International relations

The leaders of Japan and five Southeast Asian countries along the Mekong River, when they meet in Tokyo next month, plan to adopt a new strategy that is more relevant in the current regional and global situation. Keep reading ...

Canada’s parliament voted unanimously on Thursday, September 27, to effectively strip Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi of her honorary Canadian citizenship over the Rohingya crisis. Keep reading  ...

Strategists in the West fear that China’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) is a vast, well-laid and finely orchestrated plan to extend Chinese hegemony over much of the developing world. They should be afraid of something else: It’s nothing of the sort. Keep reading ...

As China’s ambitious Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) and Maritime Silk Road (MSR) — popularly known as the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI — continues to make ripples and waves in international affairs, its likely impact on mainland Southeast Asia warrants attention. Unlike many ...

Japan has revamped its strategy in the Mekong. Earlier this year, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s diplomatic right-hand man Kentaro Sonoura delineated Japan’s foreign aid policy for the region, stressing the importance of the aid’s ‘quality’ rather than ‘quantity’. Accordingly, Japan has changed its strategy ...

When the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, visited Beijing in October 2016, shook hands with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and announced the “separation” of his country from the United States, it felt like a pivotal moment.  []The Philippines, like other states such as Cambodia ...

Two decades ago, this sleepy city on the Mekong River was just starting to pave its streets. [] In recent years, Chinese investment in resource-rich Laos has strengthened the country’s economy, which is projected to grow by 7 percent this year.  Keep reading ...

In November 2015, the foreign ministers of China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam held a meeting to discuss the establishment of the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC). The LMC framework was formally established in March 2016 by the six member countries. The LMC is an important ...

A single-visa scheme for five Chiang cities across Thailand, Myanmar, China and Laos is in the works. The five cities comprise Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai in Thailand, Chiang Tun in Myanmar’s Shan State, Chiang Rung in China’s Jinhong (Yunnan) and Chiang Thong in Laos’ ...

Thai and Cambodian civil society organizations rejected an invitation from the Lao government to attend a regional stakeholder forum on the Pak Lay dam, saying that the prior notification and consultation procedures for the controversial hydropower project are not transparent. Keep reading ...