Dear ST reader,
We hope you’ve been keeping well.
This week, delegates from over 130 countries and organisations descended on China’s third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing, to discuss the future of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious plan for multinational infrastructure building and investments that was conceived 10 years ago.
The Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, is a global brand recognised in many emerging economies, analysts tell our China correspondent Elizabeth Law, but it faces waning interest, and criticism that its international cooperation projects do not benefit recipient countries.
Mr Xi however, stressed to the some 1,000 forum delegates that more projects are on the horizon, and that the BRI encourages “common development and win-win cooperation”.
We continue also to bring you our unique Asian perspective on the Israel-Hamas war.
This week, associate editor Ravi Velloor compares the modus operandi of Palestinian militant group Hamas with that of Sri Lanka’s now-defunct Tamil Tigers and ponders if it will suffer the same fate.
Meanwhile, Indonesia correspondent Hariz Baharudin examines how Asean countries have responded differently to the conflict yet leveraged their regional ties to get each other’s citizens home safely.
Over in India, our correspondent Debarshi Dasgupta reports on the rats plaguing Kolkata’s infrastructure, while bureau chief Nirmala Ganapathy analyses the India-China rivalry playing out in island nation Maldives.
China’s Belt and Road Initiative is for the long haul
Will Hamas in 2023 go the way of Tamil Tigers in 2009?
Backlash in Indonesia as court ruling paves way for Jokowi political dynasty
Maldives’ new president sets fresh path for India-China rivalry
Can coral reefs survive a warmer world?
Storyteller uses puppets to promote wildlife conservation
