Top Defense Officials Say Ukraine War Has Blurred Lines, Exposing Global Threats

Philippines' Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr delivers a speech during the fifth plenary session at the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore on June 1, 2025. (AFP)
Philippines' Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr delivers a speech during the fifth plenary session at the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore on June 1, 2025. (AFP)
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Top Defense Officials Say Ukraine War Has Blurred Lines, Exposing Global Threats

Philippines' Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr delivers a speech during the fifth plenary session at the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore on June 1, 2025. (AFP)
Philippines' Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro Jr delivers a speech during the fifth plenary session at the Shangri-La Dialogue Summit in Singapore on June 1, 2025. (AFP)

China and North Korea's support for Russia in its war against Ukraine has exposed how lines between regions have blurred, and the need for a global approach toward defense, top security officials said Sunday.

North Korea has sent troops to fight on the front lines in Ukraine, while China has supported Russia economically and technologically while opposing international sanctions.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovilė Šakalienė told delegates at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premiere defense forum, that if Ukraine were to fall, it would have a ripple effect in Asia and suggested it could embolden China in its territorial claims on Taiwan and virtually the entire South China Sea.

"If Russia prevails in Ukraine, it’s not about Europe. It’s not about one region," she said. "It will send a very clear signal also to smaller states here in Indo-Pacific that anyone can ignore their borders, that any fabricated excuse can justify invasion."

The comments echoed those from French President Emmanuel Macron as he opened the conference on Friday advocating for greater European engagement in the Indo-Pacific.

On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested European countries should focus their defense efforts in their own region and leave the Indo-Pacific more to the US, but Šakalienė said the regions were clearly intertwined.

"It's not a secret that when we talk about the main perpetrators in cyber security against Japan it's China, Russia and North Korea," she said.

"When we talk about main cyber security perpetrators against Lithuania it's Russia, China and Belarus — two out of the three are absolutely the same."

She added that "the convergence of Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea into an increasingly coordinated authoritarian axis," demands a unified response. Iran has been a key supplier of attack drones to Russia for its war effort.

"In this context, the United States' strategic focus on Indo-Pacific is both justified and necessary, but this is not America’s responsibility alone," she said.

Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles told reporters on the sidelines that his main takeaway from the three-day conference, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, was the "real intent in the way in which European countries have engaged" in the debates.

"It reflects the sense of connection, interconnectedness ... between Indo-Pacific on the one hand and the North Atlantic on the other," he said.

China sent a lower-level delegation from its National Defense University this year to the conference, but its Foreign Ministry on Sunday responded to comments from Hegseth that Beijing was destabilizing the region and preparing to possibly seize Taiwan by force.

"No country in the world deserves to be called a hegemonic power other than the US itself, who is also the primary factor undermining the peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific," it said, while reiterating its stance that the Taiwan issue was an internal Chinese matter.

"The US must never play with fire on this question," the ministry said.

Philippines Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr, whose country has been involved in increasingly violent clashes with China over competing claims in the South China Sea, scoffed at the idea that the US was the problem.

"What the Chinese government considers fair and just may stand in stark contrast to the norms and values accepted by the rest of the world, especially the smaller countries," he said.

"To envision a China-led international order, we only need to look at how they treat their much smaller neighbors in the South China Sea."

He also underscored the international implications of the tensions in the Indo-Pacific, noting that the South China Sea was one of several maritime routes that are "arteries of the global economy."

"Disruption in any of these maritime corridors triggers ripple effects across continents, impacting trade flows, military deployments, and diplomatic posture," he said.

Singapore’s Defense Minister Chan Chun Sing said China missed an opportunity to have its voice heard by not sending its own defense minister, but it was still incumbent upon others to reach out to Beijing to try and build bridges and prevent misunderstandings.

Singapore has close ties to both the US and China, and is part of the regionally influential Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with the Philippines and others.

"It is in the interest of all of us to work with China, and it is also in the interest of China to work with everyone else in the world," he said. "It is in the interest of all of us to have a deeper understanding of China’s fears, concerns and aspirations, just as it is important for China to understand how the rest of the world perceives China."



Search Continues after Pakistan Building Collapse Kills 14

Rescuers search through the rubble for victims at the site of a collapsed building in Karachi, Pakistan, 04 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
Rescuers search through the rubble for victims at the site of a collapsed building in Karachi, Pakistan, 04 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
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Search Continues after Pakistan Building Collapse Kills 14

Rescuers search through the rubble for victims at the site of a collapsed building in Karachi, Pakistan, 04 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER
Rescuers search through the rubble for victims at the site of a collapsed building in Karachi, Pakistan, 04 July 2025. EPA/SHAHZAIB AKBER

Rescue teams pulled more bodies from the rubble of a five-storey building collapse in Pakistan overnight, taking the toll on Saturday to 14 as the recovery operation continued for a second day.

The residential block crumbled shortly after 10:00 am on Friday in the impoverished Lyari neighborhood of Karachi, which was once plagued by gang violence and considered one of the most dangerous areas in Pakistan, said AFP.

Abid Jalaluddin Shaikh, leading the government's 1122 rescue service at the scene, told AFP the operation continued through the night "without interruption".

"It may take eight to 12 hours more to complete," he said.

Police official Summiaya Syed, at a Karachi hospital where the bodies were received, told AFP that the death toll on Saturday morning stood at 14, half of them women, with 13 injured.

Up to 100 people had been living in the building, senior police officer Arif Aziz told AFP.

All six members of 70-year-old Jumho Maheshwari's family were at his flat on the first floor when he left for work early in the morning.

"Nothing is left for me now -- my family is all trapped and all I can do is pray for their safe recovery," he told AFP on Friday afternoon.

Another resident, Maya Sham Jee, said her brother's family was also trapped under the rubble.

"It's a tragedy for us. The world has been changed for our family," she told AFP.

"We are helpless and just looking at the rescue workers to bring our loved ones back safely."

Shankar Kamho, 30, a resident of the building who was out at the time, said around 20 families were living inside.

He described how his wife called him in a panic that the building was cracking.

I told her to get out immediately," he told AFP at the scene.

"She went to warn the neighbors, but one woman told her 'this building will stand for at least 10 more years'," he said.

"Still, my wife took our daughter and left. About 20 minutes later, the building collapsed."