Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has insisted a brand new partnership struck with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un – together with a mutual defence clause – is “peaceable”, in response to state information.
Mr Kim hailed the brand new settlement struck throughout Mr Putin’s first go to to Pyongyang in 24 years as heralding a “new, excessive stage of alliance” between their international locations, and claimed it might “develop into a driving power accelerating the creation of a brand new multipolar world”.
The small print of the partnership weren’t instantly clear, however Western nations have expressed rising concern over an arms association during which Moscow receives ammuntion for its struggle in Ukraine in trade for financial and expertise help which might improve the specter of North Korea’s nuclear programme.
Mr Putin was obtained with a lot pomp in North Korea, the place Mr Kim promised his full help for Russia’s struggle in Ukraine forward of their one-on-one assembly.
The go to appears to be like to forged a shadow over the mammoth peace talks held by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky in Switzerland over the weekend. Almost 80 nations agreed that peace talks will start solely after Russia restores Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
EU Fee to impose tariffs on Ukrainian egg imports
The European Fee will introduce tariffs on Ukrainian egg imports inside the subsequent two weeks after a beforehand agreed annual threshold stage for these imports has been reached, a spokesperson mentioned on Wednesday.
The Fee took the identical resolution on Tuesday concerning oat imports from Ukraine.
Following Russia‘s invasion in 2022, the nation has benefited from a particular mechanism put in place to spice up commerce flows with the EU, it’s most essential export market. The EU, nevertheless, set most import volumes after farmer protest throughout the bloc smashed low cost Ukrainian imports as unfair competitors. (
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 June 2024 05:00
Putin now reaches Vietnam for talks, to satisfy high leaders
Russian president Vladimir Putin arrived in Vietnam early immediately for talks with the nation’s Communist leaders on the ultimate cease of his two-nation tour of Asia after concluding a defence pact with North Korea.
That is the third overseas go to by Mr Putin, after China and North Korea, since he took the presidential workplace in March.
Putin’s plane touched down at Hanoi’s airport, the place he was met on a crimson carpet by Vietnamese deputy prime minister Tran Hong Ha and high social gathering diplomat Le Hoai Trung.
Putin is because of meet Communist Occasion chief Nguyen Phu Trong, state president To Lam and prime minster Pham Minh Chinh. Though each North Korea and Russia face worldwide isolation, Vietnam has constructed cautious alliances with the US and the European Union.
“President Putin’s go to to North Korea and Vietnam is to show that Western makes an attempt to isolate Russia should not working and that Russia has companions in Asia,” mentioned Carl Thayer, an professional on Vietnam safety on the Australian Defence Power Academy in Canberra.
Nonetheless, forward of his go to, Putin thanked the Southeast Asian Communist-ruled nation for supporting “a practical technique to resolve the disaster” in Ukraine.
Arpan Rai20 June 2024 04:53
Nato chief warns on Putin, Kim Jong-un’s ‘authoritarian’ deal
Russia’s new defensive pact with North Korea exhibits growing alignment amongst authoritarian powers and underscores the significance of democracies presenting a united entrance, the pinnacle of Nato mentioned.
Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a cope with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un that included a mutual defence pledge, a transfer that overhauls Moscow’s coverage in direction of Pyongyang.
Nato secretary common Jens Stoltenberg mentioned North Korea had offered “an infinite quantity of ammunition” to Russia whereas each China and Iran had been supporting Moscow militarily in its struggle in opposition to Ukraine.
“We must be conscious that authoritarian powers are aligning increasingly more. They’re supporting one another in a means we haven’t seen earlier than,” he informed a panel dialogue throughout an official go to to Ottawa.
“When they’re increasingly more aligned – authoritarian regimes like North Korea and China, Iran, Russia – then it’s much more essential that we’re aligned as international locations believing in freedom and democracy,” he mentioned.
The rising closeness between Russia and different Asian nations means it’s all the extra essential that Nato works with allies within the Asia-Pacific, he mentioned, including this was why leaders from Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea had been invited to a Nato summit in Washington subsequent month.
Arpan Rai20 June 2024 04:36
North Korea and Russia signal a deal on quick army help in occasion of struggle
Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin upgraded their bilateral ties to a brand new excessive as they signed a contemporary settlement of “quick army help” within the occasion of struggle in the course of the Russian president’s go to to North Korea.
The brand new settlement between Russia and North Korea reached by their leaders at a Pyongyang summit requires each international locations to make use of all obtainable means to supply quick army help within the occasion of struggle, North Korean state media immediately.
Within the new settlement, Russia and North Korea have inked help on safety, commerce, funding, cultural and humanitarian ties. Exterior observers mentioned it might mark the strongest connection between Moscow and Pyongyang because the finish of the Chilly Struggle.
The North’s official Korean Central Information Company immediately reported the language of the excellent strategic partnership settlement. The company mentioned Article 4 of the settlement states that if one of many international locations will get invaded and is pushed right into a state of struggle, the opposite should deploy “all means at its disposal directly” to supply “army and different help.”
Arpan Rai20 June 2024 04:11
Hearth at drone-hit Russian oil depot rages for second day
A blaze brought on by a Ukrainian drone strike on an oil terminal in southern Russia has been raging for greater than a day and a half regardless of the efforts of firefighters, the regional governor mentioned on Wednesday.
A number of oil storage tanks within the city of Azov caught hearth after a drone assault early on Tuesday {that a} Ukrainian intelligence supply informed Reuters was carried out by the Safety Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Vasily Golubev, governor of the Rostov area, wrote on Telegram that emergency providers had been unable to extinguish the flames as of Tuesday afternoon because the second storage tank had been depressurised.
Azov has two oil product terminals, DonTerminal and Azovproduct, which dealt with a complete of about 220,000 tons of gas for export in the course of the interval from January to Might 2024.
Ukraine has usually mentioned that focusing on Russia‘s power, army and transport infrastructure undermines Moscow’s struggle effort.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 June 2024 04:00
Russian courtroom sentences US soldier to just about 4 years on theft fees
A courtroom in Russia’s far jap metropolis of Vladivostok on Wednesday sentenced an American soldier arrested earlier this yr to 3 years and 9 months in jail on fees of stealing and threats of homicide, Russian information studies mentioned.
Workers Sgt. Gordon Black, 34, flew to Vladivostok, a Pacific port metropolis, to see his girlfriend and was arrested after she accused him of stealing from her, in response to U.S. officers and Russian authorities.
Russian state information companies Tass and RIA Novosti reported from the courtroom within the Pervomaisky District Court docket in Vladivostok that the choose additionally ordered Black to pay 10,000 rubles ($115) in damages. Prosecutors had requested for Black to be sentenced to 4 years and eight months in jail.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 June 2024 03:00
Ukraine launches a nationwide sexual assault registry for victims of Russian forces
Authorities in Ukraine have created a nationwide registry to doc instances of sexual violence allegedly dedicated by Russian forces, a senior prosecutor informed The Related Press on Wednesday.
Viktoriia Litvinova, the nation’s deputy prosecutor common, mentioned that the registry was created out of a pilot mission that had already resulted within the convictions of 5 individuals in absentia. She declined to touch upon particulars of the instances.
“We used to have to go to territories the place hostilities are going down ourselves,” she mentioned. “However now individuals – people who’ve skilled sexual abuse – are looking for us out for info.”
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 June 2024 02:00
White Home ‘comfy’ with its nuclear place after Nato chief suggests improve in deployed weapons
Addressing studies at a White Home Briefing, spokesperson John Kirby declared that the US are “comfy” with their “strategic deterrent posture”.
Requested about Mr Stoltenberg’s feedback, Mr Kirby mentioned: “We don’t speak about nuclear posture with any specificity – and I’m actually not going to begin doing that right here from the rostrum.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 June 2024 01:00
Estonia convicts a college professor from Russia of spying for Moscow
A college professor was jailed Tuesday in Estonia after being discovered responsible of spying for Russian army intelligence, a part of a marketing campaign of sabotage, digital warfare and data gathering that Estonian officers blame on Moscow.
Viacheslav Morozov, a Russian citizen who taught at Estonia’s nation’s most prestigious college, was sentenced to 6 years and three months in jail for undermining the safety of the Baltic state in the course of the 14 years he operated within the nation till his arrest in January.
Estonian officers are extraordinarily hawkish concerning the menace from Russia and have convicted quite a lot of individuals of spying for Russia lately. Harju County Court docket within the Estonian capital mentioned Morozov collected details about Estonia’s protection and safety coverage and the individuals and infrastructure associated to it.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain20 June 2024 00:00
Treasury sanctions community linked to separatist Bosnian chief
A community of individuals and corporations that help the sanctioned president of Bosnia’s Serb-run portion, Milorad Dodik, has been hit with a brand new spherical of sanctions.
Treasury’s Workplace of International Belongings Management on Tuesday designated two individuals and 7 corporations that present income for Dodik and his household, together with his son Igor Dodik.
Treasury says Dodik used his presidency to direct authorities contracts to a community of personal corporations that he and his son oversee.
Maryam Zakir-Hussain19 June 2024 23:00