22nd HACGAM holds high-level meeting to strengthen cooperation

The representatives attending the High-level Meeting of the 22nd Heads of Asian Coast Guard Agencies Meeting (HACGAM), which opened Tuesday in Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang in east China, underscored the urgent need to strengthen multilateral law enforcement cooperation.

The participants agreed that the current maritime security situation in Asia is diverse and complex, with various non-traditional security challenges intertwined, which makes it necessary and urgent to strengthen multilateral law enforcement cooperation for regional maritime security and stability and sustainable maritime development.

Representatives from maritime law enforcement agencies of 23 countries and regions, including Singapore and Vietnam, as well as two international organizations, attended the meeting.

They held in‑depth discussions on subjects of preventing and cracking down on illegal maritime activities, maritime search and rescue, marine ecological and environmental protection, and more.

"We are working for the global common that is the ocean, to make the oceans secure for humanity. The oceans, they always unite people and here we always work for the shared values, shared cooperation," said Shahzad Iqbal, director general of the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency.

China proposed to jointly establish an Asian marine carbon sink law enforcement database, so as to strengthen the protection of marine carbon sinks in law enforcement within the global climate governance framework based on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement.

"We displayed Chinese Coast Guard's professional law enforcement capacity and China's innovative practices in modern ocean governance. Upholding the spirit of solidarity and cooperation, we worked with maritime law enforcement agencies from other countries to seek solutions that address both symptoms and root causes and continuously deepen practical cooperation, so as to build a closer maritime community with a shared future," said Wang Kaiqiang, deputy director of China Coast Guard.

22nd HACGAM holds high-level meeting to strengthen cooperation

Japan's economy expanded at an annualized real 1.4 percent pace in the April-June quarter, revised up from a preliminary estimate of 1.1 percent, as business investment fell less sharply than initially reported, government data showed Tuesday.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) rose 0.4 percent from the previous quarter, up from a preliminary reading of 0.3 percent, the Cabinet Office said.

The upward revision largely reflected a smaller-than-estimated decline in capital expenditure. Business investment fell 0.9 percent in the second quarter, compared with an initial estimate of a 1.2 percent drop.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of Japan's economy, was unchanged from the preliminary data.

Net external demand, or exports minus imports, added 0.5 percentage point to GDP growth, unchanged from the initial estimate. Domestic demand subtracted 0.1 percentage point, an improvement from the previously estimated 0.2 percentage point drag.

Japan raises Q2 growth estimate as business investment decline narrows