HANOI, Vietnam: Vietnam has protested against a Chinese military drill in the contested South China Sea and has demanded that China stop the actions it says are a threat to security and maritime safety.
China's state-run media on Tuesday said Beijing must prepare for “military confrontation” in the South China Sea as it began the week-long naval drills on and around the Paracel islands.
They will finish on the eve of a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in a case filed by the Philippines challenging China’s claims to most of the South China Sea. The ruling is expected to be issued on July 12.
Beijing has boycotted the hearings and is engaged in a major diplomatic and publicity drive to try to delegitimize the process.
In an editorial, the Global Times — a newspaper owned by the People’s Daily group that often takes a nationalistic tone — said China should accelerate the build-up of its defense capabilities and “must be prepared for any military confrontation.”
“Even though China cannot keep up with the US militarily in the short-term, it should be able to let the US pay a cost it cannot stand if it intervenes in the South China Sea dispute by force,” it added.
The arbitration case had been orchestrated by the Philippines and the US to portray China as “an outcast from a rules-based international community,” said an editorial in the China Daily.
The newspaper, which is published by the government, added: “It is naive to expect China to swallow the bitter pill of humiliation.”
In recent years Beijing has rapidly built up reefs and outcrops into artificial islands with facilities capable of military use.
Vietnam's Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said in a statement posted late Monday on the ministry’s website that China’s moves seriously violate Vietnamese sovereignty and demanded that China stop the drills.
“Vietnam strongly protests and demanded that China respect Vietnam’s sovereignty, behave responsibly, immediately stop and do not take actions that threaten security, maritime safety in the East Sea or escalate tension in this region,” Binh said, referring to the South China Sea.
Vietnam, China and Taiwan all claim the Paracel islands which are occupied by China, and those three along with the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei claim all or parts of the Spratly Islands, which are believed to rich in natural resources and occupy one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
China’s massive land reclamation projects and increased militarization of the seven reefs and atolls in the Spratlys over the past two years have raised serious concerns in the region.
Vietnam protests against Chinese drills in South China Sea
Vietnam protests against Chinese drills in South China Sea
Afghanistan’s trade with Pakistan nosedives amid increasing imports from Iran
- Afghanistan commerce chamber says Pakistan trade down 60%
- Afghanistan’s imports via Iran had increased to $2bn last year
KABUL: Afghanistan’s trade with Pakistan has nosedived since the beginning of the year, the Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Investment said on Thursday, amid increasing imports from Iran.
Pakistan has been Afghanistan’s main access route to international markets. But with tensions between the neighbors increasing since 2021 — when the Taliban took over the administration in Kabul and with several regime changes in Islamabad as well — the volume of trade has dropped sharply.
“Our exports and transit trade with Pakistan have been decreasing every day. Since the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban) took power, increasing restrictions have been put on our transit due to the political and security issues between the two countries,” Khan Jan Alokozai, deputy head of the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Investment, told Arab News.
“Our exports also faced several challenges, slowly declining trade with Pakistan. We had around $2 billion in annual trade with Pakistan, which will be as low as $500 million this year.”
The drop in the volume of trade was also significant as hundreds of Afghan products were barred from entering Pakistani territory.
“(About) 200-300 items were put on the negative list of the Afghan transit trade, stopping all from being exported,” Alokozai said.
“Our trade with Pakistan has decreased by 60 percent while our transit (trade) has seen an 80 percent decline.”
While Afghanistan’s relations with its eastern neighbor were deteriorating, they have seen improvement with others — Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Iran — which was also reflected in trade activity.
Iran, Alokozai said, was increasingly taking over Pakistan’s role in the region, especially for imports.
“We tried a lot to convince the government of Pakistan but border closure and transit challenges such as high taxes led to a significant decline in trade with Pakistan.”
“On the other hand, our trade relations with Iran and Central Asia are improving. Last year, we had around $2 billion imports from Iran and our transit trade is mainly through Chabahar and Bandar Abbas ports in Iran,” he said.
In terms of cost and time, Pakistani ports including Qasim, Gawadar and Karachi were still more viable options for Afghan traders, especially those in the east.
Businesspeople trading in grocery products, who depend on the Torkham crossing connecting Nangarhar province with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, are hopeful that political issues would still be fixed between their government and its Pakistani counterpart.
“When trucks full of fresh vegetables and fruits are stopped for days in Torkham, most of them get rotten, causing great loss for businesses,” Ismail Niazi, a shopkeeper in Jalalabad, told Arab News.
“I hope the current government can resolve issues with Pakistan and support Afghan businessmen.”
Boat capsizes on a lake in eastern Congo, killing at least 50 people, witnesses say
- Witnesses said they saw rescue services recover at least 50 bodies from the water
- The boat, overloaded with passengers, sank while trying to dock just meters (yards) away from the port of Kituku
GOMA, Congo: A boat carrying scores of passengers capsized on Lake Kivu in eastern Congo on Thursday, killing at least 50 people, witnesses told The Associated Press.
It was not immediately clear exactly how many people were on board or how many perished but witnesses said they saw rescue services recover at least 50 bodies from the water. They said 10 people survived and were taken to the local hospital.
The boat, overloaded with passengers, sank while trying to dock just meters (yards) away from the port of Kituku, the witnesses said. It was going from Minova in South Kivu province to Goma, in North Kivu province.
Local authorities said that the rescue efforts continued and the death toll remained unknown for the moment. In February, t he majority of the 50 passengers aboard a wooden boat were presumed dead after the vessel capsized on Lake Kivu.
“This boat was carrying about a hundred people when it had the capacity for about thirty passengers,” the governor of the province of South Kivu Jean-Jacques Purusi told a local radio station following the accident.
It was the latest deadly boat accident in the central African country, where overcrowding on vessels is often to blame. Maritime regulations also are often not followed.
Congolese officials have often warned against overloading and vowed to punish those violating safety measures for water transportation. But in remote areas where most passengers come from, many are unable to afford public transport for the few available roads.
In June, an overloaded boat sank near the capital of Kinshasa and 80 passengers lost their lives. In January, 22 people died on Lake Maî-Ndombe and in April 2023, six were killed and 64 went missing on Lake Kivu.
Witnesses said the boat that capsized on Thursday was visibly overcrowded.
“I was at the port of Kituku when I saw the boat arriving from Minova, full of passengers,” Francine Munyi told the AP. “It started to lose its balance and sank into the lake. Some people threw themselves into the water.”
“Many died, and few were saved,” she added. “I couldn’t help them because I don’t know how to swim.”
The victims’ families and Goma residents gathered at the port of Kituku, accusing authorities of negligence in the face of growing insecurity in the region.
Since the fighting between the armed forces and the M23 rebels made the road between the cities of Goma and Minova impassable, forcing the closure of the passage to trucks transporting food, many traders have resorted to maritime transport on Lake Kivu. It’s an alternative considered safer than road traffic, which is threatened by insecurity.
But according to Elia Asumani, a shipping agent who works on this line, the situation has become dangerous:
“We are afraid,” he told the AP. “This shipwreck was predictable.”
Bienfait Sematumba, 27, said he lost four family members.
“They are all dead. I am alone now,” he said, sobbing. “If the authorities had ended the war, this shipwreck would never have happened.”
The survivors, about 10 of them, were taken to Kyeshero hospital for treatment. One of them, Neema Chimanga, said she was still in shock.
“We saw the boat start to fill with water halfway,” she recounted to the AP. “The door of the boat opened, and we tried to close it. But the water was already coming in, and the boat tilted.”
“I threw myself into the water and started swimming,” she said. “I don’t know how I got out of the water.”
France says Israel’s ‘persona non grata’ designation of UN chief ‘unjustified’
- Paris said it had “full support for and confidence” in Guterres
- The United Nations played “a fundamental role in the stability of the region“
PARIS: France on Thursday condemned Israel’s move to declare UN chief Antonio Guterres “persona non grata,” saying the decision was “unjustified.”
“France regrets the unjustified, serious and counter-productive decision taken by Israel to declare the secretary general of the United Nations, Mr.Antonio Guterres, persona non grata,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.
Paris said it had “full support for and confidence” in Guterres, adding that the United Nations played “a fundamental role in the stability of the region.”
“France reiterates its commitment to the United Nations Charter, to international law and to the importance of respecting Security Council decisions in maintaining international peace and security,” the statement added.
On Wednesday, Israel declared Guterres “persona non grata,” accusing him of failing to specifically condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel.
Israel has been a harsh critic of the UN, with ties between the state and the international body souring even more after the October 7 Hamas attacks.
Indian poet rejects US-backed award in solidarity with Palestinian children
- Jacinta Kerketta comes from the Indigenous community in Jharkhand state, eastern India
- She was nominated to receive Room to Read Young Author Award for her children’s poetry
NEW DELHI: Indian poet Jacinta Kerketta has turned down a prestigious US-backed literary award, citing her solidarity with the Palestinian children and women in Gaza killed by Israel with American military support.
The Room to Read Young Author Award, co-sponsored by the US Agency for International Development and Room to Read India Trust, aims to promote children’s literacy.
Kerketta was selected to receive it next week for “Jirhul,” her latest children’s poetry collection.
“I declined this award because USAID (U.S. Aid for International Development) is associated with Room to Read India Trust,” she told Arab News on Wednesday.
“When I got information about the award for children’s literature, I felt that it was more important to speak for the children of Palestine than to receive an award.”
She also raised concerns over the links of the international nonprofit itself, as it has been collaborating with Boeing, which is a sponsor of some of its literacy programs in India.
“At the same time when children were being killed in Palestine, Room to Read India Trust was collaborating with Boeing Company ... a company that has had arms business with Israel for a long time,” Kerketta said.
“I rejected this award to show my solidarity with the children, women.”
Originally from Jharkhand state in eastern India, the poet is a member of the minority Adivasi community — India’s marginalized indigenous people who traditionally live in and around forest areas.
“Adivasi people are struggling for their survival along with saving nature. They’re always an advocate of human freedom,” she said.
“My community gives me the courage to show solidarity with those fighting for their freedom.”
More women and children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, according to new analysis by Oxfam.
Oxfam’s “conservative figures” earlier this week indicate that more than 6,000 Palestinian women and 11,000 children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. The numbers do not include at least 20,000 of those who are either unidentified or missing.
Earlier this year, a study published by the medical journal The Lancet estimated the true number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza could be more than 186,000, taking into consideration also indirect deaths as a result of starvation, injury and lack of access to medical aid.
UK Armed Forces ill-equipped to back Israel as Middle East conflict escalates: Experts
- RAF Typhoons played no part in intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles launched on Tuesday
- Ex-defense secretary: Royal Navy destroyers, carrier groups, F-35 jets not at optimal capacity for deployment to warzone
LONDON:The UK lacks the military means to help Israel defend itself from Iranian ballistic missile attacks, defense experts have told the Daily Telegraph.
Iran struck Israel with nearly 200 long-range ballistic missiles on Tuesday, but RAF Typhoon aircraft based in Cyprus lacked the weapons needed to intercept them.
They were instead relegated to a monitoring role, with the Ministry of Defense saying they “did not engage any targets.”
The Royal Navy’s fleet of Type-45 destroyers is also ill-equipped to respond to such attacks, according to former Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
Its two carrier groups, meanwhile, are reportedly understaffed to the point where they would struggle if deployed to an active war zone.
Tom Sharpe, former navy commander, told the Telegraph: “Our involvement (in the response to Iran) was underwhelming and it’s a reflection of 40 years of underfunding. Given what is going on in the Middle East and Russia, we need to expedite our ability to provide ballistic missile defense from our T-45 destroyers.”
MoD sources told the newspaper that “the Armed Forces remained open to the changing situation in the Middle East,” and were capable of destroying incoming ballistic missiles.
RAF jets took part in defending Israel from an Iranian missile barrage in April following an Israeli attack on Tehran’s consulate in Damascus. However, that Iranian attack involved less sophisticated cruise missiles and drones.
The ballistic missiles used in Tuesday’s attack fly faster and on higher trajectories, making them harder to intercept.
Tehran is believed to have spent large sums on developing its ballistic missile program in recent years, and US intelligence believes it to have a stockpile of over 3,000.
The UK plans to equip its Type-45s with next-generation Aster 30 interceptor weapons to intercept ballistic missiles, but the development program, though approved by the MoD, is yet to get underway.
Wallace, who green-lit the program, told the Telegraph: “Britain could have the capability to have a Type-45 permanently guarding our shores equipped with the upgraded Aster 30.
“We should, with immediate effect, seek to accelerate the already planned upgrade of their missile systems in light of what we are seeing in the Middle East.”
The US was able to deploy three Arleigh Burke-class destroyers to help defend Israel against the missile salvo.
UK forces, initially deployed to the region to conduct missions against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, have seen their numbers bolstered since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas last year.
However, their combat capabilities have been repeatedly questioned, including after a Telegraph investigation discovered that manpower shortages meant the Royal Navy was not at “optimal readiness” to be deployed to the Red Sea to counter the threat posed by the Houthis in Yemen to global shipping.
A source told the Telegraph: “The Navy has clearly been hiding the fact it has a clear problem with getting sailors to sea. They don’t have enough people to crew the ships they already have, let alone new ships.”
Wallace said the UK’s F-35 aircraft, which fly from its carrier groups, were also poorly equipped to deal with threats in the Middle East.
“Sadly, because of slow walking by the F-35 Joint Programme Office in the US, Britain’s F-35s cannot enjoy the full range of weapons that we would like to put on them.
“This limits its utility and means that a land-based Typhoon still offers the best offensive capability in the Gulf region.”
He added: “If F-35s were properly equipped with the right missiles it probably is worth sending, but at the moment it isn’t. It would go down there and guard American aircraft carriers and not maximize its potential.”
Sharpe said: “We are getting a little fixated by drones and swarm attacks and yet, if you look at the Red Sea, 94 percent of attacks on shipping contained missiles.
“Tuesday was 100 percent missiles. The good old missile is not going away. All of this needs more money.”
