ASEAN diplomats meet with China as friction mounts over Beijing’s sweeping maritime claims

BRUSSELS: The main international forum for drumming up weapons and ammunition for Ukraine will for the first time meet under the auspices of a country other than the US as uncertainty surrounds the future of Washington’s support for arming the war-torn country.
The Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations, was brought together by former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to coordinate weapons support in the months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
President Donald Trump has expressed skepticism for backing Ukraine, criticizing its President Volodymyr Zelensky and saying last month that his administration had already held ” very serious” discussions with Russia about ending the conflict.
The UK is convening the 26th meeting of the contact group on Wednesday at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
The meeting is aimed at discussing “priorities for Ukraine as the international community continues to work together to support Ukraine in its fight against (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s illegal invasion,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement released on Thursday.
It’s the first time that a country other than the US has convened the forum, although Austin’s successor, Pete Hegseth, is scheduled to take part. It was not immediately clear whether the UK convened the meeting on its own initiative or whether Washington requested it.
A senior US official said, “We appreciate the UK’s leadership in convening the 50-plus countries who participate in this forum. Ally and partner burden-sharing remains critical to helping achieve peace in Ukraine.”
The official spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The US is by far the largest single foreign contributor of military aid to Ukraine, providing about 30 percent of Ukraine’s weaponry, as much as the 27 members of the European Union put together.
Kathleen Burk, emeritus professor of history at University College London, told The Associated Press that if the US has asked Britain to chair the meeting of Ukraine’s Western backers, it “seems to tell me that disengagement has already begun.”
Zelensky attended the last meeting in January, as the Biden administration rushed to provide his country with as much military support as it could, including a new $500 million package of weapons and relaxing restrictions on missile strikes into Russia.
The aim was to put Ukraine in the strongest position possible for any future negotiations to end the war.
In June last year, NATO defense ministers approved a permanent system to provide reliable long-term security aid and military training for Ukraine after delays in Western deliveries of funds, arms and ammunition helped invading Russian forces to seize the initiative on the battlefield.
The NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), which began work in December, had been described as a way to “Trump-proof” NATO backing for Ukraine, a reference to concern that Trump might withdraw US support for Kyiv.
NSATU, which is headquartered at a US military base in Wiesbaden, Germany, was publicly portrayed by NATO officials as a system that would complement rather than replace the contact group.

BUKAVU, DR Congo: The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group was threatening another key town in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday as the United Nations warned that the risk of violence spreading regionally had “never been higher.”
M23 and Rwandan troops seized the city of Goma last week and are now pushing into the neighboring South Kivu province.
Thousands have died and huge numbers displaced as they have overtaken swathes of the mineral-rich region, routing DRC troops and their allies in the latest episode of decades-long turmoil in eastern DRC.
Congolese forces were bracing for an assault on the town of Kavumu, which hosts an airport critical to supplying its troops, according to security, humanitarian and local sources.
Kavumu is the last barrier before the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu on the Rwandan border, where residents were also on edge.
“We see some people starting to flee,” resident Aganze Byamungu told AFP.
A local who spoke on condition of anonymity said shops were barricading their fronts and emptying storerooms for fear of looting, while schools and universities suspended classes.
“The border with Rwanda is open but almost impassable because of the number of people trying to cross. It’s total chaos,” they added.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi are due to attend a summit in Tanzania on Saturday as regional powers try to defuse the crisis.
The UN Human Rights Council met in Geneva on Friday to decide on investigating abuses committed in the conflict.
UN rights chief Volker Turk warned “the risk of violence escalating throughout the sub-region has never been higher.
“If nothing is done, the worst may be yet to come, for the people of the eastern DRC, but also beyond the country’s borders,” he added.
Turk said nearly 3,000 people had been confirmed killed and 2,880 injured since M23 entered Goma on January 26, and that final tolls would likely be much higher.
He also said his team is “currently verifying multiple allegations of rape, gang rape and sexual slavery.”
Also on Friday, a Swiss NGO said three local staff were killed in the area this week.
In Goma, where the M23 has already installed its own mayor and authorities, the group convened tens of thousands of people on Thursday for a public meeting of the River Congo Alliance, a political-military coalition that includes the M23.
The head of the alliance, Corneille Nangaa, told the crowd that the group wants to “liberate all of the Congo.”
Young people at the meeting in the city’s packed stadium chanted “Go to Kinshasa!,” the DRC’s capital on the other side of the vast country, which is roughly the size of Western Europe.
The DRC issued an international arrest warrant for Nangaa on Wednesday.
Since the M23 resurfaced in late 2021, the DRC army, which has a reputation for poor training and corruption, has been forced into multiple retreats.
The offensive has raised fears of regional war, given that several countries are engaged in supporting DRC militarily, including South Africa, Burundi and Malawi.
Previous peace talks hosted by Angola and Kenya have failed.
The latest peace summit in Tanzania brings together the eight-country East African Community and 16-member South African Development Community.
It was set to start with a ministerial meeting on Friday, before the arrival of Kagame, Tshisekedi and other regional leaders on Saturday.
A UN expert report said last year that Rwanda has “de facto” control over the M23, alongside some 4,000 of its own troops in the conflict zone.
The report also accused Kigali of profiting from smuggling minerals from the DRC — particularly coltan used in phones and laptops, as well as gold.
Rwanda denies direct involvement and accuses the DRC of sheltering the FDLR, an armed group created by ethnic Hutus who massacred Tutsis during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.