From an annual rate exceeding 30 per cent in 2023, Laos successfully brought inflation down to about 7.7 per cent in 2025. Yet while lower inflation marks an improvement in macroeconomic stability, it ...

When former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte appeared before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in February 2026, the question was not only whether he would face trial. It was whether ...

Kuomintang Chairperson Cheng Li-wun’s April 2026 visit to Beijing has exposed a deepening divide within the party between those who favour closer cross-strait engagement and those who worry the move ...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will visit Australia in early May 2026 — on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and almost 70 years on from the ...

Japan's moves to revise its pacifist constitution and expand defence exports signal a more active security posture, with Australia emerging as a key partner in this transition. But the energy crisis ...

Victor Crochet is Partner at Nishimura & Asahi. He is also a PhD student at Cambridge University where he conducts research on international trade and investment law. Victor also regularly teaches and ...

ASEAN’s involvement in the South China Sea dispute began informally and incrementally. As Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, China and Taiwan firmed up their territorial claims, the dispute ...

The Mekong Delta faces a slow-burning crisis as salinity spreads inland, damaging crops and eroding Vietnam’s food-production base. Fragmented policy responses lack a clear understanding of what ...

The Japanese upper house election last week offered voters an opportunity to embrace stability or deliver change. The results landed somewhere in between, and the indecisive result will pose a ...

Indonesia’s state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina is embroiled in a major corruption scandal that cost the state over US$12.06 billion between 2013–18. Involving top executives, the scandal eroded ...

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto aspires to achieve 8 per cent economic growth in his first term, aiming to elevate Indonesia to high-income status by 2045. But this goal appears increasingly ...

China’s export restrictions on critical minerals have long served to counter Washington’s containment strategy aimed at isolating China from global supply chains. But the effectiveness of this ...