LONDON, 15 January 2022, (TON): Minister for Asia, Amanda Milling, has concluded her visit to Southeast Asia with a three-day tour of Thailand.

Meeting Vice Foreign Minister Vijavat, Minister Milling spoke about boosting economic, digital and technology ties between the UK and Thailand.

Minister for Asia Amanda Milling said “we are committed to boosting our cooperation with Thailand across the board, including on trade and investment, technology and sustainable development, as well as through our political dialogue.”

As security partners, the UK and Thailand also need to work side-by-side to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific, and to tackle major regional challenges.

With a current trading relationship in excess of £4.7 billion and more than 5,000 British businesses exporting to Thailand, the Minister also focused her visit on forging new economic links between the UK and Thailand.

This included the offer of honest, reliable infrastructure finance by the new British International Investment group and hosting a roundtable with major businesses working in the region.

RIYADH, 15 January 2022, (TON): Security forces from Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain arrived in Saudi Arabia to take part in a joint tactical exercise of Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

First to arrive was a contingent from the Royal Oman Police, commanded by Colonel Salim Mubarak Al Abrawi.

The Qatari force, which came on board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster military cargo plane, is commanded by Maj. Yousef Al-Hamad.

Kuwait's contingent is commanded by Brigadier General Abdullah Al-Ateeqi, who explained that the exercise is aimed at "raising the level of coordination and field cooperation" among the GCC states.

Bahrain's team arrived in a motorcade through the King Fahd Causeway, which connects Saudi Arabia's eastern city of Alkhobar to the island nation.

UAE’s security forces arrived in the Kingdom on Wednesday.

The Saudi Defense Ministry has said “Arab Gulf Security 3 will take place this month in Dammam in the Eastern Province.”

WASHINGTON, 15 January 2022, (TON): Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen released the following statement today on President Joe Biden’s nominations to the Federal Reserve.

President Biden has nominated a full slate of nominees to the Federal Reserve that are committed to the board’s dual mandate of stable prices and maximum employment and represent a diversity of backgrounds that will bring important new perspectives.

We continue to face new challenges as we confront the pandemic and its variants, but we have made remarkable strides to put our economy on strong footing.

I am confident these nominees will build on that progress. I also know that these individuals will respect the tradition of an independent Fed, as they work to fight inflation, support a strong labor market and ensure our economic growth benefits all workers.

RIYADH, 15 January 2022, (TON): The Saudi Ministry of Defense said “the Royal Saudi Naval Forces concluded a joint maritime exercise with their counterparts from the Jordanian Armed Forces.”

Safe Beach 5, which began on Sunday, took place in the Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Fleet.

Maj. Gen. Ali bin Saeed Al-Shehri, commander of the participating forces, thanked the participants from the Royal Jordanian Naval Forces for their cooperation and said the fifth staging of the joint exercise had been completed with a high degree of skill.

The exercise is designed to boost military cooperation, coordination and the exchange of expertise between the nations’ forces, authorities said. A number of operations took place with the aim of raising levels of readiness and enhancing combat capabilities.

Col. Khalid bin Mohammed Al-Balawi, the director of the exercise, said that the participants in Safe Beach 5 successfully completed all of its stages, theoretical and operational, with high levels of skill and proficiency, which reflected the quality of the preparation, coordination and implementation.

He said “the goals set for this exercise were achieved with all seriousness and in the spirit of unified joint actio.”

MOSCOW, 15 January 2022, (TON): According to a statement released by the Russian Foreign Ministry “Special Representative of Armenia to start a dialogue with Turkey Ruben Rubinyan and his Turkish counterpart Serdar Kilic, following the talks in Moscow, agreed to conduct a dialogue in a constructive and depoliticized manner in order to identify common ground.”

The ministry said “the parties have shown their readiness to conduct a dialogue in a constructive, non-politicized manner, in the spirit of openness and focus on practical results, moving in small steps from simple to complex and the economic prosperity of the region.”

The meeting was mediated by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko.

He stressed “earlier on Friday, at a large press conference on the results of the activities of Russian diplomacy in 2021, the head of the Russian diplomatic service Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow welcomes the first meeting of the parties in the Russian capital.

“Our role is to help establish a direct dialogue, I hope it will be successful.”

Despite the common border, there are no diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey. In 2009, in Zurich, the foreign ministers of the two states signed protocols on the establishment of diplomatic relations and on the principles of relations, but these documents were not ratified by the parties.

BRUSSELS, 15 January 2022, (TON): EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Friday that a renewed deal with Iran on curtailing its nuclear programme remained possible as talks in Vienna advance in a “better atmosphere”.

He said after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers “we’re arriving at the end of a long process there’s a better atmosphere since Christmas before Christmas I was very pessimistic. Today I believe reaching an accord is possible.”

He said “a final deal could be concluded in the coming weeks.”

He added “I still maintain the hope that it would be possible to remake this agreement and have it function as it did before the American withdrawal.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman echoed that sentiment earlier this week, saying that efforts by “all parties” to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers had resulted in “good progress” during the Vienna talks.

But EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke alongside French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who reiterated his view that the talks are progressing “much too slowly to be able to reach a result”.

SINGAPORE, 15 January 2022, (TON): Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan on Friday met Masagos Zulkifli, Singapore’s minister of social and family development, and minister-in-charge of Muslim affairs, during an official visit to the country.

The two discussed bilateral relations and opportunities to enhance cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

They further touched on prominent regional and international issues of common interest and the importance of opening broader cooperation horizons.

On Thursday, Prince Faisal met Singapore President Halimah Yacob. They discussed opportunities for economic cooperation in light of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform plan.

WASHINGTON, 15 January 2022, (TON): According to a statement from Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s office “the US has told Lebanon it should not fear a sanctions law over its plans to receive energy supplies from the region.”

US ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea, handed Mikati a letter from the US Treasury to answer Lebanese authorities’ concerns about regional energy agreements that the US had helped to facilitate with Jordan and Egypt.

The diplomat said “there will be no fears from the US sanctions law. This message represents forward momentum and an important milestone as we continue to make progress to achieve cleaner and more sustainable energy, to help address the energy crisis.”

Lebanon is grappling with a deep financial crisis and a weak local currency that is piling pressure on the population.

On Friday, the dollar exchange rate on the black market dropped by more than LBP5,000 at once to reach LBP27,500.

Money exchange shops tried to limit their sales of dollars after people rushed to buy or sell them.

The Central Bank issued a circular on Dec. 27 and followed it up with amendments. The circular removed a ceiling related to bank purchases of dollars using the official Sayrafa exchange rate platform.

It allowed depositors and account holders of Lebanese pounds to withdraw their deposits and salaries in dollars based on the rate set by Sayrafa.

The move pumped dollars into the Lebanese market by replacing withdrawals from pounds with fresh dollars.

SEOUL, 15 January 2022, (TON): North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles in its third weapons launch this month, officials in South Korea said, in an apparent reprisal for fresh sanctions imposed by the Biden administration for its continuing test launches.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired 11 minutes apart from an inland area in western North Pyongan province, where North Korea is known to operate key missile bases and has frequently conducted test launches in recent years.

The military said “the missiles flew 430 kilometers (267 miles) cross-country on a maximum altitude of 36 kilometers (22 miles) before landing in the sea.”

Japan’s coast guard urged vessels to pay attention to falling objects, but Chief Cabinet Secetary Hirokazu Matsuno said there were no reports of damage to vessels or aircraft.

Hours earlier, North Korea issued a statement berating the Biden administration for imposing fresh sanctions over its previous missile tests and warned of stronger and more explicit action if Washington maintains its “confrontational stance.”

The Treasury Department sanctions targeted five North Koreans over their roles in obtaining equipment and technology for the North’s missile programs in its response to the North’s missile test this week. The State Department ordered sanctions against another North Korean, a Russian man and a Russian company for their broader support of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction activities.

KABUL, 15 January 2022, (TON): According to a media report “World Food Director for Afghanistan Ellen McGroarty has warned of ‘Tsunami of hunger’ in Afghanistan due to the shortage of funds.”

She said “funds needed to keep the supply of food intact as country teeters on the edge of economic run with more than half of the population struggling to eat this winter.”

In an interview with The Associated Press, WFP leader in Afghanistan Mary-Ellen McGroarty urged the international community to put humanitarian necessity above political discussions and avoid disaster by making sure that billions in aid keep reaching the Taliban-run country.

According to the UN humanitarian organization, 22.8 million people face acute food shortages, including 8.7 million close to starvation.

McGroarty during a stop in Brussels said “we don’t have enough money going into 2022.”

“What we call all the humanitarian sector in Afghanistan needs 4.4 four billion dollars for the next 12 months to mount a comprehensive response. And for WFP, we need 2.6 billion to do the minimum we need to be doing in 2022.”

McGroarty said she recently met with old farmers during a trip to the northeastern province of Badakhshan, who told her they have never been confronted to such an ordeal despite the experience of living through 19 governments.