NATO’s Rutte says he is aware of Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’, discussing next steps

NATO’s Rutte says he is aware of Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’, discussing next steps
NATO chief Mark Rutte said he was aware of the details of Ukraine’s “victory plan” that was presented by the country’s president on Wednesday. (AFP)
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Updated 16 October 2024
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NATO’s Rutte says he is aware of Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’, discussing next steps

NATO’s Rutte says he is aware of Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’, discussing next steps
  • Rutte said the victory plan also included other elements and that he was discussing the whole of the plan with members

PARIS: NATO chief Mark Rutte said he was aware of the details of Ukraine’s “victory plan” that was presented by the country’s president on Wednesday, and that he was in touch with the alliance’s member countries on the next steps.
While reiterating a position that the process of making Ukraine a future NATO member — a key demand of President Volodymyr Zelensky — was ‘irreversible’, Rutte said the victory plan also included other elements and that he was discussing the whole of the plan with members.


Afghan women’s radio station Radio Begum to resume broadcasts after Taliban lifts suspension

Afghan women’s radio station Radio Begum to resume broadcasts after Taliban lifts suspension
Updated 13 sec ago
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Afghan women’s radio station Radio Begum to resume broadcasts after Taliban lifts suspension

Afghan women’s radio station Radio Begum to resume broadcasts after Taliban lifts suspension
  • Radio Begum launched on International Women’s Day in March 2021
  • The station’s content is produced entirely by Afghan women
An Afghan women’s radio station will resume broadcasts after the Taliban suspended its operations, citing “unauthorized provision” of content to an overseas TV channel and improperly using its license.
Radio Begum launched on International Women’s Day in March 2021, five months before the Taliban seized power amid the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO troops.
The station’s content is produced entirely by Afghan women. Its sister satellite channel, Begum TV, operates from France and broadcasts programs that cover the Afghan school curriculum from seventh to 12th grade. The Taliban have banned education for women and girls in the country beyond grade six.
In a statement issued Saturday night, the Taliban’s Information and Culture Ministry said Radio Begum had “repeatedly requested” to restart operations and that the suspension was lifted after the station made commitments to authorities.
The station pledged to conduct broadcasts “in accordance with the principles of journalism and the regulations of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, and to avoid any violations in the future,” it added.
The ministry did not elaborate what those principles and regulations were. Radio Begum was not immediately available for comment.
Since their takeover, the Taliban have excluded women from education, many kinds of work, and public spaces. Journalists, especially women, have lost their jobs as the Taliban tighten their grip on the media.
In the 2024 press freedom index from Reporters without Borders, Afghanistan ranks 178 out of 180 countries. The year before that it ranked 152.
The Information Ministry did not initially identify the TV channel it alleged Radio Begum had been working with. But the Saturday statement mentioned collaboration with “foreign sanctioned media outlets.”

Beijing accuses Australia of ‘hyping’ China naval live fire drills

Beijing accuses Australia of ‘hyping’ China naval live fire drills
Updated 16 min 33 sec ago
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Beijing accuses Australia of ‘hyping’ China naval live fire drills

Beijing accuses Australia of ‘hyping’ China naval live fire drills
  • Beijing on Sunday said Canberra had “deliberately hyped” recent Chinese naval exercises near the Australian coast and confirmed its forces had used live fire in an incident

BEIJING: Beijing on Sunday said Canberra had “deliberately hyped” recent Chinese naval exercises near the Australian coast and confirmed its forces had used live fire in an incident that rattled Australian policymakers.
Authorities in Australia and close ally New Zealand have been monitoring three Chinese navy vessels spotted in recent days in international waters of the nearby Tasman Sea.
Canberra said Saturday it had not yet received a satisfactory explanation from Beijing for Friday’s drill, which saw the Chinese ships broadcast a live-fire warning that caused commercial planes to change course.
China’s defense ministry hit back on Sunday, saying the “relevant remarks of the Australian side are completely inconsistent with facts,” while also confirming the use of live ammunition.
“During the period, China organized live-fire training of naval guns toward the sea on the basis of repeatedly issuing prior safety notices,” Wu Qian, a spokesman for the defense ministry, said in a statement.
Wu added that China’s actions were “in full compliance with international law and international practices, with no impact on aviation flight safety.”
“Australia, while well aware of this, made unreasonable accusations against China and deliberately hyped it up,” said Wu, adding that Beijing was “astonished and strongly dissatisfied.”
The altercation threatens to complicate the relationship between Beijing and Canberra, which has gradually warmed under Australia’s Labor government.
Ties were derailed nearly a decade ago due to concerns in Australia about Chinese influence in local politics, followed by a 2018 ban on tech giant Huawei from Australia’s 5G network.
Earlier this month, Canberra rebuked Beijing for “unsafe” military conduct, accusing a Chinese fighter jet of dropping flares near an Australian air force plane patrolling the South China Sea.
China said at the time that the Australian plane had “deliberately intruded into the airspace around China’s Xisha Islands,” using Beijing’s name for the Paracel Islands, adding that its “measures to expel the aircraft were legitimate, legal, professional and restrained.”


Pakistan’s newest – and most expensive – Gwadar airport is a bit of a mystery

Pakistan’s newest – and most expensive – Gwadar airport is a bit of a mystery
Updated 51 min 41 sec ago
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Pakistan’s newest – and most expensive – Gwadar airport is a bit of a mystery

Pakistan’s newest – and most expensive – Gwadar airport is a bit of a mystery
  • Financed by China, it is anyone’s guess when New Gwadar International Airport will open for business
  • The airport is a stark contrast to the impoverished, restive southwestern Balochistan province around it

GWADAR, Pakistan: With no passengers and no planes, Pakistan’s newest and most expensive airport is a bit of a mystery. Entirely financed by China to the tune of $240 million, it’s anyone’s guess when New Gwadar International Airport will open for business.
Located in the coastal city of Gwadar and completed in October 2024, the airport is a stark contrast to the impoverished, restive southwestern Balochistan province around it.
For the past decade, China has poured money into Balochistan and Gwadar as part of a multibillion dollar project that connects its western Xinjiang province with the Arabian Sea, called the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor or CPEC.
Authorities have hailed it as transformational but there’s scant evidence of change in Gwadar. The city isn’t connected to the national grid – electricity comes from neighboring Iran or solar panels – and there isn’t enough clean water.
An airport with a 400,000 passenger capacity isn’t a priority for the city’s 90,000 people.
“This airport is not for Pakistan or Gwadar,” said Azeem Khalid, an international relations expert who specializes in Pakistan-China ties. “It is for China, so they can have secure access for their citizens to Gwadar and Balochistan.”
Caught between militants and the military
CPEC has catalyzed a decadeslong insurgency in resource-rich and strategically located Balochistan. Separatists, aggrieved by what they say is state exploitation at the expense of locals, are fighting for independence – targeting both Pakistani troops and Chinese workers in the province and elsewhere.
Members of Pakistan’s ethnic Baloch minority say they face discrimination by the government and are denied opportunities available elsewhere in the country, charges the government denies.
Pakistan, keen to protect China’s investments, has stepped up its military footprint in Gwadar to combat dissent. The city is a jumble of checkpoints, barbed wire, troops, barricades, and watchtowers. Roads close at any given time, several days a week, to permit the safe passage of Chinese workers and Pakistani VIPs.
Intelligence officers monitor journalists visiting Gwadar. The city’s fish market is deemed too sensitive for coverage.
Many local residents are frazzled.
“Nobody used to ask where we are going, what we are doing, and what is your name,” said 76-year-old Gwadar native Khuda Bakhsh Hashim. “We used to enjoy all-night picnics in the mountains or rural areas.”
“We are asked to prove our identity, who we are, where we have come from,” he added. “We are residents. Those who ask should identify themselves as to who they are.”
Hashim recalled memories, warm like the winter sunshine, of when Gwadar was part of Oman, not Pakistan, and was a stop for passenger ships heading to Mumbai. People didn’t go to bed hungry and men found work easily, he said. There was always something to eat and no shortage of drinking water.
But Gwadar’s water has dried up because of drought and unchecked exploitation. So has the work.
The government says CPEC has created some 2,000 local jobs but it’s not clear whom they mean by “local” – Baloch residents or Pakistanis from elsewhere in the country. Authorities did not elaborate.
People in Gwadar see few benefits from China’s presence
Gwadar is humble but charming, the food excellent and the locals chatty and welcoming with strangers. It gets busy during public holidays, especially the beaches.
Still, there is a perception that it’s dangerous or difficult to visit – only one commercial route operates out of Gwadar’s domestic airport, three times a week to Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, located at the other end of Pakistan’s Arabian Sea coastline.
There are no direct flights to Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta, hundreds of miles inland, or the national capital of Islamabad, even further north. A scenic coastal highway has few facilities.
Since the Baloch insurgency first erupted five decades ago, thousands have gone missing in the province – anyone who speaks up against exploitation or oppression can be detained, suspected of connections with armed groups, the locals say.
People are on edge; activists claim there are forced disappearances and torture, which the government denies.
Hashim wants CPEC to succeed so that locals, especially young people, find jobs, hope and purpose. But that hasn’t happened.
“When someone has something to eat, then why would he choose to go on the wrong path,” he said. “It is not a good thing to upset people.”
Militant violence declined in Balochistan after a 2014 government counterinsurgency and plateaued toward the end of that decade, according to Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies.
Attacks picked up after 2021 and have climbed steadily since. Militant groups, especially the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, were emboldened by the Pakistani Taliban ending a ceasefire with the government in November 2022.
An inauguration delayed
Security concerns delayed the inauguration of the international airport. There were fears the area’s mountains – and their proximity to the airport – could be the ideal launchpad for an attack.
Instead, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang hosted a virtual ceremony. The inaugural flight was off limits to the media and public.
Abdul Ghafoor Hoth, district president of the Balochistan Awami Party, said not a single resident of Gwadar was hired to work at the airport, “not even as a watchman.”
“Forget the other jobs, how many Baloch people are at this port that was built for CPEC,” he asked.
In December, Hoth organized daily protests over living conditions in Gwadar. The protests stopped 47 days later, once authorities pledged to meet the locals’ demands, including better access to electricity and water.
No progress has been made on implementing those demands since then.
Without local labor, goods or services, there can be no trickle-down benefit from CPEC, said international relations expert Khalid. As Chinese money came to Gwadar, so did a heavy-handed security apparatus that created barriers and deepened mistrust.
“The Pakistani government is not willing to give anything to the Baloch people, and the Baloch are not willing to take anything from the government,” said Khalid.


Trump says US wants return on Ukraine aid money

Trump says US wants return on Ukraine aid money
Updated 23 February 2025
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Trump says US wants return on Ukraine aid money

Trump says US wants return on Ukraine aid money

National Harbor, United States: US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was trying to get money back for the billions of dollars sent to support Ukraine’s war against Russia.
His comments came as Washington and Kyiv negotiate a mineral resources deal Trump wants as compensation for the wartime aid his predecessor Joe Biden gave Ukraine.
It was the latest twist in a whirlwind first month since he took office, during which he has upended US foreign policy by making diplomatic overtures toward the Kremlin over the heads of Ukraine and Europe.
Trump told delegates at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) near Washington: “I’m trying to get the money back, or secured.
“I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up. We’re asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get.
“We’re going to get our money back because it’s just not fair. And we will see, but I think we’re pretty close to a deal, and we better be close because that has been a horrible situation.”
Hours earlier, a source told AFP that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “not ready” to sign such a deal, despite growing US pressure.
Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg, who met Zelensky this week, said the Ukrainian president understood signing a deal with the United States was “critical.”
But the Ukrainian source told AFP that Kyiv needed assurances first.
“In the form in which the draft is now, the president is not ready to accept, we are still trying to make changes and add constructiveness,” the source close to the matter said.
Ukraine wants any agreement signed with the United States to include security guarantees as it battles Russia’s nearly three-year invasion.
The negotiations between the two countries come amid a deepening war of words between Trump and Zelensky that has raised alarm in Kyiv and Europe.
On Wednesday, Trump branded his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” and called for him to “move fast” to end the war, a day after Russian and US officials held talks in Saudi Arabia without Kyiv.
Washington has proposed a United Nations resolution on the Ukraine conflict that omitted any mention of Kyiv’s territory occupied by Russia, diplomatic sources told AFP.

MINERALS FOR AID
Trump has asked for “$500 billion worth” of rare earth minerals to make up for aid given to Kyiv — a price tag Ukraine has balked at and which is much higher than published US aid figures.
“There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract $500 billion from us,” the Ukrainian source told AFP.
“What kind of partnership is this? And why do we have to give $500 billion, there is no answer,” the source said, adding that Ukraine had proposed changes.
The United States has given Ukraine more than $60 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion, according to official figures — the largest such contribution among Kyiv’s allies but substantially lower than Trump’s figures.
The Kiel Institute, a German economic research body, said that from 2022 until the end of 2024, the United States gave a total of 114.2 billion euros ($119.8 billion) in financial, humanitarian and military aid.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP Friday that despite the tensions, talks on a possible agreement were “ongoing.”
The row comes as Ukraine is set to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion on Monday, and as Kyiv’s forces are slowly ceding ground on the front line.
Moscow’s defense ministry earlier on Saturday claimed the capture of Novolyubivka in the eastern Lugansk region, which is now largely under Russian control.
In a call with Zelensky on Saturday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged the “UK’s ironclad support for Ukraine.”
Zelensky, in response, praised the United Kingdom for showing “leadership” on the war with Russia.
Starmer also said it was in the “interests” of both Britain and the United States to “stand by” Ukraine, which needed a seat at the negotiating table and “strong security guarantees so the peace will last,” writing in a column for The Sun published late Saturday.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced that Britain will unveil a significant package of sanctions against Russia on Monday.
In London, thousands of people marched in support of Ukraine on Saturday, and polls in Britain suggest strong support for Kyiv.
France’s Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Saturday that Paris was looking at increasing the number of its frigates and Rafale fighter jets, and stepping up production of drones.
The measures were being taken to improve France’s defense capabilities because of threats related to the Ukraine conflict, he was quoted as saying in Sunday’s edition of Le Parisien newspaper.
French President Emmanuel Macron is due in Washington for talks with Trump on Monday.
The White House said Saturday that Trump had met with conservative Polish President Andrzej Duda backstage at CPAC, and praised Duda for “Poland’s commitment to increase their defense spending.”
Duda, a vocal admirer of Trump, said he had told Zelensky in a phone call Friday to cooperate with the US president.


French aircraft carrier stages combat drills with Filipinos in disputed sea and visits Philippines

French aircraft carrier stages combat drills with Filipinos in disputed sea and visits Philippines
Updated 23 February 2025
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French aircraft carrier stages combat drills with Filipinos in disputed sea and visits Philippines

French aircraft carrier stages combat drills with Filipinos in disputed sea and visits Philippines
  • The Charles de Gaulle docked on Friday at Subic Bay for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific
  • Last year, the French navy deployed a frigate for the first time to participate in a joint sail with US and Philippine counterpart forces

MANILA: France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines on Sunday after holding combat drills with Filipino forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China.
The Charles de Gaulle docked on Friday at Subic Bay, a former US Naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Filipino forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in the South China Sea, Philippine and French officials said.
Last year, the French navy deployed a frigate for the first time to participate in a joint sail with United States and Philippine counterpart forces in and near the disputed waters. It was part of the largest annual combat exercises in years by American and Filipino allied forces. The drills, known as Balikatan (Tagalog for “shoulder-to-shoulder”), involved more than 16,000 military personnel.
China strongly criticized the exercises then, saying the Philippines was “ganging up” with countries from outside Asia in an obvious reference to the US and its security partners, and warned the drills could instigate confrontation and undermine regional stability.
France’s recent and ongoing military deployments to the Philippines underscore its “commitment to regional security and the shared goal of strengthening maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific,” Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Co. Xerxes Trinidad said.
The Charles de Gaulle, the only nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the world other than those of the US Navy, led a strike group that included three destroyer warships and an oil replenishment ship in its first-ever visit to the Philippines, French officials said.
France has been shoring up its military engagements with the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations at odds with China in the disputed waters, a key global trade and security route although it says those emergency-preparedness actions were not aimed at any particular country.
China, however, has bristled at any presence of foreign forces, especially the US military and its allies, which carry out war drills or patrols in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety although it has not publicly released exact coordinates of its claim other than 10 dashed lines to demarcate vaguely what it calls its territory on maps.
Beijing’s claims overlap with those of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan in long-unresolved territorial standoffs. Indonesia has also figured in violent confrontations with Chinese coast guard and fishing fleets in the Natuna waters.
Two weeks ago, Australia protested after a Chinese J-16 fighter jet released flares that passed within 30 meters (100 feet) of an Australian P-8 Poseidon surveillance jet over the South China Sea, according to Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles.
The Australian military plane did not sustain any damage and no crewmember was injured in the Feb. 11 incident. A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson accused the Australian aircraft of “deliberately” intruding into airspace over the disputed Paracel Islands, which China and Vietnam contest.
In late 2023, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro signed an accord to boost military cooperation and joint engagements.
France and the Philippines began talks last year on a defense pact that would allow troops from each country to hold exercises in the other’s territory. French negotiators have handed a draft of the agreement to their Filipino counterparts to start the negotiations.
The Philippines has also signed such status-of-forces agreements with the US and Australia. A signed agreement with Japan was expected to be ratified by Japanese legislators this year for it to be enforced while talks between New Zealand and the Philippines for a similar defense pact recently concluded.