VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Myanmar's military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, held talks in Cambodia on Tuesday, a day after the junta drew global condemnation for sentencing deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to jail for incitement and breaching COVID-19 rules.

Wunna Maung Lwin met Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen at the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, with the men tapping elbows in a greeting before talks, government handout pictures showed.

Cambodia will chair the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year, a bloc that has seen divisions over member Myanmar since Suu Kyi's government was overthrown in a Feb. 1 coup.

With some ASEAN members angered by the Myanmar military's unwillingness to deliver on its commitment to end hostilities and start dialogue, its leader Min Aung Hlaing, was not invited to a virtual summit of ASEAN leaders in October, in an unprecedented snub.

But Hun Sen, who has over the years faced criticism from rights groups and Western governments over what they see as his suppression of democracy, said on Monday junta officials should be invited to the bloc's meetings.

Hun Sen and Wunna Maung Lwin discussed bilateral relations, ASEAN issues and ways to re-establish good relationships within the bloc, said Eang Sophalleth, an assistant to the prime minister.

The foreign minister also handed Hun Sen an invitation for a visit to Myanmar on Jan. 7-8, which Hun Sen accepted, Eang Sophalleth said. Hun Sen would be the first government leader to visit Myanmar since the coup.

Cambodia's Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn also met Wunna Maung Lwin and said Cambodia and other ASEAN member states would help Myanmar achieve "a win-win solution".

He did not elaborate on what that might entail and no mention of the Suu Kyi verdict was made in official statements on the Myanmar minister's visit.

The international spotlight focused on Myanmar again on Monday when a court found Suu Kyi guilty of charges of incitement and breaching coronavirus restrictions, drawing condemnation of what critics said was a "sham" trial.

She will serve two years in detention at an undisclosed location, after her sentence was halved in a partial pardon from Myanmar's military chief.

Suu Kyi's supporters say the cases against her are groundless. Her conviction had been widely expected in Myanmar.(Reuters)

Britain's handling of the evacuation of vulnerable Afghans from Kabul after the Taliban seized power in August was dysfunctional and chaotic, a Foreign Office whistleblower said in evidence disputed by former foreign secretary Dominic Raab.

The government has repeatedly defended its airlift from Kabul against criticism that Britain potentially left thousands of eligible Afghans behind in the country after being caught out by how quickly the Afghan government fell.

In written evidence to parliament's Foreign Affairs committee, Raphael Marshall, a former Foreign Office desk officer, said the process for prioritising who to evacuate as "arbitrary and dysfunctional".

He said there was limited staffing capacity, with one afternoon where he was the only person processing emails, and despite the urgency of the situation, the expectation remained that staff would only work eight hours a day, five days a week.

He estimated between 75,000 and 150,000 people applied to be evacuated but fewer than 5% received assistance.

"It is clear that some of those left behind have since been murdered by the Taliban," he wrote.

Staff shortages were exacerbated by people working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and initially soldiers brought in to help had to share one computer between eight, he said.

"Emails received an automatic response that the request for assistance had been 'logged'. This was usually false. In thousands of cases emails were not even read," he said.

Raab, who was moved to justice secretary from foreign secretary following criticism that he went on holiday in Crete as the Taliban advanced on Kabul, told Sky News: ""We did everything we could ... 15,000 people evacuated in two weeks."

Raab denied an accusation from Marshall that he had been slow to respond to approval requests.

"We wanted to make sure we had the basic facts in order to make clear decisions," said Raab, who is also deputy prime minister.

Marshall also said capacity which could have be used to process people was used to evacuate animals from a shelter. Raab disputed this, saying the welfare of animals had not been put above individuals.(Reuters)

Japan will provide aid worth more than $2.8 billion in next three years aimed at combatting malnutrition exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida told an online summit on nutrition for growth on Tuesday.

The event, hosted by Japan and participated in by more than 80 countries and agencies, comes when hunger and malnutrition levels worldwide have worsened due to the pandemic, and food systems are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change.

"Because of the coronavirus, the number of children suffering severe malnutrition has grown by 13.6 million ... Now is the time for us to take action," Kishida said.

Japan plans to give 10 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to countries in Africa, where vaccination rates remain low, Kishida said.　

"Japan will tackle the nutrition issue with full force to contribute to the future of humanity. What's important, for starters, is overcoming the coronavirus," he said.(Reuters)

Recent shifts in the relative price of different crude grades have dealt oil exporters from the vast Atlantic Ocean basin the best chance in months to sell to top consuming region Asia, but sales have been sluggish as COVID-19 fears cool demand.

The Omicron coronavirus variant has curbed oil consumption in Asia just as U.S. and West African sellers pinned their hopes on the changing market structure paving an easier path eastward than competing oil from the Middle East.

Global benchmarks Brent and West Texas Intermediate crude , were pummelled last week as tight supplies eased with U.S. strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) sales and a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies to boost output. 

Brent crude's premium to Dubai quotes sank to $2.56 a barrel last week, the lowest since March, making the export of Atlantic Basin crude oil grades more attractive for Asian buyers, according to traders and Refinitiv data.

Sales of Nigerian and Angolan oil to India have picked up along with sales of U.S. WTI Midland crude to East Asia.

Angolan Girassol crude oil and Nigerian Qua Iboe have been offered at robust premiums of $1.60 and $1.40 above dated Brent a barrel respectively on a free-on-board basis - still cheap compared with Middle East light grades.

"We've seen an arbitrage window open, and demand from India and some markets further East has been encouraging in recent weeks, so that's kept offers high," said one seller of West African crude oil.

"Trading has gotten quieter in the last few days though. There's a lot that's still uncertain about how/if new lockdowns will affect demand in the new year."

With refinery maintenance season due from March and as refining margins have come off sharply recently on Omicron fears, Asia's appetite might not be as robust as before. 

Traders said Chinese buyers would not be easily tempted by more affordable barrels, with independent refiners allocated slimmer import quotas this year and state companies already well supplied.

Ongoing tax investigations in Shandong province, where most independents are based, have also curbed appetite for Brazilian and African oil in the world's largest importer. 

Beijing is also expected to conduct a second SPR crude auction from its eastern Zhoushan storage. 

Offers for grades like Congolese Djeno have come off to about $2 a barrel above March ICE Brent for delivery into China, down from peaks of about $3 a barrel premiums last month, said one East Asian buyer.

"We've mostly done our buying for the year. Offers are just too high and the market doesn't justify having some Atlantic basin crude being this expensive now with the pandemic's coming back," said a second buyer.

While the U.S. SPR release had initially weakened values of Atlantic Basin sour grades such as Mars crude and allowed some cargoes to be sold to Asia, the window is now only "marginally open", a Singapore-based trader said.

The spot discount for Mars has hit its highest in more than two months after WTI's discount to Brent widened, spurring U.S. demand for domestic crude.

"It was cheap but now it's not, and not much has been trading so I'm not sure if any (cargoes) got placed," another trader said.(Reuters)