* Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on Monday, saying regional security remains a relevant issue in relations between the two countries.
* US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met leaders in Central Asia on Tuesday as Washington pursued deeper engagement with the region's former Soviet republics in the wake of Russia's “special military operation” Ukraine a year ago.
* Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Tuesday said Hungary intends to send a parliamentary delegation to Finland on or around March 9 to discuss the Nordic nation's pending NATO membership.
* The United Kingdom (UK) and the European Union (EU) concluded on Monday a new post-Brexit trade arrangement for Northern Ireland. The agreement -- dubbed the "Windsor Framework" -- was struck over the Northern Ireland Protocol, aiming to ease the trading issues created by the Protocol.
* Iran said Tuesday the visit of senior Arab lawmakers to quake-ravaged Syria is a step toward greater "solidarity" in the region.
* Argentina on Monday reopened its embassy in Bangladesh capital Dhaka.
* Iran's armed forces on Tuesday started a large-scale real-combat air defense maneuver in the country to show their preparedness of defending the country's sensitive targets, Iranian media reported.
* The death toll from Sunday's sinking of a migrant ship approaching the Italian shore rose to 64 on Monday, including 14 children, local media reported. Local authorities said that at least 80 people have been rescued after the overloaded vessel crashed against rocks early in the morning near the Calabrian coastal town of Crotone.
* Economic growth returns to the Pacific region, said a World Bank economist for the Pacific on Tuesday.
* The US trade deficit in goods increased moderately in January, with both imports and exports rising solidly, government data showed on Tuesday.
* India's economic growth slowed further in the December quarter as pent up demand eased and weakness in the manufacturing sector continued.
* Fitch Solutions, the global ratings company, on Tuesday lowered Malaysia's 2023 budget deficit forecast as a share of gross domestic product (GDP) to 4.9 percent, from 5.3 percent previously, which is somewhat aligned with the Malaysian government's fiscal projections.
* Thailand's rice export volume surged 75.2 percent in January from a year earlier to 805,519 tonnes, boosted by a weak Thai baht and year-end orders, the Ministry of Commerce said on Monday.
* Türkiye's economy grew by 5.6 percent in 2022, with domestic consumption propping up the better-than-expected performance, according to official statistics released Tuesday.
* Russia's Gazprom GAZP.MM said it will ship 42.3 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Tuesday.
* Turkey's economy expanded 5.6% in 2022, official data showed on Tuesday but growth was expected to slow significantly to 2.8% in 2023 after earthquakes this month caused widespread destruction in the south of the country.
* Sweden's gross domestic product (GDP) decreased by 0.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022 compared with the third quarter, according to figures released Tuesday by Statistics Sweden.
* The European Union on Tuesday extended a 610 million euro (647.15 million USD) grant to Serbia for the construction of a fast railway line that will connect southern Serbia with central Europe.
* The number of babies born in Japan in 2022 slipped to a record low, falling under 800,000 for the first time since records began in 1899, the health ministry said Tuesday.
* Nearly 42,000 Syrian refugees in Türkiye have voluntarily returned to their homeland following the massive earthquakes that caused tremendous destruction in the region, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday.
* Brazil on Monday began to apply a bivalent vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), starting with vulnerable groups including people over 70 years of age, the Health Ministry said.
* The Malawian government is rolling out an integrated nationwide cholera and COVID-19 campaign in an effort to fight and prevent the spread of cholera as well as to allow the population to access the COVID-19 vaccine.
* The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has warned of the impacts of the drought in the Horn of Africa region.
* The United Nations Refugee Agency UNHCR on Tuesday appealed for 137 million USD to help 3.3 million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the Horn of Africa due to the forecast sixth failed rainy season which lasts between March and May.
* India is likely to experience heat waves between March and May, especially in the key wheat producing central and northern states, the weather office said on Tuesday, as the country recorded its highest ever maximum temperature in February.
* All domestic and international flights for Tuesday and Wednesday have been cancelled in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu, which is now being hit by category-two tropical cyclone Judy.
