Top Asian News 2:58 a.m. GMT

Grappling with maritime disputes and Myanmar crisis, ASEAN top diplomat meetings joined by US, China

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — Top diplomats from Southeast Asia convened Saturday in the Laotian capital with their powerful dialogue partners in the last of the three-day regional talks that have grappled with tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea, escalating fighting in Myanmar, and regional rivalry. Meetings on Saturday will bring together in the same room allies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations — including the United States, China, Russia, Japan, India and Australia — to bolster their relationships and discuss key security issues and other regional affairs. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived Saturday in Vientiane to meet with the ASEAN foreign ministers.

Singing, ceremonies and straw hats: Olympics opening ceremony in Tahiti centers Polynesian culture

PAPARA, Tahiti (AP) — Tahitian dancers in palm-leaf skirts mingled with Olympic surfers, locals and tourists as the opening ceremony for the Summer Games commenced in French Polynesia on Friday morning, some 10,000 miles away from the main ceremony in Paris. “The people of Tahiti, we are all enchanted to have these Olympics games here and to welcome all our friends from all over the world,” President of French Polynesia Moetai Brotherson told The Associated Press. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us. All the world is looking at us for this mighty wave.” Just steps from the ocean and set against the lush green mountains of Tahiti, the event was heavily centered on Polynesian culture: Visitors were welcomed with traditional Tahitian singing, dancing and ceremonies.

With Palestinian deal and Ukrainian foreign minister’s visit, China shows its rising influence

In consecutive days this week, China brokered a deal between rival Palestinian factions and hosted Ukraine’s foreign minister at a moment when pressure is mounting on the country to negotiate an end to the grinding war there. While it’s unclear if the agreement between Hamas and Fatah will succeed where others have failed and there is little concrete progress towards peace in Ukraine, China emerged a winner, further cementing its role as a diplomatic force on the global stage, not just an economic powerhouse. As Beijing and Washington vie for influence around the world, China is increasingly playing a role that had previously been the domain of world powers like the U.S.

Vietnam Communist Party chief’s funeral draws thousands of mourners, including world leaders

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Thousands of mourners gathered in Hanoi on Friday for the second day of the funeral of the man who dominated Vietnamese politics for over a decade, Communist Party general secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. His death, at 80, last week in Hanoi marked the start of a succession struggle within the party that will likely to continue until the all-important National Party Congress of Vietnam’s Communist Party in 2026. Trong’s coffin, draped in the red and yellow of Vietnam’s flag, was laid beneath his smiling portrait and dozens of medals at the National Funeral House in Hanoi on Thursday.

Blinken to celebrate Biden legacy, reassure allies in Asia after president drops out of 2024 race

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will make the case for the Biden administration’s expanded commitment to Asia and the Indo-Pacific region more broadly as he visits Laos, Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, Singapore and Mongolia this week and next. The trip comes as the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign heats up after a series of bombshell developments upended the race. Blinken, who has already modified his travel schedule twice since the trip was announced just hours after President Joe Biden made his decision not to seek re-election, arrives in Vientiane, Laos, on Saturday for the annual ASEAN Regional Forum.

Key Pakistani Islamist party begins sit-in to protest increase in electricity bills

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Hundreds of supporters of a key Islamist party began a sit-in protest in the garrison city of Rawalpindi late Friday after authorities detained dozens to prevent them from holding the rally in Pakistan’s neighboring capital, citing security reasons, officials said. The Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan party originally issued a call for holding the sit-in near the parliament building in Islamabad to pressure the government to withdraw a substantial increase in electricity costs, which have drawn nationwide criticism. People complain they are getting electricity bills even higher than their salaries. Naeem-ur-Rehman, who heads Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, told demonstrators in Rawalpindi that he was willing to stage the sit-in even for weeks.

Typhoon Gaemi weakens to a tropical storm as it moves inland carrying rain toward central China

BEIJING (AP) — Tropical storm Gaemi brought rain to central China on Saturday as it moved inland after making landfall at typhoon strength on the country’s east coast Thursday night. The storm felled trees, flooded streets and damaged crops in China but there were no reports of casualties or major damage. Eight people died in Taiwan, which Gaemi crossed at typhoon strength before heading over open waters to China. The worst loss of life, however, was in a country that Gaemi earlier passed by but didn’t strike directly: the Philippines. A steadily climbing death toll has reached 34, authorities there said Friday.

Philippines plans to siphon off oil cargo from sunken tanker to avert ‘environmental catastrophe’

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — There is no indication that a big cargo of industrial fuel oil stored in a tanker that sank in stormy weather in Manila Bay has started to leak, the Philippine coast guard said Friday, and plans are being firmed up to try to siphon off the highly toxic shipment to prevent a major spill that could reach the bustling capital. The tanker Terra Nova had left Bataan province en route to the central province of Iloilo with about 1.4 million liters (370,000 gallons) of industrial fuel oil stored in watertight tanks when it got lashed by huge waves and took on water.

Sri Lanka will hold presidential election on Sept. 21, its first since declaring bankruptcy in 2022

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka will hold a presidential election on Sept. 21 that will likely be a test of confidence in President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s efforts to resolve the country’s worst economic crisis. The date was announced by the independent elections commission Friday, which said nominations will be accepted on Aug. 15. Wickremesinghe is expected to run while his main rivals will be opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Dissanayake, who is the leader of a leftist political party that has gained popularity after the economic debacle. It will be the first election in the South Asian island nation after it declared bankruptcy in 2022 and suspended repayments on some $83 billion in domestic and foreign loans.

India and China agree to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of troops on their disputed border

NEW DELHI (AP) — India and China have agreed to work urgently to achieve the withdrawal of tens of thousands of troops stationed along their disputed border in a long-running standoff, India’s government said. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on Thursday on the sidelines of Association of Southeast Asian Nations meetings in Laos, where they stressed the need for an early resolution of outstanding issues along the disputed Line of Actual Control, the long Himalayan border shared by the two Asian giants. The line separates Chinese and Indian-held territories from Ladakh in the west to India’s eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which China claims in its entirety.