Asia

Negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and India have restarted in July 2022. India, in particular, has recently increased the scale of its engagement in FTAs with several developed countries and has responded to EU’s multiple calls to rekindle the moribund FTA after a hiatus of nearly nine years.

With the recent national election in Thailand and results still up in the air on the exact nature of the next parliament, the future of Thai women’s and LGBTQ+ rights are also still in question.

Current politics in Timor centers on personalities, history, and using ‘oil money’ as the solution to problems – it cannot cope with the rapidly changing the world and its domestic development challenges. Changing its way of doing politics and the way society is being governed is imperative to address structural issues in Timor’s development and maintain the relevancy and legitimacy of democratic institutions.

With the help of the “JETP Vietnam” energy partnership, Vietnam is to become climate-neutral by 2050. While this agreement includes targets on energy, financial, and industrial policy, little has been achieved in terms of climate policy so far.

Towards sustainable development needs of the Global South and dialogue on pending macro issues.

At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, the global community anticipated a recession as a result of industry closures. However, COVID-19 has only been one of many factors contributing to a wider economic slowdown of late. Thailand and the Philippines have both recorded rising inflation, but are on divergent paths in managing it for their populations.

To fact-check and counter the historical denialism of the Marcos family, there is need for a counterfactual history analysis of the failings of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution.

It has been one year since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in August 2021. Following the announcement of the final withdrawal of international forces, the Taliban’s fast expanse from the provinces to the capital took everyone by surprise. Twelve months after the traumatic events, the situation on the ground has further deteriorated.

The judge's words still sometimes echo in her mind, even years after Juthamat Srihatthapadungkit observed the trial against a group of community rights defenders in northeastern Thailand. "What do you know about anything? Do you even have a fourth grade education?" the judge's voice thundered across the courtroom. The incident shook the young law student, leaving her with a nagging doubt about Thailand's justice system. She began questioning her dream of becoming one of the country's few female judges, an ambition she had worked hard for. But it also opened up a new path for her. 

Dressed in colourful traditional garb, the village's female elders gather around a young woman as two large cameras begin recording. In a soft but firm voice, 18-year-old Pornchita Fahpratanprai explains why they are standing up against a coal mine threatening their peaceful community in the mountains of northern Thailand.

India’s northeast has had a chequered history of youth movements and has been home to some of the recent strong pro-democracy movements in the country. Being young in India’s northeast necessitates acts of social interventions of various kinds. In this conversation, Dr. Kaustubh Deka and Dr. Soibam Haripriya reflect on the locality of youth movements and the long history of the culture of protest in the region, as well as its larger resonance.

The world cannot afford another arms race that will divert resources from poverty, pandemic and climate crisis to defence.

This article provides an overview of how Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine is being viewed and assessed in various regions and countries in Asia, and how the governments there are positioning themselves and reacting: in the Southeast Asian ASEAN countries, in Northeast Asia, and in India, China, and Myanmar.

New Delhi's indirect support to the Russian position is not a product of Russian pressure. Neither is it about its genuine belief about Russia’s legitimate interests in Ukraine. Rather, it is the result of a desire to safeguard its own interests, strategic vulnerability and 'non-alignment'- a cultural foreign policy ethos that prevails in Indian thinking.

The invasion of Ukraine has shocked Japan. The country participates in the sanctions against Russia. Still, people in Japan look at the war in Europe against the backdrop of security threats in their Northeast Asian region, says Akira Kawasaki, a peace activist with the Japanese NGO Peace Boat. He sees opportunities for civil society action even under current war conditions.

This year, Indonesia holds the presidency of the G20. During the preparations for the upcoming summit in November 2022 in Bali, how does Indonesia navigate growing controversies amongst the G20 member states concerning the Russian aggression towards Ukraine?

There are more than 6,000 glaciers in northern Pakistan, including Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). These are clean water reservoirs that actually irrigate Pakistan. But these glaciers are changing rapidly due to climate change. The ecosystem of these areas is changing. Global warming has accelerated their melting and more lakes have been formed as a result. Flooding due to the melting endangers lives and livelihoods of millions of local people and adversely affects the ecology. 

The unexpected ban of secondary school education of girls on 23 March 2022 by the Taliban authority was condemned by the international community. Professor Michael Daxner, who has been actively involved in the higher education sector in Afghanistan for the last several years, gives an overview of challenges currently faced.

The short film “Further and Further Away” is portraying a brother and sister who belong to the Bunong ethnic minority in Cambodia. We spoke with director Polen Ly and producer Daniel Mattes about the process of making the film, youth in Cambodia and the opportunities for independent film making in the country.

Increase in domestic violence, lay-offs, care responsibilities, restrictions on domestic and international movement, economic insecurities, psychological burdens - these are just a few of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in Asia in the last two years. The gendered nature of COVID-19 impacts is obvious and has sparked large feminist responses in the region.