World

Joe Biden leaves Thursday for his first trip as president to Asia convinced that the confrontation with Russia has reinvigorated US leadership, while wary that a rogue North Korean nuclear test could tear up the optimistic script.

The Democrat is going to South Korea, then Japan on Sunday to hold summits with the leaders of both countries, as well as joining a regional summit of the Quad group — Australia, India, Japan, and the United States — while in Tokyo.

During the first leg, he will visit US and South Korean troops, but will not make the traditional presidential trek to the fortified frontier known as the DMZ between South Korea and the unpredictable, isolated dictatorship of North Korea, the White House said.

The trip is being touted as proof that the United States is further building on recent moves to cement its years-long pivot to Asia, where rising Chinese commercial and military power is increasingly pushing back against decades of US leadership.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan rejected the idea that the war in Ukraine is distracting Biden from that mission.

Underlining the competing demands from two sides of the world, Biden will be meeting Thursday morning at the White House with the leaders of Finland and Sweden to celebrate their applications for joining NATO right before he boards Air Force One for Seoul.

But Sullivan said there was no “tension” in the twin focus. “We regard this as mutually reinforcing,” Sullivan told reporters.

“There’s something quite evocative about going from meeting with the president of Finland and the prime minister of Sweden to reinforce the momentum behind the NATO alliance and the free world’s response to Ukraine, then getting on a plane and flying out to the Indo-Pacific.”

– North Korean wild card –

Briefing reporters on the aims of the trip, Sullivan said Biden is headed to Asia with “the wind at our back” after successful US leadership in creating the tough Western response to President Vladimir Putin’s now almost three-month long invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The high military, diplomatic and economic cost facing Russia is seen in Washington as a cautionary tale for China to digest as it eyes ambitions to gain control over democratic-ruled Taiwan, even if that means going to war.

But for all the White House’s evident self-confidence, officials admit that North Korea’s nuclear weapons program is a wild card on the trip.

Sullivan said it was possible that North Korea, which has defied UN sanctions in conducting an array of nuclear-capable missile tests this year, could use Biden’s visit to stage “provocations.”

This could mean “further missile tests, long range missile tests or a nuclear test, or frankly both, in the days leading into, on or after the president’s trip to the region,” he said.

The Biden administration is prepared to “make both short and longer term adjustments to our military posture as necessary to ensure that we are providing both defensive deterrence to our allies in the region and that we’re responding.”

Sullivan said a potential response was being “closely” coordinated with South Korea and Japan and that he had also spoken about the issue with his Chinese counterpart earlier Wednesday.

– West meets East –

Sullivan said the administration wants not so much to confront China on the trip as to use Biden’s diplomacy to show that the West and its Asian partners will not be divided and weakened.

He pointed to cooperation from South Korea and Japan, among others, in the sanctions regime against Russia led by European powers and the United States. He also referred to Britain’s role in the recently created security partnership AUKUS.

“European countries are increasingly invested in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

“So for us, there is a certain level of integration and symbiosis in the strategy we are pursuing in Europe and the strategy we’re pursuing in the Indo-Pacific. And President Biden’s unique capacity to actually stitch those two together, I think, is going to be a hallmark of his foreign policy,” Sullivan said.

This “powerful message” will be “heard in Beijing,” Sullivan said, “but it’s not a negative message and it’s not targeted at any one country.”

The Colombian government has stepped up security for right-wing presidential candidate Federico Gutierrez following threats from paramilitary and drug trafficking groups ahead of elections later this month.

Gutierrez, who is trailing leftist candidate Gustavo Petro in opinion polls ahead of the May 29 vote, received a threatening note from a paramilitary organization calling itself the Black Eagles, according to his campaign team. 

Interior Minister Daniel Palacios said instructions were given to boost Gutierrez’s security in response to the threat, which had raised “concern both inside the campaign and in the intelligence agencies.” 

The note designated those who frequent Gutierrez’s party headquarters as “military targets” and threatened that the heads of Gutierrez and his entourage would “roll.” 

Palacios said there had also been threats from the Gulf Clan, the largest drug trafficking group in Colombia, the world’s biggest cocaine producer. 

The authorities had already stepped up security for Petro, a former guerrilla who had to call off a public appearance this month after his team received “first-hand information” about an assassination plot by paramilitaries.

In the 20th century, five presidential candidates were assassinated by opponents, drug traffickers or paramilitary groups in Colombia.

The country was gripped by more than five decades of conflict between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which ended with a 2016 peace deal.

While the level of violence has dropped since then, Colombia remains wracked by a multifaceted conflict involving drug traffickers and a multitude of armed groups on the left and right of the political spectrum.

On the campaign trail, Gutierrez has vowed a frontal assault by a “strong state” against criminal groups.

“We are swimming in drugs: 245,000 hectares of illicit crops,” the 47-year-old told AFP.

Gutierrez also said the financial strengthening of illegal groups such as the ELN guerrillas, FARC dissidents, the Gulf Clan and paramilitary groups only serves to “threaten the population.”

He added the government’s fight would be “against criminal structures,” with a focus on the “interdiction on drug production routes and laboratories.”

Gutierrez has also accused Petro of spying on his campaign after claiming to have found a microphone at its offices in Medellin.

Petro mocked the claims on Twitter, but a police investigation has been opened.

A second, run-off election round will take place on June 19 if no single candidate out of seven in the running receives a majority of votes in the first round — an outcome polls suggest is unlikely.

Here are the latest developments in the war in Ukraine:

– More than 1,000 Mariupol fighters remain: separatist –

More than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers including senior commanders, remain inside the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine’s port city of Mariupol, a pro-Russian separatist leader, Denis Pushilin, says.

Russia says that a total of 959 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered at the plant, including 80 wounded, since Monday.

It said that the injured are being treated in a hospital in a part of the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Russian rebels.

Kyiv’s defence ministry says it will do “everything necessary” to rescue the personnel still in the plant’s tunnels.

Ukraine says it hopes to exchange Azovstal fighters for Russian soldiers it is holding.

– Russian soldier pleads guilty to war crimes – 

A 21-year-old Russian soldier pleads guilty to killing an unarmed Ukrainian civilian at a war crimes trial in Kyiv, in the first such case to go to court since the start of the offensive.

Vadim Shishimarin from Irkutsk in Siberia admitted gunning down the 62-year-old man near the central village of Chupakhivka to prevent him reporting a carjacking by fleeing Russian troops.

He faces possible life imprisonment for war crimes and premeditated murder after the case heard by a district court in Kyiv.

“By this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every perpetrator, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine shall not avoid responsibility,” Ukraine’s chief prosecutor Iryna Venediktova tweeted.

– Finland, Sweden submit NATO bids –

Finland and Sweden submit their bids to join NATO, sealing their decision to jettison decades of military non-alignment, despite threats of reprisals from Moscow.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg calls it a “historic step”. He has promised to welcome them “with open arms” while an advisor to US President Joe Biden says Washington is “confident” Turkey will overcome concerns on the membership bids.

Biden offers US support to Finland and Sweden in the event of “aggression” during the application process.

Several other NATO allies, most notably Britain, have offered security assurances and German has offered joint exercises.

NATO ambassadors meeting in Brussels fail to reach consensus on starting formal membership negotiations.

Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border with Russia, and Sweden fear they could be future targets of Russian aggression following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Public support in the two countries for NATO membership skyrocketed after the war began.

– Moscow expels dozens of diplomats –

Russia expels dozens of French, Italian and Spanish diplomats in tit-for-tat responses to the expulsion of Russian diplomats over the Ukraine conflict.

The foreign ministry says 27 Spanish, 24 Italian and 34 French diplomats have been declared “persona non grata”.

All three countries condemn the move, with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi calling it a “hostile act” which will make resolving the war through peaceful means more difficult.

– US reopens Kyiv embassy –

The United States reopens its embassy in Kyiv after closing it for three months due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the State Department says.

“The Ukrainian people, with our security assistance, have defended their homeland in the face of Russia’s unconscionable invasion, and, as a result, the Stars and Stripes are flying over the embassy once again,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken says in a statement.

– Russian fire intensifies in north –

Russian forces have intensified artillery fire on Ukrainian border settlements around the city of Sumy to the north and close to the Russian border and Chernihiv to the east of the capital over the past few weeks, the Ukrainian army is reported as saying by the Institute for the Study of War.

The shelling comes despite the Russian military having scaled back its offensive in the north to focus on the eastern Donbas region.

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A 21-year-old Russian soldier on Wednesday pleaded guilty to the cold-blooded murder of a Ukrainian civilian, as Kyiv began a judicial reckoning for alleged atrocities after nearly three months of war.

Ukraine’s first trial for war crimes since Russia invaded on February 24 came as President Vladimir Putin was forced to also reckon with the prospect of NATO vastly expanding its reach on his borders.

Abandoning decades of non-alignment, Finland and Sweden formally submitted a joint application to join the military alliance at its headquarters in Brussels.

US President Joe Biden expressed strong backing for the two NATO applications and offered US support in the event of “aggression” during the application process.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the applications would not have been expected a short time ago, “but Putin’s appalling ambitions have transformed the geopolitical contours of our continent”.

The applications face resistance from NATO member Turkey, which accuses the Nordic neighbours of harbouring anti-Turkish extremists. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded “respect” from NATO over his government’s concerns.

But Western allies remain optimistic they can overcome Turkey’s objections. For now, several including Britain have offered security guarantees to Finland and Sweden to guard against any Russian aggression.

On the ground, in Ukraine’s ruined port city of Mariupol, more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers including senior commanders remained inside the besieged Azovstal steel plant, a pro-Russian separatist leader said.

Moscow said that 959 of the troops had surrendered this week.

– ‘Beyond normal’ –

Kyiv’s defence ministry said it would do “everything necessary” to rescue the personnel still in the sprawling plant’s tunnels but admitted there was no military option available.

Those who have left Azovstal were taken into Russian captivity, including 80 who were heavily wounded, the Russian defence ministry said.

The ministry, which published images showing soldiers on stretchers, said the injured were transported to a hospital in the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Kremlin rebels.

The defence ministry in Kyiv said it was hoping for an “exchange procedure… to repatriate these Ukrainian heroes as quickly as possible”.

But their fate was unclear, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refusing to say whether they would be treated as criminals or prisoners of war.

Putin had “guaranteed that they would be treated according to the relevant international laws”, Peskov said.

Russia’s alleged disregard for international law has played out in Ukraine with accusations — including mass rape and massacres — that are under investigation also by international bodies.

Peskov accused Kyiv of a “complete lack of will” towards peace talks, after Ukrainian negotiator Mykhaylo Podolyak said stop-start dialogue was “on hold”, having failed to yield any breakthroughs.

– ‘Clear signal’ –

Vadim Shishimarin, a shaven-headed sergeant from Irkutsk in Siberia, is expected to be the first of many prosecuted by Ukraine itself. He faces a life sentence after his guilty plea in a cramped Kyiv courtroom.

“By this first trial, we are sending a clear signal that every perpetrator, every person who ordered or assisted in the commission of crimes in Ukraine shall not avoid responsibility,” prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said.

Russia’s government has no information on the soldier, Peskov said, adding that many such cases reported by Ukraine are “simply fake or staged”.

Shishimarin admitted to a war crime in shooting dead an unarmed 62-year-old man in Ukraine’s Sumy region four days into the invasion, as the man rode a bicycle.

The International Criminal Court is deploying its largest-ever field team to Ukraine, with 42 investigators, forensic experts and support staff being sent into the field to gather evidence of alleged war crimes.

The US State Department also announced it was creating a special unit to research, document and publicise Russian war crimes.

The United States on Wednesday also reopened its embassy in Kyiv, after closing it for three months due to the Russian invasion.

“The Ukrainian people, with our security assistance, have defended their homeland in the face of Russia’s unconscionable invasion, and, as a result, the Stars and Stripes are flying over the embassy once again,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

– ‘My war is not over’ –

The Kremlin intensified a tit-for-tat round of diplomatic expulsions against European countries, ordering out dozens of personnel from France, Italy and Spain.

Despite their last-ditch resistance in places such as Mariupol, and their successful defence of Kyiv, Ukrainian forces are retreating across swathes of the eastern front.

White smoke from burning fields marks the pace of Russia’s advance around the village of Sydorove, on the approaches to the militarily important city of Slovyansk and Ukraine’s eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk.

Meanwhile top EU officials urged member states to be ambitious in helping Ukraine rebuild after the war, including through possible joint borrowing to cover the massive costs.

“There is a time, sooner or later, when we will have to look at funding on a European scale as we did for Covid,” said Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, at a news conference in Brussels.