Business

Tokyo, Feb 23 (AP) Japan's prime minister has announced sanctions targeting Russia and two separatist Ukrainian regions recognised as independent by Russian President Vladimir Putin, joining an international effort seeking to pressure Russia to return to diplomatic solutions.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Wednesday that his government will ban new issuance and distribution of Russian government bonds in Japan in response to the actions Russia has been taking in Ukraine.

22 Feb 2022; MEMO: Iran and Qatar are to sign four major agreements, including plans for an underwater tunnel connecting the two countries amid talks aimed at enhancing bilateral ties.

21 Feb 2022; MEMO: The Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Greece met today in the Greek capital, Athens, in an effort to resolve tensions and improve relations.

According to a Twitter post by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the meeting that took place between deputy Foreign Minister, Sedat Onal, and his Greek counterpart, Kostas Fragkogiannis, was the third working meeting to improve and advance dialogue between the two neighbours.

21 Feb 2022; MEMO: Israel is pressing the United States about the terms of an emerging Iranian nuclear deal, Israeli officials said on Monday, raising the prospect of a bilateral day-after agreement with Washington to address their worries, Reuters reports.

While not a party to the nuclear negotiations between Iran and world powers in Vienna, Israel has conferred with the US administration in hope of wielding more clout over any revival of a 2015 deal with Tehran that was reached over its objections.

Mumbai, Feb 22 (PTI) The BSE benchmark Sensex tanked over 1,000 points and the NSE Nifty cracked below the key 17,000-level in opening deals on Tuesday, mirroring a rout in the global equity markets.

The Sensex was trading 1,015 points or 1.76 per cent lower at 56,668.60, and the Nifty quoted 285.40 points or 1.66 per cent lower at 16,921.25 -- extending their losses to the fifth session in a row.

All the 30 Sensex constituents were trading with significant losses.

20 Feb 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia said it plans to hold a fifth round of direct talks with regional rival Iran, Anadolu reports.

"We are looking to schedule a fifth round of direct talks with Iran despite a lack of substantive progress so far," Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud said in a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

The top Saudi diplomat called on Tehran to change its behavior in the region.

Paris, Feb 21 (PTI) India and France have inked a roadmap to enhance their bilateral exchanges on the blue economy and forge a common vision of ocean governance based on the rule of law and cooperate on sustainable and resilient coastal and waterways infrastructure.

The agreement was signed during External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's three-day visit to France which began on Sunday with bilateral talks with his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Moscow/Islamabad, Feb 21 (PTI) Prime Minister Imran Khan will visit Russia on February 23-24, the official Russian media has reported, signalling the first visit by a Pakistani premier to Moscow in 23 years.

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that preparations for the visit of the Prime Minister Khan were underway, the state-run TASS news agency reported on Sunday.

"The visit will take place on February 23-24," it quoted a source in diplomatic circles as saying. Khan's visit has not been officially announced by Pakistan and Russia.

Portland, Feb 20 (AP) China has failed to live up to its promise to buy more Maine lobster under a deal that opened the door to an easing of a trade war under former President Donald Trump, Maine's congressional leaders say.

Maine's lobster industry was hurt by retaliatory Chinese tariffs in 2018 and failed to see substantial export gains after China committed to buying an additional USD 200 billion in US goods, the delegation contends.

Tehran (ISNA) - Iran's secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani stressed that Iran will not enter any negotiation beyond the JCPOA with the US and the Europeans who failed to fulfill their commitments.

“The United States and Europe failed in fulfilling their obligations under the JCPOA. Now JCPOA has become an empty shell for Iran in the economic field and the removal of sanctions,” Shamkhani wrote on his official Twitter account.