World briefs

VIETNAM-JAPAN Japan will provide Vietnam new patrol vessels, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday on the last stop of his four-nation tour to boost his country’s trade and security engagements in Asia amid China’s rising dominance. Vietnam already has six used patrol vessels provided by Japan and how many were in the fresh offer wasn’t mentioned. The two leaders also called for the upholding of international law in resolving disputes in the South China Sea.

PHILIPPINES A low-key diplomatic protest against China was filed by the Philippines after a U.S. think tank reported that Beijing appears to have installed anti-aircraft and anti-missile weapons on its man-made islands in the strategically vital South China Sea.

CAMBODIA has informed the United States that it is canceling an annual joint military exercise this year, even though planning for the event had already begun, officials from both countries said yesterday. Some analysts have tied the cancellation to China’s influence in the region, which they believe will be exercised more vigorously after Donald Trump becomes U.S. president. 

KYRGYSTAN A cargo plane crashed in a residential area just outside the main airport in Kyrgyzstan, killing at least 37 people on the ground and in the plane, the Emergency Situations Ministry said. 

IRAN The chief of the U.N. atomic agency says Iran has complied with a key commitment of its nuclear deal with six world powers by removing sensitive equipment from a strategic underground site.

OMAN said yesterday it accepted 10 detainees from the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay ahead of President Barack Obama leaving office, part of his efforts to shrink the facility he promised to close. Oman’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it had accepted the prisoners at Obama’s request. 

POLAND-GERMANY The powerful leader of Poland’s ruling party says he will tell German Chancellor Angela Merkel when she visits the country next month that she has some responsibility for what he sees as the German media’s critical and harmful opinion of Poland.

BRITAIN After months of repeating the mantra that “Brexit means Brexit,” Prime Minister Theresa May is set to reveal details of Britain’s closely guarded plans for leaving the European Union in a speech later today. The currency hit a three-month low yesterday, a day before her address, on worries May will signal an economy-roiling clean break, known as “hard Brexit.”