Taipei, Taiwan — Chinese leader Xi Jinping met former Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday, wrapping up an 11-day “journey of peace” aimed at promoting unification between Taiwan and China.

Although unification with authoritarian China has little support in democratic Taiwan, according to public opinion polls, Ma and Xi used the meeting to promote a vision they say looks to avert conflict and highlights shared historic and cultural roots instead of differences.

Following a 15-second handshake in front of some cameras, the two sat down and delivered some brief remarks. Xi praised Ma for opposing Taiwan independence, committing to the “1992 Consensus,” which stipulates that there is only one China, and promoting peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait.

“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese People,” Xi said during his opening remarks. “There is no grudge that can’t be resolved, no issue that can’t be discussed and no force can separate us.”

In response, Ma, who was Taiwan’s president from 2008 to 2016, said that while the two sides of the Taiwan Strait developed under different systems, the people all belong to the Chinese nation.

“If a war breaks out between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, it will be an unbearable burden for the Chinese nation,” Ma said, adding that Beijing and Taipei should create a win-win situation and pursue peaceful development by seeking common ground and setting aside their differences.

The visit is the first time that a Chinese leader has hosted a former Taiwanese president in Beijing since the Kuomintang — the political party to which Ma belongs — lost in the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan in 1949.

Blood ties

Through the trip, the Chinese government is trying to emphasize that cross-strait relations rest on “blood and ethnic-based nationalism,” analysts say.

Beijing wants to show that the precondition for peaceful development across the Taiwan Strait is “accepting this sort of blood and soul nationalism,” said Ja Ian Chong, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

Chen Fang-yu, a political scientist at Soochow University in Taiwan, agrees.

“In a way, he is amplifying Chinese Communist Party’s talking points through this trip,” he told VOA by phone.

During his trip, Ma visited several cultural and historic sites and repeatedly emphasized that Taiwan and China are connected by shared cultural roots.

“Cultural exchange is a common language and emotional resonance between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and any attempts to decouple Chinese culture from Taiwan will not succeed because Chinese culture has a long history and is deeply rooted in the blood of the Chinese people,” he told journalists after visiting the Palace Museum in Beijing Monday.

Ma’s comments were met with mixed responses in Taiwan. Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, said since Ma’s comments represent only his personal views, it respects the itinerary of his trip.

Ma’s China-friendly opposition Kuomintang, or KMT, said it hoped the meeting between Ma and Xi could continue to “promote a better foundation for cross-strait exchanges in the future.”

In addition to serving two terms as president, Ma was the former chairperson of the KMT.

According to reports in Taiwan, the current chairperson of the KMT, Eric Chu, has been invited to lead a delegation of party members for a visit to China in June. In response, the KMT said if there are any upcoming overseas trips, it would announce them in a timely manner.

Counter narratives

Ma’s meeting, which was originally scheduled for Monday but was changed at the last minute to Wednesday, comes amid a busy week of meetings in Washington. The leaders of the United States and Japan are hosting a bilateral meeting. After that, the two will be joined by the president of the Philippines for a trilateral summit on Thursday. One key driver of both meetings is the three countries’ shared concerns about China’s growing aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

Some analysts say the timing of the Ma-Xi meeting shows it is part of Beijing’s efforts to push back against the high-profile summits.

“Beijing wants to show that it’s in a position of power in comparison to the big alliance meeting in D.C.,” Lev Nachman, a political scientist at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, told VOA by phone.

Chen at Soochow University added that Beijing wants to use Ma’s trip to reiterate its opposition to foreign interference in Taiwan-related affairs. “The Chinese government is using his trip to realize their own strategic objectives, and Ma is happy to go along with them,” he told VOA.

During his remarks on Wednesday, Xi emphasized that external forces cannot stop the historic trend of the reunion of “the family and the country.”

According to the National Chengchi University Election Study Center, support for unification as soon as possible has long been very low in Taiwan, with 1.2% supporting that option in 2023. The center has been tracking opinions since 1994, two years before Taiwan held its first direct presidential elections.

A recent Pew Research Center poll released in January found that most of those surveyed, 67%, identify as primarily Taiwanese, while 28% consider themselves primarily Taiwanese and Chinese. Some 3% consider themselves primarily Chinese.

Since the meeting also comes just weeks ahead of the inauguration of Taiwan’s new government under the pro-sovereignty DPP on May 20, Chen and Nachman said Beijing is trying to reinforce the narrative that “the KMT can bring peace to the Taiwan Strait while the DPP only wants to sabotage cross-strait relations.”

Both think Beijing’s attempt to influence Taiwanese public opinion will have limited results.

“The Chinese government’s narrative doesn’t offer enough context to assure Taiwanese voters,” Nachman told VOA.

In addition, Chen thinks Ma’s trip will not have much impact on the status of cross-strait relations.

“His trip is part of China’s overall strategy against Taiwan, where they try to offer benefits to opposition parties while continuing to unleash different kinds of threats against the ruling party,” he said.
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Islamabad, Pakistan — The Taliban’s reclusive supreme leader ruled out any compromise Wednesday on his hardline Islamic governance in Afghanistan despite persistent global criticism and calls for him to end sweeping restrictions on women.

Hibatullah Akundzada addressed and led thousands of worshipers in Eid al-Fitr prayers at the central mosque in the southern city of Kandahar to mark the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

“If anyone has any issues with us, we are open to resolving them, but we will never compromise on our principles or Islam. At the same time, we expect that Islam will not be disrespected,” stated Akhundzada in his defiant Pashto-language speech aired by the state-run Afghan radio station.  “I will not take even a step away from the Islamic law.”

Akundzada was apparently responding to sustained criticism by the United Nations and Western countries of the Taliban’s strict interpretation of Islam being used to govern impoverished Afghanistan, including the public flogging and stoning of women for committing adultery.

“I am administering God’s Hudud. They object to it, saying public stoning and hand-cutting are against their laws and human rights. You expect us to follow your laws while imposing them on us,” Akhundzada said. “Islam is a divine religion that deserves respect, but you insult it instead,” he added.

According to the Islamic religion, Hudud is the set of laws and punishments specified by god in the Quran, the Muslim holy book.

Akhundzada said countries that participated in the United States-led military invasion of Afghanistan were still targeting his country with “propaganda” and “evil tactics” to malign Taliban rule.

“They blame your leaders, claiming they are incapable of governing the country. Don’t let these infidels mislead you,” he said. “Stay vigilant and be mindful of their deceitful tactics. Their ultimate goal is to see us fail.”

The Taliban leader has suspended girls’ education in Afghanistan beyond the sixth grade and prohibited many women from public and private workplaces, including the United Nations and other aid organizations. Women are also forbidden from visiting public places such as parks, gyms, and bathhouses.

Akhundzada has defended his decrees, saying they are aligned with Afghan culture and Islam.

The Taliban returned to power in August 2021, when the then-internationally backed Afghan government collapsed, and U.S.-led Western nations withdrew all their troops after nearly 20 years of involvement in the war with the then-insurgent Taliban.

De facto Afghan authorities have since publicly flogged hundreds of men and women in sports stadiums in the presence of thousands of onlookers. The victims were convicted of offenses such as theft, robbery, adultery and other “moral crimes” by Taliban courts.

There is only one publicly available photograph of Akhundzada that the Taliban have officially used ever since he took command of the then-insurgent group in 2016.

Media representatives are not allowed to attend his public engagements, and even his followers are strictly forbidden from taking photos or filming him on their cell phones.

The Taliban leader rarely leaves Kandahar and rules the country from there.

The international community has not granted formal recognition to the men-only Taliban government, citing human rights concerns, especially the harsh treatment of Afghan women. Many Muslim-majority countries have also opposed the Taliban restrictions on women, saying that they are not based on Islamic principles. 
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Uttar Pradesh, India — After spending a morning loading his freshly harvested sugar cane crop onto a cart under a blazing sun, Krishan Pal feels a little dejected. He says profits from his one-hectare farm in India’s northern Uttar Pradesh state have dwindled in recent years due to rising costs of essentials like fertilizer and pesticide.

“This government is not looking at the expenses we incur,” he told VOA. “It is not helping farmers.”

Despite his frustrations, Pal will back Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, which is seeking a third term in upcoming general elections.

“I think this is a nation of Hindus. Hindus should stay in power,” he said.

Politically pivotal region

For the estimated 200 million residents of Uttar Pradesh — a state more populous than Brazil and lesser developed than other Indian states — issues such as falling incomes, joblessness and rising prices are talking points among urban and rural communities as April 19 elections approach.

In a market in Muradnagar town, a group of shopkeepers discuss their businesses while awaiting customers. Mohammed Ashraf says his business of supplying fresh milk to customers has shrunk due to competition from young unemployed people entering the same line of work.

“There are no jobs in companies,” Ashraf said. “In 10 years, what has the government given? Employment avenues have [been] reduced. People want jobs, businesses, not just roads. What will young people do?”

But for many voters, such concerns remain on the back burner. Across the towns and villages of Uttar Pradesh, the overwhelming sentiment is staunch support for Modi’s ruling BJP — much as it was in the 2014 and 2019 elections that cemented its political dominance.

And because of its sheer numbers — the state determines 80 of 543 elected lawmakers in India’s lower house of parliament — whichever party holds sway over Uttar Pradesh is most like to secure the parliamentary majority needed to govern.

Favorable polls

Most recent surveys project a landslide victory for BJP in the six weeks of voting that begin April 19, with the party taking 70 of 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh alone.

Surveys also indicate an opposition alliance called INDIA is expected to fare poorly in the state, with the once regionally dominant Samajwadi Party, which ruled Uttar Pradesh between 2012 and 2017, picking up less than 10 seats.

Regional support for BJP, say analysts, is fueled by the party’s Hindutva ideology, which puts Hindu national identity and improved governance at heart of its movement. Since 2017, Uttar Pradesh has been headed by prominent BJP official Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu priest turned politician.

Despite the lack of jobs and widespread regional poverty, some farmers like Kapil Tyagi say they’re satisfied with local development since Modi’s rise to power.

“The government has done good work,” he said. “A water tank has been installed. The electricity supply is regular, and we will be getting a road soon.”

As Tyagi spoke, a group of people gathered around, nodding silently in agreement.

Some 40 kilometers away in bustling Ghaziabad, the largest city in western Uttar Pradesh, entrepreneur Manan Anand says he found it easy to secure a bank loan for his venture.

In a state that once had a high crime rate, he says, he’s happy to see safety has improved.

“Modi’s government is doing fairly good as compared to earlier governments,” said Anand. “Girls and women can go out easily in the evening, that was not the case earlier.”

Although Anand says more needs to be done to expedite development, he’s optimistic the Modi government is on the right track.

‘Modi guarantees’

Modi’s appeal is built on a variety of factors, according to political analyst and author Neerja Chowdhury.

“He is seen as the king of Hindu hearts,” she told VOA. “He has flagged nationalism and national pride in a big way — BJP has given social welfare schemes that have given money in the hands of many people, what he calls ‘Modi guarantees.’”

In January, Modi inaugurated a grand temple in Ayodhya dedicated to the Hindu deity Lord Ram that stands on the site of a demolished 16th-century mosque, fulfilling a longstanding BJP pledge to rebuild the Uttar Pradesh holy site. Symbolizing the country’s surging Hindu cultural nationalism, it has since drawn pilgrims by the tens of thousands.

“Indians are by nature religious, and Modi and the BJP have brought this to the fore. The opening of the temple has been packaged politically as if Modi played a pivotal role in its construction. He is perceived as the man who delivers,” said political analyst Rasheed Kidwai.

“Even if people face hardship such as lack of jobs, they feel their national roots, their faith, their culture is getting primacy.”

The BJP is also credited with stitching up alliances with small parties to widen its support base throughout the state.

Launching his election campaign from the Uttar Pradesh city of Meerut on March 31, Modi expressed confidence about his party’s reelection.

“Our government has started work for our next term. We are preparing the roadmap for the next five years and talking about the big decisions we will take in the next 100 days,” he told a huge crowd. Modi also spoke about India’s growing stature in the global community and said he aimed to make the country the world’s third largest economy.

On that same day, top leaders of the opposition INDIA alliance gathered in Delhi to accuse Modi and his ruling BJP of undermining democracy by intimidating and arresting political rivals, charges Modi denies.

Officials with the Samajwadi Party, the main opponent to BJP and part of the broader opposition alliance, have also said that protecting democracy and the right to social justice are critical to national development.

Criticism aside, analyst Chowdhury says Modi appeals to a young, aspiring nation.

“He is talking about India 10 years down the line, 25 years down the line, 50 years down the line, selling people dreams which the opposition is not able to match.”

A good showing in Uttar Pradesh will be pivotal to Modi’s ambitions of surpassing his party’s present tally of 303 seats in parliament. India’s elections will be held in seven phases over six weeks with votes being counted on June 4.
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Bangkok, Thailand — In the latest setback for Myanmar’s military rulers, resistance forces have seized nearly total control of a key border town straddling the main overland trade route between Myanmar and Thailand.

The junta’s defeat in Myawaddy town on Myanmar’s eastern border follows previous territorial losses in the north along the Chinese border and in the western state of Rakhine, bordering Bangladesh.

The armed wing of the Karen National Union, or KNU, Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armed organization and group, says it is now in control of most of the town and pursuing remaining junta forces in the area.

Myanmar has been in chaos since General Min Aung Hlaing and his military forces overthrew the democratically elected government in February 2021. The coup sparked widespread armed resistance by a loose alliance of ethnic groups and civilian-led defense forces.

Most of the conflict has been confined to rural areas. But on Friday the KNU announced it had seized a major junta base in Myawaddy with the surrender of 617 military personnel and family members.

The KNU says it now controls most of the town, which sits on the main highway between Thailand and Myanmar. Billions of dollars’ worth of goods pass through it each year.

Padoh Saw Taw Nee, spokesperson for the KNU, told VOA early Tuesday that the junta’s 275 Battalion is “still in Myawaddy town with their division commander with them. It might be not more than 300 or 400 [personnel] left. We don’t hear anything about [new] fighting yet, negotiations are continuing.”

The Irrawaddy, a Myanmar news outlet, reported later Tuesday that the Karen National Liberation Army and its allies had launched an attack on the battalion, the last junta forces in the area.

Padoh Saw Taw Nee said things are in place for the KNU to take over administrative duties, adding that junta forces who surrendered in Myawaddy are still being accounted for. He said the KNU are bracing for a heavy response from the military.

“Usually, they make a heavy retaliation with the airstrikes. They always say, ‘Whenever you take a place, it doesn’t matter, you can take the territory, but we just have to destroy the place so you can’t set up your administration.’ So, we need to be very careful about it,” he said.

The ruling State Administrative Council, or SAC, has violently cracked down on dissidents since the coup, with more than 4,800 people killed and more than 20,000 people detained, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma, a monitoring group in Thailand.

But the military has been on the defensive since a coalition of resistance forces staged a sudden counteroffensive in October. Armed ethnic groups captured dozens of military-held townships and posts in northern Shan State, while the ethnic Arakan Army has made significant gains in Rakhine state in the west.

In another sign of changing fortunes, Myanmar’s shadow government, the National Unity Government, or NUG, claimed responsibility last week for more than a dozen drone attacks on junta bases in the capital, Naypyidaw.

“The SAC is facing multiple battlefield defeats, in Karen State most dramatically, with the possible takeover of the border town of Myawaddy after months of fighting,” said David Scott Mathieson, an independent Myanmar analyst. “On the ground, the SAC is in retreat in multiple locations, in Kachin, Arakan, and Karenni and Shan [states].”

But, Mathieson told VOA, the military “has a large country to retreat into, with a network of bases and arms production. They may be losing but this doesn’t indicate they’re finished just yet. Their reaction to further losses or the spread of fighting into central Myanmar will be extreme force. For the SAC, savagery is a strategy.”

In a bid to stem its run of defeats, the military recently activated a national conscription law with the aim of drafting 60,000 new recruits a year, including 5,000 by the end of April.

The law is hugely unpopular, with many young people seeking to avoid the draft. Many have fled to Thailand, which has taken in an estimated 45,000 Burmese refugees since the coup in 2021. Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said this week that Thailand is preparing to receive 100,000 more.
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WASHINGTON — The United States is welcoming South Korean sanctions imposed on Russian vessels suspected of transporting weapons from North Korea, despite Russian protests. 

“We applaud the recent actions taken by the ROK to disrupt and expose arms transfers between the DPRK and Russia – including the sanctions … on two Russian vessels involved in arms transfers to Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said.

“It is important for the international community to send a strong, unified message that the DPRK must halt its irresponsible behavior, abide by its obligations under U.N. Security Council resolutions, and engage in serious and sustained diplomacy,” the spokesperson said Friday via email to the VOA Korean Service.

South Korea on April 2 unilaterally sanctioned two Russian vessels involved in delivering military supplies from North Korea to Russia.  

The next day at a press briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called Seoul’s move “an unfriendly step” that “leads only to escalation of tensions” and “will affect South Korea-Russia relations in a negative way.” 

She said Moscow would respond to the sanctions but did not specify how. 

On Friday, Russia said it had summoned South Korea’s ambassador.  

The South Korean sanctions followed Russia’s veto of a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the annual extension of the U.N. experts panel that monitors sanctions on North Korea. The panel’s mandate ends at the end of April.

The ties between Pyongyang and Moscow have been growing since a summit in September. Since then, North Korea has been providing munitions that Russia needs to fight its war in Ukraine.

“The ROK government getting involved in applying sanctions, seizures, and other active counterproliferation authorities and capabilities against the North is a huge step forward in joint cooperation to counter, protect and contain the DPRK regime’s weapons exports,” said David Asher, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.   

Asher worked on disrupting North Korea’s illicit financial, trading and weapons of mass destruction networks under the George W. Bush administration.

In an email to VOA on Monday, Asher added, “I fully expect ROK-U.S.-Japan cooperation to expand in counterproliferation, including the identification and targeting of weapons supply networks using intelligence operations, law enforcement, and sanctions.”

A day after announcing the sanctions, Seoul said it had seized a vessel that was suspected of violating U.N. sanctions on North Korea. South Korea said it was investigating the DEYI, a cargo ship that was en route to Russia from North Korea via China, after seizing it in waters off the South Korean port city of Yeosu.

“This reinforces that countries can implement U.N. sanctions, on their own, as they have responsibility to do so,” especially after Russia blocked the U.N. experts panel’s mandate, said Anthony Ruggiero, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Ruggiero has over 19 years working on financial sanctions and proliferation issues, including ones involving North Korea.

There is a broad international and domestic set of legal authorities that countries like South Korea could rely on to go after illicit exports and maritime activities by North Korea, but it is a matter of “whether countries are willing to stop” vessels making illegal actions, Ruggiero said during a telephone interview on Monday. 

A U.N. Security Council resolution passed in 2017 authorizes member states to seize, inspect, freeze and impound vessels in their territorial waters found to be conducting illicit activities with Pyongyang and carrying banned goods from North Korea.  

A State Department spokesperson told VOA’s Korean Service on Thursday that the U.S. is “coordinating closely with the ROK in its investigation of this ship in connection with U.N. sanctions violations.”

“Despite Russia’s veto of the 1718 Committee Panel of Experts mandate in order to bury reporting on its violation of U.S. Security Council resolutions, U.N. sanctions on the DPRK remain in place, and all U.N. member states are still required to implement them,” the spokesperson said.

Nate Evans, the spokesperson for the U.S. Mission to the U.N., said Monday that U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to South Korea and Japan next week to discuss ways to monitor international sanctions on North Korea.

South Korea estimated in March that North Korea has shipped about 7,000 containers full of munitions to Russia since last year. The U.S. assessed the same month the number of containers to be 10,000.

Joshua Stanton, an attorney based in Washington who helped draft the Sanctions and Policy Enforcement Act in 2016, told VOA on Monday via email that Seoul could seize ships carrying weapons from North Korea to Russia if certain criteria are met. 

Seoul could do so “if South Korea has reasonable cause to believe that the vessel is engaged in sanctions evasion, and if one of the following conditions is also met: the [vessel’s] flag state consents, the vessel is stateless, or the ship enters a South Korean port.”
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White House — President Joe Biden is set to welcome Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to the White House Tuesday evening for an official visit that will mark one of the biggest structural upgrades of the U.S.-Japan security alliance in several decades. The visit will also usher in Tokyo’s further integration into Washington’s security framework with other allies in the region, a key factor to deter Beijing.

Biden and Kishida will announce steps that for the first time will allow the United States and Japan to collaborate more closely on the development and potentially co-production of vital military and defense equipment, said Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell in a recent event hosted by the Center for a New American Security.

It’s a milestone in the U.S. alliance with Japan, what Campbell describes as the “cornerstone of our engagement in the Indo-Pacific.”

The two leaders are also set to declare their intention to modernize a framework that has for decades guided interaction between Japan’s Self-Defense Forces and the approximately 54,000 U.S. troops in Japan.

Tokyo wants the U.S. military to strengthen the functions of its command headquarters in Japan to allow for better coordination. Under the current system, major decisions are coordinated with the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command, located more than 6,000 kilometers (3,728 miles) and five time zones away in Hawaii.

Under its new national security strategy, Japan is establishing a joint operational command for its self-defense force, said Tetsuo Kotani, senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs.

“In that sense we have done our homework and now it’s time for the United States to upgrade their command-and-control structure in the Indo-Pacific,” he told VOA.

Broader regional frameworks

The leaders agree on the goal of expanding bilateral security ties into broader regional frameworks with other U.S. allies, including the Philippines and Australia.

The pair will be joined later this week by Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in a summit set to bolster trilateral maritime cooperation in the South China Sea. An announcement on some form of trilateral joint naval patrol activity is widely expected.

Beyond bolstering naval defense amid Beijing’s ramped-up aggression in the South China Sea, Tokyo has signaled it wants to link Japan into a broader integrated air and missile defense network with the U.S. and Australia.

“Pushing ahead on cooperation with like-minded countries on security, including defense equipment and technology, will lead to the establishment of a multilayered network, and by expanding that we can improve deterrence,” Kishida said Friday.

Considering the difficulties of integrating such systems, talks will likely begin with establishing greater situational awareness among the three countries for their individual air and missile defenses, said Jeffrey Hornung, the Japan Lead for the RAND National Security Research Division and a senior political scientist at RAND.

“Any cooperation on this front will help dilute Chinese anti-access, area denial efforts by enabling the three countries to pass information on Chinese activities,” he told VOA.

Biden and Kishida are also set to discuss Japan’s potential involvement in AUKUS, a trilateral security partnership formed in 2021 among the U.S., Australia and the United Kingdom.

“Recognizing Japan’s strengths and its close bilateral defense partnerships with all three countries, we are considering cooperation with Japan on AUKUS Pillar II advanced capability projects,” the group said in joint statement published by the British government.

“Pillar II” of AUKUS is focused on delivering advanced capabilities and sharing technologies across a range of areas including quantum computing, undersea, hypersonic, artificial intelligence and cyber technology. The step takes the group’s effort to push back against China beyond its first pillar — delivery of nuclear-powered attack submarines to Australia, for which there are no known plans to include Japan.

Any multinational defense industrial partnership is an extremely complicated endeavor, said Yuki Tatsumi, director of the Japan Program at the Stimson Center.

Many aspects need to be harmonized, from industrial security standards and export licensing regulations to the arrangement on intellectual property rights, she told VOA. “Making it a reality will take many months of careful consultation among all four countries.”

Nippon Steel

A potential rift remains between Biden and Kishida over the proposed sale of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel to Nippon Steel of Japan, a deal that has become embroiled in protectionist campaign rhetoric ahead of the November U.S. presidential election.

Last month Biden announced his opposition to the deal, saying the U.S. needs to “maintain strong American steel companies powered by American steelworkers.” His prospective opponent, former President Donald Trump, has promised to block the $14 billion deal if he is elected again.

The optics of a Japanese firm trying to buy an American manufacturing company during an election year is bad for Biden, Tatsumi said, and the pair will want to avoid airing their differences publicly.

In a Tuesday event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel sought to downplay the impact of Biden’s opposition to the U.S. Steel acquisition to the relationship.

He noted that in February the Biden administration approved a plan that would drive billions of dollars in revenue to a U.S.-based subsidiary of the Japanese company Mitsui for crane production in the United States.

Kishida and Japanese first lady Yuko Kishida will be briefly welcomed at the White House on Tuesday evening ahead of Wednesday’s official visit and formal state dinner, the fifth that Biden will have hosted since taking office in 2021.

VOA’s William Gallo contributed to this report.
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HANOI, Vietnam — The Vatican’s top diplomat began a six-day visit to Vietnam on Tuesday as a part of efforts to normalize relations with the communist nation. 

Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s foreign minister, met his Vietnamese counterpart Bui Thanh Son and expressed the Vatican’s “gratitude” for the progress that has been made to improve ties. The visit took place after Archbishop Marek Zalewski became the first Vatican representative to live and open an office in the Southeast Asian country. 

“The visit is of great importance,” said Son. 

Gallagher will also meet Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and visit a children’s hospital in the capital, Hanoi, state-run Vietnam News Agency reported. He will hold Mass in Hanoi, Hue in central Vietnam, and the financial hub of Ho Chi Minh City in the south. 

Gallagher is the Vatican’s No. 2 and his visit to Hanoi was an “important moment” that showed that the relationship was continuing while the sides wait for an upgrade to full diplomatic relations, said Giorgio Bernardelli, the head of AsiaNews, a Catholic Missionary news agency. 

Relations between the Vatican and Vietnam were severed in 1975, after the Communist Party established its rule over the entire country following the end of the Vietnam War. Relations have been strained ever since, although the sides have had regular talks since at least the late 1990s. 

The agreement to appoint the Vatican’s permanent representative in Vietnam was signed in July 2023, during former President Vo Van Thuong’s visit to the Holy See. Thuong also extended an invitation to Pope Francis to visit Vietnam. But Thuong has since resigned, becoming the latest victim of an intense anti-corruption campaign. 

Bernardelli said that the pope’s potential visit was likely to be discussed, adding that it also depended on the political situation in Hanoi following the president’s resignation 

He said that an improvement in ties with Vietnam could also have implications for the Holy See’s ties with communist-ruled China. The relationship with Vietnam had always been a “point of reference, but with important differences,” since unlike China, Vietnam has been keen to improve relations with the Vatican and the West. 

Beijing severed diplomatic ties with the Vatican in 1951, after the communists rose to power and expelled foreign priests. 

Catholicism is officially the most practiced religion in Vietnam, with 5.9 million or 44.6% of the 13.2 million people who identified as religious in a 2019 census saying they were Catholic. That works out to more than 6% of the country’s population. 
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ISLAMABAD — The World Health Organization said Monday that the recent return of about 600,000 undocumented migrants from Pakistan to Afghanistan and an estimated 200,000 unvaccinated children in southern Afghan regions are a threat to regional gains against polio.   

In its latest assessment of the disease’s international spread, WHO said that both neighboring countries had made significant progress in interrupting the transmission of the two surviving genetic clusters of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in the region.  

Pakistan and Afghanistan, the last two nations where the crippling virus is still found, have reported two and zero cases of polio infections, respectively, this year.  

However, the WHO assessment said that the recent large-scale displacement of undocumented Afghans from Pakistan had “increased the risk of cross-border poliovirus spread, as well as [the] spread within both countries.” It cautioned that “any setback in Afghanistan poses a risk to the [polio] program in Pakistan due to high population movement.” 

The report stated that coordinated efforts were being made to “manage and mitigate” the risk through vaccination at border crossing points between the two countries.  

WHO said vaccination coverage in southern Afghan provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Zabul and Nimruz has improved “but remains suboptimal, with an estimated 200,000 children who remain unreached.” The large pool of unvaccinated children “constitutes a major risk,” it said. 

The report stressed that house-to-house immunizations of children are comparatively effective, but some parts of Afghanistan “still only allow site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccinations.” 

It appreciated the Taliban government’s commitment to the global goal of eradicating polio in Afghanistan. WHO noted and praised the increased use of Afghan female health care workers in campaigns and strongly encouraged the implementation of house-to-house campaigns where feasible. 

The fundamentalist Taliban have banned women from many public and private sector workplaces, but the health sector is mostly exempted from the restrictions.
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PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA — The Cambodian government is pushing ahead with a cybercrime law experts say could be wielded to further curtail freedom of speech amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent. 

The cybercrime draft is the third controversial internet law authorities have pursued in the past year as the government, led by new Prime Minister Hun Manet, seeks greater oversight of internet activities. 

Obtained by VOA in both English and Khmer language versions, the latest draft of the cybercrime law is marked “confidential” and contains 55 articles. It lays out various offenses punishable by fines and jail time, including defamation, using “insulting, derogatory or rude language,” and sharing “false information” that could harm Cambodia’s public order and “traditional culture.”  

The law would also allow authorities to collect and record internet traffic data, in real time, of people under investigation for crimes, and would criminalize online material that “depicts any act or activity … intended to stimulate sexual desire” as pornography. 

Digital rights and legal experts who reviewed the law told VOA that its vague language, wide-ranging categories of prosecutable speech and lack of protections for citizens fall short of international standards, instead providing the government more tools to jail dissenters, opposition members, women and LGBTQ+ people. 

Although in the works since 2016, earlier drafts of the law, which sparked similar criticism, have not leaked since 2020 and 2021. Authorities hope to enact the law by the end of the year. 

“This cybercrime bill offers the government even more power to go after people expressing dissent,” Kian Vesteinsson, a senior research analyst for technology at the human rights organization Freedom House, told VOA.  

“These vague provisions around defamation, insults and disinformation are ripe for abuse, and we know that Cambodian authorities have deployed similarly vague criminal provisions in other contexts,” Vesteinsson said. 

Cambodian law already considers defamation a criminal offense, but the cybercrime draft would make it punishable by jail time up to six months, plus a fine of up to $5,000. The “false information” clause — defined as sharing information that “intentionally harms national defense, national security, relations with other countries, economy, public order, or causes discrimination, or affects traditional culture” — carries a three- to five-year sentence and fine of up to $25,000. 

Daron Tan, associate international legal adviser at the International Commission of Jurists, told VOA the defamation and false information articles do not comply with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Cambodia is a party, and that the United Nations Human Rights Committee is “very clear that imprisonment is never the appropriate penalty for defamation.” 

“It’s a step very much in the wrong direction,” Tan said. “We are very worried that this would expand the laws that the government can use against its critics.” 

Chea Pov, the deputy head of Cambodia’s National Police and former director of the Ministry of Interior’s Anti-Cybercrime Department that is overseeing the drafting process, told VOA the law “doesn’t restrict your rights” and claimed the U.S. companies which reviewed it “didn’t raise concerns.”  

Google, Meta and Amazon, which the government has said were involved in drafting the law, did not respond to requests for comment. 

“If you say something based on evidence, there is no problem,” Pov said. “But if there is no evidence, [you] defame others, which is also stated in the criminal law … we don’t regard this as a restriction.”  

The law also makes it illegal to use technology to display, trade, produce or disseminate pornography, or to advertise a “product or service mixed with pornography” online. Pornography is defined as anything that “describes a genital or depicts any act or activity involving a sexual organ or any part of the human body, animal, or object … or other similar pornography that is intended to stimulate sexual desire or cause sexual excitement.” 

Experts say this broad category is likely to be disproportionately deployed against women and LGBTQ+ people. 

Cambodian authorities have often rebuked or arrested women for dressing “too sexily” on social media, singing sexual songs or using suggestive speech. In 2020, an online clothes and cosmetics seller received a six-month suspended sentence after posting provocative photos; in another incident, a policewoman was forced to publicly apologize for posting photos of herself breastfeeding. 

Naly Pilorge, outreach director at Cambodian human rights organization Licadho, told VOA the draft law “could lead to more rights violations against women in the country.” 

“This vague definition of ‘pornography’ poses a serious threat to any woman whose online activity the government decides may ‘cause sexual excitement,’” Pilorge said. “The draft law does not acknowledge any legitimate artistic or educational purposes to depict or describe sexual organs, posing another threat to freedom of expression.” 

In March, authorities said they hosted civil society organizations to revisit the draft. They plan to complete the drafting process and send the law to Parliament for passage before the end of the year, according to Pov, the deputy head of police. 

Soeung Saroeun, executive director of the NGO Forum on Cambodia, told VOA “there was no consultation on each article” at the recent meeting. 

“The NGO representatives were unable to analyze and present their inputs,” said Saroeun, echoing concerns about its contents. “How is it [possible]? We need to debate on this.” 

The cybercrime law has resurfaced as the government works to complete two other draft internet laws, one covering cybersecurity and the other personal data protection. Experts have critiqued the drafts as providing expanded police powers to seize computer systems and making citizens’ data vulnerable to hacking and surveillance. 

Authorities have also sought to create a national internet gateway that would require traffic to run through centralized government servers, though the status of that project has been unclear since early 2022 when the government said it faced delays. 
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Bangkok — Guerrilla fighters from Myanmar’s Karen ethnic minority claimed Monday to be close to seizing control of a major trading town bordering Thailand, as soldiers and civil servants loyal to the military government appeared to be preparing to abandon their positions.

The occupation of Myawaddy town by the Karen National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Karen National Union, or KNU, appeared imminent as the guerrillas seized or besieged strategic army outposts on the town’s outskirts, a spokesperson and members of the KNU said Monday.

Myawaddy, in Kayin state, is Myanmar’s most active trading post with Thailand, and its fall would be the latest in a series of shock defeats suffered by the army since last October, when an alliance of three other ethnic rebel groups launched an offensive in the country’s northeast. 

Over the past five months, the army has been routed in northern Shan state, where it conceded control of several border crossings, in Rakhine state in the west, and is under growing attack elsewhere.

The military government under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing has acknowledged it is under pressure, and recently introduced conscription to boost its ranks.

The nationwide conflict in Myanmar began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

Three residents of Myawaddy town, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they fear being arrested by either warring side, told The Associated Press by phone that they had heard no sounds of the fighting outside since Sunday afternoon. They said most residents were working as usual, while others were preparing to flee to Mae Sot, just across the border in Thailand. Two of them said they had not seen any members of the government’s security forces since Sunday.

The situation was highlighted Sunday night when a Myanmar plane made an unscheduled flight to Mae Sot from Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city. Thai media reported that the plane had received permission from Thai authorities to evacuate people fleeing Myawaddy. It was not clear if those fleeing, described as military and civil servants loyal to Myanmar’s military government, had already crossed into Thailand over the river that marks the border.

Thailand’s Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that approval was given for three flights on a Yangon-Mae Sot route to transport passengers and cargo, one each day on Sunday through Tuesday. Myanmar’s government later canceled its requests for the remaining two flights.

The Thai government was closely monitoring the situation along the border, and is ready to take all necessary measures to maintain peace and order, and to keep the people along the border safe, the Thai ministry said.

In times of fighting along the frontier, Thailand has generally granted temporary shelter to Myanmar villagers. There are also about 87,000 living in nine long-term refugee camps.

The KNU, which is the leading political body for the Karen minority, said in a statement posted on Facebook that its armed wing and allied pro-democracy forces on Friday had seized the army base on the road to Myawaddy at Thin Gan Nyi Naung. It had served for nearly six decades as the military’s regional headquarters.

It said that 617 members of the security forces and their family members had surrendered. The KNU posted photos of the weapons that it claimed to have seized and captured military personnel and their family members given shelter in a school.

Two Karen guerrillas involved in their group’s offensive told AP on Monday that they have surrounded an army garrison about 4 kilometers (3 miles) to the west of Myawaddy that is in charge of the town’s security, and an artillery battalion to the south. Negotiations were underway for their surrenders, they said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to release information.

They also said the Karen have control of about 60% to 70% of Myawaddy township, and are almost certain to capture the town itself after the two bases surrender or are overrun.

The Karen, like other minority groups living in border regions, have struggled for decades for greater autonomy from Myanmar’s central government.

Fighting between the army and Karen armed groups intensified after the military seized power in 2021. Several ethnic rebel groups including the Karen have loose alliances with pro-democracy militias after the military takeover, and also offer refuge to the civilian opponents of the military government.
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Copenhagen, Denmark — Sweden has expelled a Chinese journalist, saying the reporter was a threat to national security, Swedish media reported on Monday.

The journalist, an unnamed, 57-year-old woman, was arrested by the Swedish security service in October and expelled by the government in Stockholm last week, Swedish broadcaster SVT reported. She is banned from returning.

The woman arrived in the Scandinavian country some 20 years ago. She held a residence permit and was married to a Swedish man, with whom she has children, according to the broadcaster.

The woman has had contacts with the Chinese Embassy and with people in Sweden who are connected to the Chinese government, SVT said.

Her lawyer, Leutrim Kadriu, told SVT the woman doesn’t believe she poses a threat to Sweden.

“It is difficult for me to go into exact details given that much is shrouded in secrecy, as this is a national security matter,” Kadriu told the broadcaster.

In neighboring Norway, broadcaster NRK said the journalist had also reported from there, and from other Nordic countries including Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

Relations between Stockholm and Beijing have been tense for years.

In 2020, a court in eastern China sentenced Chinese-born Swedish national Gui Minhai to 10 years in prison for selling books that were critical of the ruling Communist Party. He was charged with “illegally providing intelligence overseas.”

China has rebuked Sweden’s demands for Gui’s release.

He first disappeared in 2015, when he was believed to have been abducted by Chinese agents from his seaside home in Thailand.

The case led to an investigation of Sweden’s ambassador to China over a meeting she arranged between Gui’s daughter and two Chinese businessmen whom the daughter said threatened her father. The ambassador, Anna Lindstedt, was eventually cleared.

In 2018, a Swedish court found a man guilty of spying for China by gathering information on Tibetans who had fled to Sweden. Dorjee Gyantsan, a Tibetan who worked for a pro-Tibetan radio station, was found guilty of “gross illegal intelligence activity” and sentenced to 22 months in jail.
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QUETTA, Pakistan — A motorcycle bomb killed two people and wounded five in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said Sunday.

It’s the latest unrest to hit Baluchistan province, where militants have tried to target a naval facility and a government building in recent weeks.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for Sunday’s blast in Khuzdar, which is on the main highway connecting the provincial capital Quetta with the port city of Karachi in neighboring Sindh province.

Deputy Commissioner Muhammad Arif Zarkon said a woman and two police officers were among the wounded.

For years, Baluchistan has been the scene of a low-level insurgency by groups demanding independence from the central government in Islamabad. Although the government says it has quelled the insurgency, violence in the province has persisted.

Last Saturday, an improvised explosive device killed one person and wounded 14, including three soldiers.
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SYDNEY — Vast areas of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the world’s biggest coral system, have been affected by mass coral bleaching caused by a marine heatwave.

Surveys have shown major bleaching is occurring along the 2,300-kilometer ecosystem.

Bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef was detected weeks ago, but recent aerial surveillance carried out by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and the Australian Institute of Marine Science revealed that 75 percent of 1,001 reefs inspected contain bleached corals. This means the organisms residing on them are struggling to survive. 

A quarter of individual reefs surveyed recorded low to no levels of bleaching, while half had high or very high levels. 

The authority that manages the reef confirmed “widespread bleaching across all three regions of the marine park” — its north, south and central sectors.  

It said, “Sea surface temperatures remain 0.5-1.5 degrees above average for this time of year.”

Scientists say that corals bleach, or turn white, when they are stressed by changes in water temperature, light, or nutrients. In response, the coral expels the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, exposing their white skeleton.  

Not all bleaching incidents are due to warm water, but experts say the mass bleaching reported on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is caused by a marine heatwave.

“The coral will expel their micro algae and so when you see a bleached coral it is not dead, but it is starving,” said Lissa Schindler, Great Barrier Reef campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society. She told VOA that bleaching makes corals fragile and weak.

“If they do recover, they will be more prone to disease and have a lower reproductive output. What happens, though, if temperatures are too hot for too long then the coral cannot survive and then that is when it dies, she said.

Schindler says that reefs around the world are becoming more vulnerable to bleaching due to the impact of climate change.

“We do not know how long our oceans can continue to absorb the amount of heat that they are, and I think these mass bleaching events that are occurring around the world are showing that this heat absorption is having a real impact on coral reefs and will continue to do so,” she said. “So, with climate change there will be more severe and more frequent mass bleaching events to come to the point where coral reefs will not be able to recover in between these events.”

The Great Barrier Reef runs 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast and covers an area about the size of Japan.

Conservationists say it faces a range of threats, including warmer ocean temperatures, overfishing, pollution and coral-eating crown of thorns starfish.

The Australian government has a target to cut national emissions by 43 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.  

 
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Paris — China’s Commerce Minister Wang Wentao is due in Paris Sunday for talks that are expected to cover China’s fast-growing export of cheap electric vehicles (EVs) into the European market.

Four sources briefed on Wang’s trip told Reuters in late March that the discussions would focus on a European Commission investigation into whether China’s EV industry has benefited from unfair subsidies.

European carmakers have a fight on their hands to produce lower-cost electric vehicles and erase China’s lead in developing cheaper models.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm which forecasts China’s share of EVs sold in Europe could reach 15% of the market in 2025, says Chinese EVs benefit from huge state subsidies and is examining whether to impose punitive tariffs.

China contests the claim its EV industry has boomed because of subsidies and has called the EU inquiry “protectionist.” Analysts say factors, including China’s dominance of the battery supply chain, innovation and cut-throat competition in a crowded domestic market have also reduced prices.

Wang is due Sunday to meet Renault chief executive Luca de Meo, who is also acting chairman of the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), a person briefed on the meeting said.

He is also expected to attend a dinner later Sunday with executives from the cosmetics industry, two other sources familiar with the plans said.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has said he will hold talks with Wang on Monday. The Chinese trade ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

European Commission investigators inspected leading Chinese automakers BYD, Geely Automobile Holdings and SAIC earlier this year as part of their inquiries. Paris backed the anti-subsidy probe.

BYD’s Europe chief executive Michael Shu will accompany Wang during his trip, said a person briefed on the matter. Representatives of SAIC and Geely were also due to accompany Wang, Reuters reported last month.

BYD did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China launched its own anti-dumping investigation into brandy in January in response to Europe’s EV probe. France accounts for almost all EU brandy exports to China.

Wang will meet Monday with the Bureau National Interprofessional du Cognac (BNIC), a brandy trade group, along with company executives, said an association official.

China has said it is selecting Martell & Co, Societe Jas Hennessy & Co, and E. Remy Martin & Co as sample companies for its own investigation.

Wang will also attend a China-Italy business forum Friday in Verona, Italy, alongside the country’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, the Italian government said.
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JAYAPURA, Indonesia — Two Papuan separatist leaders were killed in a shootout between security forces and their rebel group near one of the world’s largest gold mines in Indonesia’s restive Papua region, police said Sunday.

Clashes Thursday between independence rebels of the Free Papua Movement and a joint police and military force near the mining town of Tembagapura in Central Papua province left two of the group’s regional commanders dead; Abubakar Kogoya, known as Abubakar Tabuni and Damianus Magay, commonly known as Natan Wanimbo.

Both were part of the West Papua Liberation Army, the group’s military wing.

Rebels in Papua have been fighting a low-level insurgency since the early 1960s when Indonesia annexed the region. A U.N.-sponsored ballot, widely seen as a sham, incorporated the former Dutch colony into Indonesia leading to simmering insurgency ever since.

Security forces recognized the two commanders after finding their identity cards on them, said Faizal Ramadani, who headed the joint security force. He also said authorities showed the bodies of both men to other imprisoned members of the liberation army Friday for further confirmation.

Several other rebels were wounded in the shootout but managed to escape into the jungle, according to Ramadani. He said they were armed with military-grade weapons, axes and arrows. Security forces seized a gun in the area.

The group’s spokesperson couldn’t be reached for immediate comment.

The area harbors the Grasberg gold mine, nearly half-owned by U.S.-based Freeport-McMoRan and run by PT Freeport Indonesia. Separatists view the mine as a symbol of Indonesian rule and have frequently targeted it.

The shootout ensued after authorities received reports that attackers believed to be members of the liberation army stormed a traditional gold panning facility in Kali Kuluk, causing many, including locals in surrounding villages, to flee.

Kali Kuluk is in the operational area of PT Freeport Indonesia.

Ramadani described Tabuni as a central figure in the liberation army, adding that police records showed he took part in the March 2020 attack that killed a New Zealander and wounded six others in the same area, a road ambush in Oct. 2017 that left one police officer dead and another attack in November the same year that wounded a company truck driver.

“He played an active role in various security disturbances near Freeport areas,” Ramadani said.

Freeport-McMoRan has been mining the Grasberg’s vast gold and copper reserves for decades. Several environmental groups have accused the company of damaging the surrounding territories primarily via waste dumping.

The mine provides a significant tax income for the Indonesian government, according to local reports.

Indigenous Papuans suffer poverty, sickness and are more likely to die young than people elsewhere in Indonesia, multiple nongovernmental organizations say.
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Beijing, — China conducted “combat patrols” Sunday in the South China Sea, its army said, the same day the Philippines, the United States, Japan and Australia held their first joint drills in the disputed waters.

The maritime activities took place days before U.S. President Joe Biden was due to hold the first trilateral summit with the leaders of the Philippines and Japan, with growing tensions over the hotly contested South China Sea on the agenda.

Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command said it was organizing “joint naval and air combat patrols in the South China Sea”.

“All military activities that mess up the situation in the South China Sea and create hotspots are under control,” it said in a statement, in an apparent swipe at the other drills being held in the waters.

The Philippine military said its drills with the United States, Australia and Japan “demonstrated the participating countries’ commitment to strengthen regional and international cooperation in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific through interoperability exercises in the maritime domain.”

Dubbed the “Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity”, the drills included naval and air force units from all four countries.

They performed a communication exercise, division tactics, and a photo exercise, the Philippine statement said Sunday.

The Japanese embassy in Manila said in a previous statement that “anti-submarine warfare training” would be included in the drills.

Further details about the Chinese military activities in the waterway were not announced.

The United States has sought to strengthen defense cooperation with its allies in the region to counter China’s growing influence.

Top U.S officials have repeatedly declared the United States’ “ironclad” commitment to defending the Philippines, a treaty ally, against an armed attack in the South China Sea — to the consternation of Beijing.

China claims nearly all of the waterway despite competing claims from other countries, including the Philippines, and an international ruling that its stance has no legal basis.

China’s Coast Guard said Saturday it had “handled” a situation at a disputed reef on Thursday, when it claimed several ships from the Philippines were engaged in “illegal” operations.

“Under the guise of ‘protecting fishing’, Philippine government ships have illegally violated and provoked, organized media to deliberately incite and mislead, continuing to undermine stability in the South China Sea,” spokesman Gan Yu said.

“We are telling the Philippines that any infringement tactics are in vain,” Gan said, adding that China would “regularly enforce the law in waters under [its] jurisdiction.”

Relations between Manila and Beijing have deteriorated under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, who has taken a stronger stance than his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte against Chinese actions in the sea.

There have been several confrontations between Philippine and Chinese vessels near contested reefs in recent months, including collisions.

Marcos issued a statement on March 28 vowing the country would not be “cowed into silence, submission, or subservience” by China.

He also said the Philippines would respond to recent incidents with countermeasures that would be “proportionate, deliberate, and reasonable.”
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WASHINGTON — Climate change and water scarcity are harsh realities facing Central Asia. Glaciers in the east, in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, are rapidly melting, while in the west, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral Sea has turned into a desert.

According to the World Bank, almost a third of the region’s 80 million people lack access to safe water, highlighting the urgent need to modernize outdated infrastructure. Afghanistan is building a canal that could exacerbate the crisis.

Shrinking rivers, drying sea

Last summer and fall in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, people living along the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers described to VOA extreme weather conditions — droughts and floods posing existential dangers.

“It’s all about water, our constant worry,” said Ganikhan Salimov, a cotton farmer in Uzbekistan’s Ferghana region, bordering Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

“This water is not just for us, but a source of life for the entire region,” he said, pointing to a muddy canal near his crops.

The Syr Darya River originates in the Tian Shan Mountains in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, flowing more than 2,250 kilometers (1,400 miles) west through Tajikistan and Kazakhstan to the northern remnants of the Aral Sea, which has been gradually disappearing for five decades.

The Amu Darya stems from the confluence of the Vakhsh and Panj rivers. Separating Tajikistan and Afghanistan, it runs for 2,400 kilometers (almost 1,500 miles) northwest through Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan into the southern remnants of the Aral.

“We don’t fool ourselves with this magnificent view,” said a local resident who introduced himself only as Bayram, enjoying a hot day with his family on a bank of the Amu Darya in Uzbekistan’s Karakalpakstan Republic, adjacent to Turkmenistan.

“It continuously shrinks and becomes nothing by the time it winds its way to the Aral Sea, which is nowhere to be found,” he said.

Bayram is right. The Amu Darya and Syr Darya have shrunk by a third in little more than 70 years. The Aral Sea, once a vast inland sea, has diminished by 90% since the 1960s, as pointed out in a recent U.N. report. The northern end of the sea, bordering Kazakhstan, is more vibrant, but life has become nearly impossible around all its shores.

Authorities insist they are working with international institutions to revitalize the local ecosystem, but VOA mainly heard stories of disillusionment from residents.

A new water deal?

Aggravating the situation, Taliban-run Afghanistan is building a 285-kilometer (177-mile) canal off the Amu Darya, which could draw off 20% to 30% of the water that now goes to Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

Tashkent and Ashgabat have been in separate talks with the Taliban, who have argued that the purpose of the canal, called Qosh Tepa, is not to deprive their neighbors of a strategic resource but to provide more water for Afghans.

Central Asian experts express concern over the quality of the Qosh Tepa construction, which started in 2022. Officials in Tashkent say they have offered Kabul technical assistance.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev calls the Taliban “a new stakeholder” not bound by any prior obligations to their northern neighbors. Last September in Tajikistan, at a meeting on the Aral Sea, he proposed a dialogue of riparian countries.

“We believe it is necessary to set up a joint working group to study all aspects of the construction of the Qosh Tepa canal and its impact on the water regime of the Amu Darya involving our research institutes,” Mirziyoyev said.

No progress has been made since then, but Eric Rudenshiold, a former U.S. official with decades of experience working with Central Asian governments, believes the best outcome would be a new water-sharing agreement.

“Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, all are facing water shortage issues, and so cooperation is really the only answer. And the question is, at what point these countries do that. Cooperation is much better than conflict,” he told VOA.

They would not even talk to each other on these issues until recently, Rudenshiold said.

“We’ve seen Central Asian states lean forward to engage with the Taliban, and I think that’s a big step,” he said.

While optimistic about the prospects for regional dialogue, Rudenshiold said he doubts Western governments will participate, given their strong opposition to the Taliban and its repressive policies.

“I think the region is going to have to resolve this issue itself, not relying on international organizations or other powers, but actually having the countries come together,” Rudenshiold said.

He sees enough leverage to negotiate: Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan provide power to Afghanistan. “The question is, how do you add water into that equation?”

“Yes, Afghanistan can take water for agriculture and drinking water. The problem is it’s still depleting, and Afghanistan needs to be part of the solution,” Rudenshiold said.

America’s offering

At a recent forum at the Wilson Center in Washington, U.S. officials and Central Asian diplomats highlighted growing water demand and worsening environmental conditions.

Tajikistan’s ambassador, Farrukh Hamralizoda, said that “more than 1,000 of the 30,000 glaciers” in his country have already melted.

“Every year, we suffer from floods, landslides, avalanches and other water-related natural disasters,” Hamralizoda said, adding that his mountainous country generates 98% of its electricity from hydropower.

Kyrgyzstan’s ambassador, Baktybek Amanbaev, said glaciers have also been vanishing in his similarly mountainous country, which he said hosts 30% of the clean water in the five former Soviet republics that make up Central Asia.

“We need effective water management to be able to estimate water reserves and flows,” Amanbaev said.

To that end, the U.S. Agency for International Development is funding MODSNOW, a digital program for hydrological forecasting that uses satellite imaging to monitor snow depth and melt and water flows from the mountains.

By providing governments and local stakeholders with accurate and timely data, the U.S. hopes to enable informed decision-making and sustainable management of resources.

“With accelerated snowmelt and heavy rainfall events also comes the greater risk of landslides and other severe natural disasters,” said Anjali Kaur, the agency’s deputy administrator, also speaking at the Wilson Center.
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