Author: Stuart White

Influence Around the World: Who Benefits from the Drama and Intrigue in Southeast Asian Politics?
21Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
World

Influence Around the World: Who Benefits from the Drama and Intrigue in Southeast Asian Politics?

China is the largest commercial partner for a number of nations in Southeast Asia, and all of these countries have seen political upheaval in recent years.As a result of widespread support for its platform of structural changes and social equality, the youth-focused Move Forward Party was the clear victor in Thailand's general election on May 14. After three months, the party still hasn't been able to create a new administration since the upper chamber of the legislature is full with royalist establishment members who are dead set against them.The future has no guarantees. Political horse dealing between Thaksin Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party, the runners-up in the election, and the losers, the pro-establishment parties, has prompted some to speculate that the exiled former prime ministe...
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The climatic concerns facing Pakistan have been pushed to the background by the country’s perpetual political crises.
6Aug By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
World

The climatic concerns facing Pakistan have been pushed to the background by the country’s perpetual political crises.

The government and the people of Pakistan are taking their attention away from the crucial subject of climate adaption due to the current political upheaval. The impact of the August floods in Pakistan, which affected approximately eight million people, is one of the most pressing problems that has received little attention. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre said that the floods were the greatest catastrophe displacement occurrence in the globe in the previous decade. The nation has experienced violent face-offs and heavy-handed official intervention since April 2022, when former Pakistani prime leader Imran Khan lost a no-confidence vote. The lack of openness about rehabilitation activities is perhaps the clearest manifestation of the change in focus, since formal periodic r...
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<strong>Maldives helping Russia bypass Western sanctions on Semiconductors?</strong>
25Jul By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Asia, Politics

Maldives helping Russia bypass Western sanctions on Semiconductors?

An Indian research firm Export Genius, that provides paid information on trade data, has unravelled a new trail of Russia bypassing US and Western sanctions. This information accessed and verified by NikkeiAsia claims that the Maldives has become a transit point for shipments of semiconductors to Russia. In the year after Russia invaded Ukraine, approximately 400,000 US-made semiconductors worth US$ 53.6 million were shipped to Russia via the Maldives. This information is based on Russian customs clearance data obtained by Export Genius. Thus, the Maldives was second only to China, including Hong Kong, in terms of such imports in the year after the invasion. For a country that has no semiconductor manufacturing facility, the Maldives has managed to export or rather re-export, US semicondu...
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What the Russian Wagner Group uprising may signify for the conflict in Ukraine
26Jun By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Asia, Politics, World

What the Russian Wagner Group uprising may signify for the conflict in Ukraine

ANALYSIS: The Wagner Group's commander, Yevgeny Prigozhin, declared war on Russia after alleging that the Russian army targeted his soldiers on purpose. Justice was sought for by Prigozhin, and this resulted in an armed uprising. The Wagner Group apparently had control of important military installations in Rostov-on-Don, the administrative center of Russia's southern military sector, when Prigozhin reportedly caved following talks with the president of Belarus. According to reports, Prighozin and his soldiers are now escaping to Belarus in order to escape consequences. The Wagner Group and the Russian military have long engaged in open confrontations. Since the commencement of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the two sides have engaged in a number of hostile activities and slanderous r...
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What use does Dutch recognition of Indonesia’s independence from the Netherlands in 1945 have in the absence of compensation, argue Indonesian critics?
22Jun By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Conflict

What use does Dutch recognition of Indonesia’s independence from the Netherlands in 1945 have in the absence of compensation, argue Indonesian critics?

According to Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, the Netherlands is dodging its need to pay reparations for its colonial authority over Indonesia by saying that his remarks "would not change any existing legal grounds."One observer adds that if the Dutch invasion of Indonesia in the 1940s were to be considered an invasion of a sovereign nation as of August 17, 1945.Observers have said that the Netherlands' recent commemoration of the formal independence day of its former colony Indonesia is "not sincere" and a "huge insult" to Jakarta since it lacks the necessary legal ramifications. The Netherlands "recognises fully and without reservation" that Indonesia gained independence on August 17, 1945, according to remarks made by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on June 14.During a parliame...
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Will Korea be the final country still trying to separate as the US attempts to reduce risk with China?
14Jun By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Asia, China, Politics

Will Korea be the final country still trying to separate as the US attempts to reduce risk with China?

Will South Korea follow the US in reconsidering its conflict with China in light of a number of factors?A new stage of crisis management is beginning for the US-China conflict.The US and China are working to mend fences via high-level discussions as the Group of Seven nations vowed to change their China strategy from "decoupling" to "de-risking" at their summit hosted in Hiroshima, Japan in May 2023. The United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit China in late June, according to US media on Tuesday, including Bloomberg.The US-China relationship, which has been mired in tension and hostility, is anticipated to enter a new chapter as a result of the visit. It is the first time since Mike Pompeo's quick three-hour trip to Beijing in October 2018 that a US secretary of stat...
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Chinese President visiting Palestine amid Beijing’s promise to mediate an Israeli ceasefire
14Jun By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Asia, China, Politics

Chinese President visiting Palestine amid Beijing’s promise to mediate an Israeli ceasefire

Beijing has made attempts to strengthen its links to the Middle East, posing a challenge to long-standing US dominance there. These efforts have alarmed Washington.According to official media, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has arrived in Beijing, and China has stated its willingness to assist in facilitating Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. Beijing has confirmed that Abbas would remain till Friday on his sixth official visit to the second-largest economy in the world. President Xi Jinping and Abbas will meet while Abbas is traveling, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. According to Wafa, the two are anticipated to "exchange opinions on the most recent developments in the Palestinian arena as well as on regional and global issues of mutual concern." Premier...
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When you travel, there are things bigger than politics: Jaishankar on Rahul Gandhi’s “Specimen” Remark
4Jun By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
Asia, Politics

When you travel, there are things bigger than politics: Jaishankar on Rahul Gandhi’s “Specimen” Remark

When responding to remarks made by Rahul Gandhi during his trip to the United States, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the media that there are sometimes "things bigger than politics" when one travels outside of the nation.During his visit to the United States, Rahul Gandhi allegedly assailed the policies of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in India as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modi with remarks like a "specimen" and other insults. In response to Gandhi's remarks that sometimes when one leaves the nation, "things bigger than politics" exist, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar issued a statement. After attending the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) foreign ministers conference, Jaishankar allegedly remarked that he can speak for himse...
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G7 Belts China In Presence Of Friend Russia’s Enemy, Zelenskyy
23May By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
China

G7 Belts China In Presence Of Friend Russia’s Enemy, Zelenskyy

China appears helpless and seething following the G7 meeting in Hiroshima, Japan. India, its bete noire on the border, was an invitee. Worse, Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine who is challenging China’s best friend Russia with the help of the combined West, was a special invitee. To add insult to injury, the meeting issued the strongest condemnation to date of the military and security threats China poses to the international community. In early May, before the G7 meeting, the Asean members met in Indonesia. The members are those China wants to befriend or even control through friendly finances through the BRI in order to project its influence. It found some success when Malaysia’s head of government visited Beijing and returned with a huge financial package deal. But that was small chang
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China’s Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Backfires, Embarrassing IT
5May By Stuart WhiteNo Comments
China

China’s Wolf Warrior Diplomacy Backfires, Embarrassing IT

The pack of Wolf Warriors is beginning to bite its master. The Chinese leadership must have realized this April that the so-called confrontationist diplomacy it encouraged its foreign service officers and diplomats to practice abroad now poses a veritable danger to its foreign policy. One of the Warriors, Chinese ambassador to France, Lu Shaye, went to the extent of questioning the sovereignty of former Soviet states such as Ukraine. There was no question of denying the statement because he said it during a TV interview. These were his words: “Even these ex-Soviet countries don’t have an effective status in international law because there was no international agreement to materialize their status as sovereign countries.” he said. The statement was China’s, not the diplomat’s undo
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