Asia

In the 1980s, then Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad launched his “Look East” policy, urging his country and others in Southeast Asia to emulate the state-led economic development models of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, rather than those of market-dominated Western nations. China subsequently emerged as a prime example of state-led development, but Japan is now leaning again towards a more dirigiste model under the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, not only in...

Vietnam has expanded its outposts in the South China Sea by hundreds of acres over the past year, according to a new report, as Hanoi and Beijing race to reinforce competing territorial claims through land reclamation. Vietnam has added about 534 acres (2.16 square km) of land in the Spratly Islands, bringing its total reclaimed area to roughly 2,771 acres (11.2 square km), according to the Washington-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative. While Hanoi had appeared to be narrowing the gap...

South Korea is drawing growing interest from Middle Eastern oil producers seeking to store crude oil at the country’s petroleum reserve bases, the world’s sixth largest, amid a prolonged blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a South Korean official and an expert on the matter have said. The strait’s closure in the wake of the US-Israel war on Iran has taken a toll not only on South Korea and other nations dependent on oil imports but also oil-producing countries whose storage tanks are filling up...

The Philippines has crowned its newest Miss Universe candidate, Bea Millan-Windorski, as the country – known for its penchant for beauty pageants – prepares to send its latest representative to the global competition in November. The 23-year-old, who grew up in Wisconsin in the United States and holds a degree in history and international relations from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, stood out among seven finalist last weekend with her winning answer. Asked why the Philippines was still...

Malaysia is resorting to cloud seeding to bring much-needed rain to the country’s “rice bowl” north, where a drought has delayed planting of the staple crop and raised supply fears. “This year ... has been affected by prolonged dry weather, low rainfall and reduced dam water levels,” said Malaysia’s Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Mohamad Sabu. The conditions mean farmers have missed two of the three usual planting phases for so-called “wet direct seeding” of rice, a technique that...

It took less than six minutes for Japan’s Type 88 missile to find its mark, a decommissioned Philippine warship 75km (47 miles) off the coast of Ilocos Norte. The US-made Tomahawk took rather longer to hit its target, some 630km (390 miles) away. It was, analysts say, a pointed display of resolve: Japanese, American and Filipino troops bringing this year’s Balikatan joint exercises to a thunderous close with a volley of missiles fired from sites in the far northern Philippines. The Tomahawk...

Indonesian authorities on Saturday located two Singaporeans who went missing after Mount Dukono erupted on the Pacific island of Halmahera, officials said, but it was unclear whether they were alive. “We have identified the coordinates ‌of their locations. It’s around the crater rim,” said Iwan Ramdani, the head of Indonesia’s rescue agency. “This is on drone surveillance and is consistent with witness accounts.” Both appeared to be 20 to 30 metres (65 to 100 feet) from the rim of the main...

Japan’s Mogami-class destroyer appears to be pulling ahead in the race to become the next generation of warships for the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN), in what would be another major deal for Japan’s defence industry just weeks after Tokyo announced it was lifting its long-held ban on weapons exports. Under its 2025 Defence Capability Plan, the government in Wellington has committed to replacing its two ANZAC-class frigates – launched in the early 1990s – with more capable, modern warships. The...

Two Singapore residents who had been on board a hantavirus-hit cruise ship have tested negative to the rare respiratory disease, according to Singapore’s Communicable Diseases Agency (CDA). The two men aged 65 and 67 had been on the MV Hondius and also the same flight as a confirmed hantavirus case from St Helena to Johannesburg on April 25, the CDA said a day earlier. The confirmed case did not travel to the city state and died in South Africa. The CDA’s National Public Health Laboratory...

As global markets are roiled by geopolitical uncertainty and the energy fallout from war in the Middle East, a tiny speck in Southeast Asia has emerged as an oasis of stability – at least in terms of where the well-heeled can park their money. Giig Tanaporn, CEO and founder of business and wealth consultancy Unique Prime Group, has observed that high-net-worth clients, especially from the Middle East and South Korea, have been increasingly choosing Singapore for its regulatory framework,...

The old order is dead. We just don’t know what will replace it. As Henry Kissinger reminded us in his 2014 book World Order, “no truly global order has ever existed”. After US President Donald Trump’s erratic actions, the gloves are off. American comedians and Iranian Lego cartoons tell us all we need to know about the demise of the old order. If the unipolar order is not viable, and America is abandoning the multilateral order and the rules of the game it created after World War II, what are...

Deeper economic cooperation between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hinge on whether a code can be laid down to govern maritime territory and activity in the South China Sea, Philippine leader Ferdinand Marcos Jnr has said. “We cannot institutionalise any of those things until the code of conduct is finalised,” he told a press conference on Friday at the close of the 48th Asean summit in Cebu, when asked about aspects that held the most potential in relations between...

The recently concluded Balikatan joint drills have marked a shift in the Philippines’ defence strategy alongside Japan, with Tokyo offering the transfer of warships to its Southeast Asian ally, while a top Filipino official for the first time voiced “serious concern” over islands claimed by Beijing and Tokyo. Philippine Defence Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jnr on Wednesday said Manila now considered the uninhabited Diaoyu Islands, which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands, a security flashpoint in the...

A US$30 million carbon credit deal by tech giant Amazon with India’s Good Rice Alliance will boost carbon markets globally, according to experts, potentially showing agriculture – as well as industry – can be at the heart of emission reductions. The organisation, primarily backed by Bayer and in collaboration with GenZero and Shell, is designed to transform emissions-heavy rice cultivation in India through scientific advances. It helps thousands of smallholder farmers adopt climate-smart growing...

China’s rapid technological gains and aggressive pricing are making it increasingly difficult for South Korean firms to find profitable areas of industrial synergy with their Chinese counterparts, according to experts. Speakers at a recent forum in Beijing urged firms from both countries to pivot towards building more interdependent ecosystems in high-growth sectors such as batteries and artificial intelligence, while also calling for the advancement of negotiations towards an upgraded...

Malaysia’s nascent electric vehicle market may be decimated before it gets up to speed, as business experts warn of a sharp drop in demand and delay in the renewable energy transition if the government imposes strict price curbs on imported units from July, in a move to protect the country’s vehicle makers. The ministry of investment, trade and industry (Miti) on Wednesday announced that from July 1, it will only allow the sale of imported EVs that have a cost, insurance and freight (CIF) value...

An AI-powered database tracking corruption cases against Malaysia’s politicians was independently launched on Friday, putting fresh scrutiny on the status and outcomes of the country’s biggest graft prosecutions across administrations. The Prosecutorial Accountability Watch (PAW), built by civil society group Projek SAMA and hosted with news outlet Malaysiakini, tracks 33 high-profile cases involving current and former elected representatives – from ex-prime minister Najib Razak’s 1MDB-linked...

The risk of a hantavirus outbreak in Asia remains minimal, according to health experts, despite two Singapore residents returning home from a cruise ship where three people died from the infection that triggered a regional panic. Hantaviruses are a family of rat-carried viruses that can infect humans through direct exposure, even though transmission between people is extremely rare. The virus takes its name from South Korea’s Hantan River, where an early strain was identified after outbreaks of...

The former chief of Sri Lanka’s state-owned airline, who was charged with corruption over the purchase of 10 Airbus aircraft, was found dead on Friday, police said. Kapila Chandrasena, the former chief executive of SriLankan Airlines, was found at the Colombo home of a relative, said police. “We are investigating the cause of death and circumstances,” a police officer said. Chandrasena was remanded in March on charges of conspiring to accept a US$16 million bribe from Airbus in connection with a...

Japanese police have arrested a bus driver on suspicion of negligent driving after a crash on a Fukushima expressway killed a high school student on Wednesday, as investigators look into whether he was speeding and driving without the proper license required to carry passengers for hire. On Friday morning, Fukushima prefectural police searched bus operator Kanbara Tetsudo in Gosen, Niigata prefecture. The arrested driver, Tetsuo Wakayama, 68, told investigators after his arrest on Thursday that...

Three hikers – two Singaporeans and a local – died in an eruption on Friday of Indonesia’s Mount Dukono volcano where they found themselves in a no-go zone, officials said. The eruption on Halmahera island sent an ash cloud about 10km (6.2 miles) into the air, with no towns or villages near enough to face any immediate threat. Twenty hikers were on the slopes when disaster struck, North Halmahera police chief Erlichson Pasaribu told reporters at a volcano monitoring station in Mamuya...

The spectre of the global energy crisis loomed over the three-day Asean summit in the Philippines as regional leaders converge for a final day of talks in Cebu on Friday. Analysts say that while some major flashpoints were addressed – with Thailand and Cambodia’s joint statement of solidarity being a bright spot – surging fuel costs as a result of the Iran war weighed heaviest on the minds of Southeast Asian leaders. The fuel crisis was the “defining issue”, said Vu Lam, an Asean observer and...

North Korea said on Friday it would deploy new long-range artillery systems this year that were capable of striking South Korea’s capital region and would commission its first naval destroyer in coming weeks. The announcement comes days after South Korea said the North’s newly revised constitution drops all references to Korean unification, in line with leader Kim Jong-un’s vows to terminate ties with South Korea and establish a two-state system on the Korean peninsula. Kim visited a munitions...

A year after fending off a massive Indian air assault with the help of Chinese warplanes and missiles, the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on Thursday unveiled plans to upgrade its fleet through further acquisitions of Chengdu J-10C fighters and substantial upgrades to the JF-17s co-produced by the two allies. The PAF further confirmed that it has signed an “initial collaborative agreement” for the acquisition of fifth-generation Shenyang J-35 stealth fighter, without disclosing any details about the...

Sentiment is warming among some Southeast Asian members towards easing Myanmar’s isolation five years after a coup, with diplomats signalling a possible opening to bring the crisis-torn nation back into the fold. Southeast Asian foreign ministers have agreed to a virtual meeting with their Myanmar counterpart, according to Asean’s secretary general on Thursday. In an interview during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit ‌in the Philippines on Thursday, Kao Kim Hourn said Myanmar had...

The young man on course to be Japan’s future emperor is attracting the attention of the country’s voracious media, with rumours of girlfriends and security challenges arising from life as a university student, and hints of unrest in the palace over succession. Royalists say the media should leave 19-year-old Prince Hisahito alone to concentrate on his environmental studies course at the University of Tsukuba, while a debate mounts on whether the constitution should be altered to allow his cousin...

A bonfire of red tape to unleash investment and complete stalled projects across Vietnam may drive economic expansion but is unlikely to offset the damage caused by US tariffs and the fuel crisis which have threatened the country’s growth ambitions. Vietnam’s Communist Party General-Secretary and President To Lam, the most powerful leader in a generation, has set an annual growth target of 10 per cent until 2030 to galvanise a nation whose ponderous bureaucracy has snarled private investment and...

Two Australian women “kept a female slave” after travelling to Syria in 2014 to support Islamic State, police said on Friday after the pair were charged in Melbourne. The women returned to Australia on Thursday evening for the first time in almost a decade, travelling from a Syrian detention camp where they were stranded after the group’s collapse. They were immediately arrested after their Qatar Airways flight landed at Melbourne International Airport. Police accused the women – a mother and...

When the United States and the Philippines opened this year’s Balikatan exercises, the message travelled far beyond the parade ground. More than 17,000 troops are taking part in drills set to run until May 8. What matters is where the drills unfold, who has joined and what kind of regional habit they are helping to normalise. Japan took part in its first Balitakan live-fire exercises. Australia, Canada, France and New Zealand were also active participants. Then the exercises moved closer to...

The leaders of Thailand and Cambodia agreed on Thursday to pursue trust-building measures to advance a fragile ceasefire and establish peace, after rare talks over last year’s deadly fighting between the two neighbours. Troops remain deployed ‌on both sides of their long-disputed 817km (508-mile) border after battles in July and December when skirmishes quickly escalated into air strikes and heavy exchanges of artillery and rockets. The Philippines, which is hosting Asean meetings on the island...