Alarmed at soaring oil prices, a conference of 22 Asian foreign ministers were preparing yesterday to issue a call for closer regional cooperation in developing alternative fuels and renewable energy sources.
The statement was to be released at the end of a two-day meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue in the northeastern port city of Qingdao. The group includes Japan, China, South Korea, India and other major economies.
"The increasing demand and high consumption of oil has depleted natural reserves of energy sooner than expected," Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in a speech to the gathering. "Asia ... must look closely into the strategy of oil usage as well as the research and development of alternative and substitute energy."
The conference statement, drafted last month by China, calls for Asian governments to increase exchanges of technology and cooperate in energy pricing and construction of oil and gas pipelines, according to an advance copy..
Thaksin said oil was expected to remain Asia's primary energy source for at least 20 years. He said the region would be the world's biggest energy consumer by 2020, accounting for 35 percent of global demand.
"That will pose a huge obstacle for many Asian countries still trying to emerge from the poverty line," the Thai leader said.
China and other Asian governments are aggressively promoting gas and other energy projects to fuel booming economies. But many depend on imported energy, much of it from the Middle East, and worry about prices and the stability of supplies.
"Enhanced energy cooperation is necessary to safeguard Asian energy security and promote economic development in all countries," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
"We stand ready to conduct energy dialogue and cooperation with other countries in Asia and the world at large."
Wen promised to work toward an "energy-saving society" by promoting research on efficiency. He said China planned to rely on nuclear power and its abundant coal supplies as it tries to reduce dependence on imported energy supplies.
Thaksin also urged Asian countries to combat the sources of terrorism by fighting poverty and increasing trade.
"While there remains poverty, there remains discontent," he said. "Asia's priority therefore is to reduce and eradicate poverty."
The Asia Cooperation Dialogue was founded two years ago at Thaksin's initiative.
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
DEFENSE UPHEAVAL: Trump was also to remove the first woman to lead a military service, as well as the judge advocates general for the army, navy and air force US President Donald Trump on Friday fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General C.Q. Brown, and pushed out five other admirals and generals in an unprecedented shake-up of US military leadership. Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that he would nominate former lieutenant general Dan “Razin” Caine to succeed Brown, breaking with tradition by pulling someone out of retirement for the first time to become the top military officer. The president would also replace the head of the US Navy, a position held by Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to lead a military service,
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
RSS