With its thriving economy, accelerating integration and evolving challenges to the security environment, ASEAN is destined to become an increasingly important region of the world. Its population is bigger than the combined population of the U.S. and Japan, and it represents a major frontier market.

Given the importance of both China and NATO, it is inconceivable that China and NATO don’t interact. Counter-piracy in the Gulf of Aden shows how both sides can work together to provide common security to the world.

China now provides half of Pakistan’s military hardware and has demonstrated willingness to transfer technology to Pakistan. As geo-political alignments are changing, the mutuality of interests is drawing China and Pakistan closer.

Since President Xi Jinping took office in 2013, China has been pursuing its own version of strategic rebalancing in foreign policy. China aims to re-position itself as “a state in the middle”, acting as a bridge among the developed and developing countries and maximizing the strategic space. If Chinese diplomacy and Beijing’s “connectivity” can ease the crisis in the Middle East, the achievement would affirm the nation’s rise to great-power status.

With Japan’s pride and nationalist impulse to play a bigger international role now rising, its domestic debate on national-security and constitutional reform is set to intensify. Although rising powers tend to be revisionist powers, a politically resurgent Japan, strikingly, is seeking to uphold the present Asian political and maritime order.

In a world of troubles, the ongoing re-shaping of the world order and global governance will require a meeting of minds and concerted actions from big powers.

The Philippine’s theme of this year's APEC Summit is “Building Inclusive Economies, Building A Better World.” Like the case for China's 2014 hosting, this 2015 agenda reflects clear Philippine domestic imperatives. As a major labor exporter, the Philippines will work well with the topic of investments in human capital development.

The development of shale gas technology is expected to rapidly change the global energy landscape, world economy and geopolitics, as we know it. As the United States prepares to become a major exporter of natural gas by 2020, cooperation and mutual trust are vital to ensure stability in the Middle East and beyond.

The shale gas revolution is unfolding, and is expected to have a profound impact on global geopolitics in the coming years, writes Feng Zhaokui.