Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd landed in tsunami-hit Aceh Province, Indonesia, yesterday to see first hand Canberra’s billion-dollar effort to help rebuild the province.
Rudd inaugurated a primary school rebuilt with Australian aid money after it was flattened in the 2004 tsunami, which killed more than 168,000 people in the province alone.
Rudd pledged A$50 million (US$46.8 million) to boost reconstruction funding in the province, which comes as part of Australia’s A$2.5 billion 2009-2014 development partnership with Indonesia.
PHOTO: AP
The money would be spent on education, fostering economic development and improving access to government services, Rudd said at the school after being greeted by children in traditional costume.
In the wake of the tsunami, Australia pledged Indonesia more than A$1 billion, which has been spent both inside and outside Aceh.
After visiting the school, Rudd inspected an foreign-funded coastal fish farm in the village of Ujung Batee before having lunch with provincial governor Irwandi Yusuf in the capital Banda Aceh.
Rudd is scheduled to meet Australian and Indonesian aid workers before leaving on an air force jet for Australia.
Rudd met with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and senior ministers in Jakarta on Friday during his first state visit to Indonesia.
He promised a “new phase of cooperation” with Indonesia on issues such as disaster response and the environment, and praised the “very strong friendship” between the two neighbors.
The two leaders agreed that the recent cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China’s Sichuan Province underlined the need for a more coordinated regional approach to dealing with disasters.
“We do not know where a natural disaster will hit but between us we believe we can take a good and strong proposal” for a regional disaster-response system to the APEC meeting next year, Rudd said on Friday.
Rudd also used the visit to test support for his ambitious plan announced last week to create an Asia-Pacific Community including the US, Japan, India and China by 2020.
He has said the new bloc would not infringe on national sovereignty or replace existing structures, but had to be capable of addressing security and political issues in addition to the mainly economic focus of ASEAN and APEC.
The idea received warm backing from ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, who told reporters on Friday that the plan was a “natural progression” for regional cooperation.
Yudhoyono has so far not commented on the proposal, but a foreign ministry spokesman last week said Indonesia was “really keen” to examine the plan.
Rudd, who took office after a landslide election win last November, has put closer engagement with Asia at the top of his foreign policy agenda.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese