SUVA: Pacific island leaders have agreed to take a united approach as the United States and China vie for influence in the region, and to push developed nations for bolder action on climate change, which they say is the biggest threat they face.
A communique to be released on the final day of the Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Suva will show the leaders agree to consult each other before entering into security arrangements, forum secretary general Henry Puna told reporters.
The approach taken by China, which asked 10 out of 18 forum members to endorse a pre-prepared security and trade deal in May, without time to consult, was rejected by forum leaders this week, he said.
“The region did not accept that approach,” he said at a press conference on Thursday.
The biggest member, Australia, provides aid and policing throughout the region but was excluded from China’s proposal, as were several nations that have ties with Taiwan.
This week the United States said it would triple funding to the Pacific islands under a fisheries deal, amid concern over China’s security ambitions for the region and a decade of rising Chinese investment.
Puna said Pacific islands “can’t afford to be enemies with anyone.”
“There are opportunities to be had... however certain issues like security, it does have regional impacts, and that is the issue that leaders have asked each other to share and dialogue with each other so everybody knows what is happening,” he said.
In an interview with The Guardian on Thursday, Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said a security deal struck with China in May, prompting concern from the US, Australia and New Zealand, would not allow a Chinese military base in his country because he didn’t want his country to become a target.
“The reason is regionalism. The moment we establish a foreign military base, we immediately become an enemy,” he said.
Forum chairman and Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said the region was facing complex challenges and leaders recognized they had strength in numbers.
“Unity was our overriding focus,” he said.
An agreement was signed to resolve a rift with Micronesian nations, as leaders committed to keep talking with Kiribati, which withdrew from the forum this week.
Agreement was also reached on climate action, nuclear issues and fisheries, he said, ahead of the communique being released.
The forum will call for the United Nations General Assembly to seek an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on climate change, as a tactic to boost commitments.
“Australia’s new position on climate change was particularly well-received, and that is reflected in the communique,” Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters.
Bainimarama said Fiji urged developed countries including Australia to phase out coal and fossil fuels, and step up financing for the “loss and damage” caused by climate change in small island countries.
Pacific islands leaders commit to regional unity in face of superpower rivalry
https://arab.news/52k7p
Pacific islands leaders commit to regional unity in face of superpower rivalry
- Leaders agree to consult each other before entering into security arrangements
- Agreement was also reached on climate action, nuclear issues and fisheries
Putin told Trump will not ‘give up’ aims in Ukraine: Kremlin
The pair spoke as US-led peace talks on ending the more than three-year-old conflict in Ukraine have stalled and after Washington paused some weapons shipments to Kyiv.
The Kremlin said the call lasted almost an hour.
Trump has been frustrated with both Moscow and Kyiv as US efforts to end fighting have yielded no breakthrough.
“Our president said that Russia will achieve the aims it set, that is to say the elimination of the root causes that led to the current state of affairs,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
“Russia will not give up on these aims.”
Moscow has long described its maximalist aims in Ukraine as getting rid of the “root causes” of the conflict, demanding that Kyiv give up its NATO ambitions.
Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people and Russia now controls large swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine.
Even so, Putin told Trump that Moscow would continue to take part in negotiations.
“He also spoke of the readiness of the Russian side to continue the negotiation process,” Ushakov added.
“Vladimir Putin said that we are continuing to look for a political, negotiated solution to the conflict,” Ushakov said.
Moscow has for months refused to agree to a US-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.
Kyiv and its Western allies have accused Putin of dragging out the process while pushing on with Russia’s advance in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said that Putin had also “stressed” to Trump that all conflicts in the Middle East should be solved “diplomatically,” after the US struck nuclear sites in Russia’s ally Iran.
Putin and Trump spoke as Kyiv said that Russian strikes on Thursday killed at least eight people in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visiting ally Denmark on Thursday.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Trump and Zelensky planned to speak to each other on Friday.
The US deciding to pause some weapons shipments has severely hampered Kyiv, which has been reliant on Western military support since Moscow launched its offensive in 2022.
Zelensky told EU allies in Denmark that doubts over US military aid reinforced the need for greater cooperation with Brussels and NATO.
He stressed again that Kyiv had always supported Trump’s “unconditional ceasefire.”
On Wednesday, Kyiv scrambled to clarify with the US what a White House announcement on pausing some weapons shipments meant.
“Continued American support for Ukraine, for our defense, for our people is in our common interest,” Zelensky had said on Wednesday.
Russia has consistently called for Western countries to stop sending weapons to Kyiv.
Violent Togo protest crackdown must be investigated: Amnesty
- At least seven people have been killed, dozens wounded and more than 60 arrested
- At least six people are still reported missing after the protests, said Amnesty
ABIDJAN: Amnesty International called Thursday for an independent investigation into allegations that Togo’s security forces killed, tortured and kidnapped people in a violent crackdown on anti-government protests last month.
Ruled for 58 years by leader Faure Gnassingbe and his late father, Togo has been rocked in recent weeks by rare protests in the capital, Lome, against electricity price hikes, arrests of government critics and a constitutional reform consolidating Gnassingbe’s grip on power.
At least seven people have been killed, dozens wounded and more than 60 arrested, according to civil society groups.
Amnesty International said it had interviewed victims and witnesses who described a series of abuses by security forces at banned protests in late June.
According to witnesses, “men identified as security forces carried out unlawful killings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, acts of torture and other ill-treatment, and several cases of abduction,” said Marceau Sivieude, the rights group’s interim director for west and central Africa.
“These cases must be independently and transparently investigated as a matter of urgency,” he said in a statement.
At least six people are still reported missing after the protests, said Amnesty, which also condemned the alleged torture of protesters at another series of demonstrations in early June against Gnassingbe, 59, who took power in 2005 after the death of his father.
Authorities said Sunday that two bodies found in a lagoon after the protests were victims of drownings.
A lawyer for victims, Darius Atsoo, told the rights group the number of people detained in connection with the protests was unknown.
As of Monday, at least 31 were still in custody, he said.
Republicans muscle Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill through Congress
- Republicans overcome internal divides to pass massive tax-cut and spending bill
- Bill to add $3.4 trillion to US debt over a decade
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump’s tax-cut package cleared its final hurdle in the US Congress on Thursday, as the Republican-controlled House of Representatives narrowly approved the massive bill and sent it to him to sign into law.
The 218-214 vote amounts to a significant victory for the Republican president that will fund his immigration crackdown, make his 2017 tax cuts permanent and deliver new tax breaks that he promised during his 2024 campaign.
It also cuts health and food safety net programs and zeroes out dozens of green energy incentives. It would add $3.4 trillion to the nation’s $36.2 trillion debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
Despite concerns within Trump’s party over the 869-page bill’s price tag and its hit to health care programs, in the end just two of the House’s 220 Republicans voting against it, following an overnight standoff. The bill has already cleared the Republican-controlled Senate by the narrowest possible margin.
The White House said Trump will sign it into law at 5 p.m. ET (2100 GMT) on Friday, the July 4 Independence Day holiday.
Republicans said the legislation will lower taxes for Americans across the income spectrum and spur economic growth.
“This is jet fuel for the economy, and all boats are going to rise,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.
Every Democrat in Congress voted against it, blasting the bill as a giveaway to the wealthy that would leave millions uninsured.
“The focus of this bill, the justification for all of the cuts that will hurt everyday Americans, is to provide massive tax breaks for billionaires,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in an eight-hour, 46-minute speech that was the longest in the chamber’s history.
Trump kept up the pressure throughout, cajoling and threatening lawmakers as he pressed them to finish the job.
“FOR REPUBLICANS, THIS SHOULD BE AN EASY YES VOTE. RIDICULOUS!!!” he wrote on social media.
Though roughly a dozen House Republicans threatened to vote against the bill, only two ended up doing so: Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, a centrist, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a conservative who said it did not cut spending enough.
Marathon weekend
Republicans raced to meet Trump’s July 4 deadline, working through last weekend and holding all-night debates in the House and the Senate. The bill passed the Senate on Tuesday in a 51-50 vote in that saw Vice President JD Vance cast the tiebreaking vote.
According to the CBO, the bill would lower tax revenues by $4.5 trillion over 10 years and cut spending by $1.1 trillion.
Those spending cuts largely come from Medicaid, the health program that covers 71 million low-income Americans. The bill would tighten enrollment standards, institute a work requirement and clamp down on a funding mechanism used by states to boost federal payments — changes that would leave nearly 12 million people uninsured, according to the CBO.
Republicans added $50 billion for rural health providers to address concerns that those cutbacks would force them out of business.
Nonpartisan analysts have found that the wealthiest Americans would see the biggest benefits from the bill, while lower-income people would effectively see their incomes drop as the safety-net cuts would outweigh their tax cuts.
The increased debt load created by the bill would also effectively transfer money from younger to older generations, analysts say. Ratings firm Moody’s downgraded US debt in May, citing the mounting debt, and some foreign investors say the bill is making US Treasury bonds less attractive.
The bill raises the US debt ceiling by $5 trillion, averting the prospect of a default in the short term. But some investors worry the debt overhang could curtail the economic stimulus in the bill and create a long-term risk of higher borrowing costs.
On the other side of the ledger, the bill staves off tax increases that were due to hit most Americans at the end of this year, when Trump’s 2017 individual and business tax cuts were due to expire. Those cuts are now made permanent, while tax breaks for parents and businesses are expanded.
The bill also sets up new tax breaks for tipped income, overtime pay, seniors and auto loans, fulfilling Trump campaign promises.
The final version of the bill includes more substantial tax cuts and more aggressive health care cuts than an initial version that passed the House in May.
During deliberations in the Senate, Republicans also dropped a provision that would have banned state-level regulations on artificial intelligence, and a “retaliatory tax” on foreign investment that had spurred alarm on Wall Street.
The bill is likely to feature prominently in the 2026 midterm elections, when Democrats hope to recapture at least one chamber of Congress. Republican leaders contend the bill’s tax breaks will goose the economy before then, and many of its benefit cuts are not scheduled to kick in until after that election. Opinion polls show many Americans are concerned about the bill’s cost and its effect on lower income people.
Russia becomes first country to recognize Taliban government of Afghanistan
- Russian Foreign Ministry says Moscow saw good prospects to develop ties and would support Kabul in security, counter-terrorism and combating drug crime
Russia said on Thursday it had accepted the credentials of a new ambassador of Afghanistan, making it the first nation to recognize the Taliban government of the country.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow saw good prospects to develop ties and would continue to support Kabul in security, counter-terrorism and combating drug crime.
It also saw significant trade and economic opportunities, especially in energy, transport, agriculture and infrastructure.
“We believe that the act of official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” the ministry said.
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a statement: “We value this courageous step taken by Russia, and, God willing, it will serve as an example for others as well.” No other country has formally recognized the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
However, China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Pakistan have all designated ambassadors to Kabul, in a step toward recognition.
The Russian move represents a major milestone for the Taliban administration as it seeks to ease its international isolation.
It is likely to be closely watched by Washington, which has frozen billions in Afghanistan’s central bank assets and enforced sanctions on some senior leaders in the Taliban that contributed to Afghanistan’s banking sector being largely cut off from the international financial system.
Russia has been gradually building relations with the Taliban, which President Vladimir Putin said last year was now an ally in fighting terrorism.
Since 2022, Afghanistan has imported gas, oil and wheat from Russia.
The Taliban was outlawed by Russia as a terrorist movement in 2003, but the ban was lifted in April this year.
Russia sees a need to work with Kabul as it faces a major security threat from Islamist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.
In March 2024, gunmen killed 149 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by Daesh. US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, that was responsible. The Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of Daesh in Afghanistan.
Western diplomats say the Taliban’s path toward wider international recognition is blocked until it changes course on women’s rights.
The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian. It says it respects women’s rights in line with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Russia has a complex and bloodstained history in Afghanistan. Soviet troops invaded the country in December 1979 to prop up a Communist government, but became bogged down in a long war against mujahideen fighters armed by the United States.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pulled his army out in 1989, by which time some 15,000 Soviet soldiers had been killed.
Russia becomes first country to recognize Taliban government of Afghanistan
- Russian foreign ministry says Moscow will support Kabul in counterterrorism and combating drug crime
- The Taliban administration in Kabul calls it a ‘courageous step’ that will serve as an example for others
MOSCOW: Russia said on Thursday it had accepted the credentials of a new ambassador of Afghanistan, making it the first nation to recognize the Taliban government of the country.
In a statement, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow saw good prospects to develop ties and would continue to support Kabul in security, counterterrorism and combating drug crime.
It also saw significant trade and economic opportunities, especially in energy, transport, agriculture and infrastructure.
“We believe that the act of official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” the ministry said.
Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a statement: “We value this courageous step taken by Russia, and, God willing, it will serve as an example for others as well.”
No other country has formally recognized the Taliban government that seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan after 20 years of war.
However, China, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Pakistan have all designated ambassadors to Kabul, in a step toward recognition.
The Russian move represents a major milestone for the Taliban administration as it seeks to ease its international isolation.
It is likely to be closely watched by Washington, which has frozen billions in Afghanistan’s central bank assets and enforced sanctions on some senior leaders in the Taliban that contributed to Afghanistan’s banking sector being largely cut off from the international financial system.
COMPLEX HISTORY
Russia has been gradually building relations with the Taliban, which President Vladimir Putin said last year was now an ally in fighting terrorism.
Since 2022, Afghanistan has imported gas, oil and wheat from Russia. The Taliban were outlawed by Russia as a terrorist movement in 2003, but the ban was lifted in April this year.
Russia sees a need to work with Kabul as it faces a major security threat from militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East.
In March 2024, gunmen killed 149 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by Daesh.
US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group that was responsible.
The Taliban say they are working to wipe out the presence of Daesh in Afghanistan.
Western diplomats say the Taliban’s path toward wider international recognition is blocked until they change course on women’s rights.
The Taliban have closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian.
The administration in Kabul says it respects women’s rights in line with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Russia has a complex and bloodstained history in Afghanistan. Soviet troops invaded the country in December 1979 to prop up a Communist government, but became bogged down in a long war against mujahideen fighters armed by the United States.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pulled his army out in 1989, by which time some 15,000 Soviet soldiers had been killed.
