HONIARA, Solomon Islands: A top US diplomat warned Pacific Islands of a new struggle against violent power-hungry regimes Sunday, as she visited the Solomon Islands to mark the 80th anniversary of World War II’s Battle of Guadalcanal.
With China’s military carrying out war drills around Taiwan and Russia bombarding Ukraine, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman hit out at a new crop of world leaders reviving “bankrupt” ideas about the use of force.
Visiting a battlefield memorial in the Solomon Islands, Sherman said “some around the world” had forgotten the cost of war, or were ignoring the lessons of the past.
She hit out at “leaders who believe that coercion, pressure, and violence are tools to be used with impunity,” without citing any leader by name.
Sherman is leading a US delegation to the Solomon Islands to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Guadalcanal.
The brutal seven-month land, sea and air fight between Allied and Japanese forces killed tens of thousands of troops — most Japanese — and was a turning point in the war.
Painting the situation today as carrying faint echoes of the fight against Nazism and Imperial Japan in the 1930-40s, the State Department number two urged the region to push back.
“We remember how bankrupt, how empty, such views were then, and remain today,” she said.
“Today we are once again engaged in a different kind of struggle — a struggle that will go on for some time to come.”
Sherman’s trip comes as the United States scrambles to rebuild diplomatic relations in a region where China is growing stronger and democratic alliances have faltered.
Nowhere is America’s waning regional influence more evident than in the Solomon Islands itself.
The government of Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare recently signed a secretive security pact with Beijing, has moved to curb press freedoms, and suggested delaying elections.
Sherman, again without naming names, told her hosts “it is up to us to decide if we want to continue having societies where people are free to speak their minds.”
It is time, she said, to decide “if we want to have governments that are transparent and accountable to their people.”
As well as warnings, Sherman said Washington wants to increase cooperation with the “absolutely critical” Pacific islands, including by opening embassies in Tonga, Kiribati, and the Solomon Islands.
As part of the charm offensive, US President Joe Biden is also expected to invite Pacific Island leaders to the White House for a September summit.
US warns Pacific isles of ‘struggle’ against coercive regimes
https://arab.news/rdtay
US warns Pacific isles of ‘struggle’ against coercive regimes
- Wendy Sherman hit out at a new crop of world leaders reviving “bankrupt” ideas about the use of force
- Warning comes amid China’s provocative war drills around Taiwan and Russia bombarding Ukraine
Kabul shakes as 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits eastern Afghanistan
- The 5.8-magnitude quake struck a mountainous area around 130 kilometers northeast of Kabul
- Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range
KABUL: A strong earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, AFP journalists and residents said.
The 5.8-magnitude quake struck a mountainous area around 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Kabul, the United States Geological Survey said.
The epicenter was near several remote villages and struck at 5:39 p.m. (1309 GMT), just as people in the Muslim-majority country were sitting down to break their Ramadan fast.
“We were waiting to do our iftars, a heavy earthquake shook us. It was very strong, it went on for almost 30 seconds,” said Zilgay Talabi, a resident of Khenj district near of the epicenter.
“Everyone was horrified and scared,” Talabi told AFP, saying he feared “landslides and avalanches” may follow.
Power was briefly cut in parts of the capital, while east of Kabul an AFP journalist in Nangarhar province also felt it.
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Haqmal Saad, spokesman for the Panjshir province police, described the quake as “very strong” and said the force was “gathering information on the ground.”
Mohibullah Jahid, head of Panjshir Natural Disaster Management agency, told AFP he was in touch with several officials in the area.
The district governor had told him there were reports of “minor damage, such as cracks in the walls, but we have not received anything serious, such as the collapse of houses or anything similar,” Jahid said.
Residents in Bamiyan and Wardak provinces, west of Kabul, told AFP they also felt the earthquake.
In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, rescue service official Bilal Ahmad Faizi said the quake was felt in border areas.
In August last year, a shallow 6.0-magnitude quake in the country’s east wiped out mountainside villages and killed more than 2,200 people.
Weeks later, a 6.3-magnitude quake in northern Afghanistan killed at least 27 people.
Large tremors in western Herat, near the Iranian border, in 2023, and in Nangarhar province in 2022, killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes.
Many homes in the predominantly rural country, which has been devastated by decades of war, are shoddily built.
Poor communication networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities from reaching far-flung villages for hours or even days before they could assess the extent of the damage.
