East Asia Archive

Indonesia and Saudi Arabia recently agreed to increase their cooperation on defense matters. In an email interview, Ann Marie Murphy, an associate professor at the Whitehead School of Diplomacy at Seton Hall University, discussed Indonesian-Saudi relations. WPR: What is the current state of Saudi-Indonesian relations? Ann Marie Murphy: Indonesian-Saudi relations are currently strained over a string of cases of abuse of Indonesian migrant workers by their Saudi employers. With more than 3 million Indonesians working abroad, protection of migrant workers is a politically charged issue in Indonesia, and graphic pictures of young maids tortured in Saudi Arabia triggered an uproar […]

Taiwan recently announced plans to build a new 500-ton stealth corvette in response to China’s ongoing naval buildup. In an email interview, Richard A. Bitzinger, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, discussed Taiwan’s domestic arms industry. WPR: What is the current state of the Taiwanese arms industry, and what is prompting its growth? Richard A. Bitzinger: The growing military threat from China, together with the refusal of most countries — except the United States — to sell arms to Taiwan, are the primary rationales for maintaining an indigenous arms […]