Regional news from Southeast Asia in English — ASEAN politics, economy and diplomacy, covered by Thai PBS World.
As ASEAN leaders are now in Bangkok for the 34th ASEAN Summit, the opposition Pheu Thai party today called on them to apply pressure to Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to adhere to democratic principles “by showing the courage to warn about or reject any actions of the government of General Prayut…” Party spokeswoman Mrs. Ladawan
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is satisfied that Thailand remains on Tier 2 of the US State Department’s 2019 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report and has vowed to continue tackling human trafficking until it is resolved. The report, released on Thursday, said Thailand did not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, although
Thailand ranks 40th out of 162 countries surveyed on development progress relating to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), moving up 19 places from last year, according to the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and Bertelsmann Stiftung. Thailand is top among ASEAN countries: Thailand 40th Vietnam 54th Singapore 66th Malaysia 68th The Philippines 97th Indonesia
YANGON (Reuters) – As Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi arrived at a Yangon court recently to face charges of defaming Myanmar’s military in Facebook posts, the ailing filmmaker was greeted by a crowd of activists dressed in blue, the color of prison uniforms. The charges against Min Htin Ko Ko Gyi – as well as
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Lawyers for Indonesia’s political opposition called on Friday for President Joko Widodo’s election victory to be annulled, telling the Constitutional Court it had been achieved through “systematic electoral fraud and abuse of power”. Official results released by the General Election Commission last month showed Widodo had beaten Prabowo Subianto, a retired general,
MANILA (Reuters) – The Philippine government attacked United Nations human rights experts on Saturday for “unpardonable intrusions”, after a call for an international investigation into killings linked to President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. The experts on Friday urged the U.N. Human Rights Council, whose 47 member states begin a three-week session on June 24,
PHNOM PENH/HANOI (Reuters) – Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has accused Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong of supporting genocide because of comments Lee made about Vietnam’s 1978 invasion of Cambodia which ended Pol Pot’s genocidal “killing fields” regime. In the remarks, which have stirred Cold War animosity and drawn a strong response from Vietnam,
Myanmar strongman, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has poured high praise on the late General Prem Tinsulanonda, saying he felt as if he had lost his father. Min Aung Hlaing is reported to have made the comment to Thai Supreme Commander General Pornpipat Benyasri and Navy Commander-in-Chief Admiral Luechai Ruddit as they accompanied
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Thursday mooted the idea of a common trading currency for East Asia that would be pegged to gold, describing the existing currency trading in the region as manipulative. Mahathir said the proposed common currency could be used to settle imports and exports, but would not
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia will send as much as 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste back to the countries it came from, the environment minister said on Tuesday, the latest Asian country to reject rich countries’ rubbish. Malaysia last year became the world’s main destination for plastic waste after China banned its import, disrupting the
