Facing an uphill diplomatic struggle to win China’s support for penalizing its ally North Korea over the sinking of a South Korean warship, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday highlighted the benefits of US-Chinese cooperation at the World Expo in Shanghai.
With a public schedule devoid of any policy meetings, Clinton toured the US and Chinese pavilions at the expo, extolling growing ties between the two countries in a cultural diplomacy charm offensive. Displaying the energy of the politician she once was, Clinton waded into crowds at the two exhibits, shaking hands and posing for photos.
Her visit to the massive World Expo on the banks of the Pu River marks a respite from an otherwise hectic and intense three-nation journey to Asia that took her briefly to Japan on Friday and Shanghai and Beijing yesterday and then to Seoul on Wednesday.
At each stop on the way, the crisis over the ship incident is expected to dominate her agenda but nowhere more than in Beijing where she and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are leading a delegation of nearly 200 US officials for high-level US-Chinese talks intended to improve economic and strategic relations.
That second round of the so-called Strategic and Economic Dialogue was supposed to be the main thrust of her Asia trip, but with Thursday’s report blaming Pyongyang for sinking the South Korean vessel, her main task in Beijing will now be to try to persuade China to support UN Security Council action against North Korea.
China, North Korea’s primary ally and financial supporter, has thus far remained neutral on the conclusions of the report that found Pyongyang responsible for firing a torpedo that sank the South Korean ship Cheonan in March, killing 46 sailors.
The UN Command’s Military Armistice Commission, which oversees the 1953 Korean War truce agreement, yesterday launched and independent investigation of the Cheonan’s sinking.
Representatives from the UK, Canada, Australia, the US, France, New Zealand, South Korea, Turkey, and Denmark will review the findings of the multinational investigation and determine the scope of North Korea’s armistice violation, a UN spokesman said.
US officials traveling with Clinton said she would try to persuade the Chinese to “acknowledge the reality” of what happened and support measures that would help persuade the North to change its behavior. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the diplomacy.
Clinton yesterday adopted a low-key approach but made clear she hoped the expo, in particular the popular US pavilion, would create greater understanding and goodwill ties between Washington and Beijing as well as the Chinese and American people.
The expo tour was free of any of the thorny issues that have dogged US-China relations in recent months, such as Tibet, Taiwan, human rights, currency valuation differences or international diplomatic squabbles.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS