A “threat assessment” of Thailand amid deadly land border clashes has finally convinced Cambodia to ratify a major UN maritime treaty, according to analysts. Speculation that the Thai navy might close off supply lanes in the Gulf of Thailand also weighed heavily in Phnom Penh’s decision, they said. Phnom Penh ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) on January 16, more than four d...
A “threat assessment” of Thailand amid deadly land border clashes has finally convinced Cambodia to ratify a major UN maritime treaty, according to analysts. Speculation that the Thai navy might close off supply lanes in the Gulf of Thailand also weighed heavily in Phnom Penh’s decision, they said. Phnom Penh ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) on January 16, more than four decades after signing the treaty. It is the last Asean member to do so. Advertisement Passed during the fifth session of the National Assembly, the approval will be forwarded to the Senate for final sign-off. Cambodia signed Unclos in 1983, one year after the convention was adopted in Jamaica. However, the treaty entered into force only in 1994, primarily due to resistance from industrialised nations over deep seabed mining rules. Members of the Cambodian navy welcome US warship USS Cincinnati at Ream Naval Base’s pier in Sihanoukville on Saturday. Photo: AP The convention is a multilateral treaty concluded under the UN and a result of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, held between 1973 and 1982.
chachamal Asia stock markets rose on Tuesday, shaking off news that President Trump has increased tariffs on South Korean imports from 15% to 25%. The president announced the escalation on Monday, attributing the move to the South Korean legislature's failure to ratify last year’s bilateral trade agreement. Gold prices climbed more than 1% to around $5,070 per ounce on Tuesday, having hit an all-t...
chachamal Asia stock markets rose on Tuesday, shaking off news that President Trump has increased tariffs on South Korean imports from 15% to 25%. The president announced the escalation on Monday, attributing the move to the South Korean legislature's failure to ratify last year’s bilateral trade agreement. Gold prices climbed more than 1% to around $5,070 per ounce on Tuesday, having hit an all-time peak above $5,100 in the previous session. South Korea's Business Survey Index for the manufacturing sector stood at 73 in January, up from 70 in December. The Philippines' trade deficit narrowed to US D 3.52 billion in December 2025 from USD 4.15 billion in the same month last year. This was the smallest trade gap since February, as exports rose much faster than imports. Japan ( NKY:IND ) rose 0.69% to below 52,800, while the broader Topix Index dropped 0.6% to 3,530 on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session. The Japanese yen traded near 154 per dollar on Tuesday after rallying as much as 3.2% over the previous two sessions amid heightened concerns about a potential joint foreign exchange market intervention by Tokyo and Washington. China ( SHCOMP ) rose 0.04% to below 4,120, while the Shenzhen Component dropped 0.7% to 12,216 on Tuesday, extending losses from the previous session, and the offshore yuan edged down below 6.96 per dollar on Tuesday, easing from a thirty-two-month high after the People’s Bank of China continued to set a weaker daily midpoint. Fresh data showed China’s industrial profits grew 0.6% yoy in 2025, well above the 0.1% pace in January–November, supported by a sharp 5.3% rebound in December following November’s 13.0% plunge. Hong Kong ( HSI ) rose 1.03% to 27,059 in Tuesday morning trade, extending gains for a fifth straight session and approaching their highest level in two weeks. India ( SENSEX ) rose 0.39% to 81,826 in morning trade on Tuesday, as traders engaged in profit-taking after the index hit a 14-week low in the previous s...
Spanish police have broken up a vast cocaine trafficking operation that used speed boats to bring the drug onshore from floating bases in the Atlantic, seizing around 10 tonnes of the drug and arresting 105 suspects. Police said on Monday that a year-long investigation in cooperation with law enforcement in countries including Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, Colombia, France, Portugal...
Spanish police have broken up a vast cocaine trafficking operation that used speed boats to bring the drug onshore from floating bases in the Atlantic, seizing around 10 tonnes of the drug and arresting 105 suspects. Police said on Monday that a year-long investigation in cooperation with law enforcement in countries including Cabo Verde, formerly known as Cape Verde, Colombia, France, Portugal and the US showed the group brought an estimated 57 tonnes of cocaine to Europe in the period. Speed boats - operating at night from rivers in southern Spain, the northwestern Galicia region and the Canary Islands, as well as from Portugal and Morocco - navigated far into the Atlantic to offload drugs from transport and storage ships. Advertisement “They managed to create genuine aquatic platforms where pilots would remain at sea for over a month at a time, carrying out several successive operations”, while other members used sophisticated equipment to monitor security agencies’ communications and movements, a police statement said. A semi-submersible craft carrying cocaine that was intercepted off the Azores archipelago by Portuguese authorities. Photo: Forca Aerea Portuguesa via AFP Officers seized 30 boats, 70 vehicles and numerous pieces of hi-tech communications and surveillance equipment. Advertisement The investigation also showed that at one point the group paid as much as €12 million (US$14.2 million) to the family of a deceased crew member in order to buy their silence.