Foreign News
Japan, S Korea, China meet to strengthen ties at ‘turning point in history’
The foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and China have agreed on the need to seek common ground on East Asian security and economic issues amid escalating global uncertainty.
Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya, his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and South Korea’s Cho Tae-yul have agreed to tackle multigenerational concerns to gain broader support for cooperation, Iwaya said in a joint news conference in Tokyo on Saturday.
The first gathering of the countries’ foreign ministers since 2023 comes as United States President Donald Trump upends decades-old alliances, potentially opening the door for China to forge closer ties to countries traditionally aligned with Washington.
“The international situation has become increasingly severe, and it is no exaggeration to say that we are at a turning point in history,” Iwaya said at the start of the meeting.
“In this context, it has become more important than ever to make efforts to overcome division and confrontation through dialogue and cooperation,” he said.
The three-way meeting is an accomplishment for Japan, which has historical and territorial disputes with both China and South Korea. An earlier trilateral meeting was held in South Korea last year.
China’s Wang said that as this year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, “only by sincerely reflecting on history can we better build the future”.
He said China supports strengthening cooperation, allowing the countries “to jointly resist risks” and promoting “mutual understanding” between their populations.
“Our three nations have a combined population of nearly 1.6 billion and an economic output exceeding $24 trillion. With our vast markets and great potential, we can exert significant influence,” Wang said.
China, he added, wants to resume free trade talks with its neighbours and expand membership of the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
Reporting from Tokyo, Al Jazeera’s Fadi Salameh said the meetings aim to “build confidence between these three countries”.
“But still, there are so many differences and issues that divide the three countries,” Salameh said.
“Mr Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, mentioned that the three countries – maybe targeting Japan with this point – should be honest about the historical issues that divided [them],” Salameh explained, referring to Yi’s mention of World War II and Japan’s war of aggression.
Beijing is at odds with Tokyo and Seoul on several other key issues, including its support of North Korea, its intensifying military activity around Taiwan, and its backing of Russia in its war with Ukraine.
US allies Japan and South Korea, which each host thousands of US soldiers, share Washington’s view that China – the world’s second-largest economy – poses a growing threat to regional security.
Cho said he had asked China in the meeting to help persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons.
“I also stressed that illegal military cooperation between Russia and North Korea should stop immediately, and that North Korea should not be rewarded for its wrongdoings in the course of bringing about the end of the war in Ukraine,” he added.
Iwaya is to meet separately with his Chinese and South Korean counterparts, including for the first high-level economic dialogue with Beijing in six years.
That meeting will include a discussion of a ban on Japanese seafood imports imposed by China after the release of wastewater from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant from 2023, Iwaya said this week.
[Aljazeera]
US authorities have found debris from a medical transport aircraft that went missing with six people on board.
The Federal Aviation Administration told the BBC it had lost contact with the Gulfstream G-100 plane just after 01:00 local time (05:00 GMT) on Saturday, while it was travelling from Bermuda to Boston, Massachusetts.
The search for survivors continues off the coast of Nantucket, a Massachusetts island, the US Coast Guard said.
Authorities have notified the next of kin of those on the flight, four Canadian nationals and two Bermudian nationals.
“Search crews located a debris field confirmed to be from the aircraft off the coast of Nantucket,” the US Coast Guard said in an update on Saturday night. It added that ships, helicopters and planes were involved in searches that would through continue the night.
The plane departed from Bermuda’s L.F. Wade International Airport at 23:40 local time, according to flight data from FlightAware, and was due to land at Boston’s Logan International at 01:30 EDT (05:30 GMT).
According to the tail number released by the Coast Guard, the plane belonged to Latitude Air Ambulances, a company that provides international medical flights for patients returning home.
Among those on board were two pilots and two medical staff, both Canadian, Clarence Togeretz, director of flight operations at Latitude, told CBC News.
The crew flew to Bermuda to collect a patient and their relative, who are not Canadian, Togeretz said.
FlightAware’s tracker shows the aircraft significantly dropped in altitude before its communications went dark, plummeting from around 7,300m (24,000ft) to 3,300m (11,000ft).
Radio transmissions shows trouble with communications between the air traffic controller and the pilot, the Boston Globe reported based on transmissions provided by LiveATC.net.
“You’re coming in blind? Is that what you said?,” the air traffic controller asked. “Are you declaring an emergency, or no?”
The pilot’s response was inaudible.
“You’re coming in a little weak so I didn’t hear what your response was, if you were declaring an emergency or not,” the air traffic controller said, according to the Globe.
The air traffic controller later confirmed the pilot had declared an emergency.
An area fire dispatcher asked emergency crews just after 01:00 EDT to prepare to meet a plane with an “electrical issue”.
The dispatcher later said “the aircraft has lost radio and radar”.
The Coast Guard said it would provide an update on Sunday morning local time.
[BBC]
A car has crashed into a crowd of rugby league supporters in the eastern Australian city of Newcastle, injuring 10 people, including three children.
New South Wales police said on Saturday that two of the injured – a five-year-old girl and a 67-year-old man – were in a critical condition and the other eight were in stable condition in hospital.
Police said they had arrested the 18-year-old man driving the vehicle and were investigating what happened. They said the crash was not believed to be related to “terrorism”.
The crowd had gathered to farewell the local rugby league side, the Newcastle Knights, ahead of their grand final against the Sydney Roosters on Sunday.
Newcastle Lord Mayor Gavin Morris said the driver, a rugby league fan, had lost control of his vehicle and had been taken into custody.
“He was revving the car, he was excited, he was a supporter, he was there for the joy of the moment,” Morris told the national broadcaster ABC.
“Somehow he lost control of the car … and he’s gone into the crowd,” he added.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “My thoughts are with everyone injured or involved in the horrible incident this morning in Newcastle.”
“Rugby league brings people together, and this should have been a weekend of excitement and pride for Newcastle fans,” he wrote in a social media post.
[Aljazeera]
Polls have opened in Latvia for an election taking place against the backdrop of perceived security threats from Russia and a nationwide cost-of-living squeeze.
Saturday’s vote is the first electoral test for Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs after coming to power in May this year when his predecessor resigned due to a backlash from stray drone incursions from Ukraine.
Kulbergs, whose right-wing United List party is currently polling at about 20 percent, is expected to hold onto his position, but the decline of two allies in his current coalition means he is set for a complicated negotiation over the makeup of any future government.
Polls opened at 05:00 GMT and will close at 17:00 GMT. The results are not expected to change Latvia’s pro-European and pro-Ukrainian course.
About 1.5 million people are eligible to vote in the country’s 11th parliamentary election since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Latvian politics are highly fragmented, with parties rarely seeing above 20 percent vote share and coalitions being the norm.
This year, 14 electoral lists are contesting the election, but polls indicate only seven are likely to enter parliament, with the rest expected to fail to meet the minimum 5 percent vote threshold.
Rising living costs, low wages, strains on the healthcare system and long-term population decline have all featured prominently in campaign debates.
Most parties in Latvia are pro-Ukraine; however, the populist Sovereign Power party – which says it wants Ukraine to win but argues money spent supporting Kyiv would be better spent at home – looks likely to become the country’s second-biggest party, with more than 9 percent of the vote. Most other parties have ruled out forming a coalition with Sovereign Power.
Latvia First, a pro-Ukraine and populist nationalist party currently polling at about 9 percent, could be a potential coalition partner for PM Kulbergs.
The Progressives, a pro-European social democratic party, are polling at 6 percent.
Ethnic Russians make up roughly one in four Latvian citizens, but their vote, which has traditionally been cast along identity-based lines, looks set to be made according to economic and social issues.
Latvia is the poorest of the Baltic states, and it has sharply increased its defence spending since Russia invaded Ukraine, now allocating nearly 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) to defence.
[Aljazeera]
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