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Japan recorded a trade surplus of 57.3 billion yen (USD 360 million) in February, according to government data released Wednesday, reversing from a deficit a month earlier. Exports grew at a better-than-expected 4.2 per cent in February to 9.57 trillion yen, the Finance Ministry's seasonally adjusted preliminary data show. Imports grew 10.2 per cent on-year to 9.51 trillion yen following a 2.5 per cent contraction in January. Japan posted a 1.15 trillion trade deficit that month. Import costs are likely to rise as the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the war against Iran drives up oil and other energy prices. Japan imports almost all its oil, and Brent crude - the international standard - has jumped in recent weeks to about USD 100 a barrel. Geopolitical uncertainty, especially the war in Iran, looms large for Japan's export-reliant economy, but a weak yen is likely to work as a plus. The US dollar has been trading at about 159 yen, when it was below 150 yen a yea
China won't help the United States reopen the Strait of Hormuz as requested by President Donald Trump, but it is probably welcoming the delay in Trump's highly anticipated trip to Beijing as the US risks getting bogged down in the Middle East, analysts say. The latest developments are unfolding as Trump's Iran war, in its third week, is faced with mounting pressure as oil has stopped moving through the strait and US allies have refused to step up to secure the strait. That has produced concerns that China, the United States' biggest geopolitical rival, could stand to benefit from a war that some say was ill-considered. "President Trump's request to delay his long-awaited summit with President Xi Jinping underscores how significantly he underestimated the fallout from Operation Epic Fury," said Ali Wyne, senior research and advocacy adviser for US-China relations at the International Crisis Group. "A show of US force that was meant to intimidate Beijing has instead served to punctur
President Donald Trump is delaying a diplomatic trip to China that had been planned for months but began to unravel as he pressured Beijing and other world powers to use military might to protect the Strait of Hormuz. Trump said Tuesday while meeting with Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in the Oval Office that he would be going to China in five or six weeks' time instead of at the end of the month. He said he would be "resetting" his visit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, without elaborating. Trump's visit to China is seen as an opportunity to build on a fragile trade truce between the two superpowers, but it has become tangled in his effort to find an endgame to the war in Iran. Soon after pressing China and other nations to send warships to secure access to Middle Eastern oil over the weekend, Trump indicated his travel plans were up in the air, though he also indicated Tuesday that the US didn't need any help after being rebuffed by other allies. In a Sunday interview with
China on Tuesday said it will provide emergency humanitarian assistance to Iran, Lebanon and two other West Asian countries hit hard by the ongoing conflict in the region. Speaking at a media briefing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that Beijing has decided to provide emergency humanitarian aid to Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq in the hope of easing the humanitarian plight faced by local people. "The ongoing conflict has inflicted excruciating humanitarian disasters on (the) people of Iran and other regional countries. China deeply sympathises with people in relevant countries", Lin said. He was responding to a question about whether China is considering providing humanitarian assistance to the relevant countries, as the UN Refugee Agency recently said the crisis in West Asia has constituted a major humanitarian emergency, and the affected regions already host nearly 25 million refugees, internally displaced persons and returnees. Iran has suffered many innoce
India's exports to the US dipped 12.88 per cent year-on-year to USD 6.88 billion in February due to high tariffs in America, while the trade deficit with China crossed USD 100 billion during the 11-month period of this fiscal, according to the commerce ministry data released on Monday. Exports contracted in September, October, December last year and January this year also. However, it rose 22.61 per cent in November. Indian goods were attracting a sweeping 50 per cent levies in the US. But after US Supreme Court struck down the Trump tariffs, US President Donald Trump imposed 10 per cent duty on all countries from February 24 for 150 days. So now the impact of the lower tariffs is likely to be reflected in the data for the month of March, which will be released in mid-May. Imports, on the other hand, from the US grew 36.53 per cent to USD 4.48 billion in February, data showed. During the April-February period of this fiscal year, the country's exports to the US increased 3.84 per
President Donald Trump may delay his China trip due to the Iran war, but Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday it's not to pressure Beijing on the Strait of Hormuz. Bessent said any delay to Trump's trip to Beijing would not be because of disagreements over the Iran war or efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. "If the meeting for some reason was rescheduled, it would be rescheduled because of logistics," he said. "The president wants to remain in D.C. to coordinate the war and travelling abroad at a time like this may not be optimal." Trump has suggested he may delay the much-anticipated visit to China at the end of the month as he seeks to ramp up the pressure on Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz and calm oil prices that have soared during the Iran war. In an interview Sunday with the Financial Times, Trump said China's reliance on oil from the Middle East means it ought to help with a new coalition he is trying to put together to get oil tanker traffic moving .
Taiwan saw a surge of Chinese military planes near the island, its defence ministry said on Sunday, after a sharp drop in flights over the past two weeks had sparked discussions among observers. The ministry detected 26 Chinese military aircraft around the island on Saturday, with 16 of them entering its central and southwestern Air Defence Identification Zone. Seven naval ships were spotted around the island, it reported. The increased number of aircraft came after the ministry reported a fall that left analysts scratching their heads about what China's military may be up to. Taiwan didn't report any Chinese military planes that went beyond the median line and entered the zone for a week from Feb. 27 to March 5. After two were detected on March 6, the next four days had none. Such flights resumed in small numbers between Wednesday and Friday. The drop coincided with the annual meeting of China's legislature. While such flights have fallen in the past during major events and public
Air China will resume flights flying between Beijing and North Korea from March 30, the airline's website said Saturday, after passenger train services running between the two nations restarted earlier this week. According to the website of the stated-owned airline, flights from China's capital to Pyongyang, North Korea's capital will run every Monday until May 18, but would scale down to two Mondays in June. In 2020 with the start of the coronavirus pandemic, North Korea banned tourists, jetted out diplomats and severely curtailed border traffic in one of the world's most draconian COVID-19 restrictions. Two years later, Pyongyang started slowly easing curbs and reopening its borders. North Korean Air Koryo resumed flights between the two nations' capitals in 2023. In February 2024, North Korea accepted some Russian tourists for sightseeing visits, the first foreign nationals to visit the country. That development surprised many observers who thought the first post-pandemic tour
Zydus Lifesciences on Saturday said its innovative drug has received approval from China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) for its drug Desidustat tablets used for treating renal anaemia. The company has licensed its Desidustat tablets to a subsidiary of China Medical System Holdings Ltd. CMS International Development and Management Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of CMS, had obtained an exclusive license for the drug from Zydus in 2020. Desidustat tablets are administered orally for treating anaemia in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) patients. CKD involves the gradual loss of kidney function and eventually leads to kidney failure. "We are encouraged by the NMPA's approval for marketing the drug in China. Our life-changing discoveries are driven by a commitment to improving patient outcomes and enabling healthier, more fulfilled lives, globally," Zydus Lifesciences MD Sharvil P Patel said in a statement. The company is happy to partner with CMS and is confident that th