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The Korea Times

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SCMP
Asia

The Korea Times

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Columnists

22. John J. Metzler

Myanmar military regime backed by Russia, China: UN Report

It's hardly a surprise, but an affirmation of the obvious. Myanmar's military regime is being backed, supported and protected by both Russia and China. What's new is that the specifics of this assistance have come to light in a landmark U.N. report uncovering the extent of arms and munitions transfers to Myanmar, the Southeast Asian state beset by longtime military rule, amid spurts of democratic governance, but overall isolation and indifference.

2023-05-28 16:25

Synergy, strength, dynamism; South Korea-US alliance at 70

Seventy years is a long time, especially for a military alliance between friends. There are few in the world notably including the Atlantic Alliance, forming NATO in 1949. But in the case of East Asia, the strategic and economic links which emerged from the cauldron of the Korean War ending in 1953, created an extraordinary success story recently celebrated by South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol's state visit to Washington, D. C.

2023-05-04 16:30

Brazil's Lula throws BRIC at U.S. dollar

The writing was on the wall. But when Brazil's leftwing President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva visited China recently, he flamboyantly underscored economic and security ties between Latin America's largest democracy and the world's largest dictatorship. Significantly he took steps to decouple much of Brazil's vibrant commerce from using the U.S. dollar and shift trade instead to the Chinese currency, the Yuan.

2023-04-23 16:40

Taiwan's 'Democracy Trifecta' angers sullen Beijing

Taiwan's vibrant but threatened democracy had a good week. After months of facing ominous political threats from the Chinese communists, which may eventually culminate in Beijing's invasion of the self-governing island, Taiwan seemed sure-footed diplomatically with a little help from its friends.

2023-04-16 16:47

Foreign policy weathervane now spinning whirligig

As they say, you can't make this up. In the course of just over a week, China and Russia reaffirmed their friendship and military ties, the Iranian regime proxies lashed out with rockets at U.S. forces in neighboring Syria, North Korea shot off a few more missiles, France was rocked by serious rioting, all to the backdrop of what could well be a global banking crisis sending financial shockwaves from Silicon Valley to Switzerland.

2023-03-30 16:58

2 Koreas split on UN move on Ukraine War

A year after Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. General Assembly firmly and sternly rebuked Russia's brutal war against a sovereign country. With a thumping majority of 141 in favor, only 7 against and 32 abstentions, the Assembly again issued a non-binding resolution demanding Russia's military withdrawal from Ukraine and calling for a “comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”

2023-03-01 16:50

South Africa plays patsy to Russia and China

The timing is terrible but intentional. The setting is suspicious. The symbolism is deeply troubling. Almost a year to the day of Vladimir Putin's invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the Russian Navy as well as Chinese Naval units are carrying out ten days of joint military exercises in the Indian Ocean with strategic but officially non-aligned South Africa.

2023-02-27 16:55

Talking sense to the Taliban?

It seems like a profound contradiction; trying to convince Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to accept foreign humanitarian help for their own starving population. Thus as beleaguered Afghan civilians endure a brutal winter, the sanctimonious Islamic fundamentalist regime in Kabul has largely restricted international aid agencies because they employ women.

2023-02-09 17:00

Japan's defense reawakening

There's a significant sea change occurring in Japanese defense policy. Some would say it's the result of a political Tsunami. Others would argue it's a long overdue wake-up call.

2023-01-24 16:40

Cuban spy release shines light on darker tragedy

It's all about the timing. Ana Belen Montes, an American who served more than 20 years in federal prison for spying for the then-Castro regime while serving as a senior analyst in the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in Washington, has been released. But this case is hardly the ho-hum end to another Cold War espionage story.

2023-01-19 16:30

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