President Prabowo Subianto (right) shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (left) after signing the Treaty on Common Security during the latter's work visit to the State Palace in Jakarta on Feb. 6, 2026.

Indonesia–Australia: Neighbors by geography, allies by necessity

Once built, trust has to be continuously nurtured to enable the two countries to contribute fully to the maintenance of peace and security in the region.

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Suahasil can restore budget credibility, but challenges remain

The new finance minister brings steady hands and deep institutional memory, but restoring fiscal credibility will mean making the hard choices his predecessor avoided. ...

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Chinese SMEs in Malaysia and ASEAN: Coming in fast and furious

As agile Chinese SMEs rapidly plant roots across Southeast Asia, Malaysia faces a high-stakes choice: harness their momentum to build a regional powerhouse, or watch its own businesses get crowded out. ...

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A container is loaded onto a cargo ship on April 16, 2025, at the Port Hai Phong in Northern Vietnam.

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Democratic dilemma: Communist Vietnam outpaces Indonesia, Philippines

As Communist-led Vietnam laps Southeast Asia's sluggish democracies in growth and foreign capital, ordinary citizens in Jakarta and Manila are left asking an uncomfortable question: Does democracy actually hinder prosperity?

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Chinese President Xi Jinping (center) attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Tianjin on Sept. 1, 2025, in this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik.

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A fractured world tests the limits of multilateralism

From Central Asia to the Pacific, sovereign states are proving that global rules cannot remain the exclusive playground of great powers.

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A satellite image shows black smoke rising from an area of Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline south of Medina, Hejaz region, Saudi Arabia on Sept. 10, 2026.

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The Red Sea crisis exposes BRICS’ deep divisions

Rapid expansion of the bloc means that its 21 members have deeply divergent interests, particularly in the Middle East.

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The leaders of participating countries take a “family photograph” on Sept. 13, 2026, during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

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Twenty years on, BRICS faces a defining choice

Amid shifting global power dynamics and emerging economies seeking a stronger voice, a central issue for BRICS today is whether it should continue as an informal group or take steps toward becoming a formal organization.

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Coal is loaded onto barges at a jetty operated by the group along the Kedang Kepala River in Senyiur village, East Kutai regency, East Kalimantan, in this file photo.

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The Bayan valuation mystery: When markets need answers, not speculation

When a $26 billion giant is targeted for $4.8 billion, the real casualty isn’t price—it’s trust.

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Two schoolchildren look over a densely populated informal settlement in the Kebon Melati neighborhood of Jakarta, on Aug. 7, 2026. Statistics Indonesia reported that the country's poverty rate stood at 8.07 percent in March 2026, with 22.93 million people living below the poverty line, down by 430,000 from September 2025.

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Global development's missing ingredient

Faith-based institutions committed to human dignity and pluralism can play an instrumental role in building the infrastructure required for grassroots organizing at scale.

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In this pool photograph distributed by the Russian state agency Sputnik, leaders of participating countries gather for a family photograph during the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on Sept. 13, 2026.

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Delhi's BRICS moment: A bite without teeth

New Delhi Declaration holds an 11-nation bloc together, but ducks the Middle East, and Washington breathes easy.

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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (right) and his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail arrive during the 69th National Day celebrations in Malaysia's administrative capital Putrajaya on Aug. 31, 2026.

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Malaysia’s election drums, political sums

Can Malaysia's UMNO pressure Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim into calling for an early election?

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Oil markets survived the Iran war sprint. Now comes the marathon

The Iran war is no longer a short-lived energy supply shock, but a prolonged, unpredictable test of global economic endurance.

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A signpost is seen in Pantai Melayu village on Rempang Island, Batam city, Riau Islands, announcing that the Batam Free Trade Zone Authority (BP Batam) has the rights to manage the land, reportedly to be used as a Sekolah Rakyat location, as seen on July 15, 2026. BP Batam's unilateral claim is strenuously challenged by villagers, who say they own the land.

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The Land Bank paradox: For profit or justice?

Masked as agrarian reform, the national Land Bank is quietly dispossessing the rural poor to serve corporate profit, and a rushed new bill is about to make it permanent.

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People walk near DayOne data center at Nongsa Digital Park (NDP) on July 20 in Batam city, Riau Islands. Batam has attracted at least 16 new data centers in various stages, despite limited utility infrastrucutre of clean water and electricity.

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Cyber resilience requires fixing Indonesia’s old tech

But a law that responds to cyber-attacks without addressing the governance conditions that made it so damaging will leave the country just as exposed.

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Banners decorate the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington on April 13, the first day of the 2026 Spring Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank Group (WBG).

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The program redesign the IMF needs

As the IMF undertakes the first major evaluation of its guidelines for program design since 2019, it should focus on three features of its lending toward reform, given widespread debt distress in developing countries.

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A boy is treated for food poisoning at a Jakarta hospital on April 4, 2026, after consuming food provided via the government’s free nutritious meal program.

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The benefit of the doubt has expired

The government must urgently start turning its authority into results to fulfill the promises made to the people in 1945.

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People protest against South Korea’s potential military involvement in the US operations in the Strait of Hormuz on Sept. 9 in Seoul.

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Korean troops for the US-Israeli war against Iran?

The question now is whether Seoul will send military forces to support the US-Israeli war with Iran. But even limited participation could carry serious risks.

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An online motorcycle transportation driver drops off a passenger on Jan. 14, 2026, in front of a shopping mall in East Jakarta.

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Skepticism around green ride‑hailing: How to gain riders’ trust

Without clear standards, it will be difficult for users to distinguish between serious environmental commitments and superficial green promotion.

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Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin delivers a presentation on April 20 during a meeting with House of Representatives Commission IX at the Senayan parliamentary complex, Jakarta. The meeting discussed the handling of extraordinary outbreaks of measles and other infectious diseases, as well as an evaluation of the national immunization program.

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Electing a new WHO boss: An opportunity for Indonesia and the world

Faced with an existential budget crisis and a fractured world order, the WHO needs an executive turnaround more than another doctor - and Indonesia’s Budi Gunadi Sadikin may be the outsider built for the job.

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Free speech on trial: Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS) coordinator Fatia Maulidiyanti (center) leaves the courtroom after a hearing on Nov. 13, 2023 at the East Jakarta District Court. State prosecutors are demanding a three-year prison sentence for Fatia for her alleged defamation of Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

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A small victory for big freedom: Court shows the way

A government institution has no feelings to hurt, and the Constitutional Court just reminded power that its reputation is protected by performance, not prison.

2 weeks ago

Anti-contagion bastion: The bright facade of the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Disease Hospital stands out on May 12, 2026 in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

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When an invisible hazard crosses national borders

Unlike seasonal smoke, the next cross-border hazard won't announce itself in the sky—it will quietly arrive on the workplace floor.

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Health advocates: People hold a rally on Sept. 8, 2026 in Yogyakarta to demand the government end the free nutritious meal (MBG) program following repeated cases of mass food poisoning.

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Civil society needs protection, not stigmatization

Prabowo’s londo ireng remark directed at civil society groups does not reflect the actual policy work civil society is providing, including the promotion of democratic values, good governance and human rights perspectives.

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Silvery glow: President Prabowo Subianto (left) and Democratic Party chairman Agus Harimurti Yudhoyono symbolically light an electric flame on Sept. 9, 2026 to open the party’s 25th anniversary celebration at the Indonesia Arena at the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex in Central Jakarta.

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SBY’s foreign policy legacy and the Democratic Party

SBY tenure marked a phase of both consolidation and a renaissance for Indonesia’s foreign policy.

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An Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) is displayed on Aug. 27, 2025, during the inauguration of a new artillery plant of ammunition maker Rheinmetall, in Unterluess, Germany.

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Europe’s greatest mistake: Military interests trump security

The collision of an aging population, escalating climate damages and massive remilitarization is set to present an unprecedented, compounding threat to the future well-being of Europeans.

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A diver swims on March 7, 2022, amongst the coral on the Great Barrier Reef, off the coast of the Australian state of Queensland.

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The Great Barrier Reef refuses to die on schedule

Despite decades of media obituaries and rescheduled catastrophes, the Great Barrier Reef just delivered the best five years of coral cover in its 40-year recorded history.

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A group of women crosses a street in front of Perdana Putra, the office of the prime minister in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya, shrouded in haze from regional wildfires on Aug. 13, 2026.

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The remedy gap in transboundary haze

Building on the 2002 agreement, ASEAN has since declared the right to a clean and healthy environment and is now working on an action plan that may finally provide access to legal recourse for the region’s citizens harmed by transboundary haze pollution.

2 weeks ago

President Prabowo Subianto looks on as he arrives on Aug. 14 at the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta for the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) plenary meeting, in which he delivered the State of the Nation address and the 2027 state budget proposal. (Reuters/Stringer)

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Assessing the merit of the strategic commodities bill

In order to ensure the viability and merit of the bill, it is imperative for all of us to get clarity on ultimate purpose, intended impacts and legal soundness during the legislative process.

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Local members of Operation Madago Raya, a joint public security initiative on deradicalization and counterterrorism run by the National Police and the Indonesian Military, provide a box of basic staples to a former terrorist (second right) on Nov. 3, 2025, during a social assistance handover event in Poso, Central Sulawesi.

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The war on terror and its unintended consequences

We cannot claim our war on terror as a success if it breeds new generations of anger, alienation and hatred.

2 weeks ago

A worker sorts copper production at El Teniente mine, the world's largest underground copper mine in Machali, near Rancagua, Chile, on April 2, 2025.

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In a global economic heatwave, beware financial wildfires

Global growth is running hot into the second half of the year, forcing asset managers to find firebreaks while staying invested.

2 weeks ago

(left to right) Foreign Minister Sugiono, Japan's Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi, Laos' Foreign Minister Thongsavanh Phomvihane and ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn talk before a group photo during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Pasay, Metro Manila on July 23, 2026.

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From trust to Kizuna: 20 years of Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund

The next chapter of Japan-ASEAN relations will test whether the bond can endure amidst increasingly self-seeking and divisive geopolitical tendencies.

2 weeks ago

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