| This week, Enkhsaikhan Jargalsaikhan writes on how Mongolia’s experience can be used to strengthen and further broaden the NWFZ regime to create a nuclear-weapon-free-world. Kazuko Hikawa critiques the Pact for the Future for treating global challenges as separate issues without providing concrete solutions or a way to overcome geopolitical divisions. And we held our 2024 Annual General Meeting of Network Members.
As always, we share recent activities from our network, including analysis on India-South Korea relations, South Korea’s foreign policy, India’s security cooperation with like-minded Asian countries, and more. |
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Mongolia’s Nuclear Experience: Expanding a National Initiative to Strengthen the Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone regime
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Enkhsaikhan Jargalsaikhan, former Permanent Representative of Mongolia to the United Nations, makes a case for building a more inclusive and effective NWFZ regime, based on Mongolia’s experience of attaining and promoting nuclear-weapon-free status as a single state. He argues that an effective NWFZ regime must reflect the demands and requirements of the contemporary world order, especially with regards to information on measures that have been taken to keep the zone nuclear-free, as well as on verification and control measures.
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Pact for the Future:
The Need to Overcome Competition and Division
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Kazuko Hikawa explores how the Pact for the Future’s emphasis on solidarity is hindered by its lack of concrete solutions and the divisive dynamics of global politics and economics, and suggests Christian Felber’s “Economy for the Common Good” as a framework to prioritize cooperation and shared human values.
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APLN Annual General Meeting
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On Friday, 6 December, APLN held its 2024 Annual General Meeting of Network Members. APLN members Manpreet Sethi, Mely Caballero-Anthony, Robert Hill, and Michiru Nishida opened the discussion with their analyses on the impact of the incoming Trump administration on the Asia-Pacific. This was followed by lively, network-wide discussion with member contributions including from South Korea, Japan, China, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Australia as well as an update from APLN Executive Director Shatabhisha Shetty on APLN’s 2024 activities.
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APLN has over 160 members from 22 countries in the Asia-Pacific.
Each week we feature their latest contributions
to global and regional security debates.
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| Eunjung Lim, Associate Professor of International Studies at Kongju National University, argued that including South Korea would address critiques of the G7’s lack of geographical and economic diversity, provide a broader regional perspective on Indo-Pacific issues, and serve as a bridge between the Global North and South, fostering equitable global governance. |
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| Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, Resident Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), pointed out that given the current difficulties in framing new rules for space governance, states must revitalise existing measures, such as The Hague Code of Conduct (HCoC), and incorporate them into global space policy debates. |
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| Manpreet Sethi, APLN Senior Research Adviser, analysed the Trump Factor in India-South Korea Relations, highlighting that, alongside the potential for technological collaboration among the US, India, and South Korea amidst Trump’s anticipated economic hard bargaining, there are also security and nuclear-related issues that present opportunities for cooperation. |
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| C. Raja Mohan, Visiting Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies, wrote for The Indian Express and emphasised that India must accelerate reforms significantly to address the massive gap in defence capabilities with China and seize the international opportunity to transform its defence industrial base. |
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| Jina Kim, Dean of Language and Diplomacy Division at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, was featured on the podcast The Asia Chessboard, where she discussed South Korea’s foreign policy and strategy in the Indo-Pacific with Michael Green. |
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