Philippines deports two Japanese men before Marcos visit

The Philippines yesterday deported two Japanese nationals suspected of involvement in a series of violent robberies in their home nation, a day before Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr makes his first visit to Tokyo since taking office. The Philippine Department of Justice said Toshiya Fujita and Kiyoto Imamura were sent back to Japan, where they face arrest initially for allegedly being part of a telephone scam group. Two other Japanese fugitives, Yuki Watanabe and Tomonobu Saito, are also up for deportation, the department said. The suspects are believed to have been involved remotely in a spate of home robberies across Japan, including one in the outskirts of Tokyo late last month that left a 90-year-old woman dead, Japanese broadcaster TBS and other media reported. The incidents have triggered unease in Japan, which prides itself on a relatively low crime rate. The issue risks overshadowing the summit between Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, at which they are expected to discuss strengthening security and other ties to counter China, after the Philippines last week agreed to allow a larger US military presence. The suspects are thought to have bribed staff at the Manila detention center, where they were being held on other charges, to allow them to use smartphones, TBS reported on Monday without saying where it got the information, adding that 36 people had been fired over the situation. The Philippine government hopes the deportations would signal “a very stable legal regime” in the Southeast Asian nation, Philippine Secretary of Justice Jesus Crispin Remulla said. Japanese National Public Safety Commission Chairman Koichi Tani told reporters he was grateful to the Philippine authorities, Kyodo News reported. He added that Japanese police had been seeking the return of the four men since 2019.

N Korean officials pledge ‘intensified’ military drills

PREPARATIONS: The announcement came ahead of parades to mark the founding anniversary of North Korea’s army and the birthday of ex-leader Kim Jong-il

North Korea’s top army officials have said they would expand and intensify military drills to ensure their readiness for war, state media reported yesterday, ahead of a massive parade. The pledge came at a Monday meeting overseen by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and follows last week’s staging of joint air drills by South Korea and the US. The agenda was topped by “the issue of constantly expanding and intensifying the operation and combat drills of the [Korean People’s Army] ... strictly perfecting the preparedness for war,” the official Korean Central News Agency said. The meeting of the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea came as commercial satellite imagery suggests “extensive parade preparations” are under way in Pyongyang ahead of key state holidays this month. North Korea celebrates the founding anniversary of its armed forces today and the “Day of the Shining Star” on Thursday next week. The latter is the birthday of Kim Jong-il, son of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung and father of Kim Jong-un. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday said that it was closely monitoring areas surrounding Pyongyang’s parade training ground, adding that it had seen a “great increase in personnel and vehicles” in recent days. Seoul and Washington have moved to bolster joint military drills following a year of sanctions-busting weapons tests by North Korea, infuriating Pyongyang, which sees such joint exercises as rehearsals for invasion. Last week, the security allies staged joint air drills featuring strategic bombers and stealth fighters, prompting Pyongyang to warn such exercises could “ignite an all-out showdown.” The joint exercises, their first this year, came a day after US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his South Korean counterpart vowed to boost security cooperation to counter an increasingly belligerent nuclear-armed North. North Korea’s foreign minister has said the move to ramp up joint drills crossed

Drifting on the water with Myanmar’s ‘river cleaners’

Ma Yu launched her makeshift polystyrene boat into a Yangon creek for another day of trawling the filthy waters for plastic and tin cans with her team of “river cleaners.” About 10 others join her in the dawn light, driven to work the fetid gray-brown murk of Pazundaung Creek by the economic crisis that has gripped Myanmar since the 2021 military coup. They gather recyclable materials to sell to traders, their only source of income since losing their jobs after the putsch that upended the economy and sparked widespread unrest. “There was no job for me on the land and I’m responsible for my children and my husband’s healthcare,” the 36-year-old Ma Yu told reporters, her cheeks and forehead daubed with the sandalwood thanakha paste popularly used in Myanmar to ward off the blazing sun. “So I rented some polystyrene sheets and I went onto the creek with my neighbor. On the first day we managed to collect some plastic and cans to sell. We were happy,” she said. Myanmar’s economy has been battered by the fallout of the coup, with more than 1 million people losing their jobs, according to the International Labour Organization. Ma Ngal, 41, came to the river after losing her job selling vegetables and fish at a Yangon stall, with her carpenter husband also unable to find regular work. “I didn’t tell my parents and family members that we are doing this work,” Ma Ngal said. “But they found out, and I had to explain to them that I’m doing this for my family.” On a good day a picker can find trash worth 30,000 kyat (US$10), but more often the take-home pay is about US$3. “Before we started working there was lots of plastic, cans and bottles on the creek,” said Kyu Kyu Khine, 39, who used to collect trash from Yangon’s

Old-school backpacks too heavy, Japan’s pupils say

It is a familiar sight every weekday morning and afternoon all over Japan: Children as young as six creaking under the strain of a leather backpack crammed with textbooks. The randoseru — a Japanese derivation of ransel, the obsolete Dutch word for backpack — is a fixture of primary school education, a repository for everything a child needs to get through a day at school. However, now the children themselves are speaking out, complaining that their backpacks are so heavy that they leave them with sore backs and shoulders. More than 90 percent of children aged six to 12 who use randoseru say the weight is a problem, according to a recent survey by Footmark, a Tokyo-based manufacturer of swimwear for schoolchildren. In a report on the survey of 1,200 parents and their first, second and third-grade children, the Yomiuri Shimbun said 93 percent of pupils thought their bags were too heavy — an opinion shared by 90 percent of parents. The bags, initially introduced to encourage children to walk to and from school, are made to last pupils through their first six years of compulsory education. However, their durability and roomy proportions come at a price. According to the Yomiuri, the average weight of a randoseru filled with books and other paraphernalia is 4.28kg, up from 3.97kg last year. Some children struggle with backpacks weighing more than 10kg, the newspaper added. Almost one in four children who mentioned the weight issue complained of shoulder or back pain, while 65 percent of all respondents said they would like to trade in their randoseru for something lighter. Parental complaints about the items have traditionally centered on their hefty price tag. They cost an average of ￥56,425 yen (US$427.3) last year, according to a survey by the Randoseru Kogyokai industrial association. The price has risen nearly ￥20,000 over the

Ukraine official warns of a new Russian offensive

FEB. 24 INVASION: A Ukrainian official said Moscow was preparing for a major offensive around the one-year anniversary, but UK intel said Russia lacks munitions and troops

Russia was pouring reinforcements into eastern Ukraine ahead of a possible new offensive, a Ukrainian governor said, but British intelligence yesterday said it was unlikely that Mosocw would have enough forces to significantly affect the war within weeks. Desperate for Western military aid to arrive, Ukraine anticipates a major offensive could be launched by Russia for “symbolic” reasons around the Feb. 24 anniversary of the invasion, which Moscow persists in calling “a special military operation.” Ukraine is itself planning a spring offensive to recapture lost territory, but it is awaiting delivery of promised longer-range Western missiles and battle tanks, and some analysts say the country was months away from being ready. “We are seeing more and more [Russian] reserves being deployed in our direction; we are seeing more equipment being brought in,” said Serhiy Haidai, Ukraine’s governor of the mainly Russian-occupied Luhansk Province. “They bring ammunition that is used differently than before — it is not round-the-clock shelling anymore. They are slowly starting to save, getting ready for a full-scale offensive,” Haidai told Ukrainian television. “It will most likely take them 10 days to gather reserves. After Feb. 15 we can expect [this offensive] at any time,” he said. The war is reaching a pivotal point as its first anniversary approaches, with Ukraine no longer making gains as it did in the second half of last year and Russia pushing forward with hundreds of thousands of mobilized reserve troops. UK Defence Intelligence said in its daily report that Russia’s military has likely attempted since early last month to restart major offensive operations aimed at capturing Ukraine-held parts of Donetsk. However, Russian forces have gained little territory, as they “lack munitions and manoeuvre units required for a successful offensive,” it said. “Russian leaders will likely continue to demand sweeping advances. It remains unlikely that Russia can build up the forces

Fatal quake exacerbates suffering of displaced Syrians

A steady stream of injured ,flowed into an overwhelmed hospital in the town of Darkush, in rebel-held northwestern Syria on Monday, after a deadly earthquake struck the region. Mothers hovered over crying children. Amid the chaos, one man sat with a dazed expression, his face covered with abrasions. Osama Abdul Hamid barely made it out alive with his wife and four children from his apartment building in the nearby village of Azmarin. Many of their neighbors were not so lucky. “The building is four stories, and from three of them, no one made it out,” Abdul Hamid said, breaking down in tears. “God gave me a new lease on life.” At an equally overwhelmed hospital in Idlib City, Shajul Islam, a British doctor who works with several non-governmental organizations, was having the worst day of his seven years working in Syria. “I’m literally taking a patient off a ventilator to give another patient a chance, having to decide which patient has more of a chance of surviving or not,” Islam said. The hospital, already struggling with weak health infrastructure and funding cuts, was particularly overburdened after the earthquake because other hospitals in the area were out of commission, he said. “We’ve got quite a lot of hospitals that had been previously hit in the war. So they had already the foundations, everything had already been weakened,” he said. With the added blow of the earthquake, “we’ve had at least three or four hospitals that I know of that have been put out of service,” he said. The powerful magnitude 7.8 quake that struck before dawn on Monday wreaked new damage and suffering in Syria’s last rebel-held enclave after years of fighting and bombardment. Hospitals and clinics were flooded with injured people. The enclave, centered in Idlib Province, houses millions of displaced Syrians who had fled their homes during the

Russian envoy visits Mali in sign of deepening ties

NEW HORIZONS: Moscow is seeking to expand its presence in Africa as it becomes increasingly isolated following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year

Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov arrived in Mali early yesterday for talks with its junta leaders seeking Moscow’s help in battling an Islamist insurgency that remains entrenched despite years of fighting. Lavrov, who was in Iraq on Monday, was welcomed upon his arrival by his counterpart, Abdoulaye Diop. The two men did not make any statements to journalists. The visit of fewer than 24 hours was his third trip to Africa since July last year, part of a bid to expand Russia’s presence on the continent amid broad international isolation after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year. Since taking control of Mali in two coups since August 2020, the military junta led by Colonel Assimi Goita has embraced Russian support to aid its anti-jihadist fight after evicting the forces of former colonial ruler France. Several Malian officials have traveled to Moscow, but the visit by Lavrov is “the first of its kind” aimed at cementing “a new dynamic” for security and economic cooperation between the two countries, Mali’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Lavrov was to hold talks yesterday with Goita, as well as with Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs Diop, with a prses conference scheduled afterwards. Mali has already received planes and attack helicopters from Moscow, as well as several hundred Russian soldiers described by Mali’s leaders as instructors who are helping to reinforce its defense and sovereignty. Western officials and some rights groups say the fighters are paramilitaries with the Wagner group, who have been accused of brutal tactics and rights abuses elsewhere in Africa. Mali’s leaders have claimed successes against Islamists that have targeted the government for the past decade, a crisis that has claimed thousands of lives and forced hundreds of thousands from their homes. However, foreign observers, including the UN, have cast doubt on the claims, noting persistent attacks

Vermeer shines at ‘once in history’ Amsterdam show

The Dutch master Johannes Vermeer himself never got the chance to see so many of his paintings in the same place. Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has brought together 28 of Vermeer’s luminous masterpieces from around the world in the largest-ever exhibition of the 17th-century artist’s works. Curators hope the blockbuster show, featuring about three-quarters of his modest output of about 35 paintings, would also shed light on the enigmatic creator of Girl With a Pearl Earring and The Milkmaid. “Never in history have 28 paintings by Vermeer been gathered,” Rijksmuseum general director Taco Dibbits said at a preview. “He didn’t even see that many together himself,” he added. Famed for their use of light and color and their tranquil yet haunting indoor scenes, Vermeer’s paintings practically shine from the walls of the dimmed galleries at the Rijksmuseum. The works have been brought from museums and collections around the world, including Washington, New York, Tokyo, London, Paris and Dublin. “It’s a very happy reunion,” Dibbits said. Interest is so intense that the Rijksmuseum has already sold 200,000 tickets for the exhibition, which opens on Friday until June 4, the most ever for one of its shows. Part of the appeal is the mystery surrounding the man often called the “Sphinx of Delft.” Vermeer (1632-1675) was born into a family of Calvinist traders, but converted to Catholicism after marrying a wealthy woman with whom he had 11 children. However, there are very few records of his life, and compared with Dutch “Golden Age” artists such as Rembrandt, his work languished in obscurity, until a reappraisal in the 19th century. Vermeer rose to megastar status with the publication of the novel Girl With a Pearl Earring by US author Tracy Chevalier, based on the painting that has been loaned for the exhibition by the Mauritshuis in The Hague. The book also spawned a 2003 Hollywood movie starring

Nigerian election ad printers losing out to online campaigns

A loud whir filled the back of a print shop in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, as machines churn out grinning faces of presidential election front-runners on posters, flyers and food packaging. Workers poured cassava flour into blue-and-green bags sporting the governing All Progressives Congress party’s acronym and stashed them next to a pile of red-and-green opposition rice packets. The advertising campaign season is in full throttle. The run-up to a vote is usually a chance for small businesses like Shimatex Prints to cash in on election paraphernalia ranging from hats and flip-flops to tissue boxes and cooking oil labels. However, business has been slower than usual ahead of the Feb. 25 vote, as candidates have hinged more campaigning on social media. “Printing-wise [there is] not much difference in our orders,” Shimatex Prints CEO Joel Mtsor said, recalling busier periods around 2011, 2015 and 2019 polls. “A few souvenirs, a few campaign materials, a few billboards, but the impact on the print industry is not as good as it was,” he said. Nigerians are to vote for a new leader to replace President Muhammadu Buhari amid growing insecurity and economic hardship. The three front-runners have promised to reduce living costs, boost growth and tackle rising levels of violence. As Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria is home to tens of millions of Internet users, prompting candidates to compete for voters’ eyeballs across popular platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. Social media has been a key campaigning tool ahead of a poll in which almost 40 percent of registered voters are 34 or younger, electoral commission data showed. However, not everything has moved online, as parties still commission political regalia for rallies and other in-person campaign events. At a printing mall in Abuja’s business hub, workers pasted party logos on baseball caps and sew candidates’ portraits onto T-shirts. Bold political slogans flashed

Joe Biden aims to deliver reassurance

DOMESTIC DISQUIET: An analyst said that the core of the president’s message would be that the US has to make more progress, but people should feel optimism

US President Joe Biden yesterday was preparing to offer a reassuring assessment of the condition of the US rather than roll out flashy policy proposals as he delivers his second State of the Union address seeking to overcome pessimism in the country and concerns about his own leadership. His speech before a politically divided US Congress was to be delivered as the nation struggles to make sense of confounding cross-currents at home and abroad — economic uncertainty, a wearying war in Ukraine, growing tensions with China among them — and warily sizes up Biden’s fitness for a likely re-election bid. Just a quarter of US adults said that things in the country are headed in the right direction, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About three-quarters said that things are on the wrong track and a majority of Democrats do not want Biden to seek another term. Biden’s aim was to confront those sentiments head on, aides said, while at the same time trying to avoid sounding insensitive to Americans’ concerns. Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, said that Biden would “acknowledge and meet American people where they are,” adding that their “economic anxiety is real.” “I think the core message is: We have to make more progress, but people should feel optimism,” Deese said. Luke Nichter, a presidential historian at Chapman University in Orange, California, said that the closest parallel to Biden’s present circumstance might be the 1960s, when global uncertainty met domestic disquiet. Biden has an opportunity to be a “calming presence” for the country, Nichter said. “Usually we’re looking for an agenda: ‘Here’s what he plans to do.’ I don’t know that that’s really realistic,” he said. “I think Americans’ expectations are pretty low of what Congress is actually going to achieve. And so I think

France, Germany, US to discuss green subsidies

PROBLEMATIC IRA: A minister said that while France and Germany were standing together against global warming, fixes were needed to the US’ green legislation

The French and German ministers of the economy were to start high-stakes talks with US officials yesterday to underscore European concerns over US President Joe Biden’s action plan to tackle climate change. The aim is to discuss the impact of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on European industry, with the act’s green subsidies and tax breaks stoking tensions between the US and Europe. The US is keen to reduce dependence on Chinese imports, but the EU is concerned about collateral damage if companies are enticed by US subsidies to relocate outside the bloc. Brussels is pushing Washington to make exemptions for European companies, but a joint task force set up to address the EU’s concerns has yielded few results. For now, negotiations are proceeding under the European Commission’s leadership, and German Minister of Economic Affairs Robert Habeck believes that he and his French counterpart, Bruno le Maire, can contribute to finding new solutions. “It’s a sign that the two biggest economies in Europe — Germany and France — are standing together in this,” Habeck told reporters in Washington on Monday, ahead of the meetings. While he called it a “big success” that the US government was taking action against global warming with the IRA, he added that “the problematic part of it should be solved.” The visits come after French President Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Washington in December, during which Biden said the IRA was never intended to disadvantage US allies. Le Maire and Habeck were expected to stress the need to define fair competition along the lines of reciprocity, transparency and cooperation. The European ministers were to meet top White House economic policy adviser Brian Deese and deputy national security adviser Mike Pyle. They were then to speak with US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen, before meeting US Senator Joe Manchin

Artist provides different view for poor people

For the past decade, artist Seb Toussaint has traveled to some of the poorest parts of the world to paint brightly colored frescoes on the walls of downtrodden neighborhoods. Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, the 35-year-old French-British artist, who always paints an inspiring word at the heart of his work, is tackling a piece called Future in a dusty slum on the outskirts of Mauritania’s capital, Nouakchott. “The goal is to paint the words of those who don’t have a voice,” he said. He and two travel companions have daubed the sides of a sheet-metal shack with a mural of geometric and undulating shapes in white, blue and baby pink. As they work, children play in the dirt paths, rolling a tire or kicking a ball between makeshift homes, as curious women in colorful veils mill around. Zaatar is a hodgepodge extension of the capital, where fishers, construction workers, carpenters and casual workers have made their homes. The soil is too salt-laden to be cultivated and there is little greenery aside from two ailing acacia trees. Since 2013, Toussaint has painted walls of cement, wood, and corrugated iron with words in different languages and alphabets as part of his project, which he calls “Share the Word.” There was Humanity in the Palestinian Territories, Change in Nepal and Freedom in Iraq. He earns a living painting murals in Europe and saves to finance about two trips a year to spend a month in a slum or refugee camp, where he offers his services to residents. The homeowner decides what word they want highlighted in the mural. Toussaint started his career painting “tifos” — vibrant choreographed displays held by fans at soccer matches. He decided to dedicate himself to bringing “color to an environment where there is very little,” after he was exposed to the harsh realities some people face

Jobs drive recruiting for African militias: report

Hope of employment more than religious belief is driving people to join fast-growing militant groups in sub-Saharan Africa, said a report by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) based on interviews with hundreds of former fighters. While worldwide deaths from terrorism have declined in the past five years, deaths in sub-Saharan Africa have risen, making it now the global epicentre of attacks, the report said, citing an annual survey called the Global Terrorism Index. Countries from east to west Africa have seen militant groups take over large swathes of territory, displacing millions, eroding faith in democratic government and causing widespread hunger. The Sahel region has been the most affected, as groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State expand their attacks in one of the world’s poorest regions. The report found that 25 percent of voluntary recruits to such groups cited job opportunities as their primary reason for joining, while 22 percent cited wanting to join with family and friends, and 17 percent cited religious ideas. At the same time, almost half of respondents said there was a “tipping point” that pushed them to join, such as the killing or arrest of family members by state security forces. “The social contract between states and citizens must be reinvigorated to tackle root causes of violent extremism,” UNDP administrator Achim Steiner said. “Security-driven counter-terrorism responses are often costly and minimally effective.” The study was based on interviews with more than 2,000 individuals in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan, the UNDP said. These included more than 1,000 former fighters interviewed in detention facilities, prisons and rehabilitation or community centers, it said. The other 1,000 individuals interviewed were a control group drawn from the same communities to enable the study to compare the responses given by the former recruits to those given by people of the same background. Education levels

Simu Liu dedicates ‘sensory room’ at Warriors’ arena

Simu Liu (劉思慕), who is best known for playing Marvel superhero Shang-Chi, wants everyone who attends an event at the Chase Center in San Francisco to feel welcome, comfortable and supported, just as he has been in the five months since speaking about his own challenges with anxiety. Now, there is the Simu Liu Sensory Room, complete with carpeted walls, lighting features, puzzles and games to provide a quiet space for guests who might feel overwhelmed or overstimulated. The Chinese-Canadian actor who starred in the 2021 film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings helped unveil the renovated room before the National Basketball Association game between the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday. “Pretty neat. It’s simple. It’s perfect,” Liu said. “What an incredible opportunity that we’ve given so many fans that ordinarily would have only dreamt of coming to Chase Center to watch the Golden State Warriors play.” Built with support from KultureCity, a nonprofit that advocates for acceptance of those with “invisible disabilities,” the spot also can be used by nursing mothers, complete with a fridge to store milk. The space includes noise cancelation, and activities and lights to help calm the mind. Liu wants to use his platform to advocate and show care for others going through difficult times. “Obviously it goes without saying that I’ve really come to understand the importance of mental health and looking after one’s mental health. It starts with something as simple as burnout and then it can spiral quickly into feelings of anxiety, feelings of depression,” he said. “For some people, the solution to those ailments and those issues is as simple as seeing somebody, seeking professional help and getting therapy. And that’s what I did and it was immensely helpful.” The 33-year-old said it might seem “unfathomable” for people with sensory issues

World News Quick Take

PERU Landslides kill 15 Landslides in the nation’s south have left at least 15 people dead, 20 injured and two missing, authorities said on Monday, warning that the toll from the disaster could rise. “The number of people dead so far has risen to 15,” said the directorate of the National Civil Defense Institute in the Arequipa region, where mud and rock slides began on Sunday as a result of torrential rains. Hardest hit were four villages in an area called Nicolas Valcarcel. Arequipa Governor Rohel Sanchez told Canal N television that “the situation in these four towns is really bad.” In hills near the villages, miners were working and were probably swept away, Sanchez said. “There is a high probability that in the tunnels themselves there are also people who are dead there.” UNITED STATES Senators question Meta Senators Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, chair and vice chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Facebook parent Meta Platforms on Monday about documents that show it knew developers in China and Russia had access to user data that could be used for espionage. “It appears from these documents that Facebook has known, since at least September 2018, that hundreds of thousands of developers in countries Facebook characterized as ‘high-risk,’ including the People’s Republic of China, had access to significant amounts of sensitive user data,” Warner and Rubio wrote in the letter to company founder Mark Zuckerberg. The letter said an internal Meta document showed that nearly 90,000 developers in China had been given access to information about users, including profile data, photographs and private messages even though Facebook had never been able to operate in China. More than 42,000 developers in Russia, and thousands in Iran and North Korea, also had access to the information, they wrote. UNITED STATES Powerball pays US$747m Someone in Washington

Record bid

Muay Thai fighters perform the traditional Wai Kru ceremony in Rajabhakti Park in Hua Hin, Thailand, on Monday as 3,360 exponents gathered in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people taking part in the Wai Kru ritual at once.

Australia, China trade ministers talk

‘PRODUCTIVE’: While the virtual meeting did not produce a breakthrough, it was an important step toward stabilizing bilateral ties, Australia’s Don Farrell said

Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell is to travel to Beijing “in the near future” after attending the first meeting between an Australian trade minister and a Chinese commerce minister in three years. Farrell, who was in Canberra for the resumption of parliament, met virtually with Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (王文濤) for about 90 minutes yesterday. While the meeting did not produce a breakthrough, Farrell said the talks were “another important step in the stabilization of Australia’s relations with China” and he identified climate change as an area for closer cooperation. “I accepted an invitation from Minister Wang to travel to Beijing in the near future to continue our productive dialogue,” Farrell said in a statement after the meeting. It would be the first visit to China by an Australian trade minister since then-Australian minister for trade and tourism Simon Birmingham’s trip to Shanghai in November 2019. Farrell’s visit follows the trip by Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) in December. The Australians used yesterday’s meeting to push for the resumption of unimpeded trade, including the removal of tariffs and bans on key export sectors. “Our discussion covered a range of trade and investment issues, including the need for resumption of unimpeded trade for Australian exporters so that Chinese consumers can continue to benefit from high-quality Australian products,” Farrell said. “Minister Wang and I agreed to enhance dialogue at all levels, including between officials, as a pathway towards the timely and full resumption of trade,” he said. At the height of diplomatic tensions between China and Australia in 2020, Beijing blocked telephone calls and meetings between Australian government ministers and their direct counterparts as a result of then-Australian prime minister Scott Morrison government’s early push for a COVID-19 origins inquiry. The Morrison government accused Beijing of engaging in “economic coercion” by rolling out