VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The top foreign and defense officials of the United States and the Philippines will meet in Washington next week, the U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday, just as the two countries have expanded their defense cooperation agreement.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will receive Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo and defense chief Carlito Galvez on Tuesday.

The announcement of the meeting of the two longtime allies came after the Philippines on Monday identified four more of its military bases that the United States will get access to under an expansion of the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).

The near doubling of EDCA sites was achieved at a time of growing concern over China's conduct in the South China Sea and tension over self-ruled Taiwan.

The EDCA, signed in 2014 under U.S. President Barack Obama, allows U.S. access to Philippine bases for joint training, pre-positioning of equipment and building of facilities such as runways, fuel storage and military housing.

The sites named on Monday are the Camilo Osias navy base in Sta Ana and Lal-lo airport, both in Cagayan province, and Camp Melchor Dela Cruz in Gamu, Isabela province and the island of Balabac off Palawan.

The locations are significant, with Isabela and Cagayan facing north towards Taiwan, while Palawan is near the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, where China has built artificial islands equipped with runways and missile systems.

The decision of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr to expand the U.S. access was made in February but the announcement of the sites was delayed by opposition from some local government leaders concerned about being caught up in a future conflict between the United States and China. (Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron began a series of meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing on Thursday on a visit with EU chief Ursula von der Leyen that could set a course for the bloc's future relations with China after years of strained ties.

Newly-appointed Premier Li Qiang greeted Macron at the Great Hall of the People, a cavernous building west of Tiananmen Square commonly used for ceremonial events, ahead of a summit with President Xi Jinping due later in the day.

After his arrival late Wednesday, Macron said Europe must resist reducing trade and diplomatic ties with Beijing, which is at odds with the West over issues including Taiwan, sensitive technologies and China's close ties with Russia.

European Commission President von der Leyen, on her first visit to China since taking office in 2019, has said Europe must "de-risk" its relations with Beijing, as China had shifted from an era of reform and opening to one of security and control.

During her tenure, Europe's relations with China have soured, mainly because of tit-for-tat sanctions that stalled an investment pact in 2021 and Beijing's refusal to condemn Russia over its invasion of Ukraine that has claimed thousands of lives since it started last year.

But emerging from years of sparse diplomatic activity as pandemic border controls largely shut the country off from the rest of the world, China is eager to ensure Europe does not follow what it sees as U.S.-led efforts to contain its rise.

For Macron's visit at least, there are high expectations in Beijing.

"Macron's visit is expected to produce concrete results in furthering economic and trade cooperation between China and France, as well as to increase political mutual trust," state media outlet Global Times wrote in an editorial on Thursday.

"It is worth noting that various forces in Europe and the U.S. are paying close attention to Macron's visit and exerting influence in different directions," the Global Times wrote. "In other words, not everyone wants to see Macron's visit to China go smoothly and successfully."

'GOOD COP, BAD COP'

Following Macron's talks with Li, the Chinese premier is due to host a "working lunch" with von der Leyen. Later in the afternoon, Macron and von der Leyen will separately hold talks with Xi before all three hold trilateral talks in the evening.

Both Macron and von der Leyen have said they want to persuade China to use its influence over Russia to bring peace in Ukraine, or at least deter Beijing from directly supporting Moscow in the conflict. Russia calls the invasion of Ukraine a "special military operation".

Some analysts have suggested the duo may adopt a "good cop, bad cop" role with the convivial Macron promoting a "reset" in China-EU ties and von der Leyen pressing home the thornier issues and red lines in those relations.

"China is a crucial trade partner but EU businesses face many discriminatory hurdles," von der Leyen tweeted on Thursday morning after meeting representatives of the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing.

"EU-China relations are extensive and complex. How we manage them will impact EU prosperity and security. I'm in Beijing to discuss this relationship - and its future," von der Leyen said in an earlier tweet on Thursday.

Macron, travelling with a 50-strong business delegation including Airbus (AIR.PA), luxury giant LVMH (LVMH.PA) and nuclear energy producer EDF (EDF.PA), is also expected to announce deals with China.

But not everyone back home thinks that is a good signal to send.

"Three-quarters of the delegation are business leaders: the goal is first and foremost to sign contracts," Raphael Glucksmann, a left-wing member of the European parliament, wrote on Twitter ahead of Macron's visit. "At a time the debate in Europe focuses on our suicidal dependency on China and Chinese interference, the message is inopportune." (Reuters)

Attempts by some countries to interfere with New Zealand's democracy, economy and civil society "are persistent", according to New Zealand Security Intelligence Service's (NZSIS) annual report.

The report said it had identified increasingly aggressive activity from individuals seen as conducting intelligence and associated with a "small number of foreign states" that it did not name.

"These individuals pose an enduring threat to New Zealand's national security," the agency added in the report released this week, which covers the year ended June 2022.

During that period, NZSIS said it had investigated New Zealand-based people cultivating locals for intelligence purposes, collecting intelligence against the government, targeting New Zealanders with access to sensitive information, and interfering in the country's politics, private sector, and civil society.

"For some states, these activities are enduring and persistent," it said, though it added greater awareness of the issue had made it more challenging for countries to conduct interference activity.

New Zealand has in recent years censured China for its involvement in a global hacking spree in 2021 and Russia for its malicious cyber activity against Ukraine in 2022.

The NZSIS report said New Zealand also cannot take regional Pacific security for granted, because it had become an important theatre of geopolitical competition.

New Zealand has long been seen as the moderate, even absent, voice on China in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance with the United States, Britain, Australia and Canada.

But New Zealand's tone on both security and China's growing presence in the South Pacific toughened in the past year after China and the Solomon Islands struck a security pact. (Reuters)

Jakarta (voinews): State-owned logistics company (Bulog) is distributing six thousand tons of the Government Rice Reserves (CBP) from the National Food Agency (NFA) to 194,418 Beneficiary Families (KPMs) in Bali.

"The 194,418 KPMs in Bali will receive 10 kilograms of rice each month for three months. The first batch will be distributed to 11,570 KPMs in Badung District," said Soni Supriyadi, head of Bulog Bali, in Badung on Thursday.

During the distribution, he noted that this program will be implemented simultaneously in Indonesia, with a total of 21 million KPMs.

For Bali, the rice distribution was originally scheduled to begin in March 2023, but there were some changes in the KPM data, so the distribution took place in early April with two batches.

"The objective of this program is to reduce rice prices. Since the number of CBP recipients is quite large, we will distribute it to all regions to control prices in the market," Supriyadi remarked.

With 21 million KPM across the country, he estimated that Bulog would distribute 210 thousand tons of rice per month or a total of 600 thousand tons of CBP in three months.

Furthermore, he ensured that there were no problems related to the rice availability in Bali until the 2023 Eid al-Fitr on April 21-22.

Currently, Bulog Bali still has 1,800 tons of rice in addition to 200 tons of food aid that will arrive from West Nusa Tenggara (NTB) and 300 tons from East Java.

"Bali cannot meet its own rice needs because we have tourists as well, especially domestic tourists, who also consume rice," he explained.

Regarding the rice that will be distributed, Widiana Putra, Head of Food Security of the Bali Province Agriculture and Food Security Service, stated that the program will also target the cities of Tabanan and Denpasar.

The beneficiary data in the area is said to be complete, where the names of the beneficiaries come from the Ministry of Social Affairs' data that will then be submitted to NFA and Bulog Bali, he revealed.

In Bali Province, the highest number of KPM in this program is in Buleleng District, although the figure still does not cover the number of people in the district, Putra stated.

"Most of them are in Buleleng. We are waiting for their readiness to accept this assistance. There are 47,980 KPMs, but still not much to reduce prices, so the number of recipients is limited," he remarked. (Antaranews)