Politics

  Bloomberg The US and its allies Canada, the UK and Australia have imposed fresh sanctions on Myanmar, adding to pressure on the military regime, two years since it overthrew the civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Tuesday the US restrictions target six individuals and ...

  Bloomberg Russia is breaching the terms of the New START nuclear-arms reduction treaty by refusing to allow inspectors on its territory and stonewalling US efforts to discuss the issue, the State Department said. The department said in a statement that the Russian refusal “prevents the United States from exercising important rights under the treaty and threatens the viability of ...

  Bloomberg Georgia’s president said Russia must be required to abandon its nearly 15-year-long occupation of her nation’s territory as part of an eventual peace deal to end the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. “Russia has to learn where its borders are,” President Salome Zourabichvili said in an interview in the capital, Tbilisi. “The Georgian issues should be on the table ...

Bloomberg Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned about the risk of conflict in the Indo-Pacific as she prepares to meet her British counterpart for defense talks that will likely focus on regional issues including China’s military expansion. Speaking on Tuesday before joining Australian Defense Minister Richard Marles for two days of annual bilateral talks with their British counterparts, Wong said ...

  Bloomberg The speaker of Czech parliament said she will visit Taiwan, a day after China lashed out at the nation’s president elect for saying he favored a stronger partnership with Taiwan. Marketa Pekarova Adamova said she talked to Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Wednesday about her visit planned for March. Just a day earlier, China called comments made ...

Bloomberg The US and South Korea are planning to step up the scale of their joint military exercises, a move that has in the past prompted threats and weapons tests by North Korea. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean counterpart Lee Jong-sup agreed in talks Tuesday in Seoul to “further expand and bolster the level and scale of ...

Bloomberg China lashed out at the Czech Republic after incoming President Petr Pavel spoke with Taiwan leader Tsai Ing-wen, saying the move amounted to “serious interference” in its affairs. “This is a blatant violation of the Czech Republic’s political commitment to the one-China principle,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Tuesday at a regular press briefing in Beijing, referring to ...

  Bloomberg China’s Coast Guard maintained near-daily patrols at key features across the disputed South China Sea last year, ramping up its presence as tensions over the waterway with Southeast Asian neighbors remain high, new tracking data shows. Patrols in the waters surrounding the Vanguard Bank off Vietnam, an area known for its oil and gas reserves and the site ...

  Bloomberg Hungary’s nationalist government ousted hundreds of senior military leaders in the most far-reaching overhaul of the central European nation’s army since it joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The dismissals affect the top ranks, including generals, with colonels and lieutenant colonels making up the biggest share, Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in an interview on Monday. It was ...

  Bloomberg Croatia’s President Zoran Milanovic drew a parallel from Russia’s annexation of Crimea to Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, causing an uproar across the Balkans. “Who annexed Kosovo? The international community, including us,” Milanovic said Monday in a speech in the Croatian town of Petrinja, where he spoke about the war in Ukraine. “Kosovo was taken from Serbia by force, ...