Beating the South China Sea Phoenix   

Last week, with the world watching, a sense of optimism wafted out of the Bali ASEAN Regional Forum meetings. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations and China agreed on ‘guidelines’ for implementing their previously agreed 2002 Declaration on Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). Some players, including China, hailed this as a breakthrough.            (The Diplomat)

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Sketching out a future ASEAN-NATO partnership  
    

As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) enters its seventh decade and as ASEAN consolidates its regional community building ahead of and beyond 2015, the bodies have much to learn from each other.           (The Jakarta Post)

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The job nobody wants: next foreign minister   

   

The new Thai foreign minister, whoever is appointed, will face many complicated and difficult tasks as the previous government has left some “hot potatoes” for whoever takes up senior ministerial post. (The Nation)

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Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s State of the Nation Address  

Investors, foreign policy analysts, and defense planners joined Philippine citizens in listening carefully to President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 25 in Manila. These groups are assessing whether Aquino is a leader who will break the cycle of corruption, get investment flowing, expound and implement a national security strategy, and find a path to peace in Mindanao. (CSIS)

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ASEAN gets recognition, now it must act   
     
Asean centrality has moved up one notch with the Hague-based International Court of Justice mentioning Asean in its decision recently in regard to the Thai-Cambodian dispute. No wonder, Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told his Asean colleagues a few hours later at their closed-door meeting in Bali that “Asean is in the equation”. (The Nation)

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Ernest Bower Interviews Douglas Ramage, Principal Governance Adviser of AusAID in Indonesia (CSIS)

A Tale of Two Countries: Family Planning in the Philippines and Thailand   

Whenever students ask him if family planning is really essential in curbing population growth, Dr. Nibhon Debavalya, Thailand’s leading population expert, responds with a parable about Thailand and the Philippines. Interestingly, Meechai Viravaidya, the family planning and HIV-AIDS activist who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994, answers the same question with the same story. (The Inquirer)

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