entry into the TPP, others suggest that Japan’s government is agreeing to effectively cede sovereignty and sacrifice its agricultural sector for the sake of diplomatic cordiality. No one really knows what the TPP will mean for Japan, but little recognition is given to this fact. Read more…

Japan’s fighter jets: a tussle between technology and diplomacy
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda inspects troops during a review ceremony at the Japanese Self-Defense Force's Hyakuri air base at Omitama in Ibaraki prefecture on October 16, 2011. The ceremony, which is held every three years and not open to the public, comes one week after a fuel tank and other parts dropped from a Japanese F-15 fighter jet landing close to a residential area. (Photo: AAP)

Author: Jithin S. George, National Maritime Foundation

Japan received bids from Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems to replace its outdated F-4 fighter jets on 27 September 2011, as part of a plan to buy 40–50 fighter jets in a deal worth more than US$6 billion.

Japan intends to add the new aircraft to its fleet by 2016. Read more…