22/02/2026

theSun on Sunday FEB 22, 2026

WORLD 7

Brazil, India sign deal on critical minerals

energies and critical minerals is at the core of the pioneering agreement that we have signed today,” Lula said. The details of the deal were not immediately available. Nine other agreements and memoranda of understanding were finalised yesterday, the Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said, touching on digital cooperation, health, entrepreneurship and other fields. Lula arrived in New Delhi on Wednesday for a summit. He was given a ceremonial welcome yesterday before going into the meeting with Modi. The world’s most populous nation is already the 10th largest market for Brazilian exports, with bilateral trade topping US$15 billion (RM58.5 billion) last year.

NEW DELHI: India and Brazil signed an agreement on critical minerals and rare earths yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after talks in New Delhi with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The agreement “is a major step towards building resilient supply chains”, Modi said. Brazil has the world’s second largest reserves of critical minerals, which are used in everything from electric vehicles, solar panels and smartphones to jet engines and guided missiles. India, seeking to cut its dependence on top exporter China, has been expanding domestic production and recycling while scouting for new suppliers. “Increasing investments and cooperation in matters of renewable

The two countries have set a trade target of US$20 billion to be achieved by 2030. With China holding a near monopoly on rare earths production, some countries are seeking alternative sources. “Lula and Modi will have the opportunity to exchange views on ... the challenges to multilateralism and international trade,” said Brazilian diplomat Susan Kleebank, the secretary for Asia and the Pacific.

Brazil is India’s biggest partner in Latin America. Key Brazilian exports to India include sugar, crude oil, vegetable oils, cotton and iron ore. Demand for iron ore has been driven by rapid infrastructure expansion and industrial growth in India. – AFP Hague hearing brings hope

Lula and Modi before their meeting at Hyderabad House. – AFPPIC

AI summit still without statement

Families of drug war victims seek justice

NEW DELHI: A summit statement on how the world should approach the promises and pitfalls of artificial intelligence was still not published yesterday afternoon, a day after it had been expected at global talks in New Delhi. On Friday, India’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said there was “huge consensus on the declaration”, the details of which he declined to provide. He said the statement already had more than 70 signatories, but he hoped it would pass 80. “We are just trying to maximise the number,” the minister said as the five-day AI Impact Summit drew to a close. AFP contacted summit organisers and the IT Ministry for comment yesterday. The summit, attended by tens of thousands of people including top tech CEOs, was the fourth annual international meeting to discuss the implications of generative AI, and the first hosted by a developing country. Hot topics included the societal benefits of multilingual AI translation, the threat of job disruption and the heavy electricity consumption of data centres. But analysts said that the summit’s broad focus, and vague promises made at its previous editions in France, South Korea and Britain, would make concrete commitments unlikely. The United States, which did not sign last year’s AI summit statement, released its own bilateral declaration with India on Friday. The two countries agreed to “pursue a global approach to AI that is unapologetically friendly to entrepreneurship and innovation”. Also on Friday, White House technology adviser Michael Kratsios, head of the US delegation, warned against centralised control of generative AI. “As the Trump Administration has now said many times: We totally reject global governance of AI,” he said. – AFP

MANILA: Mary Ann Pajo watched quietly as cemetery workers opened her son’s tomb in Manila this week and removed his body for examination by a forensic pathologist. Accused of dealing drugs, 30 year-old Joewarski Pajo was shot dead while playing a game on his phone, one of thousands of extrajudicial killings alleged to have taken place under former president Rodrigo Duterte. A hearing begins at the International Criminal Court (ICC) tomorrow that will determine whether Duterte will stand trial over at least 76 of those deaths. “This hearing is what we have been waiting for,” Father Flavie Villanueva said after saying a prayer over Joewarski’s remains, the 126th body his group has exhumed as potential evidence. “It is important that (Duterte) faces the court in person, physically, for us to see if there is remorse on his part,” said Villanueva. However, the hope that Duterte would appear in person disappeared on Friday when ICC judges ruled that the octogenarian could waive his right to attend the hearing. “I am old, tired, and frail,” Duterte had said in a filing

A woman cries next to the urn of her son, who was among victims of extrajudicial killings, at a cemetery in Caloocan city. – AFPPIC

was involved in drugs but that is no reason to kill him,” she said. A significant percentage of his countrymen maintain Duterte did nothing wrong. “If Duterte committed a wrongdoing ... he only did it for the good of the country,” said Jovel Manzano, 34. Jessa Cangayaw, a massage therapist, said she had no qualms about Duterte’s crackdown. But Sheerah Escudero, whose teenage brother’s bullet-riddled body was found in 2017, said the hearing marked a step towards “accountability”. – AFP Manila hoped to bring even more “like-minded nations” into the fold. “We need to continuously develop our security and defence relations with (other countries), including joint patrols,” she said. An AFP journalist who flew to Thitu Island aboard a second plane saw Chinese navy and coast guard vessels patrolling near the island. – AFP

file cases against him,” said Lydjay Acopio, whose three-year old daughter Myca was killed in a police raid on the home she shared with her father. Fellow barista Rosalie Saludo said: “As long as his daughter (Vice-President Sara Duterte) is in office, as long as his allies are in office, he can still find a way to twist and distort justice.” Mary Grace Garganta, manager of the coffee shop, said she had been forced to move after police shot and killed her father in 2016. “I won’t deny that my father

making the request days earlier. Villanueva called Duterte’s request cowardly when reached on Thursday, noting the former president had already been declared fit to stand trial. “Accountability is something this person has no concept of,” he said. At a Manila coffee shop staffed by family members of those killed in the drug war, three employees said they believed justice would not have been possible in the Philippines. “No one in the Philippines can lay hands on Duterte, much less

Philippine senator calls out China in visit to disputed island THITU ISLAND: A Philippine senator called for deepening defence relationships and and their families, who China accuses of living there illegally. West Philippine Sea”, using Manila’s favoured term for the waters off its western seaboard. “We need continuous

It lies about 450km west of Palawan within the disputed Spratly island chain, a group of more than 700 islets, reefs and atolls believed to sit above vast natural resources. Senator Risa Hontiveros said she believed Filipinos were not ready to give up “any portion of the

“continuous” pushback against China’s claims in the South China Sea while visiting one of Manila’s tiny possessions in the disputed waterway yesterday. Thitu Island, known as Pag-asa in the Philippines, is home to about 400 Filipinos, mostly fishermen

diplomatic and political pushback,” Hontiveros said after a plane journey of more than two hours. While welcoming the strengthening of a treaty relationship with the United States in recent years, Hontiveros said