WORLD

US President Joe Biden will take part in a virtual summit with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Tuesday, the first time in four years Washington will engage at the top level with a bloc it sees as key to its strategy of pushing back against China.

The US embassy in Brunei told Reuters Biden will lead the US delegation for the Asean-United States summit, part of a series of Asean leaders' meetings this week.

The White House said Biden would discuss the "enduring" US commitment to Asean's central role in regional affairs and new initiatives to strengthen the US strategic partnership with the bloc, "as we work together to end the Covid-19 pandemic, address the climate crisis, promote economic growth, and address a range of other regional challenges and opportunities."

Fully vaccinated travellers, who are coming from a country with which India has reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of World Health Organization (WHO) approved Covid-19 vaccines, shall be allowed to leave the airport and need not undergo home quarantine and testing from Monday, according to the revised guidelines for international arrivals released on Wednesday.

They will, however, have to produce a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report. These guidelines for international arrivals supersede all others issued on and after February 17 this year, the Union health ministry has said.

“The global trajectory of Covid-19 pandemic continues to decline with certain regional variations. The need to monitor the continuously changing nature of virus and the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) must still remain in focus,” the ministry said.

US president Joe Biden said on Thursday the United States would come to Taiwan's defense and had a commitment to defend the island China claims as its own territory.

“Yes, we have a commitment to do that,” Biden said at a CNN town hall when asked if the United States would come to Taiwan's defense. 

The United States will defend Taiwan if it is attacked by China, President Joe Biden said, seemingly changing long-standing American “strategic ambiguity” on the issue.

“Yes,” Biden said at a Town Hall hosted by CNN when asked by the anchor, Anderson Cooper, if the US will come to Taiwan’s defence if attacked by China. “Yes, we have a commitment to do that,” the US president said further when the anchor pressed him, on Thursday.

An agreement was signed between the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the government of Dubai at the Raj Bhawan in Srinagar on Monday to build infrastructure. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was hailed "as a major success for India" by a former Pakistan high commissioner, while the pact triggered outrage in Pakistan.

The MoU signed during a small yet high-profile ceremony indicates a rare formalised partnership with a foreign government at a time when terror operators are trying to demolish the perception that India has strengthened its hold over the region after the special status to Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped.

Indian and Taliban officials will meet face-to-face on October 20 at the Moscow Format meeting hosted by Russia. While India had its first formal contact with the Taliban in Doha on August 31, the Moscow Format is likely to be the first formal contact between New Delhi and the Taliban government after an interim Cabinet was announced by them.

The talks, which will see the participation of officials from 10 countries including China and Pakistan, are one of the Taliban's most significant international meetings since seizing power in Afghanistan.