21/05/2025

WEDNESDAY | MAY 21, 2025

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WHO adopts landmark pandemic agreement

Trump gets talks pledge but no Ukraine ceasefire

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump said Russia and Ukraine would “immediately” start peace talks after he spoke with Vladimir Putin on Monday, despite the Russian leader rebuffing the US president’s call for an unconditional truce. Trump framed the two-hour conversation as a breakthrough as the Republican seeks an elusive deal to end the conflict that he promised on the campaign trail to solve within 24 hours. But Putin struck a more reserved tone, saying he was ready to work with Kyiv on a memorandum towards ending the war but insisting on compromises on both sides. Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, who has patched up relations with the US president after a blazing row in the Oval Office, urged Trump in a separate call not to make any decisions “without us”. Trump has pinned his hopes on ending the conflict on a personal bond with Putin, even as he shows growing frustration with the Kremlin leader’s refusal to do a deal. “I believe it went very well,” Trump said on his Truth Social network after Monday’s Putin call. “Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire and, more importantly, an end to the war.” Trump later said he thought Putin was ready for a ceasefire. “I believe he wants to stop. If I thought President Putin didn’t want to get this over with, I wouldn’t even be talking about it,”Trump said. Putin was more circumspect about the Trump call, even as he appeared to give one of the most concrete signs yet of being ready to discuss a ceasefire. “It was very informative and very open and overall, in my opinion, very useful,” Putin told Russian media after the call. He said that Russia would “propose and will be ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace agreement defining a range of positions.” The Russian president said more “compromises” were still needed. – AFP Hungarian MPs approve Bill to quit international court BUDAPEST: Hungary’s parliament approved a Bill yesterday that will start the country’s year-long withdrawal process from the International Criminal Court, which Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government said has become “political”. Orban’s government announced the move on April 3, shortly after Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Hungary for a state visit in a rare trip abroad in defiance of an ICC arrest warrant. The ICC’s Presidency of the Assembly of State Parties expressed concern at the move. The International Criminal Court was set up more than two decades ago to prosecute those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Orban last month said the ICC was “no longer an impartial court, a rule-of-law court, but rather a political court”. Hungary has rejected the idea of arresting Netanyahu and has called the warrant “brazen”. Hungary is a founding member of the ICC and ratified its founding document in 2001. However, the law has not been promulgated. The Bill to withdraw from the ICC passed yesterday with 134 members voting in favour and 37 against. “Hungary firmly rejects the use of international organisations, in particular criminal courts, as instruments of political influence,” the Bill said on parliament’s website. A country’s withdrawal from the ICC comes into effect one year after the UN secretary-general receives a written notification of the decision. – Reuters

Countries have until May next year to thrash out the details of the agreement’s Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing mechanism. The PABS mechanism deals with sharing access to pathogens with pandemic potential, and then sharing of benefits derived from them: vaccines, tests and treatments. Once the PABS system is finalised, the agreement can then be ratified. Sixty ratifications are required for the treaty to enter into force. Precious Matsoso of South Africa and France’s ambassador for global health Anne Claire Amprou co-chaired the negotiations process that led to the agreement. “It is intended to create a rules-based, future-proof system that will stand the test of time. It does not, and will not, undermine the sovereignty of countries,” she told the assembly on Monday. “In a time of growing geopolitical tensions and seismic changes, this agreement is proof that the world is still together.” – Reuters/AFP proceed with a two-month ceasefire that had largely halted the war with Hamas. A group of 22 countries, including France, Britain, Canada, Japan and Australia said in a joint statement that Gaza’s population “faces starvation” and “must receive the aid they desperately need”. Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman said Israel’s military offensive in Gaza had undermined peace efforts’ momentum after the release of US-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander. Qatar has, alongside Egypt and the United States, mediated efforts to end the war. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said nine aid trucks had been “cleared to enter Gaza but it is a drop in the ocean of what is urgently needed”. – AFP

world from future pandemic threats,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The treaty faced a late challenge on Monday when Slovakia called for a vote, as its prime minister demanded that his country challenge the adoption of the agreement. One hundred and twenty-four countries voted in favour, no countries voted against, while 11 countries, including Poland, Israel, Italy, Russia, Slovakia and Iran, abstained. The text of the agreement was finalised by consensus last month, following multiple rounds of tense negotiations. The agreement aims to better detect and combat pandemics by focusing on greater international coordination and surveillance, and more equitable access to vaccines and treatments. The negotiations grew tense amid disagreements between wealthy and Bassal said eight were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City and 12 in a strike on a house in Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Another 15 were killed in a strike on a petrol station near the Nuseirat refugee camp and nine in a strike on a house in the Jabalia camp. There was no immediate comment on the strikes from the Israeli military. Israel called up tens of thousands of reservists before expanding its military offensive, and sent in ground troops on Sunday. Israel’s security Cabinet approved earlier this month a plan to expand its offensive, which one official said would include the“conquest”of Gaza and the displacement of its population. Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid deadlock over how to

GENEVA: Members of the World Health Organisation adopted a landmark agreement yesterday on how to prepare for future pandemics. After three years of negotiations, the pact was adopted by the World Health Assembly in Geneva. The United States pulled out of the negotiations, following US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw his country from the WHO, a process that takes one year to complete. The pact is widely seen as a victory for members of the health agency at a time when multilateral organisations have been battered by sharp cuts in US foreign funding. “The agreement is a victory for public health, science and multilateral action. It will ensure we, collectively, can better protect the o 60 ratifications required for treaty to enter into force GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 44 people yesterday across the territory, where Israel has intensified a military offensive aimed at crushing Hamas. Aid trickled into the Gaza Strip on Monday for the first time in more than two months, following widespread condemnation of Israel’s total blockade that has sparked shortages of food and medicine. The Israeli army stepped up its offensive on Saturday, saying it was aimed at Hamas. Israeli strikes have since killed scores of people in the besieged coastal territory. “Civil defence teams have transferred (to hospitals) at least 44 dead, mostly children and women, as well as dozens of wounded” across Gaza since 1am (6am in Kuala Lumpur), said agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal.

developing countries. The agreement faced opposition from those who thought it would encroach on state sovereignty. 44 killed as Israel steps up Gaza offensive

Palestinians move with their belongings following Israeli evacuation orders for Khan Younis on Monday. – AFPPIC