Tunisian President Kais Saied has been criticized in Brussels for increasingly authoritarian rule. Its hopes of accessing a $1.9-billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund are hobbled by a refusal to undertake IMF-mandated reforms. The North African country is struggling with high debt and poor liquidity, and has suffered bread and power shortages. The rest was for previously agreed programs, with 60 million euros to help Tunisia with its budget. Pisonero said that, of the 127 million euros to be “swiftly” disbursed, 42 million euros came under the migration aspect of the July deal. Some of the money also goes to UN agencies assisting migrants. The EU deal, strongly supported by Italy’s far-right government, aims to bolster Tunis’s coast guard to prevent boats leaving its shore. Tunisia is one of the main launching points for boats carrying migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean for Europe, with most heading for Italy, in particular its island of Lampedusa. Under the agreement, a memorandum of understanding signed by commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in July, Tunisia will get 105 million euros to curb irregular migration, 150 million euros in budgetary support and 900 million euros in long-term aid. The Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines Huang Xilian in April accused Manila of fueling geopolitical tension in the Asia-Pacific.īrussels: The EU is to start releasing money to Tunisia under a pact aimed at stemming irregular migration from the country, the European Commission said Friday.Ī first payment of $135 million will be disbursed “in the coming days,” a commission spokeswoman, Ana Pisonero, said.ĮU lawmakers, the bloc’s ombudsman and migrant assistance charities have questioned whether the deal with Tunisia meets European rights standards. The Philippines’ western command flagged concerns on Thursday over a “resurgence” of Chinese fishing vessels “swarming” in waters around the Spratly Islands inside Manila’s exclusive economic zone, following a series of similar encounters in the area in recent months. has said that granting the US access to more military bases in his country was not intended for “any offensive action.” The site visit this week “signifies our commitment to further strengthen our cooperation, ensuring that both militaries are prepared and well equipped to respond to evolving security challenges and humanitarian crises,” he added. So the choices of the EDCA sites, for instance, are primarily because of considerations for humanitarian assistance and disaster response.” Some of the bases could be designed specifically for joint training, he said, while adding that locations of the sites agreed upon under EDCA have “nothing to do with other countries in the Indo-Pacific region.”īrawner said: “What we are interested in really is to promote the interest of the Philippines. “We are just opening this up for shared use with our counterpart, with our only ally the United States, because we believe that doing certain things together would bring more value,” Brawner said. The US has allocated over $100 million to develop sites in the Philippines, with over 90 projects having already been approved in the new locations. Ranking military officials led by Aquilino and Brawner were inspecting two of the four new EDCA sites on Wednesday, where various work is underway, including building a pier and repairing an airstrip. Brawner and I may make recommendations to our senior leaders for the consideration of additional sites, but there’s still work to do there before we get to that answer,” Aquilino told reporters after their meeting on Thursday. have discussed the possibility of expanding the number of bases US forces could access. John Aquilino said he and the Philippines’ military chief Lt. The four new bases are situated in strategic locations, with three of the sites facing north toward Taiwan and one near an island in the disputed South China Sea. Manila granted the US entry to four more bases in strategic areas of the Philippines earlier this year, a move that riled Beijing as it gives Washington access to a total of nine military sites in the country under their 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. MANILA: Philippine and US military officials said on Thursday they may look to further expand areas covered in their joint defense agreement, which could give Washington more access to bases in the Philippines at a time when tensions are simmering in the South China Sea.
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