Globalsecurity.org

China and Japan on Wednesday kicked off their first formal security dialogue in four years in Tokyo in a move aimed at diffusing tension.

A visit this week by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to Oman and a meeting in Damascus last week with the UAE foreign minister are seen by observers as a new push by some Arab countries to bring an isolated Syrian government back into regional and international politics.

A total of 282 United Nations trucks transporting aid for earthquake victims in northwest Syria have passed through three border crossings with Turkiye over the past two weeks, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

The Russian Federation Council unanimously approved at a meeting on Wednesday the bill on the suspension of Russia's participation in the Strategic Offensive Arms Treaty (New START).

No description

No description

During an address on Defender of the Fatherland Day, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged to continue strengthening the country's strategic missile systems, including the development of hypersonic weapons.

US President Joe Biden said he is confident the United States and Russia will be able to work out issues related to arms control regardless of Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to suspend Russia's participation in the New START treaty.

The Moscow-headquartered defense conglomerate consists of over 800 subsidiaries and scientific research institutes, and is involved in the production of everything from military aircraft like the Sukhoi Su-57 and advanced drones to Armata tanks and electronic warfare equipment.

Both houses of Russia's legislature on February 22 backed President Vladimir Putin's proposal to suspend participation in the last nuclear arms treaty between Russia and the United States, one day after the Kremlin leader announced the move in a major speech to the nation.

Kremlin-linked businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, a co-founder and owner of the Wagner mercenary group, has called on Russians to pressure the army to give his fighters more ammunition amid Defense Ministry denials that it is holding back supplies for artillery and missile-launchers in Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

Two senior U.S. lawmakers say Austria erred by issuing visas to the Russian delegation -- all of whom are under European Union sanctions due to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine -- for this week's meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, but it's unlikely a massive boycott of the meeting by the group's 57 nations will occur. all of

Russia's ambassador to the United Nations has once again accused the United States of being behind the explosions on Nord stream gas pipelines in September last year, saying the national investigations of Germany, Denmark, and Sweden into the sabotage are aimed at protecting Washington.

Russia's State Duma, the lower house of the country's parliament, on Wednesday unanimously passed a law endorsing President Vladimir Putin's move to suspend Moscow's participation in a key nuclear pact with the US.

In his meeting with China's top diplomat Wang Yi in Moscow on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said relations between the two countries are "reaching new milestones" amid tensions with the US.

Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with Member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the People's Republic of China and Director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee Wang Yi.

Russia has said it will not test fire a hypersonic missile during joint naval drills with China and South Africa, contradicting earlier reports in Russian state media.

Russia and China forged closer ties Wednesday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin saying relations between the two countries had reached "new frontiers," even as the U.S. has expressed concern that Beijing could supply weapons to Moscow to help its war effort against Ukraine.

Both houses of Russia's parliament on Wednesday endorsed President Vladimir Putin's suspension of Moscow's participation in the 2010 New START nuclear arms treaty with the United States, casting it as a rebuke to the U.S.-led Western alliance arming Ukraine in its bid to fend off Russia's year-long invasion.

The United States is determined to disrupt the global production and supply chain of illicit fentanyl, including by denying the criminal actors who engage in this activity access to the international financial system.