Play The Diplomat’s Quiz: January 1, 2017 Edition

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.

On Thursday, China’s People’s Liberation Army confirmed that it would hold its first ever joint exercise with Nepal. Details of the exercise have yet to be finalized, but indications from both Nepal and China suggest that the initial iteration will be modest.

After conducting exercises in both the Bohai and Yellow Seas, the Liaoning, China’s sole carrier, accompanied by five other PLAN vessels, made its way south and — perhaps more significantly — east.

The Japanese Ministry of Defense released a statement acknowledging that its surveillance aircraft tracked six vessels in total — including the Liaoning — approach the Miyako Strait on December 25.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Defense, the Liaoning was accompanied by the PLAN Linyi and PLAN Yantai, Jiangkai-II-class (Type 054A) frigates with the PLAN’s North Sea Fleet, and the PLAN Zhengzhou, PLAN Haikou, and PLAN Changsha, Luyang-III-class (Type 052D) destroyers. The  Changsha and Haikou are part of the PLAN’s South Sea Fleet while the Zhengzhou is part of the East Sea Fleet.

For the first time ever, the Liaoning, on Sunday, entered the Western Pacific, transiting the Miyako Strait — a strategically significant international waterway south of the major Japanese island of Okinawa. The Liaoning‘s current training expedition is the first to incorporate live-fire drills including the carrier’s air wing.

Yeo Jiawei, 34, a former wealth planner at Swiss private bank BSI where he was known for his taste of the good life, was convicted of four charges related to obstructing, preventing or perverting the course of justice in regards to 1MDB or 1Malaysia Development Bhd.

With approximately 70 percent of the population living in rural areas, primarily involved in agricultural activities, Afghanistan’s agriculture sector, according to the World Bank, contributes one-fourth to one-third of the country’s $20 billion GDP (based on 2012 estimates), depending on annual output. Arable land is limited to only 12 percent of the country’s 65 million hectares due to insecurity, land disputes, and landmines left from the Soviet invasion and infighting, creating a major challenge for farmers returning home to resume agricultural activities. Meanwhile, only 40 percent of the entire agricultural land in the country is irrigated, which is in turn causing agricultural production growth rates to stumble.

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.

“We have sacrificed much for the sake of democracy and politics to save Pakistan. We will not leave this Mughal emperor [Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif] to rule,” said Asif Ali Zardari, the co-chairman of the Pakistan’s Peoples Party (PPP) a few days ago after returning to Pakistan from an 18 month long self-imposed exile. Additionally, Zardari also announced that he along with his son, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who is also the chairman of the PPP, would contest elections to become part of the current parliament.

Against all odds and expectations, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has managed to survive 50 years and will celebrate its golden anniversary in 2017. In many ways, ASEAN is a political miracle and over the last five decades has faced significant challenges. If ASEAN can learn from its past, the miracle may continue well into the 21st century.

China’s top planners have long dreamed of remaking the country’s capital region into an integrated, economic nerve center. But one of the first concrete steps toward that goal came late in November with the official announcement of a $36 billion high-speed rail plan to link Beijing, Tianjin, and a handful of cities in neighboring Hebei province.

The long-term strategy is to bring the three districts together into a contiguous megacity, often referred to as Jing-Jin-Ji (a Chinese portmanteau of their names). The resulting urban space would dwarf many mid-sized countries in terms of area, house well over 100 million people, and compete with China’s two other major economic regions around Shanghai and Hong Kong.