Author: SeeEA

20 Cambodian soldiers killed in ammunition explosion

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PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Twenty soldiers were killed, and several others injured in an ammunition explosion at a base in the west of Cambodia on Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Hun Manet said. 

Hun Manet said in a Facebook post that he was “deeply shocked” when he received the news of the explosion at the base in Kampong Speu province. 

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, and Hun Manet did not say in his post on Facebook. 

He offered condolences to the soldiers’ families and promised the government would pay for their funerals and provide compensation to those killed and injured. 

Pictures from the scene showed a destroyed building still smoldering and soldiers receiving treatment in a hospital. 

Hun Manet, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, was promoted to be a four-star general shortly before he was elected to serve as prime minister, succeeding his autocratic father Hun Sen. 
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Major rebel push in Myanmar closes in on pivotal Chinese megaproject

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BANGKOK — While Myanmar’s rebel forces battle the military for control of a key border town in the east, another armed group has been closing in on a Chinese-funded oil and gas terminal in the west that could prove an even bigger prize.

Since breaking off a cease-fire in November with the military regime that seized control of Myanmar in a 2021 coup, the Arakan Army has made steady battlefield gains across northern Rakhine state, also known as Arakan, in the country’s far west.

“The AA has been extremely effective in winning a dominant position over most of the theater, although not all of it,” said Morgan Michaels, who runs the Myanmar Conflict Map at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, which is keeping close track of the fighting.

The Arakan Army and local media say the group now controls eight of Rakhine’s 17 townships and one more in the neighboring state of Chin.

Michaels, whose research includes verifying those reports, said the military still appears to control a few pockets in some of the townships the Arakan Army has overrun.

“But the key point is that they have dismantled the interlocking defenses of the regime. And so even if there is some regime outpost left, they can just circumnavigate it, so they have freedom of movement in these places,” he said. “They can establish their administration, so they’re the dominant player there.”

The Arakan Army is also on the offensive in three more townships including Ann, where the military bases its Western Command, and says it has been closing in on both the state capital of Sittwe and the port town of Kyaukphyu.

Arakan Army spokespoerson Khine Thu Kha told VOA Thursday the group was preparing to take both towns soon.

“We have surrounded Sittwe and Kyaukphyu,” he said. “Our objective is to regain all our ancestral lands. That means the whole Arakan.”

A spokesman for the junta could not be reached for comment.

Formed in 2009, the Arakan Army has quickly grown into one of Myanmar’s most powerful ethnic minority rebel groups. It aims to establish its own government over Rakhine, which once made up most of the former Kingdom of Arakan. Since 2021, it has been among the established rebel groups that have allied with a new crop of local militias seeking to oust the military regime.

The Arakan Army was also a key player in a major rebel offensive in the northeast of Myanmar late last year. Dubbed Operation 1027, it handed the junta its worst string of defeats since the putsch.

If the junta were to also lose Sittwe in the west, it would be the first state capital to fall to the resistance and make for a humiliating symbolic defeat but not a very strategic one, said Min Zaw Oo, who runs the Myanmar Institute for Peace and Security, a think tank that has also been tracking the conflict in Rakhine.

Losing Kyaukphyu, on the other hand, would hit the junta hard strategically and financially, said Min Zaw Oo, who is also an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

He said Kyaukphyu, which hugs Rakhine’s Bay of Bengal coast, hosts a military radar station and a major naval base with “significant value both militarily and monetarily.”

Kyaukphyu is best known, though, for its billions of dollars’ worth of investment projects backed by Beijing, including the terminus of twin oil and gas pipelines that run from the coast across Myanmar to China’s landlocked Yunnan province. A deep-water port and special economic zone are also in the works.

The route — part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative — gives China a way to import oil and gas that avoids the Malacca Strait between Malaysia and Indonesia, a potential chokepoint if a conflict were to break out between China and the United States.

Additionally, the pipelines are a vital part of Myanmar’s oil and gas industry, the military regime’s main source of revenue.

Should the junta fail to hold Kyaukphyu, Michaels said, “they would lose access to the pipeline terminus, so this has economic and also diplomatic implications for its relationship with China if it doesn’t control this major asset. So, in that sense it would be quite a significant loss for the regime.”

Min Zaw Oo said the oil and gas industry may be bringing in as much as a fifth of the heavily sanctioned regime’s current earnings and that Kyaukphyu’s loss would be “a huge hit,” possibly “worse than Myawaddy.”

The town of Myawaddy sits on eastern Myanmar’s border with Thailand, straddling the main trade route connecting the two countries, and earns the junta valuable tax revenue off the roughly $1 billion in annual trade that passes through. The Karen National Liberation Army, another ethnic minority rebel group, appeared to take control of the town earlier this month before pulling back in the face of a counteroffensive by the military and allied militias.

Given Kyaukphyu’s importance to China, Michaels and Min Zaw Oo say Beijing will likely be putting pressure on the junta and the Arakan Army to agree to a new cease-fire or truce at least around its projects there, possibly one that leaves the junta in charge of the port and splitting the profits with the rebels.

China is the junta’s main weapons supplier, along with Russia, and it is widely believed to be a major source of arms, ammunition and other vital supplies for some of the country’s ethnic minority rebels, including the Arakan Army.

“It’s very likely that Chine will not be happy if there’s fighting in Kyaukphyu, so they may have already communicated [this] to the Arakan Army,” said Min Zaw Oo, noting that there has been relatively little fighting around the port town itself.

Khine Thu Kha would not tell VOA what, if any, talks the Arakan Army has had with China about its Rakhine projects but insisted that the group’s policy was to protect all foreign investments across the state.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar did not reply to VOA’s requests for comment.
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Georgia to host development summit; climate change, aging on agenda

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SYDNEY — The Asian Development Bank holds its annual meeting in Tbilisi, Georgia, next week, with discussions on climate change and the world’s aging population high on the agenda.

The four-day summit, starting Thursday, marks the first time that the ADB’s 68 members have gathered for a meeting in Georgia, which joined the multilateral development bank in 2007.

“Georgia sits at the crossroads of Europe and Asia,” said Shalini Mittal, a principal economist for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“This meeting signifies ADB’s agenda of bridges to the future where technology and expertise from the West can be used to enhance structural reforms in Asia,” Mittal told VOA.

Alongside numerous panel discussions and a keynote speech from ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa, finance ministers from Association of Southeast Asian Nations member countries Japan, China and South Korea will also meet on the sidelines.

“Given the geopolitical uncertainty with the Ukraine-Russia war and tensions in Asia with China’s problematic relations with its neighbors, I think the meeting is taking place at a crucial time,” said Jason Chung, a senior adviser with the Project on Prosperity and Development at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“It provides an additional path to have meaningful discussions on global economic issues,” Chung told VOA.

Climate change stressed

The issue of climate change is set to headline proceedings at the conference, with the ADB now marketing itself as the climate bank for the Asia-Pacific region.

The bank pledged a record $9.8 billion of climate finance in 2023, supporting developing countries to cut greenhouse emissions and adapt to extreme conditions as global warming continues.

“Storm surges, sea level rise, heat waves, droughts, and floods — all our countries suffer from all of the imaginable impacts of climate change,” said Warren Evans, who, as senior special adviser on climate change in the ADB president’s office, acts as the institution’s climate envoy.

The bank says that the Asia-Pacific region was hit by over 200 disasters last year alone, with many of them weather related, a problem that shows no sign of letting up.

“Right now, there’s a heatwave in Bangladesh that is causing severe impacts. Schools are closed, they’re seeing a drop in agricultural productivity, hospitals are getting overloaded with people with heatstroke,” Evans told VOA.

“Mortality rates are going up and, of course, women and children are the most vulnerable to those impacts,” he said.

While much of the Asia-Pacific region is extremely vulnerable to climate change, it is also a huge driver of the phenomenon.

The region contributes more than half of global carbon dioxide emissions, with a heavy reliance on coal as a source of energy, according to the ADB.

To try to reach net zero targets, many Asia-Pacific nations require huge investment to convert to clean energy alternatives.

One way that the ADB is tackling this issue is through a program targeting coal-burning power plants, a major contributor to emissions.

“With private sector partners and sovereign funding, we’re refinancing coal-fired power plants in order to be able to close them down early,” Evans said. The ADB’s “energy transition mechanism” uses private and public capital to refinance investments in coal-fired power, allowing power purchase agreements to be shortened and plants to be closed as much as a decade earlier than planned. The financing is also used to fund clean energy projects to generate the power that would have come from the coal plant.

The project looks to replace these plants with clean energy alternatives, ensuring that power is generated more sustainably.

A coal-burning power plant in Indonesia’s West Java is set to become the first to be retired early under the initiative.

“The communities that are impacted will have support, allowing people to find new jobs or to get social welfare,” Evans said.

 

Aging population in Asia

During the Tbilisi summit, the ADB will also launch a major report on aging population, which also affects member countries’ economies.

According to the bank, 1 in 4 people in the Asia-Pacific region will be over 60 by 2050, close to 1.3 billion people.

“The speed of aging is very quick in Asia, because of the rapid progress in the social development that has taken place in the region,” said Aiko Kikkawa, a senior economist for the ADB’s Aging Well in Asia report.

Researchers have investigated the implications of this demographic transition, with Kikkawa finding that the Asia-Pacific region is currently “unprepared” for aging populations.

“Large numbers of older people do report a substantial disease burden, lack of access to decent jobs or essential services, such as health and long-term care, and even lack of access to pension coverage,” Kikkawa told VOA.

The ADB has pledged to help to improve the lives of older people across the Asia-Pacific region, by supporting the rollout of universal health coverage and providing infrastructure for ‘age-friendly cities’ that are more accessible for older people.

Poverty to be addressed

While much of the focus in Tbilisi will be on climate change and aging populations, the ADB’s core edict remains to eradicate extreme poverty in its many developing country members.

That task has become even more challenging in an environment of high inflation and growing government debt.

However, Chung, the former U.S. director of the ADB, told VOA he believes that this goal should be at the center of discussions in the Georgian capital.

“The ADB should focus on its core mission of alleviating poverty and creating paths for economic growth in the developing member countries.

“While climate risk is important, I think given the state of uncertainty, it is important to provide support to create economic conditions for growth,” he told VOA.
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US Congress seeks to change Hong Kong office’s address to Jimmy Lai Way

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Washington — Two U.S. congressmen have introduced a bill to rename the street in front of Hong Kong’s de facto embassy in Washington as “Jimmy Lai Way” in honor of the jailed media entrepreneur.

The bill would also apply the name change to the mailing address for the office, officially known as the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office.

Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey announced the bill in a statement Thursday, saying he and the bill’s co-author, Rep. Tom Suozzi of New York, wanted to honor the “renowned Hong Kong human rights defender who remains unjustly imprisoned by Hong Kong authorities.”

Authorities jailed the 76-year-old founder of Hong Kong media group Next Digital, formerly Next Media, in December 2020 after accusing him of fraud.

They also charged him with “conspiracy to collude with foreign countries or external forces to endanger national security” under Hong Kong’s National Security Law.  The cases are still ongoing, and Lai has been denied bail.

In the statement, Smith, who is chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called the charges “fabricated” and “politically motivated.”

“Jimmy Lai is a man of faith and conviction, someone who fervently believed that Hong Kong’s prosperity and vitality were built on the rights promised to its citizens,” Smith said. “For peacefully acting on this belief, he is arbitrarily detained.”

Since Beijing imposed the tough Hong Kong security law in 2020, U.S. lawmakers from both parties have become increasingly concerned about the Asian financial hub’s autonomy and are looking at measures to put pressure on its government.

Beijing says the security law is needed to maintain stability but has used it to arrest, jail and try hundreds of pro-democracy activists, stifling Hong Kong’s once vibrant civil society.

In March, Hong Kong lawmakers unanimously and quickly approved their own sweeping national security law known as Basic Law Article 23, strengthening the government’s ability to silence dissent.

“We will continue to press for Jimmy Lai’s unconditional release and seek ways to raise the diplomatic and reputational costs globally for the Hong Kong government and their Chinese Communist Party masters for their rough dismantling of democratic freedoms and the rule of law in Hong Kong,” Smith said in the statement.

Smith, who has long been concerned about human rights in China, nominated Lai and other jailed, well-known Chinese rights defenders Xu Zhiyong and Ding Jiaxi, along with Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti, for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize in February. U.S. lawmakers called them “advocates for peace and freedom.”

“The free world must continue calling attention to the Chinese Communist Party’s crimes in Xinjiang, erosion of democracy in Hong Kong, and saber-rattling against Taiwan,” Suozzi said in the statement.

“Naming a street in Washington, D.C., after Jimmy Lai, a pro-democracy advocate and journalist standing up for human rights in Hong Kong, will signal to the entire world that the United States stands in solidarity with those who oppose the tyranny and repression of the Chinese government,” he added.

The Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office has locations in three U.S. cities — Washington, New York and San Francisco.

VOA contacted the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and the Chinese Embassy in Washington for their reaction to the proposed bill. They forwarded VOA’s inquiry to the Information Services Department in Hong Kong, which did not receive respond by publication time.

U.S. lawmakers have on several occasions proposed name changes for roads in front of foreign embassies and territories to memorialize and honor rights defenders from those countries who were persecuted by their own governments.

In 2014, a bill was introduced to rename a portion of International Place NW, a street that runs in front of the Chinese Embassy in Washington after Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. The Chinese writer and government critic died in custody in 2017.

In 2020, U.S. lawmakers proposed renaming the same street “Li Wenliang Plaza” after the doctor who was punished for posting warnings on social media about the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19 in Wuhan. He died that same year from the virus.

In 2018, the city government in Washington renamed a section of the avenue in front of the Russian Embassy as “Boris Nemtsov Plaza” in honor of the Russian opposition activist who had been fatally shot in Moscow three years earlier.

In 2022, the street in front of the Saudi Arabian Embassy was renamed “Jamal Khashoggi Way” after the Washington Post columnist was murdered at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul by government agents.

In February, a bipartisan group of U.S. congressmen announced legislation to rename a section of the street near the Russian ambassador’s residence as “Alexei Navalny Way” to memorialize the late Russian opposition leader less than two weeks after his sudden death in prison.
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Public urged to join fight for Australia’s Great Barrier Reef

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sydney — Analysis of more than 25,000 images from divers, tourism operators and recreational boats on Australia’s annual Great Reef Census is getting under way. Now in its fourth year, one of the world’s fastest-growing conservation projects is helping to gauge the health and degradation of the world’s largest coral system, which is suffering from another mass bleaching event.

The Great Reef Census collects a trove of images of what is arguably Australia’s greatest natural treasure.

Each picture can contain vital information about the health of the Great Barrier Reef. Together, the images create a vital evaluation of the state of the ecosystem.

The barrier reef stretches for 2,300 kilometers down Australia’s northeastern coast. It is under increasing threat from global warming, pollution and overfishing, as well as coral-eating crown of thorns starfish.

The surveillance project is urging so-called citizen scientists around the world to help in the analysis of the images. The survey also uses artificial intelligence to scan much of the data.

The public is being asked to analyze the images to see which reefs fared better than others and potentially identify so-called new “key source reefs,” which are those reefs that appear to have escaped the worst of the degradation.

Anyone can help in the effort, said Nicole Senn, impact and engagement lead at Citizens of the Reef, which coordinates the survey.

“Citizen scientists using our A.I assisted platform can actually provide data that is highly comparable in accuracy to a reef expert, and it takes as little as one minute to analyze an image, and the data you are generating helps to prioritize conservation efforts on the reef and identify key source reefs,” she said. “These are healthy reefs that are positioned in a way that they can help nearby reefs recover and this is just one of the many ways your analysis of these images can help.”

The Great Barrier Reef is suffering from another widespread bleaching event.

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 that give them their color and energy, exposing their white skeleton.

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

Experts say reefs around the world last year and early this year have been affected by high ocean surface temperatures.

Chris Lawson, a data scientist with the Great Reef Census’ Science Committee, told VOA that the situation appears to be dire.

“The latest mass bleaching event has been designated as the fourth global mass bleaching event,” he said. “So, it is not just in Australia, it has been observed globally and by all accounts is the worst one on record in terms of its extent and its severity of bleaching.”

Experts say reefs’ extreme susceptibility to warming sea temperatures makes them one of the world’s ecosystems that is most vulnerable to climate change.
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British officials charge 2 with spying for China

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Washington — British officials formally charged two men Friday with spying on behalf of China in the latest in a series of European arrests of suspected Chinese intelligence agents.

The two men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, were charged with violations of the Official Secrets Act by “providing prejudicial information to a foreign state, China” between 2021 and February 2023.

Their arrests on Monday occurred at the same time that German authorities arrested three people suspected of spying for China and leaking information on military technology. German authorities separately arrested an assistant to a far-right European Parliament member.

The Chinese Embassy in London said the charges Cash and Berry face are “completely fabricated” and “malicious slander,” a part of British “anti-China political manipulation.”

Dominic Murphy, who leads the counterterrorism command of London’s Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press the charges are the result of “an extremely complex investigation into what are very serious allegations.”

Cash, a parliamentary researcher with the governing Conservative Party, and Berry, an academic, have been granted bail and released after a court appearance in London. They will next appear in court for a preliminary hearing on May 10.

Cash maintains his innocence, while Berry and his lawyers have provided no public statements.

British and EU officials have warned of the threat that Chinese covert activities pose, with Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, warning in 2022 that China has sought to target and influence British political officials.

Last month, the U.S. and U.K. governments announced new sanctions against hackers with ties to the Chinese government, and both countries accused the hackers of targeting government officials and businesses at the direction of Chinese government leadership.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press. 
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Vietnam parliament chief quits over ‘violations’ in latest leadership upheaval

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HANOI — The chairman of Vietnam’s parliament, Vuong Dinh Hue. has resigned over his “violations and shortcomings,” its government said on Friday, in a new sign of political turbulence just weeks after the high-profile dismissal of the country’s president.  

The head of the assembly is among the four “pillars” of the leadership in Vietnam, which officially has no paramount ruler.

Hue, 67, had been touted as a possible candidate for the Communist Party secretary position, Vietnam’s most powerful job.  

“Comrade Vuong Dinh Hue’s violations and shortcomings have caused negative public opinion, affecting the reputation of the Party, State and him personally,” the government’s website said, carrying a statement from the Communist Party’s Central Committee.  

The statement said his resignation had been accepted and would be removed from the Central Committee and the powerful Politburo. It did not specify what the violations were.

Hue was seen attending a ceremony earlier on Friday alongside the prime minister ahead of next week’s 49th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the reunification of North and South Vietnam under communist rule.  

His resignation comes just days after the announcement that his assistant had been arrested over alleged bribery involving an infrastructure company.  

‘Blazing furnace’

Under a yearslong anti-corruption campaign, called “blazing furnace,” hundreds of senior state officials and high-profile business executives have been prosecuted or forced to step down.

The latest change among Vietnam’s top leadership could raise new concerns about political stability in the Southeast Asian manufacturing hub, which is highly reliant on foreign investment and trade.  

The departure of Hue, a trained economist and former deputy prime minister who previously served as chief state auditor, follows the dismissal in March of President Vo Van Thuong after the Communist Party said he had violated party rules.  

Thuong was the second president to exit in just over a year, prompting multiple commentators to warn that the country’s appeal as an investment destination may be affected by prolonged infighting.  

A survey of over 650 business leaders conducted by foreign chambers of commerce in Vietnam and published in March said foreign firms were attracted to the country mostly for its political stability.  

Hue had met Chinese President Xi Jinping on April 8 during a weeklong visit to China and while abroad, rumors spread in Vietnam that his assistant had been arrested. The detention was announced two weeks later.  

Earlier in April, real estate tycoon Truong My Lan was sentenced to death for her role in a multibillion-dollar financial fraud, which had been going on for years with multiple senior officials turning a blind eye.
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Thailand’s most radical party braces for ban, eyes ‘reincarnation’

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Bangkok — Thailand’s most popular political party, Move Forward, is facing the familiar threat of dissolution by court order, but senior members say plans are already in place for a swift comeback if they are disbanded, refusing to let their reform movement die.

MFP secured a plurality in Thailand’s May 2023 elections with 14 million votes and 151 seats, ending nine years of military-dominated government.

The party did it with a radical slate of reforms for equitable governance — to cut the military from power, break up an economic monopoly and amend the royal defamation law, known as lèse-majesté, which criminalizes criticism of the powerful monarchy.

Yet the party’s candidate for prime minister, Pita Limjaroenrat, was blocked from forming a government by the appointed Senate of ultraconservatives allied to the generals who seized power in a coup nearly a decade earlier.

Forced into the opposition, MFP has since faced an obstacle course of legal challenges brought by rivals determined to kill its reform agenda.

Thailand’s Constitutional Court is expected within weeks to decide whether the centerpiece of MFP’s agenda — a proposed amendment of lèse-majesté — is tantamount to subversion.

The court dissolved MFP’s previous incarnation, Future Forward, in 2020, triggering vigorous street protests by pro-democracy activists.

A repeat of that ruling potentially sets a precedent for any future review of the law, which carries penalties of up to 15 years in prison and has been cited in the prosecution of at least 260 people in the past four years.

“We’ve seen party dissolution being used as one of the tools against parties that are opposite from the establishment institution of Thailand,” MFP spokesperson Parit Wacharasindhu told VOA.

“It’s not normal for any democratic country to have this kind of party dissolution but … if it were to happen, it highlights why there’s a need for a party like Move Forward Party to exist in Thai politics,” he said.

If banned, MFP will have to rebrand under a new name and work quickly to keep its lawmakers from being poached by the coalition parties led by Pheu Thai — Thailand’s previously dominant electoral force, which now holds the premiership through property tycoon Srettha Thavisin.

It will also most likely have to replace Pita, leader Chaithawat Tulathon and several other front-line figures who could be banned from politics for 10 years if the party is ordered to dissolve.

Parit, 31, is widely tipped to emerge as the next leader with a strong speaking style and connection with the public.

“The party has plans in place for all scenarios,” he said, without confirming any possible future role.

An MFP lawmaker, who also faces a ban from politics as a possible result of the imminent ruling, summed up the limbo of political life in a country where courts routinely eliminate talented new politicians and parties as feeling similar to “knowing your friend is really sick and knowing he can go any day.”

“I’ve put in so much in this political career and it could just be the end of it just like that,” the lawmaker told VOA, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of political reprisals.

MFP is set to present its final argument on May 3, and the head of Thailand’s nine-member constitutional court, Nakarin Mektrairat, has publicly called it “impossible” to prejudge the bench’s decision.

But political observers say the dissolution is a virtually done deal as the establishment seeks to politically suffocate Thailand’s most radical movement of the last two decades.

Powerful royal legacy

Thailand’s monarchy is extremely powerful, and the royal defamation law protects it from criticism, with sentences of up to 15 years per conviction.

Dozens of young pro-democracy activists have been jailed in the last few years under the law.

MFP leaders have been touring the country, saying the mere fact of a looming court decision signals the rot within Thailand’s current political system.

“I’m not sure if those who have the power to dissolve us have asked themselves what they gain by doing it,” Pita said before a party meeting April 6.

“Sure, it may weaken us in the short term, but it may turbocharge us into the next election … whatever the name of the party may be.”

Analysts say banning the party is futile given two factors: millions of young people joining the electorate and the looming term limit of Thailand’s 250-member militarily appointed Senate, which has been instrumental in blocking MFP’s progress.

“It makes no difference,” Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, law professor at Thammasat University, told VOA. “The coalition government will get slightly stronger [without an opposition]. But when it comes to the next election, there will be four million new voters. Without the appointed Senate, it’s highly likely that the MFP’s next version will be the government.”

But MFP’s “next reincarnation” may have to be politically expedient, softening calls for reform of the royal defamation law to reach power, he added.

As MFP awaits its legal fate, party leaders say they are focusing on their work as the opposition, especially challenging the government’s efforts to draft a new constitution to reflect the changing political realities.

Meanwhile, the Pheu Thai-led government is newly confident with billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra’s late-February release from prison. Thaksin, Pheu Thai’s longtime patron, has toured parts of the country and routinely hosted the great and the good of Thai politics at his Bangkok home, where he is serving out a house-arrest sentence for corruption.

So long as the kingdom’s old political allegiances continue to crumble and MFP’s call for sweeping social, political and economic reforms continue to resonate with a substantial part of Thailand’s electorate, it may mean the country’s progressive movement, whatever its name may be, emerges stronger in the long-term.

“No one is distracted by the legal struggle, no one is less energetic,” Parit told VOA.  “We remain as committed as ever in terms of pushing ahead for change …whether by submitting draft laws to the parliament, contesting local elections or expanding party membership.” 
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China skips red-carpet welcome for Blinken, whose visit prompts cynicism

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washington — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s arrival in China on Wednesday has been met with skepticism, cynicism and suggestions that the absence of a red carpet for the top U.S. diplomat’s arrival was a not-so-subtle message from Beijing.

Blinken kicked off his three-day visit to China in Shanghai with online commenters and analysts noting China had omitted the usual practice of laying out a red carpet for a distinguished visitor.

Posting on X, Hu Xijin, a former editor-in-chief of Chinese state media Global Times, said, “Blinken has arrived in Shanghai, China. Many people noticed when he stepped off the plane that there seemed to be no red carpet on the ground. His China visit should be seen as an ‘imploring’ one, although the U.S. made some tough public opinion preparations in advance.”

Gordon Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute think tank, responded to Hu Xijin’s post, “#China, before #Blinken even stepped off his plane in #Shanghai today, insulted him.”

An X user under the name Lord Bebo, who claims to be anti-mainstream media, posted, “Blinken arrives in China and is met WITHOUT RED CARPET. No band or anything … he’s welcomed like a somebody unimportant.” His post received more than 10,000 likes.

U.S.-China relations have eased since the two sides resumed high-level contacts, but many differences remain.

Before Blinken’s visit, U.S. media reported that the U.S. discussed sanctioning some Chinese banks to counter their support for Russia. Blinken also stated in releasing the State Department’s 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices that the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are victims of genocide and crimes against humanity.

He arrived in China the same day President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that includes Taiwan military aid and pushes TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest its U.S. operations.

“What an awkward moment for Blinken as he lands in China,” Canadian geopolitics expert Abishur Prakash said. “The U.S. is full-steam ahead on taking on China, led by the bills around TikTok, Taiwan and support nations in the Indo-Pacific against Beijing.”

‘Face-to-face diplomacy matters’

On his day of arrival, Blinken posted a video speech against a backdrop of Shanghai’s iconic buildings, such as the neon-lit Oriental Pearl Tower and the Shanghai World Financial Center.

“We just arrived here in Shanghai in the People’s Republic of China to work on issues that matter to the American people,” he said in the video. “One of those is fentanyl, synthetic opioids, the leading killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 49.

“President [Joe] Biden, President Xi [Jinping], when they met in San Francisco at the end of last year, agreed to cooperate to help prevent fentanyl and the ingredients that make it from getting to the United States. We will be working on that.”

Blinken said he would be talking not only to his counterparts in the Chinese government, but also to students, academics, business leaders and “the people who are building bridges and ties between our countries.

“And of course, we will be dealing with areas where we have real differences with China, dealing with them directly, communicating clearly. Face-to-face diplomacy matters,” he said. “It’s important to avoid miscommunications, misperceptions, and to advance the interests of the American people.”

Reaction takes anti-American tone

On Chinese social media, Blinken’s overtures were met with cynicism.

On Weibo, China’s largest social platform, Blinken’s second visit to China had limited coverage, and the discussion was dominated by an anti-American tone.

A Weibo user under the name of Xiao Fan Hao She argued that the United States has not officially listed all fentanyl-like substances on the control list.

“We ask whether the United States believes that it can solve the domestic problems in the United States by shifting the blame externally, shirking responsibility, and smearing China’s image,” she wrote.

A Weibo user under the name of An Hao Xin said, “Coming with him is also the bargaining chip of ‘bank sanctions.’ To be honest, if you want to kick SWIFT out, just do it quickly. Why are you hesitating?”

Another commenter said, “If you dare to overturn the table, then we just aid Russia with weapons and see who suffers.”

Kenneth Roth, a former executive director of Human Rights Watch and visiting professor at Princeton University, linked the visit to U.S. Middle East policy, saying on X that Blinken “would have an easier time telling the Chinese government not to provide military supplies to Russia as it commits war crimes in Ukraine if the U.S. government were not arming Israel as it commits war crimes in Gaza.”

But Roth also said, “It will be shameful if Blinken is so determined to make nice to Beijing that he doesn’t publicly mention its crimes against humanity targeting Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.”

Jonathan Cheng, the China bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, said on X, “Unnamed Chinese official to Blinken: ‘Perception is always the first button that must be put right. Whether China and the United States are rivals or partners is a fundamental issue, on which there must not be any catastrophic mistake.’ ”

Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
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Bangladesh, Myanmar exchange prisoners amidst Rakhine strife

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Washington — Bangladesh and Myanmar exchanged hundreds of their citizens from custody over two days this week, following a deal reached between the two countries. Bangladesh repatriated 288 members of Myanmar’s Border Guard Police and other security agencies on Thursday, after Myanmar on Wednesday released 173 Bangladeshi nationals, mostly fishermen. 

Officials of the Bangladesh border security agency Border Guard Bangladesh said a Myanmar navy ship, the Chin Dwin, left Cox’s Bazar port early Thursday morning with the Myanmar police and immigration officials on board. The same ship brought the freed 173 Bangladeshi fishermen the previous day. 

The Myanmar security personnel fled the fighting last month in the province of Rakhine between Myanmar’s military and rebel Arakan Army and took shelter in Bangladesh. This was the second such incident of Myanmar border police and officials escaping to Bangladesh in as many months. 

The Myanmar province of Rakhine, which borders Bangladesh, has been the site of heavy fighting between the rebels and Yangon’s forces since October. While the Arakan Army is mostly ethnic Rakhine, the Muslim Rohingyas have borne the brunt of the Myanmar military’s actions over the past few decades. Over a million Rohingyas who fled atrocities by the military in 2017 are currently living in makeshift shelters in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. 

In February, 330 Myanmar police and officials were repatriated but nothing was sought in return. This time, officials said the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry took the initiative to take back their nationals who had either served their prison terms or were still in jail. 

 

Despite the apparent success of the negotiations, analysts in Dhaka see this as a lost opportunity rather than a triumph. Long-term Myanmar watcher and defense analyst Mohammad Emdadul Islam called it an “empty gesture” and said the fishermen would have been released at some point anyway. 

“If Myanmar had taken back 20,000 Rohingyas in return for the repatriation of their officials, then I would’ve seen it as a positive outcome,” said Islam, who served as the head of mission at the Bangladesh Consulate in Sittwe, Rakhine, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 

Islam, a retired Army major, negotiated the release of 1,100 Bangladeshi fishermen from Myanmar prisons while serving at the consulate in 2001. He said the fishermen stray into Myanmar waters either because their boats have poor navigation equipment or they take a chance to illegally fish there. 

Myanmar naval forces often intercept them and hand them to the courts, which sentence them to up to 12 years in jail — five for illegal fishing and seven for illegal entry. 

Bangladesh’s decision to promptly repatriate the Myanmar officials has also been the subject of debate among international human rights groups that campaign for the rights of the Rohingya people. 

One such group, Fortify Rights, urged Bangladesh in February to investigate the Myanmar security personnel seeking refuge for potential involvement in atrocities against the Rohingyas. The group’s CEO, Matthew Smith, told Dhaka’s New Age newspaper that while it was important for Bangladesh to provide aid and protection to the fleeing officials, their past actions needed to be questioned. 

“These border guards might have information that could help hold perpetrators accountable for the Rohingya genocide and other crimes unfolding in Myanmar, and they should be properly investigated,” Smith said.

Bangladeshi officials emphasize their desire to keep the border calm and not confront Myanmar. “[The border police] have been given shelter on humanitarian grounds and we are working to ensure their safe return,” Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters in the southern city of Chattogram on Wednesday.

Analysts agree that Bangladesh does not want to get into a direct conflict with Myanmar, but other factors make an investigation of sheltered officials difficult. 

“The atrocities against the Rohingyas in 2017 were committed by special brigades of the Myanmar army,” Islam told VOA. “These brigades are no longer deployed in the area. Besides, the officials and police who are coming across the border are not part of the regular army. They are mostly border police, intelligence, customs and immigration officials.”

Hasan Mahmud told reporters that what was happening in Rakhine was “Myanmar’s internal affairs,” even though it often spilled across the border in the form of stray artillery shells or fleeing officials. He said the Bangladeshi government, working closely with various countries, especially the United States, China and India, is putting pressure on Myanmar to take back the Rohingyas living in Bangladesh. 

Meanwhile, Islam is concerned about the impact recent developments in Rakhine may have among the Rohingyas in Bangladesh. He said the Myanmar military has, in recent months, started recruiting Rohingyas to fight against the Arakan Army.

“How will the Rohingyas living in Bangladesh react when they see their relatives and friends back home joining the Myanmar army, and how will authorities in Bangladesh tackle the reaction? This could be a big challenge,” Islam said.

In March 2022, the U.S. recognized the atrocities committed against the Rohingya population as a genocide. 

This story originated in VOA’s Bangla Service. 
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Nothing off the table in US response to China overcapacity, Yellen says

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washington — The Biden administration is not taking any options off the table to respond to China’s excess industrial capacity, which is a top concern for the U.S. and its allies, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Reuters on Thursday.

China exporting its way to full employment is not acceptable to the rest of the world, Yellen said in a Reuters Next interview in Washington.

Yellen said that during her trip to China earlier this month, she was “successful” in raising U.S. concerns with Chinese officials about Beijing flooding global markets with electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels and other clean energy goods, threatening U.S. jobs. She added that Chinese officials acknowledge a problem with industrial overcapacity, but they need to address it.

She said the issue, which threatens producers of similar goods in the U.S., Europe, Japan and emerging markets such as India and Mexico, was again “discussed intensively” with Chinese officials in Washington on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank spring meetings last week.

Yellen added that the problem will not be resolved “in a day or a week.”

“So it’s important that China recognize the concern and begin to act to address it,” Yellen said. “But we don’t want our industry wiped out in the meantime, so I wouldn’t want to take anything off the table.”

The Biden administration is completing a review of the “Section 301” unfair trade tariffs on Chinese imports imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018, which U.S. officials have said could lead to higher tariffs on some products. President Joe Biden last week called for the review to triple the Section 301 duties on Chinese steel to 25%.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai also told U.S. senators that the U.S. needed to take “early action, decisive action” to protect the fledgling American EV sector from Chinese imports. U.S. tariffs on Chinese vehicle imports are now about 27.5%, and few Chinese EVs are sold in the U.S. at the moment.

“We have no problem with China producing and selling globally and exporting, but the United States and Europe and other countries also want to have some involvement in the ability to produce clean energy products that are going to be of great importance,” Yellen said.

 
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Solomon Islands elections watched closely for international impact

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In the Solomon Islands – officials are counting ballots in key national elections that were held on April 17. It’s the first poll since the strategic Pacific country signed a security pact with China. And who wins may well dictate whether the Solomons continues to draw closer to Beijing or Washington. VOA’s Jessica Stone reports. Charley Piringi and Bakhtiyar Zamanov contributed.
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Blinken kicks off direct engagement with China ahead of tough talks

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State Department — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken underscored the necessity for “direct” and “sustained engagement” between the United States and China during his first official meeting in Shanghai, a city home to more than 1,000 U.S. companies.

Thursday morning, Blinken held talks with Chen Jining, Chinese Communist Party Secretary for Shanghai. Chen is the highest-ranking local official and is a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Blinken said he would lay out “our differences, which are real” but seek to “work through them” as well as to “build cooperation where we can.”

Welcoming the Secretary to Shanghai at the city’s Grand Halls, Chen said through a translator that since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the relationship between the two nations has not always been smooth, there’s always been “twists and turns,” “but overall, it has progressed with historical development and progressed forward.”

Blinken was last in Shanghai in 2015 when he was deputy secretary of state.

“In a constructive and candid exchange, the secretary raised concerns about PRC trade policies and non-market economic practices and stressed that the United States seeks a healthy economic competition with the PRC and a level playing field for U.S. workers and firms operating in China,” said State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller.  He was referring to People’s Republic of China.

During a discussion with American and Chinese students from New York University Shanghai, Blinken underscored the importance of expanding exchanges between students, scholars, and business.

“We need to make sure that we are talking to each other, hearing each other, understanding each other,” he said.

According to the State Department, the NYU Shanghai student body currently consists of nearly 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students, half of whom are from China. Students from the United States and some 70 other countries represent the other half.  There are approximately 500 U.S. students.

Later Thursday, Blinken met with business leaders at the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, advocating for the resolution of a range of trade issues facing the world’s two largest economies.

In a brief video, Blinken said late Wednesday he is in China “to make progress on issues that matter most to the American people, including curbing fentanyl trafficking,” against the backdrop of Shanghai’s skyline. He added that officials from the U.S. and China will also discuss other areas where the two countries have “significant disagreements.”

While Washington and Beijing are divided over a range of thorny issues, Blinken began his visit to China this week focusing first on the importance of direct engagement. It is something, he says, is essential for addressing key issues affecting people from both countries and the world. 

Analysts told VOA Blinken’s visit will surface a range of contentious issues but also maintain “the tactical thaw” that gained momentum following U.S. President Joe Biden’s face-to-face talks with PRC President Xi Jinping last November.

“The relationship continues to grow more competitive militarily, technologically, and diplomatically, but the increase is occurring in a more predictable, controlled manner than it was a year earlier due to both countries’ continued investment in high-level diplomacy,” Ali Wyne, a senior research and advocacy adviser for International Crisis Group, told VOA Mandarin in an email.

Intensive diplomacy between Washington and Beijing has yielded little progress in curtailing China’s supply of precursor chemicals used to manufacture illicit fentanyl that affects the United States.  Strains are escalating due to China’s support for Russia in its war on Ukraine, prompting the U.S. to warn further actions against China.

“I’m very pessimistic about this visit. Xi Jinping is committed to helping his close friend Putin and will not be very responsive to America’s requests,” Dennis Wilder, senior fellow for the Initiative for U.S.-China Dialogue on Global Issues at Georgetown University, told VOA Mandarin.

A day before Blinken departed for Shanghai, he unveiled the State Department’s annual report on human rights practices, which said that the PRC government continues to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.  Blinken told reporters that he would raise the issue of human rights with the Beijing government.

Blinken is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing Friday afternoon.

The State Department said Blinken will hold a press conference in Beijing before returning to Washington.   
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Popular Indian payment system faces restrictions due to China connections

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Paytm, a popular payment app in India, faces government restrictions on business because of its Chinese connections, local media say. India is ramping up scrutiny and restrictions on other Chinese tech companies, too, amid concerns about security and geopolitics. Henry Wilkins has the story from Mumbai.
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Amnesty: Global rule of law on brink of collapse, fueled by AI

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A breakdown in the international rule of law is being accelerated through rapid advancement in technology and artificial intelligence, which risks a “supercharging” of human rights violations. That’s according to the new annual report by rights group Amnesty International. Henry Ridgwell has more.
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Facing repression in China, Muslims seek freedom in NYC

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In a dramatic surge, U.S. border patrol authorities detained more than 24,000 Chinese citizens crossing the southern border in fiscal year 2023, a 12-fold increase from the previous year. Many come seeking asylum, and among those that do, a small group of China’s ethnic Hui Muslims stands out. Aron Ranen brings us the story from the Big Apple.
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Australia and X’s Elon Musk clash over church stabbing video

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sydney — Australia’s attempts to ban a graphic video of a stabbing in a church has turned into a global battle between the Canberra government and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X.

A service at an Assyrian Orthodox Church in Sydney was being live-streamed on April 15 when a bishop was repeatedly attacked at the altar.  

Four people were stabbed, and a teenager arrested.  

A 16-year-old boy was later charged with a terrorism offense.   

Soon after the attack, videos of the stabbing began circulating on social media. 

The Australian eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the country’s independent regulator for online safety, issued notices to Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and X – formerly known as Twitter – to remove the footage.  The tech companies were threatened with heavy fines if they did not comply.

The videos were classified under Australian law as ‘class 1’ material, depicting gratuitous or offensive violence. 

Meta adhered to the eSafety Commissioner’s order, but X has argued the directive is “not within the scope of Australian law.” 

It’s insisted that “global takedown orders … threaten free speech everywhere.”

On Monday the confrontation between Canberra and Musk intensified when an Australian court ordered X to temporarily hide the videos. The Australian government wants the footage to be removed permanently.

Musk posted that “our concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”

In a rare show of unity, politicians from across Australia’s broad political spectrum denounced Musk’s attitude about the video.  

A government minister Tanya Plibersek said he was an “egotistical billionaire” while the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said he was a “narcissistic cowboy.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told local media that Musk was lacking decency.

“We will do what is necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law but also above common decency and the idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out of touch Mr. Musk is,” Albanese said. “Social media needs to have social responsibility with it.  Mr. Musk is not showing any.”

Investigators believe the stabbing attack at a church in Sydney was a religiously motivated act of terrorism. Regulators are worried that social media could further inflame tensions between different faiths.  

There were serious disturbances outside the Assyrian Orthodox Church after the bishop and three other people were stabbed. None suffered life-threatening injuries.

The church stabbings came two days after six people were murdered by a lone knifeman in a separate attack at a shopping center in Sydney.

The argument over global access to video of the church attack will test how far-reaching Australian laws are.  
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North Korea officials visit Iran in rare public trip

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SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean delegation led by the cabinet minister for international trade is visiting Iran, the North’s official media said on Wednesday in a rare public report of an exchange between the two countries believed to have secret military ties.

The minister for external economic relations, Yun Jong Ho, left Pyongyang on Tuesday by air leading a ministry delegation to visit Iran, the North’s KCNA news agency said. It gave no other details.

North Korea and Iran have long been suspected of cooperating on ballistic missile programs, possibly exchanging technical expertise and components for their manufacture.

Iran has provided ballistic missiles to Russia for use in its war with Ukraine, Reuters reported in February.

North Korea is also suspected of supplying Russia with missiles and artillery, although both countries have denied the allegation.

Yun has previously worked on the country’s ties with Syria, according to South Korean government database.

Yun has been active in the country’s increasing exchanges with Russia, earlier this month leading a delegation to visit Moscow, according to KCNA.
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South Korea’s Yoon reaffirms commitment to foreign policy agenda

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washington — The South Korean government says it will push ahead with its foreign policy agenda despite a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections at the hands of a liberal opposition party that promises to push back against President Yoon Suk Yeol’s foreign and security policies.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Tuesday that the Yoon government will press on with its security cooperation with the U.S. and Japan in bilateral settings and in a trilateral framework.

Seoul will “cooperate closely” with the U.S. and Japan to carry out agreements made at a trilateral Camp David summit in August, the spokesperson said in an email to VOA’s Korea Service. Those policies were developed in response to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.

The spokesperson said the Yoon administration will also “continue to strengthen its partnership” with countries in the Indo-Pacific region “to support universal values that include freedom, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights.”

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) lost the general election on April 10, securing only 108 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly.

The opposition Democratic Party (DP) won 175 seats but fell short of securing the 200 or more needed for a supermajority that would have allowed them to advance bills for passage without the PPP. Four independent parties secured the rest of the seats.

Bruce Klingner, senior research fellow for Northeast Asia at the Heritage Foundation, said, “The opposition party is expected to step up its criticism of Yoon’s foreign policies since it favors a more accommodating stance toward Pyongyang and Beijing, resistance to improving relations with Japan and greater independence from U.S. policies.”

Klingner, who served as the CIA’s deputy division chief for Korea from 1996 to 2001, continued, “But such policies have less public support due to the failed U.S. and South Korean summits with North Korea in 2018-19, Pyongyang’s rejection of all requests for dialogue and escalating provocations.”

North Korea said through its state-run KCNA on Tuesday that it had conducted its first nuclear counterattack simulation drills.

The DP mounted criticism against the Yoon administration on Sunday for what it described as China exclusionary policies. It urged the administration to “abandon its biased foreign and security policies,” said a report by The Korea Herald based in Seoul.

The Rebuilding Korea Party, a DP partner that won 12 seats in the National Assembly, slammed Yoon for what it called his “one-sided foreign policies centered on the U.S. and Japan,” according to the report.

On Friday, Yoon called DP leader Lee Jae-myung and proposed to meet with him for the first time since he took office in May 2022, according to South Korean media. Lee lost the presidential election to Yoon nearly two years ago. The presidential office told the press on Saturday the details and time of their meeting are undetermined.

Evans Revere, a former State Department official with extensive experience negotiating with North Korea, said, “The Democratic Party, together with its opposition partners, may try to use its budget-setting and investigatory powers in the National Assembly to slow or otherwise limit the ruling party’s ability to easily pursue its foreign policy and national security agenda.”

He continued, “The DP may also try to use dialogue with the ruling party and the Blue House [former presidential residence] to express a willingness to compromise on domestic economic and social legislation in return for changes to President Yoon’s foreign policy agenda.”

He added, “But President Yoon’s commitment to his foreign policy agenda is highly principled and deeply felt, and it seems unlikely that he would yield to such an opposition party.”

At a conference that Yoon hosted Monday in Seoul for South Korean diplomats assigned overseas, he described the administration’s “global pivotal state diplomacy” as the country’s “signature policy.” He credited the policy for key achievements such as an upgrade in the country’s alliance with the United States and normalization of relations with Japan.

Yoon has pursued his vision for the country to become the “global pivotal state” since taking office in 2022. It calls for South Korea to promote freedom, democracy and the rules-based international order.

Robert Rapson, who served as charge d’affaires and deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Seoul from 2018 to 2021, said it remains to be seen whether the DP and its affiliates can force adjustments on external issues such as Japan, China and North Korea, as well as economic security policy.

“But they plan to give it a try, it seems.”

VOA’s Kim Hyungjin contributed to this report.
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Taiwan President-elect: US military aid package strengthens deterrence against authoritarianism 

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Taiwan attracting Southeast Asian tech students

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Taiwan is looking to Southeast Asia as a pipeline to fill its shortage of high-tech talent. The numbers of foreign students coming to the island has been growing, especially from Vietnam and Indonesia. VOA Mandarin’s Peh Hong Lim reports from Hsinchu, Taiwan. Adrianna Zhang contributed.
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Amid China tensions, India delivers supersonic cruise missiles to Philippines 

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New Delhi — India has begun delivery of supersonic cruise missiles to the Philippines as the two countries tighten defense and strategic ties amid rising tensions between the East Asian nation and China over maritime disputes in the South China Sea.

The BrahMos missiles are being acquired by the Philippines under a $ 375 million deal signed in 2022.

“Now we are also exporting BrahMos missiles. The first batch of this missile is going to the Philippines today,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Friday at an election rally.

India and Philippines have ramped up defense cooperation as concerns over an increasingly assertive China deepen in both countries.

Tensions between the Philippines and China have escalated over the past year as Beijing, citing historical rights, presses its claims to areas inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone. Efforts to resolve New Delhi’s four-year long military standoff with Beijing along its disputed Himalayan border have made little headway.

In New Delhi, analysts say India wants to be part of a larger pushback against China in the South China Sea as concerns rise over Beijing’s territorial ambitions.

“BrahMos missile delivery to the Philippines is in itself not a game changer. But the idea is that we are part of a broader coalition of countries including the U.S. trying to build up the muscle and shore up the security of smaller countries like the Philippines. It is what we call lattice work strategy,” according to Sreeram Chaulia, dean of the Jindal School of International Affairs.

Tensions between Philippines and Beijing have ratcheted up following recent confrontations between the coastguards and other vessels of the two countries.

China, which claims almost the entire South China Sea, deploys coastguard vessels to patrol what it deems are its waters – besides Philippines, Beijing also has maritime disputes with countries including Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia.

The missiles being supplied by India are produced under a joint venture with Russia. They are a shore-based, anti-ship system with a range of 290 kilometers. Under the deal, India will supply three versions of the missile system, according to domestic media reports in New Delhi.

Philippine National Security Council assistant director general, Jonathan Malaya, told reporters in Manila that the missiles will be deployed by the Philippine Marines.

“This adds an important and practical layer of deterrence for the Philippines amidst its limited military resources vis-a-vis China,” Don McLain Gill, a geopolitical analyst and lecturer at the Department of International Studies, De La Salle University, Manila told VOA in emailed comments. He said the missiles will “bolster its coastal defence to more effectively exercise its sovereignty and sovereign rights in the West Philippine Sea at a time when China has been relentlessly pursuing its expansionist ambitions against international law.”

Analysts say building defense cooperation with the Philippines also signals that New Delhi is now moving beyond the Indian Ocean to contribute to maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

During a visit to Manila last month, Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar reiterated “India’s support to the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty.”

Asserting that both countries have a “very deep interest” in ensuring a free, open, and inclusive Indo-Pacific Ocean, his Philippine counterpart, Enrique Manalo, said that “it’s in this region and it is in this context that we are having extensive discussions regularly on defense cooperation, security cooperation.”

An Indian coast guard ship visited the Philippines during the Indian minister’s visit. The two countries are also expected to hold more joint naval drills.

“India is also a close security partner of Manila’s key strategic partners, such as the U.S, Japan, and Australia. This makes it even more practical for the Philippines to strengthen ties with India,” pointed out Don McLain Gill.

India had for many years been hesitant about exporting the BrahMos missiles, believing that advanced defense cooperation with countries like the Philippines with which China has disputes would rile Beijing, but analysts say New Delhi has reversed course. India has also been steadily building military ties with Vietnam, which is also embroiled in maritime disputes with China.

“As our dispute with the Chinese is not settling, there is a clear change of mind on the part of the Indian government and it has decided to assist the security needs of countries like the Philippines in a very concrete way,” said Chaulia. “From our point of view, this helps to send a clear signal to the Chinese that they cannot be arming our adversaries like Pakistan with advanced weapons and defense technology and expect that we will not reciprocate.”

The delivery of the missiles to the Philippines marks India’ s first export of the missile systems. India, which imports most of its own arms, is a marginal exporter of military equipment, but has been trying to build a defense industry.
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