The summit, to be held in Brussels on Dec. 14 but yet to be publicly announced, is seen as a sign of "increasingly close relations in the current geopolitical context", one EU official said.

North Korea's state media released a statement from the ministry after formally recognising two Russian-backed breakaway self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine as independent states. 

The formal declaration makes Gotabaya Rajapaksa -- once known as 'The Terminator' for his ruthless crushing of Tamil rebels -- the first Sri Lankan head of state to resign since it adopted an executive presidency in 1978.

The two-day meeting takes place in Bali under the shadow of war a week after the forum's foreign ministers rounded on Moscow's top diplomat, prompting him to walk out of the talks.

"Our greatest challenge today comes from Russia," she told a news conference ahead of a meeting between finance ministers from the world's top economies and central bank governors on Friday and Saturday.

Earlier Thursday, Sri Lanka's anti-government demonstrators were in talks to hand back official buildings they seized, protest representatives said, even as they insisted the president and prime minister both quit in the face of an economic crisis.

The Tokyo metropolitan government reported 16,878 coronavirus cases, surpassing the 10,000 mark for a second straight day and more than doubling from the level a week earlier. Osaka Prefecture also logged 10,452 cases, topping 10,000 for the first time since Feb. 26.

The Solomons leader is attending the Pacific Islands Forum summit, the first gathering of the bloc since his country signed a security agreement with China -- details of which have not been made public.

The current chair of the G20 also called on the forum's foreign ministers — who are scheduled to meet later this week in Bali — to work out a solution that could help ease access to food for millions who are currently facing a shortage of grain and cereals because of the war in Ukraine.

The United States regularly carries out what it calls Freedom of Navigation Operations in the South China Sea challenging what it says are restrictions on innocent passage imposed by China and other claimants.

The freeze is the latest blow for Malaysia - the world's second-largest palm oil producer and a key link in the global supply chain - which is facing a shortage of some 1.2 million workers that could derail its economic recovery. 

US Vice President Kamala Harris, in a video address to the Pacific Islands Forum in Suva on Wednesday, said US funding for Pacific islands would be tripled to $60 million a year for a decade, subject to approval by Congress.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had promised at the weekend to resign on Wednesday and clear the way for a "peaceful transition of power" after fleeing his official residence in Colombo just before tens of thousands of protesters overran it.

A Foreign Ministry official said President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo was planning to visit China, Japan and South Korea later this month but that the exact dates had yet to be determined.

This year's Pacific Islands Forum is the region's most important meeting in years, coming after a COVID-enforced hiatus and as low-lying tropical isles run out of time for climate action.

It was not immediately clear where Rajapaksa, who also holds US citizenship, was trying to go. He resigned as finance minister in early April as street protests surged against shortages of fuel, food and other necessities, and quit his seat in parliament in June.

The news came only days after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowing to keep pressure on Myanmar's junta, and saying China should be in agreement as he met democracy activists on a visit to neighbouring Thailand.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the presidential palace in Colombo under naval protection on Saturday, shortly before tens of thousands of protesters overran the compound.

Earlier Monday, Kishida pledged to push forward efforts toward swiftly proposing the controversial revision of the nation's US-drafted Constitution including the war-renouncing article, while China has claimed the move would lead to Japan's remilitarization.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who had overseen a ruthless crushing of the Tamil Tigers insurgents as defence secretary, is set to resign on Wednesday. His brothers and nephew earlier quit as ministers as Sri Lanka began running out of fuel, food and other essentials in the worst crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.

In a policy speech delivered at the ASEAN secretariat in Central Jakarta, the first public appearance for the senior Chinese diplomat following his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Wang said China was waiting on a response from the US on his proposal for the establishment of rules for positive interactions and the upholding of regionalism in the Asia-Pacific.  

However, when asked at a news conference in Thailand if Biden and Xi might hold a first face-to-face meeting as leaders on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali in November,Blinken said he could not say what might happen then. 

His Liberal Democratic Party, together with other pro-constitutional amendment forces, retained the two-thirds majority in the House of Councillors needed to propose an amendment to the supreme law.

Protesters discovered 17.85 million rupees (about $50,000) in crisp new banknotes but turned it over to police following Saturday's storming of the Presidential palace.

Speaking at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) secretariat in Jakarta, Wang said that many countries in the region were under pressure to take sides in a region at risk of being "reshaped by political factors".

That overall population milestone "is a reminder of our shared responsibility to care for our planet and a moment to reflect on where we still fall short of our commitments to one another," Secretary General Antonio Guterres said, without citing specifics.

Abe, Japan's longest-serving modern leader, was gunned down on Friday during a campaign speech in the western city of Nara in a killing that stunned a country where political violence and gun crime are rare.

"The president has to resign, the prime minister has to resign and the government has to go," said playwright Ruwanthie de Chickera at a news conference at the protest site, flanked by other leaders helping coordinate the movement against the government, Reuters reported Sunday.

"It is incumbent on China and in China's interest to see Burma move back to the path it was on," Blinken said, using the country's former name. 

Indonesia has received kudos for maintaining the relevance of the G20 forum as the Russian invasion of Ukraine — which  has driven global inflation and triggered a potentially disastrous food crisis — polarized the world’s largest economies.