Resources Archive

On June 26, Mongolians will go to the polls to elect their next president, with incumbent Tsakhia Elbegdorj predicted to return to office with a renewed mandate. His principal challenge comes from B. Bat-Erdene, who maintains a strong base of populist support in Mongolia’s rural areas. The third candidate, Natsag Udval, is a staunch supporter of former President Nambar Enkybayar, currently serving a two-and-a-half year jail term on corruption charges. According to Julian Dierkes, a Mongolia expert at the University of British Colombia, Udval is unlikely to gain more than 5 percent of the vote, but her candidacy is noteworthy […]

The Philippine Coast Guard opened fire on a Taiwanese fishing vessel two weeks ago, killing a Taiwanese fisherman and provoking a diplomatic deadlock between the Philippines and Taiwan in a period of growing tensions over disputed waters in the region. “This proves again that accidents happen and so all the more reason to have mechanisms in place to address accidents before they spin out of control,” Richard Bush, director of Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, told Trend Lines. Bush explained that because Taiwan found the apology offered by the Philippines for the incident inadequate, the […]

The full motivation for China’s recent incursion into Indian territory along their disputed border in eastern Kashmir is as yet unclear. But the incident brings to the fore the issue of unpredictability in Chinese foreign policy implementation and Beijing’s frequent recourse to low-level aggression, often deployed to shape the backdrop to formal diplomatic negotiations. With specific regard to India, despite a general trend toward deepening cooperation, the incident lowers hopes that China’s new leadership would move to clear up uncertainty in bilateral relations and create a firmer basis for cultural and economic exchange. On April 15, in the Depsang Valley […]

Taiwan and Japan recently signed an important East China Sea fishing rights agreement after 17 years of negotiations. More than anything, the deal represents a striking concession from Japan. Since 1996, Japan had attempted to prevent Taiwanese fishing boats from entering its claimed exclusive economic zone (EEZ) extending 200 nautical miles from the uninhabited Senkaku Islands, which are known as the Diaoyutai in Taiwan. Taiwanese fisherman have a long history of working the waters surrounding the Senkakus. The Taiwan government also claims that sovereignty of the islands reverted to the Republic of China (ROC), as the Taipei-based government is formally […]

Yesterday, U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto met in Mexico City to discuss the bilateral relationship. It was Obama’s first meeting with Pena Nieto since the latter took office in December, although the two did meet when Pena Nieto visited Washington as president-elect in November. In stark contrast to meetings between the American and Mexican presidents in recent years, the agenda included but was not dominated by security and organized crime. Instead, as underscored by the presidents’ joint press conference, Obama’s visit to Mexico City offered a varied menu of issues such as trade, education, innovation, […]