CEIAS: Central European Institute of Asian Studies

The Hormuz crisis exposed the Philippines’ longstanding vulnerability to energy price shocks. With electricity prices already among the highest in Southeast Asia and a heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels, the country entered the crisis with limited room to absorb further increases in energy costs. As a result, the crisis accelerated decentralized solar adoption without significantly altering the country’s structural dependence on fossil fuels.

Chinese President Xi Jinping traveled to India, for the first time in seven years, to attend the 18th BRICS summit, held in New Delhi on September 12-13, 2026.

Nippon Steel’s acquisition of US Steel and the subsequent integration of the Košice plant directly into the Japanese parent company represent the main impetus behind Tokyo’s renewed interest in Slovakia. The current convergence of circumstances has created an opportunity for Slovakia to transform the present momentum into a strategic partnership with Japan. Following its current V4 presidency, Slovakia will host the Three Seas Initiative Summit in April 2027.

The semiconductor industry is facing several transformational global trends that are creating new challenges for economies. Rising demand for AI is stimulating global demand for advanced semiconductors, driving economic growth, while increasing geopolitical tensions, conflicting derisking and diversification strategies, export controls, and regulations are complicating the business environment.

Framed by a global shift toward economic security, Japan and the EU are strengthening semiconductor policies to enhance supply chain resilience, expand domestic production, and support critical technologies essential to the green and digital transitions. Recent EU and Japan strategies increasingly frame semiconductors as a matter of economic security. This project examines how Japan and the EU position themselves in semiconductor technologies as key pillars of economic security and future growth.

Welcome to the 80th issue of the CEEasia Briefing. In this issue, we dissect the following topics: Japanese Foreign Minister visits Slovakia China-Poland Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation meets in Beijing Taiwan expands drone cooperation with Czechia If you like what you see, please forward this message to your friends and colleagues who can subscribe here. Do you need to know more about the Indo-Pacific? Don’t hesitate to shoot us a message about custom analysis tailored to your needs. 1.

The Southeast Asia Yearbooks published by Nomos provide in-depth insights into the dynamic and geopolitically increasingly important Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its member states. The contributions are written by experts from Southeast Asia and the German-speaking world. This first volume brings together analyses of current developments in domestic, foreign, and economic policy in Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This book examines the rise and fall of Sino-Czech relations after 2012, which coincided with China’s outward political and economic expansion through the Belt and Road Initiative and the construction of a global network of partnerships, including in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Drawing on relational theory rooted in the Chinese concept of guanxi, the authors analyze to what extent China was able to secure the compliance of the Czech Republic with its core interests.

On July 16, 2026, at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, representatives from 29 countries in the Global South signed an agreement establishing the World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization (WAICO), an intergovernmental organization proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping and headquartered in Shanghai.

This volume explores how Taiwan transformed during Tsai Ing-Wen’s two-term presidency (2016–2024) – an era marked by both unprecedented stability and growing polarisation. Bringing together 25 scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America, it examines how Tsai’s leadership reshaped Taiwan’s democracy, gender equality, and social norms while navigating intensifying cross-Strait tensions and shifting global power dynamics.