Europe

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will call on China to finalise a stalled investment agreement by the end of the year and again criticise Beijing over its security crackdown in Hong Kong, according to a draft summit statement seen by Reuters.

EU leaders, who are set to discuss their policy towards China at the two-day summit from Thursday, will also renew demands that Beijing make good on promises made in 2019 to open up Chinese markets to European companies.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders will try to break a stalemate over Belarus on Thursday by untangling a separate standoff with Turkey that has exposed the shortcomings of the bloc’s decision-making.

Meeting in Brussels for a two-day summit, leaders are set to confront Cyprus, one the EU’s smallest members, which is accused of holding up approval of economic sanctions on Belarus. The sanctions plan follows an election in August that the West and the opposition say was rigged.

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungary will extend its border closures to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic until the end of October, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s cabinet chief said on Thursday.

Hungary closed its borders to foreigners on Sept. 1 and decided that Hungarians returning to the country from abroad have to go into quarantine.

Hungary recorded 27,309 cases of coronavirus with 781 deaths as of Thursday, with new cases spiking in recent weeks.

MOSCOW, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday confirmed Moscow's readiness to provide a platform for organizing contacts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts.

Lavrov made separate phone calls with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, during which the Russian foreign minister expressed serious concerns over the ongoing hostilities.

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: Moscow doesn’t think that Minsk has withdrawn its statements on constitutional reform, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday in an interview with TASS, answering the question whether Russia is alarmed that statements on constitutional reform have been voiced more and more seldom by Belarus.

"I think nobody went back on anybody’s word. At least, I haven’t seen it yet," she said.

RIGA, September 30. /TASS/: It was a mistake that there was no dialogue between Europe and Russia over arms reductions, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a joint news conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins on Wednesday.

YEKATERINBURG, September 30. /TASS/: Crews of generation 4++ multifunctional fighter-bombers Sukhoi Su-34 from an aviation division of the Central Military District, in the Chelyabinsk Region, carried out a night-time flight into the lower stratosphere and destroyed a hypothetical enemy at a supersonic speed, the district's press service said.

MOSCOW, September 30. /TASS/: The international community has shown rare unity on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with TASS on Wednesday.

"Although the international community rarely manages to unite, but this time, to their credit, the heads of international organizations, the heads of state, politicians and public figures echo one another, in a good way," she pointed out.

BERLIN, September 30./TASS/: German Chancellor Angela Merkel views the case of Russian blogger Alexey Navalny as an issue that should be addressed globally, and not just a matter between Germany and Russia.

"This is not a bilateral case, but a crime that occurred on Russian territory and that violates the Chemical Weapons Convention, which makes it also an international issue," the chancellor said in the Bundestag during a debate on the federal budget for the next year.

MOSCOW, Sept 30 (NNN-TASS) – Russian President, Vladimir Putin, expressed concern over the conflicts in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, during a phone call with Armenian Prime Minister, Nikol Pashinyan, the Kremlin said in a statement.

“Discussion of the situation in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone was continued,” it said.

During the conversation, Putin expressed serious concern over the ongoing hostilities, underlining the urgent need for the opposing parties to stop the fight, and take measures to de-escalate the crisis.