Asia

President Barack Obama traveled to Moscow in early July to meet the Russian leadership, the political diarchy of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The meetings were conducted in a cordial atmosphere, but this particular summit stood out from summits of the past two decades between U.S. and Russian leaders: there was no backslapping camaraderie or using first names.

The quarter saw a plethora of provocations by North Korea, ranging from ballistic missiles tests to the country’s second (and more successful) nuclear test. The United Nations Security Council responded with Resolution 1874 that called for financial sanctions and the institutionalization of a counterproliferation regime that would have made John Bolton proud. The U.S.

After the completion of the first round of “get-acquainted” meetings aimed at laying the foundation for cooperation on a broad range of issues, the U.S. and China agree that the bilateral relationship is off to a good start.

Prime Minister Aso Taro put off the election with the hope that additional economic stimulus measures would increase support for his Liberal Democratic Party. But Aso received a real boost when Ozawa Ichiro resigned as opposition leader in May due to a funding scandal. That boost quickly evaporated when Ozawa was succeeded as head of the Democratic Party of Japan by Hatoyama Yukio.

Pyongyang reverted to form this quarter, reminding everyone that old challenges would not be easily or quickly negotiated away. Its attention-getting devices included a failed “satellite launch” and an apparently successful nuclear test, along with a promise to never return to the Six-Party Talks.

Hillary Clinton’s visit to Indonesia on her first trip abroad as U.S. secretary of state signaled that the Obama administration intends to pay renewed attention to Southeast Asia, a region with over 550 million people, the world’s largest Muslim nation, an economy of over $1 trillion, and some of the world’s most strategic waterways.

The political and social stability of Afghanistan and Pakistan – though far from hopeless – is nevertheless quite tenuous. Troops from the United States, NATO, and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) partner nations continue to battle terrorist and extreme Taliban elements across Afghanistan.

Q1: How will the G-8 summit in L’Aquila be altered by the absence of President Hu Jintao of China?