Don’t hold your breath for a dramatic Southeast Asian pushback against China
As US-China tensions grow and temperatures rise in the South China Sea, Southeast Asia will only become more tense, anxious and constrained.
Turning east
By most accounts, the past few years have been anni horribiles for human rights and democracy in Southeast Asia.
Cambodia as divide and rule pawn
PHNOM PENH – The official theme for Cambodia’s chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is “One Community, One Destiny” – but the outcomes of this year’s meetings highlighted the bloc’s growing divisions on the issue of China. Last week in the Cambodian capital, the Foreign Ministers’ meeting came to an acrimonious end...
The strings in Hun Sen’s rhetorical bow
PHNOM PENH – Between their anodyne pageantry and colorless mission statements about regional economic cooperation, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meetings are rarely known for their excitement. But on the last day of this month’s annual summit in Phnom Penh, the current chairman of the 10-country bloc, Cambodia’s long-serving Prime Minister Hun Sen, did...
Border spat set to drag on
YESTERDAY, Thai media reported that Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and nationalist Yellow Shirt leaders had reached a “common position” on the 4.6-square kilometre disputed area adjacent to Preah Vihear temple. In a televised debate with the so-called Thai Patriots Network, a fringe group dominated by the yellow-shirted People’s Alliance for Democracy, Abhisit agreed that the...
From carpet-bombing to friendship-building
As Cambodia and the United States celebrate six decades of diplomatic ties, the Post looks back at a relationship that has moved from alliance to alienation and back. By Sebastian Strangio & Neth Pheaktra.
Cambodia balances East and West
PHNOM PENH – AT a ceremony last month marking the construction of the US$128 million Cambodia-China Prek Kdam Friendship Bridge in Kandal province, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said the growth in aid and investment from China was boosting economic development and strengthening his country’s “political independence”. “China respects the political decisions of Cambodia,” he...
