VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOInews, Jakarta: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to hold talks with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday, as the countries seek to reinforce security and economic ties in the face of growing Chinese aggression.

Blinken's visit to Manila -- his second since Marcos took office in June 2022 -- is part of a brief Asia tour that also included South Korea.

Washington is keen to improve relations with its regional allies, such as Manila and Seoul, in a bid to deter China and North Korea as tensions rise in the South China Sea over Taiwan and on the Korean peninsula.

Blinken's trip comes ahead of a trilateral meeting in Washington next month between US President Joe Biden, Marcos and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Announcing the three-way summit with the Asia Pacific allies, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the leaders would push a "shared vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific".

During his meeting with Marcos and his Philippine counterpart Enrique Manalo on Tuesday, Blinken is expected to reaffirm the United States' security commitments to the Philippines.

"What we're trying to demonstrate... is that we are committed to the Indo-Pacific, to this region, despite everything else that's going on in the world right now," a senior State Department official told reporters on Monday.

"I would expect when we're in Manila, the main concern will obviously be China's continued destabilising actions in the South China Sea that are in contravention of international law."

Top US officials have repeatedly said that "an armed attack" against Philippine public vessels, aircraft, armed forces and coastguard would invoke the 1951 US-Philippines mutual defence treaty in which Washington is obliged to defend its ally.

Blinken's visit follows a spate of incidents involving Philippine and Chinese vessels in the South China Sea, including collisions, in recent months.

Marcos has expressed "great alarm" over the confrontations that have sparked diplomatic sparring between Manila and Beijing.

Source: AFP

VOInews, Jakarta: North Korea fired a ballistic missile on Monday (18/3/2024), local media reported, citing South Korean military, days after Seoul and Washington wrapped up annual joint training exercises.

VOInews, Jakarta: Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi made a rare visit to New Zealand on Monday, stressing the need to work with "friends" in the face of the "tumultuous international situation".

The trip marks the start of a diplomatic blitz through New Zealand and Australia, Wang's first visit to either country since 2017.

The whistlestop tour is expected to focus heavily on trade as Beijing looks to lessen the pain from slowing economic growth at home.

Speaking in the capital Wellington before a meeting with his New Zealand counterpart, Wang said the trip was also a chance to shore up diplomatic ties that have come under strain as Beijing adopts an increasingly aggressive stance on issues such as Taiwan and the South China Sea.

"In the face of the current tumultuous international situation, we are willing to strengthen strategic communication with our friends in New Zealand on international and regional issues of common concern," Wang said.

"And we will work together to maintain peace and stability in the region and the world," he added before his closed-door meeting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters.

New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance alongside the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

But Wellington has been criticised for taking a softer line on China -- putting its trading relationship ahead of its allies' security concerns.

China is New Zealand's largest trading partner, and Chinese consumers have long had an appetite for the country's meat, wine, milk and wood.

Wang said he believed that "China-New Zealand relations will continue to be at the forefront of China's relations with developed countries".

"The relationship between us has developed smoothly and well," he said.

Later this week, Wang will meet Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Canberra.

China and Australia have recently resolved a series of simmering trade disputes that saw Beijing impose tariffs and trade barriers on key exports in 2020, retaliating after Canberra barred Huawei from 5G contracts and called for a probe into the origins of Covid-19.

But the two nations continue to spar over human rights and Beijing's growing clout in the Pacific region.

Source : AFP

Fed Chair Jerome Powell says it needs to see more data before deciding if to cut interest rates. (Photo: AFP/Mandel Ngan) - 

VOInews, Washington, U.S : The US Federal Reserve is widely expected to keep its key lending rate unchanged again on Wednesday (Mar 20), as policymakers continue discussions over when to start rate cuts and launch the next phase in their long-running battle against inflation.

The Fed has raised interest rates to a 23-year high of between 5.25 and 5.50 per cent as it looks to return inflation firmly to its long-term target of 2 per cent.

After making significant progress against rising prices last year, 2024 has been more challenging, with the US seeing a small uptick in the pace of monthly inflation.

At the same time, the unemployment rate has remained low, wage growth has eased, and economic growth for the final quarter of 2023 came in above expectations – all indications that the US economy remains in good health despite higher rates.

After two days of discussions, the Fed will publish an updated summary of economic projections (SEP) alongside its rate decision on Wednesday, which will include policymakers' views of where they expect interest rates to be at the end of this year.

"The pace of disinflation, the slowdown in employment growth, [is] not happening as fast as we thought it did a few months ago," Wells Fargo senior economist Michael Pugliese told AFP. "And so they're gonna fine-tune their policy outlook accordingly."

In recent weeks, officials at the US central bank - led by Fed chair Jerome Powell - have urged caution about cutting interest rates too quickly, and have instead said they will follow a "data-dependent" path.

"The economic outlook is uncertain, and ongoing progress toward our 2 per cent inflation objective is not assured," Powell told lawmakers in Washington earlier this month.

He later confirmed that he still expects cuts to begin this year.

Futures traders currently assign a probability of around 55 per cent that the Fed will start cutting interest rates by Jun 12, according to data from CME Group.

This marks a significant shift from the run-up to the Fed's last rate decision in January, when traders were still widely anticipating the first would come in May//CNA-VOI