Global Outlook

On the 71st anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, for the first time, a global treaty is in force outlawing the bomb. Last month, I completed and dispatched to the publisher an edited book on the nuclear ban treaty (or the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, as it’s officially called) with contributions from many familiar people in academia, think tanks, foreign ministries and civil society.

President Moon’s Korea Peace Initiative has faced mixed results and daunting challenges, but there are no better options.

A recent online conference on “Climate Change and Pacific Sovereignty” discussed the issues of identity and sovereignty with a focus on Pacific atoll nations. Politicians, academics and civil society representatives from the atoll nations of Tuvalu, Kiribati and the Marshall Islands presented their experiences, views and political approaches. They were joined by legal and policy experts from Fiji and Australia.

The US and the German governments just agreed on a compromise about the controversial and long-debated Nord Stream 2 pipeline that is planned to supply natural gas from Russia to Germany. The supply of natural gas by Russia is not new.

After almost a year of being community COVID-free, Fiji Islands, one of the popular tourist destinations in the Pacific, is currently experiencing an exponential increase in active cases since the Delta variant, second wave of the Corona virus, landed on her shores in April 2021. The outbreak has recorded, to date, a total of 22,443 active cases and 177 deaths over the past three months.

More than 1/3 of those tested for Covid-19 in Myanmar now test positive. The crematorium in Yangon can hardly handle all the bodies. Many health workers remain on strike since the February 1 coup. When they try to help people on a voluntary basis, they risk arrest. Social media is full of desperate requests for oxygen.