ASEAN will not recognise the outcome of the elections in Myanmar
Today's news: record number of tourists in Japan in 2025 despite tensions with Beijing. Seoul, civilian-piloted drones to North Korea fuel tensions with Pyongyang. Indian soldier killed in anti-terrorism operation in Jammu and Kashmir. Hamas ready to “transfer all powers” to technocratic committee managing the Gaza Strip, China also invited to join the Board of Peace.
ASEAN - MYANMAR
ASEAN, composed of 11 members, will not send observers to the three-stage elections currently underway in Myanmar and therefore will not endorse the vote, the Malaysian Foreign Minister said. Myanmar has been ravaged by conflict since the military staged a coup against the civilian government in 2021. The elections, which began in December 2025, have been criticised by the United Nations, many Western countries and human rights groups.
JAPAN
In 2025, Japan recorded a record number of tourists, despite a sharp drop in Chinese visitors in December due to diplomatic tensions.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the country recorded 42.7 million tourist arrivals in 2025, surpassing the 2024 record of nearly 37 million, thanks to the fact that the weak yen increased its attractiveness. Tourists from China last month fell by 45% compared to the previous year, standing at around 330,000.
SOUTH KOREA - NORTH KOREA
President Lee Jae Myung has declared a flaw in his country's monitoring system for detecting civilian-piloted drones flying into North Korea. Earlier this month, Pyongyang claimed that a drone from South Korea had recently entered its airspace, taking photographs of debris and producing aerial images of buildings. Lee warns that such incidents risk fuelling tensions and that the action is ‘equivalent to declaring war’.
INDIA
A special forces soldier who was wounded in a clash in the Kishtwar district of Jammu and Kashmir state has died from his injuries. The Jammu-based White Knight Corps said the soldier, identified as Havildar Gajendra Singh, died after sustaining serious injuries on Sunday during a clash with a group of suspected militants from the Islamist terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammad. Seven people were injured.
GAZA
Hamas has declared itself ready to transfer power to a technocratic committee tasked with managing the Palestinian enclave. On Saturday, Ali Shaath, the Palestinian head of the Committee, signed the body's mandate, outlining its working principles and areas of responsibility. The day before, the White House announced the formation of the Board of Peace and approved the composition of the Committee as part of the four bodies designated to manage the post-war transition phase in the enclave. Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry has announced that Beijing has also received an invitation to join the controversial Board of Peace chaired by Trump.
RUSSIA
In Moscow, unknown individuals smashed the memorial plaque to journalist Anna Politkovskaya, which had been affixed to the wall of her home in Lesnaya Street, where she was killed on 7 October 2006. Her children and colleagues at Novaya Gazeta intend to file a complaint with the police against persons unknown, while activists have installed a new temporary plaque commemorating the first journalist murdered in Putin's Russia.
UZBEKISTAN
The President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has stated that the entire Uzbek society is dissatisfied with the continuing violations of the rights of migrant workers abroad, calling on the Foreign Ministry and ambassadors “to abandon office diplomacy and simple notes of protest”
and to offer “qualified legal assistance” and visit construction sites, workplaces and places of study of their compatriots to better understand their problems and help resolve them.
.png)
