Packages from £10 per monthPackages from £10 per month An offshore tanker collided with a pipelay vessel off the island of Bintan in the South China Sea, sinking the £77 million ship. The crash with the Antea tanker punctured a hole in the side of the Star Centurion pipelay vessel causing it to tip onto […]

The 27th Annual Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Parliamentary Forum has put the South China Sea dispute, peace in the Korean peninsula and human rights problems in Myanmar on top of its agenda for discussions. Chheang Vun, spokesman and chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission at the National Assembly, said yesterday at a press conference that […]

As China and the United States continue to wrestle over trade disputes and geopolitics, Vietnam is performing a balancing act in the stormy South China Sea as it seeks to maintain its strong ties with Washington while not upsetting Beijing, experts said. Earlier this week, Hanoi used the latest row over a US freedom of […]

BEIJING (AP) — A look at recent developments in the South China Sea, where China is pitted against smaller neighbors in multiple disputes over islands, coral reefs and lagoons in waters crucial for global commerce and rich in fish and potential oil and gas reserves: The U.S. and Australian militaries are joining for an annual […]

The main obstacle to multilateral cooperation on environmental management in the South China Sea and the Spratlys has always been mutual suspicion Nationalism is the fundamental driver of national policy in this arena and the primary obstacle to cooperation of any kind James Borton and Jackson Ewing reprise the romantic proposal for a cooperative environmental […]

MANILA, Philippines — Many of the Chinese fishing vessels around the Kalayaan Island Group (KIG) in the Spratlys archipelago are manned by militia and soldiers disguised as fishermen, a defense department insider said yesterday. “We know for a fact that PLAN has been sending and funding their maritime militia aboard dozens upon dozens of civilian […]

During his first official address of the new year to the nation’s military forces, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday ordered the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the country’s armed forces, to prepare for battle. “All military units must correctly understand major national security and development trends, and strengthen their sense of unexpected hardship, crisis and […]

Fresh from celebrating four decades since the downfall of the former Khmer Rouge rulers, Cambodia welcomed several Chinese warships. Just days after last week’s anniversary, the vessels docked in the resort city of Sihanoukville, reviving concerns about the implications of close military ties between the two countries and the possibility China is planning a naval […]

IN A DESPERATE bid to reduce tensions between the US and China over the South China Sea spiralling out of control a top US Navy Chief has been sent to hold talks with Beijing. Sail-throughs by the US Navy in the hotly sought-after South China Sea have forced a top US Navy Commander to meet […]

Growing defense budgets have underwritten a sizable arms buildup in Southeast Asia since around the turn of the century. Regional navies have particularly benefited from increased military expenditures, and as a result, many Southeast Asian navies are in the process of transforming themselves from modest forces oriented mainly toward coastal defense to modern fleets capable […]