2025 in Review: Between Power and Insecurity

AWANI

In Part One of the Woo Says year-end special, Professor Emeritus Datuk Woo Wing Thye and Melisa Idris look back at the defining events that shaped the year. The conversation also turns to what lies ahead in 2026, with a closer look at what can be expected from the United States in a rapidly changing world.

Transcript

00:00In global politics, 2025 may be remembered as the year and old order ended.

00:07In part one of our Wu Say's year-end special,

00:10Professor Emeritus Dato' Wu Wengtai and Melissa Idris

00:14look back at the defining events of 2025.

00:17Here is a segment from the conversation about looking ahead to 2026

00:21and what can be expected from the US.

00:24For now, I want to ask you as we wrap this year,

00:28having said all of this,

00:30that there are serious problems that the world is facing,

00:33that it could get worse before it gets better.

00:36Are you optimistic or pessimistic heading into 2026?

00:43Where do you see the global order falling,

00:48the new global order falling into place?

00:51Can you look into your crystal ball for us today

00:55and tell us what you see happening next year?

00:59Well, I think in the global order,

01:02I think that what we will see is that

01:07we will see peace in Europe,

01:12albeit at the cost, loss of Ukrainian territory,

01:19and the emergence of a semi-cloth curtain in Europe.

01:30You will have countries that are definitely buffer states

01:36like Hungary, Ukraine,

01:39and the states between them,

01:44between these two countries.

01:45There will be peace in Europe,

01:48which is good.

01:49Now, we will see China

01:52being much more assertive

01:56within the first island chain.

01:59And I see it as also the beginning of its testing

02:03of moving into the second island chain.

02:06Largely because the Americans will be really worried

02:09if you go beyond the second island chain,

02:11because then you can fire a nuclear device

02:15from a submarine,

02:17which will reach the United States very quickly.

02:20Approximately.

02:20Yeah.

02:21So I think the breaching of the first island chain,

02:26we will see a testing of that.

02:30Wow.

02:30And what we will see is

02:34the Americans

02:36putting more restrictions

02:38on its trading partners,

02:41on things like

02:43not only can you not reship goods from China,

02:49the products you made,

02:51even though it's using local material,

02:54it better not be owned by a Chinese firm.

02:56Oh, dear.

02:57Wow.

02:57So this forces Malaysia

03:00into a very tricky situation.

03:03That means

03:04one of our traditional sources of growth

03:07is FDI

03:08and transfer of foreign technology through FDI.

03:13So if the Americans

03:14are putting restrictions like that,

03:17how are we going to push being neutral?

03:22Because being neutral

03:26is not a self-declared achievement.

03:31It has to be something that's accepted

03:33by both sides.

03:34Catch the full conversation

03:37on Nawani International

03:38and across our social media platforms.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended