US President Donald Trump – who has often hailed China's efforts to put pressure on North Korea – hit out at Beijing Thursday for failing to cut off Pyongyang's oil supply, saying such moves prevented a "friendly solution" of the crisis."Caught RED HANDED - very disappointed that China is allowing oil to go into North Korea," Trump said on Twitter."There will never be a friendly solution to the North Korea problem if this continues to happen!"Trump did

The South China Sea has been long threatened – geographically and politically. In more recent times, ecologically too.The South China Sea is one of the world’s top five most productive fishing zones, accounting for about 12 percent of global fish catch in 2015 alone.More than half of the fishing vessels in the world operate in these waters, which employs 3.7 million people, and likely many more engaged in illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing.

During the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in November, Philippine President and ASEAN chair, Rodrigo Duterte announced that China has agreed to a binding Code of Conduct – building upon the previous non-binding Declaration of Conduct signed in 2002.The goal, in the words of Chinese Premier, Li Keqiang was to ensure that claimant countries in the South China Sea dispute would be able to ‘bolster mutual understanding and trust.’The progress was hailed as a huge milestone

Two sides of women’s rightsThis week, The ASEAN Post reported on Malaysia’s increased efforts to add women to boardrooms in 2018.

This month, Sri Lanka, unable to pay the onerous debt to China it has accumulated, formally handed over its strategically located Hambantota port to the Asian giant.

It could have been a scene from a spy novel.German authorities in August accused Vietnam’s government of abducting the former chairman of state-owned PetroVietnam Construction JSC – who was in Germany seeking asylum – and whisking him back to Hanoi to face corruption charges.Berlin ordered Vietnamese intelligence officers to leave the country, even as Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said Trinh Xuan Thanh chose to surrender.

Thailand, land of golden temples, white-sand beaches, smiling hosts. Or of overcrowded airports, epic traffic jams and littered seashores.Facing a deluge of Chinese tourists that has strained its airports beyond capacity, the Southeast Asian nation is spending billions to upgrade its infrastructure, open up new islands and cities to travelers, and tone down its image of cheap shopping, hotels and sex that underpinned the industry for half a century.

As China continues to transform disputed territory in the South China Sea into features capable of sustaining air and naval bases, Vietnam is also upgrading areas it occupies.Images taken by DigitalGlobe satellites in September show new facilities including a possible dry dock on West London Reef in the Spratly Island chain, around 680 kilometers southeast of Ho Chi Minh City, that could allow boats to stop for maintenance and patrol for longer periods.While the work is vastly outweighed by w

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) encompasses 25 percent global GDP, 45 percent of the total population, 30 percent of global income and 30 percent global trade. Led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it is one of the most useful strategic opportunities for the 16 countries – ASEAN-10, India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand – to realise an economically open and liberal Asia Pacific.The potential that RCEP has is immense.

South Korean President Moon Jae-In will hold talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday, seeking to repair a relationship strained over Seoul hosting a US missile system.Moon's office has said he hopes to "normalise" ties during the visit, after Beijing was angered by the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), installed earlier this year to protect South Korea against threats from the nuclear-armed North.Beijing, which sees the system as