Author: David Brewster, ANU

Bangladesh’s recent announcement of a deal with Russia to construct its first nuclear reactor marks a broadening of the nuclear gold rush in South Asia.

The latest deal is part of a big expansion of nuclear generation throughout the region. Read more…

Author: Georgy Toloraya, Russian Academy of Science

The old row on the four islands — an eternal irritant in Russian-Japanese relations — broke out rather unexpectedly last November with President Dmitry Medvedev’s spontaneous visit to one of the Islands.

It should be noted that although Russia, in accordance with the 1956 Declaration, agreed in principle to secede to Japan two of the four islands, lost to the USSR as a result of the Second World War, the island the President landed on, Kunashir, was not among them, and is indisputably considered by Russia to be its own territory. Read more…

Author: John Hemmings, RUSI and CSIS, Washington

Russo–Japanese bilateral relations appear to be at an all-time low. Terse diplomatic exchanges between Tokyo and Moscow have followed Russian promises to build up their military strength in the Russian Far East. The immediate cause of tension is the disputed Kuril Islands (or Northern Territories, as they’re known in Japan), seized from Japan by Stalin in the fading days of the Second World War, which prevented the two states from signing a formal peace treaty. Following the eviction of Japanese civilians in 1945 from the four islands off the coast of Japan’s northern-most island Hokkaido, the Soviet Union settled ethnic Russians onto the islands, who now fish the same waters as their Japanese predecessors.

The dispute stretches back nearly 66 years, so why has it taken on a new life? Read more…