Tokyo committed Sunday to providing advanced military equipment to longstanding partners in Southeast Asia and promised to have their backs in the ongoing dispute over Beijing’s claim to the South China Sea.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has invited leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to Tokyo to celebrate 50 years of strong formal relations. And he splashed out for the anniversary gifts:
It’s an impressive diplomatic flex from Tokyo, and the intended — though unnamed — audience is obvious. China’s claims in the South China Seas conflict with ASEAN members’ internationally recognized maritime territories, and Beijing uses aggressive tactics to get its way, including building artificial islands where it stations troops and harrassing ships from ASEAN countries.
Just last week, Filipino and Chinese coast guard vessels collided, which Filipino President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., described as a “serious escalation.” The issue is ASEAN members don’t all see eye-to-eye on how to deal with China, with Cambodia and Myanmar close to Beijing. The impasse makes it hard to formulate a joint ASEAN response — and with up to 80% of Japanese energy imports and roughly 25% of its trade passing through the South China Sea, Tokyo can hardly afford not to bolster its regional friends.
In his latest Quick Take, Ian Bremmer argues that the war between the United States and Iran has entered a more dangerous phase, with both sides demonstrating they can sustain military and economic pressure without forcing the other to back down. The question is, will this standoff bring them back to the table before the conflict escalates further?
Ukraine is bringing the war to Russia, challenging one of the conflict's biggest assumptions: that time is on Vladimir Putin's side. Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba joins Ian Bremmer to discuss whether the war is entering a new phase.
For years, Russia has counted on one advantage above all else: time. Ian Bremmer explains why Ukraine's expanding campaign inside Russia is challenging that assumption, and what it could mean for the future of the war.
The US president used a primetime address last night to argue America’s election system is broken and vulnerable to “rigging.” He pointed to documents he says show Chinese interference in the 2020 vote. But the evidence Trump offered, along with past assessments from the intelligence community, doesn’t support his broadest claims.