The Japan-India Nuclear Agreement: Enhancing Bilateral Relations  

Japan-India relations have been improving rapidly since 2005 when the Japanese and Indian prime ministers began alternating reciprocal visits. Building on the momentum created by the establishment of the Japan-India strategic partnership two years earlier, the Japanese and Indian governments issued a joint statement on security cooperation to mark Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Japan in 2008. In February 2011, the two governments indicated a further strengthening of relations by signing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), a major step in fostering closer economic ties. (Asia Pacific Bulletin)

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China-Russia relations and the United States: At a turning point?   
     

Since the end of the Cold War, the improved political and economic relationship between Beijing and Moscow has affected a range of international security issues. China and Russia have expanded their bilateral economic and security cooperation. In addition, they have pursued distinct, yet parallel, policies regarding many global and regional issues.
Yet, Chinese and Russian approaches to a range of significant subjects are still largely uncoordinated and at times in conflict. Economic exchanges between China and Russia remain minimal compared to those found between most friendly countries, let alone allies.         (RIA Novosti)

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In a Time of Increasing Intolerance, has ‘Unity in Diversity’ Run Its Course  

Many have claimed that 2011 is the year for Indonesia to reassert its leadership in the region. The country is the 2011 chair of ASEAN, a member of the G-20 and a rising star among developing nations. But for many in the country, none of these externalities matter given a growing list of domestic problems. (The Jakarta Globe)

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The China ‘threat’ as a blessing   
  

Geography is destiny - perhaps the most inevitable of all. China is the Asian country with the greatest number of bordering neighbors and, large or small, has less than idyllic relations with all of them. Many are unstable; others are ambitious and eye China's economic and political growth with fear and suspicion; and most have a history of vassalage to China from which they have freed themselves only in the past century. They all tend to worry that China, once again a superpower, will try to force them back into bondage. (Asia Times Online)

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Asia’s regulatory reawakening   
   

Visual images of regulatory failure in Asia area a staple of mainstream media in the west: contaminated food killing children; humanitarian disasters magnified by ramshackle construction; industrial landscapes thick with sulphurous smoke; corrupt officials facilitating transactions from traffic fines to people smuggling. (East Asia Forum)

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Shake-Up Could Affect Tone of U.S. Policy on China   
   

With tensions rising over China’s crackdown on dissent, the Obama administration is about to lose three of its most prominent players on China policy — a shake-up that could reinforce its efforts to cultivate other Asian countries to counterbalance an increasingly assertive Beijing. (The New York Times)

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China’s Plans for a Sustainable Energy Policy  
    

Since the initiation of economic and political reforms in 1978, China has produced an average annual growth rate of 10%. From 1978 to 2008, China has increased its GDP by 83 times (NBS, 2009) and lifted over two hundred million of its people out of poverty. However, China still faces enormous challenges, especially in the energy sector. (The Diplomatic Courier)

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Deforestation – always silent yet devastating   
    

Amid news about a massive 9.0 Richter scale earthquake and a powerful tsunami that have hit Japan, there was little reporting about a flash flood that struck Pidie Regency in Aceh. Scores of people died, hundreds of homes were devastated and many residents were displaced (The Jakarta Post, March 14). Torrential rain around Halimon Mountain, a place where Hasan Tiro proclaimed the free Aceh movement in 1976, created an inland tsunami which washed away several villages in Tangse district. (The Jakarta Post)

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