Asian Politics Headlines at 8:19 a.m. GMT
Outgoing Japanese leader Kishida will visit South Korea for a summit on improving ties
Outgoing Japanese leader Kishida will visit South Korea for a summit on improving ties
Russia said on Wednesday that its partnership with China was not aimed against third countries but the two powers could "combine potential" if faced with a threat from the United States. "I would like to remind you that Moscow and Beijing will respond to 'double containment' by the United States with 'double counteraction'," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said when asked about a possible deployment of U.S. missiles in Japan.
The Kremlin told the West on Wednesday that any decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with long-range Western missiles would deepen what it called the direct involvement of the U.S. and Europe in the war and would trigger a response from Moscow. The warning came as senior Ukrainian government officials pressed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British foreign minister David Lammy, on a joint visit to Kyiv, to allow Ukraine to fire long-range U.S. ATACMS missiles and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles at targets deep inside Russia.
Satellite imagery has captured a Russian-flagged cargo ship suspected of transporting ballistic missiles from Iran docked at a port in Russia a week ago. A Ukrainian source told Sky News the Port Olya 3 vessel had shipped around 220 short-range ballistic missiles via the Caspian Sea to Russia to be used for its war in Ukraine.
China will "crush" any foreign incursion into its sovereign territory including in the South China Sea, a senior Beijing military official said Thursday on the sidelines of a defence forum.Washington and Beijing have verbally sparred over China's increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, including the South China Sea.
But US set to bar Kyiv from deploying its longest-range missiles to strike deep into territory across border
The United States’ elite Seal Team 6 has reportedly been training for missions to assist Taiwan if it is invaded by China.
U.S. President Joe Biden's administration faced increasing pressure from both Republicans and his fellow Democrats on Wednesday to ease restrictions on how Ukraine can use weapons provided by the United States in its war against Russia. Senator Ben Cardin, the Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noted recent Russian attacks that killed civilians and destroyed infrastructure, calling for quick action. "It’s time to allow Ukraine to be able to defend itself against these air attacks in a more effective way, and the United States needs to be the leader in that regard," Cardin said at a committee hearing.
Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Russia is aiding China in areas such as submarine operations and missile technologies.
After meetings with Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday, Palestinian militant group Hamas reiterated its "readiness" to adopt US President Joe Biden's long-gestating Gaza ceasefire deal, originally proposed in May, as pressure grows on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to bring home hostages. A Hamas delegation met Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Doha on Wednesday to discuss a truce in Gaza and a potential hostage and prisoner exchange, the militant group said in a statem
The United States and European Union have voiced renewed concerns over China's "very substantial" support for Russia's military, warning the assistance was allowing the Kremlin to keep waging war against Ukraine and threatened global security. The allegations followed the latest instalment of the US-EU dialogue on China and high-level consultations on the Indo-Pacific held this week in Brussels. In their joint statement, American and EU officials cited "China's ongoing support for Russia's milit
The Pentagon's rare move to keep two Navy aircraft carriers in the Middle East over the past several weeks has now finished, as the USS Theodore Roosevelt is heading home, according to U.S. officials. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the Roosevelt to extend its deployment for a short time and remain in the region as the USS Abraham Lincoln was pushed to get to the area more quickly. U.S. commanders in the Middle East have long argued that the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier and the warships accompanying it has been an effective deterrent in the region, particularly for Iran.
Iran's foreign ministry summoned the heads of the British, French, German and Dutch embassies on Thursday, the Iranian judiciary's Mizan news agency reported, following accusations of missile transfers to Russia and the imposition of new sanctions. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday that Russia had received ballistic missiles from Iran and would likely use them in its war in Ukraine within weeks. The U.S., Britain, Germany and France also announced new sanctions on Iran, including measures against its national airline Iran Air.
The end of Russia's war in Ukraine could come from an unexpected direction.
"We don't need another war, in this case, a trade war. We need to build bridges between the EU and China," Pedro Sánchez said in Shanghai.
India will impose tariffs of between 12% and 30% on some steel products imported from China and Vietnam in a bid to safeguard and boost local industry, an Indian finance ministry order showed. Welded stainless steel pipes and tubes exported by China, the world's largest producer of steel, and Vietnam, will be taxed for the next five years, the order from New Delhi issued on Sept. 10 showed. Ties between the world's two most populous nations have been strained since their militaries clashed on their disputed Himalayan border in 2020, prompting New Delhi to tighten scrutiny of Chinese investments and halt major projects.
The move would free up UK-made Storm Shadows to be used – with David Lammy and Antony Blinken in Kyiv to discuss the issue with Volodymyr Zelensky
Hours after Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin rebelled against his country’s top military leaders, his private army’s biggest client in Africa panicked, turning for help to his foe in the West. Officials from Central African Republic, where some 1,500 of Prigozhin’s shadowy Wagner Group mercenaries were stationed, wrote a letter that day, requesting to “rapidly” arrange a meeting with a private U.S. security firm to discuss collaboration. Dated June 23, 2023, the day Prigozhin launched the armed rebellion, the letter sparked a series of private meetings, culminating in a deal with the central African nation and Bancroft Global Development.
Every September world leaders travel to New York to address the start of the annual United Nations General Assembly session. When the United Nations was formed in 1945 following World War Two, there were originally 51 members. Leaders of two non-member observer states - known at the U.N. as the Holy See and the State of Palestine - and an observer member, the European Union, can also speak.
Masoud Pezeshkian arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan Thursday on a visit hailed by the regional president as the first by an Iranian president to the autonomous region.Barzani hailed the first visit by an Iranian president to the region, describing it as a "historic day".
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday slammed the West, saying that Israel is “committing massacres” in the war in Gaza and using European and American weapons to do so. Pezeshkian, who spoke in Baghdad at the start of his first visit abroad since taking office, is hoping to cement Tehran’s ties to Baghdad as regional tensions increasingly pull both majority Shiite countries into the widening Middle East fray. Iran has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian militant Hamas group since its Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in the Gaza Strip.