India and Pakistan battle for global sympathy after border truce
Both sides are sending delegations to global capitals to influence international perception of the conflict, as tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals continue to simmer.
New Delhi this week dispatched seven teams of diplomats and lawmakers to capitals of some 30 countries, including in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and South America as part of its publicity campaign. The delegates have been told to detail Islamabad's history of supporting militants, and its alleged involvement in the deadly April 22 attacks in the India-administered part of Kashmir, which triggered the latest conflict.
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Japan Times
12 hours ago
- Japan Times
Ukrainians see 'nothing' good from Trump-Putin meeting
Pavlo Nebroev stayed up until the middle of the night in Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv to wait for a news conference between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin thousands of kilometers away. The U.S. and Russian leaders had met in Alaska to discuss Russia's more than three-year invasion of his country. But they made no breakthrough and seen from Kharkiv — heavily attacked by Russia throughout the war — the red-carpet meeting looked like a clear win for Putin. "I saw the results I expected. I think this is a great diplomatic victory for Putin," Nebroev, a 38-year-old theater manager, said. "He has completely legitimized himself." Trump inviting Putin to the U.S. ended the West's shunning of the Russian leader since the 2022 invasion. Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was not invited, described the trip as Putin's "personal victory." Nebroev was not only outraged Ukraine was left out of the meeting, but also considered it a waste of time. "This was a useless meeting," he said, adding: "Issues concerning Ukraine should be resolved with Ukraine, with the participation of Ukrainians, the president." Trump later briefed European leaders and Zelenskyy, who announced he would meet the U.S. leader in Washington on Monday. The Trump-Putin meeting ended without a deal and Trump took no questions from reporters — highly unusual for the media-savvy U.S. president. Olya Donik, 36, said she was not surprised by the turn of events as she walked through a sunny park in Kharkiv with Nebroev. "It ended with nothing. Alright, let's continue living our lives here in Ukraine," she said. Hours after the talks, Kyiv said Russia attacked with 85 drones and a ballistic missile at night. "Whether there are talks or not, Kharkiv is being shelled almost every day. Kharkiv definitely doesn't feel any change," said Iryna Derkach, a 50-year-old photographer. She had stopped for the daily minute of silence held across the country to honor the victims of the Russian invasion. She was standing just in front of Derzhprom, a modernist structure considered to be one of the first Soviet skyscrapers, which was damaged by a strike last year. "We believe in victory, we know it will come, but God only knows who exactly will bring it about," she said. "We don't lose faith, we donate, we help as much as we can. We do our job and don't pay too much attention to what Trump is doing," she added.
Japan Times
15 hours ago
- Japan Times
On anniversary of WWII's end, China urges Japan to make the 'right choice'
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged Japan to "make the right choice" and learn from history on Friday, the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. "Only by facing history squarely can respect be earned; only by drawing lessons from history can a better future be explored; only by remembering the past can straying onto the wrong path again be avoided. We urge Japan to make the right choice." the official Xinhua News Agency quoted Wang as saying. Wang, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China's Central Committee, made the remarks at a news conference following his meeting with foreign ministers from Mekong River states, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry. International documents such as the Potsdam Declaration clearly defined Japan's responsibility for the war and required it to return territories including Taiwan to China, Wang said. However, some in Japan are attempting to glorify its invasion and distort history, he said, calling such actions a challenge to the postwar international order. Also on Friday, Liu Jinsong, director-general of the Chinese ministry's Department of Asian Affairs, summoned Akira Yokochi, the No. 2 official at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, and protested against visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine by Cabinet ministers of the administration of Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and others on the day, which marked the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender in WWII. Yokochi explained Japan's position to Liu, according to the embassy. The Chinese Embassy in Tokyo also criticized the Yasukuni visits by the Japanese officials. The visits showed a wrong attitude toward the history of invasion, the embassy said, urging Japan to be prudent in speech and action over history issues and break away from militarism. Agriculture minister Shinjiro Koizumi, Finance Minister Katsunobu Kato and other Japanese politicians on Friday visited the Shinto shrine, which honors Class-A war criminals along with the war dead and is therefore regarded as a symbol of Japan's past militarism by neighboring countries such as China and South Korea. Ishiba offered a ritual offering to Yasukuni Shrine while refraining from paying a visit. On Friday, a spokesperson at South Korea's Foreign Ministry in a statement expressed "deep disappointment and regret" at visits and ritual offerings to the shrine by "responsible leaders of Japan," while stopping short of referring to the Japanese leaders by name. The South Korean government "strongly urges the leaders of Japan to squarely face history and demonstrate through action their humble reflection and sincere remorse for" the country's past history, and "stresses that this is an important foundation for the development of future-oriented relations between the two countries based on mutual trust," the statement said. Meanwhile, an official at the South Korean ministry took note of the fact that Ishiba used the word "remorse" over WWII in an address at an annual memorial ceremony held in Tokyo on Friday for those who died in the war. He thus became the first sitting Japanese prime minister to use the term at the war-end anniversary event since 2012. South Korean media scrambled to report this. Yonhap News Agency reported that Japan's prime minister used "remorse" in an address at the war-end anniversary ceremony for the first time in 13 years, but added that this was not direct remorse over Japan's wartime colonial rule.
Japan Times
15 hours ago
- Japan Times
‘Dear neighbor': A red carpet for Putin, no ceasefire for Trump
What Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump shared in the back of the U.S. presidential limousine on the short ride to their longest on-the-record meeting will likely remain a mystery. There was a lot the two presidents left unsaid at the end of an inconclusive Alaska summit — most notably, they made no mention of a ceasefire in Russia's war in Ukraine, Trump's stated goal in going into the talks. Their get-together was capped by one of the shortest news conferences Trump has ever held. The much-anticipated event was surprising for the lack of fireworks and the unusual restraint of a free-wheeling president who'd been upstaged by Putin in Helsinki seven years ago. This time, they took no questions from the packed room of journalists in Anchorage, leaving them to wonder about the details of the tantalizing agreement the pair had mentioned but kept under wraps. The fear going in had been that Ukraine would get sold out. The implication going out was that Trump planned to relay a message that Kyiv and European allies didn't want to hear as he made his way back to Washington on Air Force One. "I'm going to start making a few phone calls and tell them what happened, but we had an extremely productive meeting,' Trump said. "Many points were agreed to. There are just a very few that are left. Some are not that significant, one is probably the most significant, but we have a very good chance of getting there. We didn't get there but we have a very good chance of getting there.' In the moment, Ukraine's worst fears weren't realized — Trump didn't give anything away, at least publicly. But that sentiment could change quickly over the weekend as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy starts piecing together what Trump and Putin hashed out in that nearly three-hour meeting. What exactly were the outstanding points of issue? Russian leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a joint news conference at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. | BLOOMBERG There were plenty of intimations of Russian contentment. Putin seized the initiative by speaking first at the podium alongside Trump, typically the privilege of the host. The Russian leader spoke of an "understanding' that he and Trump had reached that he said may even open the door to ending the war that he'd started. Then Putin issued a warning. "We expect that Kyiv and the European capitals will take all this in a constructive manner and will not put up any obstacles, will not attempt to disrupt the planned progress through provocations or backstage intrigues,' he said. There was little solace for Ukraine in an interview Trump then gave to Fox News' Sean Hannity, in which he explicitly put the ball in Zelenskyy's court to "get it done.' He said he might be at a meeting between the Ukrainian leader and Putin, but didn't entirely commit, and still he offered no details of what had been discussed. "There's one or two pretty significant items but I think they can be reached,' Trump said. "It's really up to President Zelenskyy to get it done. And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit.' John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said Trump may well tell his allies "to keep their mouth shut' once he briefs them on the secret details of the meeting with Putin. That will be hard for them to do, especially if the U.K., France and Germany conclude that Ukraine is about to be told to accept a bad deal. "We're in the early stage of a poker game,' said Benjamin Jensen, a senior fellow for the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. By inviting the Russian president onto American soil and giving him an audience, Trump had already delivered a diplomatic win for the strongman leader who became an international pariah for ordering the 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin, by all accounts, has ceded nothing in return. The shadows of U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are cast during a news conference following their meeting to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. | REUTERS Trump had talked a big game in the lead-up to the summit, saying that he'd know in an instant whether Putin was serious and that he wouldn't hesitate to walk out if he wasn't convinced. In the end he walked down the red carpet — not always in a straight line — and clapped as a jaunty Putin walked over to grab his hand. Perhaps taking stock of the lessons of previous encounters, when the two were left unsupervised without note takers or aides, the White House announced that top aides would join Putin and Trump for their sit-down this time. And yet minutes after the two leaders got off the tarmac, Putin was spotted beaming from inside the "Beast," as the armored limousine is known, seated alone with Trump. The U.S. president appeared solicitous of his guest, urging Putin to walk ahead as they stepped off a podium in front of reporters. The Russian leader had made a point of showing he couldn't hear questions lobbed at him. "President Putin, will you stop killing civilians?' one reporter shouted. Putin put his hand up to his ear but didn't answer. Those private 10 minutes were all the time Putin needed to feel the flight across the Bering Strait had been worth it. He was in Alaska, the U.S. state the Russian czar had sold to the Americans more than 150 years ago, for about as long as the flight over: four hours. His pool reporters were treated to "Chicken Kiev" (pointedly spelled the Russian way) along the way. Putin's veteran foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, played his part by arriving in Anchorage in jeans and a white sweater emblazoned with USSR in black Cyrillic letters. Earlier in the day, Trump had made of point of saying he'd consulted with Belarus's autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko. U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin speak after a joint news conference following a U.S.-Russia summit on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday. | Sputnik / POOL / VIA AFP-JIJI That was an alarming signal for many traditional U.S. allies. Dubbed "the last dictator in Europe' by the Republican administration of President George W. Bush, Lukashenko is Putin's closest ally and under international sanctions, including by the U.S. None of that seemed to bother Trump, who said they'd had a "wonderful' chat. Putin laid the flattery on thick in Anchorage, putting the focus firmly on the relationship with the U.S. as Russia's neighbor separated by a only a few kilometers of water across the Bering Strait. "When we met, we got off the planes, I said 'good afternoon, dear neighbor, it's very nice to see you in good health and alive.' And it sounds very neighborly, in my opinion, kind,' he told the assembled reporters. "We are close neighbors, that is a fact.' He made little reference to the Ukrainian neighbor that Russia invaded. In a day punctuated by memorable images though ultimately wrapped in enigma, there was a telling moment of clarity. Putin, in power for more than a quarter of a century, has studied English but rarely resorts to speaking it in public. Even before he landed in Alaska, it was clear that Putin was already angling for another meeting with Trump, this time on Russian soil. Just as he opened the briefing to reporters, he also found a way to close it. "Next time in Moscow,' Putin suggested in English. "Oh, that's an interesting one,' Trump replied. "I'll get a little heat on that one, but I could see it possibly happening.'
