The Diplomat

Some countries in Southeast Asia do better than others in welcoming LGBT tourists. Southeast Asia has enjoyed an exponential surge of foreign tourists in the past decade. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the total contribution of tourism to the economy of southeast Asia ...

As school semesters come to a close across Southeast Asia, and teachers begin calculating final scores, another type of assessment is called for: an environmental report card for the region. While evaluating every environmental issue that has arisen in every country is unfeasible, it is ...

After months of deliberation, Laos’ Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith announced this week that the country’s minimum wage will increase from 900,000 kip ($108) to 1.1 million kip per month. This rise is set to take effect from early next month. []Unlike neighboring Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam, ...

How are Southeast Asian countries responding to growing tensions between the two powers? []Other Southeast Asian state — like Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and perhaps nominal U.S. ally Thailand — appear to be moving toward China, preferring China’s economic incentives over the benefits of U.S. military “protection.” Keep reading ...

Any idea of environmental protection for the wonders of the Mekong has been marginalized by China’s grand Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with its focus firmly fixed on trade, infrastructure development, and, along the Mekong, dam construction. Keep reading ...

The Mekong River, one of the world’s longest and resource-rich rivers, deserves international attention and recognition as a frontier with governments and developers — who see the river an industrial production tool — on one side and the people who live along its vast waterways ...

ASEAN aspirant Timor-Leste is being democratically tested today, with new elections slated after the minority government formed just last year failed to get its budget and policy platform passed by parliament. Keep reading ...

Tuberculosis (TB), an infectious disease affecting the lungs and causing fever, hemoptysis, night sweats, and weight loss, has ravaged Southeast Asia for decades. According to the World Health Organization, the region contains one third of the world’s TB cases. TB has threatened Vietnam, where HIV ...

Laos’ reputation as having some of the most lush and diverse forests in the Mekong remains under serious threat after a December investigation by government officials found evidence of large-scale illegal logging operations in the southern Attapeu province, despite recent efforts to end the practice. ...

Last week, the United States and Vietnam jointly launched the most recent iteration of what has become an annual disaster response exercise and exchange for the mainland Southeast Asian states along the Mekong River, one of the world’s largest, longest, and most resource-rich rivers. The ...