China is finding the once-friendly ground of Southeast Asia bumpy going, with anger against Chinese claims to disputed islands, once reliable ally Burma (Myanmar) flirting with democracy and renewed American attention to the region.
The late President Corazon Aquino was praised here by Aussie leaders in a banquet hosted by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard for President Benigno Aquino III late Wednesday.
President Benigno Aquino on Thursday told visiting Burmese Foreign Minister U Wunna Maung Lwin that the Philippines supports the reforms being undertaken by Yangon and offered the government’s help in its transition to democracy.
Expressing optimism and appreciation for the new path of democratic reform that Burma (Myanmar) has taken, President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday joined other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) at a two-day summit here in calling for the lifting of international sanctions imposed on the country.
Southeast Asian leaders on Tuesday called for the lifting of international sanctions on Burma after the country’s historic by-elections, a senior Cambodian official said at a regional summit here.
Myanmar was making final preparations Saturday for polls seen as a test of the military-dominated regime’s reforms, in which opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is standing for the first time.
The Philippines has called on the global community to lift sanctions on Burma (Myanmar) to reward “unprecedented” reforms that are taking place and help the country move toward democracy.
Two world figures died recently, who were as different as night and day. Vaclav Havel, playwright, Czech dissident, and key figure in the bloodless transition from Communist state to a democratic nation, and Kim Jong-Il, dictator of North Korea, shuffled off their mortal coils recently, but in conditions vastly different from each other.
Myanmar freed an outspoken critic and a major ethnic rebel as it released 6,300 convicts in its latest liberalizing move, but kept some political detainees behind bars, dampening hopes for a broader amnesty.
Hailing Philippine national hero Jose Rizal as “the greatest Malayan,” Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim urged President Benigno Aquino III to carry the torch of freedom passed on to him by the country’s heroes and his own parents, and lead the struggle against tyranny in the Southeast Asian region. “As a son of a father [...]
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim on Friday said his country could learn a thing or two from the Philippines’ experience under a dictatorship. Anwar, who traveled to Manila to speak at a forum on national hero Jose Rizal, said he was appealing to Malaysian authorities to respect the rule of law, to stop filing trumped-up [...]
JAKARTA—Top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) would consider international opinion when they decide whether or not to allow Burma (Myanmar) to chair the regional bloc by 2014, according to Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan. “We live, interact, synergize and benefit from our relationship with the (rest of the) world. Certainly we [...]
