ASEAN – According to a UN rights expert, UN Security Council members China and Russia, as well as Serbia, have continued to provide Myanmar’s military with weapons used to attack people since last year’s coup. Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, has called for an emergency session of the Security Council to …

Russia – Russia’s old imperial dynasty descendant wedded his Italian fiancée in the first royal wedding on Russian territory in more than a century, since tsarist times. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov married Italian Victoria Romanovna Bettarini at Russia’s old imperial capital St Petersburg’s St Isaac’s Cathedral. The lavish ceremony was performed by Russian Orthodox clergy in front of hundreds …

Russia’s envoy to Afghanistan complimented the Taliban’s behavior yesterday, saying the group, which is still officially classified as a terrorist organization in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under previous administrations. The remarks by Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov reflect an overt effort by Russia to strengthen its long-standing ties with the Taliban while …

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has expressed support for a Southeast Asian diplomatic effort to end the political crisis in Myanmar. Lavrov, speaking during a visit to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said the Five Point Consensus agreed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc should be the basis by which the situation in Myanmar can be resolved. Lavrov …

Indonesian Trade Minister Muhammad Lufti will withdraw for Russia on Thursday to satisfy President Joko Widodo‘s order to escalate exchange collaboration with different countries, particularly non-customary fare objections. In view of this, Indonesia is quick to improve two-sided ties and collaboration, especially with Russia and other (Eurasian Economic Union/EAEU) part states. The collaboration is required to set out open doors …

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia is in negotiations to buy 6.4 million doses of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and is seeking to boost its imports from U.S. drugmaker Pfizer-BioNTech as the country is looking to boost its pandemic arsenal. Around $500 million is being invested by the Southeast Asian nation to purchase enough vaccines to inoculate 26.5 million residents, or …

PETALING JAYA – The Ministry of Health said that more data is needed before the government can decide on whether to acquire vaccines being developed by Russia and China. According Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the vaccine’s efficacy and side effects on human trials would most likely be determine on the third clinical phase. He …

METRO MANILA – Russia, the first country in the world to grant regulatory approval for a COVID-19 vaccine, has offered to supply or co-manufacture the vaccine in the Philippines. Impressed by what Russia was able to accomplished, President Rodrigo Duterte has welcomed the development of the vaccines, so much so that he is willing to participate in the trials. “I …

Russia is expected to file a coronavirus vaccine as soon as 10 Aug to 12 August, paving the way for what its supporters claim will be the world’s first formal approval of an outbreak inoculation. Russia’s first possible COVID-19 vaccine will receive local regulatory approval in the first half of August and be administered shortly afterwards to frontline health staff. …

Foreign ministers of members states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has welcomed the creation of the COVID-19 Asean Response Fund that will help the region respond and mitigate the new coronavirus pandemic. The response fund will be done by utilising resources from the Asean-Russia Dialogue Partnership Financial Fund that will support the region’s public health emergencies response. …