President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo pitched his ambitious Nusantara capital city project to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at their annual retreat on Thursday, generating interest but little else.

The agreement was among several memorandums of understanding signed by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and visiting President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, including Singapore sharing knowledge that could support the development of Indonesia's new capital Nusantara.

China and ASEAN risk jeopardizing negotiations for a Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea, analysts have warned, after the latest round of talks offered little progress, with Indonesia citing “ongoing disagreements”.

The Cabinet Secretariat says the President is expected to discuss investments to finance the nation's new capital during the annual bilateral retreat on Thuesday.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that President Jokowi and Prime Minister Lee would discuss a variety of issues from the digital economy to health and renewable energy.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday defended the country's A$368 billion ($244.06 billion) plan to acquire nuclear submarines, after two former leaders criticised the deal over its cost, complexity and potential sovereignty issues.

The Biden administration has demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners divest their stakes in the popular video app or face a possible U.S. ban, the company told Reuters on Wednesday.

As South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol landed in Tokyo on Thursday his plan to patch up relations with Japan faces lingering scepticism at home.

Kant's comments follow two back-to-back G20 ministerial meetings in India in the last three weeks overshadowed by the war, which entered its second year last month.

BrahMos, a joint venture between India and Russia, clinched its first foreign deal last year with a $375 million sale of shore-based anti-ship missiles to the Philippines - part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious push to triple defence exports.

Indonesia is calling on Australia to fulfill its nuclear nonproliferation duties under international law, following an update on a trilateral defense pact that equips its neighbor with up to five nuclear-powered submarines by the 2050s.

But experts say it will mean a decades-long and "devilishly tricky" quest. Here are some key challenges Canberra faces as it tries to transform its military and get the boats in the water:

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Wednesday that cooperation with Japan is vital in confronting North Korea's growing threats and protecting global supply chains, calling on both countries to not snarl relations in domestic politics.

"The Anglo-Saxon world, with the creation of structures like AUKUS and with the advancement of NATO military infrastructures into Asia, is making a serious bet on many years of confrontation" in the region, Lavrov said in televised comments.

The reappointment of Xi Jinping as Chinese president has garnered praise from the country’s international beneficiaries, not least from Indonesia, which analysts believe would stand to gain from the strongman’s continued reign over China.

This year's "Balikatan" or 'shoulder-to-shoulder' drills also come against the backdrop of what the Philippines calls "aggressive" Chinese actions in the South China Sea.

The announcement came Monday at an event at a San Diego, California, naval base where President Joe Biden hosted Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

China said it will start re-issuing all categories of visas to foreigners from Wednesday, dropping the final cross-border control measure it imposed three years ago to guard against the spread of COVID-19.

Australia's nuclear-powered submarine program with the United States and Britain will cost up to A$368 billion ($245 billion) over the next three decades, a defense official said on Tuesday, the country's biggest single defense item in history.

North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast on Tuesday, South Korea's military said, the latest of several weapons tests as the South and the United States conduct their largest joint military drills in years.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo congratulated his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Saturday for securing a third term as president, adding that Jakarta remained eager to cooperate with Beijing.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment and the Kremlin declined to comment.

If war were to break out today in the Indo-Pacific, experts believe ASEAN and its member states would be ill-equipped to respond.

Chinese President Xi Jinping on Saturday nominated Li Qiang, 63, to become premier during the ongoing annual meeting of China's rubber-stamp parliament, a role charged with managing the world's second-largest economy.

"Dear friend, please accept sincere congratulations on the occasion of your reelection," Putin said in a statement released by the Kremlin.

The appointment by China's rubber-stamp parliament comes after Xi locked in another five years as head of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in October.

In early February, four members of an anti-junta group in the Myanmar city of Mandalay said they received a secret, one-page, handwritten note spirited out of a prison that details two days of clashes and beatings of female political prisoners.