The World Views

Syrian civil war already enters into the fifth year as it has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of people to flee the country. This country has also become the save heaven for international terrorist groups including ISIL or Daesh, Nusra Font, and many other.  Syrian crisis is no longer a civil war but a proxy war, which many countries have their dirty hands in. And of course, many involving parties including regional and super powers have complicated the peace process. But yesterday became the landmark event when Russian Foreign Minister and US Secretary of State brought together a peace plan to United Nation Security Council with an aim to bring Syrian rivals to negotiation table. Before the adoption of resolution, UN’s secretary general Ban Ki-moon told the council that Syria is in ruins, convincing all members that it is the time to take concrete action. And eventually, the peace plan was adopted unanimously by 15 members of the Council. Generally,

After paying a state visit to Zimbabwe, China's Xi Jinping is attending the Afro-Sino summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, where there is the gathering of around 40 heads of states and governments of the country members of African Union. During the address at the summit, President Xi unveils new measures, including financial package of $60 billion to empower African countries and support the development process. China is regarded as not only the largest trading partner of Africa but also generous and prominent donor. For many years, China has funded various development projects in Africa, aiming to help African countries boost the infrastructure, telecommunications, energy, and medical system. Regrading security sector, this rising power also tries to take a role as a peace maker helping stabilize the region. Late last year, China sent hundreds of its combat forces to join the peace keeping operation for the first time in South Sudan under the mandate of United N

          Syrian civil war has nearly entered into the fifth year years, and this proxy war has claimed thousands of lives and left millions other displaced. Indeed, Syria, like other war-torn countries in the Middle East, has become the safe haven for Islamic terrorist groups including Islamic state and the al-Nusra Front. The couple of months ago, thousands of Syrians have fled the war and persecution to seek for better and safe place to live their lives in other countries. Some of them have taken risk traveling by boat across the Mediterranean Sea to seek for asylums in European continent. Many of them have innocently died off shores because boats capsized due to the overload of passengers. Unfortunately, some of them have been denied the asylum rights by country like Hungary. Although the civil war in Syria has drawn the world’s attention, international community has yet reached a substantive solution to put an end to the bloodiest armed conflict. Many western countries in

G4 leaders at the summit in New York (Photo: India's Ministry of External Affairs)  PM Shinzō Abe of Japan, President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil, PM Narendra Modi of India and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany today gather to discuss the proposal to push for a reform in the United Nation Security Council with an aim to bring about UNSC enlargement on the sideline of the UN summit in New York. However, UNSC reform still remains the uphill battle ,meaning that they have a very long way to go in order to win the bids for permanent memberships.There are tremendous challenges facing them ahead. Actually, all of the four countries are suitable to be granted permanent seats, but each of them can't secure the wide support. Japan has been the largest financial contributor to the United Nations' budget, and PM Abe has considered peace building as one of the top diplomatic priorities. Particularly, his move to propose new security law, allowing Japanese forces to engage in

Greek prime minister  Alexis Tsipras  agreed to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin  at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in mid June after they both held phone call today. They are expected to have bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the forum, and the topics on the agenda of the meeting would be Greece's debt crisis and Greece's BRICS bank membership. Tsipras would likely ask Russian side for financial assistance to ma ke the payment within timeframe to the international creditors; he will also further discuss with Russia's Putin on the proposal to join BRICS bank. Recently, Russia surprisingly has invited Greece to join BRICS Development Bank, yet it remains skeptical about what is real intention behind the invitation of Greece to join BRICS Bank. The diplomatic relations between Greece and Russia becomes more cemented after Anti-austerity prime minister came to power in January. After he was sworn into office, in April Tsipras deci

In 2001 after the attack of the World Trade Center, the Bush administration declared the war on terror by waging war in Afghanistan to topple the Taliban government in Kabul. The US-led invasion of Afghanistan and war against Taliban have left thousands of Afghans dead and injured, but the 12 years later the new government of President Barack Obama announced that the U.S was no longer continuing the war on terror, indicating that American would leave Afghanistan soon. Although the war ended, Taliban insurgency has never stopped its terror attacks against civilians and security personnel.  Despite fighting alongside with American troops to destroy Taliban fighters, the cooperation between the two nations has become stagnant in the recent years, particularly during the last term of president Hamid Karzai since he wanted the American and other foreign troops to get out of his country.  To show his dissatisfaction with the presence of American troops and its allies' troops, Ka

Venezuela, oil-dependent country, is further facing the economic bankruptcy and political collapse due to the dramatic drop in crude oil prices in the international market and political unrest within the country. The Venezuela's political stalemate has broken out in early 2014 when protesters mostly students gathered on streets, calling the new democratically elected president to address some social issues including rise of crime rate, shortage of basic product within mark ets, and inflation. The mass demonstrations in Caracas led to the severe crackdown on protesters and rioters, leaving hundreds people dead and injured. Consequently, the United States condemned the bloodiest crackdowns and imposed sanction against Venezuela. It's believed that the U.S has masterminded the mass protests, which aimed to topple the socialist regime in Caracas. Currently, Venezuelan people start demanding their government to take action in response to the economic recession, howev

I am unexpectedly excited hearing that Myanmar is about to have a referendum on amending 2008 constitution, hoping that the real regime change and democracy actually exist in Myanmar. However, I recall something and realize that the referendum will unlikely help boosting democratization process and enabling opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to be the country's future president. Recently, president of Myanmar Thein Sein has approved his country to hold a plebiscite in May,  paving the way for revising the provisions of Junta drafted-constitution by signing the referendum law. Currently, the constitutional revision becomes the most controversial issue within Myanmar politics, and the opposition party has tries to advocate for constitutional changes, particularly article 59 of the constitution. Article 59 of 2008 constitution states that " anyone whose spouse or children owes allegiance to a foreign power cannot become president or vice president". Mrs Suu Kyi

After discussing for 17 hours in Minsk, all parties agreed on a ceasefire aiming to end the bloodshed fighting in the eastern part of Ukraine starting from Sunday. Both sides agreed to withdraw all heavy weapons and create demilitarized zone. However, there are many things left to be addressed, especially issue of wide autonomy demanded by people in the eastern Ukraine, and there will be further talks on that issue . Currently, Russian backed separatist groups are insisting  for more autonomy, but Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko denies it. He claims his government can only offer some decentralization of power to the Eastern part and Ukraine still prefers unitary state. I still believe the new agreement, which is the outcome of recent talks in Belarus, is not a real and comprehensive document bringing 10 months conflict to an end. It will not last long as parties expect. Pro-Russian rebels have not yet received what they demand. I think that the Ukraine crisis would b

Israeli prime minister  Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו  has called upon 122 state parties to the founding document of International Criminal Court (Rome Statute) to suspend or cut their financial support in response to the war crime probe in Gaza. Mr prime minister claims the move of ICC to launch the war crime inquiry in Gaza is politically motivated, and he stresses that ICC is a part of problems not solutions. As the matter of fact is that I think it is not a political  motivation, but it is the judicial obligation of the court to find the fact bringing all perpetrators to justice. The court has jurisdiction to hold any groups responsible for committing atrocities against Palestinians in Gaza. But I confidently accept that the court has been politicized and used by the super powers to protect their interests. Regarding the war crime probe in Gaza, although Israeli government is found guilty of committing crime against humanity, the court still has no jurisdiction to