Category Archives: ASEAN

Japan’s Indo-Pacific Plan – 2 part

Japan And China: Competition Or Cooperation In Southeast Asia? | Japan’s Indo-Pacific Plan – Part 1

Japan is investing in a series of infrastructure and supply chain resilience projects in ASEAN. It’s all part of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific plan launched by the Japanese government. Is this an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative? What is the current state of relations between Japan & China? Will the two Asian giants cooperate or compete?

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How Will Japan’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Impact Southeast Asia? | Japan’s Indo-Pacific Plan – Part 2

Japan is investing in infrastructure to alleviate the economic bottlenecks in ASEAN countries. In Indonesia, it’s building the country’s first MRT project. In Vietnam, it has invested in a network of roads, rail, ports and energy infrastructure. And in the Philippines, it’s investing in a flood mitigation project. What do these projects have in common? And why has Japan chosen to invest in them?

Cambodia seeks to sink joint ASEAN naval drills

Indonesia proposal for first-ever bloc exercises in South China Sea meets vocal resistance from China’s top regional ally Cambodia

By RICHARD JAVAD HEYDARIAN JUNE 17, 2023 Asia Times

A Cambodian naval officer salutes at the Ream Naval Base in a file photo. Image: Twitter

Rising Sino-American rivalry and fears of an accidental superpower clash are forcing states to step up their diplomatic games.

That’s particularly true for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which is now scrambling to forge greater internal unity and nudge the US and China toward greater dialogue to avoid a conflict in its neighborhood.

Continue reading Cambodia seeks to sink joint ASEAN naval drills

Mỗi tuần một chuyện: Tre Campuchia thật là dẻo…

HUY THỌ – 13/05/2023 09:58 GMT+7

TTCTĐã hơn nửa đường SEA Games 32 trôi qua, và điều đọng lại lớn nhất trong tôi chính là chủ nhà!

Campuchia là một quốc gia nghèo trong khu vực Đông Nam Á. Tính thu nhập bình quân đầu người, trong khu vực họ chỉ đứng trên Myanmar và Đông Timor.

Ảnh: Inside The Games

Vậy mà lần đầu tiên tổ chức SEA Games, một sự kiện phải chăm sóc cả chục ngàn con người tham gia, chưa tính du khách, họ đã làm rất tốt. 

Continue reading Mỗi tuần một chuyện: Tre Campuchia thật là dẻo…

Mỗi tuần một chuyện: Hám thành tích

HUY THỌ – 01/05/2023 10:52 GMT+7

TTCTĐam mê thành tích thật ra không phải chuyện xấu.

SEA Games 2015 ở Singapore là kỳ đại hội sòng phẳng nhất trong những kỳ SEA Games gần đây. Ảnh: Soka Gakkai Singapore
SEA Games 2015 ở Singapore là kỳ đại hội sòng phẳng nhất trong những kỳ SEA Games gần đây. Ảnh: Soka Gakkai Singapore

Từ phương Đông tới phương Tây, có bậc phụ huynh nào không muốn con đi học có thành tích tốt, được vinh danh trên bảng vàng, được nguyên thủ quốc gia viết thư khen… Còn trong thể thao, đi thi đấu thì ai chẳng thích nhận huy chương.

Vấn đề nằm ở chỗ thành tích đạt được có đúng với thực lực hay không? Vì vậy, có phê phán bệnh đam mê thành tích cần thêm cụm từ “bằng mọi giá”.

Continue reading Mỗi tuần một chuyện: Hám thành tích

An Unholy Alliance: Monks and the Military in Myanmar

Al Jazeera English – 19-3-2019

With almost 90 percent of Myanmar’s population being devoted Buddhists, the religion has been at the heart of the nation’s very identity for centuries.

But while the pillars of Buddhist teachings are love, compassion and peace, there is a very different variation to the philosophy being taught at the Ma Ba Tha monastery in Yangon’s Insein township.

The monks there are connected to one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the systematic persecution and genocide of the Rohingya in Rakhine state.

Al Jazeera’s unprecedented access to the Ma Ba Tha monastery and its leaders offers a glimpse into how their ultra-nationalist agenda is becoming the blueprint for the political structure of the country. Is the joining of forces between monks and generals threatening Myanmar’s young and fragile democracy?

An Unholy Alliance: Monks and the Military in Myanmar | Featured Documentary

Inside Singapore’s deadly war on drugs

Al Jazeera English – 19-1-2023

Singapore is known for having some of the toughest drug laws in the world.

The government insists that the death penalty helps keep the country safe. But a spate of executions has caused alarm and triggered unprecedented protests in the city-state.

Authorities say the majority of Singapore’s residents support its zero-tolerance policy. But critics maintain that vulnerable people are being killed, leaving families devastated.

Should Singapore heed calls to rethink its drug laws? 101 East investigates.

Opinion: Energy importers must consider true ‘sustainability’ of Laos hydropower

Proponents describe regional power grids as a way to promote economic growth, energy security and renewables in Southeast Asia, but this might come at a heavy cost

Lat Tha Hae temple in Luang Prabang province, Laos, half submerged by the Nam Ou 1 hydropower dam (Image: Ton Ka/China Dialogue)

Ming Li Yong

the third pole – August 23, 2022

On 23 June 2022, the import of 100 megawatts (MW) of hydropower from Laos to Singapore through Thailand and Malaysia was hailed as a historic milestone. Part of a pilot project known as the Lao PDR-Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore Power Integration Project (LTMS-PIP), this event represented Singapore’s first ever import of renewable energy, and also the first instance of cross-border electricity trade involving four countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

However, this development takes place amid rising concerns for the ecological future of the transboundary Mekong River and the millions of people who depend on it. A 2018 study by the Mekong River Commission concluded that further hydropower development on the river would negatively affect ecosystems, and would reduce soil fertility, rice production, fish yields and food security, while increasing poverty in the river basin.

Continue reading Opinion: Energy importers must consider true ‘sustainability’ of Laos hydropower

In the Mekong Basin, an ‘unnecessary’ dam poses an outsized threat

  • A dam being built in Laos near the border with Cambodia imperils downstream communities and the Mekong ecosystem as a whole, experts and affected community members say.
  • The Sekong A dam will close off the Sekong River by the end of this year, restricting its water flow, blocking vital sediment from reaching the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, and cutting off migration routes for a range of fish species.
  • Experts say the energy to be generated by the dam — 86 megawatts — doesn’t justify the negative impacts, calling it “an absolutely unnecessary project.”
  • This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Rainforest Investigations Network where Gerald Flynn is a fellow.

Continue reading In the Mekong Basin, an ‘unnecessary’ dam poses an outsized threat

Indonesia passes new criminal code, outlaws sex outside marriage

aljazeera.com

Controversial changes fuelled protests when they were first proposed in 2019 and could still be challenged in court.

Bambang Wuryanto, head of the parliamentary commission overseeing the amendments to the criminal code, passes the newly passed law to the deputy speaker of parliament.
Parliament passed the controversial law on Tuesday [Willy Kurniawan/Reuters]

Published On 6 Dec 20226 Dec 2022

Indonesia has passed a controversial new Criminal Code that includes outlawing sex outside marriage and cohabitation, in changes that critics contend could undermine freedoms in the Southeast Asian nation.

The new laws apply to Indonesians and foreigners and also restore a ban on insulting the president, state institutions or Indonesia’s national ideology known as Pancasila.

Continue reading Indonesia passes new criminal code, outlaws sex outside marriage

Russia’s war in Ukraine challenges old comrades in Southeast Asia

AljazeeraVladimir Putin’s absence from the G20 Summit in Bali also undermines talk of a Russian pivot to the Asia-Pacific region.

Indonesian police line up during a security parade on November 7, 2022 in preparation for the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
Indonesian police line up during a security parade on November 7, 2022, in preparation for the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia [File: Firdia Lisnawati/AP] (AP Photo)

By Al Jazeera Staff

Published On 15 Nov 202215 Nov 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin has oozed a casual resentment when describing the “irreversible and even tectonic changes” that he says have led the West to become a spent force in the world.

“Western countries are striving to maintain a former world order that is beneficial only to them,” he told attendees at the Eastern Economic Forum in the Russian city of Vladivostok in September.

Continue reading Russia’s war in Ukraine challenges old comrades in Southeast Asia

Anti-Western and hyper macho, Putin’s appeal in Southeast Asia

AljazeeraSoviet-era nostalgia and anti-Western sentiment fuel online support for Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin looks through the scope as he shoots a Chukavin sniper rifle (SVC-380) during a visit to the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, in September 2018 [File: Alexey Nilkolsky/Sputnik/ AFP]
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks through a scope as he shoots a Chukavin sniper rifle (SVCh-380) during a visit to the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, in September 2018 [File: Alexey Nilkolsky/Sputnik/ AFP]

By Al Jazeera Staff

Published On 18 Nov 202218 Nov 2022

While the West has united in condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, opinions differ markedly in parts of the developing world where Russia is not reviled but revered for what some see as its stance against the West and its hypocrisies.

In Southeast Asia, a region dominated for decades by “strongman” political leaders and where nostalgia for the Soviet Union persists in some quarters, Russian President Vladimir Putin has a strong following among social media users who are sympathetic to his invasion of Ukraine and find his macho self-image appealing.

Continue reading Anti-Western and hyper macho, Putin’s appeal in Southeast Asia

ASEAN and China announce ACFTA upgrade

ASEAN

PHNOM PENH, 13 November 2022 – The Leaders of ASEAN and China welcomed the official launch of negotiations for the upgrade of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA). The upgrade negotiations are meant to ensure that ACFTA contributes to the further deepening and broadening of ASEAN-China economic relations and to both region’s post-pandemic economic recovery. The announcement on the upgrade of the ACFTA was made at the 25th ASEAN-China Summit.

The ACFTA is ASEAN’s oldest FTA among its Dialogue Partners. Upgrading the ACFTA sends a signal to the private sector and all stakeholders that both ASEAN and China are committed to make the ACFTA more relevant to businesses, future-ready, and responsive to global challenges.

Continue reading ASEAN and China announce ACFTA upgrade