File photo shows the 10 volumes that make up manga "Hadashi no Gen" (Barefoot Gen). (Kyodo)
HIROSHIMA (Kyodo) – The education board of Hiroshima has decided to withdraw the famous “Hadashi no Gen” (Barefoot Gen) comic depicting the atomic bombing of the western Japan city from its peace curriculum for public schools, sparking a backlash from survivors groups and others.
The manga, which centers on the life of elementary schooler Gen, is based in part on the experiences of its late creator Keiji Nakazawa, who was exposed to the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima at age 6.
First released in 1973, the series has been published in more than 20 countries, and part of the work has been featured in Hiroshima’s peace education program since fiscal 2013.
But from the 2023 school year starting April, the board is set to replace it with a lesson on a survivor who lost family members in the attack and her daughter’s activities to pass on her story, saying the change is to adapt to changing times.
While the board has said the move “is in no way an attempt to distance children” from the manga, its decision has met resistance, including from prominent atomic bomb survivors and online.
An atomic bombing survivors’ group and other organizations request the Hiroshima board of education to rescind a decision to remove excerpts from manga “Hadashi no Gen” (Barefoot Gen) from its peace curriculum, in Hiroshima, Japan, on Feb. 21, 2023. (Kyodo)
Kunihiko Sakuma, who heads an association for Hiroshima atomic bomb survivors’ groups and who was exposed to the bomb at 9 months old, called on city officials to rethink the change.
As a survivor, he said, “I learned how to live from Gen. I cannot tolerate this decision to remove it.”
Speaking at an event in Hiroshima, Sueichi Kido, secretary general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-bomb Sufferers Organizations, also called for a rethink, saying the manga “portrays every part of atomic bomb survivors’ suffering and way of life.”
When the news emerged on Feb. 16, social media users took to sharing a hashtag opposing the comic’s removal, with some posting pictures of its most famous scenes to emphasize the importance of its antiwar message.
By Feb. 24, the board of education said it had received around 300 inquiries about its decision, many of which expressed opposition.
In the excerpts used in the elementary school third grade syllabus, the impoverished Gen sets out to make money to support his pregnant mother by trying his hand at “rokyoku,” a traditional musical storytelling art, and stealing koi carp from a pond in a wealthy person’s residence.
According to records obtained by Kyodo News of the meetings of an expert panel set up in fiscal 2019 to revise the peace program, attendees expressed reservations about the manga excerpts used.
They said the scenes involving Gen’s rokyoku performances were difficult to understand, and that the limited material used from the manga was insufficient to represent the reality of the bombing.
Concerns were also raised over whether the manga condones stealing.
There were also supportive comments, with some saying that children can easily relate to Gen and that teachers could provide additional explanations on rokyoku singers.
Reacting to the board’s decision, Nakazawa’s widow, Misayo, said it was “a shame because he created it thinking about how to convey the horrors and awfulness of the atomic bombing to children.”
Nakazawa, who died in 2012, lost his father, older sister and younger brother to the bombing, and his younger sister born on the day of the attack died months later.
Misayo noted that her husband had been “overjoyed” when he had learned that his manga would be featured in the lessons.
The controversy is not the first to befall his work in recent years. In August 2013, the board of education in Matsue, western Japan, was found to have asked municipal elementary and junior high schools to limit access to the story over its graphic content. It rowed back on the request after facing criticism.
In March 2014, the education board of Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, was found to have withdrawn the comics from public elementary schools and junior high schools in the city, based on the mayor’s view that they contain discriminatory expressions. The comics were later returned to the schools.
FILE - A protester holds a banner with pictures of Hong Kong publisher Yao Wentian, bottom left, and Chinese journalist Gao Yu during a protest outside the Chinese liaison office in Hong Kong, on May 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu, File)
A Hong Kong-based publisher who was arrested while preparing to release an unauthorized biography of Chinese leader Xi Jinping has been freed after serving a 10-year sentence in a south China prison.
The respected San Francisco-based rights monitoring group Dui Hua reported Thursday that Yao Wentian, 83, was released Feb. 26 and returned to his family in Hong Kong the next day.
Yao was arrested in October 2013 and served his entire sentence apart from an eight-month term reduction in Dongguan prison near the border with the semi-autonomous Chinese city. He had repeatedly been denied appeals for medical release filed by Dui Hua, but had been moved to the prison’s medical facility and was allowed monthly visits from his wife, the group said in a news release.
Yao had been sentenced to 10 years and fined for “smuggling common goods” after he brought construction materials into China to help a friend who was refurbishing his apartment, Dui Hua said. He was accused of failing to declare the value of the goods at customs, not normally a crime punished with such a harsh sentence.
Yao’s publishing of sensitive books was “almost certainly the reason for his imprisonment,” Dui Hua said. Reports at the time said police and customs agents appeared to have been laying in wait for Yao as he crossed the border into China with several cans of paint for a longtime friend.
President Xi Jinping /. Photo: Pang Xinglei / Xinhua via AP
An officer who answered the phone at Dongguan Prison said she was unable to provide any information about past or current prisoners and refused to confirm whether Yao had served his sentence there.
Yao could not immediately be reached for contact, and his former lawyer, Mo Shaoping, said he had had no contact with Yao and his family since his trial.
Yao’s son, Yao Yongzhan, had been arrested as a student leader in Shanghai during the 1989 pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. He was released through Dui Hua’s intervention and is now a U.S. citizen.
Yao founded Morning Bell Press in 2006 and built a reputation publishing works by Chinese dissidents, liberal intellectuals, exiled scholars and officials ousted for political reasons.
The book that apparently sparked his arrest was “Godfather of China: Xi Jinping,” by veteran dissident writer Yu Jie, who fled to the U.S. in 2010 after alleged torture and harassment over his criticisms of the regime. Another book published by Morning Bell, “Hu Jintao: Harmony King,” about Xi’s predecessor as president and Communist Party leader, had also drawn criticism from the authorities.
Yao’s arrest was followed by the roundup of several other independent Hong Kong publishers, raising deep fears over China’s trampling of the city’s civil liberties that exploded into months of anti-government demonstrations in 2019.
After crushing the protests and postponing elections for the city’s Legislative Council, China began a roundup of opposition figures, charging many of them under a sweeping National Security Law imposed on Hong Kong by China’s rubber-stamp legislature, the National People’s Congress.
In the years since Yao’s arrest, Xi has eliminated all political opposition — both within the party and in dissident circles — in both mainland China and Hong Kong, eliminated term limits to make him effectively ruler-for-life and packed the party’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee with loyal allies from earlier in his career.
The arrests of the Hong Kong publishers, many of them associated with once-famed Causeway Bay Books, effectively ended the publication of sometimes gossipy tell-alls about Chinese politicians that had been hugely popular, especially among visitors from mainland China, where such books are banned.
Hong Kong’s publishing industry is now almost entirely under party control and the last pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, was shuttered after it was raided by police and its founder, 75-year-old Jimmy Lai, imprisoned. Lai now faces collusion charges that could result in a life sentence.
Among Hong Kong publishers still detained is Gui Minhai, a naturalized Swedish citizen who was abducted from his vacation home in Thailand in 2015, apparently by Chinese agents, only to turn up months later on Chinese television confessing to his part in a deadly traffic accident.
He was rearrested while traveling by train to Beijing in the company of two Swedish diplomats and in 2020 was sentenced to 10 years in prison for “illegally providing intelligence overseas.”
The health conditions of political hunger strikers “Tawan” Tuatulanon, 21, and Orawan “Bam” Phuphong, 23, quickly deteriorated on Friday, March 3, 2023, after protesting for more than 40 days.
Both of them had body pain and low fluid intake, blood test results are not normal. Kidney function began to have problems.Afraid of kidney failure, Kritsadang Nutcharas, an attorney, asked two political hunger strikers to go back to the hospital.
Kritsadang Nutcharas
The two agreed to be taken and arrived at Thammasat University Hospital shortly after 6 p.m.
Taiwan and Bam had left Thammasat University Hospital on February 26 and have kept up their hunger strikes outside the Supreme Court.
They have asked the court to recognise that these detainees should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise and the right to bail should be guaranteed.
Suvarnabhumi Airport’s Facebook page posted on March 3, 2023, suggesting that during the upcoming long holidays, passengers should arrive at the airport at least 3 hours before departure time for international flights and at least 2 hours before departure time for domestic flights.
“Thank you for your kind cooperation. For more information please contact AOT Contact Center dial 1722, 24 hours.” it noted.
The previous message informed that “Suvarnabhumi Airport has temporarily closed some sections of Zone 3 (on the west side) of the International Departure Security Checkpoint from March 1 – 29, 2023 to install the Automatic Return Tray System (ARTS).
During this period, passengers can use the Security Checkpoint at Zone 2 (behind the check-in counter at Row J and M) and Zone 3 on the east side (behind the check-in counter at Row S). Passengers can also use Fast Track, the Security Checkpoint at Zone 1 (behind the check-in counter at Row A).
The airport staff will be on hand to help advising passengers to ensure speedy and convenient services. Upon completion, it will result in greater convenience and faster services for passengers.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the temporary closure of some sections of the Security Checkpoint and ask passengers on international flights to arrive at the airport 3 hours before departure.”
Alex Murdaugh stands in the courtroom at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Andrew J. Whitaker/The Post And Courier via AP, Pool)
WALTERBORO, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina attorney Alex Murdaugh was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday, a day after he was convicted of murder in the shooting deaths of his wife and son.
Murdaugh maintained his innocence when addressing the judge before sentencing.
“I would never hurt my wife Maggie and I would never hurt my son Paul Paul,” he said.
Prosecutor Creighton Waters said none of the victims of the crime — members of Murdaugh’s family and the parents and relatives of his wife — wished to speak on behalf of the prosecution before sentencing.
Alex Murdaugh is led to the Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies for sentencing Friday, March 3, 2023 in Walterboro, S.C., after being convicted of two counts of murder in the June 7, 2021, shooting deaths of Murdaugh’s wife and son. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
“The depravity, the callousness, the selfishness of these crimes are stunning. The lack of remorse and the effortless way in which he is, including here, sitting right over there in this witness stand — your honor, a man like that, a man like this man, should never be allowed to be among free, law abiding citizens,” Waters said.
Prosecutors asked for a life sentence to hold Murdaugh responsible for what they say are decades of lying, stealing and using his family’s considerable clout in their tiny county to his advantage. Any sentence would have no chance of parole.
Alex Murdaugh , center, is led out of Colleton County Courthouse by sheriff’s deputies after being convicted Thursday, March 2, 2023, in Walterboro, S.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)
As Murdaugh stood before the judge to learn his fate, he was in the same courtroom on the circuit where his father, grandfather and great-grandfather tried cases as the elected prosecutor for more than 80 years. His grandfather’s portrait hung in the back of the room until the judge ordered it taken down for the trial.
Instead of the dress shirt and sport coat he wore through the six-week trial, the attorney who made millions suing big companies on behalf of people injured in wrecks arrived at court in a jail jumpsuit the day after he was convicted of two counts of murder.
The Colleton County jury deliberated for less than three hours before finding Murdaugh guilty of killing his 22-year-old son, Paul, with a shotgun and his 52-year-old wife, Maggie, with a rifle on June 7, 2021.
Alex Murdaugh, center, is handcuffed in the courtroom after a guilty verdict in his murder trial was read at Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)
Juror Craig Moyer told ABC News that when deliberations began, the jury immediately took a poll that came back with nine guilty votes. It didn’t take long to convince the other three.
The juror agreed with prosecutors that the key piece of evidence was a video locked on his son’s cellphone for a year — video shot minutes before the killings at the same kennels near where the bodies would be found.
The voices of all three Murdaughs can be heard on the video, though Alex Murdaugh had insisted for 20 months that he hadn’t been at the kennels that night. When he took the stand in his own defense, the first thing he did was admit he had lied to investigators about being at the kennels, saying he was paranoid of law enforcement because he was an opioid addict with pills in his pocket the night of the killings.
“A good liar. But not good enough,” Moyer said.
Buster Murdaugh, the son of Alex Murdaugh, listens as Alex Murdaugh’s verdict is read at the Colleton County Courthouse in Walterboro, S.C., Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Joshua Boucher/The State via AP, Pool)
Prosecutors didn’t have the weapons used to kill the Murdaughs or other direct evidence like confessions or blood spatter. But they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence, including the video putting Murdaugh at the scene of the killings five minutes before his wife and son stopped using their cellphones forever.
It’s unclear who will speak at Friday’s sentencing hearing. Murdaugh’s surviving son, Buster, and one of his brothers testified for the defense and have been behind him every day of the trial.
Murdaugh’s sister-in-law testified they were all close. Alex Murdaugh went on vacation with them in the months after the killings.
The now-disbarred attorney admitted stealing millions of dollars from the family firm and clients, saying he needed the money to fund his drug habit. Before he was charged with murder, Murdaugh was in jail awaiting trial on about 100 other charges ranging from insurance fraud to tax evasion.
When he took the stand last week, Murdaugh appeared to cry as he denied again and again that he killed his wife. But juror Moyer said he saw through yet another lie.
“He never cried. All he did was blow snot,” Moyer said. “No tears. I saw his eyes. I was this close to him.”
___
JEFFREY COLLINS and JAMES POLLARD reported from Columbia, South Carolina.
Pol. Maj. Gen. Panop Vorathanatchakul, commander of a special unit, has unveiled the 2023 police dog rankings on the occasion of the Thai Police Dog Foundation Day on March 3, 2023.
He said the Police Dog, or K-9, Unit is a division within the Patrol and Special Operations Department that was originally established to support police work.
All police dogs are specially trained for their duties such as sniffing out criminals, drugs and bombs. It can also be trained to demonstrate how to rescue victims and to check property in disputes by smelling and assisting police officers with other requirements.
An average police dog works for 8 years. They are classified according to their nature. For example, if the dog is alert, it is trained to detect drugs. If the dog is not afraid of loud noises, it will be trained to defuse a bomb.
The training will take at least one year. The first 3 months are basic training before the dog is assigned to its main task for 6 months. The police dog will have to complete another 6-month internship before being officially classified as a police officer.
The unit conferred the title of “Maj. Police Dog” and awarded both the police dogs and officers to recognise the successful operations.
This year, 87 police dogs were awarded, including “Ira”, a 3-year-and-11-month-old brown and black female shepherd, and “Cola”, a 5-year-and-3-month-old brown male Magyar Vizsla, both of whom assisted in the ‘Nong Chomphu’ and ‘Ice the Iron Chest’ operations.
Cola and Ira
The Nong Chomphu case involved a 3-year-old girl who was found dead on 11 May 2020. Her uncle, Lung Pol, was suspected of being irritated by her crying. So he wrapped his hand around her face until she fell unconscious.
He threw her body on the road and went back to run his errands. When he returned, she was not dead and had disappeared into the forest. He pursued her in the forest until he found her body and then tried to camouflage it.
Ice The Iron Chest case involved Apichai Aongvisit, Ice, who imprisoned and tortured Varinthorn Chaichet, 24, in mid-2019. He locked her in a chest in a room. When she was found dead, he and his team dug a hole and put her body inside. The police officer later found her body near her house in Bang Khae, Bangkok, on 9 January 2020.
Suspended Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob, from Bhumjai Thai Party, said on Friday afternoon he will clarify himself to the Constitutional Court within 15 days as permitted by the law.
The Constitutional Court ordered Transport Minister Saksayam Chidchob to stop working after it ruled on Friday that he holds shares at Buricharoen Construction company, which is forbidden for political office holder.
Since members of the opposition party accused him, Saksayam has always argued that he had already withdrew his shares from that company.
Deputy Transport Minister Atirat Rattanasaet will become caretaker minister during the period.
Party registrar Supachai Jaisamutr meanwhile said patty members understand the situation and Saksayam himself is not worried. He has clarified the matter to party members so they are all in good spirits.
The ministry has a 2023 annual budget of 228 billion baht, with 88 percent of that, or around 200 billion baht (6.5 billion U.S.dollars), allocated for investment and the rest for expenditure.
Egg – E – Egg AARGH! Chicken Art Festival. Artists Join Force with WAP Thailand to Break Chicken Free from the Inhumane Factory Farming. Screaming AARGH! At the top of our lung through 4 arts installations and performances in the heart of Bangkok at BACC
Did you know that every year, over 72 billion chickens are killed for their meat? Also, two out of three chickens live in an inhumane and gruesome environment.
Chicken meat is one of the most popular sources of protein, but there are high risks from eating those tainted and unsafe meat. To raise awareness in Thai society about animal welfare on farms and the impacts on our health and the environment, especially in the chicken industry, and to discuss solutions that we can all join hands to achieve, World Animal Protection – Thailand, a global non-governmental organization with a goal to ensure animal welfare, hosted, “Egg – E – Egg AARGH! Chicken Art Festival”. The festival brings together artists and activists from four different disciplines on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at the open space area in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). After the event, all the installation arts and the arts from the youth artist drawing competition will remain on display at BACC until March 5, 2023.
Muandao Kongwannarat, Chicken Welfare Project Manager at World Animal Protection (WAP) – Thailand, said, “Egg – E – Egg AARGH! Chicken Art Festival is the second event in the series, following the well-received ‘Happy Meat Happy Me’ event held at the end of last year, which aimed at raising public awareness on food safety and ethical eating, and calling for a complete revolution in the food industry and animal welfare on farms prior to consumption. To keep the momentum going, WAP invites people to ‘scream’ at the top of their lung through arts. This festival represents the suffering that chickens face in the inhumane and gruesome environment of factory farms. Our aim is to urge related businesses to make the necessary decisions to improve animal welfare, such as rearranging the zoning to reduce crowding in the cage system, opting to raise slower-growing chickens, providing chickens with the proper space or materials that encourage natural behaviors, and reducing the chance of illness which will directly reduce the excessive use of antibiotics and the health hazards from antimicrobial resistance. All of these greatly affect the health and well-being of animals, humans, and the environment.”
According to Muandao Kongwannarat, this festival, held in the heart of the city, features artists from four different art disciplines. Maria Poonlertlarp, World Animal Protection-Thailand’s ambassador, and Nakrob Moonmanas, the revolutionary artist, collaborate on a piece called ‘The Last Suffer’, which sets the table for the last supper meal that humans nonchalantly feed to chickens before taking their lives. Following them, Teacher Siang, a Mor Lam Puppet folk artist, and the Angel Children group put on an installation art called ‘A4 Life’, featuring a three-feet-tall chicken made from bamboo coops and local wickerworks, standing on a space no bigger than the size of an A4 paper. At the event there were also two top-notch performances. Nontawat Machai, the boy who always dare to dream from Lanyim theatre, poured his heart and soul into the plot of ‘Kult of Chicken’, a performance art that bludgeon the chicken industry into reducing and putting an end to the inhumane environment of the industry. And the highlight show is from the 2004 Silapathorn Award winner, Pradit Prasatthong, fused Thai traditional dramatic performance with the newly adapted story of ‘Prince Lo and the Peculiar Chicken’. Not to mention the young musicians from LAAN and Beagle Hug that performed their songs for everyone to enjoy throughout the day.
The festival featured many more activities that everyone could be a part of, such as creating their own art and expressing their thoughts on colorful strips of fabric and attaching them to the giant chicken from the A4 Life art installation, asking for a better life for chickens and a better life for us. Additionally, there is also the display of youth artists from the drawing competition under the concept of “Factory Farming Antimicrobial Resistance Bacteria.”
The Chicken Art Festival may have come to an end, but the arts live on. Other than the performances that will be remembered by many of the visitors, please come and take a look at the installation art and join in calling for better treatment of chickens at the “Egg – E – Egg AARGH! Chicken Art Festival” until March 5, 2023, at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC). For more information, please visit our website at www.chickenartfestival.org or our Facebook page at World Animal Protection Thailand
Concept : Inspired by the famous painting “The Last Supper,” the artists have put their own spin on it by replacing the word “supper” with “suffer” to represent the suffering of chickens as a result of inhumane treatment in factory farming, all to satisfy human needs. This installation art is an interactive piece where people can take pictures and interact with the table and a bucket of chicken decorated with collage art to convey meaningful messages.
Artists : Pradit Prasatthong and Anatta Theatre Troupe
Title : ‘Prince Lo and the Peculiar Chicken’
Concept : Fantasy-Romantic Thai traditional dramatic performance
…A story of Prince Lo who is obsessed with a chicken and discovered that the chicken is strangely peculiar…
Synopsis: “Phu Jao Sa-ming Prai” the great spirit of all spirits, recived a secret order to eliminate “Prince Lo” of Mansruang, who was on a journey to find his lovers, the princesses of Srong, “Phra Puen” and “Phra Paeng.” So, the great spirit decided to consecrate the “Ghost Chicken” to lure Prince Lo into the magical forest of Viang Galong to eliminate him. As Prince Lo discovered and fought against the mysteries and dangerous tests in the forest, he discovered the peculiar hidden secret of the Ghost Chicken.”
Artists : Teacher Siang, a Mor Lam Puppet folk artist, and the Angel Children group
Title : ‘A4 Life’
Concept : An installation art of a three-feet-tall factory-farm chicken made from bamboo coops and local wickerwork is tied to a post with a rope. The space where the chicken is tethered is only as big as an A4 paper. This tells the story of chickens that spend their whole lives in a space no bigger than an A4 paper. The chicken is also blindfolded and forced to live in the dark with lights that turn on and off, forcing them to live in a time realm created by humans. As a result, they eat only when humans feed them.
Artist : Nontawat Machai
Title : Kult Of Chicken
Concept : The chicken farming factory is widely spread all over the world and will only continue to increase to meet the demand. This performance art from Lanyim theatre tells a story about the spread of consumerism through the production of chicken meat and the lives of the chickens
About World Animal Protection
World Animal Protection is a global organization with 14 offices all over the world, including Thailand, and headquarter located in the United Kingdom. For 55 years, we have been moving to end the needless suffering of animals, and aiming to elevate animal welfare. World Animal Protection has been operating in Thailand through many projects like Sustainable Food System Promotion through Factory Farm Animal Welfare, Elevating Animal Welfare in the Travel Industry for Thai Elephants and Wildlife. We have a mission to let every animal live freely while taking their quality of life, our health, and environment as the priorities.
Chiang Mai International Airport celebrated its 35th anniversary on March 1, 2023, with a record more than 200% increase in passenger arrivals.
Vijit Keawsaitiam, General Manager of Chiang Mai International Airport, Airports of Thailand, said on this occasion that Chiang Mai Airport has grown steadily over the past 10 years, reaching a record 11.3 million passenger arrivals in 2019. Only in 2020 – 2021, during the pandemic, did the airport see a decline in flight and passenger numbers.
Following the Thai and international governments’ decision to resume international travel, the airport has seen growth in flight and passenger arrivals again in 2022.
Press conference on the 35th anniversary of Chiang Mai Airport
The number of commercial flights was 39,027, an increase of 99.88 percent over the previous year. Passenger arrivals reached 5.46 million, an increase of 209.72 percent over the previous year. Freight transferred is 5,588 metric tons, an increase of 68.42 percent compared to 2021.
Chiang Mai Airport Deputy Director (Operations) Nattawut Ta-inta said the airport currently operates 24 airlines on 30 routes, 12 on domestic routes and 18 on international routes. Now it has operated at about 63 percent of its 2019 record before COVID-19 hit.
He added that the airport will open a new route, Kunming – Chiang Mai, this summer, around late March.
Chiang Mai Airport Deputy Director (Business Support) Sarayut Jumpa told reporters that the 10-billion baht (287 million U.S. dollars) Chiang Mai Airport Expansion Phase 1 project is now under Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and looking for contractors.
The 5-year project aims to build 2 additional buildings and another 32 bays to welcome 16.5 million tourists a year. He added that the airport will be able to receive 20 million travelers in the future. Sarayut said they should engage the contractor within the 2023 financial year.
Right now, the airport wants to spend 700 million to solve the space problem by constructing replacement buildings such as the fire station, the warehouse and the car parks. It expects to have found a contractor by the 2023 financial year.
NEW DELHI (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talked briefly Thursday in the highest-level in-person talks between the two countries since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But there was no indication of any movement toward easing the intense tensions between their two nations.
The short encounter came as relations between Washington and Moscow have plummeted over Russia’s war with Ukraine and tensions have soared amid a myriad of disagreements, complaints and recriminations on other matters ranging from arms control to embassy staffing and prisoners.
U.S. officials said Blinken and Lavrov chatted for roughly 10 minutes on the sidelines of the G-20 conference of foreign ministers in New Delhi. But there was no sign of any progress and the conference itself ended with the grouping unable to reach consensus on the Ukraine war.
In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov walks on the sideline of G20 foreign minister’s meeting in New Delhi, India, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
Still, with relations at perhaps their lowest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis during the Cold War, the mere fact that the two men met showed that, at least for the moment, lines of high-level communication between Washington and Moscow remains open.
At a news conference, Blinken said he told Lavrov that the U.S. would continue to support Ukraine for as long as it takes and would push for the war to end through diplomatic terms that Kyiv agrees to.
“End this war of aggression, engage in meaningful diplomacy that can produce a just and durable peace,” Blinken said he had told Lavrov. But, he noted that “President Putin has demonstrated zero interest in engaging, saying there’s nothing to even talk about unless and until Ukraine accepts and I quote ‘the new territorial reality’.””
Blinken said he also urged Russia to reverse “its irresponsible decision and return to” participation in the New START nuclear treaty.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool Photo via AP)
“Mutual compliance is in the interest of both our countries,” Blinken said he told Lavrov. He added ”that no matter what else is happening in the world, in our relationship, the United States is always ready to engage and act on strategic arms control, just as the United States and the Soviet Union did even at the height of the Cold War.”
Blinken said he also urged Moscow to release detained American Paul Whelan and that “the United States has put forward a serious proposal. Russia should take it.”
Earlier, Blinken had told the G-20 meeting that Russia’s war with Ukraine could not go unchallenged.
“We must continue to call on Russia to end its war of aggression and withdraw from Ukraine for the sake of international peace and economic stability,” Blinken said. He noted that 141 countries had voted to condemn Russia at the United Nations on the one-year anniversary of the invasion.
The G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi, Thursday March 2, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP)
Yet, several members of the G-20, including host India, China and South Africa, chose to abstain in that vote and despite appeals from top Indian officials to look beyond their differences over Ukraine and forge consensus on other issues, the foreign ministers were unable to do so or agree on a final communique.
Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were “divergences” on the issue of the war in Ukraine “which we could not reconcile as various parties held differing views.” “If we had a perfect meeting of minds on all issues, it would have been a collective statement,” Jaishankar said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier appealed for all members of the fractured G-20 to reach consensus on issues of particular concern to poorer countries even if the broader East-West split over Ukraine could not overcome.
“We all have our positions and our perspectives on how these tensions should be resolved,” Modi said. “We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.”
Delegates attend the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Olivier Douliery/Pool Photo via AP)
China and Russia objected to two paragraphs taken from the previous G-20 declaration in Bali last year, according to a summary of Thursday’s meeting released by India. And Blinken lamented that “Russia and China were the only two countries that made clear that they would not sign off on the text.”
The paragraphs stated that the war in Ukraine was causing immense human suffering while exacerbating fragilities in the global economy, the need to uphold international law, and that “the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”
Despite the failure to achieve full consensus, Blinken said it was positive that 18 of the 20 nations had agreed on a statement calling for an end to the war and immediate steps to improve energy and food security that have been badly affected by the conflict.
Lavrov, who did not mention speaking with Blinken when he held a news conference after the G-20 session, told reporters that Moscow would continue to press its action in Ukraine. He shrugged off Western claims of Russia’s isolation, saying “we aren’t feeling isolated. It’s the West that has isolated itself, and it will eventually come to realize it.”
He said Russia remains open to talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine, but he accused the West of effectively blocking such talks.
In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks to the media after the G20 foreign minister’s meeting in New Delhi, India, Thursday, March 2, 2023. (Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP)
“They are calling on us to have talks, but I don’t remember any Western colleagues calling on Ukraine to have talks,” he said. “They are encouraging Ukraine to continue the war.”
Lavrov also mocked U.S. threats against China, which has presented a peace plan for Ukraine that has been applauded by Moscow but dismissed by Washington and its Western allies.
“Our Western colleagues have lost self-control, forgotten their manners and put diplomacy aside, switching exclusively to blackmail and threats.” he said.
Russia had no immediate comment on the substance of the conversation, but Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Blinken had asked to speak to Lavrov.
It was their first contact since last summer, when Blinken talked to Lavrov by phone about a U.S. proposal for Russia to release Whelan and formerly detained WNBA star Brittney Griner. Griner was later released in a swap for imprisoned Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, but Whelan remains detained in Russia.
Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been held for four years on espionage charges that his family and the United States government have said are baseless.
His brother David said the family is grateful that Blinken “took this high profile, rare opportunity to include Paul’s freedom in his discussions with Kremlin representatives.” But he noted that Paul Whelan turns 53 on Sunday, his fifth birthday in custody. He’s held in a prison in the Mordovia region in “sub-zero Celsius temperatures” with heat turned off, David Whelan said in an email.
“Paul continues to suffer…So for all the statecraft and stonewalling, our brother languishes for another birthday and however many more milestones as a Russian hostage,” he said.
The last time Blinken and Lavrov met in person was in Geneva, Switzerland, in January 2022 on the eve of Russia’s invasion. At that meeting, Blinken warned Lavrov about consequences if Russia went ahead with its planned military operation but also sought to address some complaints that Russian President Vladimir Putin had made about the U.S. and NATO.
Those talks proved to be inconclusive — Russia moved ahead with its plans to invade and Blinken then canceled a scheduled follow-up meeting with Lavrov that was set for just two days before Moscow eventually invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.
