ASEAN is particularly concerned about climate change which has been causing substantial damage to the region, ASEAN Deputy Secretary General for Socio-Cultural Community Vongthep Arthakaivalvatee has said in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency in Jakarta.

The Initiative for ASEAN Integration (IAI), which has the twin objective of narrowing the development divide and to enhance ASEAN’s competitiveness in the region, has become increasingly important with the establishment of ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by the end of this year, the Malaysian Ambassador to Vietnam has said. 

(VOV) - Turkey has deployed troops to the Iraq city of Mosul. Earlier, the US announced a plan to triple US troops in Iraq and deploy a "specialized expeditionary targeting force" to Iraq to work alongside local forces against IS. 

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on December 7 called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States in the most dramatic response by a candidate yet to last week's shooting spree by two Muslims who the FBI said had been radicalized.

Cuban and US officials on December 8 will begin to untangle one of the most complex obstacles to normalization of relations between the two countries: the claims of Americans whose property was nationalized after the 1959 revolution and Cuban counterclaims for damages caused by the US trade embargo.

The United States is temporarily easing trade restrictions on Myanmar by allowing all shipments to go through its ports and airports for six months, an effort to boost the Southeast Asian country's opposition party after its landmark election win in November.

Russia's envoy to the UN nuclear watchdog said on December 7 he expected a historic nuclear deal between Iran and world powers to be implemented in January, leading to sanctions against Tehran being lifted.

Venezuela's opposition vowed on December 7 to revive the OPEC nation's troubled economy and free jailed political activists after winning control of the legislature for the first time in 16 years of Socialist rule.

A Vietnamese delegation led by Vice Admiral Pham Ngoc Minh, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Vietnam People’s Army is attending a dialogue of defense chiefs of the South and Southeast Asian Nations (SASEAN) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on December 7-8.

Turkey said on December 6 it would halt further transfers of troops to an area near the Islamic State-controlled Iraqi city of Mosul after Baghdad threatened to appeal to the United Nations to force Turkey to withdraw its soldiers.