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China's finance ministry said on Sunday it was restricting government purchases of medical devices from the European Union that exceed 45 million yuan ($6.3 million) in value, in retaliation to Brussels' own curbs last month, Reuters reported.

Tensions between Beijing and Brussels have been rising, with the European Union imposing tariffs on China-built electric vehicles and Beijing slapping duties on imported brandy from the bloc.

The European Union said last month it was barring Chinese companies from participating in EU public tenders for medical devices worth 60 billion euros ($70 billion) or more per year after concluding that EU firms were not given fair access in China.

The measure announced by the European Commission was the first under the EU's International Procurement Instrument, which entered into force in 2022 and is designed to ensure reciprocal market access, according to BBC.

Iran’s energy sector is booming despite years of US-led sanctions. In 2024, oil output achieved a 46-year high, with energy exports hitting $78bn, up from $18bn in 2020, Firstpost reported.

Experts say sanctions are becoming increasingly ineffective as Iran, aided by China, continues to bypass restrictions using discreet shipping and non-dollar transactions. China now buys around 90 percent of Iran's oil.

Iran has also expanded exports of gas liquids and relies on the South Pars field for most of its gas production. The Revolutionary Guards have strengthened domestic infrastructure, reducing reliance on foreign partners, according to Firstpost.

Geopolitical tensions, including with Israel, have had minimal impact, keeping Iran’s oil industry resilient and well-funded.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told EU leaders that Beijing fears a Russian defeat in Ukraine could lead the US to shift its full focus toward confronting China. The remarks, made during talks with EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, surprised Brussels officials, Firstpost reported.

Wang denied claims that China is arming Russia, saying if Beijing were providing real support, the war would be over. The Chinese foreign ministry declined to clarify his comments.

Ukraine's President Zelensky has accused China of supporting Russia while cutting off drone sales to Ukraine. Meanwhile, US military aid to Ukraine continues to decline with critical arms shipments halted on July 1.

China-Russia ties are strengthening ahead of a planned meeting between Xi and Putin in September, according to Firstpost.

BRICS has expanded from a forum of four emerging economies in 2006 to a bloc of 11 nations by 2024, positioning itself as a non-Western alternative for global economic cooperation. Originally conceived in 2001 by economist Jim O’Neill, the group includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, with recent additions aimed at strengthening multilateralism, according to Firstpost.

Key initiatives, such as the New Development Bank and alternative trade arrangements, have attempted to minimize dependency on Western-dominated institutions like the IMF and World Bank. However, the group faces increasing internal and external challenges.

Internally, China’s push to lead the bloc and align it with its larger anti-Western agenda backed by Russia has created worries, particularly among founding members like as India. Externally, US President Donald Trump has threatened 100 percent tariffs if the BRICS pursues dedollarization or introduces a common currency, Firstpost reported.

Northern and western China remain under red alerts as torrential rains threaten more flash floods and landslides. In Taiping, Henan province, five people died and three are missing after a river overflowed, prompting the deployment of over 1,000 rescue workers. In Gansu, two people were killed by a landslide at a construction site, according to Al Jazeera.

Xianfeng in Hubei province recorded over a month’s rainfall in just 12 hours, forcing the evacuation of 18,000 people and the suspension of schools and public transport.

Vice Premier Zhang Guoqing, during a visit to Hebei, urged officials to expand evacuation efforts. While China has a national weather monitoring system, experts warn that predicting extreme weather in rural areas remains difficult due to climate change and complex terrain, Al Jazeera reported.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and European Council President Antonio Costa met Wednesday, pledging to uphold multilateralism and enhance China-EU cooperation.

Costa emphasized the EU’s commitment to mutual respect and joint efforts with China to address global challenges. He reaffirmed the EU’s adherence to the one-China policy and support for a successful upcoming China-EU leaders’ summit, according to Xinhua.

Wang, a senior Chinese Communist Party official, stated that China sees Europe as a crucial force in a multipolar world and supports its integration and strategic autonomy. He emphasized the importance of stronger cooperation between the two sides in the face of global volatility, advocating mutual respect and trust.

The two leaders also discussed the Ukraine crisis, Xinhua reported.

A fully stable relationship has been elusive to India and China. Since the birth of the modern nation states, the unresolved border has continued to put an ominous shadow on the relationship. The lack of understanding toward each other has also resulted in major mistrust which has only grown with time. The Galwan clash of June 2020, which pushed the relationship into a total freeze for 4.5 years, has added to the existing mistrust. However, some positive momentum and thaw was finally achieved in October 2024 after multiple rounds of talks and has been pushing the relationship in a positive direction. But, given the history of the relationship, it will not be wrong to assume that a lot needs to be reformed for this relationship to be truly functional.

In a first after Galwan, the Indian defence minister Rajnath Singh visited Qingdao China from June 25 to June 26 to attend the defence ministers meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting and met his Chinese counterpart, Admiral Dong Jun. It was during this meeting that the Indian side proposed a four-point plan to achieve a ‘permanent solution’ to the border problem. The four-point agenda includes: “adherence to the 2024 disengagement plan, continued efforts to de-escalate, accelerated efforts to achieve the goal of demarcation and delimitation at the borders, and the usage of the existing special representative level mechanism to prepare new processes to manage differences and improve relations”. Singh also reiterated the need to build and establish mutual trust, which has been adversely impacted after the 2020 Galwan clash.

The points clearly highlight the multiple level of challenges and issues which India-China relations face even after 75 years of diplomatic relationship. India was one of the first countries to recognize the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Since then, the relationship has faced major hurdles and what makes it ever more problematic is the existing unresolved border.

Singh has rightly asserted that there is a need to look for a permanent solution to the border as it has time and again proved to be a major obstacle in the improvement of the relationship. The idea promoted by China, which led to the thaw in 1988, was that borders can be resolved at a future date, while economic and other relationships improved, has been proven quite fragile. The India-China trade relations have boomed in the last four decades and today the bilateral trade stands at $118bn dollars, however, it has not proved to be a factor in actually bridging the trust deficit or strengthening the relationship. The fragility of diplomatic mechanisms has been witnessed time and again.

Both sides had realized the need for regular communication and they tried to look for ways to improve this. The lack of communication was quite apparent during the 73-day military standoff at Doklam. In order to address this lacunae, the two countries did engage in unofficial talks in the form of the Wuhan Summit of 2018 and the Mamallapuram Summit of 2019. These summits were supposed to help the leaders communicate better and help any future challenge like the standoff at Doklam. However, the Galwan clash of 2020 underscored the fact that the mistrust and miscommunication ran too deep.

However, India and China are two of the largest economies and nuclear power states and de-escalation is a crucial and necessary step toward improving the relationship. The Indian side’s reiteration is understood as a peaceful border is essential for overall growth of the country. But it appears that India and China need to genuinely understand each other’s concerns. Both have been working toward achieving their own respective goals and are trying to resolve the border issue as per their understanding. The unresolved border has time and time again pushed this relationship into uncertainty and the fact that the Confidence Building Mechanisms (CBMs) which were achieved and implemented by mutual understanding could be shattered by one incident underscores the need for better communication and peaceful resolution of the border. 

For the last 75 years, the two countries have also built a domestic narrative on the border and this is today closely linked to the sovereignty and identity of the countries. For a resolution, the border will have to be negotiated, and as negotiations go, it will call for a compromise. The question this raises is: Which country or government will be comfortable accepting any such outcome? No government can be seen as giving up on territory and thus appear weaker. The mistrust is too deeply ingrained and the repeated border skirmishes initiated by Beijing time and again has not helped the case. Nationalism soars too high and too strong when it comes to resolving the border.

Even today, it appears that the two sides are talking parallel to each other. The Chinese have continued to stress the need to restart and establish people-to-people contact, which had completely broken after Galwan and also impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic. Beijing has shown its proactiveness here by restarting the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and also issuing visas to a large number of Indians. It is also asserting that direct flights should be restarted soon. Meanwhile, New Delhi has continued to push for a resolution of the border and push for de-escalation, which is clear from the Indian defence minister’s agenda too. The fact that no joint statement was made during the SCO defence ministers’ meeting further shows the gap in perception. India has been firm on asserting the role of Pakistan as a terrorist state while China continues to push a parallel narrative.

A stable and cooperative India-China relationship will be beneficial to them as well as the South Asian region but it can be achieved only when the two sides genuinely start to understand and trust each other.

The author is an associate professor at OP Jindal Global University

China can continue to buy Iranian oil, U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday (June 24, 2025) in what appeared to be relief for Tehran from sanctions Washington has previously imposed to punish the trade, AFP reported.

"China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran. Hopefully, they will be purchasing plenty from the U.S., also," Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform as he travelled to a NATO summit in The Hague.

China's position as the main buyer of Iranian oil has served as a crucial lifeline for Tehran as its economy is battered by crippling international sanctions.

Beijing buys more than 90% of Iran's oil exports, according to the analysis firm Kpler, according to AFP.

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signaled a possible extension of the July 8 deadline for securing trade agreements with key US trading partners, though he said it may not be necessary. Trade negotiations are currently underway with around 15 countries, including South Korea, Japan, and the EU, according to Xinhua.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers the extension is “highly likely” to allow more time for deals. According to Bessent, 18 major trading partners are engaged in talks, and the US plans to send proposals to several others within weeks.

The July 8 deadline stems from a 90-day pause on proposed reciprocal tariffs affecting over 60 countries, initiated on April 9. So far, only a trade agreement with the UK has been finalized, Xinhua reported.

China has included Indonesia in its 240-hour visa-free transit policy, raising the number of eligible countries to fifty-five, the National Immigration Administration announced Thursday.

Indonesian passengers can now transit through sixty designated ports in twenty-four provincial-level regions and stay in China for up to ten days without a visa, as long as they are on their way to a third location, Xinhua reported.

The move aims to enhance international travel and promote cross-border exchanges.

Photo: S Paul Kapur, who has been picked by the Donald Trump administration for the key post of Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs

It has been nearly six months since Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States. Since then, he has issued dozens of executive orders that have significantly impacted America’s relationship with the rest of the world.

The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has had major repercussions in Nepal, leading to the cancellation of dozens of projects. Similarly, two projects under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) in Nepal remain in limbo as the new administration has yet to make a final decision.

Engagement between the two countries has been minimal, particularly after the retirement of Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Donald Lu just before Trump’s inauguration—a position that remains unfilled.

Now, the Trump administration has nominated S Paul Kapur, who is currently undergoing a congressional hearing and is expected to soon take charge of South Asian affairs. A close examination of speeches by senior US officials, including the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense, as well as Kapur’s statements before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggests that the “China factor” will heavily influence Trump’s South Asia policy—including toward Nepal. 

In fact, countering China has emerged as the Trump administration’s primary focus across Asia. Born in New Delhi to an Indian father and an American mother, Kapur is regarded as a South Asia expert. He has authored several books on the region’s security dynamics and US policy. From 2020-2021, Kapur served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, working on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and US-India relations. Previously, he taught at Claremont McKenna College, and was a visiting professor at Stanford University.

During his hearing, he stated: “The United States’ relationships with the countries of South and Central Asia hold great promise. With effective policy, they can flourish and enable us to achieve Secretary Rubio’s goal of making the United States safer, stronger, and more prosperous.”

He emphasized shared US-India interests, including ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific not dominated by China, expanding bilateral trade, fostering technology sharing, and securing energy access. He also highlighted the strategic importance of Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Bhutan for regional stability, noting Sri Lanka and the Maldives’ critical locations along major trade routes and Bangladesh’s economic significance. “If confirmed, I will advocate for enhanced US cooperation with these nations to bolster security, counterbalance China’s influence, and expand trade,” he said.

In a striking statement at last week’s Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled a more confrontational stance toward Beijing, unsettling many Asian capitals. “As our allies share the burden, we can increase our focus on the Indo-Pacific: our priority theater,” he declared, stressing that America’s security and prosperity are intertwined with those of its allies. “We share your vision of peace and stability, of prosperity and security, and we are here to stay,” he added.

Since the new administration took office, there have been no high-level US visits to Nepal. While some senior officials have traveled to Kathmandu, these trips were kept low-key. However, military collaboration between the Nepali Army and the US Army continues on a regular basis.

Meanwhile,  Secretary of State Marco Rubio ordered US embassies around the world on Tuesday to move ahead with a directive to fire all remaining staffers with the US Agency for International Development. He said the State Department will take over USAID’s foreign assistance programs by Monday, according to the AP news agency. 

The termination of all remaining USAID staffers abroad is one of the last steps in the destruction of the US aid agency and the firing of its more than 10,000 staffers and contractors by the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, according to AP.  They had made USAID one of their first targets for elimination.

The US and China have agreed to a preliminary trade deal following talks in London, led by China’s Vice Premier He Lifeng and US officials Scott Bessent and Howard Lutnick.

Although the deal’s exact terms are undisclosed, it is anticipated to address rare earth mineral concerns. Lutnick declared, "We've reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus," but the president's approval is still pending, according to Firstpost.

No further meetings are scheduled, but both sides pledged to keep communication open. Tensions have remained high under US President Trump, despite a previous Geneva pact that eased tariffs. Trump recently accused China of violating that agreement, citing rare earth exports as a key issue.

Top US and Chinese officials began major trade talks in London on Monday, with early signs of cooperation.

According to Xinhua, the United States may ease some technology export limits, while China is poised to increase rare earth material exports. The talks follow a phone call between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, during which both parties agreed to move negotiations further.

White House adviser Kevin Hassett said easing of US controls and increased rare earth supply could happen immediately, though restrictions on high-end technologies like Nvidia’s top chips would remain.

The talks mark a potential shift in the ongoing US-China trade and tech standoff, Xinhua reported.

China has proposed creating a “green channel” to fast-track rare earth exports to the European Union, aiming to address concerns over new export licensing rules introduced in April. The proposal was made following a meeting between Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, according to Firstpost.

China, the global leader in rare earth mining and refinement, has stated that it is willing to accelerate approvals for appropriate EU applications and maintain timely communication. The ministry emphasized the move aligns with international practices.

Beijing also asked the EU to take equivalent measures to promote high-tech trade. The talks also addressed EU tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, with negotiations in the final stage ahead of a summit next month, Firstpost reported.

US President Donald Trump has announced a new round of trade talks with China, set for Monday in London, following a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping aimed at easing tariff tensions.

The US delegation will comprise Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, according to Reuters.

This is the second round of discussions since President Trump announced tariffs of up to 145 percent on Chinese goods, causing China to counter with 125 percent tariffs. A temporary tariff reduction deal reached last month is set to expire in August, with Trump accusing China of violating the agreement.

Key US concerns include restricted mineral exports, fentanyl trafficking, Taiwan, and China's economic practices. Despite the tensions, Trump stated the conversation with Xi as "positive," raising hopes for progress, Reuters reported.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by phone for the first time since the start of the trade war. The call, focused on trade, was described by Trump as “very positive.”

Both leaders exchanged invitations for official visits, though only China’s invitation to Trump was confirmed by Beijing, BBC reported.

Discussions come after a trade agreement stalled, with China blaming new US tech restrictions and the US accusing China of not resuming important mineral exports.

Trump defended the new Chinese student visa requirements. In order to prevent conflict, Xi cautioned the United States to handle Taiwan carefully, as stated by BBC.

Despite tensions, both sides signaled a willingness to keep talks open.