Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Mar 23, 2011 (IPS) – Vietnam’s race to build nuclear power plants has barely skipped a beat despite the troubling scenes unfolding in Japan, where a nuclear nightmare has gripped the country for over a week. It places the Southeast Asian nation at odds [...]
Vietnam, Laos Split Over Mekong Dam
March 3, 2011 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Marwaan Macan-Markar BANGKOK, Mar 3, 2011 (IPS) – The first in a new series of 11 dams planned across the Mekong, South-east Asia’s largest river, could break a special bond between two communist-ruled countries. Critics in Vietnam see red over a 1,260-megawatt hydropower project planned by their [...]
POLITICS: Cambodia, Vietnam Differ from Laos in Cluster Bombs Ban
November 16, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Irwin Loy SEKONG, Laos, Nov 16, 2010 (IPS) – On a windy morning in southern Laos in November, a team of deminers built a makeshift bunker out of sandbags and piled the barrier around a tiny explosive. A thin electrical wire snaked its way from the bunker, [...]
CHINA: A WAKE-UP CALL FOR VIETNAM & INDIA
August 9, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy B.RAMAN This year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Vietnam. The two countries are observing it as the China-Vietnam Friendship Year. In November last year, they had signed a number of agreements on the demarcation of their 1,300-kilometer land boundary and agreed to [...]
NEED FOR INDIA-VIETNAM STRATEGIC NAVAL DIALOGUE
July 30, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy B.RAMAN " It is clear that military clashes would bring bad results to all countries in the region involved, but China will never waive its right to protect its core interest with military means."— From a "Global Times" editorial of July 26,2010 ——————————————- After having adopted a soft policy towards [...]
VIETNAM: Salinisation, Drought Bring Worries to Mekong Delta
March 18, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam MEKONG DELTA, Vietnam, Mar 18, 2010 (IPS) – He has worked this land for half of 64 years and is known among his fellow farmers in Kien Giang province here in the Mekong Delta as ‘lao nong’, or the old master of rice. But [...]
VIETNAM: Prospects of Total Facebook Blackout Loom Large
November 25, 2009 By
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS Nguyen Nam HO CHI MINH CITY, Nov 25 (IPS) – While much of the world is busy chatting with friends or posting photos via Facebook, Internet users in Vietnam are worried that government restrictions on access to this popular social networking site could soon evolve into a total blackout, [...]
VIETNAM: Human Rights, Health: Twin Issues for Climate Change
November 12, 2009 By
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS Helen Clark HANOI, Nov 12 (IPS) – Vietnam will be one of five nations most affected by climate change. Worst-case scenarios see large parts of the low-lying and flood-prone Mekong Delta area, which produces much of the nation’s rice crop, flooded. A one-metre rise in sea level, predicted by [...]
VIETNAM: Doubts about Small Dams Give Gov’t Headaches
September 14, 2009 By
Global Geopolitics Net Sites / IPS By Tran Dinh Thanh Lam HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Sep 14 (IPS) – With a generating capacity of only 190 megawatts, the Dak Mi 4 hydropower project being constructed in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam is small by international standards. But it is causing major headaches [...]
WANTED: A HANOI COOPERATION ORGANISATION A LA THE SHANGHAI COOPERATION ORGANISATION
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy B.RAMAN Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Sin gh will be visiting Japan, Vietnam and Malaysia for six days from October 24,2010.He has to attend the ASEAN summit at Hanoi. He is combining it with bilateral visits to the three countries. 2. China is not expected to be a major issue during his [...]