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China protests ‘vilifying’ remarks at security forum

Hasina blamed for deadly attacks DHAKA: Exiled prime minister Sheikh Hasina orchestrated a “systemic attack” on protests against her government, Bangladeshi prosecutors said yesterday at the opening of her trial over the crackdown. “Upon scrutinising the evidence, we concluded it was a coordinated attack,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told the court in his opening speech. “The accused unleashed all law enforcement agencies and her armed party members to crush the uprising.” Hasina, who remains in self imposed exile in India, has rejected the charges as politically motivated. As well as Hasina, the case includes former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, who is in custody, and former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who has taken refuge outside the country. Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a campaign to silence the protesters, according to the United Nations. Islam has brought charges against Hasina and the two men of “abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder during the July uprising”. “This is not an act of vendetta, but a commitment to the principle that, in a democratic country, there is no room for crimes against humanity,” he said. Hasina, 77, fled by helicopter to India in August 2024 at the culmination of a student-led mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule, and has defied an extradition order to return to Dhaka. – AFP JAKARTA: Cyberspace is now a critical domain for Indonesia’s national defence, and stronger collaboration is needed to safeguard the country’s digital sovereignty, said Communication and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid. She said threats to national sovereignty increasingly originate in the digital domain, not just from land, sea or air, amid a rise in cyberattacks and spread of online disinformation. “Cyberspace is the heart of our modern defence. Safeguarding it means securing the nation’s future,”she said during a public lecture at the National Resilience Institute. – Bernama MYANMAR EXTENDS POST-QUAKE CEASEFIRE YANGON: Myanmar’s military government has extended a post earthquake truce, after the expiry of a previous humanitarian ceasefire it was accused of flouting. The government initially declared a truce in the civil war after a huge quake in late March killed nearly 3,800 people and left tens of thousands homeless. The truce has been extended before, although conflict monitors say fighting has continued. A statement from the information office on Saturday said there would be an extension of the armistice, which expired on Saturday, until June 30. This would ease rehabilitation and reconstruction in earthquake affected areas, it said. – AFP INDONESIA FOCUSES ON DIGITAL THREATS

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conquer Taiwan “would result in devastating consequences”. The ministry said: “The US should not try to use the Taiwan issue as a bargaining chip to contain China.” Beijing, which did not send its Defence Minister Dong Jun to the Singapore summit, called the “Taiwan issue” China’s “internal affair” and said foreign countries had no right to interfere. Hegseth also accused Beijing of “illegally seizing and militarising lands” in the disputed South China Sea. Beijing claims almost the entire waterway, despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit. The Foreign Ministry yesterday claimed there had “never been any issue” with navigation in the waterway. China “is committed to safeguarding its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in accordance with the law”, a ministry spokesperson said. – Reuters/AFP

Pacific region to spend more on defence after warning of the “real and potentially imminent” threat from China. “The United States has deployed offensive weaponry in the South China Sea and kept stoking flames and creating tensions in the Asia Pacific, which are turning the region into a powder keg,” the ministry said in the statement. As part of Washington’s longstanding defence ties with the Philippines, the US military this year deployed Typhon launchers that can fire missiles to hit targets in both China and Russia from the island of Luzon. China and the Philippines contest sovereignty over some islands and atolls in the South China Sea, with growing maritime run-ins between their coast guards as both vie to patrol the waters. The ministry also warned the United States not to “play with fire” on the Taiwan question. In his speech at Asia’s premier forum for defence leaders, military officials and diplomats, Hegseth said any attempt by China to

o US ignoring calls for peace, says Foreign Ministry BEIJING: China has protested to the United States over “vilifying” remarks made by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday, while accusing it of deliberately ignoring calls for peace from regional nations. China has objected to Hegseth calling it a threat in the Indo-Pacific, the ministry said, describing his comments at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Saturday as “deplorable” and “intended to sow division”. “Hegseth deliberately ignored the call for peace and development by countries in the region, and instead touted the Cold War mentality for bloc confrontation, vilified China with defamatory allegations, and falsely called China a ‘threat,’” the ministry said on its website. Hegseth had called on allies in the Indo

‘Beijing needs to overcome trust deficit’

SINGAPORE: China has a “deficit of trust and credibility”it needs to overcome to mend its fraught defence ties with the Philippines, though any breakthrough in the near term remains unlikely, Manila’s top defence official said on Saturday. Defence secretary

Gilberto Teodoro (pic) said the threat of China’s growing military prowess was “undeniable”, echoing comments from Pete Hegseth. “China’s activities are getting more expansive and more aggressive. Their demonstrations of force are getting more

frequent, and in the West Philippine Sea, we are getting used to their activities, but they have expanded the areas where they are doing it,” he said, referring to the South China Sea. In a wide-ranging interview on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore, Teodoro spoke of the frustration of dealing with Chinese military counterparts who rarely stray from talking points and propaganda and represent an institution that exists to serve the Communist Party leadership. “I believe my foreign affairs colleagues are trying their level best to engage China. But on the defence side, what we have seen is that China has to overcome a deficit of trust and credibility,” he said. “They continue their activities while gaslighting us that because the proximity and the defensive capabilities of the Philippines are not on par with Vietnam, so they choose us as an easy target.” But Teodoro said both the United States and the Philippines wanted to peacefully deter China and he remained confident in Washington’s security commitments after meeting Hegseth in Singapore. The Philippines has been among the most vocal critics of China’s growing assertion of sovereignty in the South China Sea, in contrast to some of its neighbours, who have adopted a cautious stance. “No country in Asean is subjected to the same amount of intense activities in all fronts by China, but the Philippines,” said Teodoro. – Reuters

ASIAN BEAUTY REIGNS ... Thailand’s Opal Suchata Chuangsri is overjoyed after being crowned Miss World by last year’s winner, Czech Republic’s Krystyna Pyszkova, at the 72nd Miss World finale in Hyderabad, India, on Saturday. This is Thailand’s first ever Miss World win. – REUTERSPIC