Since late March, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam have imposed further Covid-19 related restriction in responses to renewed concerns over case levels. This has attracted considerable attention and raised fears of a second wave of the virus sweeping through these countries. However, other than for Japan and Singapore, the increases have been...Read More

In moves that signify their strong desire to strengthen bilateral cooperation, the European Union and Vietnam have reached milestone agreements in recent months. On 30 June 2019, they signed a free trade agreement (FTA) and an investment protection agreement (IPA). Over a month later, on August 5, they inked a new defence agreement. In many...Read More

“Almost the single worst abuser of everybody.” This was how US President Donald Trump described Vietnam’s approach to trade in an interview in June. His damning verdict was followed a few days later by an announcement from the US Department of Commerce that it would be imposing duties of up to 456 per cent on Vietnamese...Read More

While a visiting senior politician from Vietnam and her Chinese hosts talked in Beijing about the friendship and comradeship between the two communist neighbors, it was reported that their coast-guard vessels had been involved in a confrontation over a reef in the South China Sea. READ THE FULL ARTICLE ON ASIA TIMES.Read More

In a meeting with Nguyen Phu Trong, which took place just hours before his sit-down with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Hanoi, on February 27, US President Donald Trump invited his Vietnamese counterpart to visit his country this year, and the latter accepted the invitation. Though they did not say when the...Read More

It is still on balance worth the United States hanging on in Afghanistan, for a variety of reasons. There is no chance of military victory over the Taliban. Nor, without a U.S. commitment to withdraw its troops and accept a major share of power for the Taliban, does there seem any serious chance of a...Read More