China’s premier yesterday said that major powers must keep their differences under control and avoid “a new Cold War,” in a thinly veiled reference to Washington, as top Asian and US officials gathered for talks in Indonesia.
Beijing has expressed concern about US-backed blocs forming on its doorstep, while facing disputes with other powers in the region over the South China Sea and other issues.
“Disagreements and disputes may arise between countries due to misperceptions, diverging interests or external interferences,” Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強) said at the start of an ASEAN Plus Three meeting with Japan and South Korea in Jakarta.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“To keep differences under control, what is essential now is to oppose picking sides, to oppose bloc confrontation and to oppose a new Cold War,” he said.
The 10-member ASEAN was holding separate summits with China, Japan, South Korea, the US and Canada, providing an arena for big powers to lobby the bloc and their rivalries to play out.
US Vice President Kamala Harris was attending in place of US President Joe Biden, while Li was taking part instead of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
Yesterday’s meetings precede an 18-member East Asia Summit today to be attended by Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov and the G20 summit in New Delhi at the weekend, where broader geopolitical issues are expected to top the agenda.
Harris met ASEAN leaders, praising them for their “shared commitment to international rules and norms ... and regional issues.”
In a sign of Washington’s increasing regional engagement, she announced the creation of the first US-ASEAN center in Washington.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol are attending both days of meetings.
Yoon reportedly told ASEAN leaders there must be no cooperation with North Korea, which the US said this week is holding arms talks with Russia.
“Any attempts to forge military cooperation with North Korea ... should be immediately stopped,” Yoon was quoted by a presidential official as telling an ASEAN meeting, Yonhap news agency said.
Kishida and Yoon met Li alongside ASEAN leaders, with a row between China and Japan over the release of treated wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant one of the topics raised.
“Japan and China talked about Fukushima, but it wasn’t heated,” a Southeast Asian diplomat who was in the room said.
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’