European Union

The recent NATO summit in Madrid seems to indicate that NATO is making a comeback in full force. For China, painted as presenting “systemic challenges” to NATO, this should sound a warning that when the time is ripe for the US to contain China, key countries in the Asia-Pacific and the EU will not be on its side.

Japanese academic Shin Kawashima notes that Japan has been active on the international front, engaging the West as well as the Southeast Asian nations. However, it seems that with an eye to public sentiment, it is maintaining a cautious approach towards China and South Korea. When will it be opportune for Japan to advance to the next stage of foreign policy engagement?

Amid a changing global order, Russian academic Artyom Lukin analyses the different ideologies of the US, China and Russia and explains why it would be hasty to lump Russia and China in one camp or to dismiss the similarities between the US and Russia. In the end, the ideology that rules the emerging new world may not even be that of any of the three countries.

In the Ukraine conflict, China has stuck to its awkward stance of condemning the war but not the aggressor. As Europe loses patience and draws closer to the US, and international vitriol mounts hard and fast, will China be forced to change tack?

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war has brought about significant impacts on the global economy. While some analysts think that China's economy will benefit from the war, NUS academic Xu Le points out that the situation is not clear-cut, as China will have to face hits to its exports, as well as rising energy prices and challenges to food security.

The Ukraine war has made the EU, at least for now, more united than before and it is increasingly aligned with the US amid a reinvigoration of NATO. The grouping had erstwhile been seeking to forge a “third way” in playing a role in the Indo-Pacific free of the US-China binary construct. But as it moves closer to the US, will it be carried along by the “democracy versus autocracy” narrative and estrange itself from China to its own detriment?

Japan has consistently come up tops in a local research institute’s survey question on trust among ASEAN’s major dialogue partners. This is despite the history of Japan’s relations with countries in the region. But will the status quo remain unchanged? As Japan and ASEAN gear up to mark 50 years of friendship and cooperation next year, how will Japan work to maintain a strong relationship with the region amid growing US-China tensions?

Some analyses say that US-China relations may actually improve given the need for the US and the West to seek help from China in dealing with Russia. However, other indications are that recent events are engendering greater mistrust between the two countries, especially now that Congress has approved an omnibus bill that includes banning the use of maps that inaccurately depict Taiwan.

Though small, Cambodia is a state with agency, says Cambodian researcher Chheang Vannarith. The country has shown that it can stand up for what it believes in at key moments, such as when it decided to co-sponsor the UNGA resolution demanding Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine. As ASEAN chair for 2022, it seeks to bridge differences, and even if it has the image of being dominated by close friend China, this does not mean that it will do its every bidding.