Asia

Sri Lankan authorities arrested a senior Buddhist monk on Saturday for the alleged sexual abuse of an underage girl, police said, marking the highest-profile case involving clergy in the country. Pallegama Hemarathana, 71, was arrested at a private hospital in the capital Colombo where he had sought treatment over the weekend amid an investigation into the alleged abuse of the 11-year-old girl in 2022. The crime is alleged to have taken place at a highly venerated temple in Anuradhapura, around...

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...

Rescuers on Saturday recovered the body of an Indonesian woman caught in a volcanic eruption at Mount Dukono on Indonesia’s remote island of Halmahera a day earlier, as search operations continued to find the bodies of two Singaporeans, officials said. The slain hikers were among 20 who set out to ascend the 1,355-metre (4,445-foot) volcano in defiance of safety restrictions and became stranded when Dukono erupted early on Friday, spewing a thick ash column that rose about 10 km (6 miles) into...

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...

There are worries that processing operations in the country will drag Malaysia into the middle of China-U.S. competition.

One track pursued traditional intelligence collection against Asian governments and defense entities; the other sought to surveil and silence overseas critics.

That three liberal democracies acted against Beijing’s long arm on a single day was not coordinated – but perhaps it should have been.

A proposed Board of Trade will matter only if it can keep ordinary commercial disputes from becoming tests of national resolve.

The India-Pakistan clashes gave the J-10C a new, highly coveted status: battled-tested.

The NEV industry is China’s best – maybe only – hope for leading a major tech manufacturing sector. But new technologies might erase China’s advantage.

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...

None of Pakistan’s recent space achievements would be possible without Chinese help. Is Pakistan building a space program or just leasing one?

The European left can make Europe’s China policy more socially intelligent. But leftists must not forget that Chinese society is more than the Chinese state.

With President Khurelsukh’s state visit to Kazakhstan, and his appearance at the Regional Ecological Summit in Astana, Mongolia has reached both shores of the Caspian. 

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...

The BJP, or its allies, are now in power in all five Indian states that share a border with Bangladesh.

Irrespective of the outcomes of the U.S.-Iran talks, Pakistan’s expanded role in West Asia as a security stabilizer and an assertive diplomatic actor is here to stay.

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...

When politics falls behind the economy.

A new era of ‘like-minded partnerships’

Japan needs to recognize its role in strengthening ASEAN’s autonomy as part of its own economic strategy.