Incompatible attitudes towards recreational drugs complicates Australian diplomacy in the region. (...) For Australia’s foreign policy in Indonesia, this causes problems. Canberra has had a tougher than usual relationship with Jakarta in recent years.

Without much fanfare, Malaysia assumed the chairmanship of Asean at the recent summit of the regional grouping in Myanmar. From this vantage point, there is much the country can do in moving the larger aims of the new Asean.

Ahead of Singapore's golden jubilee next year comes a new book launched last month comprising 61 essays by former ambassadors and high commissioners to the Republic.

A few years from now, the average tourist won’t be found gliding down a Venetian canal or perched atop the Empire State Building. They’ll be in lounging by a pool in Dubai, or shopping at a massive mall in Singapore, or doing God-knows-what in Bangkok. This is according to the latest MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index, released last week.

A model apartment is opening this week at the Baccarat Hotel and Residences, a 50-story tower under development on West 53rd Street and Fifth Avenue, across from the Museum of Modern Art. Singapore-based Pontiac Land Group is joining with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Hines to construct a 72-story condo tower on the same block. Farther east, China Vanke Co., China’s biggest publicly traded developer, is working with Aby Rosen’s RFR Holding LLC on a 61-story building on Lexington Avenue.

The online ruckus over the planned Philippine Independence Day celebration on Orchard Road in Singapore is the latest ominous sign of rising xenophobia in the prosperous city state.

Does Singapore have a problem with xenophobia? It seems that barely a month goes by these days without news reports highlighting friction between Singaporeans and foreign workers in the tiny, multi-ethnic city-state. The population has increased dramatically in recent decades thanks to an influx of foreigners, who now make up around two out of five residents. This has put a growing strain on jobs, housing and infrastructure, and raised fears about the dilution of the Singaporean national identity.