Category: Southeast Asia

In late May, Indonesia surprised many Chinese military watchers by signing a defense agreement with France, which included the purchase of Rafale fighter jets—despite the J-10C’s widely publicized performance advantage during the ...

According to a May 28 report by Vietnam News Agency, ASEAN leaders have agreed in principle to admit Timor-Leste as the bloc’s 11th member at the upcoming ASEAN Summit in October.  The announcement initially flew under the radar on Chinese social ...

U.S. companies in Vietnam have urged the Trump administration to lower tariffs on Hanoi, according to a letter from the American Chamber of Commerce obtained by AFP on Tuesday, warning the levies would hurt their business. The Southeast Asian manufacturing hub ...

For decades, global climate action has been largely shaped by the Global North—through frameworks like the Paris Agreement and funding mechanisms such as the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JET-P). These initiatives have set the tone, the goals, and the financial flows, often leaving countries in the Global ...

Vietnam and the United States have agreed to speed up trade talks, Hanoi said Thursday, as it announced $600 million in deals to buy U.S. agricultural products. Vietnam has the third-biggest trade surplus with the United States, after China and Mexico, ...

Hundreds of protesting Myanmar tribespeople march up a hillside to a cavernous facility where a Chinese joint venture's giant milling machines stand ready to grind up the rocks of their ancestral homeland for lead ore. Demand for the heavy metal is ...

Many Chinese military fans were surprised when Indonesia announced on May 28th that it had signed a defense agreement with France, including plans to purchase Rafale fighter jets, despite the Chinese J-10C’s impressive performance in the much-discussed 2019 India-Pakistan aerial skirmish. In that engagement, Pakistan’s J-10C reportedly ...

The recent China–ASEAN–GCC summit, held for the first time this May, was more than a symbolic gathering. It marked a formalization of growing and increasingly institutionalized cooperation among the three regions. Bringing together China, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), ...

Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto signed memoranda of understanding this weekend, which could result in broad-based cooperation. They pledged to work together on boosting tourism, agricultural exports, traditional and contemporary medicine, investment, and media collaboration. This cooperation ...

By Francesco Fontemaggi Between jabs at Donald Trump's U.S. trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing's assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students Tuesday that "on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change".

By Rebecca Bailey and Isabelle Leong Southeast Asian leaders are looking to insulate their trade-dependent economies from geopolitical uncertainty, in particular US tariffs, as they hold talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Gulf state dignitaries in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.

By Tran Thi Minh Ha French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Vietnam on Sunday for the first leg of a tour of Southeast Asia, where he will pitch his country as a reliable alternative partner to the United States and China. ...