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SATURDAY | JUNE 21, 2025

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Thai PM meets army commander to defuse crisis

Indonesia touts growing ties with Russia

BEIJING: Central and southern China were on high alert for more flash floods yesterday as the annual East Asia monsoon gathered pace and extreme rainfall threatened disruption in the world’s second-largest economy. Red alerts, the first of this year, were issued on Thursday covering the provinces of Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Guizhou and Guangxi region, state news agency Xinhua reported, citing the Water Resources Ministry and national weather forecaster. Extreme rainfall and severe flooding, which meteorologists link to climate change, increasingly pose major challenges for policymakers as they threaten to overwhelm ageing flood defences, displace millions and wreak havoc on China’s agricultural sector. China’s rainy season, which arrived earlier than usual this year in June, is usually followed by intense heat that scorches any crops that survive waterlogged soil, depletes reservoirs, and warps roads and other infrastructure. On Thursday, heavy rain in southern Hunan triggered the largest floods since 1998 in the upper and lower reaches of the Lishui River after its water levels breached the safety mark by more than 2m. Videos uploaded to Douyin, what TikTok is known as in China, showed the river spilling onto main roads and carrying debris downstream. In the hilly metropolis of southwestern Chongqing, apartment blocks were submerged in muddy waters and some vehicles were swept away as floods gushed down streets, according to state media on Thursday. SAINT PETERSBURG: Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto met Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Thursday and hailed growing ties with Moscow in a burgeoning relationship that has caused concern among some of Jakarta’s Western allies. The former Indonesian general’s decision to skip the G7 summit in Canada this week in favour of talks with Putin has raised fears of a tilt towards Moscow, analysts say, after the nations held their first joint naval drills last year. “Our relationship is getting stronger again,“ Prabowo said in a statement after talks in Saint Petersburg. “My meeting with Putin was intense, warm and productive. All fields of economics, technical cooperation, trade, investment, agriculture have experienced significant improvements.” Putin said Indonesia remains one of Russia’s “key partners” in the Asia-Pacific region. “Our relations are mutually beneficial and steadily developing on the basis of long-standing traditions of friendship and mutual assistance.“ Prabowo also thanked Putin for his support for Indonesia’s entry into the BRICS bloc this year. He visited Putin in July as president-elect and has not visited Ukraine, as his predecessor Joko Widodo did. Russia has praised Indonesia’s balanced view of its military campaign in Ukraine. “We respect the sovereignty of each country. We want to solve all problems peacefully,“ said Prabowo. Indonesia maintains a neutral foreign policy, walking the diplomatic tightrope between regional competitors Beijing and Washington. However, Prabowo has sought to diversify Jakarta’s alliances instead of relying solely on Western partners, causing anxiety that he could deviate from the traditional non-aligned foreign policy. – AFP

man-overboard capped a week of exercises off Japan’s southwest coast that began on Monday. Dozens of personnel took part in the drills that officials said are not targeted at any specific nation, using language often employed by Washington to indirectly refer to China. Japanese Coast Guard regional head Hiroaki Odachi said the exercises aimed to contribute “to the realisation of a free and open” Asia-Pacific region. Tensions between China and other claimants Coalition party Chartthaipattana said on Thursday it would not withdraw, after urgent talks on the crisis with the Democrats and the United Thai Nation party. With the departure of Bhumjaithai, the government led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party holds a thin majority in parliament. Paetongtarn travelled to Thailand’s northeast yesterday to patch things up with Lt-Gen Boonsin Padklang, the commander of the forces in northeast Thailand, where the border clashes took place. She referred to Boonsin as her “opponent” in the leaked call with Hun Sen, in which they discussed the border dispute. Thailand has formally protested to Cambodia about the leak, calling it a breach of diplomatic protocol that damaged trust between the two sides. Paetongtarn was criticised as being weak and deferential in the call with Hun Sen, a veteran politician known as a wily operator, but her comments about the army commander were potentially the most damaging to her. Thailand’s Armed Forces have long played a powerful role in the kingdom’s politics and

politicians are careful not to antagonise them. When she made her public apology, she did so standing in front of army and police chiefs in a show of unity. There were small street protests on Thursday and calls from across the political spectrum for her to quit or announce an election, but her apology and backing from some of her coalition partners appear to have shored up her position for now. Paetongtarn took office in August last year at the head of an uneasy alliance between Pheu Thai and a group of conservative, pro-military parties. Thaksin, 75, was thrown out in a military coup in 2006, and the bitter tussle between the conservative, royalist establishment and the political movement he founded dominated Thai politics throughout that time. The former Manchester City owner still enjoys huge support from the rural base, whose lives he transformed with populist policies in the early 2000s. But he is despised by Thailand’s powerful elites, who saw his rule as corrupt, authoritarian and socially destabilising. – AFP to parts of the East and South China Seas have driven Japan to deepen ties with the Philippines and the United States in recent years. Last year, the three countries issued a joint statement that included strong language towards Beijing. “We express serious concerns about the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) dangerous and aggressive behaviour in the South China Sea,“ it said, describing “dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels”. They also expressed “strong opposition to any attempts by PRC to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion in the East China Sea”. Chinese and Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea also routinely stage face-offs around disputed islands. Yesterday marked the 214th straight day that Chinese vessels have been spotted sailing near the Tokyo-administered disputed islets known as the Diaoyu Islands in China and the Senkaku Islands in Japan, according to the Japanese Coast Guard. The record is 215 straight days in 2023-2024. “Such persistent intrusion raises a risk of accidental collision or confrontation in the East China Sea,“ said University of Tokyo economic security and policy innovation programme director Daisuke Kawai. “The South China Sea is regarded as one of the world’s most volatile flashpoints, I would say, where any accident at sea could escalate into a border crisis. “A trilateral Coast Guard framework bolsters maritime domain awareness and law enforcement capacity, making it harder for any one nation to pick off a smaller player in isolation.“ The three countries have also carried out joint military exercises to bolster regional cooperation. Last week, Tokyo and Beijing traded barbs over close encounters between their military planes over the Pacific high seas. Japan said recent Chinese military activities in the Pacific, where Beijing’s two operating aircraft carriers were sighted simultaneously for the first time, reveal its intent to improve operational capacity in remote areas. – AFP

BANGKOK: Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra yesterday visited an army commander that she called an “opponent” in a leaked phone call as she strives to defuse a crisis threatening to topple her government. The 38-year-old leader, in office for less than a year, made a public apology on Thursday as anger flared over the call with former Cambodian leader Hun Sen that appeared online. Her main coalition partner, the conservative Bhumjaithai party, pulled out on Wednesday, saying she had insulted the country and army. There was better news for Paetongtarn, daughter of controversial billionaire and former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, yesterday as another important coalition partner, the conservative Democrat Party, pledged to stay. “The Democrat Party will remain in the government to help resolve the challenges the country is facing,” the party said in a statement. o Democrat Party pledges to help resolve challenges Thai Prime KAGOSHIMA: Japan’s Coast Guard simulated a collision between vessels yesterday during joint exercises with the United States and the Philippines that was seen as a show of unity against Chinese activity in disputed regional waters. It is the second time the countries’ Coast Guards have held training drills together, following their first joint maritime exercise in the Philippines in 2023. The simulation of a collision, fire and

Japan, US and Philippines hold Coast Guard drills

China on high alert for more floods

A resident cleaning up a street after heavy rainfall led to flooding in the Huaiji county of Zhaoqing, Guangdong province. – REUTERSPIC

precipitation from the mountains, state broadcaster CCTV reported. On Wednesday, power supply was disrupted in the city of Zhaoqing in southern Guangdong province as floodwaters rose more than 5m above warning levels, breaking historical records, local media reported. – Reuters

In some cases, the floodwaters almost reached the top of power lines. Nearly 300 people were evacuated from towns and villages in a mountainous county in Chongqing, where cumulative daily rainfall had reached 304mm, with at least one local river swelling by 19m due to converging