Asia Policy Events, Week of August 23, 2026

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Week of August 23, 2026

IMPORTANT EVENTS

8/18-24 -King of Jordan Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein pays a state visit to China.
8/19-22 - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits South Korea and Indonesia.

8/21 -  Annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with South Korea ends. The exercise began on Aug 17 concludes one week earlier than scheduled by order of President Trump. Associated live-training events have been reduced, with certain events canceled or converted to simulations.”

8/23 - Kazakhstan holds snap parliamentary elections.

8/23 – 1939. Molotov Ribbentrop Pact (non-aggression Treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union) signed. Germany-Soviet alliance enabled WWII.

8/23 - Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong gives his 3rd annual address to mark the independence of the city-state. 

8/23-24 - Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah pays an official visit to China.
8/23-25 - Mexican Foreign Secretary Roberto Velasco Álvarez visits South Korea.

8/25 - Kuwait Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah pays an official visit to South Korea.

8/23-27 - World Water Week.

8/24 - Coalition of the Willing meets  in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to discuss continued support for the embattled country. The date of the meeting is significant, as it marks 35 years since Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union. Ukraine Independence Day.

8/24-26 - Inaugural Silk Road Finance & Technology Forum, Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
8/24-27- 2026 Nuclear Energy Conference and Expo (NECX), Dallas, Texas.
8/27-29 - Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium 2026, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 
8/29 – 1949. Russia’s first nuclear test, RDS-1.
8/29 – International Day against Nuclear Tests.
8/29 – 1945. First POW camp on the Home Islands of Japan evacuated, Omori on Tokyo Bay and the nearby Shinagawa “hospital,” which rescuers said was “an indescribable hellhole of filth, disease, and death.” (Today, the Heiwajima Motor Boat Racing venue is located at the site of this former POW camp on the artificial island built by the POWs. The camp held Louis Zamperini and Pappy Boyington. Motor boat race gambling was established by unindicted Class A war criminal and black marketeer Ryoichi Sasakawa and remains controlled by his organization, the Nippon Foundation and revenue supports the Sasakawa family of foundations).
8/30 – 1945. General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP), arrives in Japan at the Atsugi airfield near Yokohama aboard Bataan II.

8/30-9/4 – 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders Meeting held in Koror, Republic of Palau.

8/31 - Seoul's Central District Court sentences Ms. Han Hak-ja, 83 , leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, commonly known as the Unification Church, for on charges of political fund violations and bribery involving former first lady Kim Keon Hee.

8/31-9/1 - G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, Asheville, North Carolina,

8/31-9/1 - Bled Strategic Forum, Bled, Slovenia.

MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, AND SEMINARS

BOMBING IS NOT VERIFICATION: THE LIMITS OF STRIKES ON IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM. 8/24, Noon (EDT), VIRTUAl. Sponsor: Council on Strategic Risks. Speakers: Andrew Weber, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Defense Programs; Rose Gottemoeller (Former Deputy Secretary General, NATO; Moderator; Mallory Stewart, Former Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification, and Compliance.

AI AGENT CONTAINMENT FAILURES: TECHNICAL REALITIES AND POLICY RESPONSES. 8/24, 2:00-4:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: CSIS. Speakers: Representative Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA), Member, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation Subcommittee; Ian Reynolds, AI Policy Manager, Hugging Face; Helen Toner, Executive Director, The Center for Security and Emerging Technology; Mackenzie Arnold, Director of US Policy, LawAI; Aalok Mehta, Director, Wadhwani AI Center; Matt Pearl, Director, Strategic Technologies Program.

BEYOND THE TALIBAN: FIVE YEARS OF AFGHAN RESILIENCE AND RESISTANCE. 8/25, 10:00am-3:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: National Endowment for Democracy. Speakers: Ryan Crocker, Former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan; Nick Schifrin, Foreign Affairs and Defense Correspondent, PBS NewsHour; Annie Pforzheimer, Former U.S. Senior Foreign Service Officer; Minister Counselor (Retired); Melanne Verveer, Executive Director, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security Former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues; Adela Raz, Director, Afghanistan Policy Lab, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Former Afghanistan Ambassador to the U.S.; Lotfullah Najafizada, CEO, Amu TV; Fawzia Koofi, Former Deputy Speaker of the Afghan Parliament and Founder, Women for Afghanistan; Mariam Safi, CEO, Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies; Wazhma Frogh, Human Rights Lawyers and CEO, Women and Peace Studies Organization; Nasir Andisha, Founder, Center for Dialogue and Progress, and Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva; Parwiz Kawa, Executive Director, 8AM Media; Damon Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer, National Endowment for Democracy.

PRESS CONFERENCE: HOW WILL OKINAWA’S NEXT ELECTION IMPACT JAPAN? 8/25, 1:00-2:00pm (JST), MIDNIGHT-1:00am (EDT), HYBRID, Sponsor: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ). Speakers: Naomi Machida, Head of the Ginowan Churamizu Kai; Takamatsu Gushiken — Head of Gamafuya.

ENGAGING NAYPYIDAW IN 2026: BANGKOK AND NEW DELHI’S CONSIDERATIONS. 8/25,  2:30-4:00pm (SGT), 2:30-4:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: ISEAS Yusof Ishak Institute. Speakers: Dr Lalita Hanwong, Assistant Professor, History Department at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand; Dr V.S Seshadri, Senior Fellow for Economic Security at the Delhi Policy Group. 

THE CHALLENGE OF GULF-CHINA TIES: REASSESSING BEIJING’S ROLE AFTER THE IRAN WAR.  8/25, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Arab Gulf State Institute. Speakers: Mohammed Al-Sudairi, Senior Researcher, King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies; Aaron Glasserman, Distinguished Fellow, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University; Chuchu Zhang, Associate Professor of International Relations, School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University; Moderator: Robert Mogielnicki, Non-Resident Fellow, AGSI. 

EVALUATING THE FUTURE OF U.S.-SOUTH KOREA-JAPAN TRILATERALISM. 8/25, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Korea Economic Institute. Speakers: Eun A Jo, Assistant Professor of Government, William and Mary; Ayumi Teraoka, Assistant Professor of Politics, Brandeis University; Bruce Klingner, Senior Fellow, The Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation; Moderator: Arius Derr, Director of Communications, Korea Economic Institute of America. 

THE LIMITS OF IDEOLOGICAL ALIGNMENT. 8/26, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: American German Institute. Speakers: Zsuzsanna Végh, DAAD/AGI Research Fellow, American-German Institute; Program Officer, German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF); Moderator: Eric Langenbacher, Senior Fellow and Director of the Society, Culture, & Politics Program, American German Institute.

THRIVING, SURVIVING, ZOMBIFYING OR DYING: WHAT FUTURE FOR USMCA. 8/26, 11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.  Speakers: Juan Carlos Baker Pineda, CEO and founding partner, Consultores Internacionales Ansley; Simon Lester, nonresident fellow, Baker Institute International Economics Program; Rachel Ziemba, adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS); Moderator: Karthik Sankaran, senior research fellow in geoeconomics in the Global South program, Quincy Institute.

WHY AMERICA IS RUNNING OUT OF MUNITIONS. 8/26 1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Foreign Policy. Speakers: Tom Karako, Director, CSIS’s Missile Defense Project; Moderator: Ravi Agrawal, Editor in chief, Foreign Policy.

BOOK TALK: HEAVEN DOES NOT BLOCK ALL ROADS: A HISTORY OF TAIWAN THROUGH THE LIFE OF HUANG CHIN-TAO. 8/26, 4:00pm (EDT) IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies. Speakers: Anna Beth Keim, freelance journalist who has been reporting on Taiwan since 2015; Moderator: William Yale, Yokosuka Council on Asia-Pacific Studies. PURCHASE BOOK  

A VISION FOR THE FUTURE OF MULTILATERALISM. 8/26, 4:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Stimson. Speaker: Rafael Grossi,Director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency.  

REMAKING US–CHINA ECONOMIC RELATIONS FOR ECONOMIC HEALTH AND GEOPOLITICAL STABILITY. 8/27, 1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Quincy. Speakers: Susan Helper, Frank Tracy Carlton professor of Economics at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University; Jonas Nahm, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); Marcus Stanley, director of studies, Quincy Institute; Jake Werner, director of the East Asia Program, Quincy Institute.  

AI AND AUTONOMY ON THE MODERN BATTLEFIELD. 8/27, 3:45pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Atlantic Council. Speakers: Gen. (ret.) James Cartwright, USMC, Board Member, Atlantic Council, 8th Vice Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Owen J. Daniels, Nonresident senior fellow, Forward Defense, Atlantic Council; Moderator: Joe Costa, Director, Forward Defense, Atlantic Council.