MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Sunday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart to discuss Ukraine and relations with the United States.
Russia’s top diplomat arrived in China following a visit to North Korea, where he received assurances of support in its conflict with Ukraine.
Lavrov and Wang Yi “discussed relations with the United States and the outlook for settling the Ukrainian crisis,” Russia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
China, a diplomatic and economic ally of Moscow, claims to be neutral in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
But it has never denounced Russia’s 2022 invasion nor called for it to withdraw its troops, and many of Ukraine’s allies believe that China has provided support for Russia.
Beijing regularly calls for an end to the fighting, while also accusing Western countries of prolonging the conflict by arming Ukraine.
The statement from the Russian foreign ministry said Levrov and Yi also discussed other “burning issues” such as the war in Gaza and the “situation on the Korean peninsula.”
Russia’s Lavrov visits Beijing to discuss Ukraine
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Russia’s Lavrov visits Beijing to discuss Ukraine
- Russia’s top diplomat arrived in China following a visit to North Korea
- China claims to be neutral in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine
Fire breaks out at Russia’s Kursk nuclear power plant, no safety risks, REN TV reports
A fire broke out on the premises of the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russia’s federal free-to-air television network REN TV reported early on Sunday, citing the plant’s press service as saying.
The fire occurred in a transformer unit that is not part of the nuclear section of the facility, REN TV reported on its Telegram messaging app.
There were no safety threats to people or the plant, the press service told REN TV.e
Pentagon restricts Ukraine’s use of US missiles against Russia, WSJ reports
- As the White House sought to persuade Putin to join peace talks, an approval process was put in place at the Pentagon has kept Ukraine from launching strikes deep into Russian territory, the Journal said
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has been quietly blocking Ukraine from using US-made long-range Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike targets inside Russia, limiting Kyiv’s ability to employ these weapons in its defense against Moscow’s invasion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing US officials.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
The news came as US President Donald Trump has grown more frustrated publicly over the three-year-old war and his inability to secure a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
After his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and a subsequent meeting with European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky failed to produce observable progress, Trump said on Friday that he was again considering
slapping Russia with economic sanctions or, alternatively, walking away from the peace process.
“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be, it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said.
Trump had hoped to arrange a bilateral meeting between Putin and Zelensky, but that has also proven difficult. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told NBC on Friday that there was no agenda in place for a sitdown with Zelensky.
“Putin is ready to meet with Zelensky when the agenda would be ready for a summit. And this agenda is not ready at all,” Lavrov told NBC, saying no meeting was planned for now.
As the White House sought to persuade Putin to join peace talks, an approval process put in place at the Pentagon has kept Ukraine from launching strikes deep into Russian territory, the Journal reported.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has final say over use of the long-range weapons, the Journal said.
Neither Ukraine’s presidential office nor the defense ministry immediately responded to Reuters’ request for a comment outside business hours. The White House and the Pentagon also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
UN rapporteur to take part in former Labour leader Corbyn’s ‘Gaza tribunal’
- The event, titled the “Gaza tribunal,” will be held on Sept. 4 and 5 at Church House in Westminster
LONDON: A UN special rapporteur will contribute to a two-day “tribunal” into Britain’s role in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has announced.
Corbyn said Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, would take part in the hearings, which are being organized by his Peace and Justice Project, The Guardian newspaper reported on Saturday.
The event, titled the “Gaza tribunal,” will be held on Sept. 4 and 5 at Church House in Westminster.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Saturday, Corbyn said the initiative was intended to fill the gap left by the government’s decision to block his private member’s bill calling for an official inquiry into the UK’s role in the conflict.
The bill was halted at its second reading in July.
“We’ve invited people to make submissions — lawyers and others, and voices from Gaza and the West Bank, and other places — in order to put forward their view on the policy. And Francesca Albanese has agreed to take part and put forward her view on the legality of it,” he said.
Corbyn said Albanese was “very keen to support it and get involved,” and compared the event to the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq war.
He added that the hearings would seek answers on issues including the use of the RAF Akrotiri airbase during the conflict.
A website dedicated to the tribunal says it will “examine Britain’s role in war crimes perpetrated in Gaza” by “hearing from experts and witnesses,” and “establish the full scale of our government’s complicity in the genocide against the Palestinian people.”
Last month, 22 NGOs, including Action Aid, backed Corbyn’s call for an inquiry and said they would consider supporting an independent tribunal if the government rejected his proposal.
Taiwan’s vote on restarting nuclear plant fails
- The recall votes, the second in a month, are an attempt to restore ruling party control of the legislature
TAIPEI: A Taiwanese referendum on whether to restart a nuclear power plant failed on Saturday after the number of votes in favor fell short of the legally required threshold.
Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant closed in May, ending atomic energy in Taiwan and increasing concerns about the island’s almost total reliance on fossil fuel imports to power its homes, factories and chip industry.
President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party had opposed reopening Maanshan unless there were safety guarantees and a solution for waste disposal.
FASTFACTS
• President Lai Ching-te’s Democratic Progressive Party had opposed reopening Maanshan unless there were safety guarantees and a solution for waste disposal.
• But the main opposition Kuomintang party supported restarting it, arguing that continued nuclear power supply is needed for energy security.
But the main opposition Kuomintang party supported restarting it, arguing that continued nuclear power supply is needed for energy security.
The referendum failed to pass with around 4.3 million people voting “yes” and 1.5 million voting “no.”
For it to succeed, at least 5 million “yes” votes were required and they had to outnumber “no” votes.
Lai told reporters after the vote that he respected the result and understood “the society’s expectations for diverse energy options.”
“The greatest consensus of Taiwan’s energy debate ... is safety. Nuclear safety is a scientific issue, and one that cannot be resolved through a single vote.”
A survey published by the Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation this month showed support for the referendum was high, with 66.4 percent of respondents in favor of restarting Maanshan if authorities confirm there are no safety concerns.
Critics, however, said the vote was a waste of time because the question of whether to reopen the plant was conditional on approval of “the competent authority.”
Taiwanese referendum decisions are valid for two years. If most voters had supported reopening the plant, the government could have ignored the result if safety inspections took longer than that.
“Whether it is passed or not, the decisions will go to the government. So there will be no difference at all,” said Chen Fang-yu, assistant professor of political science at Soochow University in Taipei.
At its peak in the 1980s, nuclear power made up more than 50 percent of Taiwan’s energy generation, with three plants operating six reactors across the island.
But safety concerns have grown in the past four decades following the Three Mile Island accident, dumping of nuclear waste on indigenous land on Taiwan’s Orchid Island and the Fukushima disaster.
Two plants stopped operating between 2018 and 2023 after their operating permits expired. Maanshan stopped for the same reason.
Bangladesh aims to deepen trade as Pakistan’s deputy PM makes landmark Dhaka visit
- Ishaq Dar to meet Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus, other senior officials during 2-day visit
- Exchanges between Dhaka, Islamabad steadily grown since ousting of former PM Hasina last August
DHAKA: Bangladesh seeks to increase trade and economic cooperation with Pakistan, the office of Chief Adviser Prof. Muhammad Yunus said on Saturday as Dhaka began hosting Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in the highest-level trip from Islamabad in years.
Dar’s two-day visit to Bangladesh will include meetings with Yunus and Touhid Hossain, the country’s adviser for foreign affairs, with discussions expected to cover bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues.
“During the visit of the Pakistan deputy prime minister, Bangladesh will focus on increasing bilateral trade and commerce and economic cooperation,” Azad Majumder, Yunus’ deputy press secretary, told Arab News on Saturday.
Dar’s trip follows Yunus’ meetings with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif over the past year. The two have met twice since Yunus took office last August, after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in a student-led uprising.
The leaders met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York in September, and then again during the D-8 Summit in Cairo in December.
Majumder said: “During the meeting at Cairo, both the leaders of Bangladesh and Pakistan identified some areas where bilateral cooperation can be increased between the two countries. Some of these cooperation areas are textile industries, sugar industries, exchange of youth delegation, and so on … Bangladesh will also focus on accelerating bilateral cooperation on (these) areas.”
Dhaka and Islamabad are moving quickly to mend relations after decades of bitterness dating back to Bangladesh’s independence in 1971. The war split East Pakistan — now Bangladesh — from West Pakistan, ending 24 years as one country.
Prior to Dar’s trip, Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan arrived on Thursday on a visit aimed at expanding trade ties, with official talks touching on agriculture and food security to strengthen crop yields.
Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch held foreign office consultations in Dhaka in April this year, the first such dialogue in 15 years.
Pakistani cargo ships also began to arrive at Bangladesh’s main Chittagong port last November, for the first time since 1971.
Humayun Kabir, former Bangladeshi ambassador to the US, told Arab News: “I think both countries are prepared to make up for lost time over the last 15 years and find ways to make a normal relationship, which will be beneficial for both sides.
“Since Pakistan has a stable government at the moment, they can easily initiate this type of diplomatic advancement.
“Bangladesh can benefit in many ways through the enhancement of bilateral relationships with Pakistan … We have many complementarities, particularly in the areas of trade and commerce. Besides, there is scope for people-to-people contact, academic exchange, etc.”
For many Bangladeshis, memories of the 1971 war of independence remain vivid.
“We have some pending issues with Pakistan. Pakistan is yet to fulfill an outstanding issue related to the genocide that took place in Bangladesh in 1971, committed by its people,” Kabir said.
“I think, in order to move forward with the bilateral relationship, a concrete decision should come from the Pakistan side in this regard. When such an emotional issue remains unresolved, there are fears that other areas of cooperation may get hampered.
“Once these pending issues are resolved, I think it will pave the road for a normal relationship, and it will ultimately be a positive thing for both countries.”
