Australia is Tonga’s largest aid partner but on the ground in the capital Nuku’alofa it certainly doesn’t feel that way. “China Aid” logos adorn trucks and public buildings, airport x-ray machines and ...

The United States chose veteran Emirati diplomat Anwar Gargash to deliver President Donald Trump’s message offering direct talks to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, reinforcing an open message to ...

Money was an amazing invention that drove productivity growth by facilitating exchange. Unlike the old barter systems, when everyone in a market is willing to use a common token with an agreed ...

The media typically only has enough space to focus on one big story at a time. Trump’s tariffs are dominating now. Last week it was “Signal-gate”, after a journalist was added to a White House-led ...

As Australians head to the polls on 3 May, the stakes for foreign policy in the Indo-Pacific are quietly profound. From where I sit in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, the debate in Australia around national ...

Indonesia recently decided to involve military forces in forest protection, focusing on Sumatra and Kalimantan, where illegal palm oil plantations and mining activities have caused vast environmental ...

As the world gears up for COP30 in Brazil and the hopefully soon-to-be-announced COP31 in Australia (co-hosted with the Pacific), the urgency of the climate crisis has never been more apparent. Yet, ...

For decades, the tiger economies of the ASEAN region have flourished under an export-led growth model, anchored by strong trade relationships with major economies, including the United States and ...

Last week in response to the “Liberation Day” tariffs, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reached for the diplomatic gambit that has increasingly become the government’s go-to response to geo ...

The decision by the United States to withdraw from Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) agreements with Indonesia, Vietnam, and South Africa is a setback not only for climate action but also for ...

If, like me, you’ve had the (mis)fortune of attending a few too many dinner parties in Sydney, then you’d be well-acquainted with Australians’ preoccupation with home ownership. Older Australians are ...

Central Asia is suddenly winning friends and attention. In 2023, Germany set up the “Germany – Central Asia” platform, holding its first summit in September that year in Berlin. A year later, ...