27/05/2025

TUESDAY | MAY 27, 2025

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Call for a world order based on law

He promised to cut his own term to three years if he is elected as the next leader so presidential and general elections could happen in the same year from 2028. He also pledged to strike down presidential immunity. Yoon was a member of the PPP until he resigned from the party on May 17. In recent years, presidential candidates from across the political spectrum have supported revisions including giving presidents two four-year terms, but there have been few concrete steps after new leaders were chosen. A Gallup Korea opinion survey last month found 67% of respondents supported revising the constitution to fix the presidential system, with 21% saying it is unnecessary. In April, Lee rejected a proposal by Woo Won-shik, the speaker of the parliament, to hold a referendum on constitutional reform on the June 3 presidential election day. At the time Lee said ending the political turmoil was the top priority. The next president should begin to gather public consensus based on election pledges for the constitutional amendment and move forward with bipartisan support, he said on Sunday. Kim and his party criticised Lee for not pledging to reduce the term for the next presidency, but Lee said stable governance and economic recovery would be more important for the next leader than spending much of the term only on the constitutional revision. – Reuters “It is truly a new page being written between our two countries ... a desire to write an even more ambitious page of the relationship between Vietnam and France, between Asean and the European Union,” Macron said. After paying tribute at a Hanoi war memorial to those who fought against French colonial occupation, Macron met his counterpart Cuong. The president later had lunch with Communist Party General Secretary To Lam at the capital’s star attraction, the Temple of Literature. Lam is considered the most powerful leader in Vietnam, a one party state which tolerates no dissent and moves quickly to suppress any criticism. Ahead of Macron’s first official visit to the country, Human Rights Watch pressed him to voice concerns about “the Vietnamese government’s worsening rights record”. Vietnam has more than 170 political prisoners who have been charged and convicted under “draconian laws” that criminalise free expression and peaceful activism for human rights and democracy, Human Rights Watch said. A public appeal would be out of character for the French president, who regularly says he prefers to raise sensitive issues behind closed doors. Macron hopes to sell Hanoi his offer of a “third way” between Washington and Beijing. “Vietnam is on the front line of tensions in the South China Sea,” said a senior French diplomatic official.

o Macron offers Hanoi a third way

HANOI: France’s Emmanuel Macron called in Vietnam yesterday for the preservation of a world order “based on law”, as he started a tour of Southeast Asia, a region caught up in the confrontation between the United States and China. During a press statement alongside his Vietnamese counterpart Luong Cuong in Hanoi, Macron said a rules-based order was necessary at “a time of both great imbalance and a return to power driven rhetoric and intimidation”. The president presented France as a reliable alternative for Vietnam, caught between Washington, which is threatening to impose enormous levies on its exports to the United States, and Beijing, an important trade partner with which it is also embroiled in territorial disputes in the South China Sea. After his arrival in Hanoi late Sunday, the first stop of a six-day trip that will take in Indonesia and Singapore, Macron emphasised a shared vision with Vietnam, a country of 100 million people experiencing stellar growth. Yesterday, around a dozen agreements were signed between the two countries, including in the field of nuclear power, which Hanoi is keen to develop as it seeks to meet soaring energy demands.

Macron meets President Luong Cuong at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. – REUTERSPIC

where the law of the strongest prevails”. Vietnam has been careful to follow its own balancing act. It has adopted a “bamboo diplomacy” approach of seeking strength through flexibility, or looking to stay on good terms with the world’s major powers. – AFP

Macron’s “Indo-Pacific strategy”, which proposes a third way to the countries of the region, has gained new relevance due to Trump’s trade war, according to the aide. He said the president was “defending the idea of international trade rules, we don’t want a jungle

Hanoi Washington’s concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested waterway, but it has close economic ties with its giant neighbour. Vietnam has also been threatened with a hefty 46% tariff by US President Donald Trump. shares

Darwin Port move criticised SYDNEY: China’s ambassador to Canberra has criticised the Australian government’s intention to return Darwin Port to local ownership, saying the company running the strategically located northern port should not be punished. deserves encouragement, not punishment. It is ethically questionable to lease the port when it was unprofitable and then seek to reclaim it once it becomes profitable,” he said in a statement. An Australian government

South Koreans eye constitutional change to president’s power

host US bombers and fighter jets on a rotational basis, as it increases defence cooperation with the United States. The awarding of the contract to Landbridge by the Northern Territory government came just a few years after the United States posted the first of a rotating group of US Marines in Darwin. Landbridge said last month the port was not for sale, and in a statement yesterday said it had “not yet received any engagement from the government at any level”. “It is business as usual at Darwin Port, as we continue to focus on the growth of our operations,” said Terry O’Connor, Landbridge Australia’s non-executive director. Landbridge welcomed the Chinese ambassador’s comments, which came after Xiao toured the port in Darwin last week, he added. – Reuters launch accident, work to restore the balance of the warship is being actively conducted,” KCNA said. South Korea’s military said that Washington and Seoul’s intelligence authorities had assessed that North Korea’s “side-launch attempt” of the ship failed, and the vessel was left listing in the water. KCNA, however, reported that an “underwater and internal inspection of the warship confirmed that, unlike the initial announcement, there were no holes made at the warship’s bottom”, calling the extent of the damage “not serious”. – AFP

SEOUL: South Korea’s political crisis has ignited bipartisan calls for constitutional amendments to reshape the power of the president, an issue hotly debated ahead of the June 3 snap election. The election was called

spokesperson said the port was not only vital to the region’s economic success, but “also a critical infrastructure asset of national importance”. “The Australian government is working closely with the Northern Territory Government on next steps,” the spokesperson said. Albanese said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation radio interview in April that his government wants the port to “be in Australian hands”, and would directly intervene and buy the port if it was unable to find a private buyer. Australia is building up its northern military bases, which will

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in April during the election campaign that his government was working on a plan to force the sale of Darwin Port from its Chinese owner on national interest grounds. Australia sold the commercial port on a 99-year lease to Chinese company Landbridge in 2015, a move that was criticised by the US president at the time, Barack Obama. Around 2,000 US Marines exercise for six months of the year in the city. Ambassador Xiao Qian said Landbridge Group had invested in the port and contributed to the local economy. “Such an enterprise and project

after former president Yoon Suk Yeol was impeached and removed from office over his shock martial law decree in December, and contenders from the major parties have vowed to pursue constitutional reforms. “Chances to succeed in a

constitutional amendment are higher than ever,” said Chae Jin-won, a professor at Kyunghee University’s Institute of Public Governance. The constitution was last revised in 1987 to introduce direct presidential elections and a single, five-year term. Changes have long been debated but never implemented. Frontrunner Lee Jae-myung (pic) , of the liberal Democratic Party, has proposed four years in office and two consecutive terms for presidents who would take office from 2030, a run-off system for presidential elections and parliamentary nomination on the prime minister. “The responsibility of the president should be strengthened and powers should be decentralised,” he said on May 18. Kim Moon-soo, presidential nominee from the conservative People Power Party, has also unveiled a reform proposal including a four year, two-term presidential system for future presidents.

North Korea detains another official over ship mishap SEOUL: North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the 5,000 tonne naval destroyer. detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident”, it said.

Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the newly built destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness”. Ri Hyong Son, vice-department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and

Ri is the fourth person reportedly detained in connection with the accident, following the detention of three individuals over the weekend, including the chief engineer at the shipyard. KCNA reported on Friday that shipyard manager Hong Kil Ho had been summoned by law enforcement “At the scene of the destroyer