Sept. 16 – China, seemingly forgetting its policy of non-interference in other states’ affairs, has begun a public dialogue with India objecting to an agreement signed between India’s state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh Limited and Vietnam’s Petro Vietnam for oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea.
Petro Vietnam has entered into a joint venture with India’s ONGC to develop Blocks 127 and 128 after ONGC bought BP’s assets in the project in 2006. However, China is claiming all of the South China Sea as its “indisputable sovereignty,” a position that would take China’s territory right up to the Vietnamese coastline. Continue reading
Aug. 23 – The launching ceremony for a new shipping and trucking route linking northeast China’s Hunchun City in Jilin Province and Japan’s Niigata via the Russian port of Zarubino was held at Niigata harbor on August 18.
Jul. 28 – The boom in India’s electronic commerce market, together with the recent relaxation in investment regulations for foreign retailers, has tempted the world’s largest retailer Amazon to enter the populous market. Currently in the process of staff recruitment and partnership negotiations, the Seattle-based company may start operations in India as early as the first quarter of next year, says a report by the Times of India (ToI).
By Lena Xia
Jun. 17 – 2point6billion.com has unconfirmed reports from Mongolia’s South Gobi region, home to much of the nation’s mining industry, that hundreds of Chinese truck drivers have been turned back to the China border.
Jun. 9 – Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj has been in Russia recently meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. One of the key issues at stake is the development of an additional 6,000 kilometers of rail track, a requirement that has been put out to tender but is increasingly looking at going to Russia.