International relations

Laos will not host a meeting of civil society organizations (CSOs) in Southeast Asia on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit next year, a local official said, citing potential criticism by participants against governments in the region and inadequate resources as among reasons for the ...

The government is ready to help Indonesia tackle the haze pollution problem which has spread over large parts of the region after its envoy admitted the country’s efforts are not enough to stop the fires, Foreign Ministry deputy permanent secretary Vitavas Srivihok said. Keep reading ...

A top negotiator in Myanmar’s peace talks with ethnic rebels has accused neighboring China of derailing a nationwide ceasefire deal last week that would have brought Japan and Western nations in as observers to monitor an end to decades of conflict. Beijing has denied the accusation but ...

The signing of the Laos, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore Power Integration Project deal has been delayed for another six months. Keep reading ...

Twelve Pacific rim countries sealed the deal late 5 October (Thailand time) to create the world’s largest free trade area, with implications for Thailand and for world trade in the 21st century. Working around the clock for days past their deadline, haggard trade ministers announced they reached ...

Laos has confirmed its readiness to host the 9th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Rural Development and Poverty Eradication in Vientiane from 13-17 October. Speaking at a press conference on 6 October on preparations for the meeting, Deputy Minister to the Government Office and Vice Chairman of the National ...

Vietnam’s transport ministry and the Korea International Co-operation Agency (KOICA) have agreed to study the feasibility of a 500 km-long railway link from Laos’ Vientiane to Vung Ang in central Ha Tinh Province of Vietnam. The study will be conducted with a $US3-million ODA grant from KOICA for ...

The seeds of China and Vietnam’s bloody rivalry for influence in Cambodia were already apparent to foreign observers in the weeks and months after the April 1975 fall of Phnom Penh, Australian diplomatic cables given last month to the Documentation Center of Cambodia (DC-Cam) show. Born ...

Southeast Asian ministers in charge of security held talks with their Japanese counterpart on 1 October in a bid to enhance cooperation in tackling terrorism and cybercrime. Eriko Yamatani, a cabinet minister and also the chairperson of the National Public Safety Commission, led a delegation for the ...

Nearly 2,000 people have been deported from Cambodia – the vast majority of them Vietnamese – in the first nine months of 2015, according to new government figures. From January through September, 1,919 people were expelled from the Kingdom, a report issued by the General Department ...