Since the Philippines has shifted its loyalty to Beijing, Vietnam has stepped up as Southeast Asia’s primary opposition to Chinese intervention in the disputed South China Sea. Whether or not Vietnam will apply legal pressure on China remains to be seen.

The ASEAN Summit this year delivered an inclusive and progressive road map for further cooperation. Six macro-level upgrades were presented.

While ASEAN countries remain reliant on the United States for defense, they don’t want to be part of any U.S.-led encirclement of China because they fear their interests could be harmed and their neutrality challenged.

Recently, many countries in Asia have suffered from deadly and costly epidemics. While globalization and climate change may play a causal role, germ geopolitics cannot be excluded any longer.

President Trump’s interest in Greenland is sensible considering the strategic and economic importance of the Arctic — a region that also interests China, Russia, and other great powers, but the United States could be doing more to strengthen its ties to Denmark and its territory.

After the United States officially withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that the country hopes to deploy medium-range missiles in Asia. This remark quickly sparked widespread controversy, and most countries don’t want to see the terrible scene of a missile race in the region.

China may not have been the start of the China-US trade war, but it is a key factor in finishing it. Beijing must consider serious reform if it wants to repair its ties with the U.S. and preserve its ties with the rest of the globe.

America’s apparent willingness, as part of a deal aimed at forestalling the rise of a new long-range missile threat, to accept a North Korea armed with short- to medium-range missiles is giving Japan the jitters.

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte has sent mixed signals about how he will pursue his country’s South China Sea arbitration award against China in 2016, and his recent rhetoric promising to take a tougher stance on China may not come to fruition.