The World Views

( Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev walks with his Cambodian counterpart Hun Sen during his official visit to Cambodia last November  )  Russian President Vladimir Putin inviting ten ASEAN leaders to Russia to attend the ASEAN-Russia summit in Sochi in May is seen as a historic and as a reaffirming of a new commitment of Russian government toward strengthening the relations with this regional bloc. The Russia-ASEAN Summit, which will be held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the official dialogue partnership between ASEAN and Russia, is very important in itself since it  will be serving as a very special forum to discuss some very important  topics such as energy, defense cooperation, food security and disaster prevention and relief. The summit proposed by Russian government essentially illustrates the new effort and commitment of Russian government to get closely engaged with the countries in the Asia Pacifi...

(Phnom Penh,Cambodia. Photo: Prime Minister Hun Sen’s Facebook) Cambodians have struggled to rebuild and transform the country from the killing field to the land of hope after having gone through 2 decade long civil war. This country could fully realize peace in 1998, almost 5 years after the UN-backed and first democratic election was held, by integrating Khmer Rouge solders into the society. Since then, the kingdom has strived to apply for a member of various international and regional organizations, paving the way for the rapid growth by receiving the international community's assistance. Almost 2 decades now Cambodia has so far been able to sustain its growth basing upon agricultural sector, light industry and green industry, known as tourism, and Cambodians enjoy the so called negative peace, which is the absence of war and stability. Actually, peace and stability become the centerpiece for the country's growth and contribute the increase in number of fore...

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. General...

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 confli...

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 de...