Government

Shan State politicians are urging parliament to immediately address renewed clashes in the northern part of the state which have already displaced thousands of civilians and trapped several thousand more. U Sai Tun Aung, a Pyithu Hluttaw MP for the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy, submitted ...

Power-sharing talks between Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Senior General Min Aung Hlaing are expected to resume this week – possibly as early as today – according to sources close to the National League for Democracy. The last round of negotiations on 25 January seems ...

President Barack Obama and the leaders of Southeast Asia called on 16 February for peaceful resolution of the region’s maritime disputes as they concluded a summit in California. Mr Obama told a news conference that disputes must be resolved by legal means, including a case brought by ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has dismissed calls to allow Cambodians living abroad to vote in the next election, claiming it would be impossible under the Kingdom’s proportional representative electoral system. But a vast string of other countries – including Indonesia and several European nations – operate ...

Indonesia has thrown its support behind Laos’ chairmanship of ASEAN, urging the country to maintain the group’s unity and centrality as it entered a new chapter in the establishment of the community.President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo conveyed his remarks to new ASEAN chair Laos during a ...

In an address to ruling party supporters in California on 15 February, Prime Minister Hun Sen wasted little time in taking several pot shots at US foreign policy and telling attendees he planned to confront anti-government protesters at the US-ASEAN summit head-on. Speaking at his hotel ...

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has congratulated Laos on its selection for the ASEAN chairmanship in 2016, saying that this year is an important milestone for ASEAN, as the ASEAN Economic Community was coming into effect.At a courtesy call with President Choumaly Sayasone of Laos in ...

Anne-Sophie Gindroz, a former Swiss humanitarian worker in Laos, observed forced displacement and evictions of rural populations to make way for dams and other controversial infrastructure and plantation projects in the impoverished Southeast Asian country.  Gindroz, who was the country director for Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation, ...

Vietnam’s Prime Minister has approved the Government’s overall programme to practice thrift and avoid wasteful expenditure in 2016. The programme is one of the key tasks in 2016, the first year in which the resolution of the 12th National Party Congress and the socio-economic development plan for ...

When U.S. President Barack Obama hosts a meeting of Southeast Asian leaders in California this week, his Myanmar counterpart Thein Sein will be notably absent. Myanmar’s outgoing president abruptly pulled out of the summit as secretive talks continued between his country’s powerful military and the incoming ...