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Southeast Asia is projected to account for one-fifth of global energy demand growth through 2035. Photo: Reuters
Asean

Asian Angle | Decades of talk, zero barrels stored: why can’t Asean stockpile oil?

The Iran war energy crisis revived Asean’s joint reserve plans. To avoid another shelved ambition, the bloc needs swift, binding action.

Climate change

Macroscope | Who pays when overheated roads melt and rails buckle?

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Cambodia

Asian Angle | Cambodia’s war on scammers needs a blueprint built to last

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Stocks

Macroscope | Emerging markets have a concentration problem. Investors will have to live with it

Investors nervous about the dominance of South Korean and Taiwanese chipmakers can’t afford to ignore them.

Currency traders pass by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and the foreign exchange rate between US dollar and South Korean won at Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on June 5. Photo: AP
Currency traders pass by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index and the foreign exchange rate between US dollar and South Korean won at Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul on June 5. Photo: AP
Diplomacy

Opinion | How China and Indonesia can build a truly sturdy partnership

From handling business friction to aligning long-term goals, three practical steps can elevate ties beyond economic convenience.

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Asia housing and property

The View | Asian property: A thin line separates strength from vulnerability

As Hong Kong, India and Japan show, sharp divergences within a market defy broad-brush generalisations.

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Vietnam

Asian Angle | Vietnam’s economic miracle has a made-elsewhere problem

The numbers dazzle, but Vietnamese companies are losing ground in their own export boom as the middle-income trap looms.

A Vietnamese scrap collector walks past a Chinese-language sign in Bac Ninh province, Vietnam. Photo: AFP
A Vietnamese scrap collector walks past a Chinese-language sign in Bac Ninh province, Vietnam. Photo: AFP
Japan

Macroscope | Why Japan should be able to weather a US market crash

Successive Japanese governments have spent decades building financial infrastructure that other Asian countries can emulate.

Asean

Opinion | Southeast Asia must write its own trade rules for China’s ‘flying geese’

As Chinese manufacturers migrate south, Asean has the leverage to dictate terms on local sourcing and skills training.

South China Sea

Opinion | Path to South China Sea stability doesn’t run through US, UK or the EU

The statement by 14 countries is a geopolitical exercise, amplifying the flawed 2016 Hague arbitral ruling to try to drive a wedge between China and its neighbours.

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The China Coast Guard vessel Dong’an patrolling in the South China Sea on June 22. Photo: Xinhua
Asean

Opinion | Cambodia aspires to shed its dependencies while staying connected

As it seeks connectivity, Phnom Penh must build diplomatic bridges with as much effort as it constructs ports and canals.

People arrive at the construction site of the Funan Techo canal along the Prek Takeo channel in Kandal province, Cambodia, on August 5, 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE
People arrive at the construction site of the Funan Techo canal along the Prek Takeo channel in Kandal province, Cambodia, on August 5, 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE
China-Asean relations

Asian Angle | Why a second ‘China shock’ is good for Southeast Asia

Fear of Chinese imports is misplaced. Roughly 90 per cent of what the region buys is inputs and machinery driving local manufacturing.

Pacific nations

Opinion | Panic over China’s missile test is born of Western bias

Every nuclear power routinely tests its arsenal. The outcry over Beijing’s launch reveals a glaring double standard.

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War and conflict

Outside In | How AI is changing the nature of war and conflict

Latest Global Peace Index reflects a world progressively less peaceful as AI enables armies to kill more people more quickly and more cheaply.

Shahed unmanned combat aerial vehicles are made by Iran's Shahed Aviation Industries. Photo: handout
Japan

Macroscope | 3 reasons behind the Japanese yen’s persistent decline

The continued slide in the yen has raised concern, but what happens in the bond market will determine whether the bearishness extends far beyond Japan.

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A local hunter touches a bear dummy during an emergency response drill for bear and other wildlife intrusions in Isehara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan on July 3. Photo: AFP
A local hunter touches a bear dummy during an emergency response drill for bear and other wildlife intrusions in Isehara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan on July 3. Photo: AFP
India

Opinion | To boost manufacturing, India need not choose between Japan and China

Without Chinese suppliers on the ground, potential Japanese investments will struggle to reach the scale or speed the moment demands.

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Middle East

Opinion | How bitter Persian Gulf rivals can make peace the Asean way

Promoting de-escalation and shared prosperity in the Persian Gulf may seem arduous now. It once looked that way in Southeast Asia, too.

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Singapore

Asian Angle | Singapore’s trade pacts prove small states can shape global rules

While major powers employ coercion, Singapore is using flexible, legally binding templates to keep trade open.

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Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sign a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement during a meeting in Canberra on October 8, 2025. Photo: EPA
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (right) and Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong sign a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement during a meeting in Canberra on October 8, 2025. Photo: EPA
Central Asia

Opinion | In today’s ‘great game’, Central Asian nations are no longer prizes to be won

Instead of being caught between great powers, the five Central Asian nations are using hegemonic rivalries to advance their own interests.

Artificial intelligence

Opinion | Why the AI future won’t be decided by algorithms and chatbots

Just as geopolitical influence in the 20th century often rested on energy markets, so may the 21st century be dominated by infrastructure.

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Asia housing and property

The View | Concern over AI’s impact on Asia’s real estate sector is misplaced

Even if the current AI boom falters, demand for digital infrastructure in Asia – especially in developing countries – will remain strong.

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A staff member talks about China’s “east data, west computing” initiative at a data centre in Qingyang in northwest China’s Gansu Province on January 6, 2025. Photo: Xinhua
Indonesia

Asian Angle | Liberal Islam in Indonesia is sliding into irrelevance

Political entanglements and ideological schisms have left the pioneering Liberal Islam Network in disarray.

A boy waves a flag at a rally attended by thousands of Indonesian Islamists in Jakarta in 2018. Photo: AFP
A boy waves a flag at a rally attended by thousands of Indonesian Islamists in Jakarta in 2018. Photo: AFP
Asean

Asian Angle | Asean’s side deals in Myanmar risk missing where the power truly lies

Trading collective leverage for isolated bargains blinds the bloc to changing realities on the ground.

Chinese culture

Opinion | For many outside China, Dear You reflects family history, not politics

Some call the film soft power, but for many in the Chinese diaspora, it’s simply family history.

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India

Macroscope | Is investors’ love affair with India ending?

Investors have flocked to tech-heavy markets, but looming US interest rate rises and volatility fears could see India’s star shine again.

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People shop at a city market in Bangalore on June 23. India’s equity market is no longer in the world’s top five by market capitalisation, having fallen behind Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea in recent years. Photo: EPA
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