US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Indonesia yesterday to attend a regional security forum which is expected to focus on North Korea's nuclear threat and efforts to fight terror on land and sea.
Powell arrived at a military airbase in the Indonesian capital after a visit to Sudan.
He was to hold talks later yesterday with members of ASEAN and attend today's annual meeting of the 23-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).
ARF, the Asia-Pacific's only security forum, includes all six countries involved in talks aimed at dismantling North Korea's nuclear weapons program -- China, Russia, the US, Japan and North and South Korea.
North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-Sun is willing to meet Powell on the sidelines of the forum if the US side requests it, a Pyongyang official said on Wednesday.
A third round of six-party talks ended on Saturday in Beijing, with signs of flexibility but no concrete progress.
Participants agreed to meet again by the end of September.
At the last round the US put forward a new plan which would give the North three months to shut down and seal its nuclear weapons facilities in return for major economic and diplomatic rewards.
It was the first significant overture to Pyongyang since US President George W. Bush took office in early 2001 and placed Stalinist North Korea on an "axis of evil," alongside Iran and pre-war Iraq.
North Korea rejected the proposal as unrealistic but Washington said it expects the North to study it. Terrorism, including the threat of seaborne attacks in the piracy-prone Malacca Strait, is also expected to figure large on ARF's agenda. The US and Singapore are worried that terrorists could hijack an oil or gas tanker and use it as a floating bomb in a maritime version of Sept. 11.
However, the US recently backed away from suggestions that US forces might help patrol the waterway separating Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia after it raised hackles in Indonesia and Malaysia.
About half the world's oil supplies pass through the strait.
Forum members will also discuss this week's handover of power in Iraq. ASEAN chair Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-populated nation, was fiercely critical of the US invasion.
In an implied criticism of the military operation, ASEAN foreign ministers after a meeting on Wednesday described "surging unilateralism" as one of the world's challenges.
Powell will also be at odds with ASEAN on efforts to establish democracy in army-ruled member Myanmar.
The ministers on Wednesday dropped calls made last year for the release of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and merely "underlined the need for the involvement of all strata of Myanmar society in the ongoing national convention" which is drafting a constitution.
Powell will seek more action from ASEAN to bring about democratic reforms, Assistant Secretary of State Lorne Craner said this week.
Young Chinese, many who fear age discrimination in their workplace after turning 35, are increasingly starting “one-person companies” that have artificial intelligence (AI) do most of the work. Smaller start-ups are already in vogue in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, with rapidly advancing AI tools seen as a welcome teammate even as they threaten layoffs at existing firms. More young people in China are subscribing to the model, as cities pledge millions of dollars in funding and rent subsidies for such ventures, in alignment with Beijing’s political goal of “technological self-reliance.” “The one-person company is a product of the AI era,” said Karen Dai
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
About 240 Indians claiming descent from a Biblical tribe landed at Tel Aviv airport on Thursday as part of a government operation to relocate them to Israel. The newcomers passed under a balloon arch in blue and white, the colors of the Israeli flag, as dozens of well-wishers welcomed them with a traditional Jewish song. They were the first “bnei Menashe” (“sons of Manasseh”) to arrive in Israel since the government in November last year announced funding for the immigration of about 6,000 members of the community from the states of Manipur and Mizoram in northeast India. The community claims to descend from
‘TROUBLING’: The firing of Phelan, who was an adviser to a nonprofit that supported the defense of Taiwan, was another example of ‘dysfunction’ under Trump, a US senator said US Secretary of the Navy John Phelan has been fired, a US official and a person familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, in another wartime shakeup at the Pentagon coming just weeks after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth ousted the Army’s top general. The Pentagon announced his departure in a brief statement, saying he was leaving the administration “effective immediately,” but it did not provide a reason or say whether it was his decision to go. The sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Phelan was dismissed in part because he was moving too slowly to implement reforms to
RSS