Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will hold face-to-face talks on trade, Iran and China with Joe Biden’s secretary of state ahead of discussions between G7 foreign ministers in the UK.
Antony Blinken will be in London for talks on Monday as the US and Britain forge a fresh relationship following the departure of Donald Trump from the White House.
The withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and a post-Brexit trade deal are likely to feature, as is Iran, where the nuclear deal is a key issue and so too are citizens being detained there, including Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
The first in-person meeting of G7 foreign ministers will then begin on Tuesday, with allies including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the EU attending.
India s COVID-19 daily cases stay near record, another state imposes lockdown
By Aftab Ahmed
Reuters
NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India s new coronavirus cases dipped marginally on Sunday but deaths from COVID-19 jumped by a record 3,689, with one more state going into lockdown as the nation s creaky healthcare system is unable to cope with the massive caseload.
Authorities reported 392,488 new cases in the previous 24 hours, pushing total cases to 19.56 million. So far, the virus has killed 215,542 people. India reported a record 401,993 new coronavirus cases on Saturday.
Indian hospitals, morgues and crematoriums have been overwhelmed as the country has reported more than 300,000 daily cases for more than 10 days straight. Many families have been left on their own to scramble for medicines and oxygen. Dozens of people have died in the last week due to shortage of oxygen in hospitals in Delhi alone.
UK officials have downplayed the prospect of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s imminent release from Iran after state TV suggested Britain would pay a £400 million debt to secure her release.
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of the British-Iranian charity worker, said the family had not been updated but welcomed the signals from Tehran over the long-running dispute as “a good sign”.
The Foreign Office said “legal discussions are ongoing” over the debt despite the claim made on Iranian state TV, which cited an anonymous official.
It was said that the UK Government’s position had not changed over the weekend and that Iran had made the claim before without the mother of one being released.
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