UN security council set to meet on Ethiopia’s Tigray area

THE UN Security Council will meet on March 4 to discuss the humanitarian situation in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, diplomats said on March 2.

The meeting, requested by Ireland, will be held behind closed doors at midday and is not guaranteed to lead to the adoption of a joint statement, the diplomats said.

The council’s last meeting on Tigray was held February 2 to call for more humanitarian access. African council members, however, had rejected in advance the idea of a joint text.

Several other council members joined Ireland’s request for a meeting, one diplomat said on condition of anonymity. Estonia, France, Norway, Britain and the US also called on March 2 for an international investigation into reported atrocities committed in Tigray.

Since the launch in early November of an Ethiopian military operation in Tigray, the council has held few meetings on the issue, undermined by divisions between African members – who see it as an internal matter – and Western members, for whom the humanitarian situation and influx of refugees in neighbouring countries require the involvement of the body charged with world peace and security.

An initial closed-door meeting was held on November 24, and a second closed-door session came on December 14 ahead of the February 2 meeting. Neither produced a joint declaration.

The UN announced it had reached several agreements with the Ethiopian authorities guaranteeing in principle full access to the entire country. These agreements have yet to be realised.

On March 2, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said “authorisations for needs assessments missions are still pending with the authorities”.

He said during his daily press briefing: “Hundreds of thousands of people affected [by fighting] have not been reached, particularly in the rural areas of Tigray . . . More than 80 aid workers have received clearances to go to Tigray, but the permits are for short missions.

“Despite the challenges, humanitarians on the ground are working to increase the response, with some progress made, especially on food assistance in the main cities.”

NGOs have called since the start of this year for the council to hold a public session followed by a resolution calling for an end to the obstruction of aid and an immediate investigation into alleged war crimes committed in Ethiopia’s dissident region.

VIETNAM’S Ministry of Transport has urged localities in the southeast region to speed up major transport projects by diversifying the sources of capital over the next five years.

Speaking at a recent online meeting, Minister of Transport NguyenVan The said: “A lack of regional connectivity and overloaded roads at major gateways remains an issue in the region.”

The has urged localities in the region to speed up implementation of major projects in the region in the 2021-2025 period, with priority given to the expansion of the Ho Chi Minh City- (HCMC) Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressway, and construction of the Ben Luc-Long Thanh expressway, Bien Hoa-Vung Tau expressway, HCMC-Moc Bai, and Ring Roads 2 and 3.

Other projects include construction of the Long ThanhThu Thiem light railway connecting HCMC to the new Long Thanh airport, and the expansion of Provincial Road 25C from HCMC to Dong Nai province.

Recently, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc approved the ministry’s proposal to give HCMC the authority to approve investment decisions for the HCMC-Moc Bai Expressway.

The 53.5km-long expressway will link Ring Road No 3 in HCMC’s Hoc Mon district with Moc Bai International Border Gate between Vietnam and Cambodia in Tay Ninh province.

The expressway project will be divided into two investment phases. Its total capital is estimated at nearly 13.6 trillion dong ($586.8 million), including cost for site clearance sourced from the state budget.

The first stage will cost 10.7 trillion dong under a public-private partnership investment.

Construction is expected to be completed by 2025 with at least four lanes, and will be expanded to six or eight lanes by 2045.

The HCMC Department of Transport has asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment to allocate 3.281 trillion dong in the 2021-2025 period to widen the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay Expressway and its surrounding roads.

My Thuan Project Management Board director Tran Van Thi said expansion of the expressway was urgently needed to ease overloading, especially when the Long Thanh international airport opens at the end of 2025.

He said that a 24km section of the expressway, connecting HCMC with Long Thanh international airport, should be implemented first.

He also asked the transport and planning ministries to allocate medium-term capital sources for the 2021-2025 period with priority given to the use of state budget or from official development assistance (ODA).

The southeast region, which accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s total budget revenue and 38 per cent gross domestic product (GDP), is the focal economic region in Vietnam, according to The.

It includes HCMC and Ba RiaVung Tau, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai and Tay Ninh provinces. However, the region’s transport structure is far below the needs of its economic and social growth potential.

There are only two expressways in the region – the HCMC-Long Thanh-Dau Giay and HCMC-Trung Luong.

Road transport plays a key role in the region, serving about 80 per cent of all freight transport from the provinces in the region to HCMC, causing serious congestion on HCMC-Trung Luong Expressway and National Road 51.

The National Road 22 from HCMC to Tay Ninh province has also become congested with the number of vehicles increasing by eight per cent annually, according to the transport ministry.

The Cai Mep-Thi Vai deepwater port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province is the international gateway to the region. The port is one of more than 20 ports in the world that can be accessed by container ships of over 200,000 tonnes.

When the first phase of Long Thanh international airport in Dong Nai province opens – slated for 2025 – a new hub of the aviation industry will be formed in the region.

Experts said the region should focus on investment in traffic infrastructure to enhance linkages between the port, the international airport and industrial parks in the region to boost socio-economic development.