Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Chinese President Xi Jinping will co-chair the special ASEAN-China summit, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their bilateral relations, on November 22nd. It will be their…
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Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah and Chinese President Xi Jinping will co-chair the special ASEAN-China summit, to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their bilateral relations, on November 22nd. It will be their…
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The Thai cabinet today approved Thailand’s bid to join ASEAN-Canada FTA talks, in the hope of opening a trade gateway to North America. The cabinet agreed to let Thailand participate…
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MANILA, Nov 9 (Reuters) – The daughter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday removed herself from the running for mayor of Davao City, just days away from a deadline…
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The United Kingdom’s Foreign Secretary Liz Truss arrived in Bangkok today (Tuesday) to forge closer bilateral ties with Thailand and to develop the UK’s wider role in Southeast Asia, as…
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SINGAPORE, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Singapore and Malaysia will allow quarantine-free travel between both countries for individuals vaccinated against COVID-19, they said in a joint statement on Monday. The two…
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BANGKOK – A united ideology can elevate ASEAN to better manage superpower rivalry, regional crises and meet the aspirations of its citizens, said two Thai regional experts. Both Kasit Piromya,…
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BANGKOK – The Prayut government is being called upon to formalise cross border humanitarian assistance to crisis-hit Myanmar through the Thai Red Cross. The call was made at the third…
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Win Htein, a senior aide to Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday on charges of high treason, media and one…
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After four years of inertia, US-ASEAN ties have been rebooted and ASEAN centrality has been strengthened by the presence of President Joe Biden who decided, in the wee hours, to…
Read MoreWASHINGTON/BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) – President Joe Biden told Southeast Asian nations on Wednesday the United States would stand with them in defending freedom of the seas and democracy and called China‘s actions towards Taiwan “coercive” and a threat to…
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WASHINGTON/BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden joined Southeast Asian leaders for a virtual summit on Tuesday, the first time in four years that Washington has engaged at the top level with a…
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Southeast Asian leaders begin their annual summit on Tuesday without Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing, who overthrew a civilian government on Feb. 1, in a rare exclusion for the…
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In his speech, on the first day of the 39th ASEAN Summit via a video conference this morning (Tuesday), Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha urged other leaders of the Association…
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Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei (AFP) – Southeast Asian leaders kicked off an ASEAN summit Tuesday but Myanmar refused to send a representative after being angered by the bloc’s decision to exclude the…
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Myanmar’s junta threatened on Monday to skip an ASEAN summit after the bloc said the country’s military chief could not attend over doubts about the government’s commitment to defusing a bloody crisis. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the generals ousted civilian…
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Myanmar’s military rulers pledged on Sunday to cooperate “as much as possible” with a peace plan agreed with ASEAN, despite a stern rebuke of the regional bloc for excluding the…
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Myanmar is a country which has been plagued by troubles throughout its history, but it prospered quickly after the 2015 election, which saw the first democratically elected government come into…
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Myanmar’s junta government has decided to release prisoners and cancel arrest warrants issued against thousands of people just days after ASEAN announced that it will exclude Myanmar’s representative from future…
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Oct 18 (Reuters) – Myanmar’s shadow government, formed by opponents of ruling military, welcomed on Monday the exclusion of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing from an upcoming regional summit, but…
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In the strongest sign of its frustration with the continuing crisis in Myanmar, ASEAN foreign ministers have decided not to invite the country’s junta leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing to…
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With new Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in power, Japan has become a heavy-weight player in shaping China-US relations. In his first major speech he reiterated not just that the…
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Thailand’s Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) is 0.002, the lowest among all the ASEAN countries, according to a new report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford…
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Myanmar’s envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, has vowed to continue in the post and to carry on seeking international support for democratization of his home country….
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It becomes clearer by the day that Myanmar’s military regime, headed by Senior Gen Min Aung Hlaing, is moving painfully slowly towards the implementation of the five-point consensus agreed in…
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Saturday he will not run for vice president in 2022 and will retire from politics, potentially paving the way for his daughter to contest the country’s highest office. “The overwhelming……
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The Philippine president says he will prohibit Cabinet officials from attending an ongoing Senate inquiry on suspected irregularities in massive government purchases of medical supplies in a brewing constitutional crisis….
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Very few Thais are aware that it was former Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who saved Thailand-Japan relations from going down the drain in 2014. Nearly three months after the…
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Sept 29 (Reuters) – Myanmar‘s currency has lost more than 60% of its value since the beginning of September, driving up food and fuel prices in an economy that has tanked since a military coup eight months ago. Many gold shops and money…
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It seems unbelievable that England has put in place a discriminatory policy that refuses to accept COVID-19 jabs given in countries in Latin American, Africa and South and Southeast Asia….
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The new military alliance among three Anglo-Saxon countries – the US, the UK and Australia, known as AUKUS – for the sharing of nuclear submarine technology is a bad move….
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Thailand needs to play a more “assertive role” in order to make its presence in regional and international diplomacy more meaningful while maintaining a balancing act to avoid being dragged…
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Thailand’s Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai is to visit Washington and will attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and ASEAN related meetings in New York next week, according to an…
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Do not be fooled by the popular optics portraying China and Vietnam as eternal enemies. They are not, as evidenced by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s weekend visit…
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Japan can now give defense equipment and technology to Vietnam under an agreement signed Saturday, as the two countries step up their military cooperation amid worries about China’s growing military…
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The United Nations is likely to retain the credentials of the permanent representative of Myanmar’s National League of Democracy (NLD), as the military regime in Naypyidaw will not challenge it,…
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China and Vietnam should refrain from unilateral actions regarding the South China Sea that could complicate the situation and magnify disputes, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told a Vietnamese official,…
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Vietnam plans to reopen the beach-fringed island of Phu Quoc to foreign tourists from next month, authorities said, as the country looks at ways to revive an economy suffering from…
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The news that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is to step down later this month and will not stand for re-election has not stirred up any reaction within ASEAN. The…
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Chung Eui-yong, a young South Korean diplomat who served in Thailand 30 years ago, had always dreamed of returning to the country of which he had grown fond. Last week,…
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Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is under quarantine following close contact with a COVID-19 patient, his office said in a statement on Monday. His office did not say how…
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China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the US should stop disrupt in “regional peace and stability” after U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday (August 25) again charged China…
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Cuba will supply large quantities of its home-grown COVID-19 vaccine, Abdala, to Vietnam and also transfer the production technology to the Southeast Asian country by the end of the year,…
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Vice President Kamala Harris has picked the two outstanding US allies in ASEAN for her first visit to the Southeast Asian region beginning on Sunday. From the US perspective, these…
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WASHINGTON, Aug 19 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s trip to Singapore and Vietnam starting on Sunday will show that the United States is in the region “to stay,”…
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has proposed a series of bilateral meetings, including a summit later this year, between the US and lower Mekong countries as part of efforts…
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ASEAN has accumulated more than US$1.2 billion worth of combined assistance from 11 dialogue partners including the new dialogue partner, the UK. Almost all the countries have contributed special funds…
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Asean is planning to hold an international donor conference on humanitarian aid for Myanmar, which is suffering from an ever-deepening Covid-19 crisis. An informed source, who asked not be identified,…
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The United Nations said Friday it urgently needed funds to feed people in Myanmar amid fears that up to 6.2 million could be plunged into hunger by October. The UN’s…
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New electric vehicle charging technologies will be piloted in Singapore, which has rolled out a regulatory sandbox for this. It’s one of several moves aimed at speeding up the building…
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Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn became the first ASEAN member to openly support the upgrade of ASEAN-China ties to a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” according to a…
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Myanmar’s military issued an announcement, hours after Erywan Yusof’s appointment, that Myanmar accepts the selection by ASEAN of the Special Envoy to Myanmar. The diplomat is also to handle ASEAN…
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At the 54th Asean Ministerial Meeting, the ASEAN leaders decided to use a common fund to procure 10 million doses of vaccines under the COVAX program. The Joint Communique stated that…
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Myanmar could turn into the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic unless neighboring countries and international organizations adopt pragmatic strategies to inoculate high-risk groups of people to stop the spread of…
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1,000 volunteers injected with the home-grown vaccine Nanocovax in third-phase trials have developed antibodies against COVID-19, according to a report by Nanogen Pharmaceutical Biotechnology JSC, the vaccine producer. The report…
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ASEAN foreign ministers Tuesday (August 3) agreed to appoint the second foreign Minister of Brunei Darussalam Erywan Yusof as the group’s special envoy to Myanmar, ending a three-month-long tussle among…
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Make no mistake, when the UK decides to display its maritime power, the right place to show off is the South China Sea. It is the center of regional concern…
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Southeast Asia’s top diplomats were meeting Monday to appoint a special envoy to help deal with the political crisis and violence gripping Myanmar and finalize an…
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Cambodia began a rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations for teenagers in its capital Phnom Penh and three provinces Sunday, with Premier Hun Sen’s grandchildren among the first to get the jab….
Read MoreThe United Kingdom is expected to be admitted as the 11th dialogue partner of Asean next week when the Asean foreign ministers meet virtually for the 54th annual meeting, according to a…
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China has called on Asean to speed up the negotiations on a code of conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, which has been dragging on since 2012. On 28…
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At least six Rohingya Muslims, including children, were killed and several others injured on Tuesday (July 27) after heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides and flooding in refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, officials…
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Hopes that two Asian economic giants, Japan and South Korea, would be able to reconcile and improve their soured bilateral ties at the 2020 Olympics have been dashed. South Korean…
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The second lot in the latest batch of over 3 million doses of COVID-19 Moderna vaccine granted by the US through the COVAX Facility was handed over to Vietnam late…
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HANOI (Reuters) – The United States has “deep concerns” about the military coup in Myanmar and called on Southeast Asian nations to take action to end violence and restore democracy in the country, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday….
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ASEAN should move forward with its appointment of special envoys to help mediate a peaceful solution to the ongoing crisis in Myanmar without having to wait for consent from the…
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Amidst the political and economic turmoil, brought on by the military coup in February, Myanmar is facing yet another threat. Cases of COVID-19 have increased rapidly since May 27th, averaging…
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June 24 – Suddenly, there are many new accounts, disguised as both established media and general users, appearing on social media platforms, such as Facebook, spreading false information. One piece…
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Last week Thailand joined other 35 UN members in abstaining from a major UN Security Council resolution on the situation in Myanmar. The country did so with a heavy heart…
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What started as a largely bloodless attempt by the Tatmadaw (military) to take the reins of power in the nation, on its “correct” path, due to alleged voting fraud committed…
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8.3% of the entire population of Thailand, or 5,526,039 people, have received their first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, while only 2,153,018 have had their second doses, or 3.3% of the…
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(Reuters) – Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi went on trial on Monday, appearing unwell as the first witnesses took the stand in cases against her of illegally possessing…
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Leader of Myanmar’s military junta Gen Min Aung Hlaing has admitted that he didn’t expect to see huge popular opposition to his rule and acknowledged that more than three months…
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US State Secretary Antony Blinken has expressed regrets for causing the cancellation of a scheduled virtual conference with ASEAN foreign ministers late last month, a highly informed diplomatic source told…
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Basic education schools across Myanmar finally reopened on June 1st, after closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic last year, followed by the coup in February. While critics say the forced…
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Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah, who is currently ASEAN chairman, will lead an ASEAN delegation to visit Myanmar on Thursday in an effort by the regional grouping to help find a…
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A cry for help – Prevent civil war and restore human rights by officially recognizing us, Myanmar’s pro-democracy government pleads Myanmar’s pro-democracy unity government is urging the international community and…
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The Myanmar junta has charged under a “fake news” law, a report said Tuesday, in the latest blow to press freedom since the military seized power. Freelance reporter Yuki Kitazumi…
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Analysts claim that the current “state of emergency” in Thailand is a way of enabling the government to limit press freedom and citizens’ rights to free expression. It is a…
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UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council called Friday for an immediate end to violence in Myanmar as stated in an ASEAN plan, giving unanimous approval to a statement watered…
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Myanmar’s pro-democracy unity government, formed to oppose the military junta that seized power nearly three months ago, on Wednesday ruled out talks on the crisis until all political prisoners are…
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Myanmar military junta leader Min Aung Hlaing said he will consider proposals by ASEAN to solve the ongoing crisis in Myanmar after peace and stability is restored in his country….
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While the international community watches ASEAN and the actions of the junta closely over the upcoming weeks, many in Myanmar do not believe that the ASEAN five-point consensus will be…
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Thailand has proposed what is known as “Friends of the Chair” to coordinate with all parties concerned in the crisis besetting Myanmar with an aim of reaching a negotiated peace…
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Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reached a five-point consensus on the crisis in Myanmar on Saturday, calling for an immediate cessation of violence in the country…
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Myanmar has accepted a proposal to stop violence against civilians, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on Saturday after an ASEAN meeting on the crisis in Myanmar. Malaysian news agency…
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Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha confirmed to Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Thursday that he would not attend the special ASEAN summit in Jakarta this Saturday to address the ongoing crisis…
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Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the leaders of ASEAN will be holding a special leaders’ meeting on April 24, at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta to discuss how to deal with…
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Myanmar’s neighbours have to negotiate with a newly formed government of national unity if they want to help resolve the turmoil triggered a by a Feb. 1 military coup and…
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Myanmar military junta leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing will attend the ASEAN summit scheduled to be held in Jakarta on April 24, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tanee Sangrat has confirmed. Tanee…
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ASEAN leaders have agreed to meet and discuss the situation in Myanmar on April 24 at the grouping’s secretariat headquarters in Jakarta, according to a high-level source. Myanmar military junta…
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Myanmar’s military opened fire on protesting healthcare workers Thursday, killing at least one bystander as the demonstrators fled for safety to a nearby mosque. The country has been in turmoil…
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Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was hit with a fresh criminal charge on Monday, as the junta’s tough crackdown on dissent rolls on. The 75-year-old Nobel laureate…
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Two Australians who were detained in Myanmar late last month have been released and have left Yangon, Canberra’s foreign affairs department said Monday. Business consultants Matthew O’Kane and Christa Avery,…
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Myanmar’s junta on Tuesday defended its seven-week crackdown that has left more than 260 democracy protesters dead, insisting it would not tolerate “anarchy”. The junta has unleashed deadly violence as…
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Indonesian President Joko Widodo on Friday called for bloodshed to be halted in military-ruled Myanmar and for Southeast Asian leaders to hold a high-level meeting to try to find a…
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JAKARTA (Reuters) – A meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers on Tuesday to discuss the coup in Myanmar failed to find a breakthrough to get the nation back on the path…
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ASEAN leaders are putting pressure on Myanmar military to peacefully resolve the current crisis with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong criticizing its use of lethal force against civilians and…
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The Myanmar military’s detention of Aung San Suu Kyi during this week’s coup has revived memories of her more than 15 years of house arrest at a lakeside villa in…
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The United States led governments around the world in calling for the restoration of Myanmar’s democracy on Monday after the military staged a coup, arresting civilian leader Aung San Suu…
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More than a dozen embassies, including the US and EU delegation, Friday urged Myanmar to “adhere to democratic norms”, joining the UN in a chorus of international concern about a…
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