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Vienna, Austria — The OPEC+ group of oil-producing nations agreed Sunday to extend their production cuts in a bid to support prices, as economic and geopolitical uncertainty looms over the market.   The 12-member oil cartel and its 10 allies decided to "extend the level of overall crude oil production... starting 1 January 2025 until 31 December 2025," a statement by the alliance said.   In addition, eight countries said they would also extend voluntary supply cuts made at Riyadh's request to further support the market: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman.   Some of those cuts will run until September before being phased out, while others will be kept in place until December 2025.   The decisions came after the biannual meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, and its 10 partners, headed by Russia.   The group-wide supply cuts amount to about two million barrels per day (bpd).   Adding the series a voluntary cuts, OPEC+ members are currently slashing output by almost six million barrels per day overall to bolster flagging oil prices.    'Positive surprise'  OPEC+ also agreed to allow the United Arab Emirates to increase its production target by 300,000 bpd for next year, a statement said.   The UAE had pledged to make additional voluntary output cuts at the request of Saudi Arabia, which wanted to share the burden of cuts in an effort to support prices.    UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo called Sunday's announcements a "positive surprise."  The decision "removes some uncertainty over some tensions down the road, as the quotas will now be reviewed end 2025 for 2026," Staunovo told AFP.   Negotiations about the production quotas of member countries have repeatedly been a source of discord in the past, triggering heated debates and even shock departures.    At the end of 2023, Angola exited OPEC over a disagreement on output cuts.   But according to Mukesh Sahdev at the Rystad Energy research group, the alliance still faces the issue of "actual barrels flowing to the market likely being higher than what is accounted for", which could potentially undermine the cartel's strategy.   Moreover, Iraq and Kazakhstan exceeded their quotas in the first quarter, while Russia overproduced in April.    'Challenging environment'   Amid questions surrounding global demand, some analysts say that gradually allowing oil to return to the markets without causing prices to plummet will prove challenging.   Producers will probably have to come up with a complex system to skillfully reintroduce barrels that were previously removed, without causing prices to crater.   Oil prices have changed little since the last meeting in November, hovering at around $80 a barrel.   OPEC continues to stick to its demand forecasts for 2024, while the International Energy Agency has lowered its estimates.   Amid "above-average inflation, slowing global growth outlook, central bank uncertainties, rising US oil production and Middle East tensions, the environment is challenging", said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, a market analyst at Swissquote Bank.

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Seoul — North Korea said Sunday it would stop sending trash-filled balloons across the border into the South, saying the "disgusting" missives had been an effective countermeasure against propaganda sent by anti-regime activists. Since Tuesday, the North has sent nearly a thousand balloons carrying bags of rubbish containing everything from cigarette butts to bits of cardboard and plastic, Seoul's military said, warning the public to stay away. South Korea has called the latest provocation from its nuclear-armed neighbour "irrational" and "low-class" but, unlike the spate of recent ballistic missile launches, the trash campaign does not violate UN sanctions on Kim Jong Un's isolated regime. Seoul on Sunday warned it would take strong countermeasures unless the North called off the balloon bombardment, saying it runs counter to the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War hostilities. Late Sunday, the North announced it would stop its campaign, after scattering what it claimed was "15 tons of waste paper" using thousands of "devices" to deliver them. "We have given the South Koreans a full experience of how disgusting and labor-intensive it is to collect scattered waste paper," it said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The North said it will now "temporarily suspend" its campaign, saying it had been a "pure countermeasure." "However, if the South Koreans resume the distribution of anti-DPRK leaflets, we will respond by scattering one hundred times the amount of waste paper and filth, as we have already warned, in proportion to the detected quantity and frequency," it said, using the acronym for the country's official name. Activists in the South have also floated their own balloons over the border, filled with leaflets and sometimes cash, rice or USB thumb drives loaded with K-dramas. Earlier this week, Pyongyang described its "sincere gifts" as a retaliation for the propaganda-laden balloons sent into North Korea. South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons had been landing in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent area of Gyeonggi, which are collectively home to nearly half of South Korea's population. The latest batch of balloons were full of "waste such as cigarette butts, scrap paper, fabric pieces and plastic," the JCS said, adding that military officials and police were collecting them. "Our military is conducting surveillance and reconnaissance from the launch points of the balloons, tracking them through aerial reconnaissance, and collecting the fallen debris, prioritizing public safety," it said. South Korea's National Security Council met Sunday, and a presidential official said Seoul would not rule out responding to the balloons by resuming loudspeaker propaganda campaigns along the border with North Korea. In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda into the North, which infuriates Pyongyang. "If Seoul chooses to resume anti-North broadcast via loudspeakers along the border, which Pyongyang dislikes as much as anti-Kim balloons, it could lead to limited armed conflict along border areas, such as in the West Sea," said Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Korean peninsula strategy at Sejong Institute. In 2018, during a period of improved inter-Korean relations, both leaders agreed to "completely cease all hostile acts against each other in every domain," including the distribution of leaflets. South Korea's parliament passed a law in 2020 criminalizing sending leaflets into the North, but the law — which did not deter the activists — was struck down last year as a violation of free speech. Kim Jong Un's sister Kim Yo Jong — one of Pyongyang's key spokespeople — mocked South Korea for complaining about the balloons this week, saying North Koreans were simply exercising their freedom of expression. The two Koreas' propaganda offensives have sometimes escalated into larger tit-for-tats. In June 2020, Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with the South and blew up an inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border. The trash campaign comes after analysts have warned Kim is testing weapons before sending them to Russia for use in Ukraine, with South Korea's defense minister saying this weekend that Pyongyang has now shipped about 10,000 containers of arms to Moscow, in return for Russian satellite know-how.

DUBAI — The next CEO of Boeing BA.N should have an understanding of what led to its current crisis and be prepared to look outside for examples of best industrial practices, the head of the International Air Transport Association said on Sunday. U.S. planemaker Boeing is engulfed in a sprawling safety crisis, exacerbated by a January mid-air panel blowout on a near new 737 MAX plane. CEO Dave Calhoun is due to leave the company by the end of the year as part of a broader management shake-up, but Boeing has not yet named a replacement. "It is not for me to say who should be running Boeing. But I think an understanding of what went wrong in the past, that's very important," IATA Director General Willie Walsh told Reuters TV at an airlines conference in Dubai, adding that Boeing was taking the right steps. IATA represents more than 300 airlines or around 80% of global traffic. "Our industry benefits from learning from mistakes, and sharing that learning with everybody," he said, adding that this process should include "an acknowledgement of what went wrong, looking at best practice, looking at what others do." He said it was critical that the industry has a culture "where people feel secure in putting their hands up and saying things aren't working the way they should do." Boeing is facing investigations by U.S. regulators, possible prosecution for past actions and slumping production of its strongest-selling jet, the 737 MAX. 'Right steps' Calhoun, a Boeing board member since 2009 and former GE executive, was brought in as CEO in 2020 to help turn the planemaker around following two fatal crashes involving the MAX, its strongest-selling jet. But the planemaker has lost market share to competitor Airbus AIR.PA, with its stock losing nearly 32% of its value this year as MAX production plummeted this spring. "The industry is frustrated by the problems as a result of the issues that Boeing have encountered. But personally, I'm pleased to see that they are taking the right steps," Walsh said. Delays in the delivery of new jets from both Boeing and Airbus are part of wider problems in the aerospace supply chain and aircraft maintenance industry complicating airline growth plans. Walsh said supply chain problems are not easing as fast as airlines want and could last into 2025 or 2026. "It's probably a positive that it's not getting worse, but I think it's going to be a feature of the industry for a couple of years to come," he said. Earlier this year IATA brought together a number of airlines and manufacturers to discuss ways to ease the situation, Walsh said. "We're trying to ensure that there's an open dialogue and honesty," between them, he said.

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U.S. and Chinese defense officials offered competing visions for Asia, even as they agreed to keep channels open during the three-day? Shangri-La security summit that wrapped up Sunday in Singapore, as VOA’s William Gallo reports from Seoul, South Korea. (Camera: William Gallo)

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Johannesburg — The final results of a tumultuous South African election are expected to be declared late Sunday, though what is already evident is that the governing party has lost its majority for the first time. A former South African president once boasted that the African National Congress would rule "until Jesus comes back.” There’s a joke now doing the rounds in South Africa that Jesus must have returned, given the bashing the party took in general elections this week. In a seismic political shift, the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time, getting just 40 percent of the vote. It was a chastened ANC when the party’s secretary-general Fikile Mbalula made the first public remarks since the vote, acknowledging that there was “nothing to celebrate” but “It is the will of the people, and that is what we must accept." “The African National Congress commends the people of South Africa for once again demonstrating the strength and vibrancy of our democracy. The results send a clear message to the ANC. We wish to assure the people of South Africa that we have heard them, we have heard their concerns, their frustrations and their dissatisfaction,” Mbalula said. Mbalula stressed that contrary to some reports the party would not be asking President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down. In terms of who the ANC might now go into coalition with, he said they were engaging with other parties, without specifying. David Everatt, a professor at Johannesburg’s Wits School of Governance said he suspected “almost everything” was still on the table in terms of coalitions. The party that got the second largest amount of votes, at over 21 percent, was the Democratic Alliance, or DA, which the business-minded would prefer to see in a coalition. However, some in the ANC might balk at going into an alliance with them as they are seen as a “white” party, and prefer to go with a radical party like the Economic Freedom Fighters, he said. “The political arithmetic is being recalibrated almost hourly…we’ll have final results by the end of today, being Sunday, and after that they have to horse-trade very quickly, because they don’t have very long before we have to form, or they have to form, a government,” he said. One of the main upsets of the election was newly formed party uMkhonto weSizwe, or MK, led by former President Jacob Zuma. Coming in with around 14 percent of the votes, MK ate into some of the ANC’s support. Ironically it was Zuma who made the comment about the ANC governing until Jesus returns. Zuma, 82, has an axe to grind with the ANC, after it forced him to resign from the presidency in 2018 amid corruption scandals. On Saturday, the former ANC stalwart-turned-disrupter called for a delay in the official declaration of results, alleging rigging and demanding a re-count. He provided no proof for this claim, and the election on Wednesday has been widely praised as free and fair. However Zuma intimated there could be violence if the announcement of official results went ahead as planned, said Everatt. “This is not a democrat, this is an autocrat who is threatening violence to try to get what he wants,” he said. However the electoral commission said while they were dealing with challenges to the vote, the announcement would go ahead Sunday night at a conference center in Johannesburg. President Ramaphosa has confirmed his attendance.

London — Halla Tomasdottir, a businesswoman and investor, has won Iceland's presidential election, topping a crowded field of candidates in which the top three finishers were women, the country's national broadcast service reported.  Tomasdottir was elected to the largely ceremonial post with 34.3% of the vote, defeating former Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir, with 25.2%, and Halla Hrund Logadottir, with 15.5%, RUV said Sunday.  Tomasdottir, 55, campaigned as someone who was above party politics and could help open discussions on fundamental issues such as the effect of social media on the mental health of young people, Iceland's development as a tourist destination and the role of artificial intelligence.  She will replace President Gudni Th. Johannesson, who did not seek re-election after two four-year terms. Tomasdottir will take office on Aug. 1.  Iceland, a Nordic island nation located in the North Atlantic, has about 384,000 people and a long tradition of electing women to high office. Vigdis Finbogadottir was the first democratically elected female president of any nation when she became Iceland's head of state in 1980.  The country has also seen two women serve as prime minister in recent years, providing stability during years of political turmoil. Johanna Sigurdardottir led the government from 2009-2013, after the global financial crisis ravaged Iceland's economy. Jakobsdottir became prime minister in 2017, leading a broad coalition that ended the cycle of crises that had triggered three elections in four years. She resigned in April to run for president.  Tomasdottir first rose to prominence during the financial crisis, when she was hailed as the co-founder of Audur Capital, one of the few Icelandic investment firms that survived the upheaval. She is currently on leave as chief executive of the B Team, a non-profit organization that works to promote workplace diversity and has offices in New York and London. 

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Chicago — A Grammy-winning rapper, progressive activists and a leader of an afterschool squash program are part of the eclectic mix of possible candidates lining up for Chicago’s first school board elections this fall. America's third-largest city has long been an outlier with a mayor-appointed board overseeing its public schools, and it took years of advocacy and legislative squabbles to reach this point. But the messiest part is likely yet to come. The historic November races are part of a multi-year transition that is hard to explain to voters. Special interest groups are taking notice. And questions loom about how the new 21-member board, triple the current size, will govern. “This is not a political race, this is a movement,” said rapper Che “Rhymefest” Smith, who is among dozens of hopefuls who filed fundraising paperwork. “Everyone in this city has a responsibility to the children who are going to be served.” Potential candidates are circulating petitions while educating voters about the inaugural contests. Many are parents, advocates and former educators making their first foray into politics, navigating a steep learning curve with little name recognition or cash. While legislators approved an elected board in 2021, the logistics, including political maps, weren’t settled until March. The board won’t be fully elected until 2027. Residents, divided into 10 sprawling districts, will vote for board members to take office next year. The mayor will then appoint 10 other board members from smaller subdistricts along with a citywide president. In 2026, voters will elect all 21 members, eventually for four-year terms. “It takes almost a flow chart to figure it out,” said Adam Parrott-Sheffer, a former principal touting his experience to run in the same South Side district as Smith. Conversations with potential supporters involve more explanation on process than issues, he says. Parent Kate Doyle, who founded a nonprofit, hopes to represent a North Side district. After knocking on hundreds of doors, she found one person, a teacher, who fully understood what's coming. Chicago’s Board of Education — which passes a $9 billion budget, confirms a CEO and approves policies and contracts — was created by state legislators in 1872. After many versions, a seven-member board was instituted in 1999. The roughly 325,000-student district, serving largely low-income Black and Latino children, has grappled with budget cuts and dwindling population. Interest in elected representation gained momentum after former Mayor Rahm Emanuel closed over 50 schools in 2013. The Chicago Teachers Union, among the groups pushing the change, deems it a voting rights issue. “An elected school board brings people from those spaces that have been neglected and disinvested to a table where they have some agency," said CTU President Stacy Davis Gates. Over 90% of school boards are elected, according to the National School Boards Association. Few school districts have recently changed from an appointed school board to an elected one, leaving Chicago without a roadmap. One fellowship program through National Louis University is trying to ease Chicago's transition with training for potential board members. Most of the 22 current fellows enrolled hope to get on the November ballot. They're learning how to engage with the public and tactics for group decision making. “If this program can shorten that learning curve a little bit, that could have a really positive tremendous impact on the students in the city,” said Bridget Lee, who oversees the program. Candidates face numerous hurdles, including a truncated campaign season. The jobs, which district officials estimate require up to 30 hours of time weekly, are unpaid, limiting who can afford to run. At least 1,000 signatures are required to get on the ballot, more than double the number for aldermanic and some congressional candidates with paid political operations. Anusha Thotakura, a 25-year-old activist with the progressive Citizen Action Illinois, collected 600 signatures in a district that includes wealthy and low-income neighborhoods. “This board presents a lot of hope for people about having accountability," she said. Smith fanned signed petitions on the dining table at his great-grandmother’s South Side home where he lives. “In Chicago, this is money,” the 46-year-old joked. Still, he’s putting $80,000 into his bid and has written a campaign song titled “Optimistic.” “People see a rapper and there’s a stigma to it,” said Smith, who made an unsuccessful 2011 City Council run. “I’m here to break stereotypes.” Voter turnout in school elections is typically under 10%, according to the NSBA. The presidential contest is expected to help, though Chicago's March primary turnout was the lowest in years at roughly 26%. That adds weight to endorsements, including from the influential teachers' union. Competition to get them is fierce. One possible candidate, Yesenia Lopez, unveiled her campaign with Congressman Jesus “Chuy” Garcia's backing before her campaign disclosure paperwork was filed. Jesus Ayala, 32, hopes to run in the same Southwest Side district. He works at MetroSquash, a sports complex offering mentorship and other student programs through the racquet sport. “When you have a congressman announcing someone’s candidacy, it feels like an elected official trying to appoint someone to the board,” he said. Elsewhere, outside organizations have poured money into down-ballot school elections, making them proxy votes for controversial national issues. During Los Angeles’ 2017 board races, unions and pro-charter school groups spent $15 million. In Chicago, charter schools groups are already getting involved. Paul Vallas, a former superintendent and failed candidate for Chicago mayor, started a political action committee that could back candidates. Parents advocating to restore school bus service, which the district cut amid driver shortages, hosted the first candidate forum. “The wild card in all of this is: Will there be national issues that are tangentially related that will bleed into the race?” asked Michael Ford, a University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor. District officials have offered few details about how the board will operate. One thing raising eyebrows is its size. “They are creating conditions for a lot of political infighting, more opportunities for deal brokering, things that have been synonymous with Chicago politics,” said Jonathan Collins, a Columbia University political scientist. Los Angeles has seven board members while Houston has nine. In New York, the panel is partially appointed and recently increased from 15 to 23. Illinois state Sen. Rob Martwick, who championed an elected board, said more districts were created to curb the influence of outside money. More legislative changes could follow, including campaign finance and board pay. “Now the responsibility of making our schools better is in your hands, can’t blame the mayor anymore," Martwick said. "Look in the mirror.”

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Jerusalem — An aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed on Sunday that Israel had accepted a framework deal for winding down the Gaza war now being advanced by U.S. President Joe Biden, though he described it as flawed and in need of much more work. In an interview with Britain's Sunday Times, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu, said Biden's proposal was "a deal we agreed to — it's not a good deal but we dearly want the hostages released, all of them." "There are a lot of details to be worked out," he said, adding that Israeli conditions, including "the release of the hostages and the destruction of Hamas as a genocidal terrorist organization" have not changed. Biden, whose initial lockstep support for Israel's offensive has given way to open censure of the operation's high civilian death toll, on Friday aired what he described as a three-phase plan submitted by the Netanyahu government to end the war.  The first phase entails a truce and the return of some hostages held by Hamas, after which the sides would negotiate on an open-ended cessation of hostilities for a second phase in which remaining live captives would go free, Biden said. That sequencing appears to imply that Hamas would continue to play a role in incremental arrangements mediated by Egypt and Qatar - a potential clash with Israel's determination to resume the campaign to eliminate the Iranian-backed Islamist group. Biden has hailed several ceasefire proposals over the past several months, each with similar frameworks to the one he outlined on Friday, all of which collapsed. In February he said Israel had agreed to halt fighting by Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began on March 10. No such truce materialized. The primary sticking point has been Israel's insistence that it would discuss only temporary pauses to fighting until Hamas is destroyed. Hamas, which shows no sign of stepping aside, says it will free hostages only under a path to a permanent end to the war. In his speech, Biden said his latest proposal "creates a better 'day after' in Gaza without Hamas in power." He did not elaborate on how this would be achieved, and acknowledged that "there are a number of details to negotiate to move from phase one to phase two." Falk reiterated Netanyahu's position that "there will not be a permanent ceasefire until all our objectives are met." Netanyahu is under pressure to keep his coalition government intact. Two far-right partners have threatened to bolt in protest at any deal they deem to spare Hamas. A centrist partner, ex-general Benny Gantz, wants the deal considered. Hamas has provisionally welcomed the Biden initiative. "Biden's speech included positive ideas, but we want this to materialize within the framework of a comprehensive agreement that meets our demands," senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Saturday. Hamas wants a guaranteed end to the Gaza offensive, withdrawal of all invading forces, free movement for Palestinians and reconstruction aid. Israeli officials have rejected that as an effective return to the situation in place before Oct. 7, when Hamas, committed to Israel's destruction, ruled Gaza. Its fighters precipitated the war by storming across the border fence into Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. In the ensuing Israeli assault that has laid waste to much of the impoverished and besieged coastal enclave, more than 36,000 Palestinians have been killed, Gaza medical officials say. Israel says 290 of its troops have died in the fighting. 

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran's hard-line former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad registered Sunday as a possible candidate for the presidential election, seeking to regain the country's top political position after a helicopter crash killed the nation's president. The populist former leader's registration puts pressure on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In office, Ahmadinejad openly challenged the 85-year-old cleric, and his attempt to run in 2021 was barred by authorities. The firebrand, Holocaust-questioning politician's return comes at a time of heightened tensions between Iran and the West over Tehran's rapidly advancing nuclear program, its arming of Russia in its war on Ukraine and its wide-reaching crackdowns on dissent. Meanwhile, Iran's support of militia proxy forces throughout the wider Mideast have been in increased focus as Yemen's Houthi rebels attack ships in the Red Sea over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. Ahmadinejad is the most prominent candidate to register so far. Speaking after his registration, he vowed to seek "constructive engagement" with the world and improved economic relations with all nations. "The economic, political, cultural and security problems are beyond the situation in 2013," Ahmadinejad said, referring to the year he left the presidency after two terms. After speaking to journalists in front of a bank of 50-odd microphones, Ahmadinejad said, his finger in the air: "Long live the spring, long live Iran!" Before his arrival at Iran's Interior Ministry, his supporters chanted and waved Iranian flags. They quickly surrounded Ahmadinejad, 67, shouting: "God is the greatest!" He descended the stairs at the ministry, showing his passport as is custom to dozens of photographers and video journalists on hand for the registration process. As a woman processed his candidacy, he sat, turned to the journalists, nodding and smiling for the cameras. He was expected to give remarks after concluding his registration. An election is planned June 28 to replace Khamenei's hard-line protégé President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in May along with seven other people. Former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, a conservative with strong ties to Iran's former relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, has already registered, as has former Iranian Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati, who also ran in 2021. Who else will seek to run remains in question. The country's acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, previously a behind-the-scenes bureaucrat, could be the front runner because he has already been seen meeting with Khamenei. Also discussed as a possible aspirant is former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, but, as with Ahmadinejad, whether he would be allowed to run is another question. The five-day registration period will close Tuesday, and the Guardian Council is expected to issue its final list of candidates within 10 days. That will allow for a shortened two-week campaign before the vote in late June. Ahmadinejad previously served two four-year terms from 2005 to 2013. Under Iranian law, he became eligible to run again after four years out of office, but he remains a polarizing figure even among fellow hard-liners. His disputed re-election in 2009 sparked massive "Green Movement" protests and a sweeping crackdown in which thousands of people were detained and dozens were killed. Abroad, he became a caricature of Western perceptions of the Islamic Republic's worst attribute, questioning the Holocaust, insisting Iran had no gay or lesbian citizens and hinting Iran could build a nuclear weapon if it chose to do so. But Ahmadinejad remains popular among the poor for his populist efforts and home-building programs. Since leaving office, he's raised his profile via social media and written widely publicized letters to world leaders. He's also criticized government corruption, though his own administration faced graft allegations and two of his former vice presidents were jailed. Khamenei warned Ahmadinejad in 2017 that his standing for office again would be a "polarized situation" that would be "harmful for the county." Khamenei said nothing during Ahmadinejad's 2021 attempt, when his candidacy was rejected by the 12-member Guardian Council, a panel of clerics and jurists ultimately overseen by Khamenei. That panel has never accepted a woman or anyone calling for radical change to the country's governance. That panel could reject Ahmadinejad again. However, the race to replace Raisi has yet to draw a candidate with clear, overwhelming support from Khamenei. 

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SINGAPORE — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday urged countries to participate in the June 15-16 peace summit in Switzerland. Zelenskyy, in his keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, emphasized diplomacy’s role in maintaining Ukrainian efforts in the war with Russia, now in its third year. "Not so long ago, it seemed that the world would always be fragmented, but we saw that most nations truly desire and are capable of cooperation, at least as far as collective security is concerned," he told hundreds of foreign government officials and delegates at the regional security dialogue. He stressed how support from countries around the world has helped Ukraine to maintain its defense capabilities amid aggressive attacks launched by Russia while rescuing some Ukrainian children who had been taken to Russia. "Diplomacy does more when it truly aims to protect life, [and] together with partners, we are defending life and rules-based world order," he said, adding that Ukraine’s experience has helped to restore "effective diplomacy," which has led to the peace summit in Switzerland. "We are moving into the Global Peace Summit so every leader and every country can show their commitment to peace," he said, stressing that the global majority can ensure that "what is agreed upon is truly implemented" with their involvement in the summit. While reiterating the importance for countries around the world to remain "united" and act in "complete harmony," Zelenskyy also expressed his disappointment in some countries’ absence from the peace summit. "We are disappointed that some world leaders have not yet confirmed their participation in the peace summit, [and] unfortunately, there are also attempts to disrupt the summit," he said, adding that these attempts would deny the world the opportunity to "decide on war and peace." Zelenskyy’s remarks came as Ukraine continues to experience heavy Russian bombardment. Ukrainian officials told local media outlets that an overnight Russian attack involving 100 missiles and drones targeted the country’s power grid and injured at least 19 people across the country. It also follows China’s decision to skip the peace summit. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters May 31 the summit has not met the conditions proposed by China, which is that both Russia and Ukraine should take part in the meeting. "There is an apparent gap between the meeting’s arrangement and what China stands for as well as the universal expectation in the international community," she said, adding that China has shared its concerns with relevant parties while vowing to keep promoting peace talks in its own way. Several European leaders, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, have expressed concerns in recent months about China’s support for Russia’s war efforts and urged Beijing to use its influence to facilitate a peace process. Western countries have also repeatedly warned about China’s ongoing support for Russian war efforts against Ukraine. In May, the British defense minister said that intelligence showed evidence of Chinese lethal aid to Russia. During his keynote address Sunday, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun reiterated that China has not provided weapons to either party in the Ukraine war and strictly controls the export of dual-use items. "We stand firmly on the side of peace and dialogue," he said. However, when asked to elaborate on China’s plan for the peace process in Ukraine during the Q&A session of his keynote speech, Dong skipped the question and used his time to repeat China’s objection to Taiwan’s efforts to seek independence. Zelenskyy told a press conference that while the United States has confirmed its "high-level" participation in the peace summit and has been encouraging countries to attend, China has been asking countries "not to attend the summit." "These are two different approaches,” he said. When asked what he hopes to achieve by coming to Singapore, Zelenskyy said he wants to secure more support from Asian countries and hopes to let Asian countries understand what is happening in Ukraine. "We want Asia to be involved in the peace summit and if we see Asian leaders attend the peace summit, we will know that my trip has succeeded," he said, adding that he has not had any interaction with the Chinese delegation. While he said he does not expect Ukraine to receive defensive support from China, Zelenskyy said he hopes China will support Ukraine’s efforts to ensure nuclear and food security in the world. "It'll be great if China supports and helps to solve these two issues," he told journalists. Some analysts say Dong’s reluctance to elaborate on Beijing’s plan for peace processes in the war shows it does not consider part of its core interests. "They don’t think it’s a good topic for them, so they are just not going to talk about it," Ray Powell, a fellow at Stanford University's Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation, told VOA on the sidelines of the Shangri-La meeting. Powell said that while part of Zelenskyy’s goal may be trying to rally more countries to join the peace summit, he may have difficulty convincing some Indo-Pacific countries to become more involved in the Ukraine War. "Some Indo-Pacific countries’ immediate concerns don’t go that far out so I think Zelenskyy may just be thinking about keeping certain countries that have been supportive of Ukraine’s cause at the United Nations close and try to make his case to those governments," Powell said. Zelenskyy said that by joining the event, countries can involve their people in global affairs and unite the world against one war.