Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Southeast Asia Brief.
The highlights this week: Southeast Asia diverges as Trump’s Board of Peace meets, Thailand announces a governing coalition, a Malaysian anti-corruption commission is accused of corporate blackmail, and Indonesia cracks down on illegal trade in babies.
Southeast Asia Torn Over Trump’s Board of Peace
U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace is due to hold its inaugural meeting on Wednesday in Washington. Three Southeast Asian nations—Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam—are due to attend. The rest of the region is steering clear.
Indonesia is an interesting case. President Prabowo Subianto will attend the meeting and has offered to send up to 8,000 troops to act as peacekeepers in Gaza. Some 1,000 will be ready to deploy by April, with the rest ready by June.
Prabowo is keen to build Indonesia’s profile on the world stage and sees peacekeeping as a path to this. Back in 2022 as defense minister he even offered a peace plan for Ukraine. And an offer of Indonesian peacekeepers for various conflicts was central to his speech at the U.N. General Assembly last year.
Gaza seems to have gained his particular attention. Since Indonesia is the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, the symbolic weight of the conflict may be one reason. Prabowo’s desire to butter up Trump as he looks to finalize Indonesia’s trade deal with the United States might be another.
There are pros to Prabowo’s peacekeeping proposal.
Indonesia has experience deploying troops on such missions, including in the Middle East. Its first deployment was to Egypt in 1956 following the Suez crisis, and some 1,000 Indonesian troops are currently stationed on the Israel-Lebanon border.
The move also brings big political risks.
Some think that it risks damaging Indonesia’s traditional nonbloc diplomacy. More viscerally, the Palestinian cause is immensely popular in Indonesia, while Israel—with which Indonesia still does not have diplomatic relations—is reviled.
Prabowo’s plans have sparked criticism that he is soft on Israel. If Indonesian troops are seen as failing to protect Palestinians or instead protecting Israel, expect a sharp backlash.
Indonesia’s government has sought to reassure the public. Indonesian troops, it declared, will be in Gaza only in a humanitarian role: protecting civilians, providing aid, and training local police.
Prabowo has also reportedly said that Indonesia will leave the board if it fails to pursue Palestinian freedom, which seems to have softened opposition from Muslim groups.
Vietnamese Secretary-General To Lam is also expected to attend the meeting in Washington. Freshly reappointed to his position by a party congress held in January, it is notable that his first visit abroad will be to the United States—not China, as is usually the case.
A plausible explanation is Lam’s push for growth. The United States is Vietnam’s biggest export market. Reporting on the matter suggests that Vietnam will mainly be taking the opportunity to hash out the details of last year’s trade agreement with Washington.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet will also attend. U.S.-Cambodia relations are on a strong upswing after Trump’s intervention in the 2025 border war with Thailand.
The region’s other nations, however, are steering clear. Despite its status as a U.S. ally, the Philippines was not in the first batch of countries asked to join the board. It is now invited but has yet to reply.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, long a vocal supporter of Palestine, has said that Israel would have to stop strikes on Gaza and allow the free flow of aid before Malaysia could consider joining.
Singapore has also maintained quiet skepticism. Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in early February that Singapore is “assessing” Trump’s invitation. But in October 2025, when the Board of Peace concept was first floated, he indicated limited interest, saying that Singapore was “not campaigning” to join.
Thailand, having previously given the excuse that it couldn’t make such a decision prior to its election last week, has yet to clarify its position. It did flag that Trump’s mooted membership price tag of $1 billion would be an issue.
What We’re Watching
Thailand government coalition forms. Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul announced on Feb. 13 he would form a governing coalition with third-placed party Pheu Thai. At time of writing, this arrangement plus pacts with a number of small parties will give the government a comfortable majority of roughly 45 seats in the Thai parliament’s key lower chamber.
Anutin has announced that his party will take the lead on security and the economy.
On the former issue, expect a tough line on Cambodia. Anutin oversaw a second round of fighting between the two countries in December, when Thailand seized disputed border areas that it now seems determined to hold. He also promised to keep the border closed for now, build border walls, and abandon a 2001 memorandum of understanding on maritime borders.
Post-election, however, he may prove to be more measured. Anutin did not bang the nationalist drum after a land mine blast on Feb. 11 that saw another Thai soldier injured—an issue similar to other incidents that helped spark previous rounds of conflict with Cambodia.
On the economy, Anutin has promised fiscal discipline and recruited credible technocrats. Squaring this with some expensive campaign promises could be tricky.
Still, markets have surged, welcoming what looks like a strong government after years of unstable coalitions.
Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission faces corruption scandal. Malaysia’s top anti-corruption enforcer stands accused of large-scale graft by sources interviewed in a Bloomberg investigation. The article alleges that Azam Baki, the chief commissioner of the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC), collaborated with a coterie of shady businessmen in corporate shakedowns.
The alleged modus operandi was for the businessmen to buy shares in a company and then have the majority owners hauled in for MACC questioning. They would be told to give up control and even sell their shares if they wanted the investigation to go away.
Azam is also accused of breaching regulations on shareholding by public officials, something that he was previously accused of in 2022. He has denied all allegations.
The scandal could prove extremely damaging for Anwar. The prime minister has extended Azam’s term as commissioner three times after the latter hit the mandatory retirement age in 2023.
It also comes at a time when Anwar faces anger over a perceived failure to fulfill his promises to clean up Malaysia’s politics and his apparent use of the political dark arts that he once condemned.
Notably, on Azam’s watch, four major adversaries of Anwar have faced corruption investigations.
The police are now investigatingBloomberg for defamation. But this scandal is resisting burial.
Anwar previously defended Azam but has now promised a special committee to investigate the allegations, rebuked not just by the opposition but also influential members of his own party—including his daughter.
Malaysia’s influential king has also spoken out, declaring that “no one is above the law.”
Philippines to file charges over ferry deaths. The Philippine government will file administrative and maybe criminal charges over the late January sinking of a passenger ferry. M/V Trisha Kerstin 3 sank on Jan. 26 while carrying 372 people. At time of writing, 57 were confirmed dead and 22 remained missing.
The Philippine government has moved to open an administrative case against the company in charge of the ferry, Aleson Shipping Lines, and may pursue criminal charges.
In the meantime, the company’s entire passenger fleet has been grounded. Fourteen members of the coast guard and the maritime authority have also been removed from their posts and could face criminal charges, amid suspicions of corruption.
The ferry reportedly set sail despite being overloaded and having issues with its seaworthiness certification. Accidents at sea are sadly common in the archipelago, where many travel island to island on often ropey ferry services.
However, despite a rise in reported accidents since 2022, casualties have been declining—until the latest incident. Aleson Shipping Lines seems to have a notably poor record.
Photo of the Week
Indonesian devotees pray and burn incense sticks during Chinese Lunar New Year eve at Hong San Ko Tee temple in Surabaya, Indonesia, on Feb. 17.Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images
FP’s Most Read This Week
- What War With Iran Would Look Likeby Arash Reisinezhad and Arsham Reisinezhad
- Rubio to Europe: ‘We Care Deeply’by FP Staff
- Can Ukraine Kill Its Way to Victory?by Sam Skove
Numbers of the Week
Transparency International has released its 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. News is mixed, with five Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states rated stable or improving and six seeing their ranking decline. The rankings are as follows, going from least to most corrupt, with changes compared to 2024.
- Singapore, ranked 3rd worldwide, no change since 2024.
- Brunei, 31st, no score in 2024.
- Malaysia, 54th, up three spots.
- Timor-Leste, 73rd, no change.
- Vietnam, 81st, up seven.
- Indonesia, tied at 109th, down 10.
- Laos, tied at 109th, up five.
- Thailand, 116th, down nine.
- Philippines, 120th, down six.
- Cambodia, 163rd, down five.
- Myanmar, 169th, down one.
What We’re Reading
Made in China, managed in Singapore. Aylon Berger explores how Singapore has become the global launching pad for Chinese companies utilizing artificial intelligence, such as TikTok and Manus, in the Interpreter.
Randy pachyderms get the pill. Thailand is using dart-fired contraceptives on wild elephants in a bid to control numbers and limit conflicts with humans, by Jintamas Saksornchai inThe Associated Press.
Brunei needs to plan for a post-oil future. The southeast Asian petrostate’s economic model may be running out of road, by Anthony Tan and Poh Lynn Ng in East Asia Forum.
In Focus: Indonesia’s Baby-Smuggling Business
In the past year, a series of prominent cases in Indonesia have brought the practice of baby-smuggling to public attention.
In July 2025, police in the country busted a syndicate that is thought to have sold at least 25 infants to buyers, 15 of which went to Singapore.
In January this year, another ring operating in Indonesia was caught after neighbors became suspicious about a string of pregnant women coming and going from a rented house.
The business model is simple. Syndicates find poor pregnant women on social media and offer to buy their children, often posing as a rich childless couple. The going fee for mothers seems to be between $500 to $1,500 plus expenses, with higher prices for good-looking newborns.
The infants are then resold at a higher price—sometimes more than $16,000—to parents, sometime abroad, who are looking to adopt.
Strict restrictions on abortion, cumbersome adoption laws, poverty, corruption, and shoddy paperwork all make Indonesia a fertile hunting ground.
Singapore is considering reforms to adoption laws to try to prevent the practice. For now, greater scrutiny has left some parents looking to adopt legitimately from Indonesia facing delays.
There are nuances to this sinister trade.
Indonesia has long-standing traditions of adoption and fostering, which can sometimes involve cash payments. This is still often done via extended family or social networks where biological parents can remain in contact with the child.
Other times, conditions are harsher, with parents giving up their children to strangers and being banned from contact.
What seems new is the marketization of the process.
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