Tag: Singapore

Some five months after Philippine troops flushed out Islamic State-aligned militants in the southern city of Marawi, recent military-militant clashes show the Islamic State's local affiliates have regrouped and spread since last year's siege, still gaining recruits and threatening once again to become a rallying point for jihadists across the region. But the persistent regional threat has spurred ASEAN countries towards greater security cooperation.

Israel has long had deep links with some ASEAN member-states, while its relationship with others are more fragile or less developed.

THERE is a group that was ­described by a senior US ­security official 15 years ago as the "A-Team of terrorists" and has only gone from strength to strength in the years since then. This group perpetrates violent acts against civilians, calls for mass murder and, by its own admission, doesn't differentiate between its political and military arms.

Yet Australians are effectively free to fly this group's flag, fill its coffers and offer it material support, even as its operatives undertake terrorist ­activities in our region.

The United States has repeatedly been surprised by major developments in Asia, sometimes catastrophically so. Think Pearl Harbor... the victory of Mao Zedong's Communists in the Chinese civil war... the Korean War... Vietnam... or the rise of a Chinese superpower competitor from the depths of Maoist misery.

Michael R. Auslin's The End of the Asian Century seeks to prevent Americans from again being surprised by the disruptions that still might come in Asia.

As North Korea once again comes to the fore of the world's conscious, the lesson should be clear. What matters is not short-term talk, deal, and negotiations, but whether Iran's long-term ambitions have changed.

For now, this does not seem to be the case. And, if this is allowed to fester, the long-term result may be another North Korea, if not something even worse.

As the dust begins to settle on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Australia, it is worth taking stock of the specifics of what exactly was accomplished during this short four-day trip. While much has been written elsewhere about the visit and the broader Australia-Israel relationship, a number of specific concrete projects were also realised.

As noted by Jerusalem Post journalist Herb Keinon, Israel often devotes much of its diplomatic energy towards its European critics, relative to that afforded towards good friends like Australia. As such, the recent visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Australia, a strong friend of Israel, gave the media a chance to focus on a change to this modus operandi.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's remarks at this week's dinner with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong are emblematic of a multifaceted bilateralism that has seen once clandestine engagement between the two nations grow into a very public, and profitable relationship.

AS Australia prepares to welcome the first ever visit by an Israeli Prime Minister, cooperation and dialogue between our two nations have never been stronger.

It's a record of friendship over a hundred years that few countries can match - marked by shared democratic and egalitarian values, common challenges, bustling trade and a long friendship in which both countries take great pride.