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July
East Timor hopes to join ASEAN under Indonesia presidency next year
Written by Nur Yasmin
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta said on Tuesday during a visit to Indonesia that he hoped to boost trade ties between the countries and seal a decades-long bid by his nation to join the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year.
Ramos-Horta met his counterpart Joko Widodo on his first state visit to neighbouring Indonesia since he was elected in April for a second stint as president.
He previously served as president of East Timor, which is also known as Timor Leste, between 2007 and 2012.
"Timor Leste as part of Southeast Asia has fulfilled many of the requirements necessary for a functioning economy and democracy so... will be a productive member of ASEAN," he said, noting he hoped his young country could join the group when Indonesia takes over the presidency next year.
East Timor, which applied for ASEAN membership in 2011, currently holds observer status.
Speaking at the presidential palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, the Indonesian president said his country had invested $818 million in East Timor, mainly in energy, banking and communication businesses.
"We've agreed to increase trade between both countries," said Widodo, who is widely known as Jokowi.
Official Indonesia data shows trade between the countries was worth around $250 million last year.
Heavily dependent on revenue from oil and gas, the half-island nation of 1.3 million people has grappled with diversifying its economy and reducing high rates of poverty.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and East Timor only gained full independence in 2002 after a long and bloody struggle to end an often brutal occupation.
Ramos-Horta, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful efforts to end the conflict, said he welcomed deepening trade ties with Jakarta and Indonesia's commitment to East Timor joining the 10-member ASEAN regional grouping. (Reuters)
July
U.S. seizes $500,000 in ransom paid to North Korean hackers, official says
Written by Nur Yasmin
The United States has seized around $500,000 in ransom paid last year by a hospital in Kansas and others to North Korean cyber attackers, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said on Tuesday.
Monaco, speaking at a cybersecurity conference at Fordham University in New York, said authorities had returned the stolen funds to victims including the hospital and a medical center in Colorado. (Reuters)
July
Yellen says to discuss with Seoul price cap on Russia oil, limits on N.Korea
Written by Nur Yasmin
Washington will discuss with South Korea measures to limit revenues flowing to Russia, such as a price cap on its oil, while the allies work to curb North Korea's nuclear and missile programs, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Tuesday.
In a speech prepared for a meeting with South Korean counterpart Choo Kyung-ho, Yellen said the two would explore a price cap to reduce oil earnings and other ways of holding Russia accountable for its war against Ukraine.
"Russia's illegal war and the global energy shock that has followed have underscored the need to protect ourselves from dependence on foreign oil that makes us vulnerable to the whims of authoritarians like Vladimir Putin," Yellen said.
She is to meet Choo in the South Korean capital, during a three-stop tour of East Asia.
The two leaders have said they will also discuss economic security and supply chain issues, as the Ukraine conflict, which Moscow calls a "special military operation", and disruptions in global supplies have driven up inflation worldwide.
On Saturday, Yellen told reporters she had held productive two-way meetings on the proposed price cap with more than six counterparts gathered for a meeting of Group of 20 finance officials on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
In an interview on her way to Seoul, Yellen said the United States had further sanctions it could adopt against North Korea, adding that any nuclear test by Pyongyang would be seen as very provocative.
Concern is growing that North Korea could be preparing to test a nuclear weapon for the first time since 2017, following a record number of missile tests this year, including that of its largest intercontinental ballistic missile. (Reuters)
July
Putin visits Iran on first trip outside former Soviet Union since Ukraine war
Written by Nur Yasmin
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Tehran on Tuesday for talks with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Kremlin leader's first trip outside the former Soviet Union since Moscow's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.
In Tehran, Putin will also hold his first face-to-face meeting since the invasion with a NATO leader, Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss a deal aimed at allowing the resumption of Ukraine's Black Sea grain exports as well as peace in Syria.
Putin's trip, which comes just days after U.S. President Joe Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia, sends a strong message to the West about Moscow's plans to forge closer strategic ties with Iran, China and India in the face of Western sanctions.
"The contact with Khamenei is very important," Yuri Ushakov, Putin's foreign policy adviser, told reporters in Moscow. "A trusting dialogue has developed between them on the most important issues on the bilateral and international agenda."
"On most issues, our positions are close or identical."
BOTH SANCTIONED
For Iran, also chafing under Western economic sanctions and at loggerheads with the United States over Tehran's nuclear programme and a range of other issues, Putin's visit is timely.
Its clerical leaders are keen to strengthen strategic relations with Russia in the face of an emerging U.S.-backed Gulf Arab-Israeli bloc that could tilt the Middle East balance of power further away from Iran.
"Considering the evolving geopolitical ties after the Ukraine war, Tehran tries to secure Moscow's support in its confrontation with Washington and its regional allies," said a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named.
Emboldened by high oil prices since the Ukraine war, Iran is betting that with Russia's support it could pressure Washington to offer concessions for the revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.
However, Russia's increased tilt towards Beijing in recent months has significantly reduced Iran's crude exports to China - a key source of income for Tehran since U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions in 2018.
In May, Reuters reported that Iran's crude exports to China have fallen sharply as Beijing favoured heavily discounted Russian barrels, leaving almost 40 million barrels of Iranian oil stored on tankers at sea in Asia and seeking buyers.
Ahead of Putin's arrival, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russian gas producer Gazprom (GAZP.MM) signed a memorandum of understanding worth around $40 billion.
SYRIA, UKRAINE
High on the agenda in Tuesday's trilateral talks that will also include Turkey will be efforts to reduce violence in Syria, where Erdogan has threatened to launch more military operations to extend 30-km (20-mile) deep "safe zones" along the border. Moscow and Tehran both oppose any such action by Turkey.
"Maintaining the territorial integrity of Syria is very important, and any military attack in northern Syria will definitely harm Turkey, Syria and the entire region, and benefit terrorists," Khamenei told Erdogan.
Erdogan said terrorism remained a common concern and threat for Iran and Turkey, and the two countries needed to wage a battle against all threats, including Kurdish fighters in Turkey, Syria and Iran considered terrorists by Ankara.
Any Turkish operation in Syria would attack the Kurdish YPG militia, a key part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that controls large parts of north Syria and is regarded by Washington as an important ally against Islamic State.
A senior Turkish official said Turkey's planned operation would be discussed in Tehran, as would reports that Russia and Kurdish forces were acting together in some areas of Syria.
Russia and Iran are Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest backers, while Turkey supports anti-Assad insurgents.
Putin, who turns 70 this year, has made few foreign trips in recent years due to the COVID pandemic and then the Ukraine crisis. His last trip beyond the former Soviet Union was to China in February.
His bilateral talks with Erdogan will focus on a plan to get Ukrainian grain exports moving again.
Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are expected to sign a deal later this week aimed at resuming the shipping of grain from Ukraine across the Black Sea. (Reuters)
July
Ukraine grain storage crisis hits home as farmers harvest new crops
Written by Nur Yasmin
Ukrainian farmer Mykola Tereshchenko hopes to start harvesting his wheat fields this week, but the smallholder in northern Ukraine has nowhere to store the grain.
His silos are still crammed full with 1,100 tonnes of grain from last year's harvest that he can't export due to the closure of Ukraine's sea ports following Russia's invasion in February.
While some crops have left by rail or road via neighbours such as Romania and Poland, millions of tonnes have piled up on farms and a lack of shipments from one of the world's biggest grain exporters is pushing up global food prices.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated this month that Ukraine ended the 2021/22 season in June with 6.8 million tonnes of corn, an eight-fold rise from the a year earlier, while wheat stocks almost quadrupled to 5.8 million.
U.N agencies have warned that lack of Ukrainian grain, which typically goes to the Middle East and Africa, is threatening starvation and mass migration on an "unprecedented scale".
Farmers such as Tereshchenko, in regions where sending grain via rail or road to eastern Europe is problematic, will have to sell their harvest at a huge loss if they can't store it, leaving less cash to buy seeds, fertilisers and chemicals for next season and exacerbating expected falls in Ukraine's output.
Tereshchenko farms as part of a collective of 30 people near Khreshchate, a village of 700 people some 120 kms (75 miles) from the Russian border that was shelled and bombed during the first month of the war.
The villagers mostly hid in cellars during strikes that destroyed the roofs of the farm, Tereshchenko said. Thirty cows and pigs were killed.
'THIS IS A CATASTROPHE'
Once Russia withdrew to focus on capturing a swathe of Ukraine's east after failing to take the capital Kyiv, sappers combed fields that had been littered with the detritus of war, defusing mines and ordnance. Farmers then went through the fields using tractors to drag rockets out of the soil.
Almost no money has come in to the collective, which has only managed to sell some sunflower seeds at very bad prices.
"We have our own storage. But it's full with the grain that we haven't been able to sell," Tereshchenko told Reuters.
The future of his farming business, and many others in the war-torn country, could now hinge on talks which are expected to continue this week on opening up a sea corridor to allow exports via Ukraine's Black Sea ports to resume.
He hopes the sea route will reopen but fears what will happen if it doesn't.
"For me, personally, this would be the death of all my dreams and plans in life. I'm 60, what else is there?" he said.
"For the collective, this is a catastrophe. They'll be without work, without bread. I'm a pensioner, I can hang in there. But for the people, it will be a catastrophe, just a catastrophe."
Prices for grain have plunged in Ukraine in recent weeks as farmers try to clear space in their silos for the new harvest.
According to the APK-Inform consultancy, the bid price for third-class milling wheat in Ukraine slumped to 3,100-3,400 hryvnias (about $110) per tonne on July 8 from 7,650 hryvnias (about $259) in mid-April.
"The price of all grain has gone down, and the cost of logistics has gone up so much that it just destroys everything - the farmer has no more income," a foreign grain trader who works in Ukraine said.
'SILOS WILL OVERFLOW'
At the Baryshivska Grain Company, a medium-sized enterprise in Nizhyn in the northern Chernihiv region, Yevhen Prymushko, the director of the firm's silo and storage operations said the plight of smallholder farmers was particularly bad.
He said the company used to be able to offer services to them, but pressure from the export blockade meant it had no spare storage capacity to offer.
Before the war, their silos could hold 72,000 tonnes of grain, but a rocket strike destroyed the roof of one. The bombardment slashed the overall capacity by 15,000 tonnes and destroyed a smaller 1,200 tonne storage facility.
"We won't be able to give services to smallholder farmers. They won't have anywhere to put their grain. We chat to them, they're asking for us to store just a little bit," Prymushko said.
Kees Huizinga, a Dutch national who runs a 15,000 hectare dairy and crop farm about 200 km south of Kyiv, said farmers plan to repurpose workshops and cow barns to store grain harvested this season.
He has also purchased about 60 plastic storage sleeves, known as "ag bags", for $1,000 each. A bag can store 250 tonnes of grain, giving him the ability to store another 15,000 tonnes.
Oleksandr Haidu, head of the Ukrainian parliament's agrarian committee, said Ukraine needed about 80,000 such sleeves and that the legislature was planning to create preferential conditions for the sleeves by waiving import duties
"Unfortunately, some farmers are already selling what they harvest below net cost. Some do not even know whether to harvest at all," he said.
"If we don’t step up now, and export routes don't expand, our silos will overflow in October, farmers will sell their crops for next to nothing, will not be able to pay rent, and eventually refuse to sow next year."
Ukraine was once the third-biggest grain exporter in the world but it is gradually slipping down the league tables. That trend is likely to be exacerbated next year if farmers lack the cash to buy seeds and fertilisers, or any incentive to plant crops if they can't be shipped.
"Farmers cannot cover their costs with the price, and if nothing changes in the near future, then we can expect a decrease in the area of autumn sowing," said Maria Kolesnyk, an analyst with ProAgro consultancy. (Reuters)
July
Cash-strapped Cuba delivered the bad news to residents Monday evening that there was no end in sight to blackouts disrupting their lives and the economy.
Power outages were a major cause of widespread social unrest a year ago and have continued to plague the island in recent months even as the protest movement mostly died out.
“The operating reserves that we have in the electrical system are insufficient to cover the demand, making effects on service inevitable,” Energy and Mining Minister Livan Arronte Cruz said during a discussion of the power grid on state-run television Monday evening.
The minister said breakdowns of Cuba’s largely obsolete 20 power plants, where maintenance has been postponed for lack of funds, had combined with fires this year at two generators to dash hopes of ending outages over the hot summer months and perhaps into next year.
Arronte said higher fuel prices had the effect of straining resources and only a minor role in the blackouts, mainly interrupting back-up generators.
Cuba imports more than 50% of its fuel, mainly from Venezuela. Its power plants burn mostly a heavy, corrosive local crude. Just 5% of electricity comes from alternative sources.
Havana has largely been spared the daily blackouts which can last four hours or more and be repeated during a 24-hour period.
The power outages reflect a deepening economic crisis that began with harsh new U.S. sanctions in 2019 and worsened with the pandemic and now Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Sanctions and soaring prices for food, fuel and shipping have exposed import dependence and vulnerabilities such as a decaying infrastructure.
The Communist-run country’s economy declined 10.9% in 2020, recovering just 2% last year.
Cubans have withstood more than two years of food and medicine shortages, long lines to purchase scarce goods, high prices and more. The blackouts have only added to the pain and frustration, leading to an exodus of more than 150,000 since October, mainly to the United States. (Reuters)
July
UK officials warned government not to pursue Rwanda deportation plan, court hears
Written by Nur Yasmin
British officials repeatedly warned the government not to pursue its plan to send migrants to Rwanda and the country was initially excluded from the shortlist of partner countries because of human rights concerns, London's High Court was told.
Under an agreement struck in April, Britain will send tens of thousands of migrants who arrive on its shores illegally more than 4,000 miles (6,4000 km) to the East African country.
The first planned deportation flight last month was blocked by a last-minute injunction from the European Court of Human Rights.
The government has vowed to press ahead with the plan, but the policy is facing a judicial review at the High Court where its lawfulness is being challenged.
Lawyers acting for asylum seekers from countries including Syria, Sudan, and Iraq, as well as charities and Border Force staff, have been sent thousands of documents detailing internal government discussions about the policy.
In February last year, the British High Commissioner to Rwanda said in a memo that Rwanda should be not selected as a place to send migrants for a variety of reasons including that the East African country had been accused of "recruiting refugees to conduct armed operations in neighbouring countries", according to written evidence submitted to the court.
The memo also said that Rwanda "has a poor human rights record regardless of the conventions it has signed up to" and has been criticised by Britain for "extrajudicial killings, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and torture".
Rwanda should not be selected the memo concluded because Rwanda's "human right(s) record would cause problems reputationally and impact our ability, as directed by ministers, to raise difficult issue(s) with the regime", the document said.
Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for the Rwandan government, has criticised what she called misconceptions about the way migrants would be treated in the country. The Rwandan government is not party to the hearing.
The Home Office, which is responsible for immigration policy, and the Foreign Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The government argues the deportation policy is necessary to smash the business model of people-smuggling networks after a record 28,500 people crossed the English Channel in small boats last year, but political opponents say it is a divisive and expensive stunt.
Further advice against any striking a deal with Rwanda was issued by officials in the Foreign Office, including a March 29 note to the foreign minister, which warned if Rwanda were to be selected, "we would need to be prepared to constrain UK positions on Rwanda’s human rights record, and to absorb resulting criticism from UK Parliament and NGOs".
Another internal government memo from April 12, a day before the deal with Rwanda was signed, said the agreement was "unenforceable, consisting in part of upfront payments, meaning fraud risk is very high".
Tuesday's hearing is being held to decide when a full judicial review should be held later this year. It was not immediately clear if government lawyers would respond directly on Tuesday to the court documents. (Reuters)
July
Malaysian assets at risk globally as late Sultan's heirs claim $15 billion award
Written by Nur Yasmin
The heirs of a 19th century sultanate are seeking to seize Malaysian government assets around the world in a bid to enforce a $14.9 billion arbitration award they won against the Southeast Asian nation, despite a stay on the case handed by a French court, their lawyers told Reuters.
A French arbitration court in February ordered Malaysia to pay the sum to the descendents of the last Sultan of Sulu to settle a dispute over a colonial-era land deal.
Malaysia said on Wednesday the Paris Court of Appeal had stayed the ruling, after finding that enforcement of the award could infringe the country's sovereignty.
Law minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said the stay would prevent the award from being enforced as Malaysia works to set aside the ruling. Malaysia had not previously participated in the arbitration.
Lawyers for the claimants, however, say the February ruling remains legally enforceable outside France through the New York Convention, a U.N. treaty on international arbitration recognised in 170 countries.
"The 'stay' that seems to comfort the Malaysian government temporarily delays local enforcement in one country, France itself," said Paul Cohen, the heirs' lead co-counsel, of London-based law firm 4-5 Gray's Inn Square.
"It does not apply to the other 169."
With some exceptions, such as diplomatic premises, any Malaysian government-owned asset within nations party to the U.N. convention is eligible for the purposes of enforcing the award, said Elisabeth Mason, another lawyer for the heirs.
Wan Junaidi, the Malaysian law minister, declined to comment when contacted.
PETRONAS ASSETS HELD
The heirs claim to be successors-in-interest to the last Sultan of Sulu, who entered a deal in 1878 with a British trading company for the exploitation of resources in territory under his control - including what is now the oil-rich Malaysian state of Sabah, on the northern tip of Borneo.
Malaysia took over the arrangement after independence from Britain, annually paying a token sum to the heirs, who are Philippine nationals.
But the payments were stopped in 2013, with Malaysia arguing that no one else had a right over Sabah, which was part of its territory.
The claimants last week moved to seize two Luxembourg-based units of Malaysian state oil firm Petronas (PETR.UL) as part of efforts to enforce the award.
Petronas, which has described the seizure as "baseless", has said it will defend its legal position, adding that the units have divested their assets. read more
Lawyers for the heirs said the units were now under the control of bailiffs in Luxembourg, pending any appeal by Petronas against the seizure.
"We note Petronas’ description of certain transactions, and we note their statement that those transactions are complete," Mason said.
"We will discover the full picture of all assets in due course." (Reuters)
July
New Zealand's inflation hits 3-decade high, raising bets on sharper rate hikes
Written by Nur Yasmin
New Zealand's consumer prices rose at their fastest pace in three decades, beating forecasts and raising the prospect of an unprecedented 75 basis point interest rate hike at the central bank's policy meeting next month.
The consumer price index (CPI) increased 7.3% in the second quarter, speeding up from a 6.9% gain in the first quarter and the fastest since the June quarter of 1990 when prices rose 7.6%, Statistics New Zealand said in a statement on Monday.
The index rose 1.7% quarter-on-quarter, slightly slower than the 1.8% rise in the first quarter. The inflation readings were above economists’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 1.5% rise for the quarter and a 7.1% annual gain.
The New Zealand dollar shot up 0.5% and the two-year swap rate rose 11 basis points to 4.15% after the data, on growing expectations the central bank will again hike rates at its August meeting.
Most economists expect the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) to raise rates by 50 basis points next month but the hotter-than-expected inflation has raised the possibility the bank may follow global peers in delivering a supersized hike.
"A 75 bp hike at the August (monetary policy statement) is a very real possibility, particularly if the labour market data on 3 August delivers another hawkish surprise," ANZ said after the data.
The RBNZ last week raised its official cash rate to 2.50%, the latest in a series of hikes that has taken the benchmark from a record low 0.25% in October last year.
The bank has also signalled plans to increase the rate to 4.0% by the middle of 2023. Prior to the inflation data, most economists had not expected the bank to go that far.
ANZ now expects the run of 50 basis point hikes to continue through to November, meaning a cash rate endpoint of 4.0% rather than 3.5%.
New Zealand is among a host of central banks racing to get ahead of surging global inflation, which is driven by supply constraints caused by the Ukraine war and the pandemic.
Last week, Singapore and the Philippines surprised markets with out-of-cycle monetary policy tightenings while Canada delivered a much larger than expected 100 basis point rate hike.
Westpac Bank said in a note that much of the strength in consumer prices has been due to large increases in the costs of food, petrol and housing although it noted high inflation is broadbased.
"Price pressures have been boiling over in every corner of the economy," it added.
Inflation and the impact it has had on a households in New Zealand have become a political issue.
The government on Sunday moved to offset some of the inflationary pressures by extending the various breaks on fuel excise taxes, road user charges and public transport fares.
"The growing strength in domestically generated inflation is concerning," said Kiwibank in a note. "It’s likely to be a slow descent from here." (Reuters)
July
Malaysia seizes six tonnes of illegally trafficked animal parts
Written by Nur Yasmin
Malaysian authorities on Monday seized a massive haul of trafficked animal parts, including elephant tusks, rhino horns, pangolin scales and tiger bones worth around 80 million ringgit ($17.9 million), officials said at a news briefing.
Authorities discovered around six tonnes of ivory tusks and other animal parts at the western port in Selangor state on Sunday. The animal parts were believed to be shipped from Africa, Malaysian Customs Director General Zazuli Johan said at the briefing.
Malaysia is one of several Southeast Asian countries identified by conservationists as a major transit point for illegally trafficked endangered wildlife that is en route to other Asian countries, mostly China. (Reuters)