In its annual report on Beijing’s military, which was released on Thursday( Oct 19 ), the Pentagon stated that China currently has more than 500 operational nuclear warheads in its arsenal and will likely have over 1, 000 by 2030. China also has a lot fewer nuclear weapons than RussiaContinue Reading
Following a vote this week by the city’s local assembly, former mayor Virginia Raggi announced on Thursday( Oct 19 ) that Julian Assange, the founder of Jailed WikiLeaks, will become an honorary citizen of Rome by early next year. Assange, 52, has been incarcerated in London’s high-security Belmarsh jail sinceContinue Reading
Another illustration of this was the southeastern Hambantota Port, which made the nation the poster child for the so-called Chinese debt trap story after a Taiwanese state-owned operator took command of the harbor after Sri Lanka defaulted on its money.
But, like Mr. Sabry, some researchers have also criticized the so-called debt trap diplomacy.
It’s never a debt trap that China created, Advocata Institute Murtaza Jafferjee, president of legislation think tank. However, we have debt problems because about 55 % of our total debt is private loan.
The remainder is external debt, he added, adding that it is thought that the public sector debt of the nation is among the highest in a middle-income nation at 128 percent of gross domestic product ( GDP ).
Sri Lanka has garnered significant attention not only from China but also from India and the United States due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, though the jury is still out as to whether Chinese income is more of a gift or curse.
Mr. Sabry responded that Sri Lanka is in the center and does not take sides in response to the question of whether the nation appears to be caught up in a major power play.
” We don’t want any conflict with anybody.” Without a doubt, we won’t permit anyone to harm another nation or establish their military bases in our yard. But he added,” We have a strategic relationship with each of them.
KUALA LUMPUR: The local law firms that participated in the negotiations of two highly secretive multi-billion dollar settlement agreements related to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd ( 1MDB ) scandal are now playing a bigger part in Malaysia’s campaign against US banking giant Goldman Sachs.
The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission ( MACC ) and Rosli Dahlan Sarvana Partnership ( RDS Partnership) are currently embroiled in a potentially contentious legal dispute over the surrender of records and banking account information related to the 1MDB case.
Two weeks ago, the MACC raided the law firms’ offices, but the company’s requests for documents pertaining to the lawsuit negotiations were denied on the grounds of the client being confidential. As a result, the MACC was compelled to take the case to court.
The Malaysian High Court will hear arguments from both sides somewhere in early November, according to attorneys involved in the legal difference.
The management of the settlement agreements by the prior administration, led by former top Muhyiddin Yassin, with US banks behemoth Goldman Sachs and the nation’s sixth-largest banking establishment AmBank Group, has now come under scrutiny as a result of disclosures in court filings made prior to the hearings reviewed by CNA next week.
The Muhyiddin administration’s decision to settle with Goldman Sachs more than two months prior to the US bank behemoth entering into a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice in October 2020 after admitting to conspiring to break the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the 1MDB incident is the most notable of these. & nbsp,
Additionally, recently unrevealed information about the government’s agreement with AmBank, which was the main local financial institution in charge of all 1MDB-related counts, has been made public by the court papers.
While Chetan Jetwani and Company represented the US banks behemoth in the settlement agreement conversations, RDS Partnership had acted as the Indonesian government’s legal counsel during the Goldman Sachs and AmBank communities.
A letter by RDS Partnership that was filed in court noted that the central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, hadcautioned Mr Muhyiddin, who served as premier for 17 months beginning March 2020, that publicly-listed AmBank should not be penalised more than RM600 million (US$125.9 million) “as anything more could cause the collapse of the banking system”.
The RDS Partnership text added that its top partner, attorney Rosli Dahlan, who served as the government’s top private-sector negotiator, had spoken directly with AmBank management and was able to secure the repayment of a RM2.8 billion fine for its involvement in the 1MDB scandal in February 2021.
Why AmBank consented to a significantly higher good was not stated in the letter.
To confirm Japan’s findings, the IAEA group, which included researchers from China, South Korea, and Canada, was gathering samples of seafood, water,and sediment this week. According to Paul McGinnity, a vision representative, the goal was” to determine whether the Chinese labs are measuring and analysing appropriately” deuterium levels. Tritium isContinue Reading
TAIPEI: Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC reported a smaller-than-anticipated 25 % decline in third-quarter net profit on Thursday( Oct 19 ) and said it sees signs of stability, raising hopes that the semiconductor industry is on track for recovery. The largest lease chip manufacturer in the world was optimistic about the comingContinue Reading
BEIJING: The Israel-Has conflict has cast a shadow over the Middle East, and Chinese President Xi Jinping told Egypt’s prime minister on Thursday( Oct 19) that their nations should cooperate to take” more balance” to the area. Since Palestinian violent party Hamas launched surprise attacks into Israel on October 7,Continue Reading
Analyst James Chin, a professor of Eastern studies at the University of Tasmania, told CNA that Mr. Anwar officially reiterated Malaysia’s position on the matter and its support for the Palestinian cause while taking domestic government into account.
He continued,” We know the Americans don’t like it, but they’ll understand why he’s doing it— to demonstrate his standing within the Arab community.”
There won’t get any pushback in all, generally speaking. Everyone is aware that it is democratic grandstanding, and he is not the only one who is engaging in it. Indian organizations are also engaged in it. It is neither novel nor sudden. & nbsp,
Pushing for support for the Parti Se-Islam Malaysia( PAS ) was a good way to demonstrate Mr. Anwar’s Islamic credentials, according to Prof. Chin, as the majority of Malay voters support it. & nbsp,
Because there are sizable Arab populations in Singapore, the southern Philippines, and southern Thailand, in addition to the Muslim-majority countries of Indonesia and Malaysia, it is also a great issue for him to assume some sort of leadership position among Southeast Asian nations, he said. & nbsp,
Dr. Azmi of the Nusantara Academy thought that because Malaysia’s position did not include a significant impact, it wouldn’t have an impact on how the nation interacted with the West.
Saudi Arabia, which has a significant effect in that area, is no Malaysia, in my opinion. Therefore, he said,” When Malaysia says this, it won’t change the harmony of politics it.”
Nazri Aziz, the ambassador of Malaysia to the United States, informed Malay journalist Astro Awani that the Department of State was dissatisfied with Malaysia’s position on the matter.
Nevertheless, he asserted that the nation do not give in to pressure from any group for Hamas and Palestine’s support. & nbsp,
The former ambassador, Mr. Ignatius, stated that each nation in the region has its own distinct viewpoints on its positions as a result of different factors.
” We have consistently insisted that until a deal is reached, Israel will not be recognized.
Yet Arab nations have normalized relations, but this is our stance, and we have remained steadfast in it. It comes down to maxims, and one of the few rules we have upheld day in and day out, he said.
Mr. Ignatius even doesn’t understand why the conflict between Israel and Hamas should have an impact on Malaysia’s relations with other nations simply because of their divergent viewpoints.
He asserted that, for instance, not every nation in ASEAN needs to share a place on every issue, particularly non-regional problems. & nbsp,
We can only be accountable for our placement, he said. Another nations does have a position that is opposed to ours or be more natural.
Three sources with firsthand knowledge of the situation claim that Country Garden’s bondholders are requesting serious discussions with the business and its advisors after the troubled real estate developer missed a US$ 15 million discount payment, putting it in default risk. According to the options, who declined to be namedContinue Reading
The typical objective outlined in their mutual declaration was the” transfer of power in the world ,” an ending to US supremacy, and the redefining of democracy and human rights as whatever a given state says they are, regardless of whether Putin disclosed to Xi specifics of his impending plans to invade Ukraine at their 2022 meeting.
For certain, Xi didn’t foresee Russia’s war machine being humiliated in Ukraine or that the West may react by uniting and expanding rather than by imploding, any more than Putin did. In a similar vein, it’s unlikely that Xi anticipated the latest Middle East blaze when the two officials met in February 2022.
However, trouble in Ukraine or the Middle East is a gain for China in terms of an all-out political conflict with the US. Both rely on US tools and focus. Both challenged the status quo. Options for Xi may arise as the US becomes involved in Israel’s retaliation against Hamas in Gaza and its partnerships with the Gulf Arab state will become strained.
Therefore, China has avoided any open criticism of Hamas while criticizing Israel for its social punishment of Palestinians in reply, only as Putin quickly laid the blame for the horrifying attack on Israeli civilians at the entrance of the US.
Putin and Xi are doubling down on their achievements in convincing the so-called Global South that the issue isn’t Russian anger in Ukraine or Hamas’ hideous criminal deeds in Israel, but rather the continued colonization of the US and Europe by courting the Arab world in this way.
Never mind the Taiwanese detention of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province or the Russian destruction of Muslim Tatars in the occupied Crimea. The Arab injustice, with its imperial overtones and extensive background in centuries of conflict over control of the Holy Land, can infuriate the Arab Street unlike any other, which is why the story works.
But be prepared for Xi and Putin to deliver more vehement anti-Western messages this year. They may have experienced some financial and military failures, in Russia’s case, but they are making good progress when it comes to uniting various countries behind their produce.