Posts Tagged ‘ASEAN’

6 April 2011

ASEAN and the Thai Cambodia border tensions

Post Written By : MichaelV

A landmark agreement among ASEAN Foreign Ministers in February effectively defused a dangerous stand-off between Thai and Cambodian forces along their common border by agreeing on the deployment of Indonesian monitors on either side of the border and also the convening of bilateral talks between the two sides in Indonesia. Read the rest of this entry »

24 March 2011

East Timor impact on ASEAN

Post Written By : MichaelV

East Timor hopes to become a member of ASEAN in the near future.  But whilst the region’s newest nation has garnered support from Indonesia and Thailand, amongst other member states, there are some in the ten nation regional association that are unconvinced, arguing that East Timor’s admission will hold up economic integration plans. Read the rest of this entry »

4 March 2010

Indonesia and the West

Post Written By : admin

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will engage with two of his administration’s closest allies in March. In mid-March he will make a long delayed visit to the country’s Southerly neighbour, Australia; later in the month US President Barack Obama will make his long delayed formal visit to Indonesia, a return to the country of his boyhood he had promised to make in the first months of his administration.

These visits will be opportunities to define Indonesia’s relations with two of the Asia-Pacific’s important “Western” components.

In doing so, Yudhoyono will find himself having to walk a fine line between a full embrace of western values and strategic goals, and the emerging sense of identity and purpose Indonesia wants to articulate as an emerging medium-sized Asian power.

Read the rest of this entry »