Indonesian President Joko Widodo called for a de-escalation of tensions in Ukraine during a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors in Jakarta, warning that a conflict threatens security and would be disruptive to the world’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is not the time for rivalry, nor is it the time to create new tensions that disrupt the world’s recovery, let alone endanger the safety of the world, as is happening in Ukraine today,” he said. “All parties must stop the rivalry and tension, we must focus on synergizing, collaborating to save and resurrect the world to quickly rise and recover.”
The remarks from the leader of Southeast Asia’s largest economy echoed concerns that an invasion of Ukraine would have far-reaching consequences.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Kiev’s Western allies say Russia has massed as many as 150,000 troops on its borders in a possible precursor to an attack and are voicing reservations about announcements from the Kremlin that it is withdrawing some forces.
“All countries are connected to each other, no one is isolated,” Widodo said. “The rise of one region will revive another region; the collapse of one region will also bring down other regions.”
Russia, which annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and supports separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, has said it has no plans to invade.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has made clear that the order had been given only for a “partial” pullback and suggested that a full return to base would depend on how talks with the West go.
Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the situation was “deeply concerning” and it was in the collective interest that these tensions are resolved.
“We call upon Russia to de-escalate the situation for the alternative would be disastrous in human and economic terms,” he told the G20 conference.
The G20 consists of the EU and 19 countries with the biggest industrialized and emerging economies.
Washington, which last week released a strategy for the Indo-Pacific region as a means to counter China’s growing influence, is concerned Beijing would try to take advantage of the tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
“We stand for a world and a vision grounded in problem solving and innovation, not coercion and aggression,” US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said during a briefing yesterday.
“I think it stands in stark contrast to the vision of others, including that put forward by” Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), he added.
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
France cannot afford to ignore the third credit-rating reduction in less than a year, French Minister of Finance Roland Lescure said. “Three agencies have downgraded us and we can’t ignore this cloud,” he told Franceinfo on Saturday, speaking just hours after S&P lowered his country’s credit rating to “A+” from “AA-” in an unscheduled move. “Fundamentally, it’s an additional cloud to a weather forecast that was already pretty gray. It’s a call for lucidity and responsibility,” he said, adding that this is “a call to be serious.” The credit assessor’s move means France has lost its double-A rating at two of the
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
RSS