Japan’s Tragedy – Will China Opt for Less to Gain More?   
   

The megaquake which recently hit Japan not only caused a gargantuan triple tragedy (earthquake, tsunami, radiation), but could also provoke tectonic geopolitical shifts in the entire region. The crucial question that the tragedy has tabled is how and who will shape the future regional architecture. In other words, will China full heartedly help Japan’s recovery, assume more responsibilities, and direct its forces towards building a genuine community of Asian nations, or will it try to take advantage of Japan’s hardship and use its weakened position for proceeding with more assertive policies.

Indonesia-EU Relations: EU's Conservative and Cautious Approach

The Chairman of the EU Delegation for Relations with the countries of Southeast Asia and the ASEAN, Dr. Werner Langen, together with nine other members of the European Parliament, were visiting Indonesia from February 21-25, 2011.  A separate meeting on regional integration was also held recently by the EU ambassador to Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam, Julian Wilson, on March 2.  Visits by individual EU Member States' officials since the start of 2011 - including the Swedish Minister of Trade, Ewa Björling, the French Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance, and Industry, Christine Lagarde, and the Spanish State Secretary of Foreign Trade, Alfredo Bonet - also mark the tight relation between RI and the EU.  Yet, this bilateral relation seems be on the "conservative" and "cautious" side that demand shifts of focus and more of regular open public discussion forums between not only EU delegations  and RI officials, but also EU delegations and RI stakeholders.

Trans-Pacific Partnership – has its momentum come?

The fifth round of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be held in Santiago de Chile next week. This is the first, out of the five rounds scheduled for 2011, which are expected to produce a draft free trade agreement (FTA) among 9 out of 21 APEC countries (2006 original P4 countries - Singapore, New Zealand, Chile, and Brunei, plus the five newcomers - the United States, Australia, Peru, Vietnam, and  Malaysia). While the prospective TPP members are all in the APEC, it is not officially this grouping’s initiative. Even though since its inception in 1993 APEC has been more of a policy coordination forum than a free-trade aspiring grouping, TPP negotiators have been widely using this organizations experience for advancing the goal of regional economic integration.

Turkey and Indonesia: Two “Zero Policies” Add Up to a Positive   

Turkey and Indonesia have a long history of relations dating back to the 16^th century when the Ottoman Empire, at its height, supported various Muslim sultanates, including Aceh, in their struggle against Western colonial expansion in Southeast Asia. Five centuries later, these two democratic, predominantly Muslim countries, guided by their “zero” foreign policies (“Zero problems with neighbors”, and “Zero enemies, million friends”, respectively) are trying not only to lay a new foundation for their bilateral relations, but also to use their vast potential for the benefit of the global community.

The Other Side of Asia: Why a Rising Asia May NOT Be a Changed Asia?   

The Asian Development Bank (ADB), along with Indonesian ministries, including the Trade Ministry and the National Development Planning Ministry, held a symposium on "Asia's Development Agenda in Regional and International Fora" on January 18, 2011, and a consultation meeting on "Asia 2050" on January 19, 2011. These themes are timely since Asia still faces development challenges despite its growth miracles while Asia's stake on the global economic recovery is high.

Will the (Six)Party Resume?   

After an extremely tense ending to 2010, one that brought the two Koreas to the brink of war, in the first days of 2011 East Asia has experienced unusually intense diplomatic activity – Mr. Bosworth, President’s Obama special envoy for North Korea traveled to Seoul, Tokyo and Beijing, Chinese and Japanese Foreign Ministers visited the U.S., while the U.S. Defense Secretary held talks in China.  One of the major topics discussed was how to prevent further escalation of the conflict in Northeast Asia. These meetings served as a preparation ground for Chinese President’s Hu visit to the U.S., beginning January 19.

The G20 and APEC: Building Synergies 

Although there are stark differences between the G20 and APEC - the G20 is a global institution to provide global public goods, while APEC is a regional institution operating under the Asia-Pacific context, both of them act based on the same modality, namely cooperative, non-binding and consensus-based tradition.  Both of these institutions are not - and should not be - negotiating forums.  But, most importantly, they need to pull resources.  APEC should work under the bigger umbrella of the G20 framework, while the G20 may learn from APEC's experiences, such as successfully getting member countries committed to strategies on a voluntary basis. 

A Field Everybody Wants to Play On - and be a Referee

The year that we leave behind has brought a further increase of political, economic and strategic weight for Asia-Pacific. This shift has been primarily caused by the resilience of Asian economies to the Global Financial Crisis - by their uninterrupted, strong growth.  Furthermore, this trend is likely to continue in 2011: as analysts predict, the growth in emerging economies, whose major engines are China, India and their Southeast Asian neighbors, is expected to be four times bigger than that of the developed world. Without any doubt, one of the highlights of 2010 was the historic moment at which China surpassed Japan as the second largest world economy.