VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Wednesday denied making an agreement with China to remove a grounded warship that serves as a military outpost in South China Sea, and said if there ever were such a deal, it should be considered rescinded.

The Philippines maintains a handful of troops aboard the World War Two-era Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal, known by Manila as Ayungin shoal, which is located inside its 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

China on Monday accused the Philippines of reneging on a promise made "explicitly" to remove the ship, which was grounded in 1999 to bolster its territorial claims in one of the world's most contested areas.

"I'm not aware of any such arrangement or agreement that the Philippines will remove from its own territory its ship," Marcos said in a video statement.

"And let me go further, if there does exist such an agreement, I rescind that agreement now".

Jonathan Malaya, National Security Council assistant director general, earlier challenged China to produce evidence of the promise.

"For all intents and purposes, it is a figment of their imagination," he said.

China's embassy in Manila said it had no comment.

China and the Philippines have been embroiled for years in on-off confrontations at the shoal, the latest on Saturday. The Philippines accused China's coast guard of using water cannon to impede a resupply mission to the Sierra Madre.

The Philippines was "committed to maintain" the rusty ship on the shoal, Malaya said, adding it was "our symbol of sovereignty in a shoal located in our EEZ".

An EEZ gives a country sovereign rights to fisheries and natural resources within 200 miles of its coast, but it does not denote sovereignty over that area.

The Philippines won an international arbitration award against China in 2016, after a tribunal said Beijing's sweeping claim to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea had no legal basis, including at the Second Thomas Shoal.

China has built militarised, manmade islands in the South China Sea and its claim of historic sovereignty overlaps with the EEZs of the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia.

Jay Batongbacal, a maritime expert at the University of the Philippines, said control of the Second Thomas Shoal was not only strategic for China but it could be "another ideal place to build a military base." (Reuters)

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said he will advise the president to dissolve parliament late on Wednesday.

The parliament's five-year term is due to expire on Aug. 12, but this move would dissolve it three days early. (Reuters)

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday mounted a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of the deadly ethnic conflict in Manipur, saying his government had divided the remote northeastern state, broken it and burnt it.

More than 180 people have been killed, many hundreds more wounded and tens of thousands rendered homeless in Manipur since May, but Modi failed to publicly address the violence until last month in a state controlled by his own Hindu nationalist party.

Addressing parliament for the first time since his reinstatement on Monday as a lawmaker, Gandhi poured scorn on what he called the divisive policies of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) during a debate on a no-trust vote against Modi's government.

"You have killed mother India in Manipur," Gandhi said as opposition lawmakers thumped their desks and their government counterparts booed him.

"You have divided it, broken it," said Gandhi, who was disqualified from parliament in March after he was convicted for defamation until the Supreme Court last week suspended the conviction, allowing him to be reinstated.

The no-trust vote is not expected to impact the stability or the popularity of Modi's government as it enjoys a strong majority and is expected to win a third term in a general election next year.

However, it hopes to draw out Modi to speak in detail and embarrass him over the violence that has led the United States and the European parliament to express concern.

The three-day debate and vote which began Tuesday also come a month before Modi hosts G20 leaders for the annual summit in New Delhi, where he aims to showcase India’s leadership of the Global South.

VISIT TO MANIPUR

Gandhi, who spoke in Hindi, said the Indian army could bring peace to Manipur in one day but is not being used, "because you want to kill India in Manipur", addressing the government side.

New Delhi has rushed tens of thousands of additional security forces to the state of 3.2 million people but sporadic violence continues.

The clashes erupted over the BJP state government potentially extending special benefits to the mostly Hindu ethnic majority Meiteis. Those benefits have been reserved for minority, mostly Christian, Kuki tribals in the state.

The state government denies accusations by the Kukis and political rivals that it failed to act more forcefully to quell the trouble.

Gandhi, scion of a dynasty that has given India three prime ministers, recalled his visit to Manipur in June and his experiences of meeting women in relief camps there, something, he said, "our prime minister has not done so far".

"Our prime minister has not gone to Manipur because for him Manipur is not in India," Gandhi said.

"You are pouring kerosene over the entire country. You threw kerosene in Manipur and lit a spark, now you are doing that in Haryana, you are burning the entire country," he said, referring to Hindu-Muslim clashes in the northern state of Haryana last week in which seven people have been killed.

BJP-ruled Haryana, on the fringes of New Delhi, has blamed the violence on Muslim mobs attacking a Hindu religious procession and called it a larger conspiracy.

Modi was not present in parliament when Gandhi spoke but he is due to address it on Thursday before it is put to vote.

Modi had not made any public comments about the conflict until last month when videos showing women being paraded naked and molested in Manipur surfaced and sparked national outrage.

He called the assault of women "shameful" and that his heart was filled with pain and anger and promised tough action. (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) stated that the development of IKN Nusantara capital city in East Kalimantan is currently the largest project in the world.

"Currently, the largest project in the world is the IKN Nusantara in Indonesia," Jokowi remarked at the 2023 National Conference of the Association of Real Estate Companies Indonesia (REI) here on Wednesday.

Jokowi noted that the Indonesian government aims to open new economic centers by building IKN on the island of Kalimantan.

According to the president, 34 thousand hectares of land in IKN can currently be purchased.

"(About) 34 thousand hectares of land can be purchased. They are not free. How much do they cost? Ask the Head of the IKN Authority. This is an opportunity," Jokowi remarked.

Citing the Statistics Indonesia (BPS) data, the head of state noted that Indonesia's economic growth was recorded at 5.17 percent year-on-year (yoy) in the second quarter of 2023.

This growth is indicative of Indonesia's maintained economic growth of above five percent for seven consecutive quarters.

Jokowi remarked that among the Group of Twenty (G20) member countries, only Indonesia, India, and China were able to clock an economic growth of above five percent.

"The G20 countries that grew above five percent were only Indonesia, India, and China," he stated.

Furthermore, Jokowi urged the REI to strengthen its collaboration with the government.

The president is keen that the REI help the government in providing healthy and decent housing for people in need of it.

The head of state reminded of the need to take into account social and environmental impacts in the development of housing or other types of property.

"This is important. (For instance), a residential area development must not make a well of a nearby village dry up. Please heed these things and also prepare the waste (handling) in residential areas," Jokowi emphasized. (Antaranews)