Japanese premier says open to talks with China amid Taiwan tensions

Japan’s prime minister said on Wednesday she remains open to dialogue with China even as tensions between the two Asian powers rise over Taiwan and recent military encounters. 

China and Saudi Arabia have agreed to step up communication and coordination on regional and global issues.

Malaysia has moved to activate a regional monitoring mechanism as fighting along the Thailand–Cambodia border intensifies, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Saturday, warning that the latest clashes threaten wider instability in Southeast Asia.

A Myanmar military air strike on a hospital in western Rakhine state killed at least 31 people and wounded dozens more, an aid worker on the ground said Thursday, underscoring the junta’s escalating campaign to tighten control ahead of elections set to begin later this month.

A new scientific assessment has concluded that the catastrophic storms that struck Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in late November were dramatically intensified by unusually warm ocean waters and worsened by years of deforestation across the region.

Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia escalated sharply on Tuesday as Bangkok accused Cambodian troops of crossing into its territory, prompting new military operations along a volatile stretch of their disputed border.

Thailand carried out air strikes along its volatile border with Cambodia on Monday. escalating a renewed wave of clashes that both sides blame on violations of a ceasefire agreement brokered earlier this year by US President Donald Trump.

At least 1,812 people have died across Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam as a series of powerful storms, monsoon rains and landslides continue to wreak havoc across the region over the past two weeks, according to authorities and disaster agencies.

China on Thursday reported a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Xinjiang, a region in the country`s northwest that shares a border with Kyrgyzstan, the China Earthquake Networks Center (CENC) said.

Catastrophic flooding across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia has killed more than 1,500 people, with forecasters warning that persistent heavy rain could worsen the already dire situation. 

Opium poppy cultivation in Myanmar has expanded to its highest level in ten years, rising sharply as escalating conflict, economic desperation and weak state control push more rural communities into the narcotics trade, the United Nations warned on Wednesday.

A series of powerful storms and relentless monsoon rains have devastated large parts of Asia. killing more than 900 people and leaving hundreds unaccounted for as rescue workers struggle to reach remote and inundated communities.

China’s major military companies suffered a sharp decline in revenues last year as an extensive corruption purge disrupted weapons procurement, according to new research released Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

Myanmar’s military government says it will pardon or drop charges against 8,665 people ahead of a national election widely criticised by Western governments and human rights groups as neither credible nor inclusive, state media reported on Thursday.

A powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck off the western coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra Island early Thursday, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and US President Donald Trump held a 25-minute phone call on Tuesday to discuss what Tokyo described as `various challenges facing the Indo-Pacific region,` Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.