Israeli arms exports reached a record US$ 19.2 billion in 2025, with purchases nearly doubling in the Asia-Pacific. Vietnam is one of Israel’s main partners, making it, its the second-largest supplier after Russia. Nguyễn Thị Thanh Nhàn, a businesswoman who fell out of favour with the authorities and was sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison, played a key role in this. India, Thailand, and Singapore are also nurturing military ties with the Jewish state in order to develop their own capabilities.
The measure levies penalties in social media starting 1 July, aimed at organisations, household businesses, and individuals. Fines are imposed for content that, among other things, deemed to cause panic, obstruct state agencies, and reveal state secrets. The latest crackdown on press freedom comes in the wake of similar action taken in late 2025, following Tô Lâm rise to power.
An incentive plan has been launched to encourage residents to move from densely populated areas to new developments connected to metro stations. Some of the targeted areas are currently undergoing redevelopment. The capital's new master plan envisions development along a multipolar and multicentric structure, with the Red River as the main ecological and cultural axis.
Vietnam and India want to increase trade to US$ 25 billion by 2030, through greater cooperation on defence, rare earths, energy, and supply chain security. As part of his country’s “bamboo diplomacy”, Tô Lâm's visit to New Delhi confirms the Vietnamese leader's diplomatic activism to diversify Vietnam’s economic and strategic relations beyond China.
Reviving Shinzo Abe's vision for a "free and open" ocean, the Japanese prime minister outlined a programme aimed at strengthening economic cooperation with ASEAN countries, extending the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, and strengthening military assistance and security programmes. Meanwhile, she promised Vietnam US$ 5 billion in annual investments.
The meeting between North Korea’s leader and Belarus’s Lukashenko marks a new course. The North Korean regime is managing its isolation as a strategic resource rather than simply enduring it. Pyongyang is choosing its interlocutors, building relationships, and using the diversification of its partners as a tool to maintain its autonomy from Beijing and Moscow with a growing focus on Southeast Asia at the expense of South Korea.
