Landmark agreements on airspace, extradition and defence are not only a sign of a new age in bilateral relations, but a show of unity in contentious times.

With the pandemic worsening inequality and poverty, governments and businesses should help workers attain a living wage – which goes beyond subsistence needs.

Compulsory vaccinations targeting specific high-risk workers or sectors make more sense, but there needs to be a fair and firm system of penalties so as to not add to the mental health pressures of an ongoing pandemic.

In societies such as Hong Kong, with strong law enforcement, victim-blaming and fear of second trauma result in women staying silent, while a Singapore parliament debate has illuminated the problem of unhelpful societal attitudes.

Cutting hotel quarantine time is the first step, but the slow take-up of vaccinations is a hurdle to embracing a new normal.

Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand kept the virus under control in 2020 but are now seeing flare-ups. Singapore is on ‘a knife’s edge’ with its rise in community cases. These examples are a wake-up call to go get vaccinated.

Quarantine-free scheme will begin with one flight per day carrying 200 passengers, with a second flight added from June 10 if the coronavirus situation remains stable; vaccination exemptions will be made for medical reasons, those under age 16.

The two terror attacks in Indonesia this week point to an alarming trend: women are taking a leading role in extremist causes, and in some cases supplanting men as frontliners.

This needs to be an area of focus for Singapore this year. Similarly, Asian policymakers should promote gender awareness training in schools and zero tolerance for harassers, while celebrating positive male role models.

With loopholes in social-distancing policies and a lack of data, is extra-long quarantine really helping to suppress the pandemic in the community?

Corruption, unclear policies and a failure to battle misinformation fuelling vaccine hesitancy will compromise the potential benefits of mass inoculation.

A bill seeking to ease rigid labour laws for jobs creation has sparked mass protests by the very people the Indonesian president is seeking to help.

Domestic political dynamics continue to shape Jakarta’s foreign policy. But Beijing needs to navigate its relationship with Southeast Asia’s largest economy on new terms it has hitherto been unused to in its dealings with Asia.

A Singapore children’s book depicted a school bully as dark skinned while other pupils were fair. It’s just one of many racist tropes in media and literature.

Japan’s Olympics minister says contract with IOC calls for Games to be held in 2020.

Shincheonji leader apologises and seeks forgiveness from the public and government over infections.

Chan Chun Sing says the ‘most dangerous trajectory’ for global trade is nations ‘fragmenting’ their supply chains to reduce economic risks.

Vancouver-based developer Concord Pacific, which was once controlled by the Hong Kong billionaire, lost its suit against Oei over a multimillion-dollar waterfront site last week.

Vietnam’s actions to remove the Khmer Rouge regime from power in Cambodia in the late 1970s are still a source of division among Asean states.

Speaking on the sidelines of last week’s forum, the country’s investment minister says he finds Beijing’s openness to feedback ‘highly encouraging’.

The RM21.5 billion haircut on the original East Coast Rail Link deal demonstrates that clear parameters are possible for BRI projects from the start.

Speaking before the Belt and Road Forum, Ramon Lopez’s comments come after President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to deploy soldiers after Beijing allowed vessels to sail near a Philippine-claimed island in the South China Sea.

The vice-presidential candidate said the first economic priority of the Prabowo government would be to woo investments in the energy and agriculture sectors.

Indonesia’s presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto has been accused of playing to conservative Muslims in his effort to unseat Joko Widodo. No, his running mate tells This Week in Asia: they stand for unity – and the economy

Mikhy Farrera Brochez claimed in a series of Facebook posts that he had been tortured by Singapore police and gang raped by inmates who gave him HIV.

Prabowo’s ties with ethnic Chinese once wary of him reflects how his appeal may be broader than previously thought – but the election is about whether voters want to reward Jokowi with a second term.

Tasked with leading the Lion City between the reigns of Lee the father and Lee the son, Singapore’s second prime minister had a vital, but underappreciated, mission: showing there was life after the death of a legend.

Identity of the Lion City’s fourth prime minister will emerge soon after the ruling People’s Action Party’s internal elections next Sunday, says former Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong