Vietnam Hopes for a Free Press

Published on Apr 18, 2018 by Luke Hunt

A free press has been an anathema in Vietnam ever since the communists seized control of the north in 1954 and annexed the south 21 years later. But there are hopes that Hanoi’s rigid control of journalism might ease amid its growing dependency on the West as a bulwark against Beijing’s expanding military reach across the region.That dependency was highlighted by the recent visit by the United States aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson, a show of military strength in Vietnamese waters which coincided with the scrapping of two-term presidencies in China, enabling Xi Jinping to rule for life as paramount leader.Read more..

Closure over Australia's Refugee Deal in Sight

Published on Mar 16, 2017 by Luke Hunt

Issues involving countries as far afield as Cambodia, Sri Lanka and Costa Rica still need resolutionBy Luke HuntClosure for Australia and its controversial Pacific Island refugee camps is finally looming with teams of contractors deployed by the United States kick-starting the resettlement programs amid lingering doubts over hundreds of asylum seekers who could be left behind.A team from the Bangkok-based Resettlement Support Centre East Asia have wrapped-up initial interviews on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, a month-long process which initiated the first stages in the resettlement of up to 1,250 refugees.Another two teams from the Department of Homeland Security in the US have also arrived on Nauru and Manus to follow-up on those interviews and begin the “extreme vetting”....

Australia Tightens Security as US Vets Refugee

Published on Jan 13, 2017 by Luke Hunt

This article first appeared in The DiplomatBy Luke HuntAustralia has beefed up its maritime and military presence along its northern coastline as part of strengthened efforts to further deter people smugglers while officials from Homeland Security in the United States begin the arduous process of vetting refugees for resettlement under a recent “one-off” agreement with the Obama administration.The six naval Armidale-class ships already deployed to Australia’s north will soon be bolstered by a major fleet support unit, either an ANZAC-class warship or a guided missile frigate.Australia is also expected to send its newest addition, the P-8A Poseidon – a cutting edge surveillance and anti-submarine aircraft – to strengthen existing capabilities like the P3-Orion in guarding maritime approaches to the Australian....

Australia, China: ‘Fear and Greed’

Published on Jun 1, 2016 by Luke Hunt

For more than two decades, Australia has danced a delicate two-step with the United States and its longtime Pacific allies on one hand and a not-so-friendly but big-spending China on the other.It was a split-the-difference approach that raised eyebrows — and blood pressures — from Washington to Tokyo and Seoul to Manila, where the view of Beijing’s designs on the region is colored far more in terms of potential threats than trade-related partnerships.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Washington Times.

East Timor Hopes for ASEAN Membership by 2017

Published on May 29, 2016 by Luke Hunt

After years of canvassing and lobbying, Timor-Leste will be ready to become the 11th member of ASEAN by next year following extensive talks with Indonesia. If its admission is realized, it could potentially provide an economic boom for the tiny Southeast Asian backwater.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Diplomat.

‘Filipino Donald Trump’ Rodrigo Duterte Leads Presidential Race

Published on May 8, 2016 by Luke Hunt

To his many critics, he is an uncouth braggart with a penchant for politically incorrect jokes and a populist dislike for Western allies, but when Filipinos go to the polls Monday, they are widely expected to elect Rodrigo Duterte as president and initiate a political shake-up with unpredictable consequences in the battle for regional influence.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Washington Times.

Rodrigo Duterte Condemned for Rape Comments

Published on Apr 19, 2016 by Luke Hunt

The frontrunner to be elected president of the Philippines has joked about an Australian missionary who was raped and had her throat slashed during a jail siege. The comments by tough-talking mayor Rodrigo Duterte​ – a self confessed womaniser – provoked immediate condemnation only three weeks before Filipinos go to the polls in an election seen as crucial to the nation’s future.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age.

China’s aggression Splits Obama from Top Navy Advisers

Published on Apr 19, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Escalating tensions over China’s aggressive territorial claims in the South China Sea are casting a heavy pall over major international naval exercises underway in the Pacific, exposing what some analysts say is a growing rift between President Obama and his top naval advisers over how to repulse Beijing’s provocations in one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.Read more from Luke Hunt in The Washington Times .

Detained Christians in Thailand: ASEAN’s Latest Refugee Issue

Published on Mar 8, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Southeast Asia, with its ten countries squeezed into an area half the size of China and a volatile mix of politics and old-fashioned hatreds, has no shortage of issues with refugees, internally displaced people (IDPs), asylum seekers, illegal immigrants, smugglers, and traffickers.Its porous borders and overstretched police mean there is no shortage of people prepared to try their luck in search of a safer, and perhaps more prosperous, life, as witnessed by the exodus of Rohingya Muslims out of Myanmar last year which left thousands stranded at sea.Their story holds a familiar ring. BBC News has detailed the plight of thousands of Christian refugees from Pakistan, arrested and detained in Thailand after fleeing persecution in their own home. Some were....

Sand Wars: Singapore Growth Costs its Neighbours

Published on Feb 29, 2016 by Luke Hunt

Just two years ago a small sandbar could be seen jutting out of the narrow straits separating Singapore and Malaysia’s Johor.Then the barges came, disgorging tonnes of sand, the beginning of a $60 billion, 20-year Malaysian development of four man-made islands designed for 700,000 residents and 25,000 workers, called Forest City.Read more from Lindsay Murdoch in The Age. .