Vietnam, Italy hold 5th defence policy dialogue
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, and Italian Undersecretary of State for Defence, Matteo Pe...
The foreign ministers of the Group of Seven major democracies - Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States - will meet at the river resort of La Malbaie, Quebec on March 12-14 for the first time since President Donald Trump returned to power in January.
When asked by reporters about Trump's comments on making Canada the 51st U.S. state, Rubio instead talked about the areas of cooperation between the United States and Canada including defense of North American airspace and Ukraine.
"We're going to be focused in the G7 on all of those things. That's what the meeting is about. It is not a meeting about how we're going to take over Canada," he said.
U.S. ties with Canada have soured following Trump's repeated comments about Washington's northern neighbor being its 51st U.S. state and the Republican president referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as its "governor".
The two neighbors are also locked in a trade war. Trump increased tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada, accusing the country of failing to do enough to stem the flow of the deadly fentanyl opioid and its precursor chemicals into the U.S. and also as he moves to reorder global trade norms in favor of the United States.
Rubio said Trump was not singling out any country but trying to help develop a domestic industrial capability as the current situation threatened U.S. national security in the long run.
The top U.S. diplomat said despite these tensions, he expected to have constructive conversations with G7 allies.
"I think it is quite possible that we could do these things and at the same time deal in a constructive way with our allies and friends and partners on all the other issues that we work together on. And that's what I expect out of the G7 in Canada," Rubio said.
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Severe rain in Venezuela has caused rivers to overflow and triggered landslides, sweeping away homes and collapsing a highway bridge, with five states affected and no casualties reported so far.
A malfunction in the radar transmission system at the Area Control Center in Milan suspended more than 300 flights at the weekend, across northwest Italy since Saturday evening according to Italy's air traffic controller Enav (National Agency for Flight Assistance).
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Poland will invest nearly $665 million in building three ammunition factories, aiming to boost defence readiness amid growing regional tensions.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has pardoned 16 individuals convicted of various offences, including charges of "extremism", ahead of the country's Independence Day, state media reported on Wednesday.
Germany and the United Kingdom are set to sign a defence treaty on 17 July that includes a mutual assistance clause, according to Politico.
Vietnamese Deputy Minister of National Defence, Senior Lieutenant General Hoang Xuan Chien, and Italian Undersecretary of State for Defence, Matteo Perego di Cremnago, co-chaired the 5th Vietnam–Italy Defence Policy Dialogue in Hanoi on July 2, as reported by VNA.
Ground crews at KLM are set to strike for eight hours on 9 July unless the airline improves its wage offer, Dutch union CNV said Wednesday.
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