The Biden administration will pledge US$4 billion to a vaccination program for poorer countries at a global economic summit on Friday in hopes that other countries will follow suit and contribute additional funds, US officials said on a Thursday press call. 

Defense ministers from members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) concluded their two-day meeting in Brussels on Thursday with no consensus reached on whether or when to pull out of Afghanistan. 

NDO – Japan’s Cabinet Office recently reported that the real gross domestic product (GDP) of the country in Q4 2020 increased by 12.7% over the same period in 2019. Such an economic growth rate, together with positive signals from exports and the stock market, indicate that the world’s third largest economy is now on the path towards successfully overcoming the “COVID-19 storm”. 

NDO – Iran has urged the new administration in the US to seize the opportunity to adopt new approaches to bilateral issues. However, the tough statement by US President Joe Biden demanding that Teheran strictly adhere to the 2015 nuclear deal has made the distance between the two sides become even more difficult to narrow. 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday proposed that the Group of 20 (G20) set up an emergency task force to prepare a "Global Vaccination Plan" against COVID-19. 

NDO - Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung, head of Vietnam’s ASEAN Senior Officials’ Meeting (SOM) delegation, has written an article summarising the process of building ASEAN centrality, highlighting the efforts made by Vietnam in its ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2020. Nhan Dan Newspaper introduces the full text of the article. 

Modeling data suggest that B.1.1.7 could become the predominant variant in the United States in March, according to a study released by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Wednesday. 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday that his government imported over 85 percent of oil and 53 percent of gas to meet domestic demand in the 2019-2020 (April 2019-March 2020) fiscal year. 

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen has signed a sub-decree on establishing the National Internet Gateway (NIG) with the aim of facilitating and managing online traffic. 

Spain hopes the introduction of vaccination passports combined with pre-travel COVID-19 testing will allow British tourists to return to Spanish destinations this summer, a tourism ministry source told Reuters on Tuesday. 

A five-day snap lockdown in Australia's Victoria state will end on Wednesday, officials said as they reported no new cases in a cluster linked to a quarantine hotel in the city of Melbourne. 

NDO/VNA – Head of Vietnam's delegation to the United Nations Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy shared the country’s development experience via promoting digital technology at the 59th session of the UN Commission for Social Development that is underway virtually from February 8-17. 

Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Monday agreed by consensus to appoint Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former finance minister of Nigeria, as the next director-general, said the WTO in a press release. The decision was made at a special meeting of the WTO's General Council at which the World Bank veteran was formally selected. 

NDO/VNA - Vietnamese Ambassador Tran Duc Binh took office as Deputy Secretary-General of ASEAN for Community and Corporate Affairs at a ceremony in Jakarta on February 15.