Asia - South China Morning Post

Papua New Guinea’s cabinet has approved a bilateral defence treaty with near neighbour Australia, paving the way for the nations’ leaders to sign a landmark agreement that US allies hope will curb Chinese influence in the region.

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape confirmed on Thursday that the treaty had been formally approved by his cabinet.

“Australia has only one other mutual defence treaty of this type and at our request Papua New Guinea will now sign this treaty,” Marape said in...

Indonesia is racing to contain the fallout from a radioactive contamination scare after traces of caesium-137 were detected in shipments of cloves and frozen shrimp to the United States, prompting import blocks on two major exporters and urgent clean-up efforts in an industrial zone west of Jakarta.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) first detected the radioactive isotope in frozen shrimp in August, followed by a second detection in cloves in late September. While both samples were below...

India may buy less Russian oil and increase its imports of American crude, while also considering sourcing from blacklisted suppliers such as Iran and Venezuela, according to officials and media reports.

The shift reflects New Delhi’s effort to preserve its strategic autonomy, even as it is unwilling to meet Washington’s demands, with the US linking closer trade and diplomatic ties to a cut in Russian oil imports, according to analysts.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022,...

A Singapore district court on Thursday denied bail to the brother and girlfriend of an alleged syndicate leader. The syndicate purportedly led a group based in Cambodia that targeted Singaporeans in scams and laundered the proceeds in Malaysia.

The losses from the scams amount to tens of millions of dollars, a prosecutor told the court in seeking no bail for the pair.

Ng Wei Kang, 33, and Christy Neo Wei En, 29, both Singaporeans, have been remanded since September 11.

They face one charge each...

The issuer of XSGD – the only Singapore dollar-backed stablecoin and one of the world’s major non-US dollar stablecoins – said its commitment to strict regulatory compliance and emphasis on cross-border payments could serve as a model for stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong.

In an interview with the South China Morning Post on Thursday in Singapore, CEO Liu Tianwei said StraitsX was working with regulators and traditional financial institutions to support cross-border payments – an approach that may...

In India’s Gujarat, eating meat or seafood is frowned upon, but in the state’s dusty industrial town of Vithalapur, hotels with names like Osaka Palace are churning out ramen and tempura – all to please the Japanese auto engineers and managers who now live in them.

The transformation of Vithalapur’s farmlands, which lie 75km (46 miles) east of the state capital of Gandhinagar, owes much to increased foreign investment in Indian manufacturing – one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s key policy...

Rescuers detected “no more signs of life” at a collapsed Indonesian school where 59 people were believed missing days after it gave way, an official said on Thursday, raising fears that no more survivors would be found.

Part of the multi-storey Al Khoziny Boarding School on the main island of Java suddenly collapsed on Monday as students gathered for afternoon prayers.

After days of rescue operations, 59 people were still feared buried under the rubble after at least five people had been...

Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has prioritised pragmatism over ideology in sticking to his guns on inviting US President Donald Trump to attend the Asean summit this month, observers say.

They add that the move aligns with the long-standing practice and principles of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with Kuala Lumpur as chair taking a “low-risk” decision to maximise the member states’ trade aspirations with America and engage Trump on regional issues.

Mahathir Mohamad, former...

In an era marked by geopolitical rifts and economic volatility, Asean shines as a beacon of stability and potential, according to Malaysia’s trade minister.

Tengku Zafrul Aziz offered a robust defence of the 10-nation bloc’s consensus-driven approach at the Milken Institute Asia Summit in Singapore on Thursday, insisting that its slow deliberations were a strength, not a weakness.

Addressing an audience of business leaders, government officials and investors, Zafrul argued that the Association...

South Korea’s president apologised on Thursday for the first time over state-sanctioned malpractices in sending tens of thousands of children overseas for adoption, saying “unjust human rights violations” were committed.

An official inquiry held the government accountable earlier this year for easing adoptions through fraudulent practices, including falsifying documents and switching identities.

The country – now Asia’s fourth-largest economy and a global cultural powerhouse – was for decades...