Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: March 13, 2016 Edition

On Tuesday, Vietnam inaugurated an international port facility capable of receiving foreign warships at Cam Ranh Bay along the South China Sea.

An opening ceremony was held to mark the completion of the first construction phase of the facility, called Cam Ranh International Port, located in Cam Ranh Bay, a deep-water harbor in central Vietnam along the South China Sea. The ceremony was attended by Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang along with several high-ranking military leaders.

The much-anticipated move, which was initially approved by Vietnam’s defense ministry back in September 2014, is part of an ongoing effort by Hanoi to build a new dual-use facility that can accommodate and service foreign ships. The port facility would allow Vietnam to both boost its commercial attractiveness as a hub for ships as well as increase naval engagements with foreign countries amid China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Under Myanmar’s complicated selection process, the country’s next president is chosen from among three vice-presidents elected by its parliament or Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, with one candidate from the lower house (Pyithu Hluttaw), one from the upper house (Amyotha Hluttaw) and one from the military which still holds 25 percent of seats. The president is selected from among the three at a joint sitting of parliament, with the other two remaining vice-presidents and part of the new government which will take power at the end of March.

Despite her status as Myanmar’s democracy icon, the 70-year old Suu Kyi is herself is ineligible for the position because of a clause in the constitution that prevents those with close foreign ties from being president (her late husband and two sons are British). With Suu Kyi insisting that she would nonetheless remain “above the presidency,” the discussion over the past few months has shifted to who she might tap from within the NLD to serve as an effective proxy president, with her still wielding considerable power in practice.

Tens of thousands of citizens of the tiny kingdom of Bhutan came together earlier this month to welcome their newborn prince with Buddhist symbols by planting 108,000 trees, each sealed with a prayer for the heir to the throne.

Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay, three of his ministers, and the leader of Opposition were among the 100,000 volunteers who planted the trees across the country on March 6, about a month after King Khesar and Queen Jetsun announced the birth of their first child on February 5.

“In Buddhism, a tree is the provider and nourisher of all life forms, symbolizing longevity, health, beauty and even compassion,” said Tenzin Lekphell, who coordinated the initiative, called Tendrel in the local language. It wasn’t a coincidence that the Buddha attained enlightenment under a banyan tree, he added.

This week, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States launched their largest combined military exercises to date that will focus on striking North Korea’s leadership and key facilities amid growing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The ROK-United States Combined Forces Command’s annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle military drills began on March 7 and are slated to last until April.

“Key Resolve, slated for March 7-18, highlights the longstanding and enduring partnership and friendship between the two nations and their combined commitment to the defense of the ROK and regional stability,”according to a United States Forces Korea (USFK) press release.

“Foal Eagle training also starts March 7 and will continue until April 30. The approximately eight week-long Foal Eagle exercise implements a series of several joint and combined field training operations conducted by CFC and USFK component commands (ground, air, naval, and special operations).”

China is dropping its practice of setting national trade targets after missing both its import and export targets in 2015. Last year, China’s exports fell by 2.8 percent while its imports fell by a considerably greater 14.2 percent. As my colleague Shannon Tiezzi discussed recently, the 8 percent overall contraction in Chinese trade in 2015 was far off the 6 percent target that had been set out for 2015. Bloomberg, citing the analyses of HSBC and BNP Paribas, notes that the dropped trade target might “reflect the difficulty forecasting the number as global growth prospects falter.”

“The global economy is experiencing profound changes and struggling to recover,” Li remarked, suggesting that the Chinese government is eager to couch its cautiousness about trade prospects in terms of global uncertainty–China’s planned adjustments shouldn’t factor into how Beijing sees its trade prospects.  “Growth in trade is weak; there are fluctuations in the financial and commodity markets; geopolitical risks are rising; and there are increasing instabilities and uncertainties in China’s external environment,” he added.

Wednesday morning’s edition of North Korea’sRodong Sinmun has a striking lead story above-the-fold: Kim Jong-un inspecting what is purported to be a North Korean miniaturized nuclear device. Pyongyang is once again claiming that it has successfully accomplished the important milestone of miniaturizing a nuclear device for mating with its KN-08 inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM), which may be able to reach the western coast of the United States. U.S. and South Korean officials have expressed concerns that North Korea may have accomplished this feat, but until today North Korea had not made any imagery of its purported miniaturized devices available.

Philippine president Benigno Aquino III confirmed Wednesday that his country would lease five aircraft from Japan to help the Southeast Asian state’s navy safeguard its claims in the disputed South China Sea as the two sides celebrate the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic ties.

Japan has been a strategic partner of the Philippines since 2011, and the two countries have boosted the defense side of their relationship significantly over the past few years amid growing concerns about China’s assertiveness in the East China Sea and the South China Sea (“Japan, Philippines Boost Defense Ties”).

Last week, the defense ministers from both sides inked a defense equipment and technology agreement, formalizing an arrangement already approved in principle in November 2015 (See: “Japan, Philippines to Agree New Military Deal on APEC Sidelines”). One of the future steps  long expected in the defense realm, just the third that Japan has signed with any nation, is Tokyo’s potential supplying of Beechcraft TC-90 King Air Planes to Manila, which remains one of Asia’s weakest militaries despite recent military modernization efforts (See: “Japan’s New South China Sea Gift to the Philippines?”).

On Monday, lawyers representing the Marshall Islands began legal proceedings at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, against India, Pakistan, and the United Kingdom. The tiny Pacific Island state is seeking to bring the three countries into disarmament negotiations over their nuclear weapons program. Monday’s hearing begins the first phase of the case, in which the ICJ will decide if it has the jurisdiction to accept the Marshall Islands’ cases against the three countries.

For Islamabad, New Delhi, and London, the case might represent an irksome bit of international legal theater, but for the Marshall Islands the initiative is earnest. Home to the Bikini Atoll nuclear testing grounds, the Marshall Islands is one among few non-nuclear-armed states in the world to see the devastation of nuclear weapons up close. According to the United States embassy in the Marshall Islands, the U.S. government carried out 67 nuclear explosive tests between 1946 and 1958, including the infamous Castle Bravo test, which, at 15 megatons, involved the most powerful U.S. nuclear device ever to see atmospheric testing. (In 1962, the United States ended all atmospheric nuclear testing, followed by a complete moratorium on all nuclear testing in 1992.)

Kazakhstan’s economy is the most successful in Central Asia, in no small part because of its massive oil business. Kazakhstan is Central Asia’s largest oil producer, but in the grand scheme of the global oil market it’s a small player among giants. The oversized dependence of Kazakhstan’s economy on oil means it is inextricably linked to forces Astana has little control over.

Numbers tell the story best. Using 2014 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) (because it is the most complete and accessible), Kazakhstan ranks as the 18th largest oil producer, sitting between Algeria and Colombia. The top of the ranking is the United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia. But Kazakhstan’s position on that list isn’t saying terribly much. While its rank has risen steadily since independence, Kazakhstan still produces a small fraction of what oil is available globally.

In 2014, Kazakhstan produced an average of 1.72 million barrels per day, just 15 percent of Russia’s estimated 10.85 million barrels per day. Kazakhstan, like Russia, is not a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the cartel that includes ten of the top 20 oil exporting countries (and 13 of the top 30). Saudi Arabia, which in 2014 produced 11.6 million barrels per day, is the dominant power in OPEC. Despite sanctions, Iran managed to stay in the top five producers between 2003 and 2012. The lifting of sanctions on Iran comes at an incredibly inconvenient time for the rest of OPEC.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located in the Bay of Bengal, northwest of the pivotal maritime choke point at the Strait of Malacca, are an immensely valuable geopolitical asset for India, particularly as it looks to ‘Act East’ and play an increasingly more visible role in the eastern Indian Ocean and beyond. The islands host an Indian tri-service command, the first of its kind, positioning them as an important outpost for the Indian military. For the first time, New Delhi has opened the door to collaborating with Japan on developing and upgrading civilian infrastructure on the islands.