The Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN and China on Tuesday signed an upgrade to their free trade agreement, which is expected to include sections on digital, green economy and other new industries.
The 11-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations is China's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade totaling $771 billion last year, according to ASEAN statistics.
China is seeking to intensify its engagement with ASEAN, a region with a collective gross domestic product of $3.8 trillion, to counter hefty import tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration on countries around the world.
Beijing has been seeking to position itself as a more open economy, despite criticism from other major powers of its expanding export restrictions on rare earths and other critical minerals.
The so-called 3.0 version of the free trade agreement with ASEAN was signed into effect at a summit of the bloc's leaders in Malaysia, which Trump attended on Sunday at the start of his trip through Asia.
Negotiations on the upgraded ASEAN-China deal began in November 2022 and concluded in May this year, just after Trump's tariff offensive kicked into gear.
China has previously said the agreement would pave the way for improved market access in sectors such as agriculture, the digital economy and pharmaceuticals between China and ASEAN.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will make his debut at an expanded meeting of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Turkmenistan...
Kosovo's parliament has elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the country's new presid...
The U.S. military has tightened restrictions on its personnel in Okinawa following the arrest of a Marine on su...
Australian counterterrorism authorities are examining the links of the co-pilot accused of attacking the captain and attempting to take control of a flydubai flight bound for Israel. Authorities in New Zealand have also said they are investigating reports the suspect had spent time in that country.
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
An Azerbaijani citizen died and another is missing after a cargo ship was attacked by a drone in the Black Sea, near the coast of Romania on Monday, 5 October, Baku's Foreign Ministry has said.
The German-Azerbaijani Connectivity Conference 2026 commenced on 6 October in Baku under the title “Mobilising Finance for Infrastructure, Transport, Logistics, Green Energy, and Digitalisation along the Middle Corridor.”
A large Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow and the surrounding region has killed two people, damaged homes and sparked a major fire at a key fuel facility, according to Russian officials and military bloggers.
Kosovo's parliament has elected economist and academic Justina Shiroka Pula as the country's new president, concluding a dramatic political process just hours before a constitutional deadline that threatened to dissolve the legislature.
The U.S. military has tightened restrictions on its personnel in Okinawa following the arrest of a Marine on suspicion of murder, a case that has reignited long-standing tensions over the American military presence on the southern Japanese island.
The arrest of former German intelligence chief August Hanning on espionage-related charges has drawn renewed attention to his past connections with Israeli security figures and a controversial cross-border child custody case generating significant public scrutiny.
Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died last week, and locals said their lives had barely been disrupted.
Space-agency chiefs and industry leaders met to discuss lunar exploration, satellite networks and orbital security on Tuesday as a major global space congress entered its second day.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment