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Russia and Ukraine Vladimir Putin rarely uses English in his speeches. So if in his speech to the recent BRICS meeting in Kazan he insisted the reason for Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine was that he was ‘duped’ (he pronounced it ‘dooped’) by Germany and France in the 2014-5 Minsk

What an Aborigine Lady can teach us, Remember the fuss about the ‘stolen generation’ –  aborigine children being taken away from their mothers to be raised in Australian families? Conventional thinking at the time said this was a denial of the child’s aborigine culture, not to mention the feelings of

China-US recognition The key clause in the Jan 1, 1979, joint communique for the establishment of US-China relations said: The Government of the United States of America acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is part of China. The US at the time claimed that

No one seems to have noticed the fatal Quad flaw: India weeks ago refused passage of Japanese aircraft carrying aid to Ukraine. India-Russia attachment is very strong. BTW. Russia is finally doing what it should have done from the start – attack into the  Russian speaking areas of the Donbas –

After a long hiatus, relations between China and Japan are finally stirring into action. In late December, Japanese Foreign Minister, Iwaya Takeshi, visited China, where he met his counterpart Wang Yi and other Chinese officials. In the tradition of the 1971 Nagoya ping-pong diplomacy (which saw the diplomatic map of

As President Trump seeks to bring an end to the Ukrainian conflict, at the Asian end of the Eurasian continent some similar but much less known peace-restoring movements are underway. If both succeed the Eurasian continent could begin to move from an era of incessant conflict to one of ultimate

Begins: It was Kipling, born 1865 India and died 1936 London, who famously said ‘East is East, West is West and never the Twain shall meet.’ Kipling seemed proved right when the honeymoon relations between the Soviet Union and Communist China in the fifties erupted into the vicious Sino-Soviet dispute

The invitation said: ‘Global Multinational Corporations Summit.’ Main Topic: ‘An opening China and the World.’ So I dutifully packed my bags and headed tor Beijing. There on the 70th floor of the luxurious Shangri-la hotel I found bosses and representatives of about 30 Chinese multinationals who wanted to talk about

Mr Albanese is coming to Tokyo for the September 27 state funeral of former Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe. Does our PM know or care about Abe’s background? Two thirds of Japanese people oppose the state funeral. Not everyone will welcome the attention. Mr Abe’s death was at the hands

Several weeks ago Four Corners gave us a special program about Xinjiang Uyghurs sent to prison-style camps and forced to learn Chinese. I watched it recently as a rebroadcast. I was once sent to an Australian military camp to learn Chinese, at Pt. Cook near Melbourne. Conditions were fairly severe.

Territorial dispute blocks contacts that could have vitalized economies of Hokkaido and the Russian Far East For almost 60 years, Moscow’s large embassy near central Tokyo has been under siege. Tokyo demands the return of some islands it lost to Moscow at the end of the war. In support of

Begins:  We hear much today about Xinjiang Uyghurs sent to prison-style camps and forced to learn Chinese.  Four Corners devoted a special program to it. I was once sent to an Australian camp to learn Chinese, at Pt. Cook near Melbourne. Conditions were fairly severe. Eight hours a day, five

Freedom of press critics have complained how the Russian government news program, RT, has been blocked by many Western outlets during the Ukrainian fighting. But in fact the channel has always been freely available through Google as RT online. It remains as interesting, and surprisingly impartial, as ever – mainly

Australia’s relations with China were always prickly.  Now they are slipping into farce.  In 2014 both claimed a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.” Now, mistranslations and distortions of Chinese statements, deliberate or otherwise, are allowed constantly to poison relations between two countries. An example of the mistranslation game in action was when Australian

Observers have long seen connections between Japanese political parties and religious groups as dubious if not dangerous TOKYO – Tetsuya Yamagami, the 41-year-old former member of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces who killed Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe last week, said during police interrogation that his motive was Abe’s close relations

For 20 years, the abductee issue has been politically abused, with disastrous results for regional diplomacy and security Tensions are on a high simmer in Northeast Asia as North Korea presses ahead with missile tests. During his recent visit to Tokyo, US President Joe Biden joined the chorus of those

It’s not often that a world leader, or anyone else for that matter, gets to celebrate his own funeral.

Australia’s China threat obsessions are not new. Remember the Vietnam War? Obsessions then were far worse: ‘It (the Vietnam War) must be seen as part of a thrust by Communist China between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.’ (Robert Menzies, April 29, 1965). ‘..there is not the slightest doubt that the

For old-time Asia watchers there was a delicious irony in the way Chile has decided

Article written 2017 and regarded too controversial for the public Pearls and Irritations blog run by ex Australian Ambassador to Japan, John Menadue. Menadue now decries the pernicious influence of ASIO on Australian foreign policy: I have spent almost my entire adult as an Australian involved closely with Asia – a

Timid Chilcot report is just a starting point BY GREGORY CLARK 消極的なチルコット報告書は単なる始まりに過ぎない The reaction to the just-released Chilcot report with its seven-year intensive examination of the United Kingdom’s 2003 intervention in Iraq has been extraordinary. We have had endless debate over whether the intervention had U.N. or other legal approval.

While the global media have been searching for clues to explain the March 8 disappearance

There has been a heated debate as to whether cultural, “only in Japan” factors were behind last year’s

SIR: Garry Woodard’s piece about Australia’s role in the 1938 Munich affair is interesting

Asked about 1975, the last convulsive year of the Whitlam regime, the late Robert Haupt is reported to have said: “Don’t ask me, I was there.” I know what he means; I was there too. My 1975 began on a dry, hot Canberra afternoon in December 1974, straight off a

After his death in August, it is time for the full story of how and why Francis James

THE FIRST thing that strikes you about the new Russia are the beggars and the street peddlers,

After a long hiatus, relations between China and Japan are finally stirring into action. In late December, Japanese Foreign Minister, Iwaya Takeshi, visited China, where he met his counterpart Wang Yi and other Chinese officials. In the tradition of the 1971 Nagoya ping-pong diplomacy (which saw the diplomatic map of

As President Trump seeks to bring an end to the Ukrainian conflict, at the Asian end of the Eurasian continent some similar but much less known peace-restoring movements are underway. If both succeed the Eurasian continent could begin to move from an era of incessant conflict to one of ultimate

The invitation said: ‘Global Multinational Corporations Summit.’ Main Topic: ‘An opening China and the World.’ So I dutifully packed my bags and headed tor Beijing. There on the 70th floor of the luxurious Shangri-la hotel I found bosses and representatives of about 30 Chinese multinationals who wanted to talk about

Vladimir Putin rarely uses English in his speeches. So if in his speech to the recent BRICS meeting in Kazan he insisted the reason for Russia’s 2022 attack on Ukraine was that he was duped (he pronounced it ‘dooped’) by Germany and France in the 2014-5 Minsk Accords then he

Territorial dispute blocks contacts that could have vitalized economies of Hokkaido and the Russian Far East For almost 60 years, Moscow’s large embassy near central Tokyo has been under siege. Tokyo demands the return of some islands it lost to Moscow at the end of the war. In support of

Australia’s relations with China were always prickly.  Now they are slipping into farce.  In 2014 both claimed a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.” Now, mistranslations and distortions of Chinese statements, deliberate or otherwise, are allowed constantly to poison relations between two countries. An example of the mistranslation game in action was when Australian