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In May, Japan’s ambassador to the United States said the US-led military alliance was planning a Tokyo office, the first in Asia, to ease regional consultations, but French President Emmanuel Macron objected to the plan.

At the time, China said the Asia-Pacific did not welcome what it called “group confrontation”, urging Japan to be “extra cautious on the issue of military security” given its “history of aggression”.

The Nikkei said Nato would deepen ties with its four major partners in the Pacific, preparing two-way cooperation documents with each, to form a basis for collaboration on issues such as cybersecurity and space.

On a visit to Japan in January, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg pledged with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to strengthen ties in the face of “historic” security challenges, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s rising military power.

“Australia will have further updates on its partnership arrangements in due course,” a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said.

“All Nato partners are transitioning to the new Individually Tailored Partnership Programme process once their existing partnership arrangements are due for renewal,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Following diplomatic consultations with regional and extra-regional parties, we met with our German, French and British counterparts in Abu Dhabi and discussed a range of issues,” deputy foreign minister and top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri tweeted.

Germany’s foreign ministry said the meeting took place on Monday and that discussions broached topics concerning Iran’s nuclear programme.

State news agency IRNA added that Bagheri was also in Abu Dhabi to discuss with the officials the promotion of bilateral cooperation and to review regional issues.

Iran’s nuclear programme has long been the subject of scrutiny from Western powers, resulting in sanctions that have hit the country’s economy.

A landmark deal in 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), gave Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme to guarantee that Tehran could not develop a nuclear weapon — something it has always denied wanting to do.

But the US unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018 under then-president Donald Trump and the reimposition of biting economic sanctions prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments.

On-off negotiations with France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China directly, and the United States indirectly to revive the deal have stalled in the past months.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani on Monday said the country has continued indirect negotiations with the United States over the issue.

On Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reiterated that the country does not seek to acquire a nuclear weapon, adding that agreements could be reached in certain nuclear fields.

Erdogan met the north’s leader Ersin Tatar, whose rule is recognised only by Turkey, two weeks after extending his two-decade rule until 2028.

“If there is to be a return to the negotiating table, the way to do this is through recognition” of the north, Erdogan declared.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when the Turkish army invaded the northern third of the island in response to a coup that had sought to unite the entire island with Greece.

United Nations peacekeepers patrol a buffer zone separating the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) from the internationally recognised south.

Turkey’s calls for a “two-state solution” to the Cyprus issue have been rejected by Greek Cypriots who comprise a majority in the south. The Republic of Cyprus along with the international community favours a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation in line with a UN framework.

Nearly 144,000 voters were registered in northern Cyprus, including Turkish settlers and troops and Turkish Cypriots who hold Turkish citizenship.

Erdogan’s performance was hurt in part by an economic crisis that has swept across Turkey and undermined the north’s economy, which relies on Ankara for support.

But some analysts also attributed it to a more accommodating stance taken on the status issue by Kilicdaroglu’s party during the campaign.

Erdogan rejected compromises during his joint appearance with Tatar.

“The just demands of the Turkish Cypriots are clear and unequivocal,” Erdogan said.

“There are two separate peoples in Cyprus,” Tatar added.

The island’s status is one of the world’s longest-running disputes. It has been a source of tension across the Mediterranean region for decades, heating up in more recent years because of the discovery of large energy deposits in the region.

It has also contributed to Turkey’s uneasy relations with Greece and the rest of the European Union.

Ankara maintains more than 35,000 troops in the north.

There have been no formal UN-sponsored peace talks for nearly six years.

Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides, who won his own runoff election in February, wants a greater EU role on the Cyprus issue.

Twenty-two US soldiers were injured in a helicopter accident in northeastern Syria at the weekend that did not involve any reported enemy fire, US Central Command said Tuesday.

“A helicopter mishap in northeastern Syria resulted in injuries of various degrees to 22 US service members” on Sunday, Centcom said in a statement.

“The service members are receiving treatment for their injuries and 10 have been evacuated to higher care facilities,” it said. “The cause of the incident is under investigation, although no enemy fire was reported.”

The United States has about 1,000 troops deployed in Syria as part of international efforts to combat jihadists, and periodically carries out strikes targeting militants in the country.

US bases have been repeatedly targeted in the past year, with cells linked to the Islamic State group claiming responsibility for some of them.

In March the United States carried out air strikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria after a US contractor was killed in a drone attack on a US-led coalition base near the city of Hasakeh in northeastern Syria.

At the time, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said at least 19 people were killed in the US air strikes.

The conflict in Syria has killed around half a million people since it began in 2011 with a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests, spiralling into a complex battlefield involving foreign armies, militias and jihadists.

Pita Limjaroenrat’s progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats at last month’s election as voters delivered a crushing rejection of army-linked parties that ran the kingdom for nearly a decade.

But he has faced a number of challenges and complaints, and the election commission has now set up a special committee to investigate whether Pita was qualified to run for office.

“There is sufficient information and evidence to warrant further investigation into whether Mr Pita is qualified to run in the election,” commission chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said.

“The election commission has set up an investigatory committee to investigate further.” It is not clear how long the investigation will take, but if found guilty, Pita could be disqualified and face up to 10 years in jail.

The probe relates to Pita’s ownership of shares in a now-defunct media company — prohibited under Thai election law. Pita says he inherited the shares in the ITV television station, which has not broadcast since 2007, from his father.

The 42-year-old denies any wrongdoing and the party says it is not worried about the allegations.

Iran’s nuclear programme has long been the subject of scrutiny from Western powers, resulting in sanctions that have crippled the country’s economy.

A 2015 deal granted Tehran much-needed sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme before it was torpedoed by the United States’ unilateral pullout in 2018.

In recent days, the two capitals have denied media reports that they were close to reaching an interim deal to replace the 2015 accord.

“We welcome the efforts of Omani officials and we exchanged messages with the other party through this mediator” over the lifting of US sanctions, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said Monday.

Prisoner exchange with Washington could happen soon

“We have never stopped the diplomatic processes,” he added during his weekly press conference, emphasising that the talks “were not secret”.

Diplomatic ties between Tehran and Washington soured in 1980 following the 1979 Islamic revolution led by Iran’s first supreme leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have so far failed to yield results. Iran and its arch-nemesis the United States have also been involved in Oman-mediated talks over a possible prisoner swap.

Kanani on Monday said a prisoner exchange could be agreed “in the near future”, provided that Washington exhibits “the same level of seriousness” as Tehran.

At least three Iranian-Americans are being held in Iran, including businessman Siamak Namazi, arrest­ed in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage.

In the last few weeks, Iran has released six European citizens and recovered an Iranian diplomat, Assadollah Assadi, who was convicted of terrorism and imprisoned in Belgium. Kanani also denied that Iran had provided Russia with equipment to “build a drone factory”.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Friday warned that Russia was receiving materials from Iran to build a drone factory on its territory.

“We deny any accusations regarding the export of arms to Russia for use in the war against Ukraine,” Kanani said.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday reiterated the denial of moves towards acquiring a nuclear weapon.

He also said deals could be reached, provided they do not change “the existing infrastructure of the nuclear industry”.

“We believe diplomacy is the best way to achieve that goal on a verifiable and durable basis, but the President has also been clear that we have not removed any option from the table,” he said, alluding to the possibility of military action.

“Accusations about Tehran seeking nuclear weapons is a lie and they know it. We do not want nuclear arms because of our religious beliefs. Otherwise, they (the West) would not have been able to stop it,” Khamenei said.

The dispute over media staff is the latest episode to highlight tension between the Asian neighbours since a deterioration in ties in mid-2020 when their troops clashed on their disputed Himalayan frontier and 24 people were killed.

“In recent years, Chinese journalists in India have been accorded unfair and discriminatory arrangements,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told a Monday briefing.

“We hope that India will continue to issue visas for Chinese journalists and remove the unreasonable restrictions and create favourable conditions for media exchanges.”

China has declined to renew the visas of the last two Indian journalists based there, citing India taking similar action this month against the two remaining Chinese state media journalists in India.

One of the two Indians, a reporter for the Hindustan Times, left China on Sunday as his visa expired, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.

The last Indian reporter in China, from Press Trust of India news agency, will leave this month when his visa expires, the sources said.

India had four reporters based in China this year but two were barred from returning in April after being said that their visas were frozen.

That leaves India without a media presence in the world’s second largest economy.

Wang said India had not approved new visas for Chinese journalists since 2020, resulting in a drop from 14 to only one Chinese correspondent there.

“It is very unfortunate that nothing has been done on the Indian side,” he said.