VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOI, Jakarta - The United States remains focused on the Indo-Pacific despite other global challenges, top U.S. diplomats said on Thursday as Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to go to Asia after a Middle East trip amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Blinken heads to Israel this week for talks on the Middle East conflict and will stop in Jordan before heading to Japan for a meeting with G7 counterparts and bilateral talks with Japanese officials and stops in South Korea and India. The trip lasts until Nov. 10.

"The Secretary's trip to the region demonstrates our enduring commitment to and focus on the Indo-Pacific, even amidst other global challenges," the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, told reporters in previewing the Asia leg of the trip.

Kritenbrink said Blinken would attend a meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Tokyo and have separate talks with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Foreign Minster Yoko Kamikawa.

"We anticipate that discussions in those meetings will focus on events in the Middle East, support for Ukraine, cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, a range of bilateral issues and of course, trilateral cooperation as well with (South Korea)," he said.

Kritenbrink said Japan had been an "outstanding" G7 chair and had "kept the G7 laser-focused on the most pressing issues both globally and regionally."

He did not respond when asked if he was confident the G7 would be able to agree a robust statement on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Asked what Blinken would tell the Asian countries about his talks last week with Chinese Foreign Minster Wang Yi, Kritenbrink said he believed they wanted to see Washington "responsibly managing our competition with China."

"Our commitment to the Indo-Pacific remains enduring," he said. "And the fundamental focus of our diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific remains strengthening our ties with allies, partners and friends, and growing their collective capacity, our shared capacity to support the rules-based international order."

The top U.S. diplomat for South Asia, Donald Wu, said "efforts to advance democracy and human rights" would be on the agenda in talks between the U.S. and Indian foreign and defense ministers "as well as our expanded cooperation in clean energy, counterterrorism, artificial intelligence, space, and semiconductor manufacturing." (Reuters)

VOI, Jakarta - The Meteorological, Climatological, and Geophysical Agency (BMKG) urged all parties to strengthen water management to ensure water supply for agriculture and communities amid the combination of El Nino and positive IOD that might trigger drought.

"Until the second dasarian (a ten-day period) of October 2023, El Nino is at a moderate level and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) remains positive,” Head of BMKG Dwikorita Karnawati stated in Jakarta on Thursday.

She said the BMKG and several other World Climate Centers project that El Nino will remain at a moderate level until the period of December 2023-January-February 2024, whereas positive IOD will remain until the end of 2023.

The condition will influence several sectors, such as agriculture, water resources, forestry, trade, energy, and health, she remarked.

“Thus, the government at all levels is expected to take steps to mitigate and anticipate negative impacts that might happen,” she noted.

Karnawati cautioned that in the agriculture sector, food crop production is threatened to decrease due to disturbed planting cycles, crop failure, the lack of resilience in some plants, or the spread of pests that are active during dry conditions.

In the water resources sector, this situation might lead to a decrease in water, whereas in the trade sector, it might trigger an increase in food prices, she stated.

Furthermore, in the forestry sector, it might cause wildfires. In the energy sector, it might lessen hydroelectric energy production.


In the defense sector, the condition increases the risk of health complications due to sanitation and a lack of clean water for consumption and hygiene.

“In regions that experience wildfires, this condition leads to air pollution and triggers acute respiratory infections (ISPA),” she stated.

Karnawati stated that the government can implement some strategies in an effort to mitigate the situation, with the first being strengthening water management.

The second strategy is by intensifying the dissemination of information and guidelines for farmers to adapt to the shift in seasonal patterns and select plants that are more resilient to drought.

The third approach is conducting counseling and training programs to help communities adopt an agricultural practice that is more resilient to droughts.

Under the fourth strategy, forest and land management is strengthened to prevent wildfires triggered by the dry weather.

The fifth strategy entails implementing an ecosystem rehabilitation program and land restoration for lands that have degraded due to droughts and wildfires.

The sixth approach involves setting a logistical preparation plan to ensure the supply of clean water and food, especially in vulnerable areas.

The seventh approach necessitates conducting a community awareness campaign about water conservation practices and ways to reduce the risks of disasters. (Antaranews)

VOI, Jakarta - Indonesia's membership of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will have a positive impact on the country's economic credibility, according to Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

"Indonesia's membership of the FATF can increase positive perceptions of the Indonesian financial system, which will have an impact on rapid economic growth through investment, both domestic and foreign," she explained here on Thursday.

Indrawati informed that her ministry will strengthen the budget side to support Indonesia's leadership role in the FATF as well as bolster supervisory human resources and supervision of the accounting profession, especially concerning money laundering and terror financing.

In addition, the ministry will carry out mutual legal assistance (MLA) with other countries.

This will be pursued in order to reduce the chance of tax avoidance and increase the number and quality of assessors and reviewers from Indonesia who can join and play an active role in the FATF mutual evaluation review (MER) team.

Indonesia's membership of the FATF was announced by the task force's president during the closing of a plenary meeting in Paris on October 27, 2023.

FATF is an international organization that focuses on global efforts to eradicate money laundering, terror funding, and the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Indonesia obtained its membership after a series of tests, which included an on-site MER by an FATF team in July–August 2020 and a review carried out at an FATF plenary meeting in June 2023.

It is hoped that as a full member, Indonesia will make a broad contribution to determining global strategic policies to check money laundering and prevent terror funding as well as the financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

This contribution could further emphasize Indonesia's position as a country with integrity that is capable of making an active contribution on the international stage.

The achievement of the FATF membership is a first step for Indonesia in continuing to improve the framework to curb money laundering, terrorist financing, and the financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.(Antaranews)

VOI, Jakarta - Thousands of people swamped Pakistan's main northwestern border crossing seeking to cross into Afghanistan on Thursday, a day after the government's deadline expired for undocumented foreigners to leave or face expulsion.

Pakistani authorities began rounding up undocumented foreigners, most of them Afghans, hours before Wednesday's deadline. More than a million Afghans could have to leave or face arrest and forcible expulsion as a result of the ultimatum delivered by the Pakistan government a month ago.

Scrambling to cope with the sudden influx, the Taliban-run administration in Afghanistan said temporary transit camps had been set up, and food and medical assistance would be provided, but relief agencies reported dire conditions across the border.

"The organisations' teams stationed in the areas where people are returning from Pakistan have reported chaotic and desperate scenes among those who have returned," the Norwegian Refugee Council, Danish Refugee Council and International Rescue Committee said in a joint statement.

The Pakistani government has brushed off calls from the United Nations, rights groups and Western embassies to reconsider its expulsion plan, saying Afghans had been involved in Islamist militant attacks and in crime that undermined the security of the country.

BORDER BOTTLENECK

More than 24,000 Afghans crossed the northwestern Torkham crossing into Afghanistan on Wednesday alone, Deputy Commissioner Khyber Tribal District Abdul Nasir Khan said. "There were a large number waiting for clearance and we made extra arrangements to better facilitate the clearance process."

Authorities had worked well into the night at a camp set up near the crossing, he added. The border, at the northwestern end of the Khyber Pass on the road between Peshawar in Pakistan and Jalalabad in Afghanistan, is usually closed by sundown.

Khan said 128,000 Afghans had left through the crossing since the Pakistani government issued its directive.

Others were crossing the border at Chaman, in Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan.

Major roads leading to border crossings were jammed with trucks carrying families and whatever belongings they could carry.

Aid agencies estimated the number of arrivals at Torkham had risen from 300 people a day to 9,000-10,000 since last month's expulsion decree.

Some Afghans who have been ordered to leave have spent decades in Pakistan, while some have never even been to Afghanistan, and wonder how they can start a new life there.

Of the more than 4 million Afghans living in Pakistan, the government estimates 1.7 million are undocumented.

Many fled during the decades of armed conflict that Afghanistan suffered since the late 1970s, while the Islamist Taliban's takeover after the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces in 2021 led to another exodus.

Aid agencies warned that the mass movement of people could tip Afghanistan into yet another crisis and expressed "grave concerns" about the survival and reintegration of the returnees, particularly with the onset of winter.

International humanitarian funding for Afghanistan dried up after the Taliban took over and imposed restrictions on women.

SHORTAGE OF TRANSPORT

Over 1,500 undocumented Afghans were being brought to the southwestern Chaman crossing after being rounded up in police raids in different areas of Pakistan, including the major port Karachi, Balochistan Information Minister Jan Achakzai said.

People crossing from Chaman into Afghanistan's Spin Boldak have run into trouble finding transport to their final destinations, said Ismatullah, a bus service operator.

"A huge number of people are coming from Karachi but face a shortage of buses and trucks," he told Reuters by phone from Spin Boldak. "Obviously in such situations the fares have increased. The (Afghan) government is helping people according to its ability, but it is not enough." (Reuters)