Philippines, Germany commit to finalizing defense deal amid tensions in South China Sea

Special Philippines, Germany commit to finalizing defense deal amid tensions in South China Sea
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius speaks during a joint press conference with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., at a hotel in Metro Manila, Philippines on Aug. 4, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 04 August 2024
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Philippines, Germany commit to finalizing defense deal amid tensions in South China Sea

Philippines, Germany commit to finalizing defense deal amid tensions in South China Sea
  • Boris Pistorius’ visit to the Philippines was the first by a German defense minister
  • Manila, Berlin are deepening ties days after US announced defense aid boost

MANILA: The Philippines and Germany committed on Sunday to finalizing a defense cooperation agreement this year, saying they strongly opposed expansive claims in the South China Sea amid continued tensions with Beijing in the disputed waters.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius was in Manila to meet with his Philippine counterpart Gilberto Teodoro Jr. to enhance ties between their countries, which are celebrating 70 years of diplomatic relations.

They agreed to establish long-term relations between their armed forces to expand training and bilateral exchanges, explore opportunities to expand armaments partnerships and engage in joint projects.

In a joint statement, the ministers said they “strongly opposed any unilateral attempt to advance expansive claims, especially through force or coercion,” alluding to recent incidents in the South China Sea.  

The Philippines and China have overlapping claims in the strategic waters along with a few other countries, but maritime confrontations between China Coast Guard ships and Philippine vessels have increased in recent months.

In June, Manila said the China Coast Guard rammed and boarded Philippine naval vessels during their resupply mission on the Second Thomas Shoal, part of the contested waters that has become a central flashpoint between the two countries.

“There is only one cause of conflict in the South China Sea … It is China’s illegal and unilateral attempt to appropriate most, if not all, of the South China Sea as their internal waters,” Teodoro said during a press conference.

“The Philippines is not provoking China. We do not seek war, yet we are mandated not only by our constitution but as an obligation to our countrymen to protect whatever areas, whether be jurisdiction or rights, that rightfully belong to the exclusive benefit of Filipinos.”

Manila and Berlin took measures to deepen their military ties just days after the US announced $500 million in military funding to modernize the Philippine army, an ongoing effort that will also see Manila “looking to engage Germany as a possible supplier,” Teodoro said.  

“These are in the command and control, anti-access aerial denial, maritime domain, aerial domain and in higher technologically capable equipment,” he added.

Pistorius, whose visit on Sunday was the first such trip by a German defense minister, underscored his country’s support for the 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague, which said that Beijing’s claims had no legal basis.

The decision, which was based on the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, was rejected by China.

“This ruling remains valid without any exceptions. It is our obligation to strengthen the maritime order, and we are living up to it,” Pistorius said, adding that countries must contribute to de-escalation efforts by keeping “all channels of communication open,” including with China.

“It is important that we support and protect the rules-based international order in what we’re doing here. Our commitments and engagements here are not directed against anybody but instead, we’re focusing on maintaining the rules-based international order, securing freedom of navigation and protecting trade routes.”

For Manila, stronger defense ties with Germany are “important as a symbol of the Philippines’ growing security network” at the global level, said retired US Air Force Col. Raymond Powell, a director at Sealight, a project based in Stanford University that focuses on maritime transparency.

“It carries fewer material benefits than its relationships with established Indo-Pacific powers like the US, Japan and France, but it is important (in) showing the Philippines as an integral member of a strong global community with significant economic resources and military capabilities,” Powell told Arab News.

Aaron Jed Rabena, a senior lecturer at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines, said strengthening relations with Germany was a strategic move for Manila.

“This is part of the Philippines’ strategy to broaden its web of security partners and get as much defense and political support from them as possible,” he told Arab News.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Germany will soon take part in military exercises and even talk of a VFA (visiting forces agreement) with the Philippines.”


Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month
Updated 21 sec ago
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Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month

Bangladesh’s Yunus to visit China this month
  • The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of premier Sheikh Hasina
  • Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit
DHAKA: Bangladeshi leader Muhammad Yunus will travel to Beijing on a diplomatic goodwill visit this month as frosty relations with neighboring India spur his caretaker administration to court new friends.
The Nobel Peace laureate took charge of Bangladesh last August after the ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India after a student-led uprising.
India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government and her ouster sent cross-border relations into a tailspin.
That has prompted the caretaker government helmed by Yunus to seek greater ties with Beijing, New Delhi’s chief rival for power and influence in the Asian subcontinent.
“Bangladesh aims to elevate this bilateral relationship to new heights,” Yunus’s media secretary Shafiqul Alam told reporters on Sunday in a briefing on next week’s visit.
“They will discuss a wide range of issues concerning both countries.”
Yunus is slated to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the March 26-29 visit.
He will also receive an honorary doctorate from Peking University and meet several Chinese firms to explore investment opportunities.
“Bangladesh aspires to become a manufacturing hub and is keen to partner with China in this endeavor,” Alam said.
Diplomatic talks are also expected to touch on Bangladesh’s immense population of Rohingya refugees, most of whom fled a violent military crackdown in neighboring Myanmar in 2017.
China has acted as mediator between Bangladesh and Myanmar in the past to broker the repatriation of the persecuted minority, although efforts stalled because of Myanmar’s unwillingness to have them returned.
Interim Bangladeshi foreign minister Touhid Hossain visited China in January in what was his first official trip abroad.
China’s ambassador in Dhaka, Yao Wen, said last month that Beijing “firmly supports Bangladesh in upholding its national independence, sovereignty, and dignity.”

Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability

Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability
Updated 27 min 17 sec ago
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Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability

Deadly nightclub blaze leaves North Macedonia in grief and desperate for accountability
  • The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured
  • People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning

KOCANI, North Macedonia: After North Macedonia’s deadliest tragedy in recent memory, with dozens dying in a nightclub inferno, the Balkan nation is struggling to grapple with so many young lives lost while trying to hold those responsible to account and prevent another calamity.
The massive fire tore through the overcrowded nightclub early Sunday in the eastern town of Kocani leaving 59 people dead and 155 injured from burns, smoke inhalation and being trampled in the panicked escape toward the building’s single exit.
People as young as 16 were among the casualties, and the nation declared seven days of mourning.
“We are all in shock, and I am shocked myself: as a mother, as a person, as a president,” North Macedonia’s President Gordana Davkova Siljanovska said in an address to the nation Sunday night.
“I still cannot believe that the terrible tragedy in Kocani is a reality. I do not know with what words to express my condolences to the parents and loved ones of the deceased,” she said. “No one responsible should escape the law, justice and punishment! Let us not allow anyone to endanger the lives of innocent people anymore.”
The fire that shook the nation of 2 million – where close-knit extended family bonds made the disaster personal to many – was the latest in a slew of deadly nightclub fires around the world.
Allegation of bribery surrounding nightclub
Authorities say they are investigating allegations of bribery surrounding the nightclub that was crammed with young revelers and at double capacity. And North Macedonia’s government ordered a sweeping three-day inspection to be carried out at all nightclubs and cabarets across the country, starting Monday.
The country was in mourning as people watched harrowing scenes in the town of 25,000 people, where rescuers for hours carried out their grim task of removing the charred bodies of clubgoers. The fire caused the roof of the single-story building to partially collapse, revealing the charred remains of wooden beams and debris.
Anxious parents gathered outside hospitals in Kocani and capital Skopje, some 115 kilometers (72 miles) west, eager for updates about the injured. Many of the most seriously injured were receiving treatment in Greece and other neighboring countries.
Waiting outside the hospital in Kocani, Dragi Stojanov was among those who received the dreaded news that his 21-year-old son Tomce had perished.
“He was my only child. I don’t need my life anymore. ... 150 families have been devastated,” he told reporters. “Children burnt beyond recognition. There are corpses, just corpses inside (the club). ... And the bosses (of organized crime), just putting money into their pockets.”
The death toll may rise further
Flags around the country have been lowered to half-staff, and the death toll may rise further, with 20 of the injured in critical condition, Health Minister Arben Taravari said Sunday.
Although the investigation into the fire’s cause is ongoing, videos showed sparkling pyrotechnics on the stage hitting Club Pulse’s ceiling and igniting the blaze as a band played.
“We even tried to get out through the bathroom, only to find bars (on the windows),” 19-year-old Marija Taseva told The Associated Press. “I somehow managed to get out. I fell down the stairs and they ran over me, trampled me. ... I barely stayed alive and could hardly breathe.” She suffered an injury to her face.
Interior Minister Panche Toshkovski said 15 people had been detained for questioning after a preliminary inspection revealed the club was operating without a proper license. He said the number of people inside the club was at least double its official capacity of 250.
“We have grounds for suspicion that there is bribery and corruption in this case,” he told reporters without elaborating.
Condolences poured in from leaders around Europe as well as from the office of Pope Francis, who has been hospitalized for a month for double pneumonia.
“I have had many difficult moments and challenges in my life but today is by far the most difficult day of my life,” Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski said in a televised address. “My heart is breaking, and I have no strength to speak today. I am broken and my spirit is broken.”
Late Sunday, Kocani’s residents held a candlelight vigil in support for mourning families, waiting in long lines to light church candles.
Beti Delovska, an economist from Skopje, said North Macedonia has never experienced a tragedy like this, with dozens of young people vanishing in minutes. And she noted that many young people with bright futures had already left the nation, in search of opportunities elsewhere.
“(North) Macedonia is on its death bed,” Delovska, 64, said. “We have no more credible institutions, the health system is completely dismantled, education is poor, judiciary is partisan and corrupted to the bone … I do believe now that only God can save (North) Macedonia.”


Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace

Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace
Updated 17 March 2025
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Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace

Closing arguments set to begin in pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace
  • Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International
  • The pipeline company is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars. Greenpeace has denied the allegations and says there is no evidence to support them

MANDAN:Closing arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday in a pipeline company’s lawsuit against Greenpeace, a case the environmental advocacy group said could have consequences for free speech and protest rights and threaten the organization’s future.
The jury will deliberate after the closing arguments and jury instructions. Nine jurors and two alternates have heard the case.
North Dakota District Court Judge James Gion told the jury last month when the trial began, “You are the judges of all questions of fact in this case,” and to “base your verdict on the evidence.”
Dallas-based Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Dakota Access alleged defamation, trespass, nuisance and other offenses by Netherlands-based Greenpeace International, its American branch Greenpeace USA, and funding arm Greenpeace Fund Inc. The pipeline company is seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The lawsuit stems from protests in 2016 and 2017 of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline and its Missouri River crossing upstream of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation. The tribe for years has opposed the pipeline as a risk to its water supply. The pipeline has transported oil since mid-2017.
Trey Cox, an attorney for the pipeline company, previously said Greenpeace “planned, organized and funded a game plan to stop construction” of the pipeline, “whatever the cost.”
Cox also alleged Greenpeace paid outsiders to come into the area to protest, sent blockade supplies, organized or led protester trainings, passed “critical intel” to the protesters and told untrue statements to stop the line from being built.
He said a letter signed by leaders of Greenpeace International and Greenpeace USA and sent to Energy Transfer’s banks contained an allegedly defamatory statement that the company desecrated burial grounds and culturally important sites during construction.
Greenpeace’s “deceptive narrative scared off lenders” and the company lost half its banks, Cox said.
Attorneys for the Greenpeace entities denied the allegations, saying there is no evidence, they had little or no involvement with the protests and the letter was signed by hundreds of organizations from dozens of countries, with no financial institution to testify the organization received, read or was influenced by the letter.
Greenpeace representatives have said the lawsuit is an example of corporations abusing the legal system to go after critics and is a critical test of free speech and protest rights. An Energy Transfer spokesperson said the case is about Greenpeace not following the law, not free speech.


Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close

Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close
Updated 17 March 2025
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Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close

Threatened by US, Canada hugs France and Britain close
  • Prime Minister Mark Carney expecting warm welcomes on three days of visits to Paris, London and Iqaluit in Canada’s northernmost territory, Nunavut

MONTEAL: With Canada’s economy and even sovereignty under unprecedented threat from its southern neighbor the United States, its new leader has embarked on a trans-Atlantic trip to strengthen ties with traditional friends France and Britain.
Just days into his mandate, Prime Minister Mark Carney faces threats on three fronts: A trade war with the Washington, US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex his country, and looming domestic elections.
But, despite the tension at home, he is expecting warm welcomes on three days of visits to Paris, London and Iqaluit in Canada’s northernmost territory, Nunavut.
“Canada was built upon a union of peoples – indigenous, French, and British,” Carney said, in a statement released before he set off from Ottawa on Sunday, two days after he was sworn in, replacing 10-year veteran prime minister Justin Trudeau as leader of the G7, NATO and Commonwealth power.
“My visit to France and the United Kingdom will strengthen trade, commercial, and defense ties with two of our strongest and most reliable partners, and my visit to Nunavut will be an opportunity to bolster Canada’s Arctic sovereignty and security, and our plan to unlock the North’s full economic potential.”
Carney did not say why Canada might be in need of “reliable partners,” but he didn’t need to – Trump’s imposition of an escalating raft of import tariffs on Canadian goods has threatened to trigger a recession, and his scorn for Canadian sovereignty sent jitters through the former ally.
Opinion polls show a large majority of Canadian voters reject Trump’s argument that their country would be better off as the “51st state of the United States,” but the trade war is a threat to the economy of the vast country of 41 million people, which has long enjoyed a close US partnership.
On Monday, 60-year-old Carney will be in Paris for a working dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron and discuss how to, according to the Canadian leader’s office, “build stronger economic, commercial, and defense ties.”
According to the Elysee, the two leaders “will discuss Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, international crises, and projects at the heart” of the “strategic partnership” between Paris and Ottawa.
Canada, France and Britain are among the NATO members that have maintained strong support for Ukraine’s beleaguered government and military since Russia’s all-out invasion in February 2022, even as Trump’s US administration has bullied Kyiv to make concessions to Moscow.
London and Paris are putting together plans for a coalition security force in Ukraine and looking for allies.
France is Canada’s 11th-largest trading partner and Britain its third at a time when Trump’s tariffs and Canadian retaliatory measures are threatening trade with its huge southern neighbor – destination of three-quarters of Canada’s exports.
But Canada also has a “Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement” with the European Union, which includes France, and is a member of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which now also includes Britain.
After Paris, Carney heads for London, where he once worked as governor of the Bank Of England, for talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer and King Charles III, the monarch who is head of state in both Britain and Canada.
In his first speech as prime minister, Carney said: “Security is a priority for this government, reinforcing our security, as is diversifying our trading and commercial relationships, of course, with both Europe and the United Kingdom.”
On his return leg, Carney will touch down in Iqaluit, in Nunavut, the Canadian territory closest to the Danish autonomous country of Greenland – another Trump target for annexation – to “reaffirm Canada’s Arctic security and sovereignty.”


US meat exports at risk as China lets registrations lapse

US meat exports at risk as China lets registrations lapse
Updated 17 March 2025
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US meat exports at risk as China lets registrations lapse

US meat exports at risk as China lets registrations lapse
  • Expiration of roughly two-thirds of the total registered facilities could restrict US market access
  • In 2024, the US was China’s third-largest meat supplier by volume, trailing Brazil and Argentina

BEIJING: Export registrations for more than 1,000 US meat plants granted by China under the 2020 “Phase 1” trade deal lapsed on Sunday, China’s customs website showed, threatening US exports to the world’s largest buyer amid an ongoing tariff standoff.
The registration status for pork, beef and poultry plants across the US, including major producers Tyson Foods, Smithfield Packaged Meats and Cargill Meat Solutions was changed from “effective” to “expired,” according to the website of China’s General Administration of Customs.
The expiration of roughly two-thirds of the total registered facilities could restrict US market access and incur significant losses to a roughly $5 billion trade, a fresh affront to American farmers after Beijing earlier this month imposed retaliatory tariffs on some $21 billion worth of American farm goods.
Beijing requires food exporters to register with customs to sell in China.
The US Department of Agriculture has said China did not respond to repeated requests to renew plant registrations, potentially violating the Phase 1 trade agreement.
Under the Phase 1 trade deal, China is obligated to update its approved plant list within 20 days of receiving updates from the USDA.
Registrations for some 84 US plants lapsed in February and while shipments from these affected plants continue to clear customs, the industry doesn’t know for how long China will allow imports.
China’s customs department did not immediately respond to faxed questions.
In 2024, the US was China’s third-largest meat supplier by volume, trailing Brazil and Argentina, accounting for 590,000 tonnes or nine percent of China’s total meat imports.