NewsBite

Laos

October

NA

Anthony Albanese has yet to grow into the prime minister’s job

The prime minister is a political operator rather than a visionary. His inability to persuade and sustain arguments is beginning to show.

  • James Curran
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Chinese Premier Li Qiang will meet in Laos.

Albanese to press China on trade

The Association of South-East Asian Nations leaders’ summit will take place in Vientiane, Laos this week, the latest international push by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

  • Tom McIlroy

July

Penny Wong at the DMZ in South Korea.

Wong calls on China to rein in North Korea

The foreign minister acknowledged that countries all around Asia are beefing up their defence capabilities in response to China’s dramatic military expansion.

  • Staff reporters

May

Executives at some of Australia’s most prestigious universities have hit back over the crackdown on foreign student numbers.

International students show our statecraft missing in action

Educating the region’s high-flyers is a major source of soft power for Australia. But we are in danger of taking it for granted.

  • Susannah Patton
Russian soldiers march during the Victory Day military parade dress rehearsal in Red Square.

Russia not looking for global power clash: Putin

Vladimir Putin now casts the war as part of a holy struggle with the West, which he says has forgotten the role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany.

  • Updated
  • Guy Faulconbridge
Advertisement

March

Laos Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese  on Wednesday.

Sense of urgency as Australia finds its true international identity

There is a meaning to be extracted from the ASEAN summit for Australia’s international identity.

  • James Curran

November 2023

Henry Kissinger

Kissinger’s advice to aspiring leaders still holds

The arch foreign policy realist both intrigued and infuriated those around him and so many who have tried to assess his legacy.

  • James Curran
A villa terrace at Rosewood Luang Prabang, complete with its own private plunge pool.

At this oasis in Laos, you get your own plunge pool and butterflies

The centuries-old town of Luang Prabang was once known only to backpackers and Buddhists. Luxury boutique hotels have put it on the map.

  • Trudy Harris

October 2023

Heritage Line’s luxurious Anouvong cruises the upper Mekong between Luang Prabang and the Thai border.

Unwind on a Mekong River cruise: an ex-monk will show you how

Leave Western cares behind on this voyage into Asia’s lush Golden Triangle in Laos. Downing home-made whisky with a village elder is optional.

  • Trudy Harris

January 2023

Mike Cannon-Brookes and Andrew Forrest have fallen out over the Sun Cable solar power transmission project.

Sun Cable was a colossus that collapsed under its own weight

It wasn’t just the giant egos in the power project. It was economics, engineering and physics too gigantic to stack up.

  • Matthew Warren

September 2022

A supermarket in Yunnan province, China. The policy of relentlessly suppressing coronavirus outbreaks through snap lockdowns and mass testing has restricted mobility and sapped consumer activity.

China growth to fall behind rest of Asia for first time since 1990

The World Bank has revised down its forecast for gross domestic product growth in the world’s second-largest economy to 2.8 per cent, compared with 8.1 per cent last year.

  • Edward White and Mercedes Ruehl

July 2022

The Lane Xang EMU train arrives at the northern Laos’ border town of Boten, after passing by the China-Laos borderline, Oct. 16, 2021. The streamlined “China-standard” bullet train, or electric multiple unit EMU train, for the China-Laos railway arrived at the newly built China-Laos Railway Vientiane Station on Saturday. The EMU train was officially delivered to the Laos-China Railway Co., Ltd., a joint venture based in the Lao capital Vientiane in charge of the railway’s construction and operation, at a handover ceremony held in the station with the attendance of Chinese Ambassador to Laos Jiang Zaidong and Lao Minister of Public Works and Transport Viengsavath Siphandone.TO GO WITH “Bullet train for China-Laos railway arrives in Vientiane” (Photo by Cao Anning/Xinhua via Getty Images) Feb5Cover

Can the West dismantle China’s pan-Asian railway dream?

Fast train plans are a concern for Western nations worried about China’s growing influence in the region. There is something awfully permanent about a train line once it’s in.

  • Emma Connors

October 2021

Gain-of-function activities that occurred at the Wuhan Institute of Virology – and their alleged links to the origins of the Sars-Cov-2 outbreak – have come under growing scrutiny.

Wuhan and US team planned to engineer new virus

Leaked documents reveal the international team of scientists was planning to mix genetic data of closely related strains, and grow new viruses.

  • Sarah Knapton

May 2021

Protesters take positions behind a barricade as police gather in Yangon, Myanmar, in March.

ASEAN is yet to shine on Myanmar

It was immediately apparent in the aftermath of the February coup how much was at stake for ASEAN’s relevance and credibility. As violence continues on the streets, this remains the case.

  • Liam Gammon

March 2021

Women hold a portrait of deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, during an anti-coup demonstration in Mandalay, Myanmar, Friday, March 5, 2021. Protests continue in Myanmar against the Feb 1 military coup that ousted the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Despite daily operations by police to disperse the crowds, defiant protesters continue to return to the streets in parts of the country.

All risk, few options in Myanmar

The coup in Myanmar will weaken ASEAN just when outsiders want it to look solid in an era of big-power competition.

  • Ben Bland
Advertisement

October 2020

US-China tension is sore point for ASEAN solidarity.

ASEAN feels pinch of big-power rivalry

In the midst of China's growing power and Trump's critical view of it, ASEAN is reasserting its relevance as a rallying point for nations in the region.

  • Peter Drysdale

September 2020

ASEAN foreign ministers watching Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc open the ASEAN foreign ministers meeting ahead of this weekend's summit.

Asia summits kick off amid China tensions

Russia, Japan, Australia, South Korea and India are among those remotely joining an event hosted by Vietnam that will include a 27-nation security forum, as concern grows about rhetoric and accidental conflict.

  • James Pearson and Khanh Vu
Mike Pompeo: "We're simply demanding reciprocity."

Pompeo announces fresh restrictions on Chinese diplomats in US

The US will now require senior Chinese diplomats to get State Department approval before visiting US university campuses.

  • Humeyra Pamuk and David Brunnstrom

June 2020

Phuket could be the prototype for a new breed of island getaways, the Thai government says.

Vietnam and Thailand look to lead regional tourism revival

The two countries are looking to lure well-heeled travellers to getaways on their own islands as they promote what has become the most important asset for tourism-dependent economies: a low COVID-19 count.

  • Updated
  • Emma Connors

February 2020

The number of cases of the deadly new coronavirus COVID-19 rose to more than 55000 in mainland China on Friday.

Virus may push Asian region into recession

Coronavirus is likely to affect the economies of Asian nations, while sending tremors of a likely recession into Singapore, a report shows.

  • Wang Liwei, Zhang Yu and Tang Ziyi

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/laos-byr