Dr. Zhou Shixin is a research fellow of Institute of Foreign Policy Studies, Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. His current research fields are Southeast Asia studies and China's foreign policy.
China and the U.S. open a two-day strategic and economic dialogue in Washington today. The dialogue will focus on the economy, security, diplomacy and the environment.
On July 22, 2009, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed the Instruments of Accession and Extension to the Treaty on Amity and Cooperation in South-East Asia (TAC) marking the US formal accession to the treaty.
The 35th G8 summit will be held in Italy from Wednesday to Friday. Leaders from developed countries and emerging powers will exchange views about the recovery of the world economy, climate change, energy and food security and other global hot issues.
On June 13, 2009, Iran's official news agency announced that the current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won Iran's tenth presidential election with about 63 percent of the votes cast. His opponent Mir-Hossein Mousavi, the independent reformist candidate, received 33 percent of the votes and issued a statement claiming there were some frauds in the ballot.
After the rocket launch on April 5, 2009, the second underground nuclear test on May 25, 2009, and the subsequent missile launches in North Korea, there has been an undeniable heightening of tension.
With the end of the Cold War era, the world has entered a new phase of change in systems and power structures. The world is constantly changing, but this change has accelerated during the first decade of the 21st century.
From April 21-23, 2009, high-level delegates from 29 countries and 21 vessels from 14 countries gathered in Qingdao for a three-day celebration of the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy. Chinese and foreign naval leaders voiced a unanimous view of the need to build harmony in the ocean, and reached consensus on building a harmonious, just and free ocean.
Humanity is entering an unprecedented situation. For the first time in modern history there is no clear leader in world affairs. The deepening financial and economic crisis has paralyzed national governments, regional bodies, and international organizations.