Biden vows to address Convoy attacked; annexation to be proclaimed Pacific island needs
WASHINGTON: United States President Joe Biden, his administration pledging to help stave off China’s ‘‘economic coercion’’, promised Pacific island leaders yesterday to work harder with allies and partners to address their needs.
After a twoday Washington summit, the US and leaders and representatives from 14 Pacific island states issued a joint declaration resolving to strengthen their partnership and saying they shared a vision for a region where ‘‘democracy will be able to flourish’’.
Those endorsing the document included the prime minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare, whose government had earlier indicated it would not sign the declaration, heightening concerns about his ties to China.
The summit was the first time the US has hosted so many leaders of a region it has considered a maritime backyard since World War 2 but into which China has made steady advances.
Biden pledged ‘‘to more effectively coordinate with our allies and partners around the world to better meet the needs of the people across the Pacific’’.
He vowed to make a priority of strengthening the US partnership with the island countries and help them address the ‘‘existential threat’’ posed by the climate crisis, their highest priority.
Rand Corporation IndoPacific analyst Derek Grossman said the US had let ties with the region languish for decades, but the summit showed this had changed.
‘‘We are still all working from . . . the same sheet of music, which is we don’t want the Chinese establishing a military foothold in the region, and we don’t want them corrupting the institutions of the region,’’ he said.
Earlier, the US released its first strategy for ties with Pacific island nations, citing urgent climate challenges and heightened geopolitical tensions.
The White House said the US would invest more than $US810 million ($NZ1.414 billion) in expanded programmes to aid the islands, on top of more than $US1.5 billion provided in the past decade. — Reuters
ZAPORIZHZHIA: A missile attack on a convoy of cars in southern Ukraine killed at least 23 civilians yesterday, hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to proclaim Moscow’s rule over lands it has seized in his invasion.
The convoy was assembling in a car park near Zaporizhzhia city to carry people and supplies into Russianheld territory in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia province. The regional capital is still controlled by Ukraine.
A missile had gouged a crater in the ground near two lines of vehicles. The impact had sprayed the vehicles with shrapnel. The windows of the vehicles, mostly cars and three vans, were blown out. Reuters saw about a dozen bodies, four of them in cars.
‘‘So far, 23 dead and 28 wounded. All civilians,’’ Zaporizhzhia regional governor Oleksandr Starukh wrote on Telegram.
The attack took place hours before Putin was due to stage a ceremony in an ornate Kremlin hall to proclaim Russia’s rule over about 15% of Ukraine, the biggest annexation in Europe since Hitler. It would be followed by a celebratory pop concert outside the Kremlin walls on Red Square.
Russia’s annexation of the Russianoccupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia has been condemned in the West and beyond. UN chief Antonio Guterres yesterday called it a ‘‘dangerous escalation’’ and a violation of the United Nations charter.
‘‘It can still be stopped. But to stop it we have to stop that person in Russia who wants war more than life. Your lives, citizens of Russia,’’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in an address yesterday.
The Russian annexation, held after what the West denounced as phoney referendums at gunpoint in occupied territory, followed weeks of defeats for Moscow’s forces on the battlefield in which they were routed from their positions in Ukraine’s northeast.
Putin has ordered the callup up of hundreds of thousands of Russian reservists, a move that prompted tens of thousands of Russian men to flee over borders to escape being shipped off to war.
Military experts said Russia could soon be facing one of its biggest defeats of the war so far, with thousands of troops trapped in Lyman, the last major Russian stronghold in the north of Donetsk province. The town’s fall would pave the way for Ukraine to recapture swathes of land Russia is now claiming.
Kyiv has so far kept silent about the situation there, but Russian military bloggers have described the Russian force as all but surrounded, with advancing Ukrainians having cut off the last possible routes of escape.
Since his troops were forced to flee from Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, Putin has chosen to escalate the war. Last week he endorsed the annexation, ordered the callup of reservists, and threatened to use nuclear weapons if Russia is attacked.
Zelenskiy promised a strong response to the annexations and summoned his defence and security chiefs for an emergency meeting yesterday where ‘‘fundamental decisions’’ would be taken, an official said. — Reuters