China, Argentina agree to jointly promote ‘belt and road’ initiative

Reuters :
China has signed a cooperation agreement with Argentina on promoting the joint construction of the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, China’s state planner said on Friday. The agreement will deepen China and Argentina’s cooperation on areas including infrastructure, energy, economy and trade, as well as finance, the National Development and Reform Commision said in a statement.
Senior officials from over a dozen countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran were in talks on closer links with the BRICS bloc of major emerging economies on Friday as it met to deepen ties and position itself as a counterweight to the West.
BRICS, which now consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, is considering expanding its membership, and a growing number of countries, mostly from the global South, have expressed interest in joining.
A group of pro-Ukrainian forces said on Friday they were fighting Russian troops on the outskirts of a village just inside Russia’s western border, a day after Moscow said it had repelled three cross-border attacks. The attacks follow a major incursion into Russia’s western Belgorod region on May 22-23 and an increase in cross-border shelling in recent weeks as Ukraine prepares to launch a big push to recapture Russian-occupied land in its east and south. The United States on Friday will offer to abide by the nuclear weapons limits set in the New START treaty until its 2026 expiration if Russia does the same, in order to bolster global security, two senior administration officials said. U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan will make the offer in a speech to the Arms Control Association, the oldest U.S. arms control advocacy group, the officials said on Thursday on condition of anonymity.
A senior NATO official on Friday urged Beijing to be more open about its accelerating nuclear weapons build-up, saying that as a global power, China had a responsibility to improve transparency. Angus Lapsley, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s (NATO) Assistant Secretary General for Defence Policy and Planning, told the Shangri-La regional security conference in Singapore that NATO was willing to talk to China on the issue.
As restrictions in Hong Kong have snuffed out what were once the largest vigils marking the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, cities like London, New York, Berlin and Taipei are left carrying the candle to commemorate the June 4 anniversary. Tens of thousands of people have left Hong Kong since a 2020 national security law came into force, many moving to Taiwan, Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia, which are expected to be the focus of events in at least 30 cities around Sunday’s observance.