Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi is making arrangements to visit China and meet with his counterpart Wang Yi, NHK public television reported on Wednesday.

The meeting, if carried out, would be the first visit to China by a Japanese foreign minister for roughly three years, NHK added.

Tensions over Taiwan, which China claims, spilled over into an Asian ministerial meeting held in Cambodia in August, prompting Wang to walk out of a plenary session just as Hayashi was starting to speak.

But Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida met with China's Xi Jinping last month on the sidelines of a meeting in Thailand for their first face-to-face discussions for roughly three years and agreed to make efforts towards easing tensions. (Reuters)

 The Philippines' defence chief on Wednesday said the reported presence of dozens of Chinese vessels in disputed waters in the South China Sea was an "unacceptable" action that violates the country's sovereignty.

"The president's order to the department is clear - we will not give up a single square inch of Philippine territory," Jose Faustino, the officer-in-charge at the Department of National Defense said in a statement.

He added there was "great concern" over the "reported swarming of Chinese vessels in Iroquois Reef and Sabina Shoal in the West Philippine Sea." Manila refers to the part of the South China Sea that it claims as the West Philippine Sea.

Faustino's remarks follow a report last week in the Philippine Daily Inquirer in which a Philippine military commander confirmed the presence of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the reef and shoal since early this year.

"Our lines remain open to dialogue," Faustino said. "However, we maintain that activities which violate our sovereignty, sovereign rights, and jurisdiction, and undermine the peace and stability of the region, are unacceptable."

The Philippines had won a landmark arbitration case in 2016, which invalidated Beijing's expansive claims in the South China Sea where about $3 trillion worth of ship-borne trade passes annually.

The ruling, which China refused to recognise, states that the Philippines has sovereign rights to exploit energy reserves inside its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone, where both Iroquois Reef and Sabina Shoal are located.

Iroquois is 127 nautical miles from the Philippine island of Palawan in the disputed waters, which U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited last month to reiterate Washington's defence commitments to Manila and its support for the 2016 arbitration ruling.

There was no immediate comment from the Chinese embassy in Manila. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will go to Beijing next month for a state visit. (Reuters)

U.S. Forces Korea launched a new space forces unit on Wednesday as the allies ramp up efforts to better counter North Korea's evolving nuclear and missile threats.

The U.S. Space Forces Korea is the second overseas space component of the U.S. Space Force and is tasked with monitoring, detecting and tracking incoming missiles, as well as bolstering the military's overall space capability. It will be led by Lt. Col. Joshua McCullion.

U.S. Forces Korea commander Gen. Paul LaCamera said the unit would enhance the U.S. ability to ensure peace and security on the Korean peninsula and in Northeast Asia.

"The U.S. military is faster, better connected, more informed, precise and legal because of space," LaCamera told a ceremony at Osan Air Base in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek.

Seoul and Washington are seeking to boost security cooperation to deter North Korea, which this year has tested intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland.

South Korea's air force also set up its own space unit this month to bolster its space power and operation capability together with the U.S. Space Force.

U.S. officials have expressed concerns over rising security activity in space by major rivals, including China's development of hypersonic weapons and Russia's test of anti-satellite technology last year.

Beijing has warned Seoul against joining a U.S.-led global missile shield, and criticised the THAAD U.S. missile defence system installed in South Korea.

Seoul's defence ministry said the creation of the U.S. space component had nothing to do with South Korea's participation in existing missile defence programmes.

Around 28,500 U.S. troops are stationed in South Korea under a mutual defence treaty forged after the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command and Central Command set up their space units last month in Hawaii and Florida. (Reuters)

Polling closed in the Pacific island nation of Fiji's national election on Wednesday evening, where voter turnout of less than 60 per cent was the lowest in a decade, analysts said.

It is the third democratic election held since Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama came to power in a coup in 2006.

This election, his Fiji First party faces a tight race against another former coup leader and one-time prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, whose People's Alliance Party has formed a coalition with Fiji's oldest political party, the National Federation Party.

Bainimarama has a high international profile for climate change advocacy and has been chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, the regional diplomatic bloc, as it sought this year to manage rising security tensions between the United States and China.

Shailendra Singh, a political commentator and associate professor of Pacific journalism at the University of South Pacific in Fiji, said the voter turnout, likely between 50% and 60%, was the lowest since Fiji's constitution was reformed in 2013. The rising cost of living and the economy were major issues for voters, he said.

Bainimarama's Fiji First supporters campaigned on stability and progress, while the opposition said national debt was too high, and questioned the state of democracy, he said.

"Critics of Fiji First feel that this one party has been in power for too long and maybe its time for a change," Singh told Reuters in a telephone interview after polling closed on Wednesday.

The election campaign stopped 48 hours before polling day, as a strict media blackout was enforced until booths closed at 6pm.

Singh co-authored a study on the 2018 election that found media coverage favoured the government, and a punitive media law could be having a chilling effect.

Concerns, expressed by opposition parties and civil society groups, about media self-censorship continued at this election, he said.

"The nature of democracy has been under question for some time - not all democracies are perfect and Fiji is trying, this is part of Fiji's journey of moving to a more democratic system," Singh said.

Fiji's government has rejected criticim by opposition parties about the media law.

A multinational observer group led by Australia, India and Indonesia includes 90 election observers who are also monitoring the national vote counting centre.

Dr Stewart Firth of the Australian National University said this election would be a "tight race".

Tourism has rebounded in 2022 after COVID restrictions lifted, which was a plus for Bainimarama, but there was criticism the judiciary had been undermined by his government, he said. (Reuters)

 

[1/2] Voters queue at a polling station to vote during the Fijian general election in Suva, Fiji, December 14, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas via REUTERS

 

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SYDNEY, Dec 14 (Reuters) - Polling closed in the Pacific island nation of Fiji's national election on Wednesday evening, where voter turnout of less than 60 per cent was the lowest in a decade, analysts said.

It is the third democratic election held since Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama came to power in a coup in 2006.

This election, his Fiji First party faces a tight race against another former coup leader and one-time prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, whose People's Alliance Party has formed a coalition with Fiji's oldest political party, the National Federation Party. read more

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Bainimarama has a high international profile for climate change advocacy and has been chairman of the Pacific Islands Forum, the regional diplomatic bloc, as it sought this year to manage rising security tensions between the United States and China.

Shailendra Singh, a political commentator and associate professor of Pacific journalism at the University of South Pacific in Fiji, said the voter turnout, likely between 50% and 60%, was the lowest since Fiji's constitution was reformed in 2013. The rising cost of living and the economy were major issues for voters, he said.