'Meaningless display of presence' | UK Navy Frigate HMS Richmond Reaches Taiwan Strait, China Cites 'insidious Intention' China sends 77 warplanes into Taiwan defense zone over two days, Taipei says Hsiao Bi-khim: Taiwan Strait security matters to Indo-Pacific region AUKUS, Quad alliances created by US erode cooperation format in ASEAN, top diplomat says U.S. sidelines Europe in battle to stem China's ambitions Unanswered questions about COVID's origins Philippines' Duterte says daughter running for president in 2022 elections - media Iran asked U.S. to unfreeze $10 billion to show good will, Iran official says Afghan paper reveals details of ex-president Ghani’s journey to UAE via Uzbekistan The British Royal Navy’s frigate Her Majesty’s Ship (HMS) Richmond on Friday, October 1, reached Vietnam through the Taiwan Strait. Taking to Twitter, the UK embassy in Hanoi shared pictures of HMS Richmond arriving at Cam Ranh Bay. In the caption, it said that HMS Richmond’s presence in Vietnam underlines UK’s commitment
to the Indo-Pacific. It added that the frigate, which is on a four-day visit, will now conduct bilateral cooperation activities. "HMS Richmond's visit reaffirms the UK's Indo-Pacific tilt and our commitment towards expanding defence relationships with key partners in the region," British Ambassador to Vietnam Gareth Ward said in a statement. HMS Richmond embodies the unique display of the state-of-the-art systems and operational capabilities of the British Defence Industry’s technologies, and showcase the frigate’s power, versatility, and capability to operate anywhere in the world. On board the ship, The AW-159 Wildcat Helicopter is the latest-generation multi- mission, high-end war-fighting helicopter, delivering unparalleled tactical capability in a compact and robust air vehicle. Taiwan has reported a record number of incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defense identification zone (ADIZ) for the second day in a row, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday night.
The self-governing island said a total of 39 Chinese military aircraft entered the ADIZ on Saturday, one more than the 38 planes it spotted on Friday. They were made by J-16 fighter jets, Su-30 fighter jets, Y-8 anti-submarine warning aircraft and KJ-500 airborne early warning and control plane, the Defense Ministry said. In the past, analysts have said the PLA's flights likely serve several purposes for China, both demonstrating the strength of the PLA to a domestic audience and giving the Chinese military intelligence and skills it would need in any potential conflict involving Taiwan. Derek Grossman, a senior defense analyst at the RAND Corporation policy think tank, told CNN on Saturday. "Xi Jinping has instructed the PLA to heighten its readiness and prepare for warfighting under 'realistic fighting conditions.' Hence, it is relatively unsurprising that the PLA
continues to fly into Taiwan's ADIZ as part of realistic training and preparation for armed conflict," Despite the increase in PLA flights and the harsh rhetoric, Grossman doesn't think combat is imminent. "The PLA still has many vulnerabilities, especially when faced with the near-certain intervention of the United States with possibly -- probably? -- Japanese and Australian support," he added. "China understands the severe downsides of a failed attack or invasion of Taiwan and will probably continue to bide its time." But any intended message from Beijing may not be about the main island of Taiwan, other analysts say. This island has no permanent residents but is home to a small Taiwanese military contingent and has an airstrip. Analysts note it is flat and would be difficult to defend.
"China could take control of the Pratas Islands whenever Chinese President Xi Jinping decides," Yoshiyuki Ogasawara, a professor at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies wrote on The Diplomat in December. In a lecture to American political scientists and security experts, Taiwan representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭蕭蕭) elaborated on how important Taiwan is to the U.S. and the Indo-Pacific region. Hsiao called for continuing U.S. support of Taiwan to maintain its own defensive capabilities, in order to deter any force that endangers Taiwan's security and its social and economic systems. A threat to Taiwan is a threat to regional security, Hsiao added. Any non-peaceful actions to determine the future of Taiwan should be considered a regional threat and are a grave concern to the U.S. The de-facto ambassador believes the U.S.' defense commitments and support for Taiwan's security can keep the peace in the Indo-Pacific.
Hsiao said Taiwan is looking for asymmetrical military capabilities to deter China. She also took the opportunity to thank Joe Biden and his administration for their commitment to Taiwan and its ability to defend itself. She added that she was glad to see there is a growing international consensus about peace and stability in the strait. Legislators in Lithuania are planning a visit to Taiwan in December in the latest confirmation of warming ties between the two countries, reports said Saturday (Oct. 2).
Since Taiwan announced in July that its planned office in Vilnius would bear the name “Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania,” relations between China and the Baltic nation have deteriorated, with recalls of ambassadors and Beijing imposing economic sanctions. On Thursday (Sept. 30), the Lithuanian parliament approved a motion setting out the legal basis for the country opening representative offices in countries that are not official allies, such as Taiwan. Matas Maldeikis, the chairman of a Taiwan friendship group at the parliament, said he was planning to travel to Taiwan with a group of colleagues in early December, CNA reported. He also called on like-minded nations to resist authoritarianism around the world. The parliamentarian said the establishment of representative offices was only the first step on a road to improve bilateral political and economic relations. Both countries faced similar historic challenges, he said, apparently in a reference to threats from Russia, Belarus and China.
The bullying of Lithuania by China over the past few months has provoked expressions of support for the Baltic nation across Europe. Members of the European Parliament and European legislators have called for courage and stronger vocal support of Vilnius. New AUKUS alliance between the US, the UK, and Australia as well as the four-sided dialogue on security between the US, Japan, India, and Australia (Quad) are directed at eroding the long-standing universal formats of cooperation in the Asia-Pacific Region existing under the auspices of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the 29th Assembly of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy on Saturday. "All of this follows the line of eroding the universal formats in the Asia-Pacific Region which existed for the past decades under the auspices of ASEAN," he noted. The minister named "East Asian summits, the ASEAN security forum, meetings of ASEAN defense ministers and partners, the so-called ASEAN+, and a number of other formats" based on the "principle of consensus" among such universal formats.
"All of them involved all key countries of this region without exception, including China, India, Japan, and the Russian Federation on the basis of equality and mutual consideration of interests," he continued. The new AUKUS security alliance of three English-speaking nations signals a deeper U.S. shift away from Europe in its attempts to stem China's global ambitions. "The U.S. loss of interest for Europe is not a new phenomenon," Frederic Grare, a senior policy fellow at the Asia Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told
Nikkei Asia. "If Trump will be remembered for his explicit contempt for the EU, disinterest predated his election. ... The rivalry with China is now America's first concern, and Washington acts accordingly. It should surprise no one." Grare said the AUKUS message delivered by the U.S. is contradictory. "On the one hand, they had been telling the EU to do more in Asia, but on the other hand, they were threatening to marginalize Europe when they made a step forward. "It may leave the EU indecisive about what their posture should be in Asia, and also uncertain of what it means to be a U.S. ally," he added. But this hope for closer U.S.-Europe ties was quickly shattered by the chaotic U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, which was poorly coordinated with NATO. And the AUKUS pact has brought home the reality in European capitals that EU nations are not partners of choice for Washington for specific deals. Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said AUKUS shows Biden lacks confidence in Europe. Under Trump, he added, "at least in tone, content and wording, it was clear that the EU was not a partner, not an irreplaceable ally."
Many EU member states have close trade relations with China and will not easily sacrifice their economic interests for the sake of the U.S. -- especially now they feel they have been stabbed in the back. France, Germany, Italy and Spain have repeatedly rejected Biden's calls for an alliance against Beijing. Last week, Josep Borrell, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, said the bloc's plan is for "cooperation, not confrontation" with China. Plamen Tonchev, head of the Asia unit at the Athens-based Institute of International Economic Relations, told Nikkei Asia, "It is true that the 27 EU member states have 27 different views on China. Even if the mood is changing, Europe is not yet ready to adopt Washington's confrontational stance towards China." A day after the announcement of the AUKUS submarine deal, the EU unveiled its Indo-Pacific Strategy paper, a document defining Brussels' attempts to expand its influence in Asia. But this new strategy is unlikely to significantly boost the EU's influence in the region, which is of relatively new interest for the bloc.
As the world nears two years after the first reported cases of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, there's still a lot more we don't know about SARS-CoV-2's origins than we do know. Why it matters: Accurately determining the causes of COVID-19 will go a long way toward informing what can and should be done to prevent the next pandemic. Driving the news: Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported the WHO is reviving its stalled investigation into the origins of COVID-19, while a separate academic task force looking into the same question was disbanded over concerns about bias. At this point, there is no smoking gun in favor of either of the two main theories — that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in animals before spreading to people, or that it originated in lab work done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — but plenty of circumstantial evidence for both. What they're saying: On Thursday morning, Science magazine convened a rare roundtable featuring scientists from both sides of the debate.
A major problem is "we can't really say how the virus got to Wuhan," said Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, adding there is "not a high, or any natural prevalence of viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan." The other side: Michael Worobey, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona, argued there were "so many more opportunities for non-research-connected activity to bring these viruses" to Wuhan, such as via China's robust wildlife trade. The political disputes between the U.S. and China have also made it hard to fairly judge the origins, argued Linfa Wang, a professor at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore. "You're guilty because you're in Wuhan," he said. "That's it."
Philippine President Rodrigo's daughter would run for president in next year's election and her father's long-time aide, who filed his vice presidential candidacy, would be her running mate, broadcasting firm ABS-CBN news reported late on Saturday. ABS-CBN news based its report on an interview that Duterte had with a broadcast journalist right after he announced that he was retiring from politics while accompanying his closest loyalist, Senator Christopher "Bong" Go, who filed his vice presidential candidacy. When asked to confirm what the president said, Duterte-Carpio's spokesperson, Mayor Christina Garcia Frasco told Reuters: "The extent of my knowledge is also what was reported in local news. We have no comment on the same." Sara Duterte-Carpio is currently mayor of Davao, the Philippines' third-largest city, and filed on Saturday to run for mayor again. She has previously said she would not run for national office next year. ABS-CBN news said it obtained permission from the broadcast journalist to use the video showing Duterte outside a hotel in Manila where the registration of candidates was taking place, and that a transcript was also provided.
In the same clip, Duterte was asked when his daughter would file her candidacy for president, he said: "I really do not know. I do not have any idea at all". Asked if he had given his daughter permission to run for president, he said: "Ah, no, actually we don't talk about politics, ever since we never talk about politics. I would say that it is for the better," Duterte was quoted as saying. Duterte, 76, said on Saturday he was retiring from politics, a surprise move that fuelled speculation he was clearing the way for a presidential run by his daughter. Political analysts were sceptical, noting that last-minute changes were still possible, as in 2015 when Duterte entered the presidential election race at the eleventh hour and won by a huge margin, and Duterte-Carpio, they said, could do the same. Candidates have until Oct. 8 to register, but withdrawals and substitutions are allowed until Nov. 15, leaving scope for last-minute changes of heart. Iran's foreign minister said on Saturday that U.S. officials tried to discuss restarting nuclear talks last month, but he insisted Washington must first release $10 billion of Tehran's frozen funds as a sign of good will.
The United States used intermediaries at the United Nations last month to attempt to make contact, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian told state television. "The Americans tried to contact us through different channels (at the U.N. General Assembly) in New York, and I told the mediators if America's intentions are serious then a serious indication was needed ... by releasing at least $10 billion of blocked money," the minister said. "They are not willing to free $10 billion belonging to the Iranian nation so that we can say that the Americans once in the past several decades considered the interests of the Iranian nation," Amirabdollahian said in the TV interview. Iran has rejected direct talks with the United States, and indirect talks on reviving a 2015 nuclear accord aimed at keeping Iran from being able to develop a nuclear weapon stopped in June. Western powers have urged Iran to return to negotiations and said time is running out as Tehran's nuclear programme is advancing well beyond the limits set by the deal.
Amirabdollahian reiterated that Iran would "soon" return to the stalled nuclear talks in Vienna, declining to give a date. Tehran says its nuclear steps are reversible if Washington lifts all sanctions. Iranian and Western officials have said many issues remain to be resolved before the accord can be revived. The former president of Afghanistan, Ashraf Ghani, fled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in August via Uzbekistan, using a presidential helicopter and subsequently a plane of Kazakhstan’s FlyJet air carrier, a source close the ex-leader was quoted as saying by Afghanistan’s Hashte Subh Daily. According to the source, shortly before the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) entered Kabul on August 15, Ghani, along with his advisors and bodyguards left the capital in several helicopters, reserved for evacuating the president and his inner circle in case of emergency.
"Of the 54 people who landed in the four helicopters in the Termez, Uzbekistan, 22 were pilots, co-pilots, and Air Force technicians, and the other 22 were the president’s bodyguards, and none of them had passports," the source said. When the aircraft landed in Termez, Ghani, along with his wife Rula Ghani, national security chief Hamdullah Muhib, presidential administration chief Fazl Mahmood Fazli and other companions, had to spend 31 hours in the airport, guarded by over 200 Uzbek servicemen. Some of them had to be transported to one of the camps recently set up for Afghan citizens by US forces in Abu Dhabi.
On August 15, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani stepped down and fled the country, while the Taliban forces swept into Kabul, meeting no resistance. Later, Ghani said in a Facebook post that he had left the country to avert bloodshed, but did not specify where he was going. On August 18, UAE foreign ministry informed that it had provided asylum to Ghani and his family members.
A main bus terminal in Kabul is nowadays crowded as many residents of the city try to find their way out of war torn Afghanistan, into some neighboring countries. Bus drivers at the Paitakht Bus Terminal said several families were trying to flee the capital city each day, but many could not afford the bus fare to destinations near the border cities. "There are many families traveling (out of here) these says days. Most of them travel from here to Mazar-i-Sharif, and then many of them cross the border to Iran from Mazar-i-Sharif," said bus driver Sahil.
Underlining the economic pressures building on Afghanistan's new Taliban government, prices for staples like flour, fuel and rice have risen and long queues are still forming outside banks as they strictly ration withdrawals. Some humanitarian aid has started to arrive and limited trade has returned across land borders with Pakistan, but a severe cash shortage is crippling day-to-day economic activity and decades of war have left much infrastructure in tatters. Members of a Russia-led security bloc that includes some countries adjacent or close to Afghanistan have no plans to host Afghan refugees amid the political and security crisis in the country, bloc member Kazakhstan said last week. Uzbekistan has also said it would only allow short-term transit of refugees by planes to third countries, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday (October 2) said the country's vehicle fuel shortages were being driven by demand and called on motorists to return to normal buying habits. Johnson he understood the infuriation and frustration caused by the fuel queues at filling stations. "The situation is stabilising, but it's a problem that is being driven really by demand, not by supply," Johnson said.
From Monday military tanker drivers will be deployed to deliver fuel after a chaotic week of shortages that has resulted in panic buying and some drivers hoarding petrol in water bottles. With an acute shortage of truck drivers straining supply chains to breaking point, the government said on Friday that 200 military tanker personnel will complete their training over the weekend. The government plans to issue 300 temporary visas to foreign truck drivers to help ease the shortages These are FBNC's morning International news Thanks for watching See you in the next FBNC's morning International news
2021-10-10