VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Russia will announce a number of initiatives related to food supplies and energy at a gathering of leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations next week, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

"A number of specific initiatives are planned, including increasing gas cooperation with Turkey, (and) organising large shipments of grain and fertilisers," it said in a statement. (Reuters)

China's top leadership body, the Politburo Standing Committee, called for the unwavering support of the country's "dynamic-zero" COVID policy on Thursday, during its first meeting since being unveiled at last month's Communist party congress, state media reported.

The meeting, chaired by President Xi Jinping, stressed the need to minimise COVID's impact on the economy.

"We must take more resolute and decisive measures to curb the spread of the epidemic as soon as possible and restore normal production and living order as soon as possible," the leadership said at the meeting, according to Xinhua.

"We must not relax the necessary epidemic prevention initiatives," the leadership body also said, according to Xinhua.

Elsewhere, the leadership body also called for China to "do a good job" of vaccinating key populations, which experts see as a key first step towards any possible exit strategy for China from its zero COVID-19 policy.

The seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, headed by Xi, will determine the path of the country's development in the next five years. (Reuters)

Recycling radioactive waste from nuclear power has security and cost challenges but the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would be able to monitor the process should more countries take that path, the IAEA head said this week.

Increased efforts to fight climate change and soaring power costs in parts of the world have renewed interest in nuclear power, raising the likelihood of an expansion of the industry after years of low investment because of safety concerns.

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, for example, sees nuclear energy as a critical in tackling emissions in the world's second-biggest greenhouse gas producer, and is exploring recycling as a way to boost domestic supplies of nuclear fuel and reduce waste.

When asked about nuclear reprocessing, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi downplayed the chances it would become a reality in many new places soon.

"I don't see many really looking seriously into reprocessing," Grossi told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

"Reprocessing is a very difficult technology that requires a lot of infrastructure." Grossi added that "of course it has a proliferation angle."

But he said if new countries pursue reprocessing, the IAEA will work to ensure it is safe.

"Nobody will be doing reprocessing without the IAEA being involved," he said, noting that any nuclear waste recycling North Korea is undertaking is an exception.

Reprocessing involves converting plutonium and uranium in spent nuclear fuel into new nuclear fuel. Proliferation experts say the practice could provide targets for militants looking to make a crude nuclear weapon.

Former President Ronald Reagan lifted a moratorium on U.S. nuclear waste reprocessing 1981, but costs have prevented plants from opening.

Security is also a worry. While France, the United Kingdom, and a handful of other nations already practice reprocessing, supply chains in the United States could be longer and more vulnerable, proliferation experts say.

The U.S. Energy Department's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, aims to develop a dozen projects to recycle spent nuclear fuel in the United States as part of the broader U.S. policy to boost the industry.

Last month it granted $38 million for reprocessing to companies including GE Research, the development part of General Electric Company .

A U.S. Department of Energy spokesperson said the department "examines all sides of the nuclear fuel cycle at the R&D stage to help enhance fuel performance, reduce waste generation, and limit proliferation risks, and beyond research always works with the IAEA to move nuclear forward."

The United States stores nuclear waste in pools and in casks of steel and concrete at reactors sites across the country, after a decades-long effort for a long-term waste dump in Nevada failed. (Reuters)

President Joe Biden starts a week-long trip to Egypt and Asia on Thursday to grapple with some of the United States' thorniest foreign policy issues, boosted by a better-than-expected showing by Democrats in the midterm elections.

Biden hops from an international climate summit in Egypt on Nov. 11 to an ASEAN meeting and the East Asia Summit in Cambodia on Nov. 12 and 13 to the annual gathering of the G20, or Group of 20 industrialized nations, in Indonesia from Nov. 14-16.

He'll hold his first face-to-face meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20, where he hopes to explore Xi's "red lines", talk to allies about punishing Russia for its Ukraine invasion and discuss containing North Korea after a barrage of missile tests.

Here's what's on his agenda, according to senior administration officials:

COUNTERING CHINA

Biden told reporters on Wednesday his goal is to get a deeper understanding of Xi's priorities and concerns, in a meeting expected on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. He will also discuss the disputed island of Taiwan with Xi.

Biden said he wants to lay out "what each of our red lines are," understand what Xi believes to be in the national interest of China, discuss U.S. interests and "determine whether or not they conflict with one another."

Beijing and Washington have been working on an in-person meeting between the two leaders since Biden took office in January 2021, U.S. officials have said previously, even as they have talked on the phone and met virtually. There's still no public date or time for this meeting.

"The big question is... are the two leaders going to come in a sort of more conciliatory mode or sort of a more defiant one," said Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

"They've both gotten through their political events of the year," he said, referring to China's Party Congress and the U.S. midterm elections, and could have more reason to try to find common ground than in the past.

Biden will also reaffirm America's commitment to the Indo-Pacific region, a rules-based international order in the South China Sea, and discuss trade and China's relationship with countries in the region.

Tensions have been high between the United States and China over Taiwan, particularly after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the self-governing island earlier this year.

ISOLATING RUSSIA

Biden, facing new challenges in U.S. efforts to squeeze Russia's funding sources eight months into Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, plans to be "unapologetic" in his defense of Ukraine, and address the war's impact on energy and food security at the G20 meeting, the officials said.

On Wednesday, Biden said U.S. aid for Ukraine will continue uninterrupted and any territorial compromise between the two countries is up to Ukraine. Biden also said he hoped Russian President Vladimir Putin will be willing to talk about a potential prisoner swap to secure the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner.

Putin will not attend the G20 summit in person but is due join one of the meetings virtually, an Indonesian government official said.

Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has said he would not take part if Putin does and was expected to join virtually.

NORTH KOREA CONTAINMENT

Biden will also meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol during the ASEAN summit in Cambodia on Nov. 13 to discuss how to stem North Korea's nuclear program, a White House official said.

They will address North Korea's "unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs," the official said.

CLIMATE CHANGE

In remarks on Nov. 11 at the COP27 summit in Egypt, Biden is expected to remind the 196 parties who signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement to keep their eyes on the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, senior administration officials said.

Biden is expected to discuss in a speech and bilateral meetings how Washington is partnering with developing countries to lower emissions by tapping into public and private partnerships, U.S. efforts to decarbonize sectors such as shipping and the pledge to lower methane emissions, the officials said.

HUMAN RIGHTS

During his visit to Egypt for COP27, Biden will have a bilateral meeting with Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and "human rights will feature prominently in those discussions," administration officials said.

The U.S. has "raised repeated concerns" about jailed activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah, whose case has attracted global attention, with his health deteriorating during a 200-plus day hunger strike.

Biden will "continue to urge the Egyptian government to release political prisoners and undertake human rights related legal reforms," said one of the officials. (Reuters)