Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: January 17, 2016 Edition

The reason for the cancellation of the deal is revealing of current diplomatic dynamics in South Asia. According to TheIndian Express, the Sri Lankan government, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, canceled its plans to purchase the JF-17s after a “diplomatic missive” from New Delhi suggesting that Colombo should refrain from adding these aircraft to its fleet.

The report adds that New Delhi included a negative technical assessment of the JF-17 and “pointed out that [Sri Lanka’s] defense requirements did not need fighters.” According to the report, the Indian government delivered a “non-paper”–described as a “white sheet of paper without a letterhead of signature”–to the Sri Lankan government weeks ahead of Sharif’s planned visit.

If true, Sri Lanka’s decision to hold back on the purchase of JF-17 fighters demonstrates that the Sirisena-led government in Colombo is far more deferential to Indian interests than its predecessor was. Under Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former Sri Lankan president, the country tilted considerably toward China. After his surprise election victory last January, Sirisena signaled an intent to balance  Sri Lanka’s foreign policy by visiting New Delhi before Beijing.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals organization, or PETA, has recently authored a petition regarding the continuation of a ban on jallikattu. A bull-taming sport, jallikattu was until recently legal in India’s southern state of Tamilnadu. Just like rodeo, and in contrast to corrida, jallikattu is not intended to cause the death of the animal, although the confrontation can often lead to injuries to both people and bull (the former being more likely to get hurt). The PETA petition, therefore, this time points not only to the harm done by animals but that done to humans as well.

On January 9, the United States dispatched a B-52 bomber from Andersen Air Force base in Guam to fly over South Korea as a sign of resolve and solidarity with Seoul in response to a recent nuclear test by North Korea.(See: video of the low-level flight near Osan Air Base, located about 48 kilometers south of Seoul.)

“This was a demonstration of the ironclad U.S. commitment to our allies in South Korea, in Japan, and to the defense of the American homeland,” said Admiral Harry B. Harris Jr., commander U.S. Pacific Command,according to a press release. “North Korea’s nuclear test is a blatant violation of its international obligations. U.S. joint military forces in the Indo-Asia-Pacific will continue to work with all of our regional allies and partners to maintain stability and security.”

According to the U.S. Pacific Command, the B-52 Stratofortress was accompanied on its flight by two Republic of Korea Air Force F-15K Slam Eagles and two U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons. Upon completion of the flight, which took place in the vicinity of Osan Air Base around noon on January 9, the B-52 returned to the island of Guam.

The Afghan peace process took a step forward on Monday, with Pakistan hosting four-nation talks trying to create a roadmap for restarting peace negotiations between the Afghan Taliban and the Afghan national government (our own Ankit Panda gave apreview of the talks this weekend). China, along with Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the United States, makes up the Quadrilateral Coordination Group.

If you followed the rhetoric, it would be easy to think that the Central Asia South Asia Electricity Transmission and Trade (CASA-1000) Project – set to export excess electricity from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to markets in Afghanistan and Pakistan – is all but finalized. The project, after all, has not only received the go-ahead from regional governments, but has gotten backing from the U.S. State Department, the United Kingdom Department for International Development, and the World Bank.

Last week saw the latest round of back-slapping among officials involved. Per Sherali Saidamir Jononov, Tajikistan’s ambassador to Pakistan, Tajikistan and Pakistan took yet another step toward finalizing the inter-state electricity grid. As Jononov said, by 2018, Tajikistan will export some 1,000MW of excess electricity to Pakistan via a 750km transmission line. Further, as Dawn reported, “the said transmission line of 500KV would also be utilized for transmitting more than 300MW hydroelectricity to Pakistan from Kyrgyzstan.” And a Tajikistan-Pakistan “joint commission” will be held this week to continue discussions.

China has become Malaysia’s largest foreign investor following its recent acquisition of the assets of the country’s debt-ridden state-owned investment firm 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), South China Morning Post reported Tuesday.

While China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner since 2009, as in several other Southeast Asian states Beijing has been lagging behind when it comes to foreign investment relative to major players like the United States, Japan, and the European Union. In Malaysia’s case, according to data from the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA), China still ranked below Japan, Singapore, and the United States in terms of newly approved foreign investment in the first nine months of 2015.

On Wednesday, one week before Chinese President Xi Jinping is reportedly scheduled to arrive in Egypt for his first visit to the Middle East, China issued a lengthy explanation of its approach to the region in a document titled “China’s Arab Policy Paper.”  The paper briefly traces the history of China-Arab relations, from exchanges via the ancient Silk Road to the founding of the China-Arab State Cooperation Forum in 2004, before outlining China’s plan for expanding cooperation in the future.

Some caveats, first: like China’s 2015 policy paper on Africa, the “Arab Policy Paper” does not lay out specific policies for specific countries (in fact, there’s not a single country named in the paper, besides China). The paper presents a blanket vision for regional relations, without getting in to the complexities of how that vision will be realized in bilateral relationships with individual states. This is a paper about China’s approach to “Arab countries,” not China’s approach to say, Egypt or Saudi Arabia. For China’s purposes, the “Arab countries” are those with membership in the League of Arab States, which serves as the basis of the China-Arab State Cooperation Forum.

Japan’s emperor will make a historic trip to the Philippines later this month, Philippine officials confirmed Tuesday.

Japanese Emperor Akihito and his wife Empress Michiko will make a state visit to the Philippines from 26 to 30 January, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a statement. The trip – the first official visit by a Japanese emperor to the Southeast Asian state – comes as the two countries commemorate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations following the end of World War II.

Kazakhstan isn’t the only Central Asian country with currency and exchange troubles. Because it has the largest regional economy, Astana’s troubles get a significant amount of attention. But even Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which have not seen their growth rates plummet to the same extent as Kazakhstan, are suffering.

After recent reports of long lines at currency exchanges in Turkmenistan, the country has reportedly stopped the sale of foreign currencies. Eurasianet led coverage of the ban, writing that “workers at banks in Ashgabat informed customers that the restriction would remain in place indefinitely.” A Reuters correspondent who visited two exchange bureaus in Ashgabat was told the bureaus were only buying, not selling, foreign currencies, citing a central bank order.

Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party is the opposition no more – the DPP won the presidency in Saturday’s elections in a landslide victory that resets Taiwan’s political landscape.

DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen handily defeated both candidate Eric Chu of the Kuomintang (KMT), the party of current President Ma Ying-jeou, and third party candidate James Soong to claim victory. According to Taiwan’s Central Election Commission, with 98 percent of the results in, Tsai and running mate Chen Chien-jen had claimed 56.2 percent of the votes, with Chu at 30.9 percent and Soong at 12.8 percent.