In September, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met on the sidelines on the 79th UN General Assembly in New York. Although their meeting did not yield any major breakthrough in bilateral relations, it demonstrated willingness on both sides to continue dialogue.

At this time, APLN made important headway with our Asia Dialogue on China-US Relations project. We produced a major report, authored by Manpreet Sethi, Joel Petersson Ivre, and Frank O’Donnell, analysing regional preferences for US and Chinese primacy in the region. Findings from the report will also be discussed at an upcoming webinar on October 29.

In this month’s events, we held an in-person roundtable with the East-West Center in Washington DC and a webinar to discuss an APLN report by Piper Campbell on the role of the US and ASEAN countries in promoting regional stability. The recording of this event, including a presentation of the report’s findings, is now available on our website. We also co-hosted a workshop on Domestic Perspectives on Disarmament and Deterrence with the Center for Strategic and International Studies-Project on Nuclear Issues (CSIS-PONI) in Bangkok, Thailand, featuring senior APLN members from Southeast Asia.

We also welcomed four new senior members to our network this month, including Mitsuru Kitano, Michiru Nishida, Kazuko Hikawa, and Joon Hyung Kim.

In other publications this month, APLN members write on critical issues shaping regional and global security, focusing on the evolving dynamics of nuclear policy and defense strategies. Angela Woodward analyses the debates in New Zealand over joining AUKUS Pillar II. Jina Kim examines the new update to the US Nuclear Employment Guidance and its implications for regional stability. Nobuyasu Abe explores the progress made toward nuclear disarmament over the past 30 years and highlights urgent tasks and challenges ahead.

Thank you for your ongoing support for APLN and as always, we welcome feedback from our members and partners. If you have ideas for a potential publication, funding opportunity, or project, do get in touch.

• Ambassador Mitsuru Kitano (Japan), Executive Adviser, Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR)
• Professor Michiru Nishida (Japan), Professor in the School of Global Humanities and Social Sciences and Deputy Director of the Research Center for Global Risk at Nagasaki University
• Professor Kazuko Hikawa (Japan), Vice Director and Professor at the Research Center for Nuclear Weapons Abolition, Nagasaki University
• Professor Joon Hyung Kim (South Korea), Member of the Korean National Assembly, former Professor at Handong Global University, and former Chancellor of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy.

They examine four types of preferred end-states for actors in the Asia-Pacific, analyse the implications of these end-states, and outline regional strategic approaches and trade-offs to avoid conflict and promote peace-building in each scenario.