With the Trump administration increasingly distracted by conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America and showing little appetite for reviving North Korea diplomacy, South Korea, Japan and China ...

Beijing opened 2026 with a clear signal on Taiwan. In his New Year message, Chinese President Xi Jinping celebrated the establishment of Taiwan Retrocession Day on October 25 and called reunification ...

China has long held strategic interests in Myanmar, ranging from border stability and resource security to access to the Indian Ocean. Since the 2021 coup, Beijing has adapted its approach, practising ...

Pakistan's Balochistan province is being plunged into turmoil by the US–Israel war on Iran. The region's strategic significance and natural resource endowment has long enticed foreign involvement. Yet ...

Ongoing instability in the Middle East is exposing structural vulnerabilities in energy-dependent economies. South Korea, whose economic engine relies heavily on Persian Gulf hydrocarbons, has ...

For Asia Pacific governments, the US–Israeli war against Iran is a reminder that conflicts in the Middle East do not stay in the Middle East. Since February 2026, oil has surged past US$120 a barrel, ...

The geopolitical and economic implications of the 2026 Iran war and the Strait of Hormuz crisis may last for decades. Asian countries are bearing high costs in their energy supplies, financial ...

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi will visit Australia in early May 2026 — on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Basic Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation and almost 70 years on from the ...

The war the United States and Israel have started with Iran threatens a major global economic shock, with rising energy prices and supply disruptions likely to trigger stagflation and wider ...

The geopolitics of the South China Sea in 2025 were shaped by confrontation, militarisation and US–China rivalry. While some progress was made towards reaching an ASEAN–China Code of Conduct (COC) in ...

Timor-Leste’s 2025 accession to ASEAN was a diplomatic milestone, but the shutdown of the Bayu-Undan gas field has intensified pressure to diversify an economy long reliant on petroleum revenues.

Taiwan’s experience in 2025 revealed the dangers of internal paralysis amid intensifying external pressure. Legislative deadlock, failed recall campaigns and deepening polarisation weakened Taipei’s ...