South Asian Countries

With Thailand’s ratification, all ten ASEAN countries have now ratified the treaty. In the Maldives, GDP growth has been driven by strong tourism, especially from Europe, China, and India. In fact, European guests accounted for about half of arrivals and grew by 16.5% in 2019.

He also stressed the importance of arriving at a peaceful resolution of the problem through negotiations and expressed optimism about the role that ASEAN could play as an intermediary—helping to address both humanitarian, economic and security concerns in the region. The 29th ASEAN Chiefs of Police Conference was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May. Among other subjects, the conference debated and adopted resolutions regarding drugs trafficking, terrorism, arms smuggling and human trafficking. Particular attention was paid to the issue of nations providing “mutual assistance” to each other to deal with these problems.

Additional confusion is created by transcontinental countries, which cross over continental lines. For instance, Egypt is mostly in Africa, but its northeast corner extends into Asia. Turkey lies almost entirely in Asia, but its biggest city, Istanbul, is located in the tiny portion of Turkey that extends into Europe. Nonprofit international development organization based in San Francisco with network offices located in 18 Asian countries and Washington, D.C. This LibGuide is designed to provide you with scholarly, high-quality print-based and web-based resources about the Middle East. The information included here is not all inclusive and should be treated as starting points for your research.

In recent years, Bangladesh has emerged as a leading manufacturer of textile products and become a frontrunner in South Asia. In fact, in 2019, Bangladesh had a growth rate of 8%, compared to India's of 5.3%. As the trade deficit decreased, the growth in remittances grew strongly by 9.6% in 2019 to reach a record $16.4 billion. The forecast of an increase in domestic demand, hike in public sector wages, and increased construction activity will bolster its economy in the near term, as well. While many of these economies have a considerable share of revenues from international exports, domestic demand is expected to be the primary driver for growth in the near future. Domestic markets make these economies less prone to external vulnerabilities and global financial turmoil.

Asian Countries

This support was influenced in part by political unrest during the 1970s and by demands to redistribute wealth and income to satisfy the ‘basic needs’ of the poor . However, the level of political commitment to PHC throughout the region has been weak, except in Vietnam. The thriving of such organizations clearly is related to the failure of documented migration systems and enhanced policing of migration is unlikely to solve the problem of undocumented migration. Improvement of official migration systems must be part of the increasing international effort to combat the people smuggling and trafficking which is especially rife in South and Southeast Asia. In countries of origin there is a need for information programs which provide potential migrants with detailed, accurate information about the costs of the migration process and the nature of the experience at the destination. The pressing issue of protection of migrants and migrant workers from the region is related to that of controlling the intermediaries in the migration process.

Much like HITEC City, Hyderabad’s Genome Valley is a large campus of facilities that houses more than 100 biotech companies, including Novartis, Monsanto, and Pfizer. The city has also developed campuses for the study of nanotechnology and the manufacturing of advanced semiconductors and solar technologies. This aggressive investment in high-tech industries will most likely continue to bring revenue and jobs into the city. As a result, Hyderabad must deal with a swelling population in need of more goods and services well into the future. Extractive activities are an important part of the economies of many Asian countries.

Food Security In Asia And The Pacific

A new in-depth ADB report examines the extent of disruptions triggered by COVID-19 crisis, highlights emerging growth opportunities, and recommends priority reforms that countries can adopt to better ensure an equitable and enduring recovery. Hints of what was to come appeared as far back as the aftermath of the Watergate Scandal at a congressional hearing in 1975 led by Senator Frank Church – one of the people marked for attention under the MINARET Project. The hearing revealed that the NSA, in collaboration with its UK-based counterpart GCHQ had intercepted communications from some outspoken anti-Vietnam war luminaries, including actress Jane Fonda. In fact, the Sedition Act of 1918 aimed to do precisely that; restrict free speech. It prohibited the use of “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the US government and its armed forces, and was repealed in 1920, only two years after its enactment, because of its incompatibility with the First Amendment.

Countries & Regions

Russia is the largest country in Asia, despite the fact that a full 25% of Russia's 17,098,250 square kilometers of territory is located in Europe . China comes in second in Asia, with a total area of approximately 9,600,010 km². Finally, the dividing lines between continents are sometimes ambiguous, especially at sea. The island country of Cyprus, for example, is considered by the United Nations to be part of Asia, but it is also a member of the European Union. Similarly, many islands of Oceania could arguably be considered part of Asia, Australia/Australasia, or even South America. Even land boundaries, such as the dividing line between Europe and Asia, have changed throughout history.

The tiny country of Brunei, on the island of Borneo, has a population of just 437,000. The Maldives, a tropical island country in the Indian Ocean, has 540,500 people, while the landlocked Kingdom of Bhutan, located in the Eastern Himalayas and bordered by China, has just 771,600 inhabitants. However, depending upon the organization or government making the list, Asia can have as few as 45 or as many as 53 countries. The continent is also home to a varying number of "administrative regions" and dependent territories. Provides information & annotated links to some of the best resources for doing research on Russia and East European countries.

Asia is the largest of the world’s continents, covering approximately 30 percent of the Earth’s land area. It is also the world’s most populous continent, with roughly 60 percent of the total population. Leaders endorsed the Vientiane Action Programme to implement the ASEAN Vision 2020 for the next six years and agreed to mobilize resources for this purpose.

When Western explorers reached South and East Asia in early modern times, they extended that label to the whole of the immense landmass. While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.

Nations like Bangladesh have emerged as major exporters of textile products and have benefited from lower prices of cotton. However, while many energy-hungry nations such as India have efficiently used the recent low cost of oil to stockpile huge inventories of oil for future use, rising energy prices present long-term downside risks. The primary South Asian countries include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka, as well as smaller nations including Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. Since most of the inhabitants (85%) live in the European part of the country, Russia is listed in our overview of Europe.

They shall consider joint practical counter-terrorism measures in line with specific circumstances in the region and in each member country. The Community should also strengthen national and regional capacities to counter terrorism and other trans-national crimes, and ensure that the Southeast Asian region remains free of all weapons of mass destruction. To establish modalities for the Community, the ASEAN leaders agreed that Indonesia would develop a Plan of Action for the ASEAN Security Community. The Ministers issued a joint communiqué which noted encouraging developments on nuclear disarmament and welcomed the negotiations between the United States and Russia. They also recalled the commitment of the People’s Republic of China to no first use of nuclear weapons. Also, the Ministers hoped that participating countries in the Conference on Disarmament would resume talks on disarmament, as called for in Article VI of the Non-Proliferation Treaty .

During the past 10 years, Asia has increased its forest cover by 30 million hectares to create forest plantations where trees can be intensively managed for higher-yield production. The timber industry estimates that Asia will produce roughly 45 percent of wood from forest plantations by 2020. These plantations will become increasingly important as natural forest resources continue to be depleted. The southwest zone is a dry, hot region that stretches from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia through Pakistan, Iran, and into the Arabian Peninsula.