Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Chile and Bangladesh are seeking to join the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RECEP), the world's largest trade bloc, Southeast Asian officials said on Thursday (25 September).
The RCEP currently consists of China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and all ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
RCEP officials, who are meeting on the sidelines of a gathering of ASEAN trade and economic ministers in Malaysia this week, said they had few objections to accepting new applicants and will work towards bringing the four economies into the bloc.
"We are of course in support of any countries that are willing to join the RCEP," Indonesia's Vice Minister of Trade Dyah Roro Esti Widya Putri told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia's trade minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said any decision on new RCEP members will be discussed when the bloc's leaders meet for the first time in five years in October.
Some analysts have described the RCEP as a potential buffer against tariffs imposed by the United States, though its provisions are considered weaker than some other regional trade deals due to competing interests among its members.
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Serbia's Aleksandar Vučić has conceded defeat after a student-led protest movement took the majority of seats in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
Russia and Ukraine have begun a regional ceasefire to allow the start of a humanitarian effort in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, both sides said on Tuesday, but they continue strikes elsewhere, including the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Russian strikes hit several parts of Ukraine overnight, injuring at least six people and targeting energy and port infrastructure, as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said U.S. warnings about imminent Russian ballistic missile attacks had resumed.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council says senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Türkiye will travel to Tehran to discuss regional security.
Nearly two years after the 20 October 2024 parliamentary elections, Iraq’s Kurdistan Region remains without a cabinet. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) won 39 of 100 seats and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) 23, leaving neither able to govern alone.
Russia and Ukraine have begun a regional ceasefire to allow the start of a humanitarian effort in the Russian-occupied town of Oleshky, both sides said on Tuesday, but they continue strikes elsewhere, including the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has urged gas producers to boost global supplies and invest in infrastructure, while signalling potential energy cooperation with U.S. partners during a major gas summit in Moscow on Tuesday.
Hundreds of people rallied in Paris on Monday (26 October) against racism and the far right following a deadly shooting last week that authorities have described as “terrorist and racist”.
UK prosecutors have charged two men over an incident in September at RAF Fairford, a Royal Air Force base in south-west England used by U.S. forces. British counter-terrorism police said the pair are suspected of assisting Iran.
Thousands of people along India's eastern coast have been evacuated to safety, and some train services have been cancelled, one day before a severe cyclone was scheduled to make landfall, bringing gusting winds and heavy rain.
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