AFRICAASIA The battle for the Indian Ocean 22nd May 2009 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Competition for strategic advantage in the world’s most important shipping lanes draws Africa and Asia into a regional stand-off For the next few decades, the Indian Ocean will be the setting for competition between three great powers: the United States adjusting to an increasingly multipolar world, and the rising military and economic powers of India and China.
SOMALIAASIA Somalia tests maritime solidarity 22nd May 2009 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site The international anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia is the type of cooperative mission that the United States sees as helpful to reduce the strain on its overstretched m...
AFRICAASIA Washington adjusts to the Chinindia factor 22nd May 2009 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site China sees India more as a stumbling block than a competitor for its ambitions in Asia. Professor Han Hua, a South Asia specialist at Beijing University, said that China lacks 'a...
ZAMBIACHINAINDIA A shake-out after the crash 22nd May 2009 China and India want to snap up assets as metal markets hit the floor and the mining houses sack workers Western mining houses are pulling out of Zambia due to the copper price slump, leaving Chinese and Indian investors to battle over the abandoned assets. As the copper price crash...
GUINEACHINA Contract confusion 22nd May 2009 The junta leader Captain Moussa Dadis Camara's order that all mining licences are subject to immediate revocation if the government does not approve of their development plans ha...
ANGOLACHINA Oil, votes and Beijing 22nd May 2009 As Luanda tries to shore up its finances as export revenues tumble, China’s offer of credit becomes more important The combination of lower world oil prices, tighter credit and production cuts has increased Luanda's reliance on its countertrade credits with China. As Angola holds the presiden...
SOUTH AFRICAINDIA Friends in the right places 22nd May 2009 Just before President Jacob Zuma's inauguration on 9 May, India's state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) signed a commercial cooperation agreement with the ...
CHINAAFRICA Not the promised land 22nd May 2009 China would not be taking up tracts of land in Africa to meet its domestic food requirements insisted Beijing's Deputy Agriculture Minister Niu Dun in April, but reports on the g...
TAIWANAFRICA With your permission 22nd May 2009 On 7 May, Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a long-delayed white paper on foreign aid confirming what Taipei's allies are keenly aware of: Taiwan's foreign aid has dro...
THAILAND Thaksin Shinawatra 22nd May 2009 Former Prime Minister (2001-2006), Thailand Known for his polarising effect in Thai politics, his flight from justice and his interest in football teams in England, Thaksin Shinawatra also presided over a sharp increase in...
JAPAN Hirofumi Nakasone 22nd May 2009 Foreign Minister, Japan Born in 1945, the Keio University graduate began his career with Asahi Chemical Industry in 1968 but turned to politics in 1983 after his father, Yasuhiro Nakasone, became Prime Mi...
CHINA Yuan Nangsheng 22nd May 2009 China's Ambassador to Zimbabwe After Mao Zedong completed his first Soviet-style Five Year Plan in 1954, China's economic problems deteriorated sharply. That year, China's Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Yuan Nansheng, ...
Kim Yong-nam 22nd May 2009 Chairman, Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, North Korea Born in Pyongyang in 1928, while the Korean peninsula was under Japanese occupation, Kim Yong-nam came of age as Soviet-backed Kim Il-sung consolidated power over North Korea an...
