Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, February 23) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will visit the Philippines next week to meet with President Rodrigo Duterte and Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro “Teddy Boy” Locsin Jr. Pompeo will be in Manila for a two-day trip from February 28 to March 1, the U.S. Department of State said […]

BEIJING (Reuters) – China would welcome a visit by Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday, a day after Hammond said talk of deploying a British warship in the Pacific had complicated bilateral relations. As Britain prepares to exit the European Union at the end of next month, its biggest […]

WASHINGTON – A U.S. Defense Department report warns that China’s military buildup is reaching the point where it can attempt to “impose its will on the region and beyond.” Visiting recently with senior officials from two U.S. allies in the region, Japan and Singapore, gave me a visceral feeling of how things look on the […]

China’s structure-building effort in the disputed South China Sea had so expanded that facilities had been built beyond the Asian power’s original Nine-Dash Line territorial claim, GMA News TV program State of the Nation with Jessica Soho reported on Friday. According to think-tank Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, China had been accelerating its South China Sea […]

This latest FONOP stood out in that it showed an increased pace of such challenges coming only a little over a month since the last one in; it involved two US warships instead of the usual single one; and it targeted a Philippines-occupied feature as well as one occupied by China–perhaps because it was trying […]

A recent statement has spotlighted Jakarta’s ongoing efforts in this respect. Earlier this week, a top Indonesian official made headlines when he said that Indonesia planned to establish a fishing zone in waters north of the Natuna Islands to preserve the country’s interests there. Though the statement constitutes a reinforcement of preexisting efforts by Jakarta […]

Indonesia plans to develop lucrative fishing grounds in the South China Sea as part of efforts to assert its sovereign authority over waters in which it has clashed with China. The Natuna Islands on the edge of the South China Sea, rich in gas and fish stocks, would be developed into a fishing hub, Indonesia’s […]

The new US Ambassador to Australia Arthur Culvahouse has accused China of being “inappropriately aggressive” and failing to play by the rules across the Indo-Pacific region. In strongly worded comments, he said China’s recent behaviour, including its “coercive” economic approach and military brinkmanship in the South China Sea makes the Australia-US alliance more relevant than […]

At the U.S.-North Korea summit, the host may be the biggest winner. As the world waits to see if U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un make any headway at next week’s summit in Hanoi, the hosts see a diplomatic coup of their own. Vietnam, among the world’s poorest pariah states […]

JAKARTA: Indonesia plans to open a fishing zone within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) at the southern edge of the disputed South China Sea, most of which is claimed by China, later this year, to prevent foreign encroachment, a cabinet minister said Wednesday. Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Pandjaitan told a press conference the […]