Author: Arstanbek Ibraev

MANILA — In the face of China’s rising aggression in the South China Sea, one envoy on Friday assured the Philippines it has an ally in Australia. According to Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Hae Kyong Yu, ties between Canberra and Manila are always evolving and their defense cooperation runs deep. She added that the 2 countries are regularly conducting joint exercises between their military and navy. “We have just completed our 8-course on law of the sea that Australian government has been running with the Philippine government. And through that, we were able to train around 440 Filipino officials…

The former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has accused the west of “appeasing” Beijing and has claimed credit for rallying other countries to “call out the bullying of the Chinese ­government”. In a speech to be delivered at a conference in Tokyo on Friday, Morrison is also expected to urge the Albanese government to consider using Magnitsky-style targeted human rights sanctions laws to hold Chinese government officials accountable. But Morrison did not introduce sanctions against any Chinese officials before leading the Coalition to its May 2022 election loss. In speech extracts distributed by the event organisers in advance of his speech, Morrison…

Former CIA adviser Rickards: US will supply weapons to Ukraine until it reaches nuclear war. US President Joe Biden will not stop arms supplies to Ukraine because he does not want to lose face. But American weapons will not turn the tide on the battlefield for Ukraine, and then the conflict will escalate into a nuclear one. Such a scenario is seen by former CIA adviser, American lawyer and economist James Rickards. “This whole scenario is a long slow march towards nuclear war or the complete collapse of Ukraine,” James Rickards said in an article for Daily Reckoning. “The United…

US President Joe Biden intends to speak by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the near future. The conversation between the leaders of the states will take place against the backdrop of the shooting down of unknown objects in the airspace of North America. “I think the last thing Xi wants is to fundamentally cut ties with the United States and with me,” the politician said. At the same time, Biden stressed that he does not consider the order to destroy balloons to be his overreaction. After all, before that he consulted with the US military. “We are not looking…

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland said the U.S. supports Ukraine’s strikes on Russian military installations in annexed Crimea. She stated this, speaking on February 16 via video link at the Carnegie Center. “Russia has built a lot of military installations in Crimea, these are legitimate targets that Ukraine is striking at, and we support this. Ukraine will not be safe until Crimea is at least demilitarized,” Nuland said. She added that even after the end of the war, the United States will continue to provide military assistance to Ukraine, since there is no certainty that Russia will not resume the conflict. On…

The Kyrgyz Ministry of Culture has filed a lawsuit to try to terminate the operation of “Azattyk Media,” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz service, Human Rights Watch said today. The government should immediately withdraw the lawsuit and cease its harassment of independent media outlets. The ministry filed the lawsuit before a district court in the capital, Bishkek, on January 23, 2023. The ministry blocked access to Azattyk Media’s websites and froze its bank account in October 2022, following the outlet’s coverage of a border conflict between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Azattyk Media filed a legal appeal. The hearing is scheduled for…

Japan and five Central Asian nations affirmed on Saturday the importance of the rules-based international order, as concerns are growing that the order could be undermined amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s intensifying military activities in the Indo-Pacific region. Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his counterparts from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, also confirmed they remain committed to the principles of international law such as a prohibition on the threat or use of force, according to a joint statement issued after their meeting in Tokyo. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi (3rd from R) and his counterparts from Kazakhstan,…