Asean HAS expressed solidarity with the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi in promoting humanitarian assistance to ease tensions and conflict in Rakhine state, rather than issuing a critical statement over Myanmar’s handling of the Rohingya crisis.

Myanmar’s State Councellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi looks on during the 9th ASEAN UN Summit in Manila, Philippines, 13 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

While Indonesian President Joko Widodo, leader of the world’s largest Muslim country, said he was “very concerned” about the humanitarian crisis, no harsh criticism was made against Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader Suu Kyi in her handling of the Rohingya situation, which has resulted in more than 600,000 refugees fleeing across the border to Bangladesh.

Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday also had a 10-minute corridor meeting with Suu Kyi, but the details of their conversation were not disclosed.

 Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi (C) talks to Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha (R) before the APT Leaders’ Interface with East Asia Business Council in Manila, Philippines,13 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

Thailand has previously agreed with Myanmar in referring to Rohingya as “Bengalis”, which suggests that the minority is not an indigenous Myanmar ethnic group.

Accord to a document seen by The Nation, Asean countries will continue to emphasise the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management in providing aid to affected areas in Southeast Asia, including Rakhine state.

The Rakhine crisis has been widely discussed by Asean leaders during the Philippines summit. Suu Kyi welcomed international aid during the 40th Asean-US Summit yesterday but she did not elaborate further on the matter, Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said yesterday during a press briefing in Manila.

Roque added that two to three countries had also touched on the Rakhine state crisis but he refused to specify which ones.

Asean Muslim countries, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia, have been vocal in denouncing Rohyingya migration as a transnational crisis, while the rest of Asean has been uncertain about to what extent it should interfere into the centuries-old ethnic conflict.

An Asean official source also said the issue was a domestic problem, although it affected Myanmar’s land and sea neighbours. During 31st Asean Summit Plenary yesterday, Widodo said he understood the complexity in Rakhine state but urged countries including Asean members to “not keep silent”.

Asean leaders attend the opening session of the 20th ASEAN-JAPAN Summit in Manila, Philippines 13 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st ASEAN Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

“The longer the problem is left will have an impact on the security and stability of the region including the emergence of radicalism and trafficking in persons,” he said, also calling for “trust and solidarity” among Asean countries on solving the issue.

Indonesia, he continued, had submitted a “4 + 1 formula” proposal for Rakhine, including supporting the implementation of former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan’s recommendations. Jakarta also expected talks between Bangladesh and Myanmar on repatriation could be resolved and implemented soon, he added.

Meanwhile, AFP reported from Washington yesterday that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson would visit Myanmar to discuss the matter tomorrow.

A Rohingya girl carries water from a tube well at Hakimpara refugee camp in the Bangladeshi district of Ukhia on November 13, 2017. More than 600,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since a military crackdown in Myanmar in August triggered an exodus, straining resources in the impoverished country. / AFP PHOTO

In the face of widespread “atrocities” against ethnic Rohingya people in Myanmar, the United States has been cautiously stepping up pressure on that country’s army, while taking care to avoid endangering the civilian government of Suu Kyi.

As the US takes a more active role in the region – several American delegations have passed through in recent weeks – Tillerson plans to meet Suu Kyi as well as army chief General Min Aung Hlaing.

Tillerson is expected to adopt a firm tone with military leaders, whom he has deemed “responsible” for the crisis facing Rohingya.

ASEAN PUSHED for early negotiations on the Code of Conduct (CoC) in the South China Sea during the 31st Asean Summit and 20th Asean-China Summit yesterday.

In a continued effort since the CoC framework was adopted during the Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AMM) in August, both sides agreed to kick off negotiations by early next year, a source said.

The CoC, while not itself an instrument to manage territorial disputes, takes the sides a step closer to realising a legally binding tool regarding territories contested by China and four Asean countries.

Host country Philippines, one of the contestants, had appeared to preserve its original stance on the long-contested sea, before releasing it in a document seen by The Nation.

Two paragraphs mentioning the South China Sea were softer than those in earlier joint communiques released after the AMM.

The Philippines, which chairs Asean this year, has taken a soft stance over territorial disputes with China since the current administration under President Rodrigo Duterte came to power.

Members of Asean, including the Philippines and Vietnam, have been at loggerheads with China over territorial disputes in the contentious sea for decades. The issue always raises temperatures at Asean meetings, but received a relatively calm reception this year as conflicting parties sought to compromise.

Vietnam and China agreed yesterday to back away from conflicts in the South China Sea, in a move aimed at easing tensions over Beijing’s claims to most of the waterway, according to an AFP report from Hanoi.

Hanoi and Beijing agreed to maintain peace in the seas, the countries said in a joint statement during a state visit to Hanoi by Chinese President Xi Jinping.

They agreed to “well manage disputes at sea, make no moves that may complicate or expand disputes, [and] maintain peace and stability on the East Sea”, the Vietnamese version of the statement said, using Hanoi’s term for the sea.

During a meeting at the Asean-China summit in Manila, leaders of both sides said they had agreed to officially commence negotiations with China on the CoC. “[We] trust that we will continue this positive momentum and work towards a substantive and effective CoC,” a statement said.

They also called the situation “calmer”, a rare official note on the conflicting sea, adding that the detente “cannot [be taken] for granted and needs further cooperation”.

Under Duterte, the Philippines has shifted its approach from collectively calling on Asean to cope with China to a more “friendly” approach to negotiations.

That stance was reiterated yesterday by Philippine presidential spokesperson Harry Roque, who also recalled Duterte’s bilateral meeting with President Xi during the Apec Summit last week in Vietnam.

“[Duterte] opted for friendly relations with China and also reinstates warmer [relations] with Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia,” Roque said, referring to all countries contesting the “West Philippine Sea”, as the Philippines refers to the body.

“It is not in the interest of either China or the Philippines to resort to military forces. China is also pursuing with bilateral [talks] with every claimant.”

“It is a hope of all Asean countries that the CoC will be concluded as soon as possible,” he added

Manila – US President Donald Trump was all fingers and thumbs during a carefully choreographed photo op Monday at a summit of world leaders, failing to grasp whose hands he was supposed to be holding and breaking a lineup intended to showcase unity.

Trump, whose insurgent election victory was built on his willingness to disrupt political convention, was supposed to cross his arms and join hands with the men on either side of him.

But as others clutched the hands of the person to their left and their right, Trump used both of his hands to clasp the extended fingers of Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

The doubling up left summit host Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with a spare hand — and broke the line into two parts.

The handshake chain is a set piece of gatherings of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who are meeting with leaders from China, the US, Russia, New Zealand, Australia, India, Canada, Japan and South Korea.

After an awkward few seconds, Trump appeared to recognise his error and made the link between Nguyen and Duterte.

Trump is on the final leg of a tour of Asia that has taken in Japan, South Korea, China and Vietnam.

The famously bullish former businessman has largely avoided the kind of protocol pitfalls that can ensnare even the most careful traveller in this often formal part of the world.//AFP

Footage posted on Twitter showed panicked people fleeing a building in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, as windows shattered at the moment the quake struck late Sunday, while images from the nearby town of Darbandikhan showed major walls and concrete structures had collapsed.

“There are 164 dead and more than 1,686 injured,” Behnam Saidi, the deputy head of the Iranian government’s crisis unit set up to handle the response to the quake, told state television.

Six others were reported dead on the Iraq side of the border.

We are in the process of setting up three emergency relief camps,” said Mojtaba Nikkerdar, the deputy governor of Iran’s Kermanshah province.

The quake hit 30 kilometres (19 miles) southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20 pm, when many people would have been at home, the US Geological Survey said.

Iran’s emergency services chief Pir Hossein Koolivand said it was “difficult to send rescue teams to the villages because the roads have been cut off… there have been landslides”.

The worst-hit towns in Iran were Qasr-e Shirin in Kermanshah and Azgaleh, about 40 kilometres northwest, the official IRNA news agency said.

It added that 30 Red Cross teams had been sent to the quake zone, parts of which had experienced power cuts.

In Iraq, officials said the quake had killed six people in Sulaimaniyah province and injured around 150.

In Sulaimaniyah, residents ran out onto the streets and some damage to property was reported, an AFP reporter there said.

“Four people were killed by the earthquake” in Darbandikhan, the town’s mayor Nasseh Moulla Hassan told AFP.

A child and an elderly person were killed in Kalar, according to the director of the hospital in the town about 70 kilometres south of Darbandikhan, and 105 people injured.

Residents flee homes in Turkey

The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of 25 kilometres, was felt for about 20 seconds in Baghdad, and for longer in other provinces of Iraq, AFP journalists said.

On the Iranian side of the border, the tremor shook several cities in the west of the country including Tabriz.

It was also felt in southeastern Turkey, “from Malatya to Van”, an AFP correspondent said. In the town of Diyarbakir, residents were reported to have fled their homes.

The quake struck along a 1,500 kilometre fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, a belt extending through western Iran and into northeastern Iraq.

The area sees frequent seismic activity.

In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake near the Caspian sea in northern Iran killed 40,000 people and left 300,000 more injured and half a million homeless. Within seconds the quake reduced dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble.

Thirteen years later, a catastrophic quake struck the ancient southeast Iranian city of Bam, famed for its mud brick buildings, killing at least 31,000 people and flattening swathes of the city.

Since then, Iran has experienced at least two major quake disasters, one in 2005 that killed more than 600 and another in 2012 that left some 300 dead.

More recently, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake near Iran’s border with Turkmenistan in May killed two people, injured hundreds and caused widespread damage.//AFP

It wasn’t just a quick visit for Trudeau as he spent time chatting with some customers and restaurant staff and posing for photographs.

Most of the world leaders attending the summit arrived on Sunday, except for Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, who arrived a day before. /atm

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudea walks out a Jollibee store on Sunday, Nov. 12, 2017. (Photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP)

Here are some more photos of Trudeau’s visit at Jollibee North Harbour, all posted in the Jollibee Facebook account:

Media photographers had a field day documenting Trudeau’s visit at Jollibee North Harbour.

Trudeau chats with some customers.

The staff, of course, won’t pass up the opportunity for a group photo with the Canadian leader.

Trudeau gets a little token of appreciation from the staff.

He even got some take-out.

The US leader is in Manila with leaders of 18 other nations for two days of summits, the final leg of a headline-grabbing Asian tour dominated by the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Allegations of Russian meddling in last year’s US presidential elections have also hounded the second half of his 12-day trip, which took him from Japan to South Korea, China and Vietnam.

Rights groups have called on Trump to end his Asian journey with a strong statement against Duterte’s drugs war, which has seen police and suspected vigilantes kill thousands of people.

But brief encounters between them in the lead-up to official talks scheduled for late Monday morning appeared to support Duterte’s confidence that Trump was not concerned with the killings.

Trump shook hands with Duterte, then the pair chatted for about 30 seconds as the Philippine leader smiled broadly, before the opening ceremony for the first summit on Monday morning. Trump had his back to the cameras.

The pair also sat next to each other at a pre-summit banquet on Sunday, during which they smiled, chatted and clinked champagne glasses.

Duterte, 72, sang a Filipino love song in front of his audience at the banquet, saying in a light-hearted fashion that he did so on the orders of the US president.

“I’m sure he will not take it up,” Duterte said on Sunday when asked whether he expected Trump to raise the issue of alleged extra-judicial killings in the drugs war.

Duterte won elections last year after promising to eradicate illegal drugs with an unprecedented campaign that would see up to 100,000 people killed.

Since he took office, police have reported killing 3,967 people in the crackdown.

Another 2,290 people have been murdered in drug-related crimes, while thousands of other deaths remain unsolved, according to government data.

Many Filipinos back Duterte, believing he is taking necessary measures to fight crime, but rights groups warn he may be orchestrating a crime against humanity.

Amnesty International accuses police of shooting dead defenceless people and paying assassins to murder addicts.

‘I already killed someone’

When pressured over allegations of extra-judicial killings carried out by police, Duterte insists he has never told them to break the law.

But rights groups say police are following Duterte’s incitements to kill, including comments made last year when he said he would be “happy to slaughter” three million addicts.

He has also repeatedly boasted about killing people himself, most recently on Thursday while in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific economic summit.

“At the age of 16, I already killed someone. A real person, a rumble, a stabbing. I was just 16 years old. It was just over a look,” Duterte said.

Former US president Barack Obama was one of many prominent critics of Duterte’s handling of the drugs war. The Philippine leader responded last year by calling Obama a “son of a whore”.

But Trump has appeared to be a fan of Duterte, telling him in a telephone call in April that he was doing a “great job”.

Duterte said on Sunday that Trump had offered him further “words of encouragement” during a brief chat in Vietnam the previous day on the sidelines of another regional summit.

Duterte is hosting the world leaders because the Philippines holds the rotating chair of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.

The events on Monday and Tuesday in Manila are two separate ASEAN-hosted summits, which also include China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The rising threat of the Islamic State group across Southeast Asia, and further efforts to pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un to abandon his nuclear ambitions, were top agenda items in Manila.

“Terrorism and violent extremism endanger the peace, stability and security of our region because these threats know no boundaries,” Duterte said in an opening ceremony speech on Monday.

Footage posted on Twitter showed panicked people fleeing a building in Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq, as windows shattered at the moment the quake struck late Sunday, while images from the nearby town of Darbandikhan showed major walls and concrete structures had collapsed.

Iranian state broadcaster IRIB said 129 were dead in an updated toll posted on its website, while the official IRNA news agency said some 300 people had been injured, adding that the toll was expected to rise.

Six others were reported dead on the Iraq side of the border.

“We are in the process of setting up three emergency relief camps,” said Mojtaba Nikkerdar, the deputy governor of Iran’s Kermanshah province.

The quake hit 30 kilometres (19 miles) southwest of Halabja in Iraqi Kurdistan at around 9.20 pm, when many people would have been at home, the US Geological Survey said.

Iran’s emergency services chief Pir Hossein Koolivand said it was “difficult to send rescue teams to the villages because the roads have been cut off… there have been landslides.”

The worst-hit towns in Iran were Qasr-e Shirin in Kermanshah and Azgaleh, about 40 kilometres northwest, IRNA said.

It added that 30 Red Cross teams had been sent to the quake zone, parts of which had experienced power cuts.

In Iraq, officials said the quake had killed six people in Sulaimaniyah province and injured around 150.

In Sulaimaniyah, residents ran out onto the streets and some damage to property was reported, an AFP reporter there said.

“Four people were killed by the earthquake” in Darbandikhan, the town’s mayor Nasseh Moulla Hassan told AFP.

A child and an elderly person were killed in Kalar, according to the director of the hospital in the town about 70 kilometres south of Darbandikhan, and 105 people injured.

– Residents flee homes in Turkey –

The quake, which struck at a relatively shallow depth of 25 kilometres, was felt for about 20 seconds in Baghdad, and for longer in other provinces of Iraq, AFP journalists said.

On the Iranian side of the border, the tremor shook several cities in the west of the country including Tabriz.

It was also felt in southeastern Turkey, “from Malatya to Van”, an AFP correspondent said. In the town of Diyarbakir, residents were reported to have fled their homes.

The quake struck along a 1,500 kilometre fault line between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, a belt extending through western Iran and into northeastern Iraq.

The area sees frequent seismic activity.

In 1990, a 7.4-magnitude quake near the Caspian sea in northern Iran killed 40,000 people and left 300,000 more injured and half a million homeless. Within seconds the quake reduced dozens of towns and nearly 2,000 villages to rubble.

Thirteen years later, a catastrophic quake struck the ancient southeast Iranian city of Bam, famed for its mud brick buildings, killing at least 31,000 people and flattening swathes of the city.

Since then, Iran has experienced at least two major quake disasters, one in 2005 that killed more than 600 and another in 2012 that left some 300 dead.

More recently, a 5.7-magnitude earthquake near Iran’s border with Turkmenistan in May killed two people, injured hundreds and caused widespread damage.

The US Geological Survey said the magnitude 7.3 temblor was centred 30 kilometres (19 miles) southwest of Halabja, near the northeastern border with Iran.

In Iraq, officials said the quake had killed six people in Sulaimaniyah province and injured around 150.

“Four people were killed by the earthquake” in Darbandikhan, the town’s mayor Nasseh Moulla Hassan told AFP.

Another two people were killed in Kalar, according to the director of the hospital in the town about 70 kilometres (45 miles) south of Darbandikhan.

Iranian state media reported seven people had died in the quake.

“According to the latest toll, six people were killed in Qasr-e Shirin and one in Azgaleh,” Kermanshah province governor Houshang Bazvand told the ISNA news agency.

State television had previously reported six dead in Qasr-e Shirin, close to the Iraqi border, around 40 kilometres southwest of Azgaleh.

Both agencies reported 25 people had been wounded.

The quake struck the mountainous area of Sulaimaniyah province at 9:18 pm (1818 GMT) at a depth of 25 kilometres (15 miles), the monitor said.

It was felt for about 20 seconds in Baghdad, and sometimes for longer in other provinces of Iraq, AFP journalists said.

In the province of Sulaimaniyah, located in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, residents ran out onto the streets at the time of the quake and some minor property damage was recorded, an AFP reporter said.

In Iran, ISNA said the earthquake was felt in several cities in the west of the country including Tabriz.

In southeastern Turkey, the earthquake was felt “from Malatya to Van”, an AFP correspondent said. In the town of Diyarbakir, residents also left their homes before returning.

The quake took place along a 1,500 kilometre fault line between the Arabia and Eurasia tectonic plates, a belt extending through western Iran and into northeastern Iraq, the US Geological Survey said.

A 5.7 magnitude earthquake near Iran’s border with Turkmenistan in May killed two people, injured hundreds and caused widespread damage, state media reported.

The last major earthquake to strike Iran was a 2003 tremor in Bam, in the southeastern province of Kerman, which killed at least 31,000 people and flattened the city.

MYANMAR’S Rohingya crisis will raise temperatures at the Asean summit in Manila this week as leaders of the grouping gathered in the Philippines yesterday for their annual summit and related meetings with partners from around the globe.

Asean leaders will address the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, although there still is no consensus on how far they should intervene to address the problem.

The issue will feature in the chairman’s statement issued at the end of the meeting, according to an Asean official who asked to remain anonymous, but the content has not been publicly disclosed.

The Myanmar delegation to the Asean summit has said de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi would raise the issue on her own at the meeting, the official said.

“Myanmar’s stance is to open for cooperation from Asean to ease the problem,” he said.

Another anonymous Asean official said Myanmar and Bangladeshi foreign ministers had met for at least three times to work on refugees’ repatriation in Rakhine state.

Asean countries were expected continue to highlight the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management to provide aid to the affected state, the same source added.

Conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state became an international issue in August after a militant group launched a series of attacks on security outposts in the state, prompting a harsh “clearance operation” by the Myanmar military. More than 600,000 people from Rakhine have fled the violence to Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi’s government has been accused of doing very little to contain the violence and safeguard Muslim Rohingya, whom authorities call “Bengali”, in a term that deprives them of citizenship status.

Myanmar’s State Counselor Aung Sang Suu Kyi arrives at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga, north of Manila on November 11, 2017, ahead of the 31st Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit. / AFP PHOTO

The United Nations has recently called on Nay Pyi Taw to grant citizenship to Rohingya, which was described as a “fundamental right”.

Asean members have taken different approaches to the crisis. While many of the group such as Thailand regard the problem as an internal Myanmar affair and limit their involvement only to humanitarian aid, others such as Malaysia want the group to address the issue at its root cause, notably the clearance policy.

Leaders will also discuss the contentious South China Sea as many members of the group, notably the current chair Philippines and Vietnam, have been at loggerheads with China over territorial disputes.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday said his country would like to “remain friends” regarding China and the controversial sea, as it was in the best interests of everyone to save lives and not trigger a war.

 Images of US President Donald J. Trump (top) and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (bottom) are seen on a dart board and punching bag during a protest in Manila, Philippines, 12 November 2017. The Philippines is hosting the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and Related Meetings from 10 to 14 November. EPA-EFE

“I do not waste the lives of countrymen in a useless war that cannot be won by anybody. [Xi Jinping] made it clear to us the only way to go is cooperation,” Duterte said yesterday. “The sea is better left untouched. Nobody can afford to go to war.”

In a departure from the previous administration, the Philippines under Duterte has taken relatively soft stance towards China regarding the contentious sea and sought bilateral channels to ease the conflict.

The Asean chairman’s statement, meanwhile, will also mention the South China Sea but refrain from using any incendiary language that could further deepen the rift.

Asean and China are now working on a legally binding code of conduct to regulate countries’ behaviour in the sea. Both sides had already agreed on the framework for the code and would begin negotiations on the text in January, the official said.

The group and China signed the 2002 non-binding Declaration on the Conduct of the Parties in the South China Sea (DOC), but the document has failed to prevent tensions related to the dispute. The group over past years has worked on another document intended to ensure stability over the issue.

Asean leaders will address the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, although there still is no consensus on how far they should intervene to address the problem.

The issue will feature in the chairman’s statement issued at the end of the meeting, according to an Asean official who asked to remain anonymous, but the content has not been publicly disclosed.

The Myanmar delegation to the Asean summit has said de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi would raise the issue on her own at the meeting, the official said.

“Myanmar’s stance is to open for cooperation from Asean to ease the problem,” he said.

Another anonymous Asean official said Myanmar and Bangladeshi foreign ministers had met for at least three times to work on refugees’ repatriation in Rakhine state.

Asean countries were expected continue to highlight the Asean Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management to provide aid to the affected state, the same source added.

Conflict in Myanmar’s Rakhine state became an international issue in August after a militant group launched a series of attacks on security outposts in the state, prompting a harsh “clearance operation” by the Myanmar military. More than 600,000 people from Rakhine have fled the violence to Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi’s government has been accused of doing very little to contain the violence and safeguard Muslim Rohingya, whom authorities call “Bengali”, in a term that deprives them of citizenship status.

The United Nations has recently called on Nay Pyi Taw to grant citizenship to Rohingya, which was described as a “fundamental right”.

Asean members have taken different approaches to the crisis. While many of the group such as Thailand regard the problem as an internal Myanmar affair and limit their involvement only to humanitarian aid, others such as Malaysia want the group to address the issue at its root cause, notably the clearance policy.