Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — China on Friday warned against the introduction of “geopolitical games” in the South Pacific following the announcement that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Papua New Guinea next week.

The U.S. opted to send Blinken after President Joe Biden canceled what was to have been a historic stop in Papua New Guinea as well as a visit to Australia for a meeting of leaders of the so-called Quad partnership so he can focus on debt limit talks in Washington.

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping promised to build more railway and other trade links with Central Asia and proposed jointly developing oil and gas sources at a meeting Friday with the region’s leaders that highlighted Beijing’s growing influence.

The two-day China-Central Asia Summit in the western city of Xi’an came as President Joe Biden and other leaders of the Group of Seven major economies met in Japan. It reflected Beijing’s efforts to develop trade and security networks centered on China, which resents U.S. domination of global affairs.

BEIJING (AP) — Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Beijing next week for talks, China’s Foreign Ministry said Friday, marking the latest exchange in a relationship in which Russia is becoming increasingly reliant on China for economic and diplomatic support.

“During the visit, the two sides will have an in-depth exchange of views on practical cooperation in bilateral relations and issues of common concern,” ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a daily briefing.

HIROSHIMA, Japan (AP) — Leaders of the world’s most powerful democracies vowed Friday to tighten punishments on Russia for its 15-month invasion of Ukraine, days before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy joins the Group of Seven summit in person on Sunday.

“Our support for Ukraine will not waver,” the G7 leaders said in a statement released after closed-door meetings, vowing “to stand together against Russia’s illegal, unjustifiable, and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine.”

“Russia started this war and can end this war,” they said.

BEIJING, May 18 (APP): Pakistan Ambassador to China, Moin ul Haque has said that the joint production of JF 17 Thunder Aircraft at Chengdu Aircraft Industries Corporation has become a symbol of the special relationship between Pakistan and China.

He made these remarks in a meeting with Wang Xiaohui, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Sichuan Provincial Committee, the highest-ranking CPC official in the province of Sichuan.

This was the first meeting of the Ambassador during his four-day official visit to Sichuan province.

HANOI, May 18 (Reuters) - Vietnam on Thursday criticised recent conduct by a Chinese research ship and the Philippine coast guard in the South China Sea, accusing its neighbours of separate actions that were violating its sovereign rights.

Tensions are high in contested parts of the South China Sea, one of the world's most important trade routes and a conduit for more than $3 trillion of annual ship-borne commerce.

TOKYO, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Japan's trade deficit dropped by almost 50 percent to a one-year low of 432.4 billion yen (3.14 billion U.S. dollars) in April, owing in part to imports retreating for the first time in over two years on lower prices for crude oil, the government said in a report on Thursday.

BEIJING (AP) — Global stock markets and Wall Street futures rose Thursday on hopes U.S. political leaders can reach agreement to avoid a potentially disastrous default on government debt.

London and Paris opened higher. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong advanced. Oil prices edged lower.

Wall Street rallied Wednesday after President Joe Biden expressed confidence “America will not default” despite lack of agreement on Republican demands for cuts in aid to poor families in exchange for raising the amount the government can borrow.

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Australia will provide surveillance drones and other high-tech gear to the Philippine coast guard and is considering whether to take part in joint patrols in the disputed South China Sea, Australia Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Thursday.

Wong, who held talks in Manila with her counterpart, Enrique Manalo, also thanked the Philippine government for its help in the discovery of a ship that sank during World War II in the northern Philippines, killing nearly a thousand Australians “in a very sad chapter in our history.”

HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong’s leader said Thursday the city’s public libraries would not recommend books featuring “bad ideologies” to residents after they pulled titles related to the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and certain political figures, further shrinking the city’s freedoms.

Chief Executive John Lee was addressing a lawmaker’s question about dozens of books in public libraries that were taken down without a clear explanation. Those include publications about the bloody crackdown and others written by pro-democracy politicians and political commentators.