On August 5, the Philippines formally opened the ASEAN Youth Summit 2026, with the theme “Digital Resilience and Responsible Use of Technologies,” bringing together youth leaders, policymakers and development partners from across Southeast Asia to strengthen digital resilience and promote the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI).
Category: Countries
ASEAN Regional Forum Urges Nuclear Disarmament and Regional Security
On July 23, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) reaffirmed its commitment to nuclear disarmament, calling on nuclear weapon states to fulfil their obligations under international law, while addressing regional security concerns including the Korean Peninsula, the South China Sea (SCS), Myanmar and the Middle East.
The Fight for Clean Air Has Many Fronts. One of Them Is Algae.
The device on Rehaan Lulla’s desk looks like a lava lamp. A tall glass column, a slow swirl of green and a soft glow. What it is invisibly doing is drawing carbon dioxide out of the room and releasing oxygen more efficiently than the pot plants most people keep for the same reason. The organism inside is microalgae, grown for decades as food and as a cosmetics ingredient, which Rehaan’s start-up AlGreen has repurposed to clean the air.
Indonesia Net-Zero Summit 2026 Explores Practical Solutions for Climate Transition
On August 1, the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) held the Indonesia Net-Zero Summit (INZS) 2026, the country’s largest independent climate forum, bringing together more than 10,000 participants, including policymakers, business leaders, academics, youth representatives, civil society organisations and climate practitioners. Commenced at Balai Kartini in Jakarta, this year’s summit carried the theme “It’s Time to Deliver!”, highlighting the need to translate global and national climate commitments into concrete and measurable action.
EU Sanctions Southeast Asian Scam Networks Over Human Rights Violations
The European Union (EU) has enforced restrictive measures against Southeast Asian scam centres responsible for “serious human rights violations”, penalising the reported associates with asset freezes and travel bans.
Southeast Asia’s Fourth Swing: the ISEAS 2026 Survey and Strategic Autonomy Under Strain
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Beyond Regime Type: VAWP as the Threat for Women in Southeast Asia
Women’s representation in government is fundamental to achieving good governance and, to some extent, substantive democracy. The importance of women in politics stems from the hypothesis that shared identity leads women politicians to care more about women’s issues in policymaking than their male colleagues. Some studies support this hypothesis, showing that female member of parliaments (MPs) tend to prioritise issues related to women, such as abortion, domestic violence and rape.
South China Sea Ruling Still Worth Defending, Experts Tell Jakarta Conference
July 12 of this year marks a decade of the Arbitral Award, where the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in The Hague found no legal basis for China’s nine-dash line claim, a statement it handed down under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) on 2016. Beijing rejected it then and ignores it now, leaving Southeast Asia to manage a verdict that is binding in law but unbacked by any mechanism to compel compliance.
In the South China Sea, US$5.3 Trillion in Trade Rides on An Unsettled Dispute
Around 5.3 trillion US dollar in trade transits the South China Sea each year, a waterway whose legal status remains unsettled. A decade ago, precisely on July 12, 2016, the Arbitral Award issued by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) in the Hague rejected Beijing’s claims over the sea. However, China’s refusal to recognise it leaves the rules governing one of the world’s busiest trade channels continuously contested. For the region’s economies, that ambiguity is not an abstraction but a durable risk to supply chains, energy flows and food security.
Beyond Tariffs: The Customs Gap Quietly Reshaping Southeast Asia’s E-Commerce Growth
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