News from: Al Jazeera, Brookings, Defense News, Defense One, East Asia Forum, Global Times, Reuters, The Jamestown Foundation AFRICA Africa needs smarter investment in digital infrastructure: Strategies for enticing the private sector. Tara Nathan, Brookings: Weak infrastructure is widely accepted as a fundamental limitation to growth in Africa. Governments in the region struggle to meet […]
Tag: Pacific
The United Kingdom’s involvement in a new trilateral deal involving the U.S. and Australia indicates the British government’s rising concern over Chinese activities in the Pacific and how they could harm freedom of navigation at sea. However, the chairman of a parliamentary defense panel insists London is not losing sight of its own backyard in Europe, and […]
In November 2018 Port Moresby was a sea of red in the build up to the APEC leader’s summit. Chinese flags covered every road of Papua New Guinea’s capital while “China aid” was emblazoned – literally – on every traffic light. With China’s President tacking an official two-day state visit on to the start of […]
Ken Heydon, LSE On 14 July 2021, EU officials announced a plan to phase out production subsidies and free pollution permits that had been issued to selected dirty industries, replacing them with a ‘carbon border adjustment mechanism’ (CBAM). CBAM requires firms to purchase pollution certificates when importing products from countries with perceived lax environmental standards. […]
More than a year into the Covid-19 pandemic, how much outside financial support is the Pacific receiving and how far does this go in helping the region weather the crisis? Aiding the Pacific during Covid: An update | The Interpreter (lowyinstitute.org)
US Congress moves to prioritise the Pacific | The Strategist (aspistrategist.org.au)
Hugh White, ANU The US–China rivalry has many dimensions, but at its heart is a strategic contest over primacy in the Western Pacific. Although this contest is being waged on many fronts — including economic, diplomatic and ideological — it is essentially military. China seeks to challenge US leadership in the Western Pacific by opposing […]
Michael Shoebridge In November 2018, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced his version of Australia’s ‘Pacific step-up’, which was about taking ‘our engagement to a new level, launching a “new chapter in relations with our Pacific family”’.