Japan and Australia have agreed on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This is the first time a major agricultural exporting nation has concluded a trade deal with Japan, and it sets a positive precedent for the successful conclusion of the regional-level Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...
Touring protest sites in Bangkok some weeks back, I listened to music, picked up some souvenirs and had a milky, iced Thai tea. The mood was carnival but shrill whistles and placards with slogans like "Thaksin Get Out" make clear the political point. I felt safe...
Taiwan has seen protests over a trade deal which it signed with mainland China. The deal, which has not been ratified by the Taiwanese Parliament, would allow Taiwanese and Chinese service companies in fields ranging from banking to beauty parlours to set up shop in...
The decision of the Philippines to lodge a case on disputed waters in the South China Sea with an international tribunal under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has been met with strong criticism from China. The Chinese foreign ministry insisted...
Climate change is already altering nature and the livelihoods of humans according to the latest report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for policymakers released on 31 March 2014. It has emphasised that the impact and dangers of global warming are expected...
The random bush fires that occurred in Singapore this month are a small reminder of the large-scale fires currently raging in Sumatra. Global demand for food drives the expansion of the agro-forestry sectors, including palm oil, timber, coffee, rice and sugar, in Southeast Asia. In particular,...
The global nuclear fraternity meets biennially at the Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), taking place this year at The Hague. A brainchild of United States President Barack Obama, the NSS kicked off in 2010 and is a global platform aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism around the...
Earlier this month, China unveiled its defence budget for 2014 –US$132 billion, an increase of 12.2 per cent over the year before. The country’s military spending has grown almost every year for the past two decades, but this latest rise comes amid ongoing tensions with...
Joko Widodo (Jokowi), the wildly popular Governor of Jakarta, has been chosen as the presidential candidate of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). Jokowi, who has been in his current job for only one year and five months, has the support of 40 per...
Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the Malaysian opposition, has been re-convicted on charges of sodomy after his acquittal was overturned by Malaysia’s Appeal Court. His five-year jail sentence means that he is therefore unable to stand as the opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PKR) candidate for the...