Why are Malaysia and Indonesia building Russia ties? – DW – 07/03/2025
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto skipped a G7 summit last month to visit Russia, where he and his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed that bilateral ties are "getting stronger again."
"My meeting with President Putin today was intense, warm and productive. In all fields of economics, technical cooperation, trade, investment, and agriculture, they all have experienced significant improvements," Prabowo's office said in a statement after the visit.
Officially part of the 75th anniversary of Indonesia–Russia diplomatic ties, Prabowo's three-day visit last month meant he missed a chance to meet US President Donald Trump for the first time at the G7 summit in Canada.
Standing next to Putin, Prabowo said Indonesia would not follow the philosophies of "the biggest and most powerful power in the world" and described Russia and China as without "double standards" and as defenders of "the downtrodden and the oppressed."
Prabowo's trip came a month after Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's latest visit to Russia, his third in two years.
Although Indonesia and Malaysia did initially condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, they have typically taken a neutral position on the ongoing war. Beginning early 2024, their public statements have also become noticeably more pro-Moscow.
During his trip to Vladivostok in September last year, Anwar praised Putin for his "vision and leadership" and for his "determination…to survive," presumably referring to Western sanctions.
He also championed Moscow for its "remarkable soft power" that has earned it "global respect and admiration, influencing the hearts and minds of people around the world."
Prabowo and Anwar "are keen to strengthen their countries' non-alignment by pursuing a more balanced foreign policy, including closer ties with both Russia and China," Ian Storey, senior fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and author of the newly-released book, 'Putin's Russia and Southeast Asia,' told DW.
"A more balanced foreign policy includes strengthening economic engagement with Moscow, even though the opportunities for growing trade and investment ties with Russia are quite limited," he added.
Despite the limitations, Russia's bilateral trade with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries grew to a record high of $22 billion in 2023, according to Russian data cited by the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank. That represents more than 14% year-on-year growth. This growth trend is expected to continue.
Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta are exploring possible ways to expand trade, including in arms imports. Energy is another important area of cooperation, especially for Indonesia, which still heavily relies on coal as a source of power.
Several Southeast Asian states have an interest in exporting electrical goods and machinery to Russia, which has faced crippling Western sanctions since 2022.
They are keen on utilizing Russian expertise to develop their civilian nuclear energy sectors. Last month, Vietnam and Moscow agreed to fast-track agreements that could see Russian firms help build Vietnam's first nuclear power plants.
In February, ASEAN Secretary General Kao Kim Hourn opened an exhibition on ASEAN-Russia Cooperation in Civilian Nuclear Energy and Technologies at the regional bloc's headquarters in Jakarta.
In St. Petersburg last month, Indonesia's sovereign wealth fund, Danatara, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund signed an agreement to create an investment fund worth €2 billion.
While several Southeast Asian countries are looking to join multilateral organizations, such as Thailand's successful bid to join the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), many have looked to the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) grouping as an alternative arena for global politics.
Indonesia is now a formal member of BRICS, while Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam are partner countries.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Although Malaysia and Indonesia's governments began their overtures with Russia before Donald Trump's return to the White House in January, Washington turning away from international institutions since then has convinced many Asian leaders that they can no longer count on US support and that the future of the Western-backed international order might soon be over, analysts say.
"The recent change in US administration and opportunities like BRICS membership have provided both governments with more space to engage Russia," Prashanth Parameswaran, founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter, told DW.
However, it remains unclear to what extent Malaysia and Indonesia are merely engaging with Russia out of geopolitical necessity to diversify their bilateral relations and avoid entanglement in the US-China rivalry, or how much they have a deeper affinity with Moscow's vision for the world.
When asked by reporters why he turned down a G7 invitation to instead visit Russia, Prabowo replied, "Don't read too much into it …We want to be friends with everybody."
However, attending the G7 event in Canada would have given him his first opportunity to meet US President Donald Trump.
However, the speech in St. Petersberg "did not come across as convincing that Indonesia would remain neutral in the ongoing big power rivalry, with veiled criticisms of the US on the one hand, and a lavishing of praise for China and Russia on the other," according to a analysis piece published this week.
Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, said that Russia provides an "interesting model" for Indonesia and Malaysia.
It is a country "that can act independently, poke America and the West in the eye, and try to establish a new international order," he told DW.
Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar's several visits to Russia over the past two years have motivated the party by a desire to gain a more prominent position on the world stage, Bridget Welsh, an honorary research associate at the University of Nottingham's Asia Research Institute Malaysia, told DW.
But it is also because Russia is "popular at home due to anti-westernism, with many Malaysians believing that the US provoked the Ukraine War," she added.
This year's State of Southeast Asia Survey, a poll of "elite" opinion in the region conducted by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, found that anti-Western feeling is riding high in Muslim-majority Indonesia and Malaysia, in large measure due to the West's support for Israel in its Middle Eastern wars.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
5 hours ago
- DW
Russia to crack down on what it deems 'extremist' content – DW – 07/25/2025
In a fresh move to restrict free speech, Russia's parliament has approved legislation punishing those who browse what the state deems as "extremist" online content. How will this affect users? On July 25, Russia's upper house approved a new censorship law that introduces fines for anyone caught searching for or accessing content officially labeled as "extremist." The law will take effect once signed by Russia's president Vladimir Putin. The sweeping legislation doesn't stop there — it also imposes penalties for promoting VPN services, the very tools many Russians rely on to bypass government censorship and access blocked information. After Russia's lower house, the State Duma, endorsed the law on July 22, a small group of people protested outside Russia's parliament, for the first time in a long while. One of the signs read "For a Russia without censorship. Orwell wrote a dystopia, not a manual." Police quickly detained the man holding it. The classic dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, published in 1949, is widely interpreted as a warning against totalitarian rule, inspired by the government oppression the author observed in Nazism and Stalinism. Another protester was Boris Nadezhdin, who had been expected to be the only liberal candidate in the 2024 presidential election. At the time, the electoral commission refused to register his candidacy. "The first stage was banning websites. Now they're banning people from searching the internet. This is already close to thoughtcrime," Nadezhdin told DW, alluding to Orwell's same novel, and its central theme of citizens being punished for thinking differently than the state. The new legislation stands out even among the dozens of censorship laws the State Duma has passed before and after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to the bill, simply searching for so-called "extremist materials" online will now be considered an administrative offense, punishable with a fine of up to the equivalent of €55 ($64). Previously, punishment required some form of engagement with banned material, such as posting a critical comment on social media. What counts as extremist materials is defined by a list maintained by Russia's Justice Ministry. It currently contains over 5,000 entries. Officials and lawmakers claim the law targets those who systematically seek banned content, not average citizens casually browsing, but have not offered clarification over what constitutes systematic searches. The registry features flyers, pamphlets, books, newspapers, films, video clips, works of visual art, and songs. In theory, it is meant to include content that incites interethnic hatred, as well as writings by leaders of Germany's National Socialist Workers' Party and Italy's fascist party. In reality, the list also includes works criticizing the government, or speaking out against authorities. One of them is the 2002 book by Russian defector and former Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko. Titled Lubyanka Criminal Group, this nonfiction work details how Russian security services allegedly staged the bombing of residential buildings in Moscow in 1999 and other terror acts in an effort to help Putin rise to power. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The blacklist also includes materials from the religious movement Jehovah's Witnesses, which Russia designated as extremist in 2017. In 2023, journalists from the independent Russia news outlet 7x7 reported that the list of "extremist" materials has been growing by hundreds of new entries every year. Between 2011 and 2022, nearly 15,500 administrative cases were opened for the distribution of "extremist" content. That's an average of 1,300 cases per year, most of which resulted in fines of up to about €50. The law has sparked widespread public outcry, with even ordinarily pro-Kremlin figures posting critical messages on social media. Margarita Simonyan, for example, editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT, complained that the new law would prevent her from investigating and "shaming" extremist organizations. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, authorities have added dozens of prominent Russians and organizations critical of the war to its list of banned extremists and terrorists. Among them are writers, musicians, journalists, and popular bloggers, including, for example, the writer Boris Akunin, or TV host Alexander Nevzorov. Meta, behind Facebook and Instagram, was declared extremist in March 2022, following an announcement that the company would permit posts endorsing the killing of Russian soldiers on its platforms, which Russia said constituted "Russophobia." State Duma deputy head Sergei Boyarsky, from the conservative ruling United Russia party, sought to reassure citizens, claiming that using Meta's social networks, or searching for materials created by people declared extremists would not be punished. According to him, fines would only apply to searches for content officially classified as extremist. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video In reality, it's hard to predict how Russian police will enforce the new law. "Everything will depend on the particular person in uniform who's been given the power to interpret your guilt," Dmitry Zair-Bek, head of the human rights legal project Pervy Otdel, told DW. According to him, it's likely that, as is already happening, Russians' phones will increasingly be checked during border inspections. Another possible scenario would be if Russia adopted the kind of policing practices used in neighboring Belarus. There, platforms like Instagram, X, and YouTube, which are blocked in Russia, remain accessible. However, subscribing to banned channels on these platforms is prohibited."Censorship in Belarus exists in physical space. Police are asking to check citizens' phones on trains and in student dormitories. Refusing is nearly impossible," Dmitriy Navosha, a co-founder of the international online sports publisher told DW. Access to his website is not restricted in Belarus, but the site was labeled as extremist after Navosha repeatedly spoke out against Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko and the security forces' violent crackdown on protesters in 2020. As a result of the extremism label, visitors to the online sports site risk punishment simply for viewing its content. Since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has severely tightened restrictions on free speech, such as banning the spreading of what it deemed "false information" about the war, and tightening "foreign agent" designations for outlets and organizations considered to be politically active with the help of foreign funding. In the spring, the governmental anti-corruption agency, the Russian Investigative Committee, reported that 605 cases had been opened under two new articles of the Criminal Code since 2022 — one for spreading "fake news" about the Russian army, and another for "discrediting" the armed forces. Under these laws, Russian citizens have been fined or imprisoned for calling Russia's actions in Ukraine a war, rather than a "special military operation," as well as for posting on social media about events such as the killing of civilians by Russian soldiers in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. At the end of 2024, the human rights organization Memorial reported that at least 10,000 political prisoners were being held in detention across Russia. When Russian President Vladimir Putin signs this new law, the number of people being punished for exercising free speech could rise significantly.
DW
6 hours ago
- DW
Middle East: No German plans to recognize Palestine soon – DW – 07/25/2025
After France announced plans to recognize Palestinian statehood, Germany said it still supported a two-state solution but saw other priorities regarding the situation in the Palestinian territories. DW has more. France's decision to formally recognize Palestinian statehood continues to garner worldwide attention. However, Berlin said it has no short term plans to follow in Paris' footsteps The US and Israel are the strongest critics, while the move was hailed in the Middle East and by European countries that have already taken the step. Meanwhile, a Reuters report suggests a USAID analysis found no massive theft of Gaza of Britain, France and Germany have called on Israel to allow unrestricted humanitarian aid into Gaza, warning of a "humanitarian catastrophe." The joint appeal comes after French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to recognize a Palestinian state and followed a call between Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In it, they demanded an immediate ceasefire and warned that "withholding essential humanitarian assistance" is unacceptable — though the statement broke no new diplomatic ground. The three leaders said they are ready to take further action to support both a ceasefire and a political process toward lasting security and peace in the region, but did not specify what steps they might take. Macron's announcement has revealed divisions among the European trio — known as the E3 — over how to address the humanitarian crisis and bring the Israel-Hamas war to an end. While all three countries support a Palestinian state in principle, Germany has said it has no immediate plans to follow France's lead. Macron intends to formalize the recognition at the UN General Assembly in September. Britain also has not joined the move. On Friday, 221 members of the UK Parliament signed a letter urging recognition. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video US President Donald Trump has dismissed the decision by France's Emmanuel Macron to recognize a Palestinian state as pointless. "What he says doesn't matter," Trump told reporters at the White House. "He's a very good guy, I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight." Trump told reporters Trump's response came after the French president's announcement yesterday that his country planned to formally recognize the State of Palestine in September at the UN General Assembly. Israel will once again allow foreign aid to drop over Gaza, sources told media outlets on Friday, as pressure on Israel mounts to end the hunger crisis in the besieged enclave. "Humanitarian aid air drops on the Gaza Strip will resume in the upcoming days. They will be managed by the UAE and Jordan," an unnamed Israeli official told the French AFP news agency. The Israeli army radio also reported the news, with an unnamed military official suggesting air drops could start as early as Friday. DW spoke to several regional experts to find out why France is now moving to recognize Palestinian statehood. France has traditionally played a diplomatic role in the Middle East. But as Donald Trump has increasingly sidelined Europe, France has been pushing for Europe to take a more independent position from the US on the international stage. As well as the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, calls from some members of the Israeli Knesset to annex the West Bank have also increased the pressure. Michael Stephens, a Senior Associate Fellow at the UK-based RUSI think tank, told DW there was concern that if a Palestinian state isn't recognized now, "there may not be a Palestine left to recognize." France, along with Saudi Arabia, had been planning to co-host a UN conference on the two-state solution, hoping to encourage European states to recognize Palestine, and for some Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. The conference is now set to start on Monday after strikes by Israel and the US forced it to be rescheduled. Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told DW that French President Emmanuel Macron's comments are intended to build momentum for more European countries to recognize Palestine before the United Nations General Assembly in September. "What the French are doing is they are giving other countries effectively two months to also come on board," Lovatt said. Quentin de Pimodan, international adviser at Greece-based Research Institute for Europeans and American Studies, said Macron is aiming to present a "common front" for a political solution ahead of the UN assembly. Hamas and Egyptian sources suggested on Friday that negotiations on a ceasefire in Gaza would resume next week, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yet again accused Hamas of being the "obstacle" to a hostage release deal. "Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff got it right. Hamas is the obstacle to a hostage release deal," Netanyahu said in a statement on X, adding that Israel and the US were "now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas's terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region." Both Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump recalled their negotiating teams from Qatar, where talks were being held earlier this week. Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said Hamas' latest response to the negotiations showed a "lack of desire" for a truce. Meanwhile, Hamas official Bassem Naim was cited by the Associated Press news agency as saying on Friday he was told an Israeli delegation would depart for talks early next week. An-unnamed Egyptian source also told the state-affiliated Al Qahera News TV that talks will resume next week. Egypt and Qatar have been mediating a ceasefire throughout the 22-month war. France's highest court on Friday annulled a French arrest warrant, issued before his ouster, against Syria's ex-president Bashar Assad over deadly 2013 chemical attacks. The Court of Cassation ruled there were no exceptions to presidential immunity, even for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. However, presiding judge, Christophe Soulard, added that, as Assad was now no longer president after he was toppled in December, 'new arrest warrants can have been, or can be, issued against him' and as such the investigation into the case could continue. Iran has held "frank and detailed" nuclear talks with Germany, France and Britain on last month's war with Israel, a senior Iranian diplomat said on Friday. In a post on X, Iran's deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said in the talks, Tehran criticized the three countries' stances regarding the Israel-Iran war, which erupted when Israel struck nuclear and military infrastructure in Iran and killed much of its military brass, sparking strikes on Israel from Iran. Friday's talks also discussed the prospect of lifting the sanctions on Iran, as well as the snapback mechanism, which allows the swift reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran under the 2015 nuclear agreement if it violates its nuclear commitments. "It was agreed that consultations on this matter will continue," Gharibabadi said. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog has expressed optimism regarding Iran's decision to allow its inspectors to visit the country. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi said a visit to Iran could take place "within weeks," adding that it could pave the way for UN inspectors' return to the country. "If we do not return soon, there would be a serious problem, because this is an international obligation of Iran," Grossi told reporters during a visit to Singapore. "I am encouraged by what I have been hearing from Tehran in the sense that they want to re-engage with us." Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi had announced Tehran's decision earlier this week. The UN delegation will not have access to nuclear sites in the country, Gharibabadi said, adding the visit's aim would be to reestablish relations between the IAEA and the country. Iran had suspended its cooperation with the UN agency earlier this year, blaming the IAEA in part for Israeli and US attacks on its nuclear facilities in June. The nuclear watchdog had issued a resolution saying Tehran was in violation of its non-proliferation obligations, one day before Israel launched its strikes. After condemnation from the US and Israel, France has defended its decision to recognize Palestinian statehood in September, refuting the argument that it would help the militant group Hamas. "Hamas has always rejected the two-state solution," French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X. "By recognizing Palestine, France is going against that terrorist organization." France was "backing the side of peace against the side of war," Barrot argued. US and Israeli officials argued that France's recognition of Palestinian statehood would benefit Hamas, which has welcomed the French plans. DW spoke with Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow with the Middle East and North Africa Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), about the prospects of other European countries following in France's footsteps to recognize Palestinian statehood. Lovatt suggested that Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg and maybe Portugal could be the next European countries to recognize Palestine as an independent state. Germany, as one of the staunchest supporters of Israel in the EU, is unlikely to change its position, he added. "Well, never say never, but I think the Germans have made it very clear that they will be amongst the last to recognize the State of Palestine," he told DW. "The German position is they will do so as the outcome of a two-state solution. That is a very distant prospect and I don't imagine the French move changing that calculation." So far, over a dozen European states recognize Palestine as an independent state, including, most recently, Spain, Ireland and Norway. Lovatt said the most significant nation would be the UK. He said if France could get the United Kingdom on board, it could unlock support for the recognition of a Palestinian state beyond the continent. For instance, "Australia and Canada, which have increasingly aligned themselves with London and Paris on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." Following France's announcement that it plans to recognize Palestinian statehood later this year, Germany said on Friday it has no such plans in the short term. In a statement, the German government stressed it "remains convinced that only a negotiated two-state solution will bring lasting peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians." But it reiterated that its position that recognizing Palestinian statehood is "one of the final steps" for a two-state solution, stressing that "Israel's security is of paramount importance to the German government." Germany said it was helping create the conditions for Palestinian statehood, including support for the Palestinian Authority. It added that it agreed with France, the UK and its regional partners on the importance of the two-state solution "regardless of the well-known differences of opinion on the question of the right time for recognition." Berlin went on to list what it considers more pressing priorities for the time being, including an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, including German nationals, and the disarming of Hamas. "Israel must immediately and drastically improve the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and provide the suffering civilian population with urgently needed supplies in a humane manner," the statement read. Germany also said that "there must be no further step towards the annexation of the West Bank," after a vote in the Knesset backed the annexation of the Palestinian-occupied territory. The French NGO Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has accused Israel of deliberately starving the Palestinians in Gaza as a weapon of war, warning that its own staff in the enclave were themselves struggling to find sufficient food. In a statement released on Friday, the MSF reported that one out of every four children between the ages of six months and five years old, as well as one out of every four pregnant and breastfeeding women, were malnourished in the devastated enclave. Since May 18, the number of people enrolled for malnutrition treatment has quadrupled, whereas rates of severe malnutrition in children under five have tripled in the last two weeks. "This is not just hunger — it is deliberate starvation, manufactured by the Israeli authorities," the statement read. "The weaponization of food to exert pressure on a civilian population must not be normalized." The organization also lambasted the US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) over the nearly daily deaths of Palestinians shot by Israeli authorities near its distribution centers. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video "What we are seeing is unconscionable; an entire people being deliberately cut off from food and water, all while the Israeli forces commit daily massacres as people scramble for scraps of food at distribution sites," says Amande Bazerolle, MSF head of emergency response in Gaza. "Any shred of humanity in Gaza has been wiped out in the ongoing genocide." The report noted that the scarcity of food "is no longer about what people can afford. There is barely any food available in most of the strip." Meanwhile, Reuters interviewed United Nations and humanitarian agency representatives, who said the enclave was on the brink of running out of the specialized therapeutic food needed to save the lives of severely malnourished children. Salim Oweis, a spokesperson for UNICEF in Amman, Jordan told Reuters that supplies of Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF), a crucial treatment, would be depleted by mid-August if nothing changed. An analysis within the US government found no evidence supporting Israeli and US claims that the Palestinian militant group Hamas was systematically stealing US-funded humanitarian supplies. The US and Israel have backed a new armed private aid operation under the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The operation has seen around 1,000 Palestinians seeking food supplies shot and killed by Israeli forces near the GHF militarized distribution site. The analysis was conducted by a bureau within the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and made public via an exclusive report by the Reuters news agency. It was completed in late June, examining 156 incidents of theft or loss of US-funded supplies reported between October 2023 and May of this year. Reuters cited a US State Department spokesperson as disputing the findings, saying there is video evidence of Hamas looting aid but stopping short of providing such evidence. Israel insists it is committed to allowing in aid but that it must control it to prevent theft by Hamas. The UN World Food Program estimates that a quarter of Gaza's over 2 million Palestinians face famine-like conditions, while thousands suffer from acute malnutrition. World Health Organization officials and doctors in the enclave report that children and others are dying of starvation. Israel blames Hamas for the crisis, which has intensified since Israel intensified its blockade on Gaza in March, followed by making the GHF the sole distributor of aid in the enclave in May, replacing UN-led humanitarian aid distributors. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video France's plans to recognize Palestinian statehood were met with widespread approval in the Middle East. The Saudi Foreign Ministry called it a "historic decision," calling on other countries to follow in France's "positive" steps and "adopt serious positions that support peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people." France and Saudi Arabia cohost a ministerial United Nations meeting on Palestinian statehood next week. Jordan's Foreign Ministry also expressed appreciation for the decision, describing it as "a step in the right direction toward the realisation of the two-state solution and the end of the occupation." Palestinians also welcomed the move. Senior Palestinian Authority official Hussein al-Sheikh said it "reflects France's commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people's rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state." The militant group Hamas, which Israel, the United States, the European Union and others designated as a terrorist organization, said the move would do "justice to our oppressed Palestinian people and support their legitimate right to self-determination." Spain, an EU member which recognized Palestinian statehood last year, also welcomed the move. "Together, we must protect what Netanyahu is trying to destroy. The two-state solution is the only solution," said Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, an outspoken critic of Israel's offensive in Gaza. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The US and Israel are so far the strongest opponents of France's decision to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September. French President Emmanuel Macron announced the plans on Thursday. According to a tally by the French AFP news agency, it would bring the number of countries that now recognize or plan to recognize Palestinian statehood to at least 142. France would be the first G7 power to do so. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it a "reckless decision." "This reckless decision only serves Hamas propaganda and sets back peace. It is a slap in the face to the victims of October 7," Rubio wrote on X. Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, left 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. Around 250 more were abducted and taken hostage in Gaza. Israel's subsequent war has so far killed over 59,000, according to the health authorities in the Hamas-run enclave. The UN considers the figures reliable. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the move "rewards terror and risks creating another Iranian proxy, just as Gaza became." "A Palestinian state in these conditions would be a launch pad to annihilate Israel - not to live in peace beside it," he said.
DW
8 hours ago
- DW
Thailand declares martial law in 8 Cambodia border regions – DW – 07/25/2025
Thailand has declared martial law in eight districts near its border with Cambodia as deadly fighting enters its second day, with no signs of it easing up. DW has the fighting near the Thailand-Cambodia border is entering its second day, with deadly clashes breaking out. The UN Security Council is to hold a behind closed doors emergency meeting on the crisis, due to commence at 1500 ET (1900 GMT). On Thursday, Thailand's military said it carried out airstrikes on the Cambodian side of the border after it said the Cambodian army launched artillery shells over the Thai border. But will it escalate into a full-on war? DW's David Hutt explains the background to the border dispute, and whether the crisis will get worse. This blog will bring you the latest on the situation, as well as news, videos and DW analysis on the crisis.
