Journalists from 12 AP Countries to Cover Presidential Election

Fourteen journalists from 12 Asia Pacific countries are among 50 selected worldwide to be in the U.S. Oct. 22-Nov. 6 to participate in a program designed to give them a close look at the U.S. Electoral process, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) has announced. The AP countries are Afghanistan, China, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand and Vietnam. The program is sponsored by the U.S. State Department Foreign Press Center and administered by ICFJ. The journalists will have a two-day orientation in Washington and then go to their assignments in “battleground” states. After the election, they will return to Washington for two days. Washington Foreign Press Center Director Gordon Duguid said that while the presidential campaigns “showcase the dynamism of American democracy...our electoral process is often poorly understood overseas.” (He might have added domestically, as well.) ​He added that the U.S. government and the ICFJ, “by offering international journalists this opportunity to work side by side with American reporters...will give them what they need to explain these elections and explain their impact to their audiences at home.”

Singapore, World Bank Launch Books on Education

Singapore's ambassador to the U.S., Her Excellency Chan Heng Chee, and World Bank Africa Region Vice President Mrs. Obiageli Ezekwesli recently presided over a launch at the bank of two books focused on education, reports the embassy newsletter Singapore. The books are Toward a Better Future: Education and Training for Economic Development in Singapore, written by members of Singapore's National Institute of Education and the World Bank; and An African Exploration of the East Asian Education Experience. Ambassador Chan said Singapore values its “strong relationship and substantive cooperation” with the bank and hopes its perspective on the important role of education could be shared through the books.

Wilson Center Launches U.S.-China Institute

Washington's Wilson Center recently inaugurated its Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, which it says “aims to highlight issues integral to the U.S.-China relationship.” The institute is named after former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who is the American co-chairman of its Council and has long been active in U.S.-China relations. The Chinese co-chairman is Mr. Xu Kuangdi, former mayor of Shanghai and president of the Chinese Engineering Academy and the China-America Friendship Association. The institute's director is former U.S. ambassador to China, Indonesia and Singapore J. Stapleton Roy. Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was also present at the institute's inauguration.

ABR Report: Asia Should be at Forefront of U.S. Foreign Policy

The National Bureau of Asian Research (ABR) presented what it says calls the “major strategic decisions” on Asia for the next U.S. Administration in its eighth annual volume of Strategic Asia September 18. The volume was launched at two public Washington events. The first--”Challenges and Choices in Asia”--was presented at Johns Hopkins University and included a keynote address by Senator Chuck Hagel (R.-Nebraska) and presentations by several publication contributors. The second--”Asia's Wildcards: Pakistan, North Korea and Iran”--took place in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill. Ashley Tellis, co-editor of Strategic Asia and research director of the Strategic Asia Program, says, “If the president-elect can craft effective policies in Asia and generate regional support for them, you can expect...positive outcomes to spill over into other parts of the world in ways that reinforce U.S. Interests and promote global stability. Asia should be at the forefront of U.S. foreign policy.”

Heritage Hits Terrorists on Pakistan Ramadan Bombing

The Heritage Foundation, a Washington think thank, has strongly condemned September 19 bombing of the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, Pakistan, “while many Pakistanis were celebrating the traditional breaking of the fast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.” Lisa Curtis, South Asia Senior Research Fellow at Heritage, said the bombing is “a further reminder that terrorists seek to intimidate the Pakistani people and authorities through senseless death and destruction.” Pakistani leaders, said Miss Curtis, “have courageously vowed” that their country “will not serve as a safe haven for these terrorists whose radical global agenda is a threat to all civilized nations.”

Kazakh Foreign Minister Makes Rounds in NY, DC

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, Marat Tazhin, on his U.S. visit last month, attended the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in New York, and in Washington met with Vice President Richard Cheney, his American counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and World Bank President Robert Zoellick. The Central Asian official also spoke at the U.S. Launch of the English version of a book by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, “The Kazakh Way” at the Newseum, and spoke at The Heritage Foundation and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a conservative and a liberal think. Now, that's bipartisan!

How Mongolia Can Keep China, Russia Apart

“An independent Mongolia is the best way to keep China and Russia apart,” according to John Tkacik, Jr., of The Heritage Foundation. Mr. Tkacik, head of Heritage's Asian Studies Center, thinks the best way to ensure that Mongolia's two neighbors “respect her independent identity is “to integrate that isolated land into regional and global security structures like the APEC forum, the Northeast Asia Cooperation Dialog, NATO'S Partnership for Peace and...the Asian Partnership for Development Program of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).”

Solomons Islands Envoy: Economic Development is Key to Stability

The ambassador of the Solomon Islands to the U.S., Colin Beck, told Diplomatic Traffic.com about the efforts his South Pacific country is making to “build a basic infrastructure and create a national identity and a good standard of living.” Having faced what he called “ethnically-driven riots” in recent years, Ambassador Beck says the Solomon Islands recognizes that “the key to stability is economic development.”