Japan’s requests that China cease its unilateral development falls on deaf ears

International news via Reuters:

China has begun construction of a new structure in waters between China and Japan in the disputed East China Sea, the Japanese foreign ministry said on Tuesday, adding it has lodged a protest with China. 

The ministry said in a statement “it is extremely regrettable” that China is pressing ahead with unilateral development when the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf in the East China Sea have not yet been delimited.

Japan requests that China cease its unilateral development and to resume talks on the implementation of a 2008 agreement, in which the two countries agreed to cooperate on natural resources development in the East China Sea, it also said.

Asked about Japan’s protest, China’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that its oil and gas development activities in the East China Sea were located in undisputed waters under Chinese jurisdiction.

“China does not accept Japan’s groundless accusations,” ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a regular news conference, adding that Beijing was committed to fully implementing the principled consensus on the East China Sea issue.

Japan’s ties with China have been plagued by a territorial dispute over a group of Japanese-administered islands in the East China Sea, called the Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, as well as the legacy of Japan’s past military aggression.  

Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo, Liz Lee and Xiuhao Chen in Beijing; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Michael Perry

NATO members agreed on Sunday to boost their defence spending target to 5% of GDP

International news via Reuters:

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that all 32 members of the NATO alliance should do their part in defence spending and commit to the agreed target so that there would be no sense of “free-riding”.

NATO members agreed in principle on Sunday to boost their defence spending target to 5% of gross domestic product, as demanded by U.S. President Donald Trump, but Spain said it could meet its commitments without spending so much.

“The point of an alliance is to make sure that there is a fair burden-sharing and that there is no sense that certain countries are sort of free-riding on the defence commitment of other countries,” Mitsotakis said as a NATO summit began in The Hague.

“So I think it is important to understand that these targets…should be binding and they should be binding for all 32 members of the alliance.”

Greece is now spending about 3% of its gross domestic product on defence – nearly double the average in the EU.

It has asked the European Commission to exempt its 2026 defence spending from the EU’s budget rules as part of the so-called fiscal escape clause as it aims to spend 25 billion euros ($29 billion) by 2036 under a multi-year defence plan to modernise its armed forces and as it tries to keep pace with its eastern neighbour and historical rival Turkey.

Mitsotakis says this will help Greece reach the 5% target by 2035.

($1 = 0.8613 euros)

Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Alison Williams and Kevin Liffey

Storm will test the flood defences of densely populated Guangdong, Guangxi and Hunan

International news via Reuters:

A tropical depression may hit southern China as early as Thursday, meteorologists cautioned, bringing rain and gales to a flood-hit region still recovering from the impact of Typhoon Wutip two weeks ago. 

The tropical depression could make landfall somewhere between the island province of Hainan and Guangdong on the mainland on Thursday morning, China’s National Meteorological Centre said in an online bulletin on Wednesday. 

The storm will again test the flood defences of densely populated Guangdong as well as Guangxi and Hunan further inland. 

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated when Wutip tore through the region from June 13 to 15, dumping record rains and damaging roads and cropland. Five people died. 

China has battled with summer floods for millennia, but some scientists say climate change is resulting in heavier and more frequent rain. Massive flooding could set off unforeseen “black swan” events with dire consequences such as dam collapses, Chinese officials say.

Heavy precipitation caused by typhoons will also aggravate seasonal rainfall from June to July, causing bigger-than-expected floods, Chinese meteorologists say.

On Wednesday, unusually heavy rains struck Rongjiang in southwestern Guizhou province, half-submerging the city of 300,000 people as fast-rising flood-waters swept away cars, roared into underground garages and malls, and damaged vital infrastructure including its power grid. 

Affected by the rainfall in Guizhou, rivers in Guangxi downstream remained swollen on Wednesday, state media reported, with one waterway more than 9 metres (30 feet) above levels that are considered safe. 

China’s economic planning agency in Beijing on Wednesday said it had urgently allocated 100 million yuan ($14 million) to assist disaster relief work in Guizhou, and an additional 100 million yuan to Guangdong and Hunan. 

($1 = 7.1715 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Reporting by Ryan WooEditing by Bernadette Baum