01/07/2025

TUESDAY | JULY 1, 2025

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UN conference seeking boost for development aid

poured troops into in 1950. The Dalai Lama has been lauded by his followers for his tireless campaign for greater autonomy for Tibet, a vast high-altitude plateau in China about the size of South Africa. He handed over political authority in 2011 to an exiled government chosen democratically by 130,000 Tibetans globally. He also warned that the future of his spiritual post faced an “obvious risk of vested political interests misusing the reincarnation system”. – AFP They also included garter snakes, a rhino rat snake and a Kenyan sand boa, among others. In early June, Customs officers stopped a passenger smuggling dozens of venomous vipers, also arriving from Thailand. Days later, officers stopped another traveller carrying 100 creatures, including lizards, sunbirds and tree-climbing possums. – AFP Snakes seized by India Customs again NEW DELHI: Indian Customs officers in Mumbai said they have stopped a plane passenger arriving from Thailand with a cargo of live snakes, the third such seizure this month. The passenger, who arrived on Sunday, has been arrested, the agency said in a statement, with “further investigation under way”. The live snakes included reptiles often sold in the pet trade and were largely non-venomous or with venom too weak to affect people. Lee expressed hope for Wong’s participation in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit to be held in South Korea’s Gyeongju later this year, while Wong wished for the summit to be successful and voiced hope for continued high-level exchanges, it added. – Bernama-Xinhua S. Korea, S’pore to elevate bilateral union SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae-myung and Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong spoke on the phone yesterday and agreed to elevate bilateral ties in a wide range of areas, the presidential office said, Yonhap News Agency reported. In their first phone conversation since Lee took office earlier this month, the two leaders agreed to establish a strategic partnership to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations, said presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung. “They agreed to deepen strategic cooperation in a comprehensive area, including peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and future growth sectors, such as artificial intelligence and the digital sector,” the office said in a release.

States walked out. The reaffirmed commitment to UN development goals, such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting gender equality, and reforming tax systems and international financial institutions. The text also called on development banks to triple their lending capacity, urged lenders to ensure predictable finance for essential social spending and for more cooperation against tax evasion. Coalitions of countries will seek to spearhead initiatives in addition to the so-called “Seville Commitment”, which is not legally binding. The document shows that the world can address the financial challenges standing in the way of achieving the development goals “and that multilateralism could still work”, said Zambia’s Permanent UN Representative Chola Milambo. However, campaigners have criticised the text for lacking ambition and have rung alarm bells about rising global inequality. “Global development is desperately failing because the interests of a very wealthy few are put over those of everyone else,” said Oxfam executive director Amitabh Behar. – AFP document

Disruption to global trade from Trump’s tariffs and conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have dealt further blows to the diplomatic cohesion necessary for concentrating efforts on helping countries escape poverty. Among the key topics up for discussion is reforming international finance to help poorer countries shrug off a growing debt burden that inhibits their capacity to achieve progress in health and education. The total external debt of the group of least developed countries has more than tripled in 15 years, according to UN data. A recent report commissioned by the late Pope Francis and coordinated by Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said 3.3 billion people live in countries that fork out more on interest payments than on health. Critics have singled out US-based bulwarks of the post-World War II international financial system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund for reform to improve their representation of the Global South. Painstaking talks in New York in June produced a common declaration to be adopted in Seville that only went ahead after the United

o US absence underlines erosion of international cooperation on addressing hunger, disease and climate change

SEVILLE: A United Nations (UN) conference aiming to rally fresh support for development aid began in Spain yesterday, with the sector in crisis as US-led funding cuts jeopardise the fight against poverty. At least 50 world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Kenya’s William Ruto, European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen and UN head Antonio Guterres, will be gathered in the city of Seville until Thursday. However, the United States is snubbing the biggest such talks in a decade, underlining the erosion of international cooperation on addressing hunger, disease and climate change. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose country has tried to promote Global South priorities such as debt during its presidency of the G20 club of wealthy nations, cancelled his visit for domestic political reasons. More than 4,000 representatives

Sokhna Ndiaye of the Africa Development Interchange Network called on the public and private sectors to be “less selfish and show more solidarity” with developing countries. Hours earlier, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said “the very fact that this conference is happening while conflict is raging across the globe is a reason to be hopeful”. Speaking at an event by non-profit Global Citizen, he reiterated Madrid’s commitment to reach 0.7% of GDP in development aid and urged other countries to do the same. Pan-African advocacy group Afrodad executive director Jason Braganza said countries, including the United States, the European Union and Britain, have from businesses, civil society and financial institutions are attending the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development. UN Sustainable Development Goals set for 2030 are slipping from reach as the world’s wealthiest countries are withdrawing funding for development programmes. US President Donald Trump’s gutting of US development agency USAID is the standout example, with Germany, Britain and France among other rich economies making cuts when faced with competing priorities, such as defence. International charity Oxfam said the cuts to development aid are the largest since 1960 while the UN put the growing gap in annual development finance at US$4 trillion (RM16.87 trillion). More than 800 million people live on less than US$3 per day, according to the World Bank, with rising extreme poverty affecting sub-Saharan Africa in particular.

Protesters demand debt cancellation, climate action SEVILLE: Activists marched in blistering heat through southern Spain’s Seville on Sunday, calling for debt cancellation, climate justice and taxing the super rich on the eve of a United Nations (UN) summit on financing development that critics say lacks ambition and scope. Beauty Narteh of Ghana’s Anti-Corruption Coalition said her group wants a fairer tax system and “dignity, not handouts”.

The four-day meeting, held once every decade, promises to take on poverty, disease and climate change by mapping out the global framework for development. But the United States’s decision to pull out and wealthy countries’ shrinking appetite for foreign aid have dampened hopes that the summit would bring about significant change. Greenpeace members carried a float depicting billionaire Elon Musk as a baby wielding a chainsaw, seated atop a terrestrial globe. Others held up placards reading “Make human rights great again”, “Tax justice now” or “Make polluters pay”.

Protesters with the float of Elon Musk, placards and banners taking part in the march on Sunday. – REUTERSPIC

obstructed efforts to organise a UN convention on sovereign debt. Afrodad had taken part in the year-long negotiation on the conference’s final outcome document.

“It is a shame that these countries have opted to protect their own interests and those of creditors over lives that are being lost,” added Braganza. – Reuters

Dalai Lama suggests institution to continue MCLEOD GANJ: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, at prayer celebrations for his 90th birthday yesterday gave the strongest indication yet that the 600-year-old institution would continue after his death. talk about its continuation”, he said, speaking in Tibetan. The leader, who turns 90 on July 6, and thousands of other Tibetans have lived in exile in India since Chinese troops crushed an uprising in the Tibetan capital Lhasa in 1959.

non-violence, compassion and the enduring struggle for Tibetan cultural identity under Chinese rule. His advancing age has sparked concern over the future of Tibetan leadership and the delicate question of his succession. While China condemns him as a rebel and separatist, the internationally recognised Dalai Lama describes himself as a “simple Buddhist monk”. Many exiled Tibetans fear that China would name a successor to bolster control over a territory it

continue to dedicate myself to the wellbeing of others.“ The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Buddhist Tenzin Gyatso is expected to reveal if there will be another Dalai Lama after him. The Dalai Lama has said the institution would continue only if there is popular demand, and is widely expected to reveal that decision tomorrow. The occasion carries profound weight not only for Tibetans, but also for global supporters who see the Dalai Lama as a symbol of

Draped in traditional maroon and yellow robes, he sat and listened to speeches and chants of monks, nuns, pilgrims as well as well-wishers from across the world. “Although I am 90 years old, physically I am very healthy. “In the time I have left, I will

The Dalai Lama joined thousands of Buddhist followers in the celebrations, an event resonating far beyond the Indian Himalayan town where he has lived for decades. “As far as the institution of the Dalai Lama, there will be some kind of a framework within which we could