One Belt and Road Initiative growing stronger

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has stressed the need for unity within ASEAN, saying that the Southeast Asian economic bloc must maintain good ties for the sake of regional stability.

Speaking at the group’s summit in Jakarta on Wednesday, President Widodo called on member states to “work in concert to achieve a fair and mutually beneficial cooperation,” urging against feuds and strife between neighbors.

“ASEAN has agreed to not be a proxy to any powers. Don’t turn our ship into a battleground for rivalry that is destructive,” he said. “We, as leaders, have to ensure this ship keeps moving and sailing and we must become its captain to achieve peace, stability, and prosperity together.”

The Indonesian president called for a “long-term tactical strategy,” saying ASEAN members should devise a plan for cooperation that is “relevant and meets people's expectations.”

Widodo’s comments come soon after Jakarta’s defense chief, Prabowo Subianto, visited the US capital for talks with his American counterpart. During the trip, the Pentagon issued a “joint press statement,” which was attributed to Subianto and critical of both Russia and China. Subianto, however, later distanced himself from the missive and insisted that Indonesia seeks good relations with both countries.

“There is no joint statement and no press conference. What is important for me to underline is that our relationship with China is very good. We respect each other, we already have mutual understanding. I conveyed that in the US,” Subianto said. “We are close friends with China, we respect America, and we seek friendship with Russia.”

The US and Russia have been locked in a standoff over Ukraine since Moscow launched its military operation in February 2022. At the same time, tensions continue between Washington and Beijing over issues ranging from trade to Taiwan.

The defense minister also discussed plans to visit both Beijing and Moscow in the coming months, further underscoring Indonesia’s friendlier stance toward the two powers.

Founded at the height of the Cold War, the ASEAN bloc is made up of 10 member states and encompasses some 600 million people. The organization places a major focus on economic development, but also maintains a network of alliances and partnerships to foster diplomacy in the region.

ASEAN members will meet again later this week for their East Asia summit, which will be attended by top officials from Russia, China, India, Japan and the United States.

Russia criticises US Indo-Pacific policy, woos Bangladesh

Bangladesh is building its first nuclear power plant with Russian backing, the 2,400 megawatt Rooppur station.

The $12.65 billion project, 90 per cent funded by a Moscow loan, is the most expensive infrastructure project launched by Hasina in her nearly 15 years in power.

But its execution and repayment of loans have been hampered by Washington's sanctions on Moscow's state-run firms and banks in the wake of Russia's war in Ukraine.

Lavrov said the first batch of nuclear fuel is expected to arrive in Bangladesh in October.

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Jakarta. President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo on Thursday handed over the gavel that marks the group’s chairmanship to Laotian Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone as Jakarta wrapped up the 43rd ASEAN Summit.

For the past nine months, Indonesia has been leading the Southeast Asian bloc under the theme of “ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth”. Creating a peaceful Indo-Pacific -- a region that stretches from the Pacific coastline to the Indian Ocean -- was also high on the agenda for Indonesia. In his final remarks, Jokowi called for a peaceful and inclusive Indo-Pacific.
Laos will chair ASEAN next year before it passes the torch to Malaysia in 2025. The Philippines will assume the 2026 ASEAN chairmanship in lieu of the crisis-hit Myanmar.

According to an ASEAN leaders’ review on the five-point peace plan for Myanmar released on Tuesday, the chairmanship rotation –after the Philippines– will follow an alphabetical order until a different decision is made. Despite the symbolic handover, Indonesia will still undertake chairmanship duties until Laos officially takes over early next year.

Globalization destroyed: G20 meeting in India signals the death of Western multilateralism
The West is violating the logic of multilateralism by pushing unilateral sanctions to achieve political objectives against adversaries

Extracts:
The future of the G20 is now uncertain. It is most unlikely that sanctions against Russia by the West will be lifted in the foreseeable future. This means whatever cooperation was previously possible between the West and Russia in the UN Security Council on certain issues will no longer be feasible.

One can speculate that Russia has concluded that with the G7, the EU and Australia deeply hostile to the country and continuing to arm Ukraine and seek its military defeat, and the likelihood that any address by President Putin to the plenary session would be met with a walkout, it would serve no useful purpose for him to attend the summit. The dialogue at President Putin’s level with his Chinese, South African, Saudi Arabian and Turkish counterparts is being sustained bilaterally in any case. Brazil, besides, is a member of BRICS and Argentina’s membership of the grouping has been approved.

It is regrettable that the G20 – which has on its agenda climate financing, green energy, sustainable development goals, trade, debt issues, reforms of multilateral banks, UN reforms, food security, health, female-led development, cryptocurrency, cybercrimes, fake news, terrorism, tourism and culture, and so on, and on which there is a general consensus of views – is being held hostage by the West on the Ukraine issue, to the point of not allowing an agreed joint statement to emerge.

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The US confirmed it had seized a Greek-managed tanker in April. The tanker had a cargo of 980,000 barrels of crude oil, and it was heading to China.

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Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi announced the new Chinese investment pledge, which follows a previous $44.89-billion investment commitment.

French President Emmanuel Macron received a hostile reception at the opening of the Rugby World Cup on Friday evening, as the crowd booed, whistled, and jeered during his address.
The hisses began as Macron walked onto the pitch at the Stade de France in Paris and got louder when he began his speech, which was barely audible.

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The African Union was made a permanent member of the G20, comprising the world's richest and most powerful countries, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the bloc's summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
The African Union, a continental body of 55 member states, now has the same status as the European Union - the only regional bloc with a full membership. Its previous designation was "invited international organization".
The 38-page draft which was circulated among members left the "geopolitical situation" paragraph blank -- reflecting deep division over the war in Ukraine -- but 75 other paragraphs indicated broad agreement on issues such as cryptocurrencies and reforms in multilateral development banks.

The G20 previously comprised 19 countries and the European Union, with the members representing around 85% of global GDP, more than 75% of global trade and about two-thirds of the world population.
On Sunday, Modi formally closed the summit by passing on a ceremonial gavel to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose country will take the bloc's presidency in December.

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India will be connected by railroad under a multinational Middle East-South Asia rail and ports corridor that was announced on the sidelines of a G20 summit over the weekend, an Indian foreign ministry official said on Monday.

The multinational rail and ports deal with the United States, Saudi Arabia, India, European Union, United Arab Emirates as members will link the Middle East to South Asia and is being viewed as a counter to China's ambitious Belt and Road Initiative.

A By-election is now scheduled for Thursday 21 September 2023 across the Camp constituency Falklands Islands.
previous mention: The Argentina government last time only deployed 13,000 troops, around beginning this month, Argentina deployed 85,000 troops deployed troops in the Falklands area. !!

Erdogan has criticised the plan for excluding Turkey with the route instead including India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and potentially extending to Jordan and Israel.

"We say that there is no corridor without Turkey," Erdogan said at the G20 summit on Sunday.

"Turkey is an important production and trade base. The most convenient line for traffic from east to west has to pass through Turkey."

A memorandum of understanding on the multinational rail and ports deal linking the Middle East and South Asia was signed by the EU, France, India, Italy, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the US the White House said

Another transport corridor linking the Gulf to Europe is the Iraq Development Road Project, which will pass through Turkey.
The project is supported by Turkey, Qatar, and the UAE and will pass through Iraqi cities such as Basra, Baghdad and Mosul, before entering Turkish territory.

The elections in the Falklands might trigger an escalation, Argentina is of course backed by China.
Russian-Latin American cooperation Sergey Lavrov has stated, is based on mutual support, solidarity and consideration for each other's interests. Our relations with many countries in the region, including Brazil, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela...

China “firmly supports Venezuela’s efforts to safeguard national sovereignty, national dignity and social stability, as well as Venezuela’s just cause of opposing external interference,” Xi said following Wednesday’s meeting.

Maduro described the current relationship between Beijing and Caracas as the “fourth stage of heroic resistance,” noting that Venezuela has always had support from China “in the face of the arbitrary sanctions implemented by the US and its allies.”
Venezuela has been under an economic blockade by the US and the EU since 2019, when Washington attempted ‘regime change’ in Caracas by recognizing opposition politician Juan Guaido as “interim president.” The West also seized Venezuelan gold and sovereign funds, handing them over to Guaido’s “government.” The effort eventually fizzled out after an abortive military coup, whose leaders fled to Western embassies. Guaido lost his seat in the legislature last year.
Maduro has sought to defeat the US sanctions by doing more business with China, Russia, Iran and other non-Western countries. One of the deals he signed in Beijing was to export Venezuela’s coffee, avocados, fish, and octopus to the Chinese market.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un gifted each other rifles, the Kremlin said Thursday, after the two held a high-profile summit in Russia's Far East.

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Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet arrived in China on Thursday, Beijing's state media said, kicking off a visit where he will meet close ally President Xi Jinping and other top officials.

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Thursday September 14, 2023
Sri Lankan government representatives met with a team from the International Monetary Fund who are in the island to review the progress of the conditions for its Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

G77 Must Say No to Being Proxy for Any Powers: Indonesia

Indonesia is planning to remind the Group of 77 at its upcoming Cuba summit to not become a proxy of major powers’ rivalry – the same message that the Southeast Asian country had always told fellow members of ASEAN.

The Cuban capital of Havana is slated to host the G77 Plus China Summit on Sep. 15-16.

The G77 is a forum for developing nations in the United Nations (UN), and to date has 134 members, including Indonesia and close neighbor Malaysia. The group aims to promote the economic and development interests of the Global South.

China does not consider itself a G77 member, but the country says it has kept good relations with the group; hence the name of the summit. The G77 represents over 80 percent of the world's population and makes up two-thirds of the UN membership.

Indonesia has always warned ASEAN to not be a proxy for any country. ASEAN has also kept a neutral stance amidst the US-China tensions, with whom they have close economic ties.

Earlier reports show that ASEAN's trade with the US has grown over threefold from $135 billion to $452 billion in 2000-2022. ASEAN-China trade also skyrocketed from $39 billion to $975 billion over the said period.

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South African officials say more than 40 countries have shown some level of interest in joining the BRICS from across the 'Global South', a broad term referring to nations outside the West.

Like the BRICS members themselves, these countries represent varying political systems, uneven economic strength, and contrary diplomatic positions, and are as diverse culturally and geographically as Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Kazakhstan and Vietnam, to name a few.

Many are traditionally non-aligned nations, such as Indonesia and Ethiopia, and some are openly hostile to the United States and its allies, such as Iran and Venezuela.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who arrived in Havana to attend the summit, said his visit was "a show of support for the G77's efforts to bring more justice to international economic and financial relations."

The summit will be held on September 15-16, with the theme of the forum being "Current Development Challenges: Role of Science, Technology and Innovation." Discussions are planned on the reform of international financial institutions, support for developing countries in a difficult economic situation after the pandemic, as well as problems of climate change.

The presidency of the Group of 77 plus China passed to Cuba for the first time in the history of the association. The decision to create the structure was made at a meeting of ministers from developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America in 1964. Initially, the number of countries participating in the organization was 77. Now it is the largest interstate organization of developing countries, acting within the framework of the UN and uniting 134 states with a total population of over 6 billion people.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has condemned the AUKUS pact as an alliance designed to target China, calling it a “strategic misstep,” and insisting it will only divide Asia into rival camps and destabilize the region.

Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Monday, Wickremesing he took aim at AUKUS, which was formed by the US, UK, and Australia in 2021. “I don’t think it was needed,” he said.

“I think it’s a strategic misstep. I think they made a mistake,” the president stated. “It is a military alliance moved against one country – China.”

Wickremesinghe went on to say that Sri Lanka wants no part in the growing tensions between Washington and Beijing, adding that his country would like to maintain good relations with both powers and does not wish to see Asia divided into competing blocs.

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The number of mass shootings in the US surpassed the 500 mark over the weekend, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA), which averages to almost two mass shootings a day.

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President Xi Jinping announced Wednesday an "upgrading of China-Venezuela relations" in a meeting with his counterpart Nicolás Maduro, state media reported.

Maduro arrived in Beijing on Tuesday after a tour of Shanghai and other Chinese cities.
This is the highest level of Chinese diplomatic relations. Only a handful of countries – Pakistan, Russia, Belarus – have attained this.

Maduro, 60, is seeking support for Venezuela’s entry into BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South America), a group of emerging economies that held its most recent summit this August in Johannesburg, where they announced the entry of six new countries, including Argentina.

"We could classify the expanded BRICS group as a great engine for accelerating the process of the birth of a new world, a world of cooperation, where the Global South has the primary voice," said Maduro in an interview with the Chinese state agency Xinhua published on Saturday.

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Alarm bells are ringing in Brussels. A senior EU diplomat said he was worried that radical parties could try to exploit potential public fatigue over support for Ukraine to their advantage in elections across Europe.
The coming weeks will bring two key electoral tests, the one in Poland on October 15, the other in Slovakia two weeks earlier. Nationalists are also on course to win ballots in Austria and Belgium next year. In Germany, the far-right AfD is now the second-strongest party, forcing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats to change policy and strategy to challenge it.

In Greece, the conservative New Democracy party retained power with a landslide election victory in June, but three groups from the far-right gained enough support to enter parliament.

The Vox nationalists in Spain lost ground in a July vote, but the country is in limbo in part because the winner, the People’s Party, said it would team up with them and now don’t have enough backing to form a government. Italy, meanwhile, already has the most right-wing leadership since World War II.

yeah oil reserves behind Ecuador, Venezuela and the Falklands.
The top ports importing Russian fossil fuels from Russia in June 2023 were Vadinar (India), Sikka (India), Yarimca-Izmit Port (Turkey), Fujairah (UAE)and Dongjiakou (China)

"That would put total Ukrainian losses, which observers like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. estimated at 350,000 before the start of the much-vaunted “Spring Offensive,” at over 400,000."

So you are saying the fighting has ended because 120% of all the soldiers Ukraine had are already dead?

Actually Ukraine acknowledged last week that since Feb. 2022 Ukraine has lost about 84,000 soldiers. Current counnts put Russian casualties at over a quarter million Russians lost.

The number of Ukraine fighter jets Russia claims to have downed is also silly as according the Russian MoD numbers something like 600% of Ukraine's air force has already been shot down.

Yes India buys 74% of the Ural oil. China buys another 12% (but that number has been dropping as China is getting some better deals from the Mid East).

UN Charter was signed on 26 June 1945, in San Francisco. Four months after the San Francisco Conference ended, the United Nations officially began, on 24 October 1945, it came into existence after its Charter had been ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and by a majority of other signatories. The United Nations (UN) was created at the end of World War II as an international peacekeeping organization and a forum for resolving conflicts between nations. The UN replaced the ineffective League of Nations, which had failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second World War. HOWEVER least we forget WW2 America started by feeding Hitler.
The Korean Peninsula was divided along the 38th parallel north from 1945. The 38th parallel of latitude was chosen in 1945 by the USA and USSR as a convenient borderline for their divided military occupation of the Korean peninsula. Under this divided occupation, Korea rapidly developed two ideologically different regimes, a socialist state in the North and a liberal state in the South.
I think that America started Korean war to because soon after leaving America Syngman Rhee installed himself as the first president of South Korea .
Syngman Rhee then repeatedly threatened to invade the North and so the North moved to kick him out and American forces that were on-sight backing Syngman Rhee.
The United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) was the official ruling body of the Southern half of the Korean Peninsula from 8 September 1945 to 15 August 1948.
Without doubt USA would have lost all of its troops if the United Nations forces hadn't intervened in Korea.
The first battle the Americans entered in the Korean War was the Battle of Osan, where about four hundred U.S. soldiers landed in Busan airport on the first of July, 1950.
That war has never ended, is ongoing while Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan etc kind of ended with America walking away

On September 12, 2023, Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, announced an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The inquiry will be conducted by the House's Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees. Might have something to do with it

During the 1930’s America fed Hitler everything he needed, America had fed Hitler (RC dominated NAZI Party) and Bavaria, Austria, Italy, Vichy French, Southern Ireland, later Poland (included second pope Benedict xvi, 500,000 Poles served in the Wehrmacht during WW2, Finland also conducted combat operations with German troops against the Russians. Romania aligned with Germany in November 1940 also Hungary in December 1940 signed a treaty of constant peace and eternal friendship with Hitler, later in 1941 Hitler called for greater Hungarian military and economic contributions and Hungary raised a new 200,000-strong army.
Spain did not join the war, but after June 1941 sent, as volunteers, its Blue Division, 19,000 soldiers and a small air squadron. received all manner of goods from America via Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, including loans, gold and other necessary items, which actually saw American ledger back in the black late 1936/37.
America sat on the fence until 1942, America declared a New World Order that all international trade to be settled in New York at US$32 per once gold.
CS member please do not abuse members in this thread

dispute between Caracas and Georgetown.

“The US government seeks to appropriate our oil resources by using the company Exxon Mobil, which has incorporated the government of Guyana into its ranks,” he said.

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Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has warned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky not to slander Poland on the world stage, as Kiev and Warsaw continue to feud over grain exports.

“I want to tell President Zelensky never to insult Poles again, as he did recently during his speech at the UN,” Morawiecki told a crowd at a rally in the city of Swidnik on Friday.
“The Polish people will never allow this to happen, and defending the good name of Poland is not only my duty and honor, but also the most important task of the Polish government,” the PM said. He stressed that Warsaw would stand up for its interests “in the current geopolitical context.”

Speaking at the UN General Assembly in New York earlier this week, Zelensky said that “some of our friends in Europe play out solidarity in a political theater, turning the issue of grain into a thriller.” Warsaw reacted to the speech by summoning the Ukrainian ambassador.

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Beijing's top diplomat told President Vladimir Putin that China and Russia must work to strengthen cooperation in the face of a "complex international situation," Chinese state media reported Thursday.
China and Russia describe each other as strategic allies, with both countries frequently touting their "no limits" partnership and economic and military cooperation.

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Families waded through water and cattle were loaded onto boats in a mass evacuation of around 100,000 people in Pakistan's Punjab province, officials said Wednesday.

Several hundred villages and thousands of acres of cropland in the central province were inundated when the Sutlej river burst its banks on Sunday.

"The flood waters came a couple of days ago and all our houses were submerged. We walked all the way here on foot with great difficulty," 29 year-old Kashif Mehmood, who fled with his wife and three children to a relief camp, told AFP on Tuesday.

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Pakistan will hold delayed national polls in January next year, the election commission announced Thursday, as the country grapples with overlapping political, economic and security crises.

A caretaker government has been running the South Asian country since parliament was dissolved on August 9, days after former prime minister Imran Khan was imprisoned for graft and barred from contesting elections for five years.

His successor, Shehbaz Sharif, is currently in London consulting with his brother Nawaz Sharif, a three-time former premier who is expected to return to Pakistan next month following four years in exile after being granted medical bail from his own jail sentence.

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According to Xi, China will help Syria with its post-war rebuild and anti-terrorist efforts. He also said that China is ready to help Syria improve relations with other Arab countries and strengthen its role in international and regional affairs.

The Chinese leader also said that his country wants to strengthen cooperation with Syria as part of the Belt and the Road project, as well as import more Syrian agricultural products.

Assad, in turn, said that Syria supports China’s global initiatives aimed at strengthening peace and stability and ensuring the sustainable development of all nations.

"Syria wants to develop large-scale cooperation with China in all areas. That is why we hail the establishment of strategic partnership between Damascus and Beijing," the SANA news agency quoted

France will pull its soldiers out of Niger following a July coup in the West African country, President Emmanuel Macron said on Sunday, dealing a huge blow to French influence and counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel region.

Macron said 1,500 troops would withdraw by the end of the year and that France, the former colonial power in Niger, refused to "be held hostage by the putchists".

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The United Kingdom on Sunday formally signed a treaty to join a major Indo/Pacific block, in what is described as the biggest trade deal since the country left the European Union, (Brexit) at the beginning of 2020.
The CPTPP is a landmark pact agreed upon in 2018 that cuts trade barriers among 11 countries, including Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.