TRANSCRIPT
- Penny Wong outlines Australia's vision for security in the Indian Ocean
- Both former Pakistani Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan claim victory in elections
- Veteran opener David Warner inspires victory in the T-20 series opener against the West Indies
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has used a speech at a two-day summit in Perth to describe Australia's vision for the Indian Ocean region.
The Foreign Minister is hosting this year's Indian Ocean Conference, which is being attended by 400 delegates from 40 countries, alongside India's Foreign Minister.
Senator Wong's ministry has focused extensively on the security in the Pacific Ocean and on Australia's relationship with China, but she also urged China to be more open about military buildup around the Indian Ocean.
She has used a speech at the conference to outline how tensions could easily flare up around the ocean.
"The risk of regional escalation remains real, and the terrible toll of these conflicts underlines the importance of countries like ours working together to maintain peace and stability in our region."
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Both former Pakistani prime ministers Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan have declared victory in the country's elections, throwing the country into further political turmoil.
Mr Sharif's P-M-L-N party won the most seats by a single party in Thursday's election, but supporters of the imprisoned Mr Khan won the most seats overall running as independents.
Mr Sharif said his party would talk to other groups to form a coalition government, while a spokesperson for Mr Khan's P-T-I party, which was barred from the polls, has accused authorities of delaying the results.
Marvin Weinbaum, the Director of Afghanistan and Pakistan Studies at the Middle East Institute, says the results are likely to add to polarisation in a country struggling to recover from an economic crisis.
“The feeling is that right now, the country has entered a period of great instability. And what I am suggesting is that this election which one would hope would resolve a lot of this could very well be the basis for now even deeper exposure to forces which would create instability.”
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International aid organisations providing humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza are calling for an urgent end to an expected Israeli ground invasion of Rafah.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to prepare a plan for the evacuation much of the population of the southern Gaza city.
Israel claims Rafah is the last remaining Hamas stronghold and it needs to send in troops to complete its war plan against the group.
The U.N. estimates 1.4 million Palestinians are sheltering in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
Jennifer Tierney, Executive Director of Doctors without Borders Australia, has told SBS News civilians around Rafah are experiencing a "compound medical emergency".
"They have very limited access to clean water, many of them have sustained wounds, and now they are suffering terrible infections, that we're unable to address because of the sanitary conditions, the malnutrition situation is getting quite desperate, and people cannot access basic case for things like births of premature babies, and we're sending babies home who should be hospitalised but the hospitals aren't safe, and to create an even worse situation for Gazans is just unthinkable, truly unthinkable."
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Australia are hoping to wrap up victory in a three-game T-20 series against the West Indies after an 11-run win over the West Indies in their series opener in Hobart last night.
Veteran opener David Warner scored 70 from 36 deliveries in his 100th T-20 international to inspire the win, before spinner Adam Zampa starred with the ball.
Zampa broke a strong West Indies stand in the ninth over of the second innings, as the hosts defended a first innings of 7 for 213.
Warner, who has confirmed his retirement from international tests and O-D-Is, says he is enjoying his final international matches as a member of the T-20 squad.
"I feel refreshed, a lot of energy, the guys told me to settle down a bit, but look yeah, I'm pumped, I said I wanted to play the twenty-twenty world cup and finish, and look, I'm excited, and it's a good little journey that we've got going through the next six months."
