1. Picking up the phone: Almost three years after Russia’s unprovoked, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Trump decided it was time to re-establish direct contact between the president of the United States and Putin, a leader facing U.S. and EU sanctions, as well as an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity…
Beijing welcomed the coming peace talks on ending Russia’s war in Ukraine initiated by the United States, China’s top envoy to the United Nations said on Monday, adding that “all stakeholders” should be involved. Ambassador Fu Cong’s remarks came as senior American and Russian officials were scheduled to meet on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia seeking…
City governments across China have launched online services featuring DeepSeek while local officials studied the AI start-up, which has emerged as a challenger to US rivals such as OpenAI. Nanfang Daily, a Communist Party-affiliated newspaper in the southern province of Guangdong, reported on Sunday that senior officials in the city of Zhuhai had “watched reports…
China and the US are engaged in a “new cold war” over technology and Beijing is narrowing the gap, the Munich Security Conference has heard. Participants said Washington was likely to try to maintain its edge by increasing investment in military technology and tightening export controls on advanced chips. “We’re not competing for competing’s sake….
A line saying that Washington does not support Taiwan independence has been removed from the US Department of State’s website. The website updated its fact sheet on relations with the island on Thursday, continuing to state its adherence to the “one China” policy but removing the phrase “we do not support Taiwan independence”. “We continue…
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said the country is still willing to work with Israel to improve ties. Wang made comments in a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Gideon Saar, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the highest-level direct talks between the two sides since the start of the Gaza…
In a panel discussion, titled “Making Waves: Maritime Tensions in the Indo-Pacific”, former Chinese vice-foreign minister Fu Ying said Beijing would not accept occupation by the Philippines of new features that the Southeast Asian country had constructed in the South China Sea. Philippine Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo was part of the panel. “China cannot agree…
French President Emmanuel Macron has convened an emergency meeting of European leaders to discuss the implications of US President Donald Trump‘s actions, according to European officials.The meeting, scheduled for Monday in Paris, was revealed by Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. Two European Union officials confirmed the development to…
US vice president JD Vance drew flake after he compared Elon Musk with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, dismissing allegations of election interference, immigration, free speech, and populism at the Munich Security Conference on Friday.“If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk,”…
A senior Ukrainian official said on Saturday that “China has a crucial role to play in achieving peace”, following a meeting with Beijing’s top diplomat in Munich. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office, Andriy Yermak, met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of the Munich Security…