Environment

What Happened: In December 2022, Vietnam signed a “Just Energy Transition Partnership” deal with international partners, including the U.S., the U.K., and the European Union. Under JETP, Vietnam is poised to receive some $15.5 billion in funding to support the “green transition.” Yet in the years since the partnership was signed, Vietnam has arrested and imprisoned a wave of environmental activists – including several who were key figures in the JETP process. Some have since been released, but not acquitted; their organizations either ceased operations or shifted direction due to the shrinking civic space in Vietnam.

Our Focus: While the space for advocacy in Vietnam has always been limited, those involved in such efforts say things are getting worse. “It is very hard to work with Vietnam right now,” a human rights officer at a regional organization said. Given what appears to be a concerted effort on the part of the Vietnamese government to end independent environmental activism, “donor governments and institutional stakeholders in the JETP are enabling serious human rights harms by the Vietnam government,” Guneet Kaur, the Environmental Defender Campaign Coordinator for International Rivers, told The Diplomat.

What Comes Next: Some argue that the financial support promised under JETP could be made conditional, based on fulfilling certain benchmarks for civil society engagement. But aid with “strings attached” has always been controversial, with others saying that the climate crisis requires immediate action regardless of other concerns. For now, the idea of a “just” energy transition remains focused on the Vietnamese government’s narrow definition of “justice.”

INTERVIEW

Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Bangladesh Syed Ahmed Maroof on the changes to the bilateral relationship since Sheikh Hasina’s ouster: “We were never completely out of touch; wherever our interests aligned, we engaged. The key difference now is that more and more of our interests are converging.”

Northeast Asia

South Korea’s political drama continues: President Yoon Suk-yeol has been impeached over his declaration of martial law last month, pending a court decision. However, he now faces arrest as well. Yoon is being investigated for insurrection and treason, but has refused to comply with repeated subpoenas. Out of alternatives, the investigating agency sought and received a warrant for Yoon’s arrest – only to have the Presidential Security Service physically block entrance to the presidential residence. The episode sparked another political crisis, with Yoon’s critics arguing that he is putting himself above the law while his supporters are threatening violence if another arrest attempt is made.

South Asia

Late in 2024, Pakistan conducted strikes on what it alleged were terrorist camps across the border in Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s Taliban government retaliated by striking areas of Pakistan. The tit-for-tat reinforced the downward spiral in Afghanistan-Pakistan relations as terrorist attacks in Pakistan surge. Islamabad holds the Taliban government in Kabul accountable, claiming it is providing safe haven to TTP fighters. The Taliban, however, have refused to budge.

Southeast Asia

Malaysia’s jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak is one step closer to serving the remainder of his corruption sentence under house arrest, after an appeals court this week accepted his bid to see a royal order he claims should permit him to serve the sentence at home. The 71-year-old, who was jailed over the multibillion-dollar 1MDB scandal, had appealed a High Court ruling last July that dismissed his bid to confirm the existence of the royal order. The order was supposedly issued as an addendum to a pardon that was handed down last January, halving Najib’s 12-year sentence. The ruling was handed down by the Appeal Court on Monday after Najib’s legal team produced a letter from the office of the former king, confirming the existence of the addendum. The office later confirmed the letter as “valid and authentic.”

Central Asia

A shell likely left behind following the 2022 violence along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border exploded when a woman and her daughter were clearing debris around their house, which had been burned badly in the conflict. It’s a sad reminder that conflicts have consequences that can flare to life randomly, cruelly, despite concrete progress between the two sides. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan announced last month that they had finally agreed on their mutual border, after 33 years.

As Beijing has increased support to Kiribati, the Solomon Islands and Micronesia, China has pared down investments in other countries including the Cook Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, and Samoa.

Magazine

Malay for “Civilized Malaysia,” it’s the catchphrase of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim – who is also this year’s ASEAN chair.