Asia in 2019: from elections in India and Indonesia to US-China tensions, Xinjiang and extreme weather
- The next 12 months for Asia will be dominated by China’s relations with the US, shifts in global trade, and key elections in Australia, India, Indonesia and Thailand
- Five commentators and This Week in Asia’s editor gave us their predictions for 2019
Uncertainty. Volatility. Doubt. These are just some of the feelings that have been unleashed across Asia in the wake of disruptions caused by the US-China trade war, Donald Trump’s presidency and the consequences of climate change.
Global instability will be a hallmark of 2019, experts agree, and Asia has been left to wonder what the next 12 months will bring.
Five commentators and This Week in Asia’s editor gave us their predictions for the year ahead.
SHASHI THAROOR
Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Lok Sabha; Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs
An Indian contemplating 2019 finds it difficult to think beyond the momentous occasion of the country’s general elections, which must be held by mid-May. For more than four years, supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi complacently predicted he would be comfortably re-elected to a second five-year term. The stunning victory of the opposition Congress Party in three state elections in December has upended those assumptions, dealing a major blow to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
