United States - Iranian talks on saving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal broke off until next week as European officials showed dismay at sweeping demands by Iran's new government. The seventh round of talks in Vienna is the first with delegates sent by Iran's anti-Western President Ebrahim Raisi on how to review the agreement under which Iran limited its nuclear program in exchange for aid from economic sanctions. After Raisi’s election in June, there was a five-month gap within the talks, which led to suspicions amongst US and European officers that Iran is taking part in for time while adva
Myanmar’s junta has protested the United Nations’ decision to deny its chosen representative a seat at the world body and keep in place an envoy appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted government. Similarly, the representative chosen by the Taliban has also been ignored by the New York body. The committee responsible for approving nominations of ambassadors met on Wednesday but deferred a decision over the rival claims to Myanmar and Afghanistan’s seats. The deferral keeps in place envoys appointed by both the Myanmar and Afghanistan governments before they were ousted. Myanmar junt
On Wednesday, Russia and a few South-east Asian countries started their first ever joint naval exercise along the Strait of Malacca, which will continue till Saturday. All 10 members of ASEAN, South-east Asia's regional bloc, were a part of Wednesday's drills. While the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia took part as virtual observers, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, Singapore and Indonesia provided warships or aircraft. The ceremony was attended by Russian Ambassador to ASEAN Alexander Ivanov and Russian Ambassador to Indonesia Lyudmila Vorobyeva. Russia's a
Magdalena Andersson, who was last week sworn in as Sweden’s first woman Prime Minister before she decided to step down due to a budget defeat, has been re-elected as the head of the Government. In a 101 -173 vote with 75 abstentions, Riksdag elected Ms. Andersson as Prime Minister. She will form a one-party, minority Government and will be formally inducted following an audience with King Carl XVI Gustav, Sweden's monarch. Ms. Andersson, who has previously served as the country’s Finance Minister, will present her government policies on Tuesday after her cabinet is named. The policies
Barbados forged a new republic on Tuesday after ditching Britain's Queen Elizabeth as head of state and appointing it’s first-ever president to leave their colonial past behind. Sandra Mason was sworn in as Barbados’s first president in the shadow of the Barbados’s parliament. The last country to ditch the Queen was the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius in 1992. To make sure that the relation between the UK and the island continues to remain friendly despite Queen Elizabeth’s exit, Prince Charles is expected to deliver a speech. He was in attendance when Barbados bid farewell to the
The United States has no nuclear communication to Beijing. The two countries have never discussed the American missile defenses in the Pacific or China’s experiments to blind U.S. satellites. China has never been keen on having any nuclear talks, saying that the U.S. and Russia have five times more nuclear warheads than Beijing. But President Joe Biden is keen on having a conversation. As per the New York Times, the U.S. is trying to get China to speak about its nuclear capability. U.S. officials have said that the American president Mr. Biden wants to start the talks by speaking on avoi
Just seven hours after being voted in as Sweden's first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson has put down her papers after being faced with a budget defeat in parliament. Her coalition partner the Green Party left the government, which forced Andersson to resign. The government’s budget proposal was rejected and the one proposed by the opposition - the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats – was approved. The vote was 154-143 in favour of the opposition’s budget proposal. Following the defeat, Andersson, who has also served as the finance minister of the country, told r
United States President Joe Biden has invited nearly 110 countries to a virtual summit on democracy in December. The list of invitees also includes India. While Taiwan is invited, rival country China has not been sent an invitation. In November, Biden had said the US opposed China’s unilateral efforts to disrupt peace in the Taiwan Strait. Among the countries of the Middle East, only Israel and Iraq have been invited. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, tha traditional Arab allies of the US are not invited. South Asian countries Afghanistan, Ba
French President Emmanuel Macron is in Rome this week to sign a new treaty with Italy, which will strengthen ties between two founding EU members. Mr Macron will seal the pact with Prime Minister Mario Draghi and President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday, and on Friday, he will meet Pope Francis to talk about child abuse at the French Catholic Church. The ‘Quirinal Treaty’ -- named after the presidential palace in Rome where it will be signed - will reinforce ties on economy, tourism, trade and other areas. The two countries are already bound by cultural, historical, and linguistic ties.
Wednesday, November 24 is a historic day for the South American country Colombia. On this day five years ago, a peace agreement was signed between the Colombian government of President Juan Manuel Santos and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which saw an end to six decades of conflict. On the eve of the historic agreement's fifth anniversary, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres lavished praise on the country's peace deal efforts, saying that Colombia offers a fine example of peace in a world otherwise full of conflicts. Mr Guterres is in the country on a two-