Southeast Asian foreign ministers are gathering for their first meeting this year under the regional bloc’s new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar’s drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

LANGKAWI - Asean needs to double down on regional integration to enhance the grouping’s competitiveness, especially at a time when changes to geopolitical structures and economic policy are taking place worldwide, said Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold a closed-doors retreat in Malaysia on Sunday, as the country hosts its first meeting as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN amid an intensifying civil war in Myanmar and confrontations in the South China Sea.

From left to right, Laos's Foreign Affairs Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane, Myanmar's Permanent Secretary to ASEAN Aung Kyaw Moe, Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan, Thailand's ...

Tensions in the South China Sea, one of the world’s vital ... Singapore's Minister of Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan and Thailand's Minister of Foreign Affairs Maris Sangiampongsa pose ...

China's coast guard continues its weeklong presence near the Philippines' Zambales Province in what one analyst calls "a new level of sustained intensity."

Eyck Freymann is a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University and Nonresident Research Fellow with the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College. Hugo Bromley is an Applied History Research Fellow at the Center for Geopolitics at the University of Cambridge.

The Foreign Affairs Minister spoke about the global challenges ahead and how the country needs to respond. Read more at straitstimes.com.

One fictional student in the 40-page comic book describes China as a bully and another says Beijing's "behavior is outrageous."

Four major developments shaped the security environment in the South China Sea in 2024: (1) increased Chinese coercion against Philippine naval vessels and aircraft; (2) adoption of a new maritime defense strategy by the Philippines;

Subsea cables are especially vulnerable to sabotage or even exploitation, as they are extremely long, difficult to monitor, and unprotected against a determined adversary. If nothing else, these events should alert governments and private-sector providers that the seabed is no longer insulated from malign actors.

Philippine fishing boats claimed they were harassed by China, labelling the incident as a "blatant disregard" of a regulation preventing collisions at sea.