SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian nations are expected to welcome an initial negotiating draft of a nonaggression pact with China on the South China Sea, but critics warn that the protracted talks provide a diplomatic cover for Beijing’s tenacious aggression in the disputed waters.
Top diplomats of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will also praise the rapprochement between the Koreas, along with that of President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, when they gather for four days of annual summitry in Singapore starting Wednesday.
Currently led by Singapore, the 10-nation bloc will host on Saturday Asia’s largest security forum, including the key players involved in the Korean Peninsula’s disarmament efforts, which will provide a chance for them to talk on the summit’s sidelines.
Concern over rising extremism in the region and the plight of minority Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar’s Rakhine state will also be under the spotlight. Myanmar is to brief the ASEAN foreign ministers on the situation in Rakhine during a lunch “retreat,” an informal gathering where ministers raise contentious issues that normally are a taboo in their staid plenary meetings.
Founded in 1967 in the Cold War era as a bulwark against communism, ASEAN has a bedrock principle of non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs and decides by consensus, meaning even one member state can doom any proposal it deems offensive.
Those cardinal principles have drastically slowed decision-making and have been used by authoritarian leaders to dodge outside criticism, causing the diplomatic collective to be labeled by skeptics as a “club of dictators” and human rights violators. But its principles have allowed ASEAN to maintain diverse national identities, from rambunctious democracies to martial law regimes, for half a century.
The bloc has also been an acceptable broker for talks for all sorts of conflicts.
In the South China Sea disputes, which have pitted China, Taiwan and four ASEAN member states — Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam — the group is expected to announce an agreement with Beijing on an initial negotiating draft of a so-called “code of conduct,” a proposed set of regional norms and rules aimed at preventing the long-seething disputes from degenerating into a shooting war.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said Tuesday before flying to Singapore that talks on the code could be concluded this year or next. Other Asian diplomats have not been as optimistic.
The ministers will welcome “the improving cooperation between ASEAN and China and were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations toward the early conclusion of an effective code of conduct in the South China Sea on a mutually agreed timeline,” according to a draft of a joint post-summit communique by the ministers which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Some of the ministers would repeat their concerns over China’s transformation of seven disputed reefs into islands, including three with runways, which now resemble small cities armed with weapons, including surface-to-air missiles. China has come under intense criticisms for the aggressive action but it has said it has the right to build on its territory and defend them at all costs.
The ministers “took note of the concerns expressed by some countries on the land reclamations in the area, which have eroded trust and confidence, increased tensions and may undermine peace, security and stability in the region,” the draft communique said without naming China and reflecting the internal divisions over the touchy issue.
ASEAN member states Cambodia and Laos, which are known China allies, have opposed the use of strong language against Beijing over the disputes.
Greg Poling, director of the US-based Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative, which monitors developments in the South China Sea, said highlighting the draft code of conduct in the summit will be “more political theater than substance at this point” given the lack of agreement on areas it will cover and whether the pact should be legally binding after more than 15 years of talks.
Without any major concessions, especially from China, Poling said the talks would drag further while China presses actions to reinforce its vast territorial claims “without paying much price because the code of conduct process offers diplomatic cover to claim it is seeking a peaceful and fair settlement.”
Progress in South China Sea feud, Koreas stir ASEAN
Progress in South China Sea feud, Koreas stir ASEAN
- Currently led by Singapore, the 10-nation bloc will host on Saturday Asia’s largest security forum
- The bloc has been an acceptable broker for talks for all sorts of conflicts
Southeast Asian cities among world’s most polluted, ranking shows
- Air pollution is caused by a combination of crop-related burning, industrial pollution and heavy traffic
- Weeks earlier, Vietnam’s capital Hanoi was ranked the world’s most polluted
In the Thai capital, a thick smog was seen covering the city’s skyline. Workers, especially those who spend most of their time outdoors, were suffering.
“My nose is constantly congested. I have to blow my nose all the time,” said motorcycle taxi driver Supot Sitthisiri, 55.
Air pollution is caused by a combination of crop-related burning, industrial pollution and heavy traffic.
In a bid to curb pollution, the government is allowing free public transportation for a week, Transport Minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit said.
Some 300 schools in Bangkok were closed this week, according to the city administration.
“They should take more action, not just announce high dust levels and close schools. There needs to be more than that,” said Khwannapat Intarit, 23.
“It keeps coming back, and it’s getting worse each time.”
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said in a social media post that companies and government agencies should allow staff to work from home to reduce car use and construction sites should be using dust covers.
“The government is fully committed to solving the dust problem,” she said.
In Vietnam’s largest city, IQAir said the level of fine inhalable particles in Ho Chi Minh City was 11 times higher than the recommended level by the World Health Organization.
Weeks earlier, the capital Hanoi was ranked the world’s most polluted, prompting authorities to issue a warning about the health risks from air pollution and urging the public to wear masks and eye protection.
Governments in Southeast Asia were pushing for longer-term solutions to bring pollution down including a carbon tax and promoting the use of electric vehicles.
‘Get them out’: freed Belarus prisoners fear for those still inside
- The Viasna rights group says Belarus currently has 1,256 political prisoners, and all opposition leaders are either in jail or in exile
BIALYSTOK: Having missed almost four years of her son’s life while incarcerated in a Belarusian prison, Irina Schastnaya still wants to zip up the 14-year-old’s coat, struggling to digest how tall he grew in her absence.
German was 10 when security services broke into their home in Minsk, raiding the flat and arresting his mother in front of him for challenging authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule.
“I managed to say to him: ‘German don’t worry, everything will be fine,” she told AFP, recalling the November 2020 morning that “changed our lives forever.”
Her arrest was just one of a huge crackdown on dissent orchestrated by Lukashenko after tens of thousands protested his 2020 election victory, claiming widespread fraud.
In power since 1994, the Moscow ally is set to secure another term in power this weekend in an election with no real competition.
The Viasna rights group says Belarus currently has 1,256 political prisoners, and all opposition leaders are either in jail or in exile.
Within days of Schastnaya’s 2020 arrest, German’s father fled the country with the boy — settling in Kyiv, before leaving for Poland when it became clear Russia may invade Ukraine.
Schastnaya was sentenced to four years for editing a Telegram channel critical of the government.
Sent to Penal Colony Number Four in the city of Gomel, she was made to sew military and construction uniforms at the prison factory.
But she spent most of the time “thinking of German.”
They were allowed one video call a month — under the close watch of a prison officer.
“He did not like those calls,” she said. “He could literally see the person listening in the frame.”
They were reunited in September 2024, when Schastnaya was released and fled Belarus to join her family in Poland’s Bialystok — close to Belarus and long a hub for exiles.
“When I opened the door, I saw this tall guy,” she told AFP, still visibly shaken.
“It’s like heaven and earth. It’s not the same mothering... He was 10 when I was arrested, he still held my hand when we walked in the street.”
Like other ex-prisoners AFP spoke to, Schastnaya now has one wish: to get those who remain behind bars out — by all “possible and impossible” means.
Schastnaya says her son has adapted to life in Poland.
But she has not.
She often drives up to the nearby Belarus border, “just to have a look.”
A few months ago, she was in prison, sleeping on the top bunk in a room with some 30 women.
Like all political prisoners, her uniform and bed was marked with a “yellow label,” signifying a “tendency for extremism and other destructive activities,” she said.
After being released she decided to flee, fearing she would “not be free for long” or could be barred from leaving.
She is encouraged by a wave of pre-election pardonings back home, hoping more will come.
“We have to get them out any way possible,” she said.
“Some people have not seen their kids in years.”
In Poland’s Gdansk, former political prisoner Kristina Cherenkova, 34, has been scouring for information of those recently pardoned.
Authorities do not release names, but information trickles out through relatives and lawyers.
A wedding decorator, Cherenkova took part in 2020 protests in her small town of Mazyr and refused to leave Belarus when the crackdown started.
She was eventually arrested in 2022 for a social media post criticizing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which it launched in part from Belarusian territory.
Cherenkova also ended up in the Gomel prison, before being released last year.
“Around 10 percent of the women are political prisoners there,” she estimated.
“I am happy to see some of the names released. But there are a lot of people left, many friends.”
While in prison, she said she witnessed pardonings being delayed by slow Soviet-like bureaucracy.
Daria Afanasyeva, a Belarusian feminist living in Warsaw freed last year, also said “everything should be done” to secure freedom for more political prisoners — “including talks with the regime.”
“It’s not just one person in prison, it’s their whole family,” the pink-haired activist said, adding that many feel intense “guilt” for relatives suffering on the outside.
Arrested in 2021, Afanasyeva said the solidarity among political prisoners helped her through her 2.5-year sentence.
“Thanks to the KGB for getting me a best friend,” she joked.
But the prison ordeal still “eats up” her life.
“There is snow in Warsaw, people are happy... But I’m just thinking that if there’s snow in the prison, the girls there are clearing it.”
Afghan women’s group hails court’s move to arrest Taliban leaders for persecution of women
- The Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness called the ICC decision a “great historical achievement”
An Afghan women’s group on Friday hailed a decision by the International Criminal Court to arrest Taliban leaders for their persecution of women.
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan announced Thursday he had requested arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials, including the leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Since they took back control of the country in 2021, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond sixth grade.
In a statement, the Afghan Women’s Movement for Justice and Awareness celebrated the ICC decision and called it a “great historical achievement.”
“We consider this achievement a symbol of the strength and will of Afghan women and believe this step will start a new chapter of accountability and justice in the country,” the group said.
The Taliban government has yet to comment on the court’s move.
Also Friday, the UN mission in Afghanistan said it was a “tragedy and travesty” that girls remain deprived of education.
“It has been 1,225 days — soon to be four years — since authorities imposed a ban that prevents girls above the age of 12 from attending school,” said the head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva. “It is a travesty and tragedy that millions of Afghan girls have been stripped of their right to education.”
Afghanistan is the only country in the world that explicitly bars women and girls from all levels of education, said Otunbayeva.
Philippine military says US missile deployment to boost readiness, help regional security
- Spokesperson: ‘The primary objective of this deployment is to strengthen Philippine military readiness’
- The Typhon launchers can fire multi-purpose missiles up to thousands of kilometers
MANILA: The deployment of the US military’s Typhon missile launchers in the Philippines was in line with Washington’s longstanding defense ties with the country, the Philippine armed forces said on Friday.
“The primary objective of this deployment is to strengthen Philippine military readiness, improve our familiarization and interoperability with advanced weapon systems, and support regional security,” armed forces spokesperson Francel Margareth Padilla said in a statement. Her remarks came after a Reuters report that the US military has moved the launchers, which have mid-range capability (MRC), to another location in the Philippines.
The weapon’s presence on Philippine territory drew sharp rebukes from China when it was first deployed in April 2024 during military exercises. Beijing accused the Philippines on Thursday of creating tension and confrontation in the region, urging it to “correct its wrong practices.”
Treaty allies the United States and the Philippines “coordinate closely on all aspects of the MRC deployment, including its positioning,” Padilla said.
The Typhon launchers can fire multi-purpose missiles up to thousands of kilometers such as Tomahawk cruise missiles, capable of hitting targets in both China and Russia from the Philippines. The SM-6 missiles it also carries can strike air or sea targets more than 200 km (165 miles) away. “These arrangements reflect shared operational considerations and mutual consultations between our two nations,” Padilla said.
Trump says he will reach out to North Korea’s Kim again
- Trump had a rare diplomatic relationship with the reclusive Kim during his previous administration
- Trump called the North Korean leader with whom he previously met three times a ‘smart guy’
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will reach out to Kim Jong Un again, he said in an interview aired Thursday, calling the North Korean leader with whom he previously met three times a “smart guy.”
The Republican had a rare diplomatic relationship with the reclusive Kim during his previous administration from 2017 to 2021, not only meeting with him but saying the two “fell in love.”
But his own secretary of state, Marco Rubio, acknowledged at his confirmation hearing that the effort did not produce any lasting agreement to end North Korea’s nuclear program.
When asked during a Fox News interview if he would “reach out” to Kim again, Trump replied: “I will, yeah. He liked me.”
North Korea says it is seeking nuclear weapons to counter threats from the United States and its allies, including South Korea.
The two Koreas remain technically at war since the 1950 to 1953 conflict ended in an armistice not a peace treaty.
The isolated and impoverished North, which has conducted multiple nuclear tests and periodically test fires missiles from its ballistic arsenal, also likes to tout its nuclear program as a sign of its prestige.
Washington and others warn that the program is destabilizing, however, and the UN has passed multiple resolutions banning North Korea’s efforts.
Rubio branded Kim a “dictator” during his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this month.
“I think there has to be an appetite for a very serious look at broader North Korean policies,” Rubio said.
Rubio called for efforts to prevent a war by North Korea with South Korea and Japan and to see “what can we do to prevent a crisis without encouraging other nation-states to pursue their own nuclear weapons programs.”
During the Fox interview, Trump recalled his attempt to reach an arms deal with North Korea’s allies Russia and China at the end of his first term.
The 2019 effort would have set new limits for unregulated Russian nuclear weapons and to persuade China to join an arms control pact, according to reports from the time.
“I was very close to having a deal. I would have made a deal with (Russian leader Vladimir) Putin on that, denuclearization... But we had a bad election that interrupted us,” he said, referring to his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.
Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, recently labelled North Korea as a “nuclear power” in a statement submitted to a Senate panel, according to reports.
Seoul’s defense ministry said in response that Pyongyang’s status as a nuclear power “cannot be recognized” and that it will work with Washington to denuclearize.
Pyongyang fired several short-range ballistic missiles in the days leading up to Trump’s inauguration on January 20, prompting analysts to speculate on whether Kim was seeking to send a message to Trump.
