asia
'Project O2 for India' initiated to meet rising oxygen demand
The office of the Principal Scientific Adviser of Indian Government on Sunday said ''Project O2 for India'' has been initiated to ensure supply of critical raw materials such as zeolites, setting up of small oxygen plants, and manufacturing of compressors. according to a report of NDTV.
The second wave of COVID-19 saw an increase in demand for medical oxygen in different parts of the country, it said in a statement.
Read: Supreme Court steps in to resolve India's oxygen crisis
While meeting the current demand, manufacturing medical oxygen also became important to ensure the country has adequate supply in the future.
"Project O2 for India" of the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser is to enable stakeholders working to augment the country's ability to meet this rise in demand for medical oxygen.
"Under Project O2 for India, a National Consortium of Oxygen is enabling the national level supply of critical raw materials such as zeolites, setting up of small oxygen plants, manufacturing compressors, final products, i.e.,oxygen plants, concentrators, and ventilators," according to the statement.
Read: 24 die in southern India hospital due to oxygen shortage
The consortium is not only looking forward to providing immediate to short-term relief but also working to strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem for long-term preparedness.
A committee of experts has been evaluating critical equipment such as oxygen plants, concentrators, and ventilators from a pool of India-based manufacturers, start-ups, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The manufacturing and supply consortium includes Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL); Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE); C-CAMP, Bengaluru; IIT Kanpur; IIT Delhi; IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad; IISER, Bhopal; Venture Center, Pune; and more than 40 MSMEs, it said.
Read Why Shouldn’t You Store Oxygen Cylinder at Home During COVID-19 Pandemic?
The consortium has started to secure CSR/philanthropic grants from organisations like USAID, Edwards Life sciences Foundation, Climate Works Foundation, etc, it said.
Hope Foundation, American Indian Foundation, Walmart, Hitachi, BNP Paribas, and eInfoChips are procuring oxygen concentrators and VPSA/PSA plants as part of their CSR efforts to aid the consortium's work.
NMDC Ltd has agreed to fund the procurement of raw materials like zeolite for the manufacturers in the consortium, it added.
Read Oxygen plant to be set up at Osmani Medical College Hospital
Source: NDTV
Ousted Myanmar leader on trial; critics say charges bogus
Myanmar’s ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi was set to go on trial Monday on charges that many observers have criticized as attempt by the military junta that deposed her to delegitimize her democratic election and cripple her political future.
Suu Kyi’s prosecution poses the greatest challenge for the 75-year-old and her National League for Democracy party since February’s military coup, which prevented them from taking office for a second five-year term following last year’s landslide election victory.
Human Rights Watch charged that the allegations being heard in a special court in the capital, Naypyitaw, are “bogus and politically motivated” with the intention of nullifying the victory and preventing Suu Kyi from running for office again.
“This trial is clearly the opening salvo in an overall strategy to neuter Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy party as a force that can challenge military rule in the future,” said Phil Robertson, the organization’s deputy Asia director.
Read: Suu Kyi appears in Myanmar court for 2nd time
The army seized power on Feb. 1 before the new lawmakers could be seated, and arrested Suu Kyi, who held the post of special counsellor, and President Win Myint, along with other members of her government and ruling party. The coup reversed years of slow progress toward more democracy for Myanmar.
The army cited the government’s failure to properly investigate alleged voting irregularities as its reason for seizing power — an assertion contested by the independent Asian Network for Free Elections and many others. Junta officials have threatened to dissolve the National League for Democracy for alleged involvement in election fraud and any conviction for Suu Kyi could see her barred from politics.
The junta has claimed it will hold new elections within the next year or two but the country’s military has a long history of promising elections and not following through. The military ruled Myanmar for 50 years after a coup in 1962, and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest for 15 years after a failed 1988 popular uprising.
The military’s latest takeover sparked nationwide protests that continue despite a violent crackdown that has killed hundreds of people. Although street demonstrations have shrunk in number and scale, the junta now faces a low-level armed insurrection by its opponents in both rural and urban areas.
Read: ASEAN envoys meet Myanmar junta leader to press for dialogue
Suu Kyi is being tried on allegations she illegally imported walkie-talkies for her bodyguards’ use, unlicensed use of the radios and spreading information that could cause public alarm or unrest, as well as for two counts of violating the Natural Disaster Management Law for allegedly breaking pandemic restrictions during the 2020 election campaign, her lawyers said Sunday.
“All these charges should be dropped, resulting in her immediate and unconditional release,” said Human Rights Watch’s Robertson. “But sadly, with the restrictions on access to her lawyers, and the case being heard in front of a court that is wholly beholden to the military junta, there is little likelihood she will receive a fair trial.”
Government prosecutors will have until June 28 to finish their presentation, after which Suu Kyi’s defense team will have until July 26 to present its case, Khin Maung Zaw, the team’s senior member, said last week. Court sessions are due to be held on Monday and Tuesday each week.
Two other more serious charges are being handled separately. Suu Kyi is charged with breaching the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carried a maximum 14-year prison term, and police last week filed complaints under a section of the Anti-Corruption Law that states that political office holders convicted for bribery face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a fine.
Read:US sanctions Myanmar military and junta leaders for attacks
Although Suu Kyi faced her first charge just days after the coup, she was not immediately allowed to consult with her lawyers. Only on May 24, when she made her first actual appearance in court, was she allowed the first of two brief face-to-face meetings with them at pre-trial hearings. Her only previous court appearances had been by video link.
A photo of her May 24 appearance released by state media showed her sitting straight-backed in a small courtroom, wearing a pink face-mask, her hands folded in her lap. Alongside her were her two co-defendants on several charges, the former president as well as the former mayor of Naypyitaw, Myo Aung.
The three were able to meet with their defense team for about 30 minutes before the hearing began at a special court set up inside Naypyitaw’s city council building, said one of their lawyers, Min Min Soe. Senior lawyer Khin Maung Zaw, said Suu Kyi “seems fit and alert and smart, as always.”
Mamata Banerjee marries 29-yr-old in southern India
Weird as it may seem, but Mamata Banerjee on Sunday tied the knot with a 29-year-old man named Socialism at a simple ceremony in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Well, the bride is not the 66-year-old firebrand Chief Minister of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, who decimated the Communists in 2011, but a namesake of hers.
The bride's parents named her after the Bengal politician when the latter was with India's Congress party. Mamata, the politician, quit the Congress in 1998 to form her own party, the Trinamool Congress.
On the other hand, the groom's father, a local Communist party leader, named his son Socialism as he was born when the erstwhile Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse.
"I was in Class X when I understood the significance of my name after my friends started talking about it," Mamata Banerjee, the bride, told the local media.
On the Bengal Chief Minister, who recently came back to power for the third time in Bengal, the bride responded, "She is a strong woman. I am very proud to say that."
Last month, Mamata scripted history by single handedly pulling off an astounding victory in the assembly election. She not only defied anti-incumbency but also staved off a huge challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling BJP.
Bengal witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state elections. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule.
Pandemic relapse spells trouble for India’s middle class
Ram Babu moved from his village to the Indian capital New Delhi in 1980, to clean cars. Soon, he learned to drive and got a job as a tour bus driver. Decades later, he set up his own company, Madhubani Tours and Travels.
In March 2020, a stringent nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic froze economic activity overnight. Babu’s business collapsed, and he drove his family back to their village.
“Since March last year, we haven’t earned a single rupee,” he said. “All of my three buses are standing still for more than a year. We are completely broken.”
India’s economy was on the cusp of recovery from the first pandemic shock when a new wave of infections swept the country, infecting millions, killing hundreds of thousands and forcing many people to stay home. Cases are now tapering off, but prospects for many Indians are drastically worse as salaried jobs vanish, incomes shrink and inequality is rising.
Read:India reports 80,834 new COVID-19 cases
Decades of progress in alleviating poverty are imperiled, experts say, and getting growth back on track hinges on the fate of the country’s sprawling middle class. It’s a powerful and diverse group ranging from salaried employees to small business owners like Babu: many millions of people struggling to hold onto their hard-earned gains.
The outbreak of the pandemic triggered the worst downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s and as it gradually ebbs, many economies are bouncing back. The World Bank foresees 5.6% global growth for 2021, the best since 1973.
India’s economy contracted 7.3% in the fiscal year that ended in March, worsening from a slump that slashed growth to 4% from 8% in the two years before the pandemic hit. Economists fear there will be no rebound similar to the ones seen in the U.S. and other major economies.
“Coronavirus was the latest in a series of blows to hit India’s economy in recent years,” said Mahesh Vyas, chief executive at the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE). “But the shocks brought on by the virus have had a very debilitating effect on the economy and I fear it is going to be long lasting.”
The economy was one of the fastest growing when Prime Minister Narendra Modi suddenly yanked most of India’s currency out of circulation in 2016, targeting corruption. A major tax reform whose kinks are still being ironed out followed. Modi’s flagship Make in India program to energize manufacturing has floundered and unemployment has surged.
The poor are suffering the most from the pandemic. But this is the first time in several decades that India’s middle class has taken such a big hit, said Vyas.
After 40 years of hard work, tour company owner Babu was taking home about $2,000 a month. Business was going so well he took out a loan to buy his third tour bus.
Read:Indian state revises death counts up by 70%
In May 2020, he used one of those buses to drive his wife and three children back to Bhugol village in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. He could no longer afford the rent on their modest one-bedroom apartment in New Delhi.
Estimates of the size of India’s middle class vary from 200 million to 600 million, but all experts agree that its prosperity is crucial for reviving the economy.
“They are the primary consumers — if their consumption doesn’t revive, growth will continue to be slow and the economy will not recover,” said economist Arun Kumar.
An analysis from the Pew Research Center, published in March, estimates 32 million Indians had been pushed out of the middle class by the pandemic.
Read: India's cumulative Covid-19 vaccine coverage crosses 240 million-mark
The report defined the middle class as people earning $10 to $20 a day. It estimated the number of India’s poor -- those with incomes of $2 or less a day -- has increased by 75 million because of the crisis.
To cushion the impact, the government provided $266 billion in extra spending in May 2020, with over $40 billion meant to help small and medium-sized businesses through measures like collateral-free loans from banks. Another $36 billion was promised in November to help create jobs, boost consumer spending and support manufacturing, agriculture and exports.
But for many, the measures haven’t been enough. No relief has yet been announced for the tourism sector, so Babu is still paying business taxes on his buses.
Last year’s lockdown destroyed more than 120 million jobs, according to the CMIE. Many returned soon after the lockdown ended in June, but the rebound was mostly of low-paying jobs in sectors like agriculture and construction.
Read: India reports record high of 6,148 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours
Economists worry about a longer term decline in salaried jobs, of which 12.5 million remain lost, according to CMIE data, and about the fate of small and medium-sized businesses that are the backbone of India’s vast informal economy.
Many people have had to settle for far more precarious employment than before, according to the State of Working India 2021 report by researchers at Azim Premji University.
“What this signals is that people in distress are having to resort to any kind of employment, even if it pays substantially less than what they were making and comes with fewer protections,” said Rosa Abraham, one of the report’s lead authors. “It’s clear that the employment recovery we’re seeing now is characterized to a significant extent by far more informality.”
That’s true for Bijender and Kanika Gautam, owners of the Ultra Bodies Fitness Studio on the outskirts of New Delhi.
Gyms were among the last types of venues allowed to reopen from the 2020 lockdown and they were closed again during the latest outbreaks. The Gautams had been thriving on income from their 100 gym members, making enough to rent their two-story space and pay five trainers. Now, they’re relying on whatever they can scrape together from offering online fitness training, and struggling to afford rent and school fees for their two children.
“Earlier, we didn’t have to think twice about spending money when we went to the market with our children or went out to eat,” said Bijender. “But now, the situation is so bad that we are somehow just trying to survive. We don’t know if we will be able to keep our business,” he said.
On a wider scale, such setbacks on a wide scale may undermine confidence and future growth, said CMIE’s Vyas.
Read: India's COVID-19 death toll crosses 350,000
“You need that aspiration or drive to go to college, get a good job, save money to buy a home -- you need that ambition to make your life better than what your parents had. This is what makes the economy thrive, and this is a crucial thing that has taken a big hit,” he said.
Babu says he fears his life is now moving in reverse. He had hoped his youngest daughter, aged 13, might become a pilot. Now that he’s had to pull her out of her school in New Delhi, that seems impossible.
His dreams of buying a home in the city have been crushed by the loans he can no longer repay, he said in a phone call from his village.
“I’m not used to living in the village now. Everything we own, everything we are, it’s all in Delhi,” he said. “I should have just continued working as a driver, maybe then I wouldn’t be in this mess.”
India reports 80,834 new COVID-19 cases
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 29,439,989 on Sunday, with as many as 80,834 new cases recorded in the past 24 hours, said the health ministry.
Besides, 3,303 COVID-19 patients died since Saturday morning taking the death toll to 370,384.
Read: Indian state revises death counts up by 70%
This was the sixth consecutive day when less than 100,000 cases were registered across the country, after peaking to over 400,000 for several days in April-May which was dubbed as the pandemic's second wave.
Still there are 1,026,159 active cases, after a decrease of 54,531 active cases during the past 24 hours.
Read: India's cumulative Covid-19 vaccine coverage crosses 240 million-mark
A total of 28,043,446 people have been successfully cured and discharged from hospitals across the country, with 132,062 of them discharged since Saturday morning.
Hong Kong democracy activist Agnes Chow released from jail
Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Agnes Chow was released from jail Saturday after serving more than six months for taking part in unauthorized assemblies during massive 2019 anti-government protests that triggered a crackdown on dissent in the former British colony.
Chow, 24, was greeted by a crowd of journalists as she left the Tai Lam Center for Women. She transferred from a prison van to a private car without making any remarks.
Only a small group of supporters were on the scene, an apparent reflection of the government’s threats to jail those it deems in violation of a sweeping national security law that Beijing imposed on the territory a year ago.
READ: Hong Kong vigil organizer arrested on Tiananmen anniversary
The legislation has resulted in the arrests of leading democracy activists including Joshua Wong and Jimmy Lai, who are serving prison terms. Others have sought asylum abroad. Critics say China is now routinely violating commitments it made to preserve freedoms promised to Hong Kong for 50 years following the handover to Chinese rule in 1997.
Chow came to prominence while still a student during the 2014 “umbrella movement” calling for universal suffrage, alongside Wong and Nathan Law, who was granted political asylum in Britain in April.
She has a large following in Japan, frequently visiting the country and posting on Twitter in her fluent Japanese.
The 2019 protests began as peaceful marches against proposed legislation that could have seen criminal suspects sent to China to face possible mistreatment and unfair trials. Though the legislation was withdrawn, protests swelled to demand universal suffrage and an investigation into police abuses, becoming increasingly violent as demonstrators responded to harsh police tactics.
China fought back with the national security law, which has snuffed out dissent in the semi-autonomous territory. Defenders say it intends to ensure those running the city are Chinese patriots committed to public order and economic development.
China also overhauled Hong Kong’s Legislative Council to give pro-Beijing delegates an overwhelming majority. Hong Kong’s media outlets are now almost completely dominated by pro-Beijing business groups and even independent booksellers have become rare. The national security law has also given authorities broad powers to monitor speech online, making it difficult to organize opposition gatherings or even express views critical of the government or Beijing.
An annual candlelight vigil for victims of the bloody suppression of the 1989 pro-democracy movement centered on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was canceled for the second time this year. Hong Kong censors this week were also given the power to ban films that endanger national security, prompting concerns that freedom of expression is being further curtailed in a city once known for its vibrant arts and film scene.
READ: China may buckle down to reunify Taiwan after crackdown on Hong Kong
Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who is under U.S. sanctions, has been the face of the crackdown on dissent, although she is believed to be acting entirely on orders from Beijing, whose Communist Party leaders have long regarded Hong Kong as a potential incubator of opposition that could spread through the country.
Major jolt for BJP as top leader joins Mamata's party in Bengal
In a major jolt to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in West Bengal, a senior leader of the saffron outfit quit on Friday only to return to the eastern state's ruling Trinamool Congress that he co-founded with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in 1998.
Mukul Roy, the BJP's first import from Mamata's Trinamool Congress in Bengal, was re-inducted into the regional party, along with son Shubhranshu, in the presence of Mamata at a ceremony in state capital Kolkata. "Mukul has returned home. He was never a traitor like the others. More will come back," Mamata said, welcoming back her former party colleague.
Read: Bengal's ruling party makes Mamata's nephew second-in-command
Addressing the media at the Trinamool Congress headquarters, 67-year-old Mukul said, "I feel great at seeing my old colleagues, after leaving the BJP. I can't be in the BJP. Mamata is the only leader of Bengal and India."In fact, speculation was rife about Mukul's possible return to the Trinamool Congress after Mamata's nephew and the party's second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee last week visited the politician at the hospital where his wife was undergoing treatment. The very next day, Prime Minister Modi called Mukul up and enquired about his wife's health.
Mukul briefly served as India's Railway Minister in 2012, when Mamata's Trinamool Congress was part of then Congress-led ruling United Progressive Alliance government, which was decimated by Modi's BJP two years later. He left the Trinamool Congress and joined the BJP in 2017.
Read: India: Mamata inducts 43 Ministers into her Cabinet
Mukul's departure from the BJP is a huge setback for the saffron outfit after its humiliating defeat in April-May's assembly polls in West Bengal. Mamata single handedly pulled off an astounding victory in the election, defying anti-incumbency and staving off a huge challenge from the BJP.
Though her party swept back to power with a resounding majority of 213 seats in the 292-member assembly, the 66-year-old lost her own seat in Nandigram to her former protege-turned-rival Suvendu Adhikari by a thin margin of around 2,000 votes. "This win has saved Bengal, it has saved our culture and tradition," she said on the counting day.
Read: Game over: How an injured Mamata won against a fully fit saffron squad
The BJP though has made major gains in Bengal, winning some 77 seats. In 2016, the party had just three legislators in the state. However, the Left Front has failed to grab a single seat this time. The Left Front ruled Bengal for 34 years -- from 1977 to 2011.
Bengal witnessed the most high-profile contest in India's recently held state elections. While Mamata harped on being Bengal’s daughter, the BJP asked people to vote for "change and socio-economic development" after 50 years of Communist and Trinamool Congress rule. Top BJP leaders, including PM Modi, spearheaded the election campaign in Bengal.
China’s children may be next in line for COVID-19 vaccines
If China is to meet its tentative goal of vaccinating 80% of its population against the coronavirus by the end of the year, tens of millions of children may have to start rolling up their sleeves.
Regulators took the first step last week by approving the use of the country’s Sinovac vaccine for children aged 3 to 17, and on Friday announced the same for the Sinopharm vaccine. No date has been set for the shots to start.
Children have been largely spared the worst of the pandemic, becoming infected less easily than adults and generally showing less severe symptoms when they do catch the virus. But experts say children can still transmit the virus to others and some note that if countries are going to achieve herd immunity through their vaccination campaigns, inoculating children should be part of the plan.
“Vaccinating children is an important step forward,” said Jin Dong-yan, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong’s medical school.
Read: Senators say US donating vaccines to Taiwan amid China row
Doing so, however, may be easier said than done for reasons ranging from vaccine hesitancy to vaccine availability.
Even in countries with enough vaccines to go around, some governments are having problems convincing adults that the shots are safe and necessary despite studies demonstrating they are. Such concerns can be amplified when dealing with society’s youngest.
There’s also the issue of approval. Few regulators around the world have evaluated the safety of COVID-19 shots in kids, with the majority of shots approved only for adults right now. But the approvals are starting. The United States, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong are all allowing the use of the Pfizer vaccine in children as young as 12.
The Sinovac and Sinopharm announcements could open the way for the vaccines, already in use in dozens of countries from Brazil to Indonesia, to be given to children across the world.
In Thailand, where Sinovac makes much of the country’s vaccine supply, Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul welcomed the news that China had approved emergency use for children.
“Once it gets approved, we are ready to provide the vaccine to cover all ages,” Anutin said Monday.
Read:Asia welcomes US vaccine donations amid cold storage worries
Other vaccine makers are also working to expand access to younger people. Moderna is seeking permission to use its shot in children as young as 12, like Pfizer. Both companies have studies underway in even younger children, down to age 6 months.
Another obstacle to vaccinating children is that many countries are still struggling to get enough doses to inoculate their higher-risk adult populations. Thailand, for example, has vaccinated only 4% of its population so far and adult demand for vaccines far outweighs supply.
“Right now given the shortages of vaccines, any available vaccine should be placed in age-based prioritization and risk-based prioritization,” said Jerome Kim, head of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul. “It’s really important to get this vaccine out in the places it’s needed now.”
In many places there are also concerns among the public about the efficacy of the Chinese vaccines versus Western rivals. While efficacy rates cannot be compared directly, owing to the trials being conducted under different conditions, the Western vaccines have shown to be very effective in preventing infection in real world tests. Sinovac’s shot has been shown to be effective in preventing severe disease and hospitalization. Sinopharm’s shot has revealed comparatively less data.
The World Health Organization have approved both vaccines for emergency use in adults aged 18 and older, paving the way for its use in global programs aiming to distribute vaccines to low- and middle-income countries. The WHO has given no indication of when it might approve it for those younger.
Vaccines are often approved separately for adults and children because younger immune systems may react differently to the doses. Experts say inactivated vaccines are generally considered safe for children, as the technology has been in use for a long time, such as in mandatory childhood immunization programs, and have shown low risk.
Nikolai Petrovsky, a vaccine expert at Flinders University in Australia, said that while it is reasonable to assume the vaccines would safe for children, he questioned the necessity of vaccinating them against a virus they are relatively protected from using a vaccine that has yet to show it blocks transmission.
Read:Asia-Pacific trade ministers mull vaccine access, supply
“As far as I am aware there is no data to suggest the Sinovac vaccine will block transmission in children,” he wrote in an email. “Without such evidence we need to ask why we are immunising the children.”
China has a population of 1.4 billion, meaning it needs to inoculate 560 million people to reach its goal of 40% vaccination by June and 1.12 billion people to get to the 80% goal. It will be hard to do the latter without vaccinating many of its 254 million children who are younger than 14.
When China starts inoculating children will be determined by the government’s National Health Commission in accordance with the epidemic situation, Sinovac CEO Yin Weidong told state broadcaster CCTV last week.
A spokesperson for Sinovac did not respond to a call requesting comment. China’s National Health Commission directed the AP to a news report that summarized Yin’s comments.
Indian state revises death counts up by 70%
The Indian state of Bihar has increased its COVID-19 death toll after the discovery of thousands of unreported cases, raising concerns that many more fatalities were not officially recorded.
The health department in Bihar, one of the poorest states, on Thursday revised its COVID-19 fatality count to more than 9,429 from 5,424 — a jump of more than 70%.
Officials said the 3,951 unreported fatalities had occurred in May and reflect “deaths reported at private hospitals, in transit to health facilities, under home isolation and those dying of post COVID-19 complications.”
READ: India's cumulative Covid-19 vaccine coverage crosses 240 million-mark
Health experts say many COVID-19 fatalities remain unrecorded in India, more so during the latest surge in April and May, when hospitals ran unbearably full and oxygen supplies were low.
India’s federal ministers from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have dismissed reports of undercounting as exaggerated and misleading. In the past, states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have also recalibrated death numbers.
Overall, India’s cases and deaths have fallen steadily in the past weeks.
READ: India reports record high of 6,148 COVID-19 deaths in 24 hours
The 91,702 cases added in the past 24 hours pushed India’s total to more than 29.3 million on Friday, second only to the United States. The Health Ministry also reported 3,403 fatalities in the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 363,079.
G-7 to put off agreement on when to end coal-fired power generation
The Group of Seven leaders are making final arrangements to put off an agreement on the timing for ending coal-fired power generation despite a strong push from Britain, which will host their meeting this weekend, diplomatic sources said Thursday.
Britain has sounded out to its G-7 peers -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States plus the European Union -- about expressing deeper commitment to abandoning coal-fired power when the leaders gather for a three-day meeting from Friday in Cornwall, but it has faced opposition from some members, including Japan, the sources said.
Japan agrees on the need to enhance efforts to realize decarbonization and set the path to exit from coal-fired power generation in the future.
But it currently relies heavily on coal for electricity generation as most of the country's nuclear plants have remained halted for safety checks following the 2011 Fukushima crisis.
Also read: G-7 finance ministers agree on 15% int'l minimum corporate tax rate
Japan has told Britain of the situation, according to the sources.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga will attend a G-7 summit for the first time since he took office last year.
The leaders are also expected to express concern about China in a post-summit statement, the sources said, over its heightened military activities in the South and East China seas and alleged human right abuses.
They will reaffirm the position held by their foreign ministers, who met last month and agreed that China's practices are undermining a free and fair economy, while also warning over the human rights issues in Tibet and the Xinjiang autonomous region.
Japan and the United States have pushed to include in the G-7 leaders' statement the importance of peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait but some other G-7 members are reluctant as they want to maintain friendly economic relations with China, said the sources.
Also read: G-7 vows ‘equitable’ world vaccine access, but details scant
China has raised military pressure on Taiwan, regarding the democratic, self-ruled island as a renegade province to be reunited with the mainland by force if necessary.
Beijing expressed opposition when Taiwan was mentioned in the statements released after Japan recently held respective summit talks with the United States and the European Union.
At requests from Japan, the G-7 will also make clear its support for Tokyo to host this summer's Olympics and Paralympics, which have been postponed from last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, the sources said.
The move comes as Suga has been struggling to turn public opinion in favor of the games. Media polls have shown that a large majority of Japanese people are concerned about the further spread of the virus and are opposed to going ahead with the events.