Asia (except ME & Indian SC)

BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday said President Xi Jinping’s just-concluded visit to Russia was a “journey of friendship, cooperation and peace,” and again criticized Washington for providing military support to Ukraine.

The trip that ended Wednesday signaled no new progress in ending the bloody conflict between Russia and Ukraine while shoring up President Vladimir Putin’s standing amid growing efforts to isolate him and his government internationally.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea launched cruise missiles toward the sea on Wednesday, South Korea’s military said, three days after the North carried out what it called a simulated nuclear attack on South Korea to protest its military drills with the United States.

SEOUL, Mar 21 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korean private space company, Innospace, has successfully flown a test launch vehicle, marking the first of its kind by the country’s private sector, local media reported today.

Hanbit-TLV, the suborbital test launch vehicle, independently developed by the space startup, was launched from the Alcantara Space Centre in northern Brazil, at 2:52 p.m. local time (1752 GMT) on Sunday.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 (NNN-Bernama) — Singapore and Malaysia, as founding members of ASEAN and like-minded partners, must help the region remain united and credible, said Singapore President Halimah Yacob. 

Halimah said this is crucial because the external environment is becoming increasingly volatile and challenging with major power rivalries sharpening, the global economic outlook remaining uncertain due to the war in Ukraine and the long aftershocks of COVID-19. 

BANGKOK (AP) — Asia’s stake in Europe’s war was made crystal clear Tuesday when the leaders of the region’s two richest countries sat in the capitals of Russia and Ukraine in strong shows of support for the opposing sides.

With the world’s eyes on Chinese President Xi Jinping’s first talks in Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida paid a surprise visit to Kyiv on the other side of the front lines.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was heading to Kyiv early Tuesday for talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that coincide with the Chinese leader’s visit to Moscow.

Kishida will “show respect to the courage and patience of the Ukrainian people who are standing up to defend their homeland under President Zelenskyy’s leadership, and show solidarity and unwavering support for Ukraine as head of Japan and chairman of G-7,” during his visit to Ukraine, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said in announcing his trip to Kyiv.

BEIJING (AP) — When China suddenly scrapped onerous zero-COVID measures in December, the country wasn’t ready for a massive onslaught of cases. Hospitals turned away ambulances, crematoriums burned bodies around the clock, and relatives hauled dead loved ones to warehouses for lack of storage space.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 (NNN-Bernama) — Kazakhstan’s snap Parliamentary election Sunday is set to be another step forward in the ongoing political reforms being carried out by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in the vast Central Asian country rocked by unprecedented and rare protests in January last year.

The election is being held following the constitutional reforms in a national referendum in June 2022, receiving more than 77 per cent voters’ support in the country of some 19.3 million people.

KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Ministry (MITI) has secured potential investments worth RM24 billion (US$5.35 billion) as well as RM4.24 billion (US$945.5 million) of potential exports of products and services through its recent trade and investment mission to South Korea.

The mission, led by MITI Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz from March 14-17, 2023, was part of the ministry’s efforts to attract quality investments and increase local companies participation in higher value global supply chain.

TAIPEI, March 19 (Reuters) - Former Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou will visit China this month, his office said on Sunday, the first time a former or current Taiwanese leader has visited since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island in 1949.

The trip will be at a time of heightened tensions between Beijing and Taipei as China keeps up its military and political pressure to try and get democratically-elected Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty.