SAN JOSE, Costa Rica: Over two dozen countries signed a wishful “declaration of peace with the ocean” on Saturday in Costa Rica, as a multi-day meeting to prepare for a major UN conference next year wrapped up.
Among the signatories were Germany, Spain, Sweden, Canada, Colombia, Chile, Israel and South Korea, as well as Costa Rica and France, co-hosts of the third UN Ocean Conference to be held next June in the French city of Nice.
“We are committed to scaling up transformative ocean actions to support nature-positive economies based on the best available science and scientific information, traditional knowledge and innovation,” the document said.
About a year out from the major meeting, national representatives, scientists and international experts gathered this week in San Jose for two days of discussions to prepare for the conference.
“The ocean can no longer endure our mistreatment and indifference. That is why we in Costa Rica have decided that it is time for us to declare peace,” said Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo Andre Tinoco during the event.
United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Social Affairs Li Junhua also said at the start of the “Immersed in Change” meeting that protecting the ocean was “not an option but an imperative.”
The peace declaration includes a call for twelve “Ocean Actions,” notably the implementation of several ocean-related international accords agreed to last year.
Those include a landmark high seas treaty that allows for the creation of marine protected areas outside of countries’ exclusive economic zones.
The treaty was adopted after more than 15 years of discussions to extend environmental protections to international waters which make up more than 60 percent of the world’s oceans.
Oceanic ‘peace’ pact signed in Costa Rica ahead of 2025 UN talks
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Oceanic ‘peace’ pact signed in Costa Rica ahead of 2025 UN talks
- The peace declaration includes a call for twelve “Ocean Actions,” notably the implementation of several ocean-related international accords agreed to last year
Football pitch collapses as parts of the UK are hit by flash floods
- Roads were closed, some train lines in London were suspended and dozens of people reported their houses being submerged as parts of central and southern England
LONDON: A soccer pitch in London collapsed and other parts of the United Kingdom were submerged by flash floods Monday after some areas saw a month’s worth of rainfall in 24 hours.
Roads were closed, some train lines in London were suspended and dozens of people reported their houses being submerged as parts of central and southern England saw about 60 to 80 millimeters (2 to 3 inches of rainfall. A few locations were expected to be hit by more than 120 mm (4.7 inches) of rain, weather forecasters said.
In the capital, the London Fire Brigade said emergency responders received some 350 flood-related calls. The service said these included rescuing people trapped in cars, assisting people from their homes and responding to flooding in underground train stations, roadways, homes and businesses.
At the Cherry Red Records Stadium, AFC Wimbledon’s soccer pitch, heavy rains appeared to have left a sinkhole in the pitch, resulting in the cancelation of a match scheduled on Tuesday.
Russia, China warships enter Sea of Okhotsk for drills
- The joint Russian-Chinese “Beibu/Interaction — 2024” naval exercise included anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons
BEIJING: A detachment of warships of Russia’s Pacific Fleet and the Chinese Navy entered the Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific as part of joint navy exercises, Russia’s Interfax agency reported on Tuesday, citing the Pacific Fleet’s press service.
“During the sea passage, the detachment carried out tasks of joint manoeuvring, countering unmanned boats of a mock enemy, conducting reconnaissance and monitoring the surface situation with the involvement of deck helicopters,” Interfax reported, citing the press service.
Russia said on Saturday it was starting the joint Russian-Chinese “Beibu/Interaction — 2024” naval exercise that would include anti-aircraft and anti-submarine weapons.
Russian large anti-submarine destroyers Admiral Panteleyev and Admiral Tributs as well as corvettes MPK-82 and MPK-107 were among the warships taking part in the drills, Interfax reported.
China was represented by the destroyers Xining and Wuxi, the frigate Linyi and the integrated supply ship Taihu, the agency added.
“(The ships) will perform artillery firing, as well as the use of anti-submarine and anti-aircraft weapons systems under a single plan,” Interfax reported.
The Sea of Okhotsk in the western Pacific Ocean is located between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast and Japan’s island of Hokkaido to the south.
Zelensky holds flurry of bilateral meetings at UN to shore up support for Ukraine
- Zelensky is to travel later in the week to Washington to present his “victory plan“
KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is in New York for the meeting of world officials at the United Nations, held talks on the sidelines with German, Indian and Japan leaders on Monday trying to shore up support for Kyiv’s war efforts.
“We talked about how to make a just peace closer,” Zelensky said on his Telegram messaging app after meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. “The main thing is to maintain unity.”
Germany has been one of most significant backers in Europe of Kyiv’s defensive fight against Russia.
The full-scale Russia invasion of Ukraine, or “special military operation” as Moscow calls it, began in Feb 2022 and has killed thousands of people, uprooted millions more and turned Ukrainian towns and cities into rubble.
After the UN General Assembly sessions, Zelensky is to travel later in the week to Washington to present his “victory plan“ and influence White House policy on the war no matter who wins the US election on Nov. 5.
Zelensky said that he also met with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“We are dynamically developing our relations,” he said on the Telegram after the meeting.
India-Russia relations
Reuters reported earlier this month that artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers were diverted by European customers to Ukraine and New Delhi did not intervene to stop the trade despite protests from Moscow.
India has warm ties with Russia, its primary arms supplier for decades, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to join the Western-led sanctions regime against Moscow.
Zelensky also held talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Japan’s energy aid to Kyiv.
“Restoring our energy supply after Russian shelling and preparing for winter are tasks we are actively working on now,” Zelensky said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “Together with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, we discussed the situation in the energy sector.”
Japan has been one of several nations sending support, including $4.5 billion this year, according to the Japanese foreign ministry website.
Japan has provided Kyiv with equipment for restoration work and increasing the capacity of the Ukrainian power system to get through winter amidst Russia’s continued strikes on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s electricity supply shortfall could reach about a third of expected peak demand amid the attacks and the expiry of a gas supply contract at the end of this year, the International Energy Agency said in a report last week.
China FM slams ‘indiscriminate attacks’ on civilians in talks with Lebanese counterpart
- Wang acknowledged the strikes, saying China “strongly condemns any violation of the basic norms governing international relations.”
- China also urged its citizens to leave Israel on Sunday as tensions with Lebanon grew
BEIJING: China’s top diplomat Wang Yi expressed support for Lebanon and condemned what he termed “indiscriminate attacks against civilians,” Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Meeting his Lebanese counterpart in New York, Wang said: “We pay close attention to developments in the region, especially the recent explosion of communications equipment in Lebanon, and firmly oppose indiscriminate attacks against civilians.”
Last week, a series of coordinated communications device blasts across Lebanon killed 39 people and wounded almost 3,000.
And on Monday, Israeli air strikes killed 492 people, including 35 children and 58 women, and wounded 1,645 others in the country, according to Lebanon’s health ministry.
Wang acknowledged the strikes, saying China “strongly condemns any violation of the basic norms governing international relations.”
“No matter how the situation changes, we will always stand on the side of justice, on the side of our Arab brothers, including Lebanon,” Wang told Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.
“Armed force does not represent truth, and might only undermines peace,” Wang said.
“Countering violence with violence will not solve the problems in the Middle East and will only lead to an even greater humanitarian disaster,” he added.
China also urged its citizens to leave Israel on Sunday as tensions with Lebanon grew.
China has repeatedly called for peace talks to resolve the crisis in Gaza.
In July, the country brokered a “national unity” deal between Hamas, Fatah, and other Palestinian organizations to rule Gaza together after the war.
World leaders gather at UN as Mideast tensions explode
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said he was “gravely alarmed” as focus shifted from Gaza to Lebanon, and the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warned “we are almost in a full-fledged war”
UNITED NATIONS, United States: Escalating clashes between Israel and Hezbollah threatened to overshadow US President Joe Biden’s final appearance at the UN’s signature annual event on Tuesday as diplomats scrambled to avert an all-out regional war.
The gathering of dozens of world leaders, the high point of the diplomatic calendar, comes a day after Israeli air strikes on Lebanon killed more than 490 people, according to local authorities.
As world leaders gathered in Manhattan Monday for the annual flurry of speeches and face-to-face diplomacy, UN Security Council member France called for an emergency meeting on the crisis engulfing the Middle East.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman said he was “gravely alarmed” as focus shifted from Gaza to Lebanon, and the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell warned “we are almost in a full-fledged war.”
Israel’s closest ally the United States again warned against a full-blown ground invasion of Lebanon, with a senior US official promising to bring “concrete” ideas for de-escalation to the UN this week.
It is unclear what progress can be made to defuse the situation in Lebanon as efforts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza, which Israel has relentlessly pounded since October 2023, have come to nothing.
“Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan will be the dominant issues,” said Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group think tank, adding he expected many leaders to “warn that the UN will become irrelevant globally if it cannot help make peace.”
More than 100 heads of state and government are scheduled to speak during the UN’s centerpiece event, which will run until Monday.
Since last year’s annual gathering, when Sudan’s civil war and Russia’s Ukraine invasion dominated, the world has faced an explosion of crises.
“International challenges are moving faster than our ability to solve them,” Guterres warned ahead of the gathering.
The October 7 attack by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israel and the ensuing violence in the Middle East has exposed deep divisions in the global body.
With Israel’s leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas expected to address the General Assembly this week, there could be combustible moments.
On Tuesday, representatives of Turkiye, Jordan, Qatar, Iran and Algeria are slated to take the podium to press for a Gaza ceasefire after nearly one year of war.
Ukraine will also be on the agenda Tuesday when President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses a UN Security Council meeting on Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“I invite all leaders and nations to continue supporting our joint efforts for a just and peaceful future,” Zelensky told the UN on Monday.
“Putin has stolen much already, but he will never steal the world’s future.”
It is unclear if the grand diplomatic gathering can achieve anything for the millions mired in conflict and poverty globally.
“Any real diplomacy to reduce tensions will take place behind the scenes,” Gowan said.
“This may be an opportunity for Western and Arab diplomats to have some quiet conversations with the Iranians about the need to stop the regional situation spinning out of control.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani has called for an urgent meeting of Arab leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly over the crisis in Lebanon.
Guterres cautioned against “the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza.”
