Prof Mahbubani says the current Russia Ukraine was has given the US some geopolitical advantages, but the war is not over yet, and what if they lose the war? Someone is paying money for this war, and it is not the Ukrainians, and I doubt they will want to pay forever.Then the two guys made the important point, where they just accepted it and not dwell on it, the stickiness of Western leaders of them always wanting to be in charge. They expect something to change sooner or later.
Prof Mahbubani said the nine dash line was an impediment to ASEAN China relations. That may be true. IMHO it is not that important. It seems to be that China views the United States as the biggest impediment to ASEAN China relations. This nine dash line, seems to advance two things for China, ONE, is to stake those claims, and TWO, military assets aimed at American forces.
That story of when Prof Mahbubani gave a lecture decades ago, and he had three Vietnamese diplomats sitting in the first row, in history that when a Vietnamese army defeated a Chinese army, the Viet Emperor would send tribute to China Emperor, in 1979 they did not do that (which probably was a mistake), and the three Vietnamese diplomats nodded their heads.
Prof Mahbubani visited the UK and feel sick. Then to his horror realized that the UK one of the worst places in the world to fall sick, haha.
ASEAN from 2010-2020 added more to world economic growth than the European Union combined. Notice that he did not say what was coming for the next decade, but we can figure it out.
