Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi will not attend this weekend’s Asean Summit in Singapore, a government spokesman said on Monday, which would make it the first time for her to skip one since coming to power in 2016. []The 10-member Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, ...

Countries in the Lancang-Mekong Basin, including China, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, recently announced they would launch a joint operation against precursor chemicals in November. The Lancang-Mekong Integrated Law Enforcement and Security Cooperation Center said officials from the six countries made the announcement in Kunming, ...

The production of synthetic drugs in the Mekong Region – and Myanmar in particular – has reached “alarming levels”, the United Nations said today as regional anti-drug authorities meet to negotiate a new strategy.  Methamphetamine seizures in Cambodia, China, Lao, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam have ...

A new round of joint patrols on the Mekong River with law enforcement personnel from China, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand started Tuesday, the 71st mission since 2011, to make the border river safer. Ships set sail from Guanlei Port in Xishuangbanna, southwest China’s Yunnan Province, ...

The tropics lost 12 million hectares of tree cover in 2018, the fourth-highest annual loss since record-keeping began in 2001. Of greatest concern is the disappearance of 3.6 million hectares of primary rainforest, an area the size of Belgium. The figures come from updated data from the ...

The resumed forty-eighth sessions of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA 48-2) and Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI 48-2) as well as the sixth part of the first session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Paris Agreement (APA 1-6) will ...

The government has launched a COVID-19 information hotline in three languages for migrant workers in Thailand that also accept petitions for their unemployment claims with the Social Security Office (SSO).Keep watching ...

As multilateral trade negotiations have become unworkable, regional and bilateral alternatives are on the rise. In Thailand’s neighbourhood, the most consequential of these trade vehicles is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). Keep reading ...

Members of political parties agreed on Sunday, that education should be free from political influence and that educational reform should be a bottom-up approach. The Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) was hosting a seminar to discuss educational development. The seminar was attended by a number ...

Japan agreed to deepen cooperation with countries in the Mekong region, as Tokyo aims to maintain its influence in Southeast Asia with more and more countries falling under the sway of China. Ahead of a Japan-Mekong summit on Tuesday in Tokyo, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held ...

Families moved to distant, poorly equipped resettlement areas to make way for railways in the Philippines. Villagers still dealing with the loss of access to livelihood resources decades after dam construction in Thailand. Communities in Indonesia seeing their lands converted to palm oil plantations run ...

Beyond the harm done to human health by the North’s smouldering blanket of forest fires, concern has arisen for wildlife and rare plants on the slopes of Doi Luang Chiang Dao in Chiang Mai. The mountain is protected as the only locale in Thailand where “sub-alpine ...

Thailand’s benchmark equity index tumbled to its biggest one-day loss since 2014, plunging below 1,400 points as rising local coronavirus infections shattered already fragile investment sentiment.The Thai bourse was the biggest loser in Asia-Pacific for the second time in three days.Keep reading ...

More than 800 illegal migrant workers, who failed to apply for a work permit by June 30, have been arrested. []Out of 1,600 workplaces, 150 of them were found to be employing illegal alien workers. There are currently 1.1 million legal migrant workers who make up ...

Efforts to eradicate hunger are stalling within the Asia Pacific, with almost 500 million people in the region lacking access to sufficient food.[]”However, in the last one or two years, it’s countries in South-East Asia, particularly in the Mekong region being Myanmar and Thailand and ...

China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam are dumping more plastic into oceans than the rest of the world combined. Are Southeast Asian nations doing enough to tackle the ever-growing plastic pollution problem? []The website Mekong Eye says that Southeast Asia’s Mekong region is “the world’s single ...

Concerted efforts are needed to enhance cooperation between the governments of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Việt Nam and the US in a number of areas, including education, energy security, food security, agriculture and health, Trần Quang Hoài, director of the Directorate of Disaster Management under ...

Elon Musk’s futuristic “mini-sub” ultimately wasn’t used in the recent daring rescue of 13 people trapped in a cave in Thailand. However, its much-publicized existence reminded the world of the important role similarly cutting-edge technology will increasingly have a role to play in similar disaster ...

Seven agencies signed a memorandum of cooperation on Thursday to promote health and well-being in the workplace and prevent occupational risks and work-related diseases.Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha presided over the signing of the agreement between the Interior, Labour, Public Health and Industry ministries, the Bangkok ...

The cabinet has approved the civil partnership bill, paving the way for Thailand to become the first country in Asia to endorse same-sex marriage. In the current version of the bill, same-sex couples may adopt children, Nathporn Chatusripitak, an adviser to the Minister to Prime ...