VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

North Korea's launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was an exercise of its right to self-defense "to deter dangerous military moves of hostile forces and safeguard the security of our state," the country's U.N. envoy told the Security Council on Thursday during a rare appearance.

The 15-member Security Council met after North Korea said it tested on Wednesday its latest Hwasong-18 ICBM, adding the weapon is the core of its nuclear strike force.

"We categorically reject and condemn the convening of the Security Council briefing by the United States and its followers," North Korea's U.N. Ambassador Kim Song told the council.

North Korea last spoke at a council meeting on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs in December 2017, diplomats said.

North Korea - formally known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) - has been under U.N. sanctions for its missile and nuclear programs since 2006. This includes a ban on the development of ballistic missiles.

In a separate statement on Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, "strongly denounced" the U.N. meeting as unfair and biased, blaming the United States for escalating tensions in the region.

"The price the U.S. would have to pay for provoking us won't be light," Kim said, vowing to push for the "most overwhelming" nuclear deterrence until Washington drops what she called its hostile policy against Pyongyang.

For the past several years the council has been divided over how to deal with Pyongyang. Russia and China, veto powers along with the United States, Britain and France, have said more sanctions will not help and want such measures to be eased.

China and Russia blame joint military drills by the United States and South Korea for provoking Pyongyang, while Washington accuses Beijing and Moscow of emboldening North Korea by shielding it from more sanctions.

"Russia and China have prevented this council from speaking with one voice. And with these repeated launches, Pyongyang is demonstrating it feels emboldened," Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Jeffrey DeLaurentis, told the council.

CHINA SLAMS NATO

DeLaurentis said the U.S. was committed to diplomacy and "publicly and privately and at senior levels we have repeatedly urged the DPRK to engage in dialogue." He said Washington had made clear there were no preconditions for engagement and it would "discuss any topic of concern to Pyongyang."

"The DPRK has not responded to our offers," he said.

China's U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun told the council that Beijing was committed to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the settlement of the issue through dialogue.

He described the situation as "tense" and said it was getting "ever more confrontational." China has "taken note" of North Korea's latest missile launch, Zhang said.

"The Cold War has long since ended, but the specter of the Cold War mentality lingers. It has not only rendered the Peninsula issue intractable, but also intensified antagonism and conflict around the world," he said.

He went on to slam a communique by NATO leaders this week, telling the council it was as "long-winded as it was harping the same old tunes filled with Cold War mentality and ideological prejudices." Zhang said NATO should do some "soul-searching."

NATO leaders in the communique said China challenged NATO's interests, security and values with its "ambitions and coercive policies."

"China does not cause trouble, nor does it fear trouble," Zhang said. "We stand ready to respond firmly and forcefully to any act that violates China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, undermine China's development and security interests and breach the peace and stability in China's neighborhood." (Reuters)

Nine months before a general election, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have dusted off a potentially divisive plan to enact a common set of personal laws for all, irrespective of religion.

Currently, India's Hindus, Muslims, Christians and large tribal populations follow their own personal laws and customs, alongside an optional secular code, for marriage, divorce, adoption and inheritance.

The Law Commission, a government-appointed advisory body, has sought public opinion by Friday on creating a Uniform Civil Code (UCC). It had received more than 5 million responses online on the eve of the deadline.

The BJP says the common code is necessary to ensure gender justice, equality through uniform application of personal laws, and to foster national unity and integration.

"If there is one law for one family member and another for another family member, can that family function smoothly? How can a country function with such dual systems?" Modi said at a BJP meeting late last month, just days after he returned from state visits to the U.S. and Egypt.

The comments were his most forceful in favour of the common code and set off a political storm.

Critics call the push for a common civil code a cynical attempt to divide communities and consolidate Hindu votes for the BJP ahead of the 2024 general election. Supporters, who include some Muslim women's rights groups, say it is much needed reform to end discriminatory Islamist practices.

"The idea is to send a message to the majority community so that you are able to keep the majority community polarised in favour of BJP," said Sanjay Kumar, political analyst and psephologist at New Delhi’s Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.

"This is a kind of a tool to divide and mobilise," he said.

India's Muslims, the country's largest minority with about 200 million of the 1.4 billion population, are mostly sharply opposed to the plan.

Although no draft of the UCC has been presented, BJP leaders have said it primarily has to do with reforming Muslim personal laws as other personal laws have progressed over the decades.

Many Muslims say they see it as interference with centuries-old Islamic practices and another weapon for a majoritarian political party that they accuse of being anti-Muslim.

NO VALID GROUND

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board, a voluntary body that represents the interests of Indian Muslims on personal law issues, has sent its objections to the Law Commission saying "mere projection of uniformity is not a valid ground for uprooting established systems of laws governing personal matters".

"Majoritarian morality must not supersede personal laws, religious freedom, and minority rights in the name of a code which remains an enigma," it said.

India's next general election has to be held by May 2024 and follows commanding wins for BJP in 2014 and 2019. Critics say the party's campaign playbook has been to polarise voters along religious lines and take advantage of the heavy Hindu majority, although the BJP maintains it represents all Indians and that it wants growth for all.

Modi and the BJP are widely expected to win a third term, but the ruling party got a scare when it lost elections to the main opposition Congress party in Karnataka state in May. Opposition groups are now working to pose a united challenge in 2024.

Some analysts say the UCC plan will force opposition parties into a corner. They cannot support it, and if they oppose it, they will be accused of being reactionary and pandering to conservative Muslims.

The Congress, for instance, has only said it questions the timing of the plan and has asked to see a draft.

Sushil Modi, a senior BJP leader and member of parliament, said the UCC plan was not related to the election.

"In India you have elections all the time," said Modi, who is not related to the prime minister. "Someone has to show the courage, someone has to take the initiative. We are showing the courage and doing it."

Key Muslim personal law issues that are expected to be addressed are the age of marriage, polygamy and inheritance, said another BJP leader and a judiciary source, who both declined to be identified.

Muslim personal laws in India for instance, allow Muslim males and females to marry after attaining puberty while all other Indian males have to be 21 years old and females 18 years old to get married.

Muslim men are allowed to have up to four wives at the same time and Muslim men get double the share of female siblings during inheritance.

KEEP ALIVE

To start with, the government could raise the age of marriage for Muslims to match others, outlaw polygamy and mandate an equal share of inheritance for Muslim men and women, the BJP source said.

Just a handful of these changes may not qualify to be called UCC in the true sense, yet it would be major reform and a political achievement, the source said.

Legal experts and political analysts say even this would need extensive consultations and political consensus to get past parliament and there isn’t enough time before the elections.

BJP’s aim, therefore, appears to be to keep the issue in the public eye and enact the code if it returns to power as expected, they said.

"It will be raised in the run-up to 2024, it will be used, harnessed," said Zakia Soman, co-founder of the Indian Muslim Women's Movement, which strongly supports the UCC despite its reservations about the politics linked to it.

"The fact that it is being championed by the BJP government doesn’t help because the onslaught (on Muslims) has been very consistent and that gives credence to the conservative bogey that this is an attack on Muslims, an attack on Islam," she said. (Reuters)

VOINews, Jakarta - The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in a statement in a Joint Communiqué of the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Jakarta, Friday, reaffirmed its respect for sovereignty of Ukraine.

"(With) regard to Ukraine, we continued to reaffirm our respect for sovereignty, political independence, and territorial integrity (of Ukraine)," according to the statement from the ASEAN foreign ministers.

The ASEAN reiterated the call for compliance with the UN Charter and international law and also underscored the importance of an immediate cessation of hostilities and the serious engagement in a genuine dialogue for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.

ASEAN member states also supported the efforts of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in search of a peaceful solution.

Moreover, the ASEAN called for the facilitation of rapid, safe, and unhindered access to humanitarian assistance for those in need in Ukraine and for the protection of civilians, humanitarian personnel, and persons in vulnerable situations.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi affirmed that Indonesia pushes for the deepening of cooperation in food security between the ASEAN and Russia.

Indonesia calls for concrete collaboration to "save the world" amid the Russo-Ukrainian war.

"As a friend of Russia and Ukraine, Indonesia never stops to call for peace. Our partnership must realize this paradigm (of peace) in real actions," Marsudi stated.

The ASEAN will propose the ASEAN Leaders' Declaration on Strengthening Food Security and Nutrition in Time of Crises at this September's ASEAN Summit. (Antaranews)

VOINews, Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi encouraged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Canada to strengthen cooperation in food security at the ASEAN Post Ministerial Conference with Canada here on Thursday (July 13).

"As a global food powerhouse, Canada can play a crucial role as a reliable partner for ASEAN's food security by substantiating trade on quality agricultural and agrifood commodities," Marsudi noted, as cited from the statement transcript of the meeting.

The minister assessed that cooperation is essential because currently, the world is confronted by food insecurity that is caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, among others.

In addition, ASEAN countries are confronted by the El Nino threat that can affect food crop harvests and disrupt the global food supply chain.

Hence, Marsudi said Indonesia is hoping that the joint commitment to strengthen regional food security preparedness can be reflected in a joint statement during the ASEAN-Canada Summit, scheduled for September.

Marsudi noted that the ASEAN and Canada could also collaborate in agricultural technology, one of which is through the Scholarship and Educational Exchange Development (SEED).

Furthermore, regarding cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, Canada is expected to contribute to increasing women's and business groups' participation in regional peace and development.

The ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific (AOIP) provides space for women and businesses in regional peace and development, particularly through implementing the Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security and the Empowering Women for Sustainable Peace project.

"We also invite Canada to take part in the ASEAN Indo-Pacific Forum, a public-private dialogue forum to produce concrete cooperation," she remarked.

The strengthening of economic cooperation, including through the conclusion of the ASEAN-Canada Free Trade Agreement, was also discussed at Thursday's meeting.

ASEAN also encourages cooperation for strengthening human resources through the provision of scholarships. The other areas of cooperation that were also raised are regional connectivity, digital economy, green economy, smart city, and maritime security.

The ASEAN foreign ministers lauded Canada's support for ASEAN's centrality and leadership in the region.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, Melanie Joy, stated that Canada is keen to become a reliable partner for ASEAN. To this end, the country has readied US$2 billion for various projects in ASEAN.

The meeting approved the Draft Joint Statement of the ASEAN-Canada Strategic Partnership to be approved at the upcoming ASEAN-Canada Summit.  (Antaranews)