Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

VIENTIANE, May 23. /TASS/: Russia views certain alliances, such as AUKUS and QUAD, as unfriendly "because NATO is poking around," the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, told the media on Tuesday.

"It is quite obvious that some alliances and relations are neutral with regard to our country. We take part in certain alliances, for example ASEAN, as invited participants," he said, recalling the existence of the ASEAN+ format.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 (NNN-Bernama) — Azerbaijan, which plans to sign Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with a Malaysian think tank and a private sector economic organisation, is keen to boost trade ties and economic cooperation to fully realise the existing potential between the two countries.

JAKARTA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's current account surplus shrank in the first quarter of this year, posting a figure of 3 billion U.S. dollars, down from 4.2 billion dollars in the fourth quarter of last year, the country's central bank, Bank Indonesia, said on Tuesday.

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways has dismissed three cabin crew members after a passenger accused them of discriminating against non-English speakers, in a case that drew criticism from Chinese state media.

Airline CEO Ronald Lam expressed his apologies Tuesday to the passenger and the community over the incident, which occurred on a flight from Chengdu in southwest China to Hong Kong on Sunday. He reiterated his company’s “zero tolerance” of any serious breach of its policies and code of conduct.

BEIJING, May 22 (APP): Pakistan’s Ambassador to China Moin ul Haque has said that Pakistan emphatically endorsed the spirit and philosophy of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), “which seeks to transcend national boundaries and lay bridges for win-win cooperation, common development, and closer economic integration for a shared future”.

HANOI, May 22. /TASS/: Hanoi thinks it is very important to develop relations of comprehensive strategic partnership with Moscow, Secretary General of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Communist Party Nguyen Phu Trong said on Monday at a meeting with visiting Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev.

BEIJING, May 22 (Reuters) - China's foreign ministry on Monday urged the United States to have the right understanding of China, meet it halfway and bring bilateral relations back on track.

Mao Ning, a ministry spokesperson, made the remarks in response to U.S. President Joe Biden suggesting that a shift in U.S.-China relations could occur soon.

BEIJING, May 22 (Reuters) - State-backed Chinese mouthpiece Global Times called the G7 an "anti-China workshop" on Monday, a day after Beijing summoned Japan's envoy and berated Britain in a fiery response to statements issued at the group's summit in Hiroshima.

Group of Seven (G7) declarations issued on Saturday singled out China on issues including Taiwan, nuclear arms, economic coercion and human rights abuses, underscoring the wide-ranging tensions between Beijing and the group of rich countries which includes the United States.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — A massive fire tore through Manila’s historic post office building overnight, slightly injuring seven people and razing the nearly 100-year-old landmark in the Philippine capital, police and postal officials said Monday.

The fire started before midnight in the basement of the neoclassical, five-story building and was brought under control Monday morning more than seven hours after it began, firefighters said.

HIROSHIMA /Japan/, May 21. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden said that the country will allocate $375 million as part of the new military aid package to Ukraine, the White House reported on Sunday.

The document published on the White House’s website informs about "today’s announcement of an additional $375 million in ammunition and equipment" to Kiev, which, among other things, will go for training of the Ukrainian servicemen.