2018/9, 12 February 2018
According to China’s Ministry of Defence, the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has used state-of-the-art SU-35 fighter jets to conduct combat patrols over the South China Sea
Although the report did not provide details of the exact dates, location or size of the patrols, it is the first time that China has publicly acknowledged the operational use of the PLAAF’s SU-35s. In late 2015, Beijing signed a US$2 billion contract with Moscow to purchase 24 SU-35s, Russia’s most advanced air superiority fighter. Fourteen were delivered during 2016-17 and the remaining 10 will be transferred in 2018. China’s acquisition of SU-35s highlights how the strengthening of the Sino-Russian strategic alignment since 2014 has enabled Beijing to further widen the gap in combat capabilities between China’s armed forces and its Southeast Asian counterparts.
This article was published by The Malaysian Insight on 9 February 2018, based on an ISEAS publication Trends in Southeast Asia Issue 3, 2018 TRS3_18 – GE-14 in Johor: The Fall of the Fortress? by Francis E. Hutchinson
Dr Francis E Hutchinson is Senior Fellow and Coordinator Malaysia Studies Programme with ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
2018/8, 9 February 2018
Concluding the negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement is a significant deliverable for ASEAN in 2018. If it is successful, ASEAN will be feted for its leadership to bring together big economies like China, India, Japan and South Korea under a single comprehensive trade deal. This will reinforce its centrality and will showcase its tenacity to deliver on trade cooperation when the winds are blowing the other way in the West.
On 6 February 2018, Mr Joergen Oerstroem Moeller, Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS; Adjunct Professor at the Singapore Management University & Copenhagen Business School and the 13th Honorary Alumni of University of Copenhagen; and Senior Fellow at the MFA Diplomatic Academy, delivered a presentation on “Oil, LNG, and Fracking Defines a New Power Game: US Main Exporter, China and India Main Importers, New Alliances in the Middle East”.
“ASEAN Military Response to Counter-Terrorism” by Hoang Thi Ha