- 11 Philippine soldiers killed in ‘friendly fire’
China will honour its commitments on climate change, its premier has said, as the US appears poised to pull out of a key deal.
Speaking on a visit to Germany, Premier Li Keqiang said fighting climate change was in China’s own interest.
China was counting on other countries to follow its example, Mr Li said.
US President Donald Trump is due to announce his decision on the 2015 Paris agreement later. Some reports in the US suggest he will withdraw.
“China will continue to implement the promises made in the Paris accord. But of course we also hope to do this with the co-operation of others,” Mr Li said.
As a big developing country, China had an “international responsibility” to try to prevent climate change, he added.
Chinese and EU leaders are set to agree a joint statement on the Paris climate agreement, saying it is “an imperative more important than ever”.
The joint statement – a draft of which has been seen by the BBC – says rising temperatures affect national security and increase “social and political fragility”, while the transition to clean energy creates jobs and economic growth.
Chinese media are critical of Trump’s hint that the US will leave the Paris agreement.
Nationalist newspaper Global Times said it would “set a bad example”, reveal the US as “selfish and irresponsible” and “weaken US leadership”.
However, state TV channels downplayed the significance, with Shanghai-based Dragon TV saying Mr Trump “absolutely wasn’t speaking formally”.
In the meantime, eleven Philippine soldiers were killed and seven others injured in a “friendly fire” incident in the city of Marawi, defence officials said on Thursday.
Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told the media here that the soldiers were killed and wounded in airstrikes aimed at Islamist militants on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.
“One of our SF-260 aircraft was conducting an airstrike (when) the last ordnance round it (fired) went wayward for an unknown reason and accidentally hit our ground forces,” Padilla said.
“This is a case of friendly fire. It was an accident.”
“Maybe the coordination was not properly done so we hit our own people. We don’t know yet what exactly happened,” he added.
Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the military is sending more troops to Marawi to fight the remaining 50 to 100 extremists still holed up in the embattled city.
The ongoing clashes have so far killed over 90 militants, including at least eight foreign fighters, 19 civilians and 36 security personnel.
On May 23, heavily-armed militants attacked Marawi — which has a population of about 200,000 people — when the military was searching for an Abu Sayyaf leader hidden in the city.
BBC with additional report from Zee
