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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said that the United States is redoubling its efforts to peddle the so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy aimed at containing China.   U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy is triggering more and more vigilance and concerns in the world, especially in Asia-Pacific countries, he said.

 “The so-called "strategy" has given itself away, as it not only aims to erase the name of "Asia-Pacific" and the effective regional cooperation framework in the Asia-Pacific region but also aims to efface the achievements and momentum of peace and development fostered by regional countries with joint efforts for decades. It's fair to cite a Chinese saying to describe the strategy; that is, "Sima Zhao's ill intent is known to all."

Wang Yi stressed, that conflicts and confrontations dominated by hegemony remain fresh in the memories of people in the Asia-Pacific region, who are now pursuing national stability and happy life.  Asia-Pacific countries are generally reluctant to take sides, and the mainstream voice is that they hope that all countries can live in harmony and engage in win-win cooperation, he adds, and that the trend of the times in the Asia-Pacific region is to promote regional integration and build an Asia-Pacific community with a shared future.

Facing the turbulent and changing world, the region has maintained overall peace and stability, and Asia's development has taken the lead in getting out of the shadow of the pandemic, with the GDP growth rate in 2021 reaching up to 6.3 percent, said the senior Chinese diplomat.

  Facts will prove that the so-called Indo-Pacific Strategy is in essence a strategy that creates divisions, incites confrontation, and undermines peace, he said.

A shortage of medicine caused by an economic crisis in Sri Lanka could soon cause deaths, doctors said, as hospitals are forced to postpone life-saving procedures for their patients because they do not have the necessary drugs, Reuters reported.

Sri Lanka imports more than 80 per cent of its medical supplies but with foreign currency reserves running out because of the crisis, essential medications are disappearing from shelves and the healthcare system is close to collapse.

At the 950-bed Apeksha cancer hospital on the outskirts of the commercial capital, Colombo, patients, their loved ones and doctors feel increasingly helpless in the face of the shortages which are forcing the suspension of tests and postponement of procedures including critical surgery.

"It is very bad for cancer patients," said Dr Roshan Amaratunga.

"Sometimes, in the morning we plan for some surgeries (but) we may not be able to do on that particular day ... as (supplies) are not there."

If the situation does not improve quickly, several patients would be facing a virtual death sentence, he said.

Sri Lanka is grappling with its most devastating economic crisis since independence in 1948, brought about by COVID-19 battering the tourism-reliant economy, rising oil prices, populist tax cuts and a ban on the import of chemical fertilisers, which devastated agriculture, according to Reuters.

A government official working on procuring medical supplies, said about 180 items were running out, including injections for dialysis patients, medicine for patients who have undergone transplants and certain cancer drugs.

The official, Saman Rathnayake, told Reuters that India, Japan and multilateral donors were helping to provide supplies, but it could take up to four months for items to arrive.

In the meantime, Sri Lanka has called on private donors, both at home and abroad, for help, he said, Reuters reported.

President Joe Biden announced Monday in Tokyo that 13 countries have joined a new, US-led Asia-Pacific trade initiative touted as a counterweight to China's aggressive expansion in the region.

"The United States and Japan, together with 11 other nations will be launching the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, or IPEF," Biden said at a press conference alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

"This framework is a commitment to working with our close friends and partners in the region on challenges that matter most to ensuring economic competitiveness in the 21st century," he said.

Biden was due to make a formal rollout of the framework later Monday.

He did not say what countries had already signed up to IPEF, which the White House is billing as a framework for what will ultimately become a tight-knit group of trading nations.

Unlike traditional trade blocs, there is no plan for IPEF members to negotiate tariffs and ease market access -- a tool that has become increasingly unpalatable to US voters fearful of undermining homegrown manufacturing.

Instead, the programme foresees integrating partners through agreed standards in four main areas: the digital economy, supply chains, clean energy infrastructure and anti-corruption measures.

Biden has pushed to rapidly rebuild strategic military and trade alliances weakened under his predecessor Donald Trump since taking office in 2021.

IPEF is intended to offer US allies an alternative to China's growing commercial presence across the Asia-Pacific.

However, there is no political will in Washington for returning to a tariffs-based Asia trade deal following Trump's 2017 withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership -- a huge trading bloc that was revived, without US membership, in 2018 as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

China has criticised IPEF as an attempt to create a closed club. Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, rejected this, telling reporters "it is by design and definition an open platform".

Sullivan said that Taiwan, a self-governing democracy that China claims sovereignty over, has not been brought into the initial line-up -- despite being an important link in microchip supply chains.

Sullivan said nevertheless that the United States is "looking to deepen our economic partnership with Taiwan, including on high-technology issues, including on semiconductors and supply chains."

This will happen, however, only "on a bilateral basis".

CPN (Maoist Centre) mayoral candidate Renu Dahal is leading by 10, 314 votes in Bharatpur Metropolitan City.

She has secured 44, 710 votes against her closest contender Bijay Subedi of CPN-UML who garnered 34, 396 votes.

Independent candidate Jagannath Paudel received 13, 613 votes.

It has been learnt that 111, 274 votes have been counted so far.

Similarly, deputy mayoral candidate Chitrasen Adhikari got 45, 849 votes while Himala Gurung of Rastriya Prajantra Party secured 27, 181 votes.

Anthony Albanese has been sworn in as Australia's new leader and will fly immediately to an international summit, BBC reported.

Mr Albanese's Labor Party defeated Scott Morrison's conservative government in an election on Saturday.

It remains unclear whether Mr Albanese will form a majority or govern with the support of crossbenchers.

The prime minister left for Tokyo on Monday to meet the leaders of the so-called Quad nations - the US, India and Japan.

Earlier in the day, he was sworn in with four key cabinet members, including new Foreign Minister Penny Wong, who is travelling with him to Japan.

Richard Marles is the new deputy prime minister and employment minister, Jim Chalmers is treasurer, and Katy Gallagher is attorney-general and finance minister.

It is Australia's first Labor government in almost a decade. The party has won 72 lower house seats but counting continues to determine whether they can get the 76 needed to form a majority.

But the primary vote for both major parties fell - almost a third of Australians put the Greens, independents and other minor parties as their first preference, according to BBC.

The Quad group is seen as largely aiming to counter growing Chinese influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

It will meet on Tuesday following recent diplomatic tensions in the Pacific, after the Solomon Islands last month signed a security pact with China.

The US and Australia hold fears the deal could allow China to build a naval base there.

In a statement ahead of the meeting, Mr Albanese said: "The Quad Leaders' Summit brings together four leaders of great liberal democracies - Australia, Japan, India, and the United States of America - in support of a free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific."

Ms Wong - Australia's first overseas-born foreign minister - signalled they would bring "new energy and much more to the table" on climate action, after "a lost decade".

Climate change played a huge role in the election result, with a surge in support for candidates wanting urgent action.

Mr Morrison's government had committed to a 2030 emissions reduction target of 26%-28% - about half that of the UK and US. Mr Albanese's government has a target of 43%.

The Greens are expected to pick up four lower seats, adding to seven climate-focused independents. They could put pressure on Labor to take even stronger action, especially if it fails to reach a majority.

Mr Morrison's unpopularity and his party's stance on climate have been blamed by some Liberal MPs for wiping out their vote, BBC reported.

Losses included senior party figures, including deputy leader Josh Frydenberg, in traditional Liberal strongholds.

Mr Morrison stepped down as party leader on Saturday and former defence minister Peter Dutton is the favourite to succeed him.

Mr Dutton - from the party's right - has been a controversial figure at times. Some question whether he could rebuild Liberal support in more progressive, metropolitan areas, according to BBC.

Buoyed by a visit from a neighbor and ally, Ukrainians were digging in to defend the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk, which came under heavy bombardment from Russian forces trying to take the industrial area known as the Donbas, Associated Press reported.

Sievierodonetsk is the main city under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province, which together with Donetsk province make up the Donbas. 

Luhansk’s governor, Serhii Haidai, said Sunday that the Russians were “simply intentionally trying to destroy the city ... engaging in a scorched-earth approach.”

He said the Russians had occupied several towns and cities in Luhansk after indiscriminate, 24-hour shelling. Haidai said Moscow was concentrating forces and weaponry there, bringing in forces from Kharkiv to the northwest, Mariupol to the south, and from inside Russia.

The sole working hospital in Sievierodonetck has only three doctors and supplies for 10 days, he said.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces had mounted an unsuccessful attack on Oleksandrivka, a village outside of the city.

While Russian and Ukrainian forces battled along a 551-kilometer (342-mile) wedge of Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, Poland’s president traveled to Kyiv on Sunday to support Ukraine’s European Union aspirations, becoming the first foreign leader to address the Ukrainian parliament since the start of the war, according to Associated Press.

President Andrzej Duda received a standing ovation when he thanked the lawmakers for letting him speak where “the heart of a free, independent and democratic Ukraine beats.” Duda said Ukraine need not submit to conditions given by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Unfortunately, in Europe there have also been disturbing voices in recent times demanding that Ukraine yield to Putin’s demands,” he said. “I want to say clearly: Only Ukraine has the right to decide about its future. Only Ukraine has the right to decide for itself.”

It was Duda’s second visit to Kyiv since April. Poland has become an important ally of Ukraine, welcoming millions of Ukrainian refugees and becoming a gateway for Western humanitarian aid and weapons. It is also a transit point for some foreign fighters who have volunteered to fight the Russian forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the visit “a historic opportunity not to lose such strong relations, built through blood, through Russian aggression. All this not to lose our state, not to lose our people.”

Duda credited the US and President Joe Biden for unifying the West in supporting Ukraine and imposing sanctions against Moscow.

“Kyiv is the place from which one clearly sees that we need more America in Europe, both in the military and in this economic dimension,” said Duda, a right-wing populist leader who clearly preferred the former US president, Donald Trump, over Biden in the 2020 election.

Poland is ramping up efforts to win over EU members who are more hesitant about accepting Ukraine into the bloc. Zelenskyy has urged the 27-member EU to expedite his country’s request to join, and it is to be discussed at a Brussels summit in late June, Associated Press reported.

France’s European Affairs minister Clement Beaune on Sunday told Radio J it would be a “long time” before Ukraine gains EU membership, perhaps up to two decades. “We have to be honest,” he said. “If you say Ukraine is going to join the EU in six months, or a year or two, you’re lying.”

On the battlefield, grinding, town-by-town fighting continued as Russian troops try to expand the territory that Moscow-backed separatists have held since 2014 in the Donbas.

To bolster its defenses, Ukraine’s parliament voted Sunday to extend martial law and mobilize the armed forces for a third time, until Aug. 23.

Ukrainian officials have said little since the war began about the extent of their country’s casualties, but Zelenskyy said at a news conference Sunday that 50 to 100 Ukrainian fighters were being killed, apparently each day, in the east.

In a general staff morning report, Russia said it was also preparing to resume its offensive on Slovyansk, a city in Donetsk province that saw fierce fighting last month after Moscow’s troops backed away from Kyiv. 

The conflict was not confined to Ukraine’s east. Powerful explosions were heard early Monday, for example, in Korosten, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of Kyiv, the town’s deputy mayor said. It was the third straight day of apparent attacks in the Zhytomyr District, Ukrainian news agencies reported, according to Associated Press.

The world is facing "formidable" challenges, including Covid, the war in Ukraine and monkeypox, the head of the World Health Organization has warned, BBC reported.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was speaking in Geneva, where the UN health agency's experts were discussing the monkeypox outbreak in 15 nations outside Africa.

More than 80 cases have been confirmed in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and Israel.

However, the risk to the wider public is said to be low.

Monkeypox - the virus that is most common in remote parts of Central and West Africa - does not tend to spread easily between people and the illness is usually mild. 

Most people who catch the virus recover within a few weeks, according to the UK's National Health Service.

The outbreak has taken scientists by surprise, and UK health officials have issued new advice, saying high-risk contacts of cases should self-isolate for three weeks. Belgium became the first country to announce a three-week quarantine for infected persons on Friday.

More confirmed cases are expected to be announced in the UK on Monday, the Guardian newspaper reports, according to BBC.

Speaking at Sunday's opening of his agency's World Health Assembly, Dr Tedros said: "Of course the [Covid] pandemic is not the only crisis in our world. 

"As we speak our colleagues around the world are responding to outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, monkeypox and hepatitis of unknown cause and complex humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Yemen. 

"We face a formidable convergence of disease, drought, famine and war, fuelled by climate change, inequity and geopolitical rivalry," the WHO head added. 

The WHO earlier said that a number of other suspected monkeypox cases were being investigated - without naming the countries involved - and warned that more infections were likely to be confirmed.

After the outbreak was first identified in the UK, the virus began to be detected across Europe - with public health agencies in Spain, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden all confirming cases.

Further cases were confirmed in Austria and Switzerland on Sunday.

The UK Health Security Agency has identified 20 cases so far and its chief medical adviser Dr Susan Hopkins told the BBC's Sunday Morning programme: "We are detecting more cases on a daily basis."

She said the virus was now spreading in the community - with cases detected which have had no contact with anyone who has visited West Africa, where the disease is endemic, BBC reported.

But the risk to the general population remains "extremely low", with cases so far mostly found in some urban areas and among gay or bisexual men, Dr Hopkins said.

Although there is no specific vaccine for monkeypox, several countries have said they are stocking smallpox vaccines, which are about 85% effective in preventing infection because the two viruses are quite similar.

President Joe Biden on Monday promised “concrete benefits” for the people of the Indo-Pacific region from a new trade pact he was set to launch, designed to signal US dedication to the contested economic sphere and address the need for stability in commerce after disruptions caused by the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Associated Press reported.

Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Biden said the new Indo-Pacific Economic Framework would also increase US cooperation with other nations in the region.

The White House said the framework will help the United States and Asian economies work more closely on issues including supply chains, digital trade, clean energy, worker protections and anticorruption efforts. The details still need to be negotiated among the member countries, making it difficult for the administration to say how this agreement would fulfill the promise of helping US workers and businesses while also meeting global needs.

Countries signing on to the framework were to be announced Monday during Biden’s visit to Tokyo for talks with Kishida. It’s the latest step by the Biden administration to try to preserve and broaden US influence in a region that until recently looked to be under the growing sway of China.

Kishida hosted a formal state welcome for Biden at Akasaka Palace, including a white-clad military honor guard and band in the front plaza. Reviewing the assembled troops, Biden placed his hand over his heart as he passed the American flag and bowed slightly as he passed the Japanese standard, according to Associated Press.

Kishida, in brief remarks, said he was “absolutely delighted” to welcome Biden to Tokyo on the first Asia trip of his presidency. Along with Biden, he drove a tough line against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying it “undermines the foundation of global order.” 

Biden, who is in the midst of a five-day visit to South Korea and Japan, called the US.-Japanese alliance a “cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific” and thanked Japan for its “strong leadership” in standing up to Russia.

The White House announced plans to build the economic framework in October as a replacement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which the US dropped out of in 2017 under then-President Donald Trump. 

The new pact comes at a moment when the administration believes it has the edge in its competition with Beijing. Bloomberg Economics published a report last week projecting US GDP growth at about 2.8% in 2022 compared to 2% for China, which has been trying to contain the coronavirus through strict lockdowns while also dealing with a property bust. The slowdown has undermined assumptions that China would automatically supplant the US as the world’s leading economy.

“The fact that the United States will grow faster than China this year, for the first time since 1976, is a quite striking example of how countries in this region should be looking at the question of trends and trajectories,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Associated Press reported.

Critics say the framework has gaping shortcomings. It doesn’t offer incentives to prospective partners by lowering tariffs or provide signatories with greater access to US markets. Those limitations may not make the US framework an attractive alternative to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which still moved forward after the US bailed out. China, the largest trading partner for many in the region, is also seeking to join TPP.

“I think a lot of partners are going to look at that list and say: ‘That’s a good list of issues. I’m happy to be involved,’” said Matthew Goodman, a former director for international economics on the National Security Council during President Barack Obama’s administration. But he said they also may ask, “Are we going to get any tangible benefits out of participating in this framework?”

It is possible for countries to be part of both trade deals.

Biden’s first stop Monday was a private meeting with Emperor Naruhito of Japan at Naruhito’s residence on the lush grounds of the Imperial Palace before the talks with Kishida, Associated Press reported.