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By Pam CASTRO MANILA, Dec 9, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippines accused the Chinese coast guard on Saturday of using water cannons to “obstruct” three government boats delivering provisions to Filipino fishermen near a reef off its coast. The incident happened near the China-controlled Scarborough Shoal, a flashpoint between Manila and Beijing, which claims almost the entirety of the South China Sea. The National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea said in a statement […]
UNITED NATIONS, United States, Dec 8, 2023 (AFP) – The United States on Friday vetoed a UN Security Council resolution that would have called for an immediate ceasefire in the intense fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. Washington dashed a growing clamor for an immediate ceasefire that had been led by UN chief Antonio Guterres and Arab nations. American envoy Robert Wood said the resolution was “divorced from reality” and “would have not moved […]
RIYADH, Dec 6, 2023 (AFP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Saudi Arabia Wednesday after visiting the United Arab Emirates, making a rare trip abroad as Moscow seeks to reassert itself on the global stage. It is only the third trip the Russian leader has taken outside the former Soviet Union since he invaded Ukraine, following visits to Iran and China, and comes as Moscow seeks to bolster its influence in the Middle East. […]
SYDNEY, Dec 7, 2023 (AFP) – Australia clinched a security deal with Papua New Guinea on Thursday, bolstering ties to a key Pacific neighbour that has been courted persistently by China. Canberra pushed for a more substantive treaty earlier this year, but Papua New Guinea baulked because leaders feared it undermined the country’s “sovereign rights”. The salvaged agreement focuses on Papua New Guinea’s domestic security, as stretched police struggle to stamp out arms trafficking, drug […]
BEIJING, Dec 4, 2023 (AFP) – China on Monday said the United States was responsible for “deliberate stirring up” of tensions in the South China Sea, after a US warship navigated through waters claimed by Beijing. “On December 4, littoral combat ship USS Gabrielle Giffords illegally entered the waters adjacent to Ren’ai Reef in the Nansha region of China without the approval of the Chinese government,” Southern Theatre Command spokesman Tian Junli said. The Second […]
MANILA, Dec 3, 2023 (AFP) – Defence ministers for the Philippines and France vowed Saturday to pursue an agreement that would allow them to deploy troops to each other’s territories, the latest such deal sought by the archipelagic nation located in the strategic South China Sea. Speaking following a meeting in Manila, Philippine Defence Secretary Gilbert Teodoro and his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu said they agreed to seek authorisation from their respective presidents and relevant […]
By Allison JACKSON MANILA, Dec 3, 2023 (AFP) – The Philippines said Sunday more than 135 Chinese vessels were “swarming” a reef off its coast, describing the boats’ growing presence as “alarming”. The Chinese boats were “dispersed and scattered” within the boomerang-shaped Whitsun Reef, which the Philippines calls Julian Felipe Reef, around 320 kilometres (200 miles) west of Palawan Island, the coast guard said. Whitsun Reef is more than 1,000 kilometres from the nearest major […]
By Catherine HOURS PARIS, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) – Host United Arab Emirates wants nearly 200 nations attending the COP28 climate summit starting Thursday to commit to tripling installed renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030, a goal experts say is “ambitious but achievable”. If the UN forum sets that target in stone, it could become a key marker of COP28’s success, especially if coupled with a pledge to drawn down fossil fuel use. – Why […]
TOKYO, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) – Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hailed on Thursday the late Henry Kissinger’s “significant contributions” to peace and stability in Asia. Kissinger “made significant contributions to the regional peace and stability, including the normalisation of diplomatic ties between the US and China,” Kishida told reporters after the former US secretary of state died aged 100. “I’d like to express my most sincere respect to the great achievements he made,” Kishida […]
By Carlos HAMANN, Shaun TANDON WASHINGTON, Nov 30, 2023 (AFP) – Brilliant, abrasive and ruthlessly ambitious, Henry Kissinger towered over post-World War II US foreign policy like no one else and shaped a fateful new course for the world’s relationship with China. As secretary of state to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, Kissinger was a master tactician whose intellectual gifts were begrudgingly acknowledged even by his many critics, who nevertheless faulted his disregard for […]
OTTAWA, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – A Sino-Canadian row reared its head on Monday after one of two Canadians jailed by China for nearly three years claimed he was unwittingly used for intelligence gathering and is seeking compensation from Ottawa. Beijing’s 2018 to 2021 detentions of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig had plunged bilateral relations into a deep freeze. Spavor reportedly now blames Kovrig, with whom he had provided information on North Korea, unaware […]
SARAJEVO, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned on Monday of Russia’s “malign” interference in Bosnia, saying Moscow’s actions threatened the stability of the deeply divided Balkan country. Nearly 30 years after the end of its civil war, Bosnia remains fractured along ethnic lines, with NATO troops and later European peacekeepers stationed in the country to help keep the peace. “We are concerned by secessionist and divisive rhetoric as well as […]
