As Indonesia and Thailand start to ease COVID-19 curbs after seeing case numbers fall, health experts say cases of new infections could rise again with vaccination rates still low. After containing the coronavirus better than much of the world last year, Southeast Asia has turned into a global epicentre in recent months with the arrival … Read more
US Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday said she believes that Southeast Asia and the Indo-Pacific will dictate the future of the world as she held talks with Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong as part of her Southeast Asia visit aimed at bolstering America’s engagement in the region. Harris, at a press conference here … Read more
Indonesia’s foreign minister said on Thursday her nation had entered a “new era of bilateral relations” with the United States, as the countries’ armed forces launched their biggest ever joint training exercise this week involving 3,000 troops. Speaking from Washington after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other officials, Retno Marsudi welcomed more … Read more
Three Chinese vessels, one with a manned submersible capable of descending to 10,000 metres (32,800 ft), have arrived in Indonesian waters to help retrieve a submarine that sank and broke apart last month, killing 53 on board, an official said. Indonesian navy officials and experts have acknowledged how difficult the salvage operation will be to … Read more
Thousands of panels glinting in the sun stretch into the sea off Singapore, part of the land-scarce city-state’s push to build floating solar farms to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It may be one of the world’s smallest countries, but the prosperous financial hub is among the biggest per capita carbon dioxide emitters in Asia. And … Read more
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Bangladesh later this month, in his first foreign trip since the beginning of the pandemic. He is also expected to visit Europe in May. The visit to Dhaka has huge significance as it will help consolidate burgeoning partnership with Bangladesh which in many ways is India’s most important … Read more
Efforts are underway to operationalise key infrastructure links between Cambodia, Lao, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) countries and India for better economic integration in the region, a top government official said on Thursday. Secretary in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Guruprasad Mohapatra said that the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway will serve as … Read more
JAKARTA: Indonesia rejected this year a proposal by the United States to allow its P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance planes to land and refuel there, according to four senior Indonesian officials familiar with the matter. U.S. officials made multiple “high-level” approaches in July and August to Indonesia’s defence and foreign ministers before Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, … Read more
NEW DELHI: A report titled Dealing with the Dragon: China as a Transatlantic Challenge by top US and European think tanks has cautioned that Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has emerged more assertive, demanding, unyielding, confrontational, and punitive in its international posture. This report summarizes changing U.S. and European views of, and relations with, China. It … Read more
NEW DELHI: New Delhi is considering measures to prevent trade partners mainly in Southeast Asia from re-routing Chinese goods to India with little added value, two government sources said, amid strained ties with Beijing and a push for self-reliance. India is planning to raise quality standards of imports, impose quantity restrictions, mandate stringent disclosure norms … Read more