Now we are witnessing a new cycle of negotiation and escalation from Trump and his team. While Washington tightens its grip on Iranian oil export routes, ending a brief waiver that allowed oil shipments to pass through, and announcing that commercial vessels have changed course due to naval pressure, talk of resuming negotiations with Tehran has emerged. It now appears ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the momentum of the world towards carbon neutrality picks up speed, ASEAN is at a turning point. Most ASEAN member countries have already submitted updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, while others have formally set themselves on a path towards net-zero in the mid-century. But these promises—beautifully worth a lot as they ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Transition to sustainable energy technologies is not just a technical matter for ASEAN countries—it is a political, structural, and economic reorientation of development itself. From solar photovoltaics to premium biofuels, from geothermal power plants to smart grids, the region’s capacity to incorporate clean technologies within its fold will determine if it can develop energy demand sky-high ...
An attention-grabbing, and somewhat “surprising” meeting took place in Damascus. On April 5, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Syrian President Sharaa, and Ukrainian President Zelenskiy came together. Zelenskiy had visited Türkiye on April 4, where he met President Erdoğan, before flying to Damascus. The meeting took place at a time of rising tensions in the Black Sea. A Turkish tanker ...
On March 26, a Turkish-operated oil tanker named Altura was attacked in the Black Sea. Türkiye’s Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloğlu made a statement, saying “A foreign-flagged ship operated by a Turkish company, which had loaded crude oil from Russia, reported an explosion in its engine room after midnight to our emergency call center. We believe that the ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer ASEAN member countries’ energy industries are changing as a result of rising demand, decarbonization requirements, and complex geopolitics. While the region is moving towards cleaner, more inclusive, and more resilient energy systems, the risk diversification challenge—namely addressing structural vulnerabilities and crisis-driven disruptions—acquired an added significance. While pursuit of energy diversification has so far been associated with ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer The ASEAN region boasts some of the finest solar irradiation in the world, offering a geographical advantage in tapping solar power to meet its rapidly growing energy needs. With Southeast Asian economies industrializing, urbanizing, and modernizing, solar power has emerged as the cornerstone of the region’s renewable energy policy. The majority of such countries, led by ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist When discussing a U.S. ground operation in Hormuz, it would be misleading to view the issue solely through the lens of military capability. For the true determining factors are the constraints imposed by geography, Iran’s war doctrine, and the tension created by the interplay of these two with the U.S.’s global and Israel’s regional positions. ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer As the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) shifts from an infrastructure-centered vision to one of increasingly more inclusive models of world development, sustainability has become a core—if contentious—pillar of legitimacy. Nowhere is this more urgent than with China’s economic relations with ASEAN countries, a strategic border region for BRI deployment. By applying energy calculation—a green accounting ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Basking in the sunshine, increasing electric demand, and international pressure building to transition to cleaner energy, ASEAN is well-placed to emerge as a solar power leader. On Philippine rooftops, on rolling central Vietnamese plains, solar photovoltaics (PV) is one of the most promising green growth paths forward. But with this dormant potential, solar power remains underexploited ...
By Orçun Göktürk, from Beijing / China More than a week has passed since the renewed attacks by the US and Israel against Iran and the assassination of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. During this period, Iran targeted almost all US bases in West Asia and carried out successful retaliations against Tel Aviv. The operations launched by Trump with the statement, ...
India… A leading actor in the new world order whose birth pangs are shaking the globe… Therefore, every step it takes in foreign policy is closely followed. I discussed India’s foreign policy aligned with the US, Russia, China, and BRICS, the trade agreement signed between India and the US, and the allegations that India has ended its oil purchases from ...