05/05/2026

TUESDAY | MAY 5, 2026 7 Singapore, NZ tie up on supply chains SINGAPORE: The leaders of Singapore and New Zealand signed an agreement yesterday to keep their supply chains open during times of crisis, and said they hoped the agreement would be a model for other countries to create a network of trusted partners. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon witnessed the signing with his counterpart, Lawrence Wong, on his visit to Singapore, which comes as energy supplies are disrupted by the war in the Middle East. A third of New Zealand’s fuel is refined in Singapore. The Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies was concluded during Wong’s visit to New Zealand in October last year, before the Middle East conflict broke out. The agreement ensures both countries can continue to trade an agreed list of goods during times of crisis, including fuel, medical and construction-related products. Wong said that he would welcome other countries in the region coming on board with the new standard. Luxon said he would welcome interest in the framework of the deal from like-minded countries, given the challenges of the geopolitical shift to a multilateral world guided by rules. – Reuters Earthquake rocks Samar island MANILA: A magnitude 6 earthquake struck Samar island in central Philippines yesterday, and authorities warned of aftershocks but said there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The Philippine seismology agency said the earthquake hit near San Julian town in Eastern Samar province at a depth of 56km and warned of possible aftershocks from the tremor. Thomas Campomanes, the disaster officer for Eastern Samar, said there were some early reports of superficial cracks in some buildings but none of major damage. There were also no immediate reports of injuries or fatalities from disaster officials on the ground. He said the earthquake was strong, and lasted for around 30 seconds. “We were like being dribbled up and down,” Campomanes said by phone. Employees at a local government building have evacuated and are still outside while engineers assess the site, he said. The Philippines is in the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where volcanic activity and earthquakes are common. The country experiences more than 800 quakes each year. – Reuters Taiwan, Eswatini ties win praise TAIPEI: Taiwan is a“trusted and capable”partner of the United States and Taipei’s relationships, including with Eswatini, provide significant benefits, the US State Department said of President Lai Ching-te’s trip to the southern African kingdom. Lai arrived in the former Swaziland on Saturday on a surprise visit. “Taiwan is a trusted and capable partner of the United States and many others, and its relationships around the world provide significant benefits to the citizens of those countries, including Eswatini,” a State Department spokesperson said. Eswatini, home to around 1.3 million people, is one of just 12 countries with formal diplomatic ties to Taiwan, and the only one in Africa, where China has deep economic relationships. China has condemned Lai’s trip, which he made on an Eswatini government aircraft. Taiwan is “the biggest point of risk” for Sino US relations, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday. – Reuters

Modi eyes win in West Bengal

KOLKATA: Vote counting in key Indian state elections was underway yesterday under tight security, with the focus on West Bengal, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party appeared set for victory. And in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, veteran politician MK Stalin was trailing, challenged by a political debutante, film star C. Joseph Vijay. Elections in five states and territories took place in April and May, with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the ruling party in the national parliament, seeking to make inroads into opposition-held states. In West Bengal, the BJP waged an aggressive bid to dislodge Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the firebrand leader of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC), in power in the state of 100 million people since 2011. Trends released by the Election Commission of India yesterday showed BJP leading in 176 out of 294 seats in West Bengal. “The entire country has its eyes on this state’s election results,” said political analyst Biswanath Chakraborty. “The contest can tilt the balance of power.” The campaign this time was marked by protests over the removal of millions of names from voter rolls, billed as removing ineligible voters, but which critics said was skewed against marginalised and minority communities. Banerjee, speaking ahead of the count, insisted her party would win. “The BJP is not coming, take my word for it,” she said. “Be patient till the last.”

o Vijay leads in Tamil Nadu

state where exit polls suggested Stalin’s DMK would return to power. Votes are also being counted in Assam, a northeastern state of more than 31 million which the BJP is widely expected to maintain control of, and the small coastal territory of Puducherry, where the BJP is part of a ruling coalition. In Kerala, the tightly contested race in the southern state of approximately 36 million, trends suggest the Congress party-led alliance will oust the Communist party. Wins in the state elections would put Modi on a stronger footing while battling a series of economic and foreign policy challenges, including high unemployment rate and a pending US trade deal. Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, said a win for BJP in West Bengal and the TVK in Tamil Nadu would be nothing short of a “political earthquake”. “The aftershocks of these results will be felt far and wide for a long time,” he said on social media, “probably all the way” to the 2029 general elections. – AFP

But West Bengal’s BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya said he was confident of a win. “It was an election of rejection,” he said. “People of the state want change. The ruling Trinamool Congress will be defeated.” Past elections have resulted in violence in the state, where BJP has never been in power. In Tamil Nadu, a key industrial hub with more than 80 million people, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) under Chief Minister MK Stalin was trailing, according to early Election Commission trends. Stalin is being challenged by C. Joseph Vijay, 51, one of India’s most bankable actors, especially in Tamil regions. The political debutante launched his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party in 2024. Election Commission trends showed Vijay’s TVK leading, a surprise result in the

BJP supporters celebrating in Kolkata as early trends show their party leading in West Bengal yesterday. – REUTERSPIC

Indonesia, Japan discuss defence ties JAKARTA: The defence ministers of Indonesia and Japan met in Jakarta yesterday to sign a defence cooperation agreement, underlining the need to safeguard regional peace and stability in the face of global tumult. Japan has defence agreements. President Prabowo Subianto has been pushing to modernise the country’s ageing military assets since taking office in 2024.

and inked an oil deal with Russia. Jakarta, while defending a non-aligned diplomatic posture it calls “free and active”, last year joined the BRICS bloc of emerging economies that includes Russia and China. Prabowo has also signed a trade deal with US President Donald Trump and joined his so called “Board of Peace”. Last week, Jakarta said it was still considering a US request for blanket overflight clearance which, if approved, analysts say could be seen as an alignment with Washington over Beijing. Indonesia is located on the Malacca Strait – the world’s busiest chokepoint for oil and petroleum liquids, according to the US Energy Information Administration. – Reuters

After Indonesia, Koizumi is bound for the Philippines, where Japanese forces are taking part in a military exercise. Koizumi said defence cooperation with Indonesia would make a “contribution to peace and stability ... for the region as a whole” amid “an increasingly complex and tense international situation”. He also told reporters he would discuss maritime security and joint drills with Sjafrie. Indonesia last month concluded a defence cooperation pact with the United States, agreed to increase security ties with France

Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin said he would ink an agreement with his Japanese counterpart Shinjiro Koizumi, although details of the pact were not shared publicly and there was no official confirmation that they had signed it. Japan’s Defence Ministry has said Koizumi would seek to bolster exchanges in the areas of “defence equipment and technology”. Tokyo eased a decades-old curb on arms exports last month, allowing firms to sell lethal weapons to any of the 17 countries with which