US, Beijing & others OK air encounter guidelines
SINGAPORE, Oct 20, (Agencies): Several countries including the United States and China agreed “in principle” on Saturday to multilateral guidelines to manage unexpected encounters between their military aircraft, joining 10 Southeast Asian nations already in the pact.
The world’s two biggest economies as well as Australia, India, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, South Korea tentatively joined the agreement, which was initially adopted on Friday by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), according to a joint statement issued after a meeting of defence ministers from the 18 countries in Singapore.
The voluntary, non-binding guidelines build on an existing code to manage sea encounters adopted by all 18 countries last year, which was designed to mitigate risks following a boom in the region’s maritime and air traffic in recent years.
“We all know that if there is a physical incident it changes the name of the game ... it creates a cascade of activities that you cannot control,” Singapore defence minister Ng Eng Hen, the host, said at a press briefing following the meeting. The air code has been hailed as the first multilateral deal of its kind, although such arrangements exist at bilateral levels. The US and China, for instance, in 2015 signed a pact on a military hotline and rules governing air-to-air encounters.
US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, on Thursday that their countries needed to deepen high-level ties so as to navigate tension and rein in the risk of inadvertent conflict.
The US military flew B-52 bombers across the South China Sea in September. Earlier this month, a US Navy destroyer sailed near islands China claims, drawing the ire of Beijing.
Meanwhile, Southeast Asian nations seeking to combat the threat of militancy have agreed to share intelligence, Singapore’s defence minister said Saturday, as he warned of a “real and present” danger to the region.
More than a year after Islamic State-linked fighters seized the southern Philippine city of Marawi, the terrorist threat is as potent as ever, said Ng Eng Hen after hosting a meeting of defence ministers.
Meanwhile, Japan’s defense minister says he plans to start a program for professional airmen to strengthen ties between his country and Southeast Asia.
US weighs warship passage:
The United States is considering a new operation to send warships through the Taiwan Strait, US officials tell Reuters, a mission aimed at ensuring free passage through the strategic waterway but which risks heightening tensions with China. The US Navy conducted a similar mission in the strait’s international waters in July and any repeat would be seen in self-ruled Taiwan as a fresh expression of support by President Donald Trump’s government.
The US military declined comment and US officials who discussed the deliberations, which have not been previously reported, did so on condition of anonymity. They did not discuss the potential timing for any fresh passage through the strait.
China views Taiwan as a wayward province and has been ramping up pressure to assert its sovereignty over the island. It raised concerns over US policy toward Taiwan in talks this week with US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in Singapore.
Thousands rally in Taiwan:
Tens of thousands of Taiwan independence campaigners took to the streets Saturday for a major rally that is a rebuke to Beijing and a challenge to the island’s already embattled government.
The protest in central Taipei came as China increasingly pushes its claim to the self-ruling democratic island and President Tsai Ing-wen struggles to appease Beijing and independence factions.
It was the first large-scale protest calling for an outright independence vote since Taiwan first became a democracy more than 20 years ago. Organisers claimed a turnout of more than 100,000. Demonstrators gathered outside the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) headquarters chanting “Want Referendum!” and “Oppose Annexation!”
Trump, Kim meet next year:
The next summit meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is likely to happen early next year, a senior administration official said on Friday.
The two sides have been engaged in talks on the leaders’ second meeting after the first, unprecedented, one in Singapore in June.
“A meeting is likely sometime after the first of the year,” the US official told a small group of reporters.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday he hopes to meet his North Korean counterpart soon to lay the groundwork for a “big step forward” on denuclearization during the next summit.
Pompeo, in an interview with Voice of America on a trip to Mexico City, said Kim told him two weeks ago he was committed to the promises he had made to Trump during their first summit.
Unclaimed urns pile up in Japan:
Unclaimed urns containing ashes of the dead are piling up by the thousands across Japan, creating storage headaches and reflecting fraying family ties and economic pressures in a rapidly ageing nation.
The identities of the dead, cremated at public expense, are usually known. But in most cases, relatives either refuse or don’t respond to requests to collect their remains.
Burials can be costly and time-consuming, a burden on family members who may hardly know the deceased relative.
“When I die, though I have only 150,000 yen ($1,340), will you cremate me and put me in a pauper’s grave? I have no one to collect my remains,” said a note left by a man in his 70s in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, who died in 2015 and whose urn was later buried at a local temple.
The abandoned remains highlight social, economic and demographic changes in Japan, where more elderly live on welfare and families are more scattered, weakening traditional family bonds and obligations.
It is a problem that is likely to grow, experts say; deaths in Japan are projected to rise from 1.33 million a year to 1.67 million by 2040, even as the overall population drops.