Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>President <keyword id="99719" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="joe-biden" source="Orion">Joe Biden</keyword> said he confronted the Saudi Crown Prince over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.</li><li><keyword id="11894587" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="saudi-arabia" source="Orion">Saudi Arabia</keyword>'s foreign minister disputed that, saying he "did not hear" such an exchange.</li></ul><p>Saudi Arabia's foreign minister on Saturday disputed President <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-mbs-responsible-for-jamal-khashoggi-murder-2022-7">Joe Biden's claim that he directly condemned Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman</a> over the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.</p><p>In a meeting with reporters on Friday, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/07/15/remarks-by-president-biden-on-his-meetings-in-saudi-arabia/">Biden said</a> he raised Khashoggi's murder "at the top of the meeting" with the crown prince, who is often known by the initials <keyword id="12353362" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="mbs" source="Orion">MBS</keyword>.</p><p>Biden said he was "straightforward and direct" in discussing the matter at the meeting, which was closed to the media.</p><p>Khashoggi was <a href="https://www.insider.com/the-murder-of-jamal-khashoggi-2019-10">killed by Saudi agents</a> at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. MBS has denied any personal responsibility, but the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cia-mohammed-bin-salman-ordered-jamal-khashoggi-killed-report-says-2018-11">US intelligence community</a> and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-report-on-khashoggi-killing-directly-implicates-saudi-arabia-mbs-2021-2">Biden</a> have been clear that they believe he ordered the death. </p><p>Biden told reporters that he "indicated" that MBS was personally responsible for the death of Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist who lived mostly in the US.</p><p>This was contradicted by Adel Al-Jubeir, the Saudi minister for foreign affairs, who on Saturday told several reporters that he heard no such exchange.</p><p>"After POTUS departed Saudi Arabia on AF1, Saudi FM Adel al-Jubeir called my colleague @AlexHoganTV back for a 2nd interview - even though Fox interviewed him yday," <a href="https://twitter.com/JacquiHeinrich/status/1548434071239344132?s=20&amp;t=QsTmqelBVEfyHWzulSQDWg">wrote</a> Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich on Twitter.</p><p>"He pointedly claimed he 'did not hear' Biden tell MBS he believed he was responsible for Khashoggi's murder," Heinrich added.</p><p>al-Jubeir gave a similar account to PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin, saying "I didn't hear that exchange, that particular exchange," according to <a href="https://twitter.com/nickschifrin/status/1548085543350648833?s=20&amp;t=MUmkaqXkCuGWa10KQ_fD6Q">Schifrin's tweet.</a></p><p>The minister gave an account in which the issue was discussed but without assigning blame.</p><p>Per Schifrin's posts, al-Jubeir said: "He mentioned the issue of Jamal Khashoggi, and he said this is an issue that has generated a lot of interest and concern in the US... and that he understood, he knew what Saudi Arabia's position was."</p><p>Biden pushed back on this himself hours later. Responding to a reporter who if al-Jubeir was telling the truth that he did not accuse MBS of the murder, <a href="https://twitter.com/stevennelson10/status/1548524145322999819?s=20&amp;t=T1_OxHkABOkKpyboVCYS2g">Biden said "no."</a></p><p>Insider reached out to the White House and the Saudi foreign ministry for comment on Sunday morning but did not immediately receive a response.</p><p>The president has faced <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jamal-khashoggi-fiancee-slams-biden-fist-bumping-mbs-saudi-arabia-2022-7">strong criticism</a> for traveling to Saudi Arabia, which he <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/11/21/democratic-debate-joe-biden-saudi-arabia/">pledged before taking office to reduce to "pariah" status</a>. He defended his visit, saying that it was important to promote US interests there.</p><p>"I think we have an opportunity to reassert what I think we made a mistake of walking away from — our influence in the Middle East," <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/biden-mbs-responsible-for-jamal-khashoggi-murder-2022-7">Biden said</a> Thursday. </p>

Saudi foreign minister disputes Biden's claim that he confronted MBS over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in their meeting

By K J M Varma <p>Beijing, Apr 27 () Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi would take part in the video-conference of the BRICS Foreign Ministers' meeting on the COVID-19 to be held on Tuesday, his aide said.</p><p>The novel coronavirus, which first emerged in China's Wuhan city in late December, has killed more than 200,000 people worldwide and infected over 2.9 million others, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.</p><p>State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang will attend BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Foreign Ministers' Extraordinary Conference on COVID-19 on April 28, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said in a statement here on Monday.</p><p>The meeting, to be held by the rotating chair Russia, will be convened via video conference.</p>Wang will discuss with his counterparts the impact of the COVID-19 on international relations, concerted efforts to address global challenges, deepening BRICS cooperation and other topics, the statement said.  KJV  ZHZH

Chinese FM Wang Yi to attend BRICS meet on COVID-19

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword>'s delegation to the <keyword id="107692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="G7">G7</keyword> is self-isolating after two of its members tested positive for COVID-19.</li><li>India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said he would attend his meetings virtually.</li><li>India's second wave accounted for a quarter of global <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> deaths last week.</li></ul><p>India's foreign minister is self-isolating after two members of the country's delegation to the G7 meeting of foreign ministers in <keyword id="6354968" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="london">London</keyword> have tested positive for COVID-19.</p><p>"Two delegates tested positive so the entire delegation is now self isolating," a British official told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/covid-scare-g7-meeting-after-indian-delegates-test-positive-sky-2021-05-05/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reuters</a>.</p><p>Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's foreign minister, said on <a href="https://twitter.com/DrSJaishankar/status/1389854062762409987">Twitter</a> that he was made aware of possible exposure to the virus on Tuesday and said that he would now attend Wednesday's G7 meeting virtually "as a measure of abundant caution."</p><p>A source told Insider that the Indian delegation has yet to attend the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting at Lancaster House so did not pose a risk to the summit.</p><p>They added that all delegates took daily COVID-19 tests, wore masks, and practised social distancing.</p><p>India is battling a record-breaking surge of the virus that has overwhelmed hospitals, morgues, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-coronavirus-dead-cremation-parking-lots-overflow-2021-4">crematoriums</a>. Hospitals are struggling with a critical oxygen shortage.</p><p>Rapidly spreading coronavirus variants are perhaps the biggest culprit for India's new surge.</p><p>The variant first found in the country, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-variants-uk-south-africa-brazil-us-facts-questions-2021-1">B.1.617</a>, is in <a href="https://cov-lineages.org/lineages/lineage_B.1.617.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fact three distinct viruses</a>. Collectively, they have spread to 17 countries, according to the WHO. All three have been detected in the US, <a href="https://cov-lineages.org/lineages/lineage_B.1.617.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to GISAID.</a></p><p>But <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-coronavirus-cases-deaths-lesson-stay-alert-2021-4">a number of other factors</a> also contributed to their spread: massive social gatherings, a slow vaccine rollout, and a healthcare system that was woefully unprepared for the influx of patients.</p><p>India accounted for <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-deaths-india-one-quarter-global-count-2021-5">one in four global deaths from the coronavirus</a> last week, the World Health Organization said, as well as 46% of global cases. The country has reported a total of <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">226,188 deaths</a> since the start of the pandemic - the third highest, behind just the US and Brazil.</p><p>India is not a member of the G7, an intergovernmental organization which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword>, and the US, but it is attending this week's meeting.</p><p>The G7 is holding its annual summit in Cornwall in June - the group's first face-to-face summit in two years.</p>

Two coronavirus cases have been confirmed among the Indian delegation attending the London G7 meeting

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Britain's Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is in the US right now ito meet <span>close advisers to President-elect Donald Trump and senior Congressional leaders.</span></p><p><span>The Foreign Ministry in the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> said in a statement to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-british-foreign-minister-arrives-in-us-to-meet-trump-advisers-ministry-2017-1">various members of the press:</a></span></p><p><span> "</span>Following the successful meeting last month between the prime minister's chiefs of staff and President-elect Donald Trump's team, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson is undertaking a short visit to the US for meetings with close advisers to the president-elect and senior Congressional leaders," a spokesman for the ministry said in a statement.</p><p>"The discussions will be focused on UK-US relations and other foreign policy matters."</p><p>If Johnson does meet Trump, he will be the most senior politician to meet the President-elect. </p><p>So far, only UKIP interim leader Nigel Farage - dubbed "<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-britains-ukip-leader-farage-meets-donald-trump-in-new-york-2016-11">Mr. Brexit</a>" by US President-elect Donald Trump - <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/r-britains-ukip-leader-farage-meets-donald-trump-in-new-york-2016-11">became the first foreign politician to visit Trump</a> immediately after the elections. </p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/797584449047265281">The most widely circulated photo of the meeting</a> showed the pair alone, but another photo shared by a UKIP aide shows the <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/farage-the-brex-pistols-brexit-arron-banks-ukip-donald-trump-2016-11">whole group of Farage acolytes who made the visit to Trump Tower in New York</a>. </p><p>Trump also said at the time, <span>Farage would be great as Britain's envoy to Washington, but the British government has dismissed the suggestion. Farage is also attending Trump's inauguration.</span></p><p>Johnson may be meeting Trump's closest advisors but it is not certain whether he will meet Trump - nearly two months after he was elected as the next US president. </p><p>Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May is still to meet Trump, although her office confirmed she will be meeting him this spring.</p><p>Trump said he is "looking forward" to meeting May.</p><p><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/817915516018892805">Writing on Twitter</a>, Trump said: <span>"I look very much forward to meeting Prime Minister Theresa May in Washington in the spring. Britain, a longtime US ally, is very special!"</span></p><p><span><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38546476">The BBC</a><span> says t</span>he meeting was scheduled following meetings with May's closest advisers.</span></p><p><span>Although an official date has not yet been confirmed, it is expected to take place within weeks of Trump's inauguration on January 20.</span> </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-jesus-christ-depicted-islam-quran-muhammad-bible-religion-christianity-bible-2016-12">Here's how Jesus Christ is depicted in Islam</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="trYTNqODE60Uk886JnFq7Iajb6rXA7rZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

There is still no date when May or Johnson will meet Trump

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Axel Schmidt</span></p><p class="caption">European foreign ministers walk through the Park of the German Foreign Ministery guest house before a foreign minister meeting of the EU founding members in Berlin, Germany, June 25, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div>The first hurdle to the negotiations between the <keyword id="6354868" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="UK">UK</keyword> and the EU, now that Brits have decided to leave the bloc, is already here.</p><p>The six founding members of the European Union sent a clear message to Britain on Saturday to leave the bloc as soon as possible after Britons voted to quit in the biggest blow to the project since World War Two.</p><p>Eager to shore up the EU for its other 27 members, foreign ministers from the six founding countries pressed Britain to trigger the process for exiting the bloc so that they are not left in limbo and can concentrate shaping the future of Europe.</p><p>"We now expect the UK government to provide clarity and give effect to this decision as soon as possible," the ministers from Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg said in a joint statement.</p><p>The UK's Leave campaign, on the other hand, does not seem eager to start the process.</p><p>Britain should begin informal negotiations on a full settlement governing its post-Brexit relationship with the European Union before invoking Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, the chief executive of the Vote Leave campaign said on Saturday.</p><p>"We don't think there is a need to swiftly invoke Article 50," Matthew Elliott told Reuters in an interview. "It's best for the dust to settle over the summer and during that time for there to be informal negotiations with other states," he said.</p><p>German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the negotiations with Britain should not be conducted in such a way as to be seen as a deterrent to other countries, and that there was no hurry for London to trigger the process for leaving.</p><p>"Quite honestly, it should not take ages, that is true, but I would not fight now for a short time frame," Merkel told a news conference at a meeting of her party outside Berlin.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Daniel Biskup</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>On Friday, Former London mayor Boris Johnson, a leading campaigner for Britain to leave the EU and the bookmakers' favorite to replace David Cameron as prime minister, said nothing would change over the short term following the Brexit vote. </p><p>Only Britain can invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty required to set in motion the process to exit the bloc.</p><p>Already yesterday, Martin Schulz, the head of the EU Parliament, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jun/24/top-eu-leader-we-want-britain-out-as-soon-as-possible" target="_blank">told The Guardian</a><span> that it was hard to accept that "a whole continent is taken hostage because of an internal fight in the Tory party," and</span><span> that lawyers were currently looking to speed up the triggering of the article.</span></p><p>EU officials are British politicians know that now they have decided to leave, they don't also get to pick when exactly they will do so just to best accommodate their needs. </p><p>The foreign ministers of both France and Luxembourg warned Britain not to play games by drawing out the process. "There's no reason to play a cat and mouse game. That would not be respectful after deciding to organize this referendum," French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told a joint news conference after the meeting of the six in Berlin.</p><p>"It's in Britain's interest and in the interest of Europeans not to have a period of uncertainty that would have financial consequences, and that could have economic and political consequences," he said.</p><p>European leaders will probably want to convince Cameron, who said he would not invoke article 50, to invoke it anyway, as they will not want to wait until at least October for it to be triggered.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>REUTERS/Peter Nicholls</span></p><p class="caption">Head of Vote Leave, Matthew Elliott, poses for a photograph at the Vote Leave campaign headquarters in London, Britain May 19, 2016.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Ayrault, the French foreign minister, said earlier other EU leaders would press Cameron at a summit meeting next week to act quickly: "There will be a lot of pressure on Cameron on Tuesday to move ahead," he said. </p><p>The fallout from the Brits' vote was felt worldwide as global stock markets plunged and sterling saw its biggest one-day drop in more than 30 years. The vote is also leaving millions of Europeans living in the United Kingdom and Britons living in Europe worried about their future. </p><p>Ratings agency Moody's downgraded its outlook for Britain, saying its creditworthiness was now at greater risk as the country would face substantial challenges to successfully negotiating its exit from the bloc.</p><p>In their statement, the six foreign ministers lamented the watershed brought by the 'Brexit' vote. They said the EU was losing "not just a member state but history, tradition and experience."</p><p>In Colmar in eastern France, French President Francois Hollande echoed their sentiment, saying: "It will be painful for Britain but ... like in all divorces, it will be painful for those who stay behind too."</p><p>Merkel also said Britain must say what kind of relationship it wants with the EU before the bloc examines how to respond while European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he wanted to begin negotiating Britain's departure immediately .</p><div dir="auto" data-reactid=".1.0.1.0.1.2.$tag=2reuters=1com,2016=2newsml_KCN0ZB0HW=22.1.0.0.0.2"><p>Since the result of the referendum became clear on Friday morning, more than a million people have signed a petition for a new EU referendum that would require a higher level of support for taking a decision on membership.</p><p>But Elliott said the referendum decision to leave the EU had been made by the British people and that it would be implemented. "This is the decision that has been made - it is going to happen. There is no way of wriggling out of it," he said.</p></div>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/boris-johnson-faces-brexit-protesters-britain-votes-to-leave-eu-2016-6">Boris Johnson was swarmed by dozens of Brexit protesters shouting 'shame on you'</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="9jeDBkNDE6ncx0X3iqsqaBwV6mnKxwJt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

EU politicians are shutting down the Brexiteers' plan to leave the bloc when they think is best

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image"><p class="source"><span>Dani Pozo/AFP</span></p><p class="caption">Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a press conference at the Santa Cruz Palace in Madrid on March 5, 2014.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Russia said Wednesday it has no authority over pro-Moscow forces that have taken de-facto control of the Ukraine's majority-Russian Crimean Peninsula.</p>
<p>A day after US President Barack Obama said Russia was "not fooling anybody" over its role in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the armed troops were not taking orders from the Kremlin.</p>
<p>"If they are the self-defence forces created by the inhabitants of Crimea, we have no authority over them," Lavrov told a news conference in Madrid after a meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.</p>
<p>"They do not receive our orders," he said.</p>
<p>The Russian foreign minister, who left Madrid for a Paris meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry after the conference, said Moscow would not allow bloodshed to erupt in Ukraine.</p>
<p>"We will not allow bloodshed. We will not allow attempts against the lives and wellbeing of those who live in Ukraine and Russian citizens who live in Ukraine," he said.</p>
<p>Ukrainian troops remain blocked inside their barracks in Crimea in the gravest stand-off between the West and Russia since the end of the Cold War.</p>
<p>Lavrov's meeting with Kerry will be their first since Ukraine's Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovych was ousted after three months of pro-European Union protests which left nearly 100 dead.</p>
<div class="nc_footer">
<p>Copyright (2014) AFP. All rights reserved.</p>
</div>
<p></p>

Russian Foreign Minister: Troops In Crimea "Do Not Receive Our Orders"

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Rex Tillerson.</p></div><p></p></div></div>"I don't know. I'm not a diplomat."</p><p>US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made that admission during a meeting with Russian and Iranian foreign ministers at the United Nations headquarters late last month.</p><p>Tillerson had gathered officials involved in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran in what turned out to be a sort of airing of US grievances related to the Obama-era agreement. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/16/rex-tillerson-at-the-breaking-point">The New Yorker's Dexter Filkins outlined the exchange</a> in a report set to be published in the magazine later this month.</p><p>In the meeting, Tillerson echoed some of President Donald Trump's broad reservations about the nuclear deal. He accused Iran of funding militant groups, supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad, and antagonizing American troops in the Persian Gulf, according to the report.</p><p>Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif pushed back, saying the US had not held up its promise to lift certain financial sanctions against Iran. Tillerson was resolute, but ultimately seemed to back off from the exchange, Filkins wrote, with Tillerson suggesting that US relations with Iran were mired by generations of baggage. "Maybe we don't have it in our capacity to change the nature of this relationship," Tillerson said according to the report. "Maybe we leave it for the next generation to try."</p><p>Tillerson added: "I don't know. I'm not a diplomat."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Alex Brandon</span></p><p class="caption">President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a bilateral meeting.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Indeed, the former Exxon Mobil CEO had not previously served in any diplomatic capacity before Trump appointed him as secretary of state. Tillerson spent much of his professional life working for the oil giant.</p><p>The experience has been challenging amid months of <keyword id="6355005" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="News">news</keyword> reports that Tillerson and Trump's working relationship was tenuous, and that Tillerson had considered resigning on more than one occasion. The job only seemed to get tougher in the last two weeks as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-tillerson-north-korea-little-rocket-man-2017-10">Trump publicly undermined Tillerson's efforts</a> to open a dialogue with North Korea, and culminating in reports that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/rex-tillerson-donald-trump-moron-is-secretary-of-state-resigning-2017-10">Tillerson had called Trump a "moron"</a> during a meeting with the president's national security team and Cabinet officials.</p><p>Though Trump, Tillerson - and, by extension, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">Defense</keyword> Secretary James Mattis - have sought to allay suspicions of a rift between Trump and his top diplomat, Trump <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-military-photo-opportunity-white-house-rex-tillerson-2017-10">seemed to complicate matters on Thursday night</a> and Friday <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-winks-calm-before-the-storm-2017-10">with vague hints</a> referencing a "calm before the storm."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/goods-north-korea-trade-world-imports-exports-sanctions-china-2017-10">North Korea exports $2.83 billion worth of goods - here's where it all goes</a></h3>        <div>                    </div>    </div>

Rex Tillerson made a striking comment about his role in the Trump administration during a meeting with Russian and Iranian foreign ministers

By Lalit K Jha <p>Washington, May 12 () US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has discussed with his counterparts from India, Australia, Brazil, Israel, Japan and South Korea the importance of international cooperation, transparency, and accountability in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and in addressing its causes.</p><p>Pompeo spoke to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Australian foreign minister Marise Payne, Brazilian foreign minister Ernesto Henrique Fraga Araujo, Israeli foreign minister Yisrael Katz, Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono and South Korean foreign minister Kang Kyung-wha, the State Department said in a press release on Monday.</p><p>"Pompeo and his counterparts discussed the importance of international cooperation, transparency, and accountability in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic and in addressing its causes," State Department Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said. </p><p> The US and other countries have raised questions about whether China was fully transparent when the virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan last year. But China has denied allegations of a cover up, saying it has been transparent about its efforts to battle the deadly virus.</p><p>The virtual meeting of the ministers also discussed collaboration toward preventing future global health crises and reaffirming the importance of the rules-based international order, Ortagus said. </p><p>Commenting on the virtual meeting, Jaishankar said it was a broad-based discussion on responding to the challenge posed by the coronavirus and termed it as "productive". </p><p>"Conversation covered pandemic response, global health management, medical cooperation, economic recovery and travel norms. Look forward to continuing this engagement," the minister tweeted. </p> The world has reported over 286,000 deaths and 4,178,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. The US is currently the worst hit nation with over 80,000 deaths and 1,347,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, according to latest statistics from Johns Hopkins University.  LKJ AKJ  AKJ

COVID-19: Pompeo holds video conference with counterparts from India, 5 other nations

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>MOSCOW (AP) - In a surprise meeting with Syria's foreign minister, Russian President Vladimir Putin pledged his support Monday for Syrian President Bashar Assad and called on all Middle East nations to join forces to fight Islamic State militants.</p><p>The war in Syria, which began with protests in March 2011, has killed more than 220,000 people. Russia, which has traditionally strong ties to Syria, has been seen as a key to a peaceful solution and has previously rebuffed suggestions that Assad's resignation could help end the war.</p><p>Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem held talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday then was whisked to the Kremlin to meet with Putin.</p><p>Russian news agencies quoted Putin as telling the Syrian envoy that Russia's "policy to support Syria, the Syrian leadership and the Syrian people remains unchanged."</p><p>Putin also urged other Middle East countries to help Syria fight the armed Islamic factions that now control parts of the Syrian capital and large parts of the city's suburbs.</p><p>Putin said Moscow's contacts with the countries in the region, including with Turkey and Saudi Arabia, "show that everyone wants to contribute to fight this evil," he said referring to Islamic State militants.</p><p>He exhorted all nations in the region, whatever their relations with Syria are, to "pull their efforts together" to fight Islamic militants.</p><p>In Beirut, <span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em;">Syria's foreign minister said on a visit to Moscow on Monday that top ally Russia had promised to send political, economic and military aid to his country.</span></p><p>"I got a promise of aid to Syria - politically, economically and militarily," Walid al-Moualem said at a televised news conference in Moscow after meeting Putin.</p><p><em>Reuters contributed to this report.</em></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/ian-bremmer-vladimir-putin-most-powerful-man-world-2015-5">Why Putin is the most powerful man in the world </a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="RhNTFkdTovrJg1rP-s9ZqAiCXm6cMBEh" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "Foreign Ministers Meeting" and got 9 results

Saudi foreign minister disputes Biden's claim that he confronted MBS over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in their meeting

Joshua Zitser

Chinese FM Wang Yi to attend BRICS meet on COVID-19

PTI

Two coronavirus cases have been confirmed among the Indian delegation attending the London G7 meeting

Grace Dean

There is still no date when May or Johnson will meet Trump

Lianna Brinded

EU politicians are shutting down the Brexiteers' plan to leave the bloc when they think is best

Barbara Tasch,Reuters

Russian Foreign Minister: Troops In Crimea "Do Not Receive Our Orders"

Agence France Presse

Rex Tillerson made a striking comment about his role in the Trump administration during a meeting with Russian and Iranian foreign ministers

Bryan Logan

COVID-19: Pompeo holds video conference with counterparts from India, 5 other nations

PTI

Remember talk of Russia abandoning Assad? Not so fast ...

AP

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides