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Disaster prevention, risk reduction critical to sustainable future: UN
The world will experience 1.5 medium to large-scale disasters every day through the end of the decade unless countries ramp up action on prevention and risk reduction, according to the UN.
Disasters are already hampering global efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
"We can – and we must – put our efforts firmly behind prevention and risk reduction, and build a safe, sustainable, resilient and equitable future for all," UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said in Bali, Indonesia Wednesday while addressing the opening of the Seventh Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction – the first international forum on the issue since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read: Over 4.18 lakh people affected by flash floods in 5 districts
"We must secure better coherence and implementation of the humanitarian development nexus. That means improving risk governance. Because despite our efforts, risk creation is outpacing risk reduction," Amina added.
There are no governance frameworks in place to manage risks and mitigate their impact.
The UN's 2022 Global Assessment Report, published last month, outlines ways in which governance systems can evolve to better address systemic risks.
The report makes it clear that in a world of uncertainty, understanding and reducing risk is fundamental to achieving sustainable development.
Amina referred to "new multilateral instruments" in this area, such as the UN's Complex Risk Analytics Fund, which supports "data ecosystems" that can better anticipate, prevent, and respond to complex threats, before they turn into full-blown disasters.
"This includes jointly developing risk analysis and investing in coordination and data infrastructure that enables knowledge-sharing and joint anticipatory action. Such investments will help us navigate complex risks earlier, faster, and in a more targeted and efficient manner," she said.
Read: Tension mounts as BCL, JCD clash at DU
"Also, We urgently need to step up international cooperation for prevention and disaster risk reduction in the most vulnerable countries and the most vulnerable communities, including women and girls, people with disabilities, the poor, marginalised and isolated," Amina added.
Richest countries damaging child health worldwide: Unicef
Over-consumption in the richest countries is creating unhealthy, dangerous, and toxic conditions for children globally, according to a recent report by the UN Children's Fund (Unicef).
"Not only are the majority of rich countries failing to provide healthy environments for children within their borders, but they are also contributing to the destruction of children's environments in other parts of the world," said Gunilla Olsson, director of the Unicef Office of Research – Innocenti.
The latest Innocenti Report Card 17: Places and Spaces, published Tuesday, compares how 39 countries in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union (EU) impact children's environments.
Indicators include exposure to harmful pollutants, such as toxic air, pesticides, damp and lead; access to light, green spaces and safe roads; and countries' contributions to the climate crisis, resource consumption, and e-waste dumping.
Read: WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas
The report states that if the entire world consumed resources at the rate of the OECD and the EU countries, the equivalent of 3.3 earths would be needed to keep up with consumption levels.
If it were at the rate at which people in Canada, Luxembourg and the US do, at least five earths would be needed.
While Spain, Ireland and Portugal feature at the overall top of the list, all the OECD and the EU countries are failing to provide healthy environments for all children across all indicators.
Based on CO2 emissions, e-waste and overall resource consumption per capita, Australia, Belgium, Canada and the US are among other wealthy countries that rank low on creating a healthy environment for children within and beyond their borders.
Meanwhile, Finland, Iceland and Norway are among those that provide healthier environments for their country's children but disproportionately contribute to destroying the global environment.
"In some cases, we are seeing countries providing relatively healthy environments for children at home while being among the top contributors to pollutants that are destroying children's environments abroad," said Gunilla.
In contrast, the least wealthy OECD and EU countries in Latin America and Europe have a much lower impact on the wider world.
Read: Davos climate focus: Can ‘going green’ mean oil and gas?
Over 20 million children in this group have elevated levels of lead – one of the most dangerous environmental toxic substances – in their blood.
Many children are breathing toxic air both in and outside of their homes.
More than one in 12 children in Belgium, the Czech Republic, Israel and Poland are exposed to high pesticide pollution, which has been linked with cancer – including childhood leukaemia – and can harm vital body systems.
"Mounting waste, harmful pollutants and exhausted natural resources are taking a toll on our children’s physical and mental health and threatening our planet’s sustainability," said Gunilla.
WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas
The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January, the World Health Organization said.
In its latest weekly assessment of the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were more than 3.7 million new infections and 9,000 deaths in the last week, drops of 3% and 11% respectively. COVID-19 cases rose in only two regions of the world: the Americas and the Western Pacific. Deaths increased by 30% in the Middle East, but were stable or decreased everywhere else.
WHO said it is tracking all omicron subvariants as “variants of concern.” It noted that countries which had a significant wave of disease caused by the omicron subvariant BA.2 appeared to be less affected by other subvariants like BA.4 and BA.5, which were responsible for the latest surge of disease in South Africa.
Read: Global Covid cases near 530 million
Salim Abdool Karim, an infectious diseases expert at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said it appeared that South Africa had passed its most recent wave of COVID-19 caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants; the country has been on the forefront of the pandemic since first detecting the omicron variant last November.
Karim predicted that another mutated version of omicron might emerge in June, explaining that the large number of mutations in the variant meant there were more opportunities for it to evolve.
Read: Davos climate focus: Can ‘going green’ mean oil and gas?
Meanwhile in Beijing, authorities in the Chinese capital ordered more workers and students to stay home and implemented additional mass testing Monday as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise. Numerous residential compounds in the city have restricted movement in and out, although lockdown conditions remain far less severe than in Shanghai, where millions of citizens have been under varying degrees of lockdown for two months.
China is vowing to stick to a “zero-COVID” policy despite the fact that the WHO describes the policy as “unsustainable,” given the infectious nature of omicron and its subvariants.
Boeing capsule lands back on Earth after space shakedown
Boeing’s crew taxi returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Wednesday, completing a repeat test flight before NASA astronauts climb aboard.
It was a quick trip back: The Starliner capsule parachuted into the New Mexico desert just four hours after leaving the orbiting lab, with airbags attached to cushion the landing. Only a mannequin was buckled in.
Aside from thruster failures and cooling system snags, Starliner appeared to clinch its high-stakes shakedown cruise, 2 1/2 years after its botched first try. Flight controllers in Houston applauded and cheered the bull’s-eye touchdown.
“It’s great to have this incredible test flight behind us,” said Steve Stich, director of NASA’s commercial crew program. He described the demo as “extremely successful,” with all objectives met.
Also read:US astronaut ends record-long spaceflight in Russian capsule
Added Boeing’s Mark Nappi, a vice president: “On a scale of one to 10, I think I’d give it a 15.”
Based on these early results, NASA astronauts will strap in next for a trip to the space station, perhaps by year’s end. The space agency has long wanted two competing U.S. companies ferrying astronauts, for added insurance as it drastically reduced its reliance on Russia for rides to and from the space station.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX is already the established leader, launching astronauts since 2020 and even tourists. Its crew capsules splash down off the Florida coast, Boeing’s Starliner returns to the Army’s expansive and desolate White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
Boeing scrapped its first attempt to reach the space station in 2019, after software errors left the capsule in the wrong orbit and nearly doomed it. The company fixed the flaws and tried again last summer, but corroded valves halted the countdown. Following more repairs, Starliner finally lifted off from Cape Canaveral last Thursday and docked to the space station Friday.
Station astronauts tested Starliner’s communication and computer systems during its five days at the space station. They also unloaded hundreds of pounds (kilograms) of groceries and other supplies that flew up in the Boeing capsule, then filled it with empty air tanks and other discarded gear.
A folded U.S. flag sent up by Boeing stayed behind, to be retrieved by the first Starliner crew.
“We’re a little sad to see her go,” station astronaut Bob Hines radioed as the capsule flew away.
Along for the ride was Starliner’s test dummy — Rosie the Rocketeer, a takeoff on World War II’s Rosie the Riveter.
The repairs and do-over cost Boeing nearly $600 million.
Global Covid cases near 530 million
The overall number of Covid cases is fast approaching 530 million amid a rise in new infections in parts of the world.
According to the latest global data, the total case count mounted to 529,701,594 while the death toll from the virus reached 6,306,199 on Thursday morning.
The US has recorded 85,440,340 cases so far and 1,030,415 people have died from the virus in the country, the data shows.
India's Covid-19 tally rose to 43,142,192 on Wednesday with 2,124 new cases registered in 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's data.
Besides, 17 deaths from the pandemic registered across the country since Monday morning took the total death toll to 524,507.
Situation in Bangladesh
Bangladesh registered 30 new Covid cases in 24 hours till Wednesday morning, taking the country's total caseload to 1,953,328, health authorities said.
With no new Covid deaths reported during the period, the total fatalities from the pandemic remained unchanged at 29,130.
On May 23, the country saw two deaths from Covid-19 with 31 new cases.
On Tuesday, the country saw 34 new cases with zero deaths.
The daily test positivity rate slightly dropped to 0.65 per cent from Tuesday’s 0.69 per cent as 4,660 samples were tested, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
The mortality rate remained unchanged at 1.49 per cent. The recovery rate rose to 97.35 per cent as 215 patients recovered during this period.
Also read:COVID-19: Urgent action sought to close vaccine equity gap
In April, the country reported only five Covid-linked deaths and 1,114 new cases, while 14,100 patients recovered from the disease, according to the DGHS.
Among the five deaths during the period, two were unvaccinated patients while three were vaccinated with two doses of the Covid vaccine.
The country reported its first zero Covid death in a single day on November 20 last year, along with 178 cases, since the pandemic broke out here in March 2020.
Also read:N. Korea's low death count questioned amid COVID-19 outbreak
On January 28, Bangladesh logged its previous highest positivity rate of 33.37 per cent.
The country registered its highest daily caseload of 16,230 on July 28 last year and daily fatalities of 264 on August 10 in the same year.
Sri Lanka’s prime minister tackles thorny finances, economy
Sri Lanka’s new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has been sworn in as finance minister as this Indian Ocean island nation confronts its worst economic crisis in memory.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa named Wickremesinghe minister of Finance, Economic Stability and National Policies in an apparent bid to regain Sri Lanka’s credibility as the government negotiates a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund.
Sri Lankans have been enduring shortages of food and fuel, power outages and other privations. The country lacks the financial wherewithal to buy imported necessities and pay its debts, and the economic crisis has fueled political turmoil, with protesters demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation.
Wickremesinghe’s appointment followed a government announcement that Sri Lanka was hiring firms to restructure its $51 billion external debt. Lazard of France will provide financial advice and Clifford Chance LLP will assist with legal help in restructuring Sri Lanka’s debts to international creditors.
A five-time former prime minister, Wickremesinghe was appointed to the post two weeks ago after his predecessor Mahinda Rajapaksa — who is the president’s elder brother — resigned following violent attacks by his supporters on peaceful anti-government protesters.
Also read: Wickremesinghe to be appointed Sri Lankan PM: Party official
Sri Lankans for months have been forced to stand in long lines to buy scarce essentials, with many returning home empty-handed. There is a severe shortage of many goods, from food, cooking gas, medicine and fuel to toilet paper and matchsticks.
The economy has suffered under the pandemic, which has kept tourists away, and surging costs for most imports.
Nearly bankrupt, the country has suspended repayments of $7 billion in foreign loans due this year. The IMF has said any short or long-term assistance will hinge on talks with creditors on restructuring loans. Sri Lanka must repay about $25 billion in foreign loans by 2026.
The finance ministry said earlier this month that the country’s usable foreign reserves had plummeted to $25 million.
Wickremesinghe, 73, has been in Parliament for 45 years. His political party split in 2020 amid a leadership crisis and its most senior members left to form a new party, which is currently the country’s main opposition.
He said last week that petrol stocks had dwindled to a single day, but shipments of gasoline paid for by an Indian credit line started arriving over the weekend.
Also read: Sri Lanka leader vows to shed powers, appoint prime minister
Protesters have been occupying the entrance to the president’s office for more than 40 days demanding Rajapaksa’s resignation.
Attacks on peaceful protesters by government supporters triggered countrywide riots in which nine people died including a lawmaker and 200 were hurt. Homes and properties of government ministers and their supporters were burned down. The violence has nearly dismantled the Rajapaksa dynasty after Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned as prime minister.
Apart from being tasked with reviving the economy, Wickremesinghe is working on a constitutional amendment to dilute presidential powers and better empower the Parliament.
Onlookers urged police to charge into Texas school
Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended when the 18-year-old shooter was killed by a Border Patrol team.
“Go in there! Go in there!” nearby women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who saw the scene from outside his house, across the street from Robb Elementary School in the close-knit town of Uvalde. Carranza said the officers did not go in.
Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside the building.
Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders.
“Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to,” he said. “More could have been done.”
“They were unprepared,” he added.
Minutes earlier, Carranza had watched as Salvador Ramos crashed his truck into a ditch outside the school, grabbed his AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle and shot at two people outside a nearby funeral home who ran away uninjured.
Officials say he “encountered” a school district security officer outside the school, though there were conflicting reports from authorities on whether the men exchanged gunfire. After running inside, he fired on two arriving Uvalde police officers who were outside the building, said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. The police officers were injured.
After entering the school, Ramos charged into one classroom and began to kill.
He “barricaded himself by locking the door and just started shooting children and teachers that were inside that classroom,” Lt. Christopher Olivarez of the Department of Public Safety told CNN. “It just shows you the complete evil of the shooter.”
All those killed were in the same classroom, he said.
Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw told reporters that 40 minutes to an hour elapsed from when Ramos opened fire on the school security officer to when the tactical team shot him, though a department spokesman said later that they could not give a solid estimate of how long the gunman was in the school or when he was killed.
“The bottom line is law enforcement was there,” McCraw said. “They did engage immediately. They did contain (Ramos) in the classroom.”
Meanwhile, a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation said the Border Patrol agents had trouble breaching the classroom door and had to get a staff member to open the room with a key. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing investigation.
Carranza said the officers should have entered the school sooner.
“There were more of them. There was just one of him,” he said.
Uvalde is a largely Latino town of some 16,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. Robb Elementary, which has nearly 600 students in second, third and fourth grades, is a single-story brick structure in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.
Before attacking the school, Ramos shot and wounded his grandmother at the home they shared, authorities said.
Neighbor Gilbert Gallegos, 82, who lives across the street and has known the family for decades, said he was puttering in his yard when he heard the shots.
Ramos ran out the front door and across the small yard to the truck parked in front of the house. He seemed panicked, Gallegos said, and had trouble getting the truck out of park.
Then he raced away: “He spun out, I mean fast,” spraying gravel in the air.
His grandmother emerged covered in blood: “She says, ‘Berto, this is what he did. He shot me.’” She was hospitalized.
Gallegos, whose wife called 911, said he had heard no arguments before or after the shots, and knew of no history of bullying or abuse of Ramos, who he rarely saw.
Investigators also shed no light on Ramos’ motive for the attack, which also left at least 17 people wounded. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Ramos, a resident of the small town about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio, had no known criminal or mental health history.
“We don’t see a motive or catalyst right now,” said McCraw of the Department of Public Safety.
Ramos legally bought the rifle and a second one like it last week, just after his birthday, authorities said.
About a half-hour before the mass shooting, Ramos sent the first of three online messages warning about his plans, Abbott said.
Ramos wrote that he was going to shoot his grandmother, then that he had shot the woman. In the last note, sent about 15 minutes before he reached Robb Elementary, he said he was going to shoot up an elementary school, according to Abbott. Investigators said Ramos did not specify which school.
Ramos sent the private, one-to-one text messages via Facebook, said company spokesman Andy Stone.
Grief engulfed Uvalde as the details emerged.
The dead included Eliahna Garcia, an outgoing 10-year-old who loved to sing, dance and play basketball; a fellow fourth-grader, Xavier Javier Lopez, who had been eagerly awaiting a summer of swimming; and a teacher, Eva Mireles, whose husband is an officer with the school district’s police department.
Also read: Gunman kills at least 18 children at Texas elementary school
“You can just tell by their angelic smiles that they were loved,” Uvalde Schools Superintendent Hal Harrell said, fighting back tears as he recalled the children and teachers killed.
The tragedy was the latest in a seemingly unending wave of mass shootings across the U.S. in recent years. Just 10 days earlier, 10 Black people were shot to death in a racist attack at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket.
The attack was the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012.
Amid calls for tighter restrictions on firearms, the Republican governor repeatedly talked about mental health struggles among Texas young people and argued that tougher gun laws in Chicago, New York and California are ineffective.
Democrat Beto O’Rourke, who is running against Abbott for governor, interrupted Wednesday’s news conference, calling the tragedy “predictable.” Pointing his finger at Abbott, he said: “This is on you until you choose to do something different. This will continue to happen.” O’Rourke was escorted out as some in the room yelled at him. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin yelled that O’Rourke was a “sick son of a bitch.”
Texas has some of the most gun-friendly laws in the nation and has been the site of some of the deadliest shootings in the U.S. over the past five years.
Also read: 3 teens killed, 1 injured in gas station shooting in U.S. Texas
“I just don’t know how people can sell that type of a gun to a kid 18 years old,” Siria Arizmendi, the aunt of victim Eliahna Garcia, said angrily through tears. “What is he going to use it for but for that purpose?”
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “the Second Amendment is not absolute” as he called for new limitations on guns in the wake of the massacre.
But the prospects for reform of the nation’s gun regulations appeared dim. Repeated attempts over the years to expand background checks and enact other curbs have run into Republican opposition in Congress.
The shooting came days before the National Rifle Association annual convention was set to begin in Houston, with the Texas governor and both of the state’s Republican U.S. senators scheduled to speak.
Dillon Silva, whose nephew was in a classroom, said students were watching the Disney movie “Moana” when they heard several loud pops and a bullet shattered a window. Moments later, their teacher saw the attacker stride past.
“Oh, my God, he has a gun!” the teacher shouted twice, according to Silva. “The teacher didn’t even have time to lock the door,” he said.
The close-knit community, built around a shaded central square, includes many families who have lived there for generations.
Lorena Auguste was substitute teaching at Uvalde High School when she heard about the shooting and began frantically texting her niece, a fourth grader at Robb Elementary. Eventually she found out the girl was OK.
But that night, her niece had a question.
“Why did they do this to us?” the girl asked. “We’re good kids. We didn’t do anything wrong.”
Davos climate focus: Can ‘going green’ mean oil and gas?
As government officials, corporate leaders and other elites at the World Economic Forum grapple with how to confront climate change and its devastating effects, a central question is emerging: to what extent can oil and gas companies be part of a transition to lower-carbon fuels?
In different times the question could have been academic, but today it’s both practical and urgent, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced many countries that depended on Russian oil and gas to make swift changes to energy supplies.
The debate comes as examples of acutely felt impacts of climate change multiply, including recent heat waves in Southeast Asia to flooding in parts of South America. Meanwhile, the world’s top climate scientists have repeatedly warned that increased investment in fossil fuels are hurting chances to keep warming to limit warming to 1.5 C (2.7 F), and thus avoid even more devastating effects.
Read: McDonald’s to sell its Russian business, try to keep workers
On Tuesday U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will join climate-related panels at the summit, while NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will give addresses. Attendees will discuss several other high-priority issues, like the Russia-Ukraine war, the threat of rising hunger worldwide, inequality and persistent health crises. But whether these discussions will yield substantial results remains to be seen.
On Monday, the first day of the forum held in the Swiss ski village of Davos, the head of the International Energy Agency said the urgent energy needs of the moment should not turn into an excuse to make long-term investments in fossil fuel exploration and extraction.
“We are not living in a dream world,” said Fatih Birol, speaking on a panel on energy outlook. “The immediate response should include more oil and gas to the market. But the response should not depend on fossil fuels for long.”
Instead, Birol argued the emphasis needed to be a fast shift to renewable energies, an increase in nuclear where possible, stopping leaks of methane, one of the most powerful greenhouse gases, and lowering personal consumption, like turning down the thermostat a few degrees.
“Some people may use the invasion of Ukraine as an excuse for fossil fuel investments. That will forever close the door to reach our climate targets” to reduce emissions that are heating up the planet, he said.
Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum a major oil company, countered that oil and gas industries had a central role to play in the transition to renewable energy.
Instead of talk about moving away from fossil fuels, Hollub said the focus should be on making fossil fuels cleaner by reducing emissions. She said Occidental had invested heavily in wind and solar energy and planned to build the largest direct air capture facility in the world in the Permian Basin. Direct air capture is a process that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and buries it deep in the ground.
Read: Americans can benefit by investing in SEZs: Tipu Munshi
“The U.S. can provide ample resources to the rest of the world. However, it’s becoming more and more difficult to do that because of the fact that we are getting a lot of headwinds,” she said. “One is the belief that we can end the use of oil and gas sooner rather than later.”
Joe Manchin, a U.S. senator from West Virginia who has opposed a major bill on climate change proposed by President Joe Biden, said fossil fuels were key to ensure energy security, and America had the resources to help ensure such security for the world.
“We can’t do it by abandoning the fossil fuel industry,” said Manchin, a Democrat, adding that no transition could take place until alternatives were fully in place.
Many energy experts argue that viable alternatives are already in place. For example, the cost of wind and solar have come down considerably in recent decades while efficiencies of both have dramatically increased. At the same time, other more nascent technologies have promise but need massive investment to develop.
A partnership between the U.S. government, World Economic Forum and several industries is working to bridge that gap. The First Movers Coalition, launched last year during the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, includes several major companies that have committed to buying low-carbon fuels across their supply chains.
Antonia Gawel, head of the World Economic Forum’s climate strategy, said the idea was to send large market signals to major industries through purchasing contracts. At the same time, for the companies, that include behemoths like Amazon and Apple, it made long-term business sense.
“They see that actually not tackling climate change poses a competitive disadvantage and therefore they are committed to actually driving these types of innovations and solutions,” she said.
Biden to lay out in Japan who's joining new Asia trade pact
President Joe Biden on Monday is set to launch a new Indo-Pacific trade pact designed to signal U.S. dedication to the region and address the need for stability in commerce after the chaos caused by the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
The White House says the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts. The details still need to be negotiated among the member countries, making it difficult for the administration to say how this framework can fulfill the promise of helping U.S. workers and businesses while also meeting global needs.
Countries signing on to the framework were to be announced Monday during Biden's visit to Tokyo for talks with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. It's the latest step by the Biden administration to try to preserve and broaden U.S. influence in a region that until recently looked to be under the growing sway of China.
Also read: Biden starts Asia trip with global issues and tech on agenda
Kishida hosted a formal state welcome for Biden at Akasaka Palace, including a white-clad military honor guard and band in the front plaza. Reviewing the assembled troops, Biden placed his hand over his heart as he passed that American flag, and bowed slightly as he passed the Japanese standard.
Biden is in the midst of a five-day visit to South Korea and Japan — the first trip to Asia of his presidency — that wraps on Tuesday. The White House announced plans to build the economic framework in October as a replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the U.S. dropped out of in 2017 under then-President Donald Trump.
The new pact comes at a moment when the administration believes it has the edge in its competition with Beijing. Bloomberg Economics published a report last week projecting U.S. GDP growth at about 2.8% in 2022 compared to 2% for China, which has been trying to contain the coronavirus through strict lockdowns while also dealing with a property bust. The slowdown has undermined assumptions that China would automatically supplant the U.S. as the world's leading economy.
“The fact that the United States will grow faster than China this year, for the first time since 1976, is a quite striking example of how countries in this region should be looking at the question of trends and trajectories,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Critics say the framework has gaping shortcomings. It doesn't offer incentives to prospective partners by lowering tariffs or provide signatories with greater access to U.S. markets. Those limitations may not make the U.S. framework an attractive alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which still moved forward after the U.S. bailed out. China, the largest trading partner for many in the region, is also seeking to join TPP.
“I think a lot of partners are going to look at that list and say: ‘That’s a good list of issues. I’m happy to be involved,’" said Matthew Goodman, a former director for international economics on the National Security Council during President Barack Obama’s administration. But he said they also may ask, "Are we going to get any tangible benefits out of participating in this framework?”
It is possible for countries to be part of both trade deals.
Biden's first stop Monday was a private meeting with Emperor Naruhito of Japan at Naruhito's residence on the lush grounds of the Imperial Palace before diving into wide-ranging talks with Kishida about trade, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the North Korean nuclear threat, the two countries' COVID-19 responses and more.
The two leaders were also set to meet with families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago. The Japanese premier took office last fall and is looking to strengthen ties with the U.S. and build a personal relationship with Biden. He'll host the president at a restaurant for dinner.
The launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, also known as IPEF, has been billed by the White House as one of the bigger moments of Biden's Asia trip and of his ongoing effort to bolster ties with Pacific allies. Through it all, administration officials have kept a close eye on China's growing economic and military might in the region.
Also read: Biden co-hosting 2nd COVID summit as world's resolve falters
In September the U.S. announced a new partnership with Australia and Britain called AUKUS that is aimed and deepening security, diplomatic and defense cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region. Through that AUKUS partnership, Australia will purchase nuclear-powered submarines, and the U.S. is to increase rotational force deployments to Australia.
The U.S. president has also devoted great attention to the informal alliance known as the Quad, formed during the response to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that killed some 230,000 people. Biden and fellow leaders from the alliance, which also includes Australia, India and Japan, are set to gather in Tokyo for their second in-person meeting in less than a year. The leaders have also held two video calls since Biden took office.
And earlier this month, Biden gathered representatives from nine of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Washington for a summit, the first ever by the organization in the U.S. capital. Biden announced at the summit the U.S. would invest some $150 million in clean energy and infrastructure initiatives in ASEAN nations.
Sullivan confirmed on Sunday that Taiwan — which had sought membership in the IPEF framework— isn’t among the governments that will be included. Participation of the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which China claims as its own, would have irked Beijing.
Sullivan said the U.S. wants to deepen its economic partnership with Taiwan, including on high technology issues and semiconductor supply on a one-to-one basis.
Biden will wrap up his five days in Asia on Tuesday with the Quad meeting and one-on-one talks with India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia's new prime minister, Anthony Albanese.
The center-left leader of the Australian Labor Party this weekend defeated incumbent Scott Morrison and ended nine years of conservative rule.
Modi, leader of the world's biggest democracy, has declined to join the U.S. and other allies in levying sanctions against Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. In a video call last month, Biden asked Modi not to accelerate its purchase of Russian oil.
New Pakistani FM seeks better ties with US
Pakistan’s new foreign minister says the United States and his country must move beyond past tensions over Afghanistan and are entering a new engagement after years of strained relations under former Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 33-year-old son of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, spoke in an interview with The Associated Press in New York, where he was attending meetings this week on the global food crisis at U.N. headquarters. He has also held talks with top diplomats, including a one-hour discussion with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Bhutto Zardari called the meeting with Blinken “very encouraging and very positive and productive.”
“We believe that Pakistan must continue to engage with the United States at all levels,” he said. “This meeting was indeed an important first step.”
Bhutto Zardari co-chairs one of the two largest parties in Pakistan’s disparate governing coalition, which spans the political spectrum from the left to the radically religious. The coalition removed Khan in a no-confidence vote on April 10. Shahbaz Sharif, the leader of the other major party, replaced Khan as prime minister.
U.S.-Pakistani ties deteriorated under Khan, who as prime minister tapped into anti-American sentiment in Pakistan that has spread ever since the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaida, and the U.S. war on terror. The 2011 American raid that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan angered many hard-liners in the country.
Khan accused the Biden administration of colluding with the opposition to oust him, a claim the administration denies.
Afghanistan also raised mistrust between the two countries. Washington felt Islamabad did too little to help ensure peace as the U.S. and NATO withdrew their troops from Afghanistan; Pakistan insists it did all it could to broker peace and blamed the abrupt U.S. pullout. During the final weeks of the American withdrawal, the Taliban overran Kabul in mid-August and seized power.
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Bhutto Zardari said the Pakistan-U.S. relationship in the past had been “too colored by the events in Afghanistan, of the geopolitical considerations, and it’s time for us to move beyond that to engage in a far broader, deeper and more meaningful relationship.”
Under Khan, Pakistan pushed hard for the world to engage with Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, and Bhutto Zardari said his country continues to do so.
“Regardless of what we feel about the regime in Afghanistan,” the world can’t abandon the Afghan people and must immediately address the country’s humanitarian crisis and crumbling economy, he said. A total collapse of the Afghan economy would be a disaster for Afghans, Pakistan and the international community, he said, expressing concern that many Afghans would flee the country.
Pakistan is also insisting the Taliban live up to their international commitments that the country not be used for terrorism, that girls and women be able to pursue education, and that they form an inclusive government, he said.
The Taliban, however, have taken a more hard-line turn in recent weeks, imposing new restrictions on women. At the same time, tensions have grown between the Taliban and Pakistan over militants based in Afghanistan carrying out attacks in Pakistan.
Bhutto Zardari said the more the humanitarian crisis is alleviated and the economy is saved from collapse, “the more likely we are to succeed in our pursuit for women’s rights and the more likely we are to succeed in our efforts against terrorism.”
He said his focus in talks with Blinken was on increasing trade, particularly in agriculture, information technology and energy. He said he is looking forward to working with the U.S. on an initiative to empower women, including women entrepreneurs.
On economic, defense and military coordination, “if we continue to engage, then we can move forward in a more positive direction,” Bhutto Zardari said.
Asked about Khan’s anti-U.S. rhetoric, Bhutto Zardari dismissed the ex-premier’s accusation of American collusion, calling it a “fanciful conspiracy theory based on a big lie” to explain his removal.
“I am particularly anti the politics of hate, division and polarization,” the foreign minister said. “If we consistently pursue the politics of `you’re with us or against us,’ whether that’s on an international level or a domestic level, I don’t believe it serves the interests of the people of Pakistan.”
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He said he believes Pakistanis understand their country needs to engage with the U.S. and all countries, in order to become democratic and progress economically.
President Joe Biden has strengthened ties with Pakistan’s arch-rival India, but Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan is not “jealous” of their relationship. “We believe the world is big enough for both Pakistan and India,” he said.
Biden will meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of Australia and Japan at a summit in Tokyo on May 24 of the so-called Quad, an Indo-Pacific alliance which China sees as an attempt to contain its economic growth and influence.
Pakistan has a very close economic and military relationship with neighboring China, where Bhutto Zardari is heading to on Saturday. He told the AP he didn’t think the growing relationship with the U.S. would hurt its ties to Beijing.
Pakistan has abstained on U.N. General Assembly resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and withdrawal of its troops. Bhutto Zardari said Pakistan used to rely a lot on Ukrainian wheat and fertilizer and has been affected by rising food prices and calls for diplomacy to end the war.
The lives of the Bhutto Zardari family have in many ways reflected their country’s turbulence. Bhutto Zardari took over his mother’s Pakistan People’s Party after she was killed in a suicide bombing in December 2007.
The daughter of Pakistan’s first democratically elected prime minister, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who led Pakistan in the 1970s and was overthrown and executed by the military, Benazir Bhutto was Pakistan’s first woman premier and twice served as head of government.
At the time of her assassination, she was rallying in a third bid for premiership. Bhutto Zardari’s life in politics was also shaped by his father, Asif Ali Zardari, who served as Pakistan’s president from 2008 to 2013.
In the interview with the AP, Bhutto Zardari recalled the legacy of his mother and grandfather. He called them “towering figures on the world stage,” and said he feels “the burden of history.”
“What motivates and drives me is the pursuit of their unfulfilled mission,” he said. “I hope that we live up to the expectations of the people of Pakistan” who have longed for true democracy and struggled for their economic, political and human rights.
“These are the ideals that we hold dear and we work towards every day,” Bhutto Zardari said.