Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has kicked off three days of meetings with nearly 40 global leaders in Tokyo to attend Tuesday’s state funeral for Shinzo Abe, using the opportunity to renew the ex-leader’s push for a “free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr conducted an aerial survey of damage on Monday brought by typhoon Noru, which left heavy flooding across several northern provinces as authorities rushed to get aid to thousands of evacuees.
Tensions over Taiwan have raised the thorny issue of whether U.S. troops based in South Korea would be involved in any conflict, with American and South Korean officials acknowledging that the peninsula could easily be dragged into a crisis.
The prime minister of the Solomon Islands complained on Friday that his country had been subjected to “a barrage of unwarranted and misplaced criticisms, misinformation and intimidation” since formalizing diplomatic relations with China in 2019.
Senior diplomats from the United States and China met on Friday with tensions high after an explicit pledge by US President Joe Biden to defend Taiwan.