NORTH KOREA: Back to Square One on Nukes
BRUSSELS, Mar 21 (IPS) - Is the Korean peninsula really heading for denuclearisation Amb Han Sung Joo after North Korea’s surprise move in February of agreeing to shut down a reactor?
Experts like Han Sung-Joo, former South Korean foreign minister, remain sceptical and say it is ''unlikely that the North Korean regime will ever give up its nuclear weapons''.
KYRGYZSTAN: Exporting the Tulip Revolution
By John Feffer
WASHINGTON, Mar 29 (IPS) - Two years ago, the 'Tulip Revolution' pushed Kyrgyzstan off the path of dictatorship. But the subsequent direction the small Central Asian country has taken, and whether the revolution can serve as a model for the region, remain controversial.
China’s Development is No Threat - Official
By IPS Correspondents
BRUSSELS, Mar 9 (IPS Asia-Pacific) – China rising? The China threat? No, says a former Chinese envoy, China's sustained rapid growth and development in the last 25 years should not be considered a threat by the western world but a natural outcome of the country's foray into globalisation and modernisation.
Speaking at the ‘Asian Voices in Europe’ seminar series here on Mar. 7, Mei Zhaorong, president of the Development Research Centre at the State Council of China (highest organ of state administration that carries out the principles and policies of the Communist Party of China) acknowledged that China-Europe relations are “generally in good shape”. But the level of understanding between the two countries is still relatively low due to several reasons, he explained.
China Nurtures ‘Good Neighbour Policy’ in Asia
By John Feffer
WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (IPS) - China has embarked on a vigorous policy of engagement with regional institutions in Asia. From the steppes of Central Asia to the resource-rich waters of Southeast Asia, Beijing has implemented its own version of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ‘good neighbour policy’.
But this playing-well-with-others approach has presented China watchers with an intriguing riddle. Is China's new policy toward regional institutions a genuine commitment to regional and international norms, an attempt to displace the United States as the primary power in Asia, or simply a method to put smaller Asian countries at ease while China gradually builds up to superpower status?
JAPAN: Foreign Policy Needs to Focus on Asia -Experts
By John Feffer
WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (IPS) - After cultivating closer relations with its traditional ally the United States, Japan under new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe needs to refocus attention on Asia, say experts.
"Toward Asia, mainly because of the Yasukuni shrine issue, (former Prime Minister Junichiro) Koizumi's policy was quite a fiasco," Koji Murata, a professor of international security studies at Doshisha University in Kyoto, said at a seminar this month on Japan's new foreign policy challenges that was organised by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.
POLITICS-BURMA: More Uncertainty Lies Ahead
By John Feffer
WASHINGTON, Nov 8 (IPS) - Burma is in the middle of a national convention that its military leaders claim is the first step in a sevenfold path toward democracy. But what mix of toughness and engagement the international community should use on the country remains an open question, one that has drawn some comparison with North Korea.
'A Corrective Coup' in Thailand - Surin
By IPS Correspondents
North Korea Headache is Japan's Top Priority
By John Feffer
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (IPS) – Many foreign policy challenges lie ahead for Japan’s new prime minister, Shinzo Abe, but his most pressing concern is much closer at hand: North Korea, especially in the wake of its declaration of a nuclear test on Oct. 9.
Since then, Japan has been lobbying for strong U.N.-backed sanctions and implemented even stronger unilateral measures. This has now acquired urgency in Japan’s foreign policy environment, where officials were looking at China as an economic competitor and potential military challenge, and questions about Tokyo’s support for U.S. policies in Afghanistan and Iraq.
NORTH KOREA: Talk Needed, But Toughness Too - Expert
BRUSSELS (IPS Asia-Pacific) - The “lack of solidarity” and divergence of opinions among key countries over the years created conditions that allowed North Korea to carry out its underground nuclear test in October, but negotiations with Pyongyang remain crucial to keeping it in check.
POLITICS: 'Europe, Asia Can Show U.S. the Multilateral Way'
By Peter Dhondt
BRUSSELS, Sep 13 (IPS) - Europe and Asia's continued investment in political and economic cooperation could reap huge dividends for multilateralism at a time of restiveness about the U.S. unilateral foreign policy, experts and officials at the just-finished Asia- Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Helsinki, Finland agree.
