Asia - South China Morning Post

When contemporary Europe engages with the world, it increasingly presents as two distinct Europes operating within the same institutional framework. This duality – a Europe of strategic dependence vs a Europe of normative assertion – creates a contradiction.

For partners, particularly in China and across Asia, this is not merely an abstract identity crisis but a practical geopolitical puzzle that complicates engagement and challenges assumptions about Europe’s global role.

One Europe, embedded...

Free Malaysia Today (FMT) has issued an apology after one of its reporters posed a question during a public lecture that was believed to have carried racial overtones.

In a statement on Wednesday, FMT said that the incident occurred during a public lecture featuring United Kingdom politician George Galloway titled “Gaza Exposes the Complicity of International Actors” held on January 12.

“FMT wishes to put on record that it had no prior knowledge of the journalist’s intention to raise the...

With Myanmar in the throes of an election widely expected to return its military junta to power, calls have renewed for Asean to rethink its approach of not engaging the regime.

The region, observers warn, should also brace itself for the “very real possibility” that half of Southeast Asia might eventually recognise the results of Myanmar’s election and by extension the ruling junta.

On Sunday, Myanmar began its second round of voting in the country’s first general election since the military...

US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on countries that do business with Iran has dented India’s ambition for the strategic Chabahar port and affected New Delhi’s trade with Tehran.

Trump’s latest threat could curtail shipments of Indian basmati rice to Iran, but is likely to have a limited impact on India’s trade competitiveness since Iran accounts for about 0.3 per cent of its overall exports, according to analysts.

Shipments of the rice, one of India’s biggest...

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong has stripped the Workers’ Party chief Pritam Singh of his role as the city state’s first Leader of the Opposition following Singh’s conviction for lying under oath to a parliamentary committee.

Singh assumed the official role in 2020 following the general election where his party secured a record 10 elected seats in parliament. Then prime minister Lee Hsien Loong announced during a press conference that Singh would be provided with staff and...

Washington’s recent offer of US$45 million in funding to reinforce the Thailand-Cambodia ceasefire is a sign that the US is scrambling to regain the upper hand over China in mediating the rift between the Southeast Asian neighbours, according to analysts.

Announcing the funding on Friday, US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre said Bangkok and Phnom Penh would strive to implement the Kuala Lumpur Peace Accords, signed last year when US President...

Malaysia is amenable to lifting its ban on Grok – but only if Elon Musk’s microblogging site X proves that its AI chatbot can no longer be used to generate sexualised images of women and minors, according to its communications minister.

“X must prove that there will no longer be incidents of videos or images that can be misused by users. If that is settled, we can release the temporary ban,” Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said on Thursday.

Over the weekend, Malaysia and Indonesia became...

For the very rich, a dream car like a Ferrari, Lamborghini or Porsche used to cost 2.5 million ringgit (US$617,240) in Langkawi, a duty-free island in Malaysia’s Kedah state. They will now cost about 5 million ringgit.

Industry players say the federal government’s move to abolish tax exemptions for luxury vehicles priced above 300,000 ringgit in Langkawi is expected to hurt the automotive sector and reduce long-term government revenue.

Industry veteran Mohamad Azhar Mohd Jamil said the decision...

Thailand’s prime minister moved on Thursday to strip contracts from a major construction firm following a crane collapse that killed two people on a highway near Bangkok. The disaster occurred just a day after another crane toppled from an elevated rail line being built by the same company and claimed 32 lives.

Facing pressure to respond to public anger over the repeated fatal incidents linked to Italian-Thai Development, a firm awarded state mega-projects across the country, caretaker Prime...

Pakistan is increasingly confident of making billion-dollar arms sales, headlined by the JF-17 fighters its co-produces with China, as up to six Muslim-majority countries look to upgrade their air forces amid growing geopolitical turbulence and civil wars.

A preliminary deal worth US$4 billion was struck last month with the Libyan National Army for an unspecified number of JF-17s and other training aircraft manufactured by Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, Reuters reported, citing Aamir Masood, an...