Zelensky to surprise in Philippines, de facto alliance against Beijing

Today's news: Exit polls from the Indian elections give a two-thirds majority for the BJP; Surprise resignations among officials overseeing Indonesia's new capital project; Maldives bans entry to Israelis; South Korea's response to junk-filled balloons launched by the North.

PHILIPPINES - UKRAINE

The Philippines will take part in the upcoming Ukraine peace summit to be held in Switzerland on 15 and 16 June. This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky who attended the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore (Asia's leading defence forum) and then flew to Manila for a surprise visit to Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. During the security forum, both leaders severely criticised China.

INDONESIA

The head and deputy of the Nusantara Capital Authority, which oversees the billion project to build Indonesia's new capital, resigned in a surprise move. ‘The president has appointed the Minister of Public Works and Housing and the Deputy Minister of Agriculture as acting head and deputy head,’ the government announced. The two new officials have been tasked with speeding up the construction of the new capital Nusantara, which is due to be inaugurated in mid-August, while no reasons for the resignations were given.

INDIA

The alliance led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party is expected to win a two-thirds majority in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament, according to exit polls after the elections closed on Saturday. With between 353 and 401 seats, the new government will have the chance to make important changes to the Constitution, but analysts have pointed out that Indian polls have not always proved reliable in the past. Meanwhile, more than 50 people died in three days due to extreme temperatures.

MALDIVES - ISRAEL

The government of the Maldives - a Muslim-majority archipelago - has decided to ban the entry of Israelis, a spokesman for President Mohamed Muizzu announced yesterday, without giving details of when the new law will come into force. Muizzu also announced a national fund-raising campaign called ‘Maldives in solidarity with Palestine’. Nearly 11,000 Israelis had visited the Maldives last year, a figure equivalent to 0.6 per cent of total tourist arrivals.

KOREA

In response to Pyongyang's sending of balloons containing rubbish, Seoul has decided to suspend an agreement to de-escalate relations signed in 2018, at least until mutual trust is restored, the Presidential National Security Council announced. Yesterday, National Security Advisor Chang Ho-jin said the government will take ‘untenable’ measures against the North, including possibly resuming propaganda campaigns via loudspeakers along the border, with which Seoul launches critical messages against Kim Jong-un's regime and broadcasts K-pop songs.

RUSSIA

Russian analysts of the ‘To be precise’ project have prepared a ‘morality index’ of the federal regions, based on official statistical data on the birth rate in Russia, the use of contraceptives, and marriages, evaluated according to ‘traditional’ or ‘Western-oriented’ values, whereby the Caucasian and Asian regions are in the lead, while St. Petersburg, Smolensk, and the Altai in Siberia close the ranking as ‘less traditional’.

GEORGIA

The government in Tbilisi has announced that the port of Anaklja will be rebuilt for long-distance transport by the Chinese company China Communications Construction, which is blacklisted under US sanctions, but for which Premier Iraklij Kobakhidze himself has vouched, after the same project was denied without explanation to American companies in 2016.

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