Lavrov meets Kim, praises ties as 'invincible brotherhood'
Relations between the two countries deepened during the conflict in Ukraine. Thousands of North Korean troops were deployed during the months-long campaign to oust Ukrainian forces from Russia's Kursk region, while Pyongyang has also supplied Russia with munitions. Lavrov also met with his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, TASS reported.
"We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis ... Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support for all the objectives of the special military operation, as well as for the actions of the Russian leadership and armed forces," TASS quoted Lavrov as saying. — Reuters
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Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
China's Xi vows greater support in Lavrov meeting
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russia's top diplomat on Tuesday that their countries should "strengthen mutual support", state media said, as foreign ministers gathered in Beijing for Shanghai Cooperation Organisation talks. Beijing has long sought to present the SCO as a counterweight to Western-led power blocs such as Nato and has pushed for greater collaboration between its 10 members. Top diplomats from the grouping have arrived in Beijing for a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers, including Russia's Sergei Lavrov, India's Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Iran's Abbas Araghchi. Meeting Lavrov in the Chinese capital, Xi said the two countries should "strengthen mutual support on multilateral forums", according to state news agency Xinhua. Beijing and Moscow should work to "unite countries of the global South and promote the development of the international order in a more just and reasonable direction", Xi said. Russia's foreign ministry said in an earlier statement that "a number of issues of bilateral political contacts at the highest and high levels were discussed". They included preparations for President Vladimir Putin's visit to China to join a SCO summit and World War II anniversary celebrations. Russia's TASS news agency reported that Xi met Lavrov after the Chinese president held a "general meeting" with SCO foreign ministers. The meeting and pledges of support came just hours after US President Donald Trump warned Russia that he will impose "very severe" tariffs against Moscow's remaining trade partners if it doesn't resolve its war in Ukraine within 50 days. China, a diplomatic and economic ally of Moscow, in response said "coercion" by the United States would not resolve the conflict. "China firmly opposes all illegal unilateral sanctions and long-arm jurisdiction. There are no winners in a tariff war, and coercion and pressure will not solve problems," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said. Lavrov met on Sunday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss Ukraine and relations with the United States. Beijing claims to be neutral in the war but it has never denounced Russia's more than three-year military campaign, nor called for it to withdraw its troops. Xi noted on Tuesday that "political mutual trust among member states has deepened", according to state broadcaster CCTV. The SCO "has successfully explored a path of regional cooperation that aligns with the trends of the times and meets the needs of all parties, setting a model for a new type of international relations," Xi said. — AFP
Observer
3 hours ago
- Observer
UN demands justice in Ukraine talks, as deaths spike
GENEVA: The United Nations insisted on Tuesday that any peace talks on Russia's war in Ukraine must include full accountability for the conflict's litany of violations, following the deadliest month for civilians since May 2022. The call from UN rights chief Volker Turk came the day after US President Donald Trump told Moscow to end the war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions. Trump also laid out plans for infusions of weaponry for Kyiv via Nato. In recent weeks, Trump has shown increasing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin, with Moscow stepping up attacks rather than stopping them. "An immediate ceasefire is needed now to end this unbearable suffering," Liz Throssell, a spokeswoman for Turk's office, told a media briefing. "Work on a lasting peace, in line with international law, must intensify — a peace that ensures accountability for gross violations of international human rights law and serious violations of international humanitarian law." Rather than being sidelined or overlooked, "any move towards ceasefire, towards peace — accountability must be at its heart", she added. Throssell said Turk wanted any negotiations to focus in the immediate term on ending attacks that affect civilians and protecting the rights of people in occupied territory. They should also seek to return forcibly transferred or deported children, establish humanitarian corridors across the line of control and an bring end to the torture and ill treatment of prisoners of war and other detainees, she said. Russia launched the full-scale attack of its neighbour in February 2022. Moscow has unleashed record waves of drone and missile attacks over the past few weeks, with the number of Ukrainian civilians killed or wounded in June hitting a three-year high, according to UN figures, with 232 people killed and 1,343 injured. "July has brought no respite for civilians in Ukraine," said Throssell. So far this month at least 139 civilians have reportedly been killed and 791 wounded, she said, citing the "intense and successive waves of missile and drone strikes" launched by Russian forces. "Intense and sustained attacks using explosive weapons with wide area effects in populated areas are likely to have indiscriminate impacts and as such raise serious concerns as to their compliance with international humanitarian law," said Throssell. The UN human rights office has so far been able to verify and document at least 13,580 civilians killed and 34,115 wounded since the Russian attack began but acknowledges that the full figures will be far higher. Meanwhile, the Kremlin warned on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump's pledge of more weapons for Kyiv and threat of sanctions targeting Russian trading partners could embolden Ukraine and further delay already stalled peace efforts. Trump a day earlier gave Russia 50 days to strike a peace deal with Ukraine, voicing fresh frustration with Moscow as he laid out an arrangement with Nato to supply Kyiv with new military aid sponsored by the alliance's members. The Republican forced Moscow and Kyiv to open peace talks to end the conflict, now in its fourth year, but Russia has rejected calls for a ceasefire and launched a record number of drones and missiles at Ukraine in recent months. Moscow said it needed more time to respond fully to Trump's statement, but hinted it did not appear conducive to successful negotiations. "It seems that such a decision made in Washington and in Nato countries and directly in Brussels will be perceived by Kyiv not as a signal for peace but for the continuation of the war," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "President Trump's statement is very serious. We certainly need time to analyse what was said in Washington," he told reporters in Moscow's first reaction to the comments. Two rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine, held in Türkiye in recent months, have made no progress towards ending the fighting and yielded only large-scale prisoner exchanges. Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia launched its offensive, with millions forced to flee their homes in eastern and southern Ukraine, which has been decimated by aerial attacks and ground assaults. — AFP
Times of Oman
10 hours ago
- Times of Oman
Will nuclear powers help keep nukes out of Southeast Asia?
Kuala Lumpur: As global powers vie for influence in Southeast Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is renewing its push towards nuclear disarmament. The ASEAN has long urged China, the US, the UK, Russia, and France to sign the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty (SEANWFZ) accords. Adopted by ASEAN in 1995, the SEANWFZ (also known as the Bangkok treaty) aims to keep the region free of "nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction" while allowing for civilian use of nuclear energy. Following the ASEAN Regional Forum in Kuala Lumpur last week, the bloc's current chair Malaysia urged nuclear powers to "recognize the need to completely eliminate nuclear weapons." Beijing has already confirmed it will endorse SEANWFZ, according to Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan. "China made a commitment to ensure that they will sign the treaty without reservation," Hasan told reporters on the sidelines of an ASEAN diplomatic event last week. Will US and Russia also join SEANWFZ? Hasan also indicated that Russia, which owns the world's largest nuclear arsenal, will sign the agreement as well. While Moscow has yet to comment on the issue, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov visited Malaysia in early July for a series of high-profile meetings. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also in Kuala Lumpur last week for several multilateral and bilateral talks. However, it remains unclear if the US intends to sign the SEANWFZ. Both Washington and Moscow are keen to secure their influence in the region, including in the field of nuclear energy, as several ASEAN states are looking for outside partners to develop civilian nuclear programmes. A fading global order Partnerships with Washington, however, may not be as reliable as they once were. President Donald Trump's administration is pursuing a mercurial and shifting foreign policy, leaving Southeast Asia with the general sense that the rules and norms of the international order are crumbling, and the US' credibility and interest in the region are fading fast. Most Southeast Asian countries have reacted by advancing relations with Russia and China over the past few months, recognizing that Lavrov, Russia's top diplomat, may be correct in saying that the international community is fragmenting into a "multipolar world order." This leaves room for China to expand its diplomatic clout at Washington's expense. By endorsing the SEANWFZ, Beijing wants to show that it "cares about ASEAN at the same time as the US is potentially tariffing Southeast Asian states and trying to use them to isolate China, which they don't want to do," Joshua Kurlantzick, senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told DW. "China loses nothing because there's little likelihood anyway it would need to use nukes in Southeast Asia," he added. Also, Beijing can now emphasize the contrast between its own policy and the AUKUS pact involving the US, the UK and Australia. The agreement between the three nations allows for the use of nuclear-powered submarines in the Asia-Pacific. China deploying submarines in South China Sea Zachary Abuza, a professor at the National War College in Washington, told DW that "China will absolutely not abide by the terms of the SEANWFZ." The SEANWFZ treaty commits its signatories not to move nuclear weapons through the region or its waterways. In recent years, however, China has been accused of "bunkering" its submarines in the South China Sea, a contested maritime area that several Southeast Asian states dispute with Beijing. In 2023, the Reuters news agency reported that China had begun to keep at least one nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine at sea at all times, with many patrolling the waters from Hainan to the South China Sea. Last year, the US military asserted that Beijing was preparing to deploy floating nuclear reactors near the artificial islands it has reclaimed in the South China Sea. Beijing wants to portray itself as reliableChina is believed to possess hundreds of operational nuclear warheads, and — according to the Pentagon — continues to expand its nuclear arsenal. "But that Beijing is willing to be the first outside nuclear power to sign the SEANWFZ is diplomatically smart and at least pays lip service to ASEAN centrality," Abuza noted, referring to the concept that ASEAN should be at the heart of broader Asia-Pacific diplomacy. "China is doing everything it can to portray itself as the responsible stakeholder in the region, committed to rules and norms. Beijing wants to paint Washington as the disruptor of the status quo and economic growth in the region," Abuza said. For political scientist and founder of the weekly ASEAN Wonk newsletter Prashanth Parameswaran, proper non-proliferation efforts would require more than just signing the SEANWFZ treaty. The vision of a regional nuclear-free zone has "historically carried normative weight" among some ASEAN states, including Malaysia, he told DW. However, Parameswaran points out that "no one in the region is under the illusion that this alone will necessarily restrain what nuclear powers will do or reverse the worrying state of the nuclear non-proliferation regime more generally."
