A senior Taiwanese defence official said on Monday that the island’s military is well prepared in the event of any attack from Beijing during the Covid-19 outbreak. “At the height of outbreak of the pandemic worldwide, if the Chinese Communists attempted to make any military adventure leading to regional conflict, they would be condemned by the world, and regardless of what would happen, we are all ready and have made the best preparation for this,” said Taiwan’s vice defence minister Chang Guan-chung. Source South China Morning Post
OPEC+ headed for a clash with the U.S. as more members rejected President Joe Biden’s call for the group to raise oil production faster and help reduce gasoline prices. On Monday, Kuwait said the cartel should stick with its plan to increase output gradually because oil markets were well-balanced. That followed similar statements from other key members in recent days, including Iraq, Algeria, Angola and Nigeria. Source Al Jazeera
“If a state buys (weaponry) from us, it’s no longer a Turkish product. It might be manufactured in Turkey, but it belongs to Ukraine,” Cavusoglu told reporters after meeting his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, on the margins of the G20 summit in Rome. “Turkey cannot be blamed for this,” he said. Source The Defence Post
Bulgaria has sent 350 additional military personnel to its border with Turkey amid rising migration levels. Defense Minister Georgi Panayotov told Bulgarian media that the troops were arriving to “support the border police”. Source EuroNews
