Félix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, left for a trip to Beijing last week amid sky-high expectations of both new deals and the significant reworking of current agreements widely seen in his country as favoring Chinese actors. None of this happened.
Instead, he returned with a fistful of non-binding MoUs to widespread dissatisfaction back home. Since then, DRC officials have worked overtime to try and spin the trip as a longer-term ...
Day: May 12, 2022
Why Washington’s Latest Trade Plan for Asia is Probably Dead on Arrival
IPEF is the latest U.S. acronym that we're going to hear a lot more of as of today. President Joe Biden will tout the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework during the two-day summit with eight ASEAN leaders that begins on Thursday. The IPEF is ...
White House Sticks With Group Diplomacy Rather Than One-on-Ones
At no point in the two-day schedule of the U.S.-ASEAN summit is there any time allocated for President Joe Biden to meet one-on-one with any of the visiting Southeast Asian leaders. Instead, the eight leaders will meet collectively with the President and other senior-level stakeholders.
Chinese State Media is Predictably Downbeat About the Summit
It is widely acknowledged that China will feature prominently during this week’s U.S.-ASEAN summit. For that reason, it’s interesting to track how the summit is being covered in the Chinese state press. The most prominent response so far was penned by ...
Which Issues will Dominate the U.S.-ASEAN Summit?
U.S. officials are coming to the ASEAN summit eager to emphasize the region’s importance, and to rebalance perceptions that it is currently mostly focused on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Cross-cutting issues like climate change are sure to occupy some of the discussion. ...
Why Africans Should Keep an Eye on the U.S.-ASEAN Summit
Nobody would blame Africans for not focusing on this week’s summit between the United States and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN.) After all, the continent is dealing with a few prior priorities: creeping debt distress in key states largely ignored by the international community, ...
