Courtesy: ANI
The recent ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summits stressed the region's centrality and unity while also revealing its principal challenge: managing strategic contestation between the U.S. and China. The outcomes of both summits are reflective of ASEAN's diplomatic and strategic dilemmas in Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
Courtesy: Brookings Institution
Two years on since the military coup in 2021 and the continued absence of security and stability has only worsened the political and economic situation in Myanmar has only worsened in the absence of security and stability. India's long-standing strategic and economic interests in Myanmar will not be achieved if it doesn't proactively step up now to prevent the from becoming a flawed polity or a dependent of China.
Courtesy: Kuwait Times
The 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Jakarta reflected the grouping’s resilience amidst transformative geopolitical changes in the Indo-Pacific. Striving for unity and centrality, ASEAN tackled challenges posed by COVID-19, economic slowdown, climate change, and U.S.-China competition. However, internal differences on sensitive issues like Myanmar have tested its credibility.
Courtesy: WION
ASEAN's efforts to restore democratic transition and political normalcy in Myanmar have come up against a wall of non-cooperation from the state's current military regime. The grouping's internal unity and credibility has also been challenged by two parallelly unfolding policy lines - one favoured by the grouping and the other pursued by Thailand and its supporters. India, which has vital national interests at stake in Myanmar, has supported ASEAN centrality and the 5PC on Myanmar, while also simultaneously demonstrating an understanding of the Thai unilateral policy.
Courtesy: Twitter / Hindustan Times
The first Global Buddhist Summit is being held in New Delhi this week, a continuation of India's strategic and diplomatic outreach to Buddhist countries in Asia. The Summit offers India an opportunity to deepen the dialogue on its shared, millennia-old transnational Buddhist legacy with these countries, and arrive at contemporary solutions for global conflicts using the lens of Buddha Dhamma.
Courtesy: Reuters
February 1, 2023 marks the second anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. The country is now in a dire situation with a deteriorating economy, rising poverty and high unemployment. ASEAN, the UN and India continue to work with the Myanmarese military leadership, which is the only player able to provide solutions to alleviate the distress.
Courtesy: Khem Sovannara/AFP/Getty Images
Cambodia’s chairmanship of ASEAN exposed the grouping’s inherent incongruities and cleavages, despite its best intentions. To be taken seriously by its partners, ASEAN needs to first take itself seriously and adhere to the core of its charter.
Courtesy: Ye Aung Thu/AFP
Nearly two years after the military coup in Myanmar, tensions remain, with no domestic or international solution in sight. Despite these setbacks, the Myanmarese people's commitment to democracy has not faltered. As they did a decade ago, the Myanmar elite and leadership of both camps must once again use resilience and pragmatism to craft a way out of the current crisis.
Courtesy: Science Po
The Indo-Pacific region envisages the Indian and Pacific Oceans as a continuum and stands on two central pillars – maritime security and economic development. The public discussions, however, are focused on maritime security, strategy and geopolitics, while economic development has received less attention. This imbalance can be corrected by creating an awareness on how to harness the potential of the region's Blue Economy and its vast resources and opportunities.
Courtesy: Juggernaut
In his new book, former Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran demystifies China's imagined belief of itself as the Middle Kingdom. Contemporary China's propensity to cut and paste history has resulted in China's resentment of India based on a limited understanding of Indian history and of China's past recognition of India as an advanced civilisation which impacted Chinese culture. Today the West recognises India's potential to match China, with depth and skills, over the long term.