Tag Archives: US

The top diplomats of the United States, Australia, Japan and India opened talks in Melbourne Friday on deepening their Quad alliance, hoping to blunt China’s expanding power across the Asia-Pacific region. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison kicked off the day by highlighting the group’s importance in building cooperation among democracies while making a thinly-veiled allusion to his country’s troubled relationship …

WASHINGTON: The United States, Britain and Canada hit top Myanmar justice officials with sanctions on Monday on the one-year anniversary of a military coup. The US Treasury Department placed sanctions on Attorney General Thida Oo, Supreme Court Chief Justice Tun Tun Oo and Anti-Corruption Commission Chairman U Tin Oo, whom it said were closely involved in the “politically motivated” prosecution …

WASHINGTON: The United States, Norway and other key European governments urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Thursday to do more to gain international acceptance. Special Representatives and Special Envoys of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States met in Oslo on Jan 24 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. The meeting included sessions with …

GENEVA: Washington and Moscow’s top diplomats agreed on Friday to keep working to ease tensions over Ukraine, with the United States promising a written response to Russian security demands and not ruling out a presidential meeting. As fears grow that Russia could invade its pro-Western neighbour, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken renewed warnings of severe Western reprisals as he …

GENEVA: Senior US and Russian officials launched special talks on Monday aimed at defusing tensions over a Russian military buildup on the border with Ukraine, part of a flurry of diplomatic activity in Europe this week. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and his delegation arrived under Swiss police escort at the US diplomatic mission in Geneva for face-to-face talks …

ANKARA: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday told his foreign minister to expel the ambassadors of 10 countries including Germany and the United States who appealed for the release of a jailed civil society leader. The envoys issued a highly unusual joint statement on Monday saying the continued detention of Parisian-born philanthropist and activist Osman Kavala “cast a shadow” …

The United States and Britain warned their citizens on Monday to avoid hotels in Afghanistan, days after dozens were killed at a mosque in an attack claimed by the Islamic State group. The Taliban, which seized power in August and declared an Islamic emirate, are seeking international recognition and assistance to avoid a humanitarian disaster and ease Afghanistan’s economic crisis. But, as …

Senior Taliban officials and US representatives are to hold talks Saturday and Sunday about containing extremist groups in Afghanistan and easing the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country, officials from both sides said. It’s the first such meeting since US forces withdrew from Afghanistan in late August, ending a 20-year military presence there, and the Taliban’s rise …

UNITED NATIONS: Russia, China, Pakistan and the United States are working together to ensure that Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers keep their promises, especially to form a genuinely representative government and prevent extremism from spreading, Russia’s foreign minister said on Saturday. Sergey Lavrov said the four countries are in ongoing contact. He said representatives from Russia, China and Pakistan recently travelled …

TEHRAN: Despite sharp posturing at the UN General Assembly, Washington and Tehran are expected to reach a compromise to resume talks on resurrecting the Iran nuclear deal, analysts say. “The Vienna talks will surely restart and materialise because both sides have come to the conclusion that the current path cannot be continued,” Mehdi Rahmanian, editor of the reformist newspaper Shargh, said. …