News
ASEAN air chiefs unite with RTAF to ‘clear the air’ in Thailand pollution battle
The Royal Thai Air Force (RTAF) is gearing up to join forces with its ASEAN counterparts to combat air pollution, specifically honing in on the issue of fine particulate matter PM2.5. This announcement took flight during the annual ASEAN Air Chiefs Conference in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar, which concluded ...
Atima Homtientong
ASEAN strengthens cooperation on protection of migrant workers
Jakarta (VNA) – The 16th Meeting of the ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers (16th ACMW Meeting) has been held recently in Jakarta via videoconference. The event was hosted and chaired by ...
VNA
Mekong politicians should separate economy from politics
Concerns have been raised by migrant workers that the Thai government will expel Cambodian and Laotian migrant workers. Although there is no explicit policy as such, the concerns are not groundless, because Thailand did in face expel some 200,000 Cambodian workers in June 2014 after the May ...
SIM VIREAK
The Precarious State of the Mekong
The author Tucker Elliot wrote in “The Rainy Season” about the volatile nature of the Mekong: “No matter the border, the Mekong has been an indiscriminate giver and taker of life in Southeast Asia for thousands of years. It’s a paradox like civilization’s other great rivers – ...
Nicholas Muller
Talk but no action? Cambodian workers in Thailand see a lot of room for improvement
Thai-Cambodian discussions at the recent ASEAN summit put labour issues on the table. Despite the pleasant chat, migrant workers in Thailand have yet to see what, if any, measures the authorities will adopt to help address their problems. In a bilateral meeting on the sideline of ...
Seoung Nimol
ASEAN Foreign Ministers Urge More Progress in Myanmar Crisis
Southeast Asian foreign ministers acknowledged Thursday that their efforts to bring peace to Myanmar haven’t succeeded and agreed to increase their determination to end violence in the country, where a military takeover last year set off a crisis that threatens to destabilize the region. Recent events ...
Niniek Karmini and Grant Peck
Mekong nations look for bridge over ‘ASEAN development gap’
Giving equal momentum to development remains the major topic that the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) nations – Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) – will discuss at the 54th ASEAN Economic Ministers’ (AEM) Meeting, slated to kick off on September 14 in Siem Reap town. Pen ...
Eng Reachny
7th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Meeting to begin in Bagan
The 7th Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting begins today in Bagan, Myanmar. Including China, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, LMC is a multilateral cooperation group that oversees transboundary water management in the Mekong. During the meeting, the foreign ministers will evaluate the progress of the Five-Year ...
Htet Thadar
Harnessing the ASEAN youth’s powers for the environment
In the multiverse theory, there exist alternate realities where we have Earths that are untouched, lush, and teeming with biodiversity. But our reality is we only have one Earth, and on this World Environment Day, we once again contemplate its health and existence to ensure that ...
Cambodia hosts meeting on humanitarian assistance to Myanmar
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations convened a meeting Friday in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, in a fresh effort to organize humanitarian assistance for strife-torn Myanmar. The hybrid meeting, which some participants joined by video, is being attended by high-level representatives from Myanmar and the ...
SOPHENG CHEANG/ASSOCIATED PRESS