Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: August 7, 2016 Edition

The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) is an extremely controversial piece of legislation in India which disproportionately empowers the Indian army to act out against possible insurgency in areas declared “disturbed.” It allows forces to shoot on sight or arrest on suspicion without a warrant and, among other provisions, allows personnel to be entirely immune from criminal prosecution. In the Indian state of Manipur, activist Irom Sharmila Chanu has been one of the strongest activists standing for the repeal of AFSPA. She has been fasting for 16 years now to this end.

Sharmila began her fast in November 2000, after 10 civilians were killed during an unwarranted attack by the Assam Rifles battalion. This marathon fast attempted to send the message that there could be no normal life for an individual under AFSPA and is one of the longest (entirely non-violent) hunger strikes in the world. The government did not take too kindly to this and charged her with attempt to commit suicide and imprisoned her in a ward of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS) in the city of Imphal, where she was kept alive by being force fed through a Ryles tube in her nose. She has even been accused of supporting anti-India militancy by certain factions, despite the fact that she has never called for secession or violence and has remained focused on her sole burning desire to repeal AFSPA. Although briefly released in 2014, she was re-convicted almost at once and has effectively seen no home outside her ward for the better part of the last 16 years.

But of all the world leaders calling to express their support of Erdogan–the first to schedule a visit is none other than Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

Kazakhstan’s pursuit of a so-called multivector foreign policy has led Astana to act as a mediator, or at least a diplomatic conduit, between parties in a number of global crises. These efforts have been unsuccessful in Syria and Ukraine. In Turkey, however, Kazakhstan was perhaps perfectly placed to act as a go-between. Turkey thanked Kazakhstan (and Azerbaijan) for helping bridge the wide diplomatic gap between Ankara and Moscow.

It has been a year of firsts for Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan’s first-ever female president, and her Democratic Progressive Party ousted the party of the Chinese Nationalists, the KMT, from parliament for the first time. Taiwan has also seen the first-ever public apology to its indigenous people by the first president with indigenous heritage.

Yuriko Koike, 64, a former Japanese defense and environment minister, was elected to serve as Tokyo’s next governor on Sunday. She defeated her rival, Hiroya Masuda, in a landslide victory, winning by a margin of over one million vote. Koike will become the first woman to hold the Tokyo governorship and becomes one of just three women to head one of Japan’s 47 prefectures.

On Wednesday morning, North Korea fired a Nodong intermediate-range ballistic missile that, for the first time ever, splashed down in Japanese waters in the Sea of Japan. Pyongyang repeatedly tests missiles into the Sea of Japan, but had stopped short of firing into waters controlled by Japan. Wednesday’s launch suggests that Pyongyang is seeking to demonstrate a capability and willingness to strike regional states beyond South Korea, including Japan, an important U.S. ally. Earlier this year, Pyongyang tested its Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile, demonstrating a capability to strike the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.

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Even though Oman and Qatar had already forged diplomatic ties with North Korea during the early 1990s, Kuwait swiftly became North Korea’s leading GCC partner. Kuwait hosts North Korea’s only embassy in the GCC bloc. The DPRK’s representative to Kuwait, So Chang-sik, also acts as North Korea’s ambassador to Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

On Wednesday evening, the Indian parliament passed the highly anticipated Goods and Services Tax bill. The bill will simplify and streamline India’s tax system, putting in place a national value-added tax. The GST bill will result in a constitutional amendment and represents the most significant change to India’s tax laws since the country’s independence in 1947.

The United States is finally transferring another warship to the Philippines this week, just days after a landmark ruling on Manila’s case against China on the South China Sea.

The United States has already transferred two Hamilton-class cutters to its Southeast Asian ally over the past few years, with Manila acquiring the BRP Gregorio Del Pilar in 2011 and the BRP Ramon Alcaraz in 2013. Both warships have since been armed and deployed for patrols, including in the South China Sea.

From “TPP Update: A US ‘Lame Duck’ Ratification Looks Less Likely Every Day“:

The politics of TPP ratification in the United States are, however, a great source of anxiety for the other eleven states. As I’ve explained before, the requirements baked into the TPP on the agreement’s entry into force ensure that the United States must be on board. In short, all 12 signatories ratify the agreement painlessly, the agreement enters into force 60 days after the last member ratifies it. If all twelve fail to ratify, the agreement still can come into effect if six original signatories, representing 85 percent of TPP country GDP between them, ratify the agreement.

The 85 percent requirement, in particular, means that without the United States, there is no TPP. For the TPP’s other signatories, the agreement’s ratification is a major litmus test for U.S. credibility. Obama, with months left in office, has stressed that he thinks Congress “will ultimately support” the deal, but it’s looking less likely every day that he’ll be one to convince U.S. lawmakers to do it.