Russia cast aside its doubts on Monday and joined a US-led alliance of countries prepared to board ships and raid suspect factories in a crackdown against weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
Moscow become the 15th core member of US President George W. Bush's Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) just as it began a meeting in the southern Polish city of Krakow.
Bush launched the initiative, designed to stop such arms ending up in states viewed with distrust by Washington, such as North Korea and Iran, during a visit to Krakow a year ago.
"The threat of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is global and accordingly requires a global response," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We are sure that we can cope with the problem only through a collective effort."
US Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton said in Krakow the search for ships carrying WMD would greatly benefit from the involvement of Russia's vast navy.
"We worked for this from the start of this initiative," Bolton told reporters. "I expect that the United States and Russia will now enhance our intelligence sharing in the area of trafficking of weapons of mass destruction."
Russia initially had strong reservations about Bush's initiative, fearing that a right to intercept suspicious vessels could give a legal role of global policeman to the US, which has the strongest naval presence across the world.
Another concern was the PSI could be used to hamper Russia's commercial interests because it trades with many countries at odds with Washington.
The PSI aims to improve the legal structure for inspect arms shipments, tighten controls over exports of nuclear materials and remove barriers for intelligence sharing between countries to keep terror groups from getting their hands on WMD.
"The failure of concerted action would only mean more chaos and unpredictability," Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told delegates.
"There is no blueprint, no plan for the perfect international order. We won't be able to move towards it without failures but we must have clear signposts on this road," he said.
Russia announced its decision to join a week before a summit of the G8 major industrial nations at Sea Island, Georgia, where the PSI is going to be high on the agenda.
Russia said it would contribute to the PSI if this did not violate international or domestic law.
"We assume that actions within this initiative should not and will not create obstacles to legal economic, scientific and technical cooperation," the Foreign Ministry said.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS