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The Myanmar junta and ethnic armed organization Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, signed a China-brokered ceasefire agreement, halting conflict in northern Shan state along the Chinese border, Reuters reported on Jan. 21. 

Myanmar: Ceasefire, Scam Crackdown Highlight Growing Regional Congruence

Energy

Thailand and Cambodia restarted negotiations to resolve their decades-old territorial dispute over a 27,000-square kilometer (about 10,425-square mile) area in the Gulf of Thailand called the "overlapping claims area," or OCA, Nikkei Asia reported on Dec. 13. 

Thailand, Cambodia: Countries To Renew Talks Over Petroleum-Rich Disputed Area

Economics

Thirteen months after signing an investment framework agreement with the China Road and Bridge Corporation, or CRBC, to construct the Funan Techo Canal in Cambodia, the expected Chinese funding has not materialized, Reuters reported Nov. 21.

Cambodia, China: Funding for Funan Techo Canal in Doubt

Cambodia is withdrawing from the 1999 Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle, Prime Minister Hun Manet announced, citing public order concerns and conceding to protesters he described as "extremists," the South China Morning Post reported on Sept. 25.

Cambodia: Pullout From Development Pact Risks Harming Relations With Neighbors

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Ministers from the 11-country Asia Zero Emissions Community, or AZEC, agreed to establish an Asian supply chain for sustainable fuel at a meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia, Nikkei Asia reported on Aug. 21.

Asia-Pacific: AZEC Countries To Collaborate on Sustainable Fuel Supply Chains

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began their annual meeting on July 25 in Vientiane, Laos, Nikkei Asia has reported.

ASEAN: Foreign Ministers Meet in Laos for Annual Summit

United States

U.S. officials said the United States would immediately start applying a 14.25% tariff on imported double-sided solar panels from Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, E&E News reported on May 16.

U.S.: Washington To Raise Tariffs on Southeast Asian Solar Panels

Construction on Cambodia's $1.7 billion China-funded Mekong River diversion project, dubbed the Funan Techo Canal, is set to begin later in 2024, Reuters reported on May 7, citing Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol.

Cambodia: Mekong Diversion Canal Project To Begin Construction This Year

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The lobby of the headquarters for the U.S. Agency for International Development is seen on Feb. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. 

Social Issues

Cuts to U.S.-funded humanitarian and development programs could worsen global health outcomes, destabilize security environments, accelerate democratic backsliding, and create opportunities for rival powers to expand their influence.

The Global Implications of Trump's Foreign Aid Cuts

The Geopolitics of Water

Amid pressing energy and geopolitical needs, the accelerating construction of upstream dams will exacerbate the Mekong River region's water shortages and environmental degradation.

The Geopolitics of Water: National Interests Sideline Environmental Concerns in the Mekong River Region

Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (center) and other ASEAN leaders take part in the 2024 ASEAN summit in Vientiane on Oct. 9, 2024. 

The deals signed at the summit reflect an increasing focus on economic integration amid the Southeast Asian bloc's continued failure to find consensus on security issues.

Reviewing the 2024 ASEAN Summit

The flags of ASEAN members are displayed at a naval base during the ASEAN Solidarity Exercise in Batam, Natuna regency, Riau Islands province, Indonesia, on Sept. 20, 2023. 

ASEAN's economic and geopolitical diversity will impede significant progress toward deeper integration, despite members' intention to collaborate more closely.

Economic and Geopolitical Diversity Hinders ASEAN's Path to Deeper Integration

Turkey

Germany

France

Uzbekistan

Turkmenistan

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

The escalating impacts of climate change and water scarcity will inflame tensions between Central Asian countries, raising the risk of violent state conflict in the coming decades. 

The Geopolitics of Water: The Looming Threat of Central Asian 'Water Wars'

The Mekong River and Tonle Sap River meet at Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

The project will substantially reduce Cambodia's trade dependence on Vietnam, while contributing to China's broader geopolitical goal of constructing a global network of friendly ports.

Cambodia's Funan Techo Canal Marks a Loss for Vietnam and a Win for China

An aerial photo taken on Sept. 25, 2022, shows solar panels at the Sao Mai solar energy plant in Vietnam’s An Giang province. 

Several ASEAN countries are on track to develop substantial renewable power capacities in the short term, but technical, political and financial constraints, coupled with incentives to keep burning fossil fuels, will impede long-term decarbonization goals.

The Challenges Facing Southeast Asia's Decarbonization

Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida (R) delivers an opening address at the start of a bilateral meeting with Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone (L) at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo, Japan, on Dec. 16, 2023.

Laos' vulnerabilities will weaken its ASEAN chairmanship, although the bloc's economic interconnectivity will likely continue to grow.

Laos' Limitations Portend a Lukewarm Year for ASEAN

Snapshots

Regional leaders pose for a group photo before the ASEAN-Australia summit, held as part of the 43rd ASEAN summit in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Sept. 7, 2023. From left to right stand the Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Thailand's Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Sarun Charoensuwan, Vietnam's Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Indonesia's President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, Laos' Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, Brunei's Prime Minister Hassanal Bolkiah, Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet, Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

U.S.-China Relations

ASEAN's most recent summit underscored chronic passivity within the bloc that will only worsen in 2024. 

Amid ASEAN's Inaction, the Block's Members Look to External Partners for Security

Hun Manet, the eldest son of Cambodia's long-ruling prime minister Hun Sen, shows his finger after voting in the country's general election in Phnom Penh on July 23, 2023. 

The victory secures Cambodia's undemocratic slide by paving the way for dynastic rule, which will likely push the country deeper into China's orbit by further isolating it from the West.

Cambodia's Ruling Party 'Wins' Another One-Sided Election

Spain

A vandalized billboard promoting Spain's far-right Vox party with an image of its leader is seen near Madrid on July 19, 2023. 

A look at what the coming week will bring -- and a list of recommended RANE articles from the week that was.

The Weekly Rundown: Spain Holds a High-Stakes Election, African Leaders Visit Russia

A Chinese coast guard ship sails past anchored Philippine fishing boats in the Scarborough Shoal, in the disputed South China Sea, on Feb. 3, 2023.

A binding code of conduct in the South China Sea remains unlikely, despite the resumption of negotiations between claimant states.

With No Deal in Sight, South China Sea Claimants Continue to Militarize

Cambodia occupies a transition zone between the western and eastern portions of mainland Southeast Asia and is defined by its weak geopolitical position between Thailand and Vietnam. This vulnerability led to massive instability throughout the 1946 to 1989 Indochina Wars and into the 1990s. In ancient times, the Cambodian Angkor empire controlled much of the Mekong Basin to the north, parts of Thailand, and extend east to the South China Sea. Since the fall of Angkor in the 15th century, however, Cambodia has been gradually eaten away by the expansion of powers to its east and west.     Cambodia's core is the basin of the seasonal Tonle Sap lake and the lowlands where the Mekong River flows toward Vietnam. This region is home to much of Cambodia's population and produces its vital agricultural surplus. It also contains the capital city of Phnom Penh, which is a center for Cambodia's low-end manufacturing sector that accounts for nearly 80 percent of the country's exports.     Having lost the Mekong Delta, modern Cambodia's only coastline is a 440-kilometer (273-mile) strip on the Gulf of Thailand that is largely screened off from the country's interior by the Elephant and Cardamom mountains. Furthermore, Cambodia lacks control of its main river system, the Mekong, which enters the South China Sea through southern Vietnam.     Cambodia's unachievable imperative is to reclaim its lost buffer space and its eastern access to the sea via the Mekong. But its weak geopolitical hand makes modern Cambodia's achievable imperative to protect its lowland core and enlist the help of a foreign patron to guard against its powerful neighbors. However, doing so risks making the country into a client state or causing it to fall prey to a great power's games.

SITUATION REPORTS

Myanmar: Ceasefire, Scam Crackdown Highlight Growing Regional Congruence

Thailand, Cambodia: Countries To Renew Talks Over Petroleum-Rich Disputed Area

Cambodia, China: Funding for Funan Techo Canal in Doubt

Cambodia: Pullout From Development Pact Risks Harming Relations With Neighbors

Asia-Pacific: AZEC Countries To Collaborate on Sustainable Fuel Supply Chains

ASEAN: Foreign Ministers Meet in Laos for Annual Summit

U.S.: Washington To Raise Tariffs on Southeast Asian Solar Panels

Cambodia: Mekong Diversion Canal Project To Begin Construction This Year

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