ST Deep Dive: Australia and France turn a page, Asean's challenges
Here's a round-up of recent commentaries and more by think-tanks in the region and elsewhere that could be of interest to those who watch Asia.
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Damage controlled
The trilateral security partnership (commonly referred to as Aukus) between the United States, Britain and Australia announced in September last year was a huge shock to Franco-Australian ties, more so because it put an end to the A$90 billion (S$86 billion) Attack Class submarine programme negotiated by France and Australia in 2016.
It led to the biggest crisis in ties between Canberra and Paris, with blame games traded in the media and Australia withdrawing its envoy to France.
Now, the Lowy Institute's annual foreign policy poll shows that the damage to ties may not be as bad as feared.
"Around half of Australians (49 per cent) say both countries are equally to blame for the tensions in the Australia-France relationship," says the Lowy poll.
This result provides a fairly neutral ground to turn the page on this tense yet short chapter of the century-long relationship between France and Australia, says Dr Eglantine Staunton in this piece for The Lowy Interpreter.
Asean: Conflicting pulls
Over the past weeks, United States and Chinese defence and foreign policy officials separately engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity with their Asian and South Pacific counterparts.
The aim: to win friends and allies to their respective strategic narratives.
Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, Sino-US competition remains the key concern in the Asia-Pacific/Indo-Pacific.
The recently concluded Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore has reinforced this perception, says Ambassador Lawrence Anderson, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies.
Asean countries need to decide what they are prepared to do together, as well as what they are not prepared to do with the big powers, he says.
Asean: Why ADMM matters
Sixteen years on since its establishment in 2006, the Asean Defence Ministers' Meeting (ADMM) has done well in having a plethora of practical functional cooperation conducted among its members and with dialogue partners (also referred to as the "Plus countries").
The growing geopolitical and geostrategic challenges in Asia will mean that the ADMM - Asean's premier defence diplomacy platform - will be even more crucial to tackle common challenges.
Still, the joint declaration of the 16th ADMM meeting, held in Phnom Penh, made no mention of pressing strategic issues such as the Russia-Ukraine war or developments in the Indo-Pacific, notes Ms Joanne Lin, lead researcher of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute's Asean Studies Centre.
Challenges remain for the ADMM, she says. From the onset, the ADMM is not a military alliance, unlike the European Union, and there is no common security and defence policy.
Tribal for president
The stage is set for the next presidential election in India to be held on July 18 with both the camps having officially announced their candidates.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has nominated Ms Draupadi Murmu, a tribal and former governor of Jharkhand state, while Mr Yashwant Sinha, a former minister of external affairs and finance in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Cabinet, is the joint candidate of 17 opposition parties, including Congress.
Ms Murmu is a shoo-in due to the numbers that the NDA commands in the electoral college that elects the president, says Dr Ronojoy Sen, senior research fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies.
Indeed, he adds, it was a masterstroke for the government to nominate an Adivasi or tribal woman that most parties would find difficult to oppose.
