Asia Policy Events, Week of August 16, 2026

Asia Policy Point is on summer recess, like the U.S. Congress until August 31. We will, however, post some events weekly for our readers and members. If you want to receive these directly to your mailbox, you have to become a "member" of APP. An individual, nonshareable membership is only $105/year and includes our occasional papers of on Japanese politics and access to our office while visiting Washington. SIGN UP HERE.

Week of August 16, 2026

8/3~16 - Beidaihe Annual Summer Chinese leadership meetings, Qinhuangdao, Hebei, PRC. The list of invitees to the annual gathering, as reported by state media, suggests that China’s leaders are placing a heavy emphasis on science, innovation and entrepreneurship, 
8/10-14 - Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge Colby visits Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Cambodia. First official trip to Southeast Asia as Under Secretary of War for Policy. MANILA SPEECH, PRESS CONFERENCE.
8/12 - South Korea's Supreme Court confirms a decision requiring Japan's Nippon Steel to compensate the relatives of a Korean national who endured forced labor under Japan's occupation at its Kamaishi Steelworks. 
8/13 - Russian President Vladimir Putin makes his first visit to one of four Russian-held western Pacific islands (Iturup, known in Japan as Etorofu) seized after WWII that Japan calls its Northern Territories.
8/14 – Memorial Day for Japanese Forces’ Comfort Women Victims, South Korea.
8/14 – 1991. South Korean comfort woman victim Kim Hak-sun became the first to give public testimony about her experience.

8/15 - 1945. Imperial Japan accepts the Potsdam Declaration and ceases combat operations. Shūsen-kinenbi (Memorial Day for the End of the War in Japan). National Memorial Service for the War Dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo with the Emperor and prime minister. 
     As expected, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi did not make her usual visit Yasukuni Shrine and sent an offering instead. However, Upon arriving at Nippon Budokan hall to attend her first war memorial ceremony since taking office last year, Takaichi turned toward the Yasukuni Shrine across the road and bowed twice, clapped twice and bowed once in an apparent act of Shinto worship from a distance. She did visit the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for War Dead down the street from the Yasukuni Shrine. Her Memorial statement also made no mention of "remorse." [APP wrote about Prime Minister Ishiba's reinsertion of "remorse" in the annual memorial statement after its removal by Prime Minister Abe.] Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Minoru Kiuchi, economic and fiscal policy minister, Kimi Onoda, economic security minister, and Hitoshi Kikawada, in charge of issues related to Okinawa and the Northern Territories did visit the Shrine. Senior LDP officials -- Secretary General Suzuki, Haruko Arimura, head of its General Council, and Yasutoshi Nishimura, head of its Election Strategy Committee -- went to the Shrine as well. On the same day, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung emphasized in his remarks for Liberation Day "that Korea-Japan cooperation is more important than ever, The light of the new Korea-Japan relationship that we will create is To those who are still enduring pain in the shadows of history It must be able to be a source of warmth." 

8/15 -  USS George Washington departs the Pacific and expected to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Middle East leaving the Western Pacific without an American aircraft carrier. Next day Trump orders the scaling back of the upcoming U.S.-South Korea exercises.
15 – Annual Far Eastern Prisoners of War (FEPOW) Day in Taiwan hosted by Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society. 
8/15-16 - Panda Fest DC 2026, Washington, DC, outdoor Asian food festival with experiential activities, tastings, and market fairs.
8/17 - 1926. Centenary of the birth of late Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. Xi to speak at commemoration.
8/17 – Independence Day, National Holiday, Indonesia.
8/17-27 - 26th Annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise with the U.S. and South Korea held in South Korea. On the 16th, Trumps tells Hegseth to scale them back!!
8/19 – 1945. Several dozen British, Dutch, and American senior officers including Lieutenant Generals Jonathan Wainwright and A.E. Percival located by the OSS at the Hsian POW camp, 150 miles north of Mukden (today's Shenyang, China).
8/20-21 - Religious Freedom in Asia: Representation, Restrictions and Rights hosted by the Asia Centre Bangkok.
8/21 – 1945. Japanese authorities decide to set up the Recreation and Amusement Association (RAA) for the benefit of Allied occupation troops modeled on the military government’s long-established Comfort Women system.

8/22-23 - Freedom 250 Grand Prix street circuit: NTT INDYCAR SERIES. First-ever automotive race around the National Mall and the historic streets of Washington, DC. Veterans of the NTT trade wars will be amused that Japan's NTT is now encircling the National Mall. 
8/23 - Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong gives an annual address to mark the independence of the city-state. 
8/23-27 - World Water Week.

KEIRIN: JAPAN'S WARRIORS ON BICYCLES. 8/17, 6:45pm (BST), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Japan Society-UK. Speakers: Joe Truman, British Track Cyclist; author, Justin McCurry, Japan and Korea correspondent, The Guardian, War on Wheels: Inside Keirin and Japan’s Cycling Subculture; Moderator: Jim McCafferty, Director, Reynolds Technology. PURCHASE BOOK. NB: Keirin is a major off-budget source of funding (managed by METI) for Japan’s electronics industry.

BEYOND PYONGYANG: REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, MODERNIZATION, AND INEQUALITY IN NORTH KOREA. 8/17, 8:00-9:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Stimson, 38 North. Speakers: Martyn Williams, Senior Fellow, 38 North Program; Iliana Ragnone, Research Analyst & Managing Editor, 38 North Program; Moderator: Jenny Town, Director, 38 North Program.

THE HORMUZ IMPLICATIONS FOR ENERGY POLICYMAKING: JAPAN AND SOUTH KOREA. 8/18, 8:00-9:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: CSIS, Energy Security and Climate Change Program. Speakers: TERAZAWA, Tatsuya, Chairman and CEO, IEEJ, Japan; Jae-Seung Lee, Professor, Jean Monnet Chair in College & Graduate School of International Studies (CIS & GSIS), Korea University; Jane Nakano, Senior Fellow, Energy Security and Climate Change Program.

SOUTHEAST ASIA'S GENERATIONAL SHIFT: FOREIGN POLICY FUTURES. 8/18, 9:00-10:35am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR). Speakers include: Dante Schulz, Project Manager for Political and Security Affairs, NBR; Rohan Mukherjee, Assistant Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics and Political Science; Rajni Gamage, Research Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore; Md. Tanvir Habib, Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka; Moderator: Christopher Clary, Associate Professor of Political Science, University at Albany.

THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ CLOSURE: WHAT HAPPENS TO TRADE AND SHIPPING? 8/19, 9:00-10:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). Speakers: Simon J. Evenett, Professor of Geopolitics and Strategy, IMD Business School, Founder of St Gallen Endowment for Prosperity through Trade, University of St Gallen Switzerland; Dorota Lost-Siemińska, Director Legal Affairs and External Relations, International Maritime Organization (IMO); Moderator: Cecilia Malmström , Nonresident Senior Fellow, Peterson Institute for International
Economics (PIIE).

GOLDEN DOME: EARLY ASSESSMENT AND OPEN QUESTIONS. 8/19, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Brookings. Speakers: David Mosher, Director of National Security Analysis - Congressional Budget Office; Steve Fetter, Professor, School of Public Policy - University of Maryland; Michael E. O’Hanlon, Director of Research - Foreign Policy, Director - Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology, Co-Director - Africa Security Initiative, Moderator: Melanie W. Sisson, Senior Fellow - Foreign Policy, Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology.

PRESS CONFERENCE: JAPAN'S SECURITY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD. 8/19, 11:00-Noon (JST), 8/18, 10:00-11:00pm (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ). Speakers: Ken Jimbo, Research Institute for Advanced Innovation and GeoStrategy (RAIS); Tomoyuki Furutani, (RAIS).

DIGITAL TAIWAN LECTURE SERIES – TAIWAN’S ELECTORAL SYSTEM AND THE 2026 LOCAL ELECTIONS. 8/19, 4:00-5:00pm (TST), 4:00-5:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Institute for Security & Development Policy. Speakers: Dr. Ching-Hsin Yu, Research Fellow, Election Study Center, National Chengchi University; Moderator: Yi-Chieh Chen, Research Fellow, ISDP’s Stockholm Taiwan Center.

CAN THE UNITED STATES RETAIN ITS SCIENTIFIC TALENT? 8/20, 3:00-4:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF). Speakers: Adriana Bankston, Consultant & Advisor; Scientific Research Policy; Advocacy & Government Relations; Donna Ginthe, Roy A. Roberts & Regents Distinguished Professor of Economics Director, Institute for Policy & Social Research, University of Kansas; Shalin Jyotishi, Founder and Director, Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative; Moderator: Trelysa Long, Policy Analyst, ITIF.

DOES AUKUS STRENGTHEN AUSTRALIA’S SECURITY? 8/20 6:00-7:15pm (AEST), 4:00-5:15am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Lowy Institute. Speakers: Sam Roggeveen, Program Director Lowy Institute’s International Security Program; Jennifer Parker, Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute, Adjunct Fellow in Naval Studies at the University of Western Australia; Mihai Sora, Director of Research at the Lowy Institute. Fee 

Asia Policy Events, Week of August 9, 2026

Asia Policy Point is on summer recess, like the U.S. Congress. We will, however, post some events weekly for our readers and members. If you want to receive these directly to your mailbox, you have to become a "member" of APP. An individual, nonshareable membership is only $105/year and includes our occasional papers of on Japanese politics and access to our office while visiting Washington. SIGN UP HERE.

WEEK OF AUGUST 9, 2026

8/9 - 1945. Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki.
8/11 - Mountain Day, National Holiday, Japan

8/12 - Demise of Prophet Muhammad and Martyrdom of Imam Hassan, National Holiday, Iran

8/14 - International Memorial Day for Comfort Women. On August 14, 1991, when South Korean Kim Hak-sun became the first to give a public testimony about her experience as a comfort woman victim.
8/14 - Taiwan's annual 10-day Han Kuang military exercise ends.

8/15 - 1945. Imperial Japan accepts the Potsdam Declaration and ceases combat operations. Shūsen-kinenbi (Memorial Day for the End of the War in Japan). National Memorial Service for the War Dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo with the Emperor and prime minister. Rightwing parliamentarians visit the Yasukuni Shrine. Possible visit to the war memorializing Yasukuni Shrine by Prime Minister Takaichi. She visited last year, but was not PM.

8/15 - Independence Day, National Holiday, South/North Korea. Day off 8/17.

8/15 – Annual Far Eastern Prisoners of War (FEPOW) Day in Taiwan hosted by Taiwan POW Camps Memorial Society.

BEYOND THE STRAIT: THE FUTURE OF GLOBAL ENERGY SECURITY. 8/11, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Arab Gulf States Institute (AGSI). Speakers: Carole Nakhle, CEO, Crystol Energy, Secretary General, Arab Energy Club; Robin Mills, Non-Resident Fellow, AGSI, CEO, Qamar Energy; Adnan Shihab-Eldin, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Moderator: Kate Dourian, Non-Resident Fellow, AGSI, Contributing Editor, MEES, Fellow, Energy Institute.

AN UPHILL CLIMB: PUSHING FOR AN INCLUSIVE POLITICAL DIALOGUE IN AFGHANISTAN. 8/12, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Center for a New American Security (CNAS). Speakers: Ambassador Nasir A. Andisha, Ambassador and Permanent Representative, Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva; Palwasha Hassan, Executive Director, Mina's List; Ambassador Earl Anthony Wayne, Former Deputy U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and Argentina; Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan; Annie Pforzheimer, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Security Program, CNAS.

ISRAEL AND THE U.S. IN A CHANGING LANDSCAPE: IS THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP FAILING? 8/13, 10:00-10:45am (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Carnegie. Speakers: Aaron David Miller, Senior Fellow, American Statecraft Program; Yael Lempert, Vice President for Outreach, Middle East Institute; Daniel C. Kurtzer, Lecturer and S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies, Princeton University; Shibley Telhami, Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development, University of Maryland, College Park. 

SIX MONTHS AFTER EPIC FURY: THE STATE OF THE CONFLICT IN THE GULF. 8/13, 10:00-11:00am (EDT), HYBRID. Sponsor: Hudson. Speakers: Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program Senior Director and Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Michael Doran, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Ludovic Hood, Senior Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Zineb Riboua, Research Fellow, Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East. 

AN OVERVIEW OF PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW. 8/13, 1:00pm (EDT), VIRTUAL. Sponsor: Law Library, Library of Congress. Speakers: Law Library Staff. 

VISUAL ART REPRESENTATIONS OF WORLD WAR II IN THE PHILIPPINES: DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF A SHARED TRAGEDY. 8/15, 4:00-6:00pm (PHT), IN PERSON ONLY. Sponsor: Ayala Museum, Manila, Philippines. Speaker: Jose T. Ricardo PhD, country's foremost scholar on the Second World War in the Philippines and the Asia-Pacific, specializes in military and diplomatic history, focus on the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. 

Can South Korea Hedge?

How South Korea Can Buy Alliance Insurance

by Daniel Sneider, lecturer in East Asian studies at Stanford University, non-resident distinguished fellow at the Korea Economic Institute of America, and APP Member. 

First Published April 28, 2026 on The Peninsula.

The case for South Korea hedging its relationship with the United States may be harder to dismiss. Washington’s trade policies and the economic consequences of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran have raised the cost of close alignment at the same time they have weakened confidence in U.S. commitments. Seoul has options short of rupture, that include joining regional trade frameworks, arming Ukraine directly, and pursuing its own diplomacy with Iran on energy shipments.

“While the biggest threat to the alliance remains North Korea, the biggest challenge to the alliance now comes from the United States,” argues long-time Korea watcher [and APP member] Bruce Klingner. “Having bullied Seoul into a disadvantageous trade deal that violated the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement and the U.S. Constitution, the Trump administration is demanding more and promising less to its security and economic partners.”

“The U.S. may have degraded military deterrence by undermining the perception – in the minds of both allies and opponents – that Washington is a dependable security partner,” Klingner said.

This sense of unreliability is hardly confined to South Korea—it is felt by all U.S. allies. As Washington Post columnist Fareed Zakaria wrote recently, the United States has used allied security dependence “to squeeze them hard.” The response is not to break ties with the United States “but to accept that our interests are no longer as close as they once were, and that in current circumstances it cannot be a high priority to accommodate American wishes,” writes prominent British historian and commentator Lawrence Freedman.

The result, wrote Zakaria, is that allies “have decided to buy insurance, to protect themselves from an unreliable America.” In that spirit, below are three ideas for South Korea to develop an insurance policy against U.S. uncertainty.

Accelerate Application to Join CPTPP

The most urgent—and, in some ways, easiest—step toward greater independence for South Korea is to expedite its application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). The twelve-member economic and trade pact is the kernel of an alternative free trade system, particularly if it partners with the European Union, which is under discussion. It offers a comprehensive framework for addressing not only traditional trade markets but also supply chain cooperation, digital trade, and state-owned enterprises.

There are several advantages for South Korea in joining CPTPP. “The Iran war, rising protectionism and a deepening divide between the United States and China have reshaped the international economic order,” Asan Institute for Policy Studies President Choi Kang wrote in Joongang Ilbo. “For Korea, a mid-sized trading nation, survival now depends on diversifying markets and stabilizing supply chains. The CPTPP offers a network well suited to those goals.”

Aside from market gains, CPTPP membership would also cement the strategic partnership between South Korea and Japan, as well as with other partners who share similar issues with the United States, such as Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

South Korean membership in CPTPP has been under discussion for some time. “Earlier this decade, Japan had given South Korea its very cold shoulder on entry,” Michael Beeman, former Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Japan, Korea and APEC [and APP member], told this writer. “Kishida-era warming in Japan-ROK ties seemed to have turned that around.”

The recent joint statement following the meeting between South Korean President Lee Jae Myung and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi indicated Japanese support for South Korea’s membership. “I don’t sense Japan’s posture is any longer a top obstacle,” says Beeman, author of Walking Out, an authoritative book on U.S. trade policy.

The greater obstacle seems to stem from South Korean domestic politics, driven by fears among agricultural producers and auto manufacturers that CPTPP membership will lead to greater competition from Japanese and other foreign producers. But supporters argue that structural adjustment assistance for vulnerable sectors could mitigate those effects and that the CPTPP could catalyze much-needed restructuring of South Korean industries.

Lift Restrictions on Arms Sales to Ukraine

A more controversial step would be for South Korea to lift long-standing restrictions on the sale of lethal weapons to countries engaged in active combat, and in particular to Ukraine. South Korea has provided indirect weapons support by selling weapons to allied states such as Poland and non-lethal systems to Ukraine, as well as other forms of aid and participation in NATO mechanisms to finance U.S. weapons to Ukraine. But there is an urgent need to intensify support for Ukraine, particularly in areas such as missile defense systems, because of the Trump administration’s decision to cut U.S. military assistance to Ukraine and divert weapons to the Iran war.

Changing South Korea’s policy on arming Ukraine would signal its readiness to take positions that differ from those of the United States and would immensely strengthen its ties with the European Union. Rather than acting on behalf of the United States, as some South Korean progressives argue, this would demonstrate South Korean independence of action and self-defense.

By bolstering Ukraine’s defense, South Korea would also strengthen its own security interests by preventing a Russian victory that would only drive North Korea and Russia closer together. Morally and strategically, it would balance the impact of North Korea’s participation in the Ukraine war.

An Independent Approach to Iran and Maritime Security

The Lee administration has taken initial, though still tentative, steps toward shaping an independent policy response to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz. But there are grounds to argue that South Korea, perhaps in tandem with Japan, should negotiate directly with the Iranian regime to seek exemptions for the passage of its stranded vessels.

One important initiative underway is President Lee’s decision to participate in the European-led multilateral mission to secure the free passage of ships through the strait once the war is over. Lee attended the recent international summit led by France and the United Kingdom and stated that South Korea was ready to make “substantive contributions” to this mission, including using South Korean military forces to clear mines and escort passage following a stable ceasefire.

If the Islamabad talks fail, the alternative may be a “broad based international coalition” that strikes a deal with Iran, wrote British strategist Freedman.

Given the uncertain outcome of the war and the collapse of even the pretense of direct talks, Seoul should accelerate its own diplomacy toward Tehran. Earlier this week, South Korean special envoy Chung Byung-ha traveled to Iran to meet with Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi to request cooperation on the safe transit of all vessels, particularly Korean ships, through the Strait of Hormuz.

Conclusion

So far, however, Seoul has decided not to pay the toll fee requested by Tehran for ship passage. It may be time, however, to reconsider that decision, though it is likely to anger the Trump administration. The most effective approach would be to coordinate with Japan, which not only shares South Korea’s extreme dependence on Middle Eastern oil and gas but also maintains its independent ties and diplomacy with Iran.

None of these steps is without cost. But the pressures driving them are unlikely to ease over the next three years, and the question for Seoul is not whether to create distance from Washington but how much, and on what terms.