Sea code of conduct will take time: Lee
MELBOURNE, Australia, March 5, (AP): Southeast Asian countries’ quest to reach agreement with China on a code of conduct in the contested South China Sea will take time, with difficult issues yet to be resolved despite recent efforts to accelerate the process, Singapore’s prime minister said Tuesday at a regional summit.
China’s increasing military assertiveness in the busy waterway toward neighbors with competing territorial claims has been high on the agenda of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit. The three-day summit, which is being hosted in Melbourne to mark 50 years since Australia became ASEAN’s first external partner, ends Wednesday.
Leaders of the 10-nation bloc hope a code of conduct with China would be key to reducing the risk of naval confrontations.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said a first draft of the code had been written but negotiations are still required.
“The issues are not easy to resolve and, really, negotiating of a code of conduct inevitably raises issues of what the ultimate outcomes are going to be, and therefore, because the ultimate answers are difficult, so too negotiating the code will take quite some time,” Lee told reporters said.
In the latest dangerous incident, Chinese coast guard ships blocked Philippine vessels off a disputed South China Sea shoal on Tuesday, causing a minor collision, the Philippine coast guard said.
Philippine security officials have accused the Chinese coast guard and suspected militia ships of blocking Philippine vessels and using water cannons and a military-grade laser that temporarily blinded some Filipino crewmen in a series of high-seas hostilities last year.
Leaders agreed at an ASEAN summit in Indonesia last September to accelerate the negotiation process with a goal of finalizing a code within three years. That summit was joined by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Also: MANILA, Philippines:
Chinese and Philippine coast guard vessels collided in the disputed South China Sea and
the Mnangagwas, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga and retired Brig. Gen. Walter Tapfumaneyi.
Mnangagwa is accused of protecting
four Filipino crew members were injured Tuesday in high-seas confrontations as Southeast Asian leaders gathered for an Asian summit where alarm over aggression at sea was expected to be raised.
The Chinese coast guard ships and accompanying vessels blocked the Philippine coast guard and supply vessels off the disputed Second Thomas Shoal and executed dangerous maneuvers that caused two minor collisions between the Chinese ships and two of the Philippine vessels, Philippine officials said.
The BRP Sindangan of the Philippine coast guard had minor structural damage from the collision that happened shortly after dawn. Over an hour later, another Chinese coast guard ship first blocked then collided with a supply boat the Philippine coast guard was escorting, the Philippine officials said.
The supply boat, manned by Filipino navy personnel, was later hit by water cannon blasts from two Chinese coast guard ships. Its windshield shattered, injuring at least four Filipino crew members, according to a statement from the Philippine government
Beijing’s
gold and diamond smugglers who operate in Zimbabwe, directing government officials to facilitate the sale of gold and diamonds in illicit markets and taking bribes in exchange
task force dealing with territorial disputes.
❑ ❑ MANILA, Philippines: Imelda Marcos,
Former Philippine first lady the mother of the incumbent president and widow of an ousted dictator, has been hospitalized with pneumonia.
President said on Tuesday that his mother, who is 94, was suffering from a slight pneumonia and was put on antibiotics by her doctors.
Marcos, in a statement from
where he is attending an Asian summit, said that his mother was “in good spirits” and has “no difficulty in breathing and is resting well.”
Marcos’ sister Senator told reporters that her mother has had bouts of fever and coughing and was taken to the hospital for closer monitoring.
Imelda Marcos’s lavish lifestyle amid her country’s appalling poverty came to symbolize her late husband’s authoritarian rule, which ended when a 1986 army-backed “people power” uprising toppled him and drove him and his family to exile.
Ferdinand Marcos Jr Australia, U.S. ❑ Imee Marcos
for his services, among other offenses.
President Joe Biden also Monday signed an executive order that terminates Zimbabwe’s national emergency and revokes Zimbabwe-specific sanctions. Now, the administration is using a Trumpera executive order that implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act as its authority to issue the sanctions. (AP)
❑ ❑ ❑ ICC to present evidence: Melbourne,
International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors will present evidence to back up charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity against notorious fugitive Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony at the global court’s first ever in absentia hearing later this year.
The court announced Monday it will hold a so-called confirmation of charges hearing starting Oct. 15 against Kony, the alleged leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a brutal rebel group, nearly two decades after first seeking his arrest.
Kony faces 12 counts of crimes against humanity including murder, sexual enslavement and rape, and 21 counts of war crimes including cruel treatment of civilians, pillaging and enlisting child soldiers allegedly committed in 2003 and 2004 in northern Uganda.
The hearing is not a trial, but allows prosecutors to outline their case in court. Kony if he is not arrested before the hearing -- will be represented in his absence by a defense lawyer. If he is captured after the hearing, Kony will face trial at the court based in The Hague. (AP)