Colombian Peace Talks to Continue, Says Santos
President Juan Manuel Santos explained today that peace talks with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) will be held abroad to continue working seriously and discreetly.
In a speech during which he made the start of the process official, Santos said they will begin in Oslo (Norway) in the first two weeks of October and then continue in Havana (Cuba).
They won’t have a deadline; they will be gauged in months rather than in years” and their duration will be subject to “reviewing progress regularly and, if no progress is made, then we will not continue.”
Santos said that the framework agreement reached at the end of exploratory talks establishes a process with a clear structure, divided into three stages.
He said that on the first stage, a closed agenda, rules and procedures to implement what has already been signed was established. He added that the second phase will include closed door, direct work sessions to reach the “Final Agreement.”
And the third one is the simultaneous implementation of every agreed issue, with the guarantees and mechanisms for verification and people’s involvement, he said.
For the first stage, mechanisms will be established to inform the people about the process, “maintaining above all the serious, discreet nature of the talks,” said Santos.
The president made clear that during all this process his government “will not make any concession whatsoever in the military field” and the military operations “will continue with the same intensity.”
He urged the Colombian people to keep their temperance, patience and strength against eventual new FARC attacks or an escalation of violence, which will be surely strongly confronted by police and justice,” and thanked the governments of Cuba and Norway for their generous support, “without which it had been impossible to get to this point.” Both countries will continue acting as hosts and guarantors on the second phase.
Santos also thanked the government of Venezuela “for its permanent willingness to help at any time, and the government of Chile for having agreed to support us on the next phase” of nations that will be accompanying us in the process.
Hilary Clinton Arrives in China Amid Warnings
U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, began an official visit to China amid strong official warnings to Washington that “must give concrete steps to promote its relations” with this country.
‘While the U.S. Government highlights the progress of China, it shows very little respect for its sovereign rights in this region of the world,” the official news agency Xinhua said today in a long commentary on the occasion of the visit of senior U.S. official .
At the second stop on the 11-day Asia-Pacific tour started in Indonesia, Clinton plans to discuss a wide range of issues of common interest with her hosts in Beijing, mainly with Foreign Minister, Yang Jiechi.
As part of the welcome to the U.S diplomat, local media published comments that criticize the position of the U.S. Government towards China on the crucial issues such as sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands, which Japan claims.
Xinhua denounced that the U.S. has tried to work with some countries from Southeast Asia to force China to find a multinational solution in the South Sea of China, despite strong opposition from the authorities in Beijing.
The U.S. government also has to understand that when the matter is with issues related to sovereignty and territorial integrity of China, Beijing is not committed to anyone, including Washington, the local news agency said.
Meanwhile, China Daily reports that this is probably the last official visit of Clinton as U.S. diplomat and remembers her stay last May, when the two nations held its annual strategic and economic dialogue in this capital.
Speaking to the local press, Paul Haenle, director of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, said that high-level visits are an important element for the relations between the two countries.
Growth Concerns Pull China Shares to New Low
Chinese stocks wiped out early gains and headed downward to close at the lowest point in over three years on Tuesday, as investors remained cautious over growth concerns in the world’s second-largest economy and the absence of more stimulus measures.
Opening slightly higher at 2,060.61, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index erased early gains and fell 15.5 points, or 0.75 percent, to close at 2,043.65, marking the lowest level since February 2009.
Giving up a slight rally of 0.15 percent at opening, the Shenzhen Component Index slumped 117.84 points, or 1.41 percent, to close at 8,243.83.
Combined turnover stood at 101.06 billion yuan (15.94 billion U.S. dollars), compared to 101.03 billion yuan on Monday.
Losers outnumbered gainers by 776 to 157 in Shanghai and 1,071 to 395 in Shenzhen.
A slew of economic data will be released next week and investors were unsure whether the economy was stabilizing in August, as the country’s manufacturing activity fell to a nine-month low in August.
Liquor maker Kweichow Moutai Co. bucked the losing trend and rose 6.22 percent to 233.43 yuan after it announced late Monday that it would raise wholesale prices on between 20 percent to 30 percent of its products.
Via PL