VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin met with Elon Musk to explore cooperation between the government of Indonesia and Starlink, Musk's satellite network, in providing internet access at remote health centers.

"This is our effort to ensure equitable health services in the country," Sadikin said in his statement here on Sunday.

Sadikin explored cooperation with Starlink to provide internet access at health centers located in disadvantaged, frontier, and outermost (3T) areas.

According to him, local health centers (puskesmas) must have adequate infrastructure because they are the frontline in realizing healthy communities.

Some 2,200 of the 10 thousand existing puskesmas still do not have access to the internet, the ministry's data states.

Moreover, there are 11,100 smaller puskesmas that are not connected to the internet.

"With internet access, health service consultations can be done online," Sadikin said.

With good internet access, he said, online training for health workers can also be carried out.

Increased internet connectivity, he continued, can open wide access to health services and improve communication between regions.

That way, reporting from healthcare facilities can take place at any time, he added.

"This activity also supports the digitalization agenda of Indonesia's health transformation," he said.

Starlink is the name of a satellite network developed by the private spaceflight company SpaceX to provide low-cost internet to remote areas.

Starlink is the world's first and largest satellite constellation, using a low Earth orbit to deliver broadband internet capable of supporting online activities like streaming and video calls.

Currently, healthcare facilities in the Philippines, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Nigeria already use Starlink.

Earlier, the Republic of Indonesia Satellite-1 (SATRIA-1) was launched into space from the Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC 40) in Florida, the United States, at 6:21 p.m. on Sunday (June 18, 2023) local time or 5:21 a.m. on Monday (June 19) Jakarta time.

The SATRIA-1 satellite is expected to support connectivity in regions throughout the country. (antaranews)

The United States and Mongolia will sign an "Open Skies" civil aviation agreement, Vice President Kamala Harris and Mongolian Prime Minister L. Oyun-Erdene said on Wednesday at the start of discussions focused on Russia, China and economic development.

Their meeting in Washington on Wednesday came as the Biden administration works to ease tensions with strategic competitor China and as U.S. relations with Russia show no sign of thawing as the Ukraine war grinds on.

Harris underscored the administration's commitment to strengthening ties with Mongolia and other nations in the Indo-Pacific, with a big focus on combating the climate crisis, upholding democracies and human rights, and addressing threats to the international rules-based order.

"The American people have a profound stake in the future of the Indo-Pacific," Harris said, noting that she and President Joe Biden had each traveled there three times since taking office. "It is in our vital interest to promote an Indo-Pacific region that is open, interconnected, prosperous, secure and resilient."

Surrounded by Russia in the north and China in the south, Mongolia has cultivated allies -- such as Japan, South Korea and the United States -- in a diplomatic strategy aimed at reinforcing its political independence, but its economy has continued to rely heavily on its two giant neighbors.

Washington has Open Skies civil aviation agreements with more than 130 countries. They grant airlines from both countries the right to operate in each other's countries, liberalize airline regulation and impose safety and security standards.

The Open Skies deal between the U.S. and Mongolia will build on a memorandum of understanding for an air transport agreement reached in January.

Mongolia's national carrier, MIAT Mongolian Airlines, flies to Europe and Asia but not the United States at present. Although passenger demand may not merit nonstop flights between the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, and the U.S., the Open Skies deal would also provide easier options for cargo flights between the nations.

The new deal comes alongside new cultural exchange initiatives, as well as English-language training in Mongolia after recent legislation making English the first foreign language in secondary education in the country.

Each deal is meant to give the landlocked Asian country a Washington-backed alternative for economic development, where corruption has long deterred foreign investment.

Resource-rich Mongolia has extensive deposits of rare earth minerals and copper, which are critical materials in short supply as Biden looks to electrify the domestic auto market.

Oyun-Erdene, who studied in the United States, said the two countries would also sign agreements to deepen cooperation in outer space and strengthen their economic cooperation, with an eye to expanding trade.

He said direct flights between the two countries would begin in the second quarter of 2024, offering a "great opportunity" to promote trade, tourism, business and investment.

"I hope that history will record my visit this week as the start of a new chapter in our friendship and the strategic partnership," he said.

Mongolia has been in talks with Tesla (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Elon Musk over possible investment and cooperation in the electric vehicle sector. Musk's SpaceX has also been authorized to operate as an internet provider in the country.

Oyun-Erdene, who is also slated to meet with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top Biden administration officials, said Mongolia would also sign a landmark digital cooperation agreement with Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google this week, but gave no details. (Reuters)

North Korea on Friday criticised a U.S. weapons aid package to Taiwan, state media reported on Friday, accusing the United States of driving tensions in the region to "another ignition point of war".

The United States unveiled an aid package for Taiwan worth up to $345 million on Friday as Congress authorised up to $1 billion worth of weapons for the island as a part of the 2023 budget.

In a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency, Maeng Yong Rim, director general of the North Korean foreign ministry's Chinese affairs department, said the plan is a "dangerous political and military provocation" and a "flagrant violation" of the One China principle.

"It is the sinister intention of the U.S. to turn Taiwan into an unsinkable advanced base against China and the first-line trench for carrying out its strategy for deterring China," the North's statement said.

Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its own territory, and has repeatedly warned against any "official exchanges" between Washington and Taipei. Taiwan rejects China's sovereignty claims and says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

"The Asia-Pacific region, including the Korean peninsula and the Taiwan Strait, is neither a theatre of the U.S. military activity nor a test site of war," the statement said, warning that the U.S. will have to "pay a high price" for "provoking the core interest of China".

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met a Chinese delegation in Pyongyang last week and vowed to develop the two countries' relations to a "new high". Before the meeting, they reviewed Kim's newest nuclear-capable missiles and attack drones at a military parade.

China's military has been flexing its muscles around the island, recently sending dozens of fighters, bombers and other aircraft, including drones, into the skies to Taiwan's south, according to Taiwan's defence ministry. (Reuters)

New Zealand is facing the most challenging strategic environment in decades amid a great power rivalry and with a military not fit for future challenges, according to a government review that lacked concrete plans to reverse the situation.

The government on Friday presented its first national security strategy, along with the first stage of a defence review. The review outlined how New Zealand needs to spend more on its military and strengthen ties with countries in the Indo-Pacific to help meet the challenges of climate change and strategic competition between the West, and China and Russia.

"The threats that New Zealand faces are becoming more complex and more challenging," New Zealand Defence Secretary Andrew Bridgman said in a speech at the launch.

"We will continue to meet the demand of today with the force we have, however in the near term, we need to orientate ourselves to the emerging future and the evolving context."

Any decisions, however, on increasing budget for defence - currently at around 1% of GDP - or upgrading equipment will not be made until after the release of further documents in 2024.

Reuben Steff, a foreign policy and global security senior lecturer at the University of Waikato said the documents provided a sense of the conceptual framework but kicked the can down the road on actual decisions.

The government may be trying to give the public time to understand the severity of the situation and emerging trends so when or if they announce increased spending they will have the social licence to do so, he said.

CHINA

The inaugural security strategy underscored how China's rise is upending old norms and behaviours even 9,000km (5,600 miles) away in Wellington.

"An increasingly powerful China is using all its instruments of national power in ways that can pose challenges to existing international rules and norms," read one policy document.

New Zealand Defence Minister Andrew Little said this was particularly a concern in the Pacific where China was building relationships in the region and was trying to demand a level of exclusivity.

"We know China offers extraordinary opportunity to us and many other countries but the nature of its conduct and its engagement with the rest of the world also poses a threat," he said.

Chinese state-sponsored actors had exploited cyber vulnerabilities in ways that undermined New Zealand's security, said another document that did not provide further details.

NEEDED DOLLARS

New Zealand's military needed more investment, equipment and training to be ready for armed conflict and disaster relief operations, according to a policy document published alongside the strategy.

Underspending on the country's defence force and the challenge the force faces are well documented.

Three of the Navy’s nine ships remain idle because of staff shortages, plans to build a ship suitable for patrolling in the harsh conditions of the Southern Ocean are suspended and the country's frigates are aging and are expected to need be replaced.

Little said defence spending was likely to have to increase above 1% of GDP but was unlikely to get as high as 2% of GDP.

The wide-ranging review also prioritised deeper defence ties with New Zealand's only ally, Australia, and closer links to other partners in the region, including the U.S., whose presence in the Indo-Pacific was "critical" for New Zealand's security.

Long protective of its independence, New Zealand banned nuclear-armed and nuclear powered ships from its waters in 1984. (Reuters)