Asia - South China Morning Post

It was a policy meant to ignite a golden age of infrastructure development and put Thailand at the heart of Southeast Asia’s trade and investment for decades to come.

Three years – and three prime ministers – after it was first proposed, a multibillion-dollar “landbridge” across Thailand’s southern neck to slash transport times between Asia’s main shipping lanes has now hit a dead end, entangled in the kingdom’s intractable political crisis.

As Thais prepare to vote on February 8 for yet another...

Japanese Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi and his South Korean counterpart Ahn Gyu Back decided on Friday to step up personnel exchanges between their forces amid mounting regional security challenges.

At the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s (MSDF) base in Koizumi’s hometown of Yokosuka, near Tokyo, the two agreed to hold annual reciprocal visits, as ties between the Asian neighbours have continued to improve in recent years.

“We opened the door for a new level of defence exchanges between Japan...

Remarks by a prominent economist about India’s air quality have raised a debate on whether New Delhi should prioritise tackling pollution over tariff talks, as the country continues to transition towards a green economy.

Former International Monetary Fund chief economist Gita Gopinath made the comments at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, arguing that investors considering India would have to factor its environment because it “is going to be consequential for health”.

India has been...

Wang Gungwu is widely regarded as a pre-eminent expert on the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia and the history of China, but at 95, he writes in his latest memoir that he is no longer able to call himself a historian.

In No Borders: Journeys Across Islands and Continents, launched in Singapore on Thursday, Wang writes that while a historian today has the objective of reconstructing the past as it actually happened, the Australian sinologist is no longer interested in this.

Through his studies...

In Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Mike Campbell described how he went bankrupt: “Gradually, and then suddenly.” Over the past weeks, there is a feeling that US President Donald Trump and his administration have reached the “suddenly” bit.

First, Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney captivated a World Economic Forum audience when he described the “rupture” in the rules-based order, a “bargain” that “no longer works”: leaving middle countries like Canada with no choice but to dilute their...

Malaysia’s football leadership resigned en masse this week in what it called a governance move to protect the sport, but critics say any “reset” will count only if the association explains how allegedly forged eligibility documents were submitted and who will be held responsible.

The Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) late on Thursday said it had formally informed Fifa and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) that all members of its executive committee for the 2025–2029 term had...

South Korea’s Ministry of Employment and Labour has apologised to the family of a Cambodian migrant worker who died after living in a makeshift “greenhouse dormitory” and vowed to reinforce protections for foreign workers, following a Supreme Court ruling that found the government liable.

In a statement issued on Thursday after the decision, the ministry said it respects the ruling of the Supreme Court and promised to help swiftly proceed with compensation procedures for the bereaved family of...

Singapore’s move to bar undesirable visitors from boarding planes to the city state began on Friday, with airlines flying into its airports required to deny access to passengers flagged as risks.

The new directive is aimed at preventing “undesirable or prohibited immigrants, and those who do not meet Singapore’s entry requirements, from boarding flights bound for Singapore”, according to an Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) statement released on November 28 last year.

Airlines flying...

A visit by a United States warship to a Cambodian port built with major Chinese backing has underscored Phnom Penh’s superpower balancing act, but observers say American concerns will linger over the facility’s usage being dominated by Beijing.

The USS Cincinnati arrived on Saturday at Ream Naval Base as part of a mission to strengthen cooperation between Cambodian-US forces and departed from the Preah Sihanouk location on Wednesday, local media reported.

The littoral combat ship is the first...