The United Nations Security Council urged China, the United States, North Korea, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel and Pakistan to ratify a treaty banning nuclear explosions, which would allow the deal negotiated 20 years ago to come into force.

• September 24, 2016

The United States said it made a little progress on halting the violence in the Syrian war in talks with Russia on Friday as Moscow blasted Washington for throwing its weight around the world.

• September 23, 2016

Loosening the European Union's economic sanctions on Russia would wreck the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine, because the measures are the West's only leverage over Moscow, Kiev's deputy foreign minister said on Friday.

• September 23, 2016

Former Cold War-era rivals Pakistan and Russia are due to hold their first ever military exercise this month, Pakistan's military said on Friday, in another sign of shifting alliances in South Asia.

• September 23, 2016

China and the United States will keep developing positive relations no matter who wins November's U.S. presidential election, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told an economic forum in New York on Tuesday.

• September 21, 2016

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said on Wednesday as he headed to trade talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he favored lifting EU sanctions on Moscow but that would require progress on peace in Ukraine.

• September 21, 2016

Products for sale in the Crimean stores of two European retailers are being shipped there from Russia via a ferry and port that are subject to EU sanctions, people involved in the transportation said, suggesting companies are finding ways around the punitive economic regime facing Moscow since 2014.

• September 21, 2016

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that neither Russian nor Syrian war planes had struck a humanitarian convoy near Aleppo the previous day, saying the convoy's whereabouts had only been known to militants on the ground.

• September 20, 2016