Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the United States has turned down China’s unlawful maritime claims on the South China Sea and is siding with the Southeast Asian nations in standing against China’s oppression. In a video conference address, he told the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) that the United States is troubled with the …

Japanese Foreign Minister Motegi Toshimitsu  told his counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that it would be good to “meet face to face” again after more than a year of diplomacy-via-Zoom. Instead, ASEAN has granted this privilege to China, twice: first in Fujian province and again in Chongqing, just weeks apart. It is no surprise that Southeast …

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed support for a Southeast Asian diplomatic effort to end the political crisis in Myanmar. Lavrov, speaking during a visit to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said the Five Point Consensus agreed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc should be the basis by which the situation in Myanmar can be resolved.Lavrov told …

Myanmar protesters have burned mock coffins and pictures of the junta leader Min Aung Hlaing today in the latest demonstrations against the junta’s seizing power in February which led the Southeast Asian country into disorder. Messages on funeral wreaths such as “May you not rest in peace” and “may your birthday and death day be the same,” were spotted in …

ASEAN is currently in the face of the worsening regional flash points, from the South China Sea to the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN has been established since the 1967 to promote regional stability and economic growth. It has never been integrated into powerful community like the European Union and it does not aim to be one as well, however, ASEAN …

The opponents of Myanmar’s military junta said on Friday that their faith in the Southeast Asian efforts to put an end in the country’s coup crisis was now lost after the two regional envoys met up with the military ruler Min Aung Hlaing in the capital Naypyitaw The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has headed the main international diplomatic …

A US editor working for a Myanmar news site was detained yesterday over an attempt to take a flight out of the country. His news company said that since the coup in February, he was the fourth foreign journalist to be taken captive by the junta. According to Twitter post of the news site, the 37-year old Danny Fenster who …

ASEAN’s heads of government met in an informal summit in Jakarta, which as time has passed by so quickly – it has been a month since then – to discuss their collective response to the February coup in Myanmar. What an achievement it has been that, despite the presence of the coup leader Min Aung Hlaing, the group was able …

Myanmar’s political prisoners have told the Japanese journalists who were arrested for a short time about how they were tortured with beatings and sleep deprivation. Last month, Yuki Kitazumi was detained in Myanmar with other political prisoners in Insein prison located in Yangon and got released last week. He said to the reporters in Tokyo that he have met with …

The election of Myanmar last year showed the people’s will and that the army’s reason for seizing power cannot be justified as they claimed these flaws to take advantage and oust the democratic leader, according to international monitoring group’s final report given on Monday. The arrest of the democratic elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party dominated the November …