VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The 43rd ASEAN Summit in Jakarta from September 5–7, 2023, will be attended by representatives from 22 countries and 9 international bodies, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi informed on Monday (August 28).

Speaking at a press conference in Jakarta, Marsudi said that the 22 countries comprise 11 ASEAN members, including Timor Leste, which will be represented by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, and 9 ASEAN dialogue partners as well as member countries of the East Asia Summit (EAS).

The ASEAN partners and EAS member countries that will join the forum are South Korea, Japan, India, China, Australia, Canada, Russia, and the United States.

Representatives from several international bodies like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and United Nations (UN) will also join the summit.

"Secretary General of the UN (Antonio Guterres) will lead the UN delegation," Marsudi added, according to a transcript received from the ministry here on Monday.

During the three-day-forum, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) will lead 12 meetings. He is also expected to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit.

Besides the 43rd ASEAN Summit, the President will also lead the summit between ASEAN and its dialogue partners.
On September 6, Widodo will hold six meetings: the 26th ASEAN-China Summit; 24th ASEAN-Republic of Korea (ROK/South Korea) Summit; 26th ASEAN-Japan Summit; 11th ASEAN-US Summit; ASEAN-Canada Summit; and the 26th ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Summit.

On the last day of the summit, he will lead four meetings with ASEAN and its external partners — India, Australia, the UN, and members of the East Asia Summit.

Marsudi said that all documents, which are expected to be adopted by the leaders at the summit, are currently being prepared through negotiations. (Antaranews)

China's foreign ministry said on Monday that China and Japan have agreed to postpone a visit by the head of Japan's Komeito party, the junior partner in the coalition government, given current strains between the two countries.

Natsuo Yamaguchi was planning to visit China from Aug. 28 to 30 in hopes of meeting China's President Xi Jinping and to hand over a personal letter from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

"In light of current China-Japan relations, the two sides have agreed to postpone the Komeito delegation's visit to China," ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a regular news briefing.

Wang added that China attached great importance to exchanges and cooperation with the party which has long been committed to promoting friendship between China and Japan, and "stands ready to work with it to make active efforts for improving and growing China-Japan relations".

Despite opposition both within Japan and from abroad, the country began releasing treated radioactive water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific last week.

China has strongly opposed the move and banned all aquatic product imports from Japan.

Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador on Monday after various offices received what it called harassing phone calls from China regarding the release of the treated water.

Further straining Sino-Japanese ties, Kishida and the leaders of the United States and South Korea met last week and issued their strongest joint condemnation yet of China's "dangerous and aggressive behaviour" in the South China Sea. (Reuters)

A Pakistani court on Monday quashed a sedition case against former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday, his lawyer and a court order said, providing some relief for the cricket hero turned politician who was jailed on corruption charges earlier this month.

Khan, 70, had been charged in March with the sedition case registered in southwestern city of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province, on a complaint that alleged that one of his speeches amounted to sedition.

Following an appeal by Khan, the Balochistan High Court said prosecutors had failed to obtain the required consent from the federal or provincial government to lodge the charges of sedition.

The charges are "without lawful authority and are of no legal effect," the court ruled, directing authorities to quash the case.

"God be praised," Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjutha said in a post on X, the messaging platform formerly known as Twitter, celebrating the dismissal of the case.

The sedition case was among dozens of cases brought against Khan since he lost power after being defeated in a parliamentary confidence vote in April, 2022.

Later on Monday, a high court in Islamabad is expected to rule on Khan's appeal to suspend his conviction and three-year jail sentence for corruption.

Khan lost power after falling out with Pakistan's influential military, and his attempts to rally popular support have stirred political turmoil in a country already struggling through one of its worst economic crises.

A general election was expected in November, though it is likely to be delayed until at least early next year.

Khan cannot contest and has been barred from holding political office for five years. (Reuters)

Japan's space agency suspended a planned launch on Monday of a rocket carrying what would be the country's first spacecraft to land on the moon, with operator Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) (7011.T) citing high winds.

Although the H-IIA rocket, the Japanese flagship launch vehicle, has a 98% launch success rate, unsuitable wind conditions in the upper atmosphere forced a suspension 27 minutes before the planned liftoff.

"High-altitude winds hit our constraint for a launch... which had been set to ensure no impact from debris falling outside of pre-warned areas," said MHI H-IIA launch unit chief Tatsuru Tokunaga.

Strong winds of nearly 108 kph (67 mph) were observed at an altitude of 5,000-15,000 metres (16400-49200 ft), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) safety manager Michio Kawakami said. Multiple typhoons around Japan could have affected the wind conditions, he added.

The new launch date has not been decided, but will be no sooner than Thursday because of necessary processes such as re-fuelling, Tokunaga said. MHI and JAXA have said a launch could take place as late as Sept. 15.

The rocket was to be launched from JAXA's Tanegashima Space Center in southern Japan on Monday morning; it had already been postponed twice since last week because of bad weather. It will mark the 47th H-IIA Japan has launched.

'MOON SNIPER' MISSION

The rocket is carrying JAXA's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM), which would be the first Japanese spacecraft to land on the moon. Tokyo-based startup ispace's (9348.T) Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander crashed on the lunar surface in April.

JAXA was planning to start SLIM's landing from lunar orbit in January-February 2024 after Monday's launch, aiming to follow the success of India's Chandrayaan-3 moon exploration mission this month.

Dubbed the "moon sniper", the SLIM mission seeks to achieve a high-precision landing within 100 metres of its target on the moon's surface - a technological leap from conventional lunar-landing accuracy of several kilometres, according to JAXA.

The rocket is also carrying an X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission (XRISM) satellite, a joint project of JAXA, NASA and the European Space Agency.

H-IIA, jointly developed by JAXA and MHI, has been Japan's flagship space launch vehicle, with 45 successful launches in 46 tries since 2001. However, after JAXA's new medium-lift H3 rocket failed on its debut in March, the agency postponed the launch of H-IIA No. 47 for several months to investigate the cause.

Despite its goal to send astronauts on the lunar surface in the late 2020s, Japan's space missions have faced recent setbacks, with the launch failure of the Epsilon small rocket in October 2022, followed by an engine explosion during a test last month. (Reuters)