asia-pacific

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

The Philippines President Duterte’s recent announcement that the 1998 U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) would be cancelled has renewed hope that not only would this former U.S. colony finally attain freedom from imperial manipulation, but also that a new emerging age of infrastructure development can usher in an end of poverty and war in the Pacific.

The pawns of the Grand Chessboard are starting to move much more boldly – in an unpredicted by the punditry decision the Philippines have asked U.S. forces to leave their islands indefinitely. It was impossible to think even 10 or 15 years ago that a country as completely militarily helpless as the Philippines would dare to stand up to Uncle Sam, but now this has become a reality.

UK seeks new trade and security deals in Indo-Pacific but much will hinge on how it handles China
David HUTT
When Britain leaves the European Union (EU) later this month, it will be free to chart its own independent course in foreign affairs and fulfill years of promises to build a truly “global Britain.”

The UN released a controversial tweet regarding what is traditionally a women’s burden – childhood, referring to it as a “Motherhood Penalty”. This is very typical of today’s Liberal\SJW backwards way of thinking, that men need to be feminine, women need to be masculine, gender doesn’t exist until it does and so on.

There was a time when it was not unusual for the United Nations to accept several new members in a single decade. These days such accessions to membership are rare. The last nation to be admitted to the UN was South Sudan, the only new member in the international organization in this decade. The 1950s saw the UN gain new members in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The 1960s was the largely the decade of Africa in new members. During the 1970s and 80s, several island nations in the Caribbean became UN members.

Steve CHAPMAN
I’m starting to wonder if Donald Trump, bestselling author of “The Art of the Deal,” just isn’t very good at making deals. His presidency has been a ceaseless torrent of promises about what he’ll achieve from negotiations with foreign leaders. But time and again, he ends up high and dry.

After 18 months of on-off diplomacy with North Korea, the Trump administration seems determined now to jettison the fragile talk about peace, reverting to its earlier campaign of “maximum pressure” and hostility. It’s a retrograde move risking a disastrous war.

Donald Trump is in a painful bind.

By abrogating the autonomous status of the now-former state of Jammu and Kashmir and transforming it into two direct rule territories, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have set in motion forces that could result in challenges to its control of portions of the Himalayan region.