ASEAN News

Russia’s envoy to Afghanistan complimented the Taliban’s behavior yesterday, saying the group, which is still officially classified as a terrorist organization in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under previous administrations. The remarks by Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov reflect an overt effort by Russia to strengthen its long-standing ties with the Taliban while …

The ASEAN’s progress in Myanmar has not been as successful as anticipated, according to Singapore‘s foreign minister. United Nations and many countries have urged the bloc, which includes Myanmar, to restore stability via diplomacy. Vivian Balakrishnan remarked that ASEAN is not as effective or fast as they expected. “But this is a difficult situation.” she added. ASEAN established a five-point …

State auditors have identified accounting irregularities and inadequacies totaling billions of pesos in the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) 2020 financial report, which the DA has promised to correct going forward. According to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) annual audit report on the DA, there were P32.362 billion in accounting errors, including the absence of subsidiary ledgers and insufficient accounting records …

Taiwan, unlike Afghanistan, will not collapse in the case of an assault, Premier Su Tseng-chang said today, issuing an oblique warning to strong neighbor China not to be misguided into believing it could conquer the island. China, which claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, has increased military and diplomatic pressure on Taipei to recognize Chinese sovereignty, prompting alarm in …

President Rodrigo Duterte is confident that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would overcome Covid-19, just as it has overcome many obstacles in the past. Duterte made the statement as ASEAN marked the 54th anniversary of its foundation. He said that the ASEAN member nations are no strangers to adversity, adding that the regional bloc’s ties of amity and …

Among ASEAN’s ten countries, the Philippines’ labor force fared the worst in 2020, suffering the “highest working-hour losses” due in part to lockdowns enforced in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), although all ASEAN nations experienced substantial reductions in working hours and the Philippines had seen the greatest declines in working hours, totaling 13.6 …

The Israeli Embassy in Singapore has condemned recent social media postings comparing the Singapore government’s Covid-19 response to the Holocaust, saying such analogies belittle the genocide’s atrocities. The embassy wrote on Facebook on August 12 that comments comparing the “clear health advantages of vaccines that have benefitted billions worldwide are not only in poor taste, but also distort the Holocaust …

The Department of Transportation (DOTr) blamed the delay in license plate manufacturing on budget limitations at the Land Transportation Office (LTO), after the agency was chastised by the Commission on Audit (COA) for failing to produce P2.159 billion in license plates. DOTr said in a statement that the mentioned backlog in plate manufacturing is attributable to the LTO’s lack of …

Until recently, Vietnam’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak has been an extraordinary success story. Once the scope of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan was known in January 2020, significant outbreaks in other Asian countries were predicted. When Vietnam was one among the first nations to report human-to-human transmission, it was thought that a large-scale outbreak was unavoidable. Vietnam, on the …

Manny Pacquiao of the Philippines said on Wednesday that the “only danger” in changing opponents for next week’s world welterweight boxing title fight is shifting from a southpaw opponent to a right-handed opponent. After American Errol Spence Jr. was pulled out of the fight on Tuesday after a left eye injury, the 42-year-old Filipino Senator puts on his gloves to …