Philippine president to raise South China Sea issue during Beijing visit

Philippine president to raise South China Sea issue during Beijing visit
Philippines' President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. speaks during a press conference during the EU-ASEAN summit at the European Council headquarters in Brussels on December 14, 2022. (AFP/File)
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Updated 30 December 2022

Philippine president to raise South China Sea issue during Beijing visit

Philippine president to raise South China Sea issue during Beijing visit
  • Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will make his first state visit to China next week
  • Nations set to establish direct communication on disputed territory

MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will raise the territorial dispute in the South China Sea with Beijing during his visit there next week, the foreign affairs ministry said on Thursday.

The South China Sea is a strategic and resource-rich waterway claimed by China almost in its entirety, but other countries, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, have overlapping claims.

The Philippines has filed hundreds of diplomatic protests against China’s activity in the region in the past few years, after an international tribunal in The Hague dismissed Beijing’s sweeping claims to the waterway in 2016.

But Chinese vessels continue to be spotted in areas claimed by the Philippines, known as the West Philippine Sea, and new military facilities and airstrips have also been developed there.

Marcos will make his first state visit to Beijing from Jan. 3-5.

“The president wants a peaceful and stable situation in the West Philippine Sea and will continue to uphold our country’s sovereignty and sovereign rights during his meetings with Chinese leaders,” Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Nathaniel Imperial told reporters during a press briefing at the presidential palace.

“To avoid miscalculation and miscommunication in the West Philippine Sea, both sides have agreed to sign an agreement establishing communication, direct communication, between the foreign ministries of both countries at various levels.”

The deal to establish a hotline, he added, would be signed by Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, who will accompany Marcos on the trip, and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi.

Imperial said that the Philippine president was also expected to pursue investment and trade cooperation talks, including joint oil and gas exploration, which were initiated by Marcos and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok in November.

The planned hotline on the South China Sea, is seen as a good development in the long-standing dispute.

“Communication is always good as long as it is meaningful,” said Bill Hayton, a fellow with the Asia-Pacific Program at Chatham House, who specializes in the South China Sea dispute.

“The problem is that China tends to regard communication as a one-way street.”

But Stephen Cutler, an international security expert and former FBI attache at the US embassy in Manila, said that establishing the direct line showed a possible shift in Beijing’s stance.

“I think it’s a way that China is realizing that they’re not doing a good job of managing relations within the international community. And the hotline is one of the ways to do that,” he told Arab News.

“What I like about the way the Philippines is approaching their relationships, unlike some past administrations, this one seems to be standing tall and standing straight. They’re not bending the knee. They’re not kowtowing to the Chinese and they’re expecting to be treated as peers.”

Marcos’ immediate predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, adopted a Beijing-friendly approach, partly in an attempt to distance the Philippines from the US, its key defense ally and former colonial master.

During his presidential campaign, Marcos, who took office in June, committed to continuing the warm relations ushered in by Duterte, but not at the expense of sovereignty.


Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia
After several hours first responders found no one alive the Virginia State Police said in a statement. (AFP)
Updated 24 sec ago

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia

Fighter jets chase small plane in Washington area before it crashes in Virginia
  • The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the US capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation

WASHINGTON: The United States scrambled F-16 fighter jets in a supersonic chase of a light aircraft with an unresponsive pilot that violated airspace around Washington DC and later crashed into the mountains of Virginia, officials said.

No survivors were found at the crash site, Virginia state police said.

The jet fighters created a sonic boom over the US capital as they pursued the errant Cessna Citation, officials said, causing consternation among people in the Washington area.

Four people were onboard the Cessna, a source familiar with the matter said. A Cessna Citation can carry seven to 12 passengers.

After several hours first responders reached the crash site but found no one alive, the Virginia State Police said in a statement.

The Cessna was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne, Florida, according to the flight-tracking website Flight Aware.

Encore owner John Rumpel told the Washington Post his daughter, a grandchild and her nanny were on board.

“We know nothing about the crash,” the Post quoted Rumpel as saying. “We are talking to the FAA now,” he added before ending the call.

The US military attempted to contact the pilot, who was unresponsive, until the Cessna crashed near the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) said in a statement.

The Cessna appeared to be flying on autopilot, another source familiar the matter said.

“The NORAD aircraft were authorized to travel at supersonic speeds and a sonic boom may have been heard by residents of the region,” the statement said, adding that NORAD aircraft also used flares to the pilot’s attention.

A US official said the fighters did not cause the crash.

The Cessna took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and was bound for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York, about 80 km east of Manhattan, the FAA said in a statement, adding that it and the National Transportation Safety Board would investigate.

According to Flight Aware, the plane appeared to reach the New York area, then made nearly a 180-degree turn.

Incidents involving unresponsive pilots are not unprecedented. Golfer Payne Stewart died in 1999 along with four others after the aircraft he was in flew thousands of miles with the pilot and passengers unresponsive. The plane eventually crashed in South Dakota with no survivors.

In the case of Stewart’s flight, the plane lost cabin pressure, causing the occupants to lose consciousness because of oxygen deprivation.

Similarly, a small US private plane with an unresponsive pilot crashed off the east coast of Jamaica in 2014 after veering far off course and triggering a US security alert including a fighter jet escort.

On Sunday, the sonic boom rattled many people in the Washington area who took to Twitter to report hearing a loud noise that shook the ground and walls. Several residents said they heard the noise as far away as northern Virginia and Maryland.


China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’

China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’
Updated 49 min 9 sec ago

China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’

China says warship crossing in front of US destroyer was ‘safe’

BEIJING: The maneuver of a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait during an encounter with a US destroyer was completely reasonable, legal, professional and “safe,” a spokesperson at China’s foreign ministry said at a press conference on Monday.
The US Navy on Sunday released a video of what it called an “unsafe interaction” in the Taiwan Strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait on Saturday.


Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants

Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants
Updated 05 June 2023

Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants

Shootout between Pakistani troops and insurgents in border region kills 2 soldiers, 2 militants
  • The shootout took place late Sunday in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province

PESHAWAR: Pakistani troops and militants exchanged fire in a northwestern region along the border with Afghanistan in a shootout that killed two soldiers and two militants, the army said Monday.
The shootout took place late Sunday in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that is a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.
According to an army statement, two militants were also wounded and troops seized a cache of weapons at the site. A search operation was underway in the area, it said.
Although the Pakistani military claims it has cleared North Waziristan of militants, occasional attacks and shootouts continue, raising concerns that the Pakistani Taliban are regrouping in the area.
Though a separate group, the TTP remains a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seizing power in Afghanistan in mid-August 2021, during the last weeks of the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from the country after two decades of war.
The takeover emboldened the TTP. They unilaterally ended a cease-fire agreement with the Pakistani government last November and have since stepped up their attacks in the country.

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Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages

Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages
Updated 05 June 2023

Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages

Bangladesh power cuts may last two more weeks on fuel shortages
  • Bangladesh has suffered under severe power shortages since April as a searing heatwave spiked demand for electricity
  • The power losses threaten Bangladesh’s crucial apparel sector that accounts for more than 80 percent of its exports and supplies retailers

DHAKA: Bangladesh could face power cuts for two more weeks, its power minister said late on Sunday, as higher electricity consumption because of rising temperatures has caused a fuel shortfall for generation plants.
Bangladesh has suffered under severe power shortages since April as a searing heatwave spiked demand for electricity and then a deadly cyclone cut off supplies of natural gas to fuel plants. The country has also curtailed imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), its main power generation fuel, after record high prices in the second half of 2022 made the fuel too expensive.
“This condition may remain for another two weeks,” Nasrul Hamid, minister of state for power, energy and mineral resources told reporters.
“This problem is happening because we are not able to ensure an adequate supply of coal and gas,” Hamid said.
The power losses threaten Bangladesh’s crucial apparel sector that accounts for more than 80 percent of its exports and supplies retailers such as Walmart, Gap Inc, H&M , VF Corp, Zara and American Eagle Outfitters .
The loss of those exports will exacerbate issues around its dollar reserves, which have plunged by nearly a third in the 12 months to end of April to a seven-year low, and limited its ability to pay for fuel imports.
Hamid said the country’s power sector officials had been working to avert fuel shortfalls over the last two months, but higher consumption was making the task harder.
An impending shutdown of a key coal-fired power unit from Tuesday because of a fuel shortage over the next few days could further worsen the situation, a senior official from the power ministry said.
“Only rain can give us some relief as power demand decreases when it rains,” said the official, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to the media.
The frequent power cuts have also drawn criticism from opposition parties.”“The entire country is almost without electricity. People are getting sick in extreme heat,” said Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a senior leader of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party


Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’
Updated 05 June 2023

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi calls on US audience to stand up for ‘modern India’
  • The Congress Party defeated the BJP in recent state elections in the Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka states, wins that came after a series of state elections defeats after Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014

NEW YORK: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi pressed his criticism of the country’s leadership in a speech Sunday, calling for Indians in the US and back home to stand up for democracy and the Indian constitution.
Gandhi, a sharp critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was expelled from Parliament, accused Modi and his Bharativa Janata Party (BJP) of dividing the country and failing to focus on important issues such as unemployment and education.
“To be nasty to people, to be arrogant, to be violent, these are not Indian values,” Gandhi, 52, told a crowd of about 700 at the Indian Overseas Congress USA event at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. He spoke just after a minute of silence recognizing a massive train derailment in eastern India that killed 275 people and injured hundreds more.
Gandhi has been on a three-city tour of the United States, including speaking engagements at Stanford University in California and the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Meanwhile, US congressional leaders have invited Modi to address a joint meeting of Congress later this month. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other leaders announced the address as an “opportunity to share your vision for India’s future and speak to the global challenges our countries both face.”
Grandson of former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi is a member of the Indian National Congress party. He is considered to be Modi’s main challenger in the upcoming 2024 elections.
“Modern India cannot exist without our constitution and our democracy,” he said Sunday. He also urged a stronger partnership between India and the US to offset China’s influence.
“One of the things we have to think about is the bridge between India and the United States,” he said. “How do we compete with the challenge the Chinese have placed on the table,” he asked, specifically citing issues of mobility and the world’s energy supply.
The Congress Party defeated the BJP in recent state elections in the Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka states, wins that came after a series of state elections defeats after Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014. Gandhi now holds no official position in his party. He gave up the post of party president after his severe defeats by Modi’s Hindu nationalist party in 2019 national elections, though his supporters hope the more recent results will impact the country’s 2024 national elections, which are likely to be held before May.
Gandhi suffered a serious setback in March when a court convicted him in a criminal defamation case for mocking Modi’s surname, a decision that led to him being expelled from parliament. He could lose his eligibility to run for a parliamentary seat for the next eight years if an appeals court doesn’t overturn his conviction. The conviction came in connection with a speech he gave in 2019.
Gandhi, who is not related to Mahatma Gandhi, also invoked the assassinated Indian leader’s name several times during his speech, praising his model of non-violence.