VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) remains committed to a peace plan agreed with Myanmar's military rulers, its chair Cambodia said on Thursday, even as some countries raised concerns over the failure to implement the plan agreed with the junta 18 months ago.

A special meeting of the group's foreign ministers was held in Jakarta to discuss the stalled peace plan, though no representatives from Myanmar were present.

Myanmar's generals have been barred from high-level ASEAN meetings since last year, when the army ousted Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government, detaining her and thousands of activists and launching a deadly crackdown that has given rise to armed resistance movements.

The junta has done little to honour its commitments to the so-called five-point peace "consensus" which includes an immediate halt to violence, starting dialogue, allowing an envoy of the ASEAN chair to facilitate mediation, and for ASEAN to provide humanitarian assistance.

A spokesperson for Myanmar's military government did not answer a call seeking comment on Thursday. The head of the junta has previously blamed a lack of progress implementing the plan on instability in the country and the pandemic.

Political analysts said the meeting, which comes ahead of the bloc's leaders' summit next month, was "disappointing" and did little to move the needle on getting Myanmar's generals to cooperate.

"Today's meeting reflects that there is no common position among the ASEAN countries, they are split in handling the Myanmar issue," said Lina Alexandra of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.

ASEAN foreign ministers and representatives agreed on Thursday the bloc should be "even more determined" to bring about a peaceful solution in Myanmar as soon as possible, the chair said in a statement, noting that Myanmar's situation remained "critical and fragile".

"The foreign ministers expressed concern and disappointment over no significant progress on the five-point consensus implementation," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told a news conference after the meeting.

Recent weeks have seen some of the bloodiest incidents in Myanmar, including a bombing at Myanmar's largest prison and an air strike in Kachin State on Sunday, which local media said killed at least 50 people.

"The violent acts need to stop immediately. And Indonesia has mentioned that this request needs to be delivered to Tatmadaw (Myanmar's military) immediately," said Retno.

ASEAN has a longstanding policy of non-interference in members' sovereign affairs, but some have called for the bloc to be bolder in taking action against the junta and engaging other stakeholders like the shadow government.

When asked if ASEAN representatives would meet the shadow National Unity Government, Indonesian foreign ministry official Sidharto R. Suryodipuro said: "engagement with all stakeholders includes other parties, NUG being one of them."

The top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, on Wednesday described the situation in Myanmar as "tragic" and said the United States, which has imposed sanctions on the military leadership, would take "additional steps to put pressure on the regime," but did not elaborate. (Reuters)

Global deaths from tuberculosis are estimated to have increased between 2019 and 2021, reversing years of decline as the COVID-19 pandemic severely derailed efforts to tackle the disease, the World Health Organization said on Thursday.

Global efforts to tackle deadly diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria have suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The health crisis has particularly hit the response to TB and led countries to fall behind in meeting targets to curb the infectious disease.

WHO urged the world to apply lessons learnt from the pandemic to tuberculosis, which severely affects countries such as India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Pakistan.

"If the pandemic has taught us anything, it's that with solidarity, determination, innovation and the equitable use of tools, we can overcome severe health threats," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

WHO’s annual TB report estimates that tuberculosis killed 1.6 million people in 2021, above the estimated 1.5 million deaths in 2020, and 1.4 million deaths in 2019. Deaths related to tuberculosis had fallen between 2005 and 2019.

The report also warns that in the near future TB could replace COVID-19 to become the leading cause of death worldwide from a single infectious agent.

A recent report from Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria shows that while the number of people reached with treatment and prevention efforts rebounded last year, the world is still not on track to defeat these killer diseases.

About 10.6 million people were infected with tuberculosis in 2021, an increase of 4.5% from 2020, according to the WHO report.

Under its "End TB Strategy", the WHO set a target of reducing TB deaths by 35% from 2015 to 2020, but the net reduction was 5.9% between 2015 and 2021. (Reuters)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will not attend the COP27 climate summit which begins in Egypt next month, his office said on Thursday, with other senior ministers going instead to allow him to focus on domestic issues and a major fiscal statement.

Sunak became prime minister on Monday, and has delayed an autumn fiscal statement to Nov. 17 as he looks to tackle a cost-of-living crisis and restore international economic credibility damaged in the short tenure of his predecessor Liz Truss.

Truss had been expected to attend, but on Thursday Sunak's Downing Street office said the new prime minister was not planning to go to the summit.

"The Prime Minister is not expected to attend the summit in Egypt due to other pressing domestic commitments, including preparations for the autumn statement," a Downing Street spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that Britain remained "absolutely committed to supporting COP27 and leading international action to tackle climate change and protect nature," having hosted the COP26 summit in Glasgow last year.

Just under a year ago Britain trumpeted the agreement of the Glasgow Climate Pact, finalised in dramatic circumstances after month of arduous negotiations that ran until the final minutes. The deal was meant to ensure the world still has a chance to avert the worst impacts of global warming.

"The UK will be fully represented by other senior ministers, as well as COP President Alok Sharma," the spokesperson said.

"They will be working to ensure that countries continue to make progress on the ground-breaking commitments made at COP26 in Glasgow."

Sunak has told world leaders he has spoken to in his first week in charge that he does intend to go to the leaders summit of G20 in Indonesia, which occurs a few days before the autumn statement.

The autumn statement will detail spending cuts and medium term fiscal forecasts as the finance ministry seeks to plug a medium term budget shortfall of as much as 40 billion pounds ($46.28 billion). (Reuters)

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday as a "strong leader" who always defended Turkey's interests.

Putin said Erdogan was not always an "easy partner" to deal with, but that Turkey was always "reliable" and had a desire to reach agreements.

Erdogan has played a vital role as a go-between for Kyiv and Moscow since the start of the conflict, brokering the Black Sea grain deal and assisting in a number of prisoner exchangers - the only diplomatic breakthroughs to date in the eight-month conflict. (Reuters)