President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia could scale up its military presence in Syria again within hours and would still bomb terrorist groups there despite a partial draw-down of forces ordered after military successes.

• March 17, 2016

China expressed its opposition on Thursday to unilateral sanctions against North Korea saying they could raise tension, after the United States imposed new curbs on the isolated country in retaliation for its nuclear and rocket tests.

• March 17, 2016

Russia's withdrawal of forces from Syria was no surprise to Damascus, Bashar Ja'afari, head of the Syrian government delegation at peace talks in Geneva, said on Wednesday.

• March 16, 2016

Indian state companies signed energy deals worth billions of dollars with Russia's Rosneft on Wednesday to buy into its most promising assets in Siberia, stepping up a drive to cut New Delhi's dependence on imports.

• March 16, 2016

Russian warplanes flew home from Syria on Tuesday as Moscow started to withdraw forces that have tipped the war President Bashar al-Assad's way, and the U.N. envoy said he hoped the move would help peace talks in Geneva.

• March 15, 2016

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Russia next week for what he described as possibly the best opportunity in years to end the civil war in Syria after Moscow's announcement of a partial withdrawal of its forces from the country.

• March 15, 2016

The United States on Monday vowed to continue pushing for United Nations Security Council action on Iran's recent ballistic missile tests and accused Russia of looking for reasons not to respond to Iranian violations of a U.N. resolution.

• March 14, 2016

A meeting between oil producers to discuss a global pact on freezing production is unlikely to take place in Russia on March 20, sources familiar with the matter say, as OPEC member Iran is yet to say whether it would participate in such a deal.

• March 10, 2016