Asia - South China Morning Post

Malaysia’s Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin slammed the international community’s “muted” response on Sunday at a security forum over Norway’s decision to scrap a missile deal with Kuala Lumpur.

In a charged speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Khaled said the “deafening silence” on Oslo’s cancellation of the agreement sent a message that certain countries were “simply above scrutiny”, questioning if global rules were subject to the will of bigger powers.

Earlier this month, the...

“I cannot come to you,” Katie Williams was told, seconds after her Grab driver had accepted her request for a ride in Canggu. “I cannot come to you. You need to come meet me.”

Williams, an Australian tourist in her mid-thirties, explained through the app that her elderly parents struggled to walk very far in the hot Bali sun. The driver’s reply was blunt: “It’s too dangerous. I cannot come.”

After two more cancellations, she eventually relented and paid a local driver twice the original...

Organisers of South Korea’s renowned Yeoju Ceramic Festival have apologised after Chinese-made ceramic products were distributed as giveaway prizes at an event intended to promote the country’s pottery heritage, sparking public backlash and online criticism.

The controversy emerged after a social media user said on Tuesday that a miniature moon jar received through a festival promotional event carried a “Made in China” sticker.

“I honestly doubted my eyes when I opened the package,” the winner...

India ⁠has signed ⁠a deal with Vietnam under which it will supply BrahMos missiles which it has jointly ‌developed with Russia and is in “final stages” for a similar deal with Indonesia, India’s Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh said on ⁠Saturday.

India has a strong commitment ‌to Asean nations, Singh said, without disclosing more details ‌of the deals related to BrahMos.

Singh ⁠was ⁠speaking at Asia’s premier defence forum, ‌the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

India, which has been...

Mass media commonly portrays Southeast Asia as an exciting, adventure-fuelled and culturally rich region – if often an exoticised one – for inhabitants and visitors alike. The final section of the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s State of Southeast Asia 2026 Survey, based on respondents’ “relocation preference and travel choices”, adds to the already abundant evidence of the “soft power” of regional countries.

Soft power, a term coined by American political scientist Joseph Nye in 1990, is widely...

South Korea and the United States are heading into talks in Seoul next week with different priorities over the implementation of last year’s summit agreement, with President Lee Jae Myung pushing for the supply of nuclear-powered submarines and Washington seeking progress on a major investment pledge by the Lee administration.

US approval on the use of nuclear fuel for South Korea’s submarines is a key goal for Lee, while Washington wants Seoul’s US$350 billion investment promise it previously...

Across East Asia, societies are becoming richer, healthier and more educated, yet fewer people feel able or willing to have families and raise children. Low fertility plagues high-income societies, particularly in East Asia, where the total fertility rate (TFR) has fallen below one birth per woman, well under the replacement level of 2.1 births. While many countries have dedicated considerable resources and effort to reversing this trend, the results have been somewhat disappointing.

The pairing...

New Zealand does not have the fiscal headroom to increase defence spending to the levels the US might expect, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told delegates at an Asia security forum in Singapore on Saturday that New Zealand’s target of raising defence spending to 2 per cent of the economy is not enough and was an example of “freeloading”. He hinted that nations should aspire to a target as high as 3.5 per cent.

“That would be extremely challenging,” Willis...

The Philippines is no stranger to politically weaponised memes and internet trolls. What has changed is the way information warfare is waged, now requiring nothing more than a smartphone and a well-crafted prompt.

Supporters of former president Rodrigo Duterte helped pioneer the industrialised use of social media to spread disinformation, rewarding loyalists and destroying opponents through the ruthless deployment of memes, viral videos, paid amplifiers and manufactured trending topics.

Analysts...

When China broke out one of its “big guns” in last year’s trade war with the US – an array of export controls on rare earth elements – it helped spur a temporary truce in the pitched conflict between the two economic superpowers.

After Beijing’s announcement, many around the world expressed shock at the size and scope of China’s response to Washington’s sky-high tariffs. But for Japan, a squeeze on rare earth shipments was not so novel a concept.

In 2010, following the collision of a Chinese...