Thailand
Thailand’s election: will the country move forward?
After Sunday’s remarkable “orange wave” victory for Thailand’s progressive Move Forward party, the big question is whether the Kingdom’s conservative forces will allow Move…
Does Thailand’s election matter?
Southeast Asia’s autocrats still want electoral legitimacy: it’s a paradox that’s particularly clear in the intentions of Myanmar’s junta and Cambodia’s strongman ruler Hun Sen to…
Paying for a new Thai democracy
Polling daze
This year began with The Economist Democracy Index giving a striking upgrade to two of the countries which have been a longstanding deadweight on Southeast Asia’s…
With caution and tact: How Asian countries voted on Ukraine at the UN
On 26 February last year, a few days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations issued a statement expressing “concern’’ over the “evolving…
Commentary
Thailand's efforts to build Mekong bloc deserve support
Diplomatic alignment will strengthen area's hand in dealing with outside powers. Originally published in Nikkei Asia.
Will Thailand’s prime minister defy time?
The Constitutional Court of Thailand decided yesterday to hear a petition from the political opposition asking the Court to make a ruling on when the Thai Prime Minister Prayut…
What Vietnam can learn from Thailand’s fight against illegal fishing
Illegal fishing activities conducted by Vietnamese vessels have spiked during the first six months of 2022, with most boats caught encroaching into the waters of Indonesia,…
Thailand seeking to profit from a global food crisis
In response to worldwide supply chain issues caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – who between them previously accounted for nearly one-third of global wheat supplies –…
Proceed with caution: high-speed rail for Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur
With pandemic restrictions easing, especially for travel, some Southeast Asian countries have resumed the pursuit of enhanced intra-regional connectivity. The Malaysian and Thai…
Diplomacy is indispensable to manage the Mekong
Milton Osborne mischaracterises the Mekong River Commission when writing last month in The Interpreter that the regional organisation “ignores reality”. To say we were …