In a televised address ahead of the city-state's national day on Tuesday, Lee said Singapore would be buffeted by that intense rivalry and tension in the region, which should prepare for a future less peaceful and stable than now. 

Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to test a unified channel for the recruitment and placement of migrant domestic workers later this month, but critics say the new system will require strict monitoring to prevent a recurrence of labor violations.

"Around us, a storm is gathering. US-China relations are worsening, with intractable issues, deep suspicions, and limited engagement," Lee said in an address ahead of Singapore's national day, adding the region must be braced for a future that was not as stable as it has been until now.

Once a global logistics and transportation hub, Hong Kong has been largely cut off from the rest of the world for more than two years under its strict adherence to China's zero-Covid policy.

China's Eastern Theatre Command said it would conduct joint drills focusing on anti-submarine and sea assault operations - confirming the fears of some security analysts and diplomats that Beijing would continue to maintain pressure on Taiwan's defences.

Ambassador U Myo Thant Pe was last seen on Saturday meeting a local official in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan which borders Myanmar, according to a local news report.

Kishida made the statement during a press conference in the western city of Hiroshima after attending a ceremony to mark the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city by the United States. 

Incoming flights carrying five positive COVID-19 cases, or four percent of the total passengers, will now face a reduced one-week suspension, the Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) said in a statement.

Beijing has raged at the trip by Pelosi -- the second in the line of succession to the US presidency -- ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, most notably on climate change and defence cooperation. 

The Indian government last year gave a $6 billion contract to state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for 83 of the locally produced Tejas jets for delivery starting around 2023 - four decades after it was first approved in 1983.

During their meeting in Phnom Penh, Hayashi expressed "serious concern" about executions of four Myanmar people, including two pro-democracy activists, announced last week by the military government that seized power in the Southeast Asian country in a February 2021 coup, according to Japan's Foreign Ministry.

The last day of the ASEAN ministerial meetings saw the usually noninterventionist bloc take a novel approach to resolving the Myanmar crisis, though soaring US-China tensions overshadowed the East Asia Summit meeting.

ASEAN has so far resisted official engagement with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), which the junta calls “terrorists”, as well as other elements of the country’s opposition movement.

Pelosi was the highest-profile US official to head to Taiwan in years, defying stark threats from Beijing, which views the self-ruled island as its territory.

ASEAN called for ‘maximum restraint’ on Thursday after China angrily responded to United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s surprise visit to Taiwan.

ASEAN will not be ‘held hostage’ by Myanmar, minister reiterates after candid regional crisis talks.

China fired multiple missiles around Taiwan on Thursday as it launched unprecedented military drills a day after a visit by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the self-ruled island that Beijing regards as its sovereign territory.

The 10-nation bloc of ASEAN, which is hosting a big international gathering this week, has pushed Myanmar to follow a peace "consensus" agreed last year.

Earlier in the day, Chinese military launched missiles from near Taiwan's Matsu islands.

The recovery in the central and northern stretches of the UNESCO world heritage-listed reef contrasted with the southern region, where there was a loss of coral cover due to crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks, the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences (AIMS) said in its annual report.

"USS Ronald Reagan and her strike group are underway in the Philippine Sea continuing normal, scheduled operations as part of her routine patrol in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific," a US Navy Seventh Fleet spokesperson said, quoted by Reuters.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations made the remarks in a statement from foreign ministers after its chair, Cambodia, had urged all sides to de-escalate tension over Taiwan.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers urged restraint Thursday as China readied massive military drills off Taiwan, warning the situation risked spiraling into "open conflicts".

The two-week Indonesian and the United States joint military exercise Garuda Shield officially began with an opening ceremony in South Sumatra on Wednesday, with a dozen nations participating in or observing for the first time the annual event and amid rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific region.

Indonesia has called on the United States and China to de-escalate tensions in the Indo-Pacific following US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s controversial visit to Taiwan, which has angered Beijing.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the potential for Pelosi's visit with counterpart Wang Yi during a G20 meeting in Bali that lasted more than five hours, and said any such trip would be entirely Pelosi's decision and independent of the US government.

Pelosi's dramatic late-night flight to Taipei, defying threats of reprisals by China, looks set to dominate the meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh, which had been expected to tackle the bloody crisis in Myanmar.

The Southeast Asian nation has been in chaos since the military's power grab last year, with more than 2,100 people killed in a crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitor.

Sergei Lavrov arrived at the military-built capital Naypyidaw "for a working visit," Russia's foreign affairs ministry said on Twitter.

The trip by Pelosi, who is second in line to the presidency and the highest-profile elected US official to visit Taiwan in 25 years, has ignited a diplomatic firestorm.