South And Central Asian Affairs

The Bank’s work also spans across several development goals and cross-cutting initiatives. ADB celebrates Gender Month during March every year as an opportunity to reflect on progress made in promoting gender equality and encourage increased participation of women in building a stronger and more prosperous Asia and the Pacific region. Bank boards can drive growth and profits while spurring positive social change by supporting small and medium-sized enterprises owned by women.

Ancient, giant landmass that split apart to form all the continents we know today. Region of land stretching across Russia from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. At the 5th ASEAN Summit in Bangkok, on 15 December, ASEAN leaders signed the SEANWFZ Treaty. The notion of a SEANWFZ dates back to 27 November 1971, when the original five members of the ASEAN meeting in Kuala Lumpur signed a Declaration on a Zone of Peace, Freedom, and Neutrality . None of the NWS had yet signed the Protocols, largely due to US and French objections regarding the unequivocal nature of security assurances and over the definitions of territory .

Food Security In Asia And The Pacific

Nepal has also been a surprising leader and has had robust growth in recent years, with agriculture exceeding expectations, especially in rice production. In Nepal, the industry continues to advance with increased electricity production, strong consumer demand, as well as efforts in Nepal to continue to recoup the losses from the devastating 2015 earthquake. The World Bank also reports that the first of two $100 million projects is bolstering Nepal's electricity sector, while the IDA18 IFC-MIGA Private Sector Window will provide $103 million for a hydropower plant that will encourage private sector investment. The well-formulated “Make In India” campaign has started supporting local manufacturers and attracted multinational corporations and even nations to set up manufacturing facilities in India across different industry and services sectors. Astudyby the UK thinktank the Centre for Economics Business and Research suggests that “India could become the world's third-largest economy after 2030,” and together with Brazil it could lead to "France and Italy kicked out of the exclusive G8 group” in the next 15 years.

This is hardly surprising because they have massive investments in Southeast Asia. Research foundations from Japan, in particular the Toyota Foundation, have been very active, since the 1990s, in promoting ‘Southeast Asian studies for Southeast Asians,’ and supporting other research and exchange programs. Taiwan and Korea are the two other Asian countries having their own Southeast Asian studies research centers, along with the United States, United Kingdom, France, and The Netherlands, former colonial powers in Southeast Asia.

The Tōkaidō line, which connects Tokyo and Osaka, is the world’s busiest high-speed rail line. Since the railway lines were laid in the mid-1960s, it has transported roughly 5 billion people. An oil refinery is a factory where crude oil is processed and refined into useful products, such as gasoline, kerosene, and diesel oil. Referred to as the “Refining Capital of the World,” Jamnagar has a refining capacity of 1.24 million barrels of oil per day.

Related to this, ASEAN submitted a Memorandum on Activities to demonstrate efforts undertaken through the SEANWFZ Treaty. On 24 March, the Philippines deposited its instrument of ratification to the ASEAN Convention on Counter-Terrorism , becoming the third state, after Singapore and Thailand, to ratify it. On 16 November, Brazil deposited its instrument of ratification of the Third Protocol Amending the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia . On 19 February, the Chairman of ASEAN issued a statement expressing concern over the DPRK’s underground nuclear test. He further called for the DPRK to remember its obligations under United Nations Security Council Resolutions, and emphasized the importance of dialogue in resolving the tension in the Korean Peninsula.

However, a few industries have already been born and are experiencing enormous growth, such as advanced robotics, autonomous vehicles, additive manufacturing/3-D printing, telecommunications and mobile phones, and biotechnology. The United States and Western Europe have made significant progress in all these industries. A brief overview of how these industries are growing in Asia, particularly in China, India, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan, will be discussed in the following sections. The British also dominated trade with China through their control of ports in Singapore and Hong Kong. The gross domestic products of India and China declined, while the GDPs of Western Europe and the United States increased . Japan’s Shinkansen train network is one of the world’s fastest high-speed railway lines.

Southeast Asia

The interrelationship between international migration and development in the region is much argued. There can be no doubt that international migration can have both positive and negative effects on the well-being of communities left behind. This presents a challenge to policy makers to put in place institutional structures which maximize these benefits and minimize the negative effects. All empirical evidence points to the fact that there is little to be gained from policies and programs designed to stop population movement when there are economic imperatives behind that movement. The challenge is in creating policies and structures which enhance the benefits of the movement. Whether grouped with Asia or Europe, Russia tops any list of the world's largest countries by area, being nearly twice the size of the next closest country.

The ASEAN Regional Forum is an important multilateral forum for political and security consultations and cooperation. The ARF has begun to explore activities where there is overlap between confidence-building measures and preventive diplomacy. ASEAN Member States are urged to settle disputes through friendly negotiations applying the procedures of the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation of 1976. However, the Member States are not obliged to use the Treaty stipulations for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

South Asia

The ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference Ten Plus One (PMC 10 +1) sessions on 1 July focused on “the overview and future direction of ASEAN cooperation with its Dialogue Partners”. The ASEAN members developed and adopted a Plan of Action for furthering implementation of the SEANWFZ. The Plan is intended to increase regional coordination in opposition to nuclear weapons and deepen regional participation in the relevant international agreements. Under the Plan of Action, States agree to pursue completion of IAEA safeguard agreements and accession to the Convention on Early Notification of Nuclear Accidents and regional emergency response plans. In addition, the states agreed to consider accession to other relevant instruments such as the CTBT and the counter-terrorism conventions related to nuclear weapons.

Russia is the largest country in Asia, despite the fact that a full 25% of Russia's 17,098,250 square kilometers of territory is located in Europe . China comes in second in Asia, with a total area of approximately 9,600,010 km². Finally, the dividing lines between continents are sometimes ambiguous, especially at sea. The island country of Cyprus, for example, is considered by the United Nations to be part of Asia, but it is also a member of the European Union. Similarly, many islands of Oceania could arguably be considered part of Asia, Australia/Australasia, or even South America. Even land boundaries, such as the dividing line between Europe and Asia, have changed throughout history.

Education About Asia: Online Archives

The summit saw the establishment of an Eminent Persons Group on the ASEAN Charter—comprising 10 highly distinguished and well respected citizens from ASEAN Member Countries—to examine and provide recommendations on the direction of ASEAN and the nature of the Charter. Leaders welcomed the 4th and 5th rounds of the Six-Party Talks held in July and November in Beijing, and called on all concerned parties to exert their utmost effort toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. They strongly condemned terrorism and reiterated the need to intensify their efforts to eliminate the root causes of terrorism at the bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels.

Today, Asian countries rank as some of the top producers of many agricultural, forest, fishing, mining, and industrial products. This increased production has brought both extreme wealth and negative environmental impacts to the continent. The geographic term “Asia” was originally used by ancient Greeks to describe the civilizations east of their empire. Ancient Asian peoples, however, saw themselves as a varied and diverse mix of cultures—not a collective group.