Asia - South China Morning Post

Thailand’s navy has to watch two seas at once.

To the east lies the Gulf of Thailand, with its busy shipping lanes, offshore energy interests and long coastal frontier with Cambodia. To the west is the Andaman Sea, a gateway to the Indian Ocean with its own trade routes, chokepoints and strategic pressures.

That twin-sea geography has long given the Royal Thai Navy a role larger than its public profile might suggest. It also underpins the navy’s stated goal, laid out in a 2023 white paper, to...

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Saturday called India a natural partner and invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington, turning the page at least rhetorically on friction despite new-found US warmth towards China.

One week after joining US President Donald Trump on a state visit to Beijing, Rubio – visiting both Asian powers for the first time – flew to New Delhi and met Modi for more than an hour, inviting the premier to visit the White House soon.

“The world’s oldest democracy in...

India’s state-run refiners raised retail prices again of diesel and petrol on Saturday to help processors cut losses on discounted sales and to control a spike in demand.

Prices of both fuels rose by nearly one per cent, or less than 1 rupee, with petrol now sold at 99.51 rupees (US$1.0399) and diesel at 92.49 rupees per litre in New Delhi, according to the website of Indian Oil Corporation, the country’s largest fuel retailer. Prices vary across India due to local taxes.

Smaller peers Bharat...

New Zealand intends to spend about NZ$1.6 billion (US$936 million) on drones, ship maintenance and naval upgrades to bolster the island nation’s maritime security at a time of increasing concern about supply routes.

Defence Minister Chris Penk said on Saturday that the government would invest in two types of drones: one for the southwest Pacific to provide long-duration intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and the other a polar-capable vehicle that could operate from naval vessels in...

Philippine Vice-President Sara Duterte-Carpio has twice in recent weeks urged the country’s armed forces to defend its sovereignty, in a carefully calibrated attempt to sound more assertive on the South China Sea issue without directly challenging Beijing, according to analysts.

While Duterte-Carpio did not name China, her repeated calls marked a tonal shift from her earlier approach, when she either avoided the issue or warned against letting it define Manila’s broader relationship with...

For many Indonesians who have built careers abroad, Nadiem Makarim once represented a particular kind of homecoming success story.

The Brown and Harvard University-educated co-founder of Gojek had walked away from the start-up world to serve in government, bringing with him the aura of Indonesia’s technology boom and the promise that private-sector talent could help modernise the state.

Now, with prosecutors seeking an 18-year prison sentence for the former education minister in a corruption...

A rare albino buffalo with flowing blond hair ⁠has become an unlikely ⁠celebrity in Bangladesh ahead of the ⁠Eid al-Adha festival, drawing crowds of curious visitors who say the animal bears a striking resemblance to US President Donald Trump.

The nearly 700kg (1,540lbs) buffalo, raised at a farm in Narayanganj district near the ‌capital Dhaka, has been nicknamed “Donald Trump” because of the tuft of pale hair falling across its forehead – a feature many say mirrors the American leader’s...

When Xi Jinping and Donald Trump concluded their Beijing summit, the most consequential outcome – for China at least – may prove not material, but conceptual: the adoption of “constructive strategic stability” (CSS) as the guiding framework for managing their intensifying competition.

For Southeast Asia, a region often caught in the rivalry between the two powers, understanding what this means will matter in the years ahead.

The framework reflects a long-held Chinese strategic aspiration....

A mock political party erupted across Indian social media this week, becoming a symbol of Gen Z disillusionment with the country’s political establishment and anger over a worsening jobs crisis in the world’s most populous nation.

The Cockroach Janta Party, as the satirical movement is known, has already overtaken the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Instagram, racking up nearly 20 million followers and attracting attention from rivals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“Cockroach Janta Party...

Seated in a wheelchair, an elderly woman bends silently as her wrinkled fingers move with surprising speed to fold pieces of coloured origami paper into intricate shapes.

Beside her, another woman does the same, both adding their finished pieces to a pile on the table without looking up or exchanging a word.

Inside Tochigi Prison, where talking during work is forbidden, elderly women folding paper and sewing in silence reflect a broader test of Japan’s penal system: how to care for ageing,...