US President Donald Trump's rhetoric in past weeks has sparked a chain reaction of alarm in Southeast Asia, writes Hoang Thi Ha. If his words become deeds, the region's uneven but evident bedrock of trust in the US, carefully built up since World War Two's end, could slowly turn to dust.

Trump’s territorial ambitions send tremors beyond the western hemisphere

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump are meeting this week, following a period of fraying ties. Brahma Chellaney writes that it is in both countries’ interest to revitalise the bilateral relationship, including by strengthening collaboration on critical technologies.

Putting the Trump-Modi bromance to the test

Donald Trump might be tempted to recognise North Korea’s status as a de facto nuclear state as he looks to reprise his dialogue with Kim Jong Un, writes Andrei Lankov. But as North Korea’s nuclear program evolves on an increasingly dangerous path, Trump’s diplomacy might be a choice between bad and worse outcomes.

 Trump’s North Korea nuclear diplomacy: Between bad and worse

In David Armstrong’s Asian media review this week: Xi thanks Bangkok for strong action against online rackets. Plus: Myanmar civil war is world’s third-worst conflict; Confirmation bias behind markets’ DeepSeek shock; China advances its military technology; Allies must adapt to ‘fundamental’ US changes; Cambodia confirms it is free press desert.

Thailand pulls the plug on cross-border scams – Asian Media Report

Amid concerns over China’s rise, European countries are turning their gaze to Asia. Former diplomat John McCarthy says regional players like Japan and Australia must work with the Europeans to ensure the new Biden Administration gives more policy weight to the region, and especially Southeast Asia. 

Europe's back

This year the United Nations marked the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). But, as Professor Emeritus Ramesh Thakur, a renowned expert on nuclear control regimes, notes there is little to celebrate and even less to be optimistic about as the risks of nuclear war persist, especially in the Indo-Pacific. Some bold new thinking is required. 

Crisis and stability in nuclear triangle 

A dangerous assumption has long been made, perhaps innocently, in Canberra’s formulation of China policy that sufficient Australia literacy is in place in China to avoid disastrous misunderstanding and miscalculation, writes Diane Hu. 

China Australia literacy

Indonesia’s presidential candidates have had little to say on foreign policy. But whoever is sworn-in as President this year will face one of the most challenging international environments to confront a new Indonesian administration.

Indonesia missing debate

While the warming China-Russia partnership poses challenges for the Western-led international order, India faces its own dilemmas in how to handle relations between an old rival and an old friend, write Arun Sahgal and Anshita Shukla. 

China Russia India

The rise of China necessitates the rise of Australian knowledge of China. As David S. G. Goodman writes, this knowledge is vital to our economic prosperity and national security.

China studies Australia future

Australia once had a vibrant cultural relationship with China. Michael Keane asks, could its revival help ease current diplomatic tensions? 

Can culture help

China’s 'Asian way' is an all-embracing idea and a coded language to discredit other countries’ actions that are deemed harmful to China’s strategic interests, writes Hoang Thi Ha. 

Building peace

A year after Australian academic Sean Turnell was arrested in Myanmar following the military coup, his fate within a politically controlled and opaque judicial system remains uncertain. Charlotte Galloway argues fresh diplomatic approaches might be required to secure his release. 

Bring Sean Turnell home

A calibrated engagement strategy helped end Myanmar’s military dictatorship in 2015 – the same is required today. 

Biden flawed Myanmar policy

At this week's US-China summit in San Francisco, the growing threat posed by the 'nuclear tinderbox' in Northeast Asia must not be ignored, write Susan Thornton and Joel Wit. 

Biden Xi North Korea

An annual survey of elite opinion in Southeast Asia points to the necessity and opportunity for Australia to lift its engagement with its immediate region. Asialink adviser Chen Chen Lee and Catherine Hooton argue that by working with like-minded powers Australia can expand ASEAN’s geostrategic options and help them avoid a binary choice between China and the US. 

Australia's strategic opportunity

Australia’s China problem—official contacts frozen and many of our exports under siege—is now gaining attention far beyond our shores. As former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans AC writes, much of the world, given stark evidence of the economic havoc that China’s displeasure can wreak, and of the ugly depths to which its 'wolf warrior diplomacy' can descend, is trying to understand both how we fell into this hole, and whether we can climb out of it with our dignity intact. 

Australia China problem

With the trajectory of China’s economy — and many other dimensions of its power — shrouded in great uncertainty, finding the right policy response requires a more contested and open debate, writes Jane Golley. 

Australia's China policy

Australia still needs to invest in a credible self-defence policy because in foreign and strategic policy there are no 'forever' friends or allies, writes Asialink Chair and former Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Peter Varghese. 

AUKUS good plan B

Taiwan, a longtime source of tension between the US and China, could prove to be the driving force behind future conflict. And, as expert Alan Dupont writes, the ANZUS Treaty could force Australia into battle alongside its longtime ally and against its largest trading partner. 

ANZUS Taiwan

India is facing a humanitarian crisis from COVID-19. John McCarthy, a former high commissioner to New Delhi, says Australia must do its share to help with vitally needed supplies and allow Australians there to come home – even if it stretches our own resources.

Aiding India

Generative Artificial Intelligence promises to empower Southeast Asian nations and create a vital new realm for cooperation between ASEAN and Australia, writes Will Liang. 

Unlocking ASEAN's generative AI advantage

ASEAN and Australia must balance the potentially conflicting demands of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing food supply to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia. Cooperation in agri-food tech could be one of the win-win solutions, writes Sandhya Sriram.  

Agri-food tech emerges as a big win for the ASEAN-Australia relationship

Achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, among other regional challenges, will require the cooperation of communities and stronger people-to-people ties as much as the leadership of government, writes Lorraine Finlay.

Asialink Insights

Trump’s territorial ambitions send tremors beyond the western hemisphere

Putting the Trump-Modi bromance to the test

Trump’s North Korea nuclear diplomacy: Between bad and worse

Thailand pulls the plug on cross-border scams – Asian Media Report

Trump’s territorial ambitions send tremors beyond the western hemisphere

Putting the Trump-Modi bromance to the test

Trump’s North Korea nuclear diplomacy: Between bad and worse

Thailand pulls the plug on cross-border scams – Asian Media Report