By Richard Stone Moves by Kiribati to negotiate a deep-sea mining deal with China, have closely followed similar moves by the Cook Islands. The moves have taken place against a backcloth of underlying trends in the global economy and a changing balance of forces, with far-reaching implications for US hegemony. The two tiny Pacific Island countries have, for example, geo-strategic …

by Richard Stone The recent visit of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr. to Australia for high-level diplomatic talks marks a return to the days of the previous Cold War now being played-out with the present one against China. Taking place on the eve of the ASEAN Summit in Melbourne, the Marcos address to parliamentarians in Canberra was designed to act …

by Richard Stone Recent coverage about the diplomatic significance of President Biden not attending the ASEAN summit has tended to concentrate upon information of questionable relevance while ignoring the significance of related matters. The growing significance of ASEAN as a regional trade body in the most dynamic sector of the global economy and the strategic nature of some member countries, …

A Commentary… By Brian Boyd, October 2022 This is the second of a three part series that looks into the current geo-politics and what it means for Australia. WHERE TO AUSTRALIA? One Australian newspaper editorialised after the NATO summit: “Australia needs to find a way to square off the nuclear submarine deal with the region to avoid becoming a barrier …

by Richard Stone A major diplomatic statement at a regional defence summit has revealed US-led military planning for a sensitive area of the South China Seas, an area of the Indo-Pacific region regarded by the Pentagon as a ‘theatre of war’. The significance of the South China Seas has been raised by the US in recent years following China emerging …