Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: December 25, 2016 Edition

On Monday, December 19 the Chinese and Norwegian Foreign Ministries distributed a press release announcing that full normalization of their political and diplomatic relations was reached during the Norwegian minister of foreign affairs’ visit to Beijing. This normalization comes six years after relations were frozen following the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo in 2010.

People’s fear for personal safety has been steadily increasing since the start of the survey, from 40 percent in 2006 up to 70 percent now. The government maintains low levels of confidence amongst the people, while religious leaders and the media have slightly higher levels of confidence. Unemployment continues to be a primary concern in the country, with 71 percent saying it was the biggest problem facing Afghan youth. In addition, 52 percent of respondents cite unemployment as the reason to leave the country if they were given the opportunity.

A December 21 test launch of India’s nuclear-capable Nirbhay long-range cruise missile has reportedly been unsuccessful, according to local media reports.  It is the third time that a Nirbhay missile trial has allegedly failed to achieve its test perimeters since March 2013.

The December 21 launch, like previous tests, took place at the Integrated Test Range–the Indian military’s primary missile test facility–on Abdul Kalam Island, off the coast of Odisha and was overseen by the Indian military’s Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO).

After the surprising resignation of John Key last week, this week New Zealand installed a new prime minister: Simon William “Bill” English. English was elected unopposed by the Parliamentary members of the National Party, enabling him to assume the leadership of both the party and the country. English had been the country’s finance minister from 2008, when the Key-led National Party was first elected.

English is a veteran politician who was first elected to Parliament in 1990. In his time in the Parliament he had once previously served as the leader of the National Party, while the party was in opposition, for a two-year period between 2001 and 2003. However, during this time he led the party to its worst ever electoral defeat in the 2002 elections, where the National Party won just 21 percent of the vote.

The Japanese government is slated to oppose a U.S.-backed UN Security Council resolution calling for an arms embargo on South Sudan, government sources revealed on December 21, according to Kyodo News.

In another sign of the difficulty Japan faces in becoming a “normal” military power, a diplomat said that the government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is concerned that the arms embargo would endanger the lives of Japanese peacekeepers currently deployed in South Sudan.

On December 20, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada publicly said now was not the right time for an arms embargo and additional targeted sanctions, Reuters reports.

In 2016, Kazakhstan and most of the states of the former Soviet Union celebrated their 25th independence anniversaries. This year marked not only a quarter-century of Kazakhstan’s independence but also the 23rd anniversary of the national currency, the tenge, and the fifth anniversary of the deadly clashes between police and oil workers in the western city of Zhanaozen, which shocked the international community and scared both people and authorities in Kazakhstan.

In the aftermath, both leaders claimed credit and “success,” but it was only the Russian leader that emerged as a winner. The 70-plus economic agreements completed largely during the second – more business-oriented – day of the visit do not represent some significant Japanese financial investment in the Russian economy. Not a small number by absolute standards, $2.5 billion worth of joint projects must nonetheless be rather disappointing for the Russians on the whole. Nevertheless, Putin brought back home agreements for some “economic activities” on the disputed islands, and relaxed visa requirements for Russian business people, which can be extended  at a later stage to general Russian visitors to Japan.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s trip to Singapore in December marks his eighth visit to a fellow Southeast Asian country since coming to office in June this year. So far, Duterte has toured Laos, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. This series of visits has preceded the Philippines commencing its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2017. ASEAN will mark a significant milestone as it celebrates the 50th anniversary since its establishment in 1967.

As General Raheel Sharif retired from the post of Pakistan’s army chief, Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa was appointed as the 16th chief of army staff (COAS) in Pakistan. While his professionalism as an army person and the resumption of India-Pakistan border tensions made headlines as reasons for his appointment, those headlines failed to shed a light on the major driving factor: the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

There is a widespread view that Bajwa was appointed for his reputation of being a professional army person and that his appointment was made in order to check decades of India-Pakistan regular border issues in Kashmir. It is widely thought that, considering Pakistan’s history of military coups, Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff believed that an army professional like Bajwa would be the right person as the army chief, since he would be less interested in hopping into state politics. Although this analysis was not wrong, this is not the major reason behind Bajwa’s appointment.

Other argue that in a bid to put the highest-ever focus on Kashmir, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made sure that a man with huge expertise on Kashmir was appointed as the COAS. Many believe that the recent tension along the Line of Control in Kashmir (militant attacks in India allegedly originating from Pakistan and India’s retaliation through the alleged surgical strikes on Pakistan’s side of the LoC) is the sole reason behind Pakistan’s efforts to further increase its military focus on its side of Kashmir, leading to Bajwa’s appointment. This is outright wrong, as tensions with India regarding Kashmir is nothing new and there is already heavy military presence to tackle the issue.