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

The commander of the Philippine Navy was abruptly sacked Tuesday in a surprise move which a legislator and news reports linked to a dispute about a contract for warships.Vice Admiral Ronald Joseph Mercado was replaced by Rear Admiral Robert Empedrad in compliance with "the instructions from higher authorities", said military spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo."The reason for this change of command will be explained in due time," Arevalo said in a statement.The navy spokesman

The death toll from a tropical storm that pummelled the central Philippines rose to 43 with hopes fading for dozens of others still missing after massive landslides, authorities said Tuesday.Slow-moving Kai-Tak finally swept out to the South China Sea on Monday after inducing days of heavy rain that led to deadly floods and landslides as it sliced across the central islands last weekend.The government's disaster monitoring agency listed 43 dead in an updated tally and said 45 other peopl

As the world continues to be fixated on nuclear tensions in the Korean Peninsula, lesser attention has been devoted to China and their island building activities in the disputed South China Sea area.Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and according to a report by Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), has been turning reefs in the Spratly and Paracel chains into islands, installing military facilities and equipment on them.In a feature published last Thursday, AMTI said that Beijing e

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

“These are interesting times to be alive,” Singaporean Foreign Minister, Vivien Balakrishnan told a room full of journalists, former ambassadors, diplomats and academics at the ISEAS – Yusuf Ishak Institute on Tuesday.That was the precursor to his lecture entitled “ASEAN: Next 50” on charting the next 50 years for the association as it celebrates its golden jubilee this year.

China and members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have held their largest-ever joint maritime rescue exercise, signalling a lull in South China Sea tensions. The drill on Tuesday simulated a collision between a Chinese passenger ship and a Cambodian cargo vessel off south China's Guangdong province. It involved about 1,000 rescuers aboard 20 ships and three helicopters, according to reports in Chinese state media late Tuesday.

King Bhumibol AdulyadejHundreds of thousands of Thais gathered in the capital city of Bangkok, Thailand, to say their final goodbyes to King Bhumibol Adulyadej during the four-day cremation ceremony.

Chinese President, Xi Jinping’s marathon speech at the quinquennial 19th Chinese Communist Party Congress painted a picturesque vision for China’s future.

During a recent high-level regional security dialogue in Manila, defence ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) released a joint declaration calling for a peaceful resolution to the South China Sea dispute.The dispute has been plaguing the region for long and has largely shaped the geopolitical landscape of Southeast Asia. Five trillion dollars’ worth of trade passes through its shipping lanes.