ASEAN – The U.S. government announced new partnership to aid five Southeast Asian countries in an effort to take another bite out of Chinese influence in the region. On September 11, The Mekong-U.S. Partnership was formed by offering aid to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam for project related to Covid-19 relief to anti-drought measures. The US government hopes to …

METRO MANILA – Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. posted on his twitter account yesterday that there was no “exchange” in the absolute pardon given by the president to the convicted killer US Army personnel Joseph Scott Pemberton. There is no exchange. I clinched that purely on my charm with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. I insisted that it …

The ventilator assistance from the United States (US) as many 100 units have arrived in Indonesia on Wednesday, July 22. This was revealed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi on Thursday. “This is the first stage of delivery of a total of 1,000 ventilator units that will arrive gradually,” she said in a virtual press conference from Jakarta …

It seems that digital companies based in the United States (US) that operate in several countries including Indonesia, such as streaming services Netflix, social media Facebook, digital music streaming Spotify, also giant e-commerce Amazon, cannot yet be charged digital tax in the near future. This was stated by Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani who said that Indonesia and the major …

The Southeast Asian Region may be more favorable and have a strong support for democratic values, The influence of China in the region has been growing steadily amid the health crisis. China proximity to the region has named the powerhouse the biggest trading partner of Asean and is expected to maintain that position in the next decade. According to a …

Metro Manila – The Philippines has announced yesterday that it has suspended its plan to terminate the Visiting Forces Agreement with the US after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to pull the country out of the bilateral agreement. Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said that the President has directed the Department of Foreign Affairs to inform the United States through …

Handling Covid-19 outbreak certainly need huge amount of financial, especially when it has spread to almost regions across the country. Although every country are currently struggling with the condition, they also contribute to help other countries that need support to combat the virus. Indonesia has received US$3 million in aid from the United States to help battle the COVID-19 outbreak. …

The Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani, responded to the lifting of Indonesia from the list of developing countries by the United States (US) by saying that it did not have to cause excessive fear, but instead had to boost Indonesia’s competitiveness. “Indonesia has so far been included as a middle-ranked country, so indeed it must continue to increase competitiveness,” she …

The Government of the United States of America (US) considers Indonesia to be included in the ranks of developed countries in international trade. For this reason, the US excludes Indonesia from developing country status. Responding to the attitude of the US government, Indonesia must view this as a challenge. Therefore, both the business community and the government need to work …