World

JAKARTA — The United States and China have sent warships to the multinational naval drills that began in Indonesia on Monday, despite the rifts between the two powers.

Washington and Beijing are engaged in fierce competition on diplomatic, military, technological and economic fronts.

The US military has stepped up its Asia-Pacific operations to counter an increasingly assertive China, which has recently staged several rounds of war drills around Taiwan.

But both dispatched warships to the 2023 Multilateral Naval Exercise (MNEK) hosted by Indonesia in its eastern waters off Sulawesi island from Monday to Thursday.

The US Navy has sent a littoral combat ship to the exercise, a US embassy spokesperson in Jakarta told AFP on Sunday.

The drills will allow the United States to "join together with like-minded nations, our allies and our partners to work on solving common challenges" such as humanitarian and disaster response, the spokesperson said.

The Chinese defence ministry said last week that it would send a destroyer and a frigate at the invitation of the Indonesian navy.

Australia and Russia were also expected to send warships, according to an Indonesian military list seen by AFP.

Officials said there would be 17 foreign vessels involved in the drills, which will focus on non-military operations with key allies.

"MNEK is a non-war training which prioritises maritime cooperation in the region," Indonesian navy spokesperson I Made Wira Hady said in a statement.

Washington and Beijing have clashed this year over a number of Asia-Pacific issues including Taiwan, a self-ruled, US-backed island that China considers its territory.

They have also been involved in a diplomatic tussle over Pacific island nations.

Tensions skyrocketed when an alleged Chinese spy balloon traversed the United States before it was shot down.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at a defence summit in Singapore last week that the two nations needed to renew dialogue to avoid "misunderstandings" that could lead to conflict.

Beijing had declined an invitation for its defence chief to meet Austin on the sidelines of that summit.

MOSCOW — Russia said on Monday it had repelled "a large-scale offensive" by Ukrainian forces in the Moscow occupied Donetsk region as Kyiv was silent about plans to claw back lost territory. 

Ukrainian officials meanwhile were expected to hold talks with Pope Francis' peace envoy, Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who headed to Kiev Monday for two days of negotiations.

Ukraine says it has been preparing a major offensive after months of stalemate to recapture territory lost since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops in February last year.

But officials have been tight-lipped about the details, saying there would be no formal announcement about the start of the operation.

On Sunday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov posted a cryptic tweet, citing lyrics from Depeche Mode's song, "Enjoy the Silence."

"Words are very unnecessary," he tweeted. "They can only do harm."

Military experts expect Ukrainian forces to test Russian defences for weaknesses before starting a full-blown offensive.

Early Monday, Russia’s defence ministry said that on Sunday “the enemy launched a large-scale offensive in five sectors of the front” in the south of the Donetsk region.

“A total of six mechanised and two tank battalions of the enemy were involved,” it said in a Telegram post, adding that Ukrainian troops had hit “the most vulnerable, in their opinion, sector of the front”.

“The enemy did not achieve their tasks, they had no success.”

The ministry posted what it said was a video of the battle, showing Ukrainian armoured vehicles coming under heavy fire.

Putin’s top commander in Ukraine, Valery Gerasimov, “was at one of the advanced command posts”, the ministry said.

A high-profile Russian war correspondent, Alexander Kots, said that “battles have been going on” in the area of Ugledar, in the south of the Donetsk region, and also further north in Soledar and Bakhmut, which were occupied by Moscow’s forces after months of fighting.

Kots said Ukrainian forces were “conducting offensive operations” in and around the frontline hotspot of Bakhmut which Russian mercenary group Wagner claimed last month had fallen to Moscow.

He suggested that Kyiv had not yet “introduced the main forces into battle.” 

‘The fight will 

be serious’  

A Moscow-installed official also said that Ukrainian troops were on the offensive in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, home to Europe’s largest nuclear plant, which has been under control of Russia’s forces since the start of Moscow’s offensive.

“It looks like the die has been cast and the next couple of months will clear up a lot. The fight will be serious, because there is a lot at stake,” Rogov added.

Large parts of Donetsk have been held by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014. It is one of four eastern Ukrainian territories that Russia formally annexed in September last year, along with Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin said that Ukrainian authorities would make an announcement “at the right time”.

“We can talk about what we’re seeing and we’re seeing continued operations in and around the Bakhmut area,” he added.

“We’re seeing an uptick in activity south of there.”

Pope’s envoy in Kyiv 

The Vatican said that Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi headed to Kiev Monday as Pope Francis’ peace envoy for talks with Ukrainian authorities on the war. 

Zuppi, the head of the Italian bishops’ conference, “will pay a visit to Kyiv as Envoy of the Holy Father” from June 5 to 6, it said in a statement.

The Russian army claimed to have repelled a “sabotage group of Ukrainian terrorists” seeking to cross the border near the village of Novaya Tavolzhanka, in the southern region of Belgorod.

Belgorod’s governor said Sunday that fighting took place near Novaya Tavolzh

“The enemy was hit by artillery. The enemy scattered and retreated,” it said in a statement.

anka, and acknowledged pro-Ukrainian forces had taken Russians prisoner during cross-border clashes.

It was the first time during the more than 15 months of conflict that a Russian official has admitted the capture of prisoners on Russian territory by pro-Ukraine forces.

Fighting around the village follows last month’s dramatic armed incursion from Ukraine into the Belgorod region which forced Russia to use its artillery and air force on home soil.

The border breach was claimed by anti-Kremlin Russian ultra-nationalists.

Ukraine has consistently not claimed responsibility for attacks on Russian soil, but presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said Sunday the situation in the border areas “should be viewed as the future of Russia”.

GENEVA — The World Health Organisation (WHO) will use the European Union’s digital COVID pass as a basis for a global health certification system, according to a new partnership deal agreed Monday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides signed what they described as a “landmark” agreement in Geneva.

“The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the value of digital health solutions in facilitating access to health services,” Tedros said at the signing ceremony.

He said the EU’s COVID certificate would now be transformed into “a global public good”, as a first step in the creation of a global digital health certification network.

The network will expand to include things like digitised international routine vaccination cards, he said.

It will be aimed to help protect people from health threats, including possible future pandemics, and facilitate global mobility, the WHO and the EU said in a statement.

This “will be an important part of our efforts to strengthen health systems and to support our member states to prepare better for the next epidemic or pandemic”, Tedros said.

“The network could also play a crucial role in cross-border humanitarian situations by ensuring people have access to their health records and credentials as they move across borders due to conflict, the climate crisis and other emergencies.”

‘Privacy is key’ 

The EU COVID certificate, made available on paper or digitally, has been used by travellers moving around inside the bloc to show their COVID vaccination or test status.

The most widely-used COVID certification system in the world is based on open-source technologies and standards, and allowed for the connection of non-EU countries with certificates issued according to the EU specifications.

The certificate “showed our citizens the light at the end of the tunnel and protected at the same time public health amid the uncertainty of the pandemic”, Kyriakides said at the signing ceremony.

“And this EU success story quickly became a global standard,” she said, pointing out that nearly 80 countries had already adopted the EU COVID certificate framework.

Tedros stressed that the new certificate system would be “based on the principles of equity, innovation, transparency and data protection and privacy”. 

WHO will not have access to any underlying personal data, which would continue to be the exclusive domain of governments.

“Privacy is key,” Tedros said. 

“We will only maintain a directory of the public keys that can be used to verify the authenticity of a member state’s digital health records.”

STOCKHOLM — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Stockholm city centre on Sunday to demonstrate against Sweden's NATO bid and new anti-terror legislation, despite Ankara's objections.

"They are after the Kurds in Sweden," Tomas Pettersson, spokesperson for the Alliance Against NATO, told AFP at the protest.

He added that the idea behind the law is "to have an arrest and a trial and a victim" so that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan "will then let Sweden into NATO".

The new law that came into effect on June 1 criminalises "participation in a terrorist organisation" as part of Sweden's effort to beef up anti-terror legislation, a key demand from Turkey to approve Stockholm's stalled NATO membership bid.

Ankara voiced its discontent earlier this week regarding the scheduled protest — titled "No to NATO, No Erdogan Laws in Sweden" — organised by groups close to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is outlawed by Turkey.

On Sunday, the protesters were observed waving numerous PKK flags, along with signs stating "No to NATO."

A spokesman for the Turkish presidency on Tuesday said it was "completely unacceptable that PKK terrorists continue to operate freely in Sweden" and urged Swedish authorities to block them from demonstrating on Sunday.

Even though the PKK is also considered a terrorist organisation in Sweden — as in the rest of the EU — its supporters are generally allowed to protest in public.

Sweden's justice minister reiterated on Friday that the new law is not aimed at attacking freedom of speech.

Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom on Thursday hailed the new legislation as Sweden’s last step under an accord signed with Turkey last year for Ankara to ratify Stockholm’s membership.

“The fact is that the law is very vaguely written, it’s extremely vague,” Vilgot Karlsson from International Socialist Alternative told AFP at the protest.

After meeting Erdogan in Turkey, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday called on Ankara to drop its opposition to Sweden’s bid, saying Stockholm has addressed security concerns.

Erdogan, reelected for five more years on May 28, has so far blocked Sweden’s NATO membership, accusing Stockholm of being a haven for Kurdish activists Turkey considers “terrorists”.

Ankara suspended negotiations with Sweden in outrage after protests in January that included a Koran burning outside Turkey’s embassy in Stockholm.

BRUSSELS — EU lawmakers on Thursday questioned how Hungary could "credibly" assume the bloc's presidency late next year in a resolution highlighting Budapest's "backsliding" on European democratic values.

In a vote, 442 MEPs — more than 60 per cent of the legislature — urged EU countries to find a "proper solution", warning that otherwise the parliament "could take appropriate measures".

The resolution, though, was largely symbolic.

EU officials — and Budapest — stress that European Union treaty law requires the EU presidency to rotate among the 27 member states and there is little scope to change the line-up.

Several EU countries have nonetheless expressed concern about Hungary taking on the EU presidency in the second half of 2023.

German European affairs minister Anna Luehrmann this week expressed "doubts" about how "isolated" Hungary could carry out the presidency.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said his and other member states felt "discomfort" at the prospect of Hungary taking on the role.

The presidency position essentially puts an EU country in as the chair of bloc meetings, able to set their agendas.

Yet Hungary is in hot water with Brussels for alleged breaches of rule of law standards, notably on corruption, discriminating against the LGBTQ community, undermining independent media and governing largely by decree.

It has also raised hackles among EU partners for its ties to the Kremlin and lack of support for Ukraine as Kyiv battles the Russian invasion.

Brussels has frozen billions of euros of EU money until Budapest can show serious efforts to change problematic policies and laws.

It is also working through a long-running process against Hungary that theoretically could lead to the country losing voting rights in EU matters.

Reacting to the MEPs' vote, Hungarian President Katalin Novak said she was "rightly confident" that nothing would prevent her country assuming the EU presidency next year.

A Hungarian MEP, Balazs Hidveghi, said the parliament had "attacked" his country for its "pro-peace position", in reference to Budapest's argument that no more EU money should be used to support Ukraine's military.

"This is a gross violation of the existing EU treaties," he said in comments reported by Hungarian news agency MTI.

Sweden currently holds the six-month EU presidency, which is to be taken up next month by Spain before rotating to Belgium in the first half of 2024.

The presidency rotation has skipped a country once before. Britain, which was meant to have held it in 2017, gave it up because it voted the year before to leave the EU.