Asian Legal Review

In arguably his most important foreign trip, Elbridge Colby, US undersecretary for defence policy, visited key Southeast Asian capitals this month. In a speech in Manila, the Pentagon policy chief extolled America’s “flexible realism”, which he said serves “the practical, concrete interests of regular Americans” and echoes Southeast Asian nations’ commitment to “pragmatism, an openness to dialogue, respect for counterparts, proud nationalism, and a focus on economic prosperity”.
Amid the United…

A Singapore opposition lawmaker has urged that state investor Temasek’s money not be used to shore up Air India, after the Indian carrier had asked owners Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, which Temasek majority-owns, for US$1.5 billion.
Kenneth Tiong, a member of parliament for the opposition Workers’ Party, said ‌in a social media post on Wednesday that because Singapore Airlines owns about 25 per cent of Air India and Temasek in turn owns most of the Singapore carrier, the request was “not…

The Indonesian government announced Thursday that the upstream oil and gas sector will be exempted from the controversial single-gate export centralization policy, a significant reversal that underscores the political economy’s sensitivity in a capital-intensive industry reliant on foreign investment.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told delegates at the 2026 Indonesian Petroleum Association Convention and Exhibition in BSD City that the regulation under PP No. 21/2026 will not apply to upstream oil and gas operations. “I bring a special message from the President: the regulation does not apply to the upstream oil and gas sector. So, there is no need to worry, it’s business as usual,” he said.

Under a separate concession, Bahlil also confirmed that oil and gas exporters face different deposit rules than other exporters. Forex retention in the sector will be capped at 10 to 30 percent, reflecting heavy reliance on foreign financing.

The exemptions come days after President Prabowo announced on May 20 that key commodity exports — crude palm oil, coal, and ferroalloys — would be channeled through a single state-owned enterprise, PT Danantara Sumberdaya Indonesia (DSI). The government aims to prevent under-invoicing and transfer pricing fraud, which officials said could be costing the state up to US$150 billion annually.

During a June-to-September trial phase, exporting firms will still conduct direct transactions with buyers, but DSI handles export filing. From January 2027, DSI takes full control of export contracts, shipments, and payments. A later phase will expand the list to all strategic natural resource commodities.

The policy has drawn business pushback. The Indonesian Coal Mining Association warned that existing contracts, permits, and shipping schedules complicate any abrupt shift, while industry groups fear a de facto monopoly that could undermine buyer confidence a…

International relations has long measured power through familiar instruments: military capability, territory, energy, capital and control of trade. The digital revolution added information to that equation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the transformation further by turning information into a strategic capability that can shape economies, governments and societies.
For the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the central question is no longer whether Southeast Asia will…

Proposed changes to South Africa’s public procurement framework could have significant implications for businesses that work with government, particularly those operating in the infrastructure, construction and energy sectors.

Forty years ago, the Stockholm Document turned the political promise of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act into a more practical system of confidence-building. Amid the Cold War, Europe’s East and West did not disarm, abandon deterrence or begin to trust one another. Instead, they agreed that military competition could be made safer through prior notification, observation, information exchange and verification. The lesson was modest but durable: adversaries do not need trust to reduce uncertainty.
That…

The UK’s medicines regulator has given encouragement to pharmaceutical companies developing microbiome-based medicinal products (MBMPs) that their products will be able to meet UK regulatory requirements and be sold on the UK market.

The Mecca security pact between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan stipulates that an armed attack against one shall count as an attack against all three. Yet the real message is directed at the United States: if being an American ally offers no immunity against attack, there is little point in waiting for Washington to honour its security guarantees.
That there has been no official White House statement casts some doubt on whether Donald Trump is really “very happy to see that Saudi Arabia,…

Singapore’s plan to merge several islands off its southwest coast into a new hub for industry, defence and “new power generation infrastructure” has stirred speculation over whether the site could one day host a nuclear power plant.
The city state is studying advanced nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors (SMRs), as part of its long-term planning for a net-zero power system, but the government has not decided whether to deploy nuclear energy, let alone where any future plant…

Tukaram Mundhe is an Indian bureaucrat on a mission.
As a state food safety commissioner, the 51-year-old has raided food businesses in the country’s commercial capital Mumbai in an unprecedented crackdown on poor hygiene and unsafe food that has captivated the public nationwide.
Mundhe has led the suspension of food permits of four Domino’s and one Pizza Hut outlet in recent weeks, and has also targeted cricket clubs, hotels and well-known restaurants in over 3,000 raids since he took over as…