Following the visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Japan in December last year, Moscow and Tokyo agreed to start joint economic activities on the islands. Putin will meet Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Vladivostok in September to continue the discussions. The countries plan to develop fishing, tourism, healthcare and ecology in the region.

Russia is looking for Japanese investment in the Far East, while Japan hopes to recover the territories lost after WWII. However, Russia has repeatedly rebuffed Japanese claims.

The Kuril Islands stretch between the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaido and Russia’s Kamchatka.

The entire archipelago is currently administered by Russia, which received them after WWII under the 1945 Potsdam Declaration.

Japan claims sovereignty over the two southernmost large islands of Iturup and Kunashir, as well as the Shikotan and Habomai islets, citing their history as Japan’s northern territories. Russia and Japan did not sign a peace treaty after WWII over the issue.

Moscow claims sovereignty over the islands based on the post-war agreement signed by the Allies in 1945. The pact stipulated the South Kurils became part of the USSR following the war which Japan lost. According to the Kremlin, as the rightful successor of the Soviet Union, Russia's sovereignty over the territories is recognized internationally and not in doubt.

During the meeting, Ambassador Mansoori noted that the two countries are marking the 15th anniversary of the establishment of relations between the two countries this year. Qatar is seriously focusing on investing in Mongolia. Mr Mansoori confirmed that Qatar is planning to open Embassy in Mongolia.

Because of the this decision, the routes of seven buses will be changed from 15th of August.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies may have boosted oil prices by cutting production, but they’re losing revenue in the process and their position “is not sustainable over a long period,” Citigroup’s Ed Morse said in a Bloomberg television interview on Tuesday. On the other hand, U.S. shale drillers have adapted to survive prices as low as $40, he said.

“In the end, the markets are going to win, and it’s going to be shale,” Morse said. “If we’re in a $40 to $45 world, we’ll have enough drilling to add to the surplus in the world as a whole.”

Oil prices have lost 12 percent in London this year, trading near $50 a barrel, as output curbs by OPEC, Russia and other partners fail to drain a global surplus. U.S. shale explorers have boosted drilling and are poised to reach a record output next month, plugging some of the gap left by OPEC’s cutbacks.

The steadiness of crude prices on the forward curve at about $50 a barrel suggests that U.S. oil producers are active in using futures contracts to lock in -- or “hedge” -- their output for this year and next, according to Morse.

Despite some weaker guidance from operators, the oil-rich Permian Basin “is going to grow at a hefty rate this year, and probably the same rate next year,” he said.

Wong told the Singapore Regional Business Forum that Singapore and China have agreed to carry on cooperation in three areas for the building of the Belt and Road - infrastructure connectivity, financing of Belt and Road projects, and cooperation of companies of the two sides for doing projects in third countries.

He said the infrastructure connectivity is being operationalized through the China-Singapore (Chongqing) Connectivity Initiative (CCI).

Both sides are now working to jointly develop the CCI Southern Transport Corridor that will link western China to Southeast Asia through Chongqing, a municipality in western China and Singapore, and connect the overland Silk Road Economic Belt with the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

The corridor is expected to offer a shorter and more direct trade route between western China and Southeast Asia, and will lower logistics costs, enhance cross-border trade flows, and catalyze the economic development of both regions, in particular the provinces along the corridor, said the minister.

He said Chongqing and Singapore can be the two hubs in Asia, linking up the Belt and Road, and enlarging the possibilities for connectivity across western China and Southeast Asia.

Speaking of the financing of Belt and Road projects, Wong said there are large infrastructure gaps in Asia, and Singapore, as a major center for the financing of infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, can play a role in it.

He said 60 percent of projects in Southeast Asia enjoy project finance and advisory services from Singapore-based banks, and Chinese banks in Singapore are also expanding their presence and doing more to finance Belt and Road projects.

"Beyond financing, we are home to a full suite of high-quality professional services that are necessary to bring infrastructure projects into being, including project advisory, dispute resolution, and legal services," he added.

Wong said Singapore also wants to encourage Singaporean and Chinese companies to forge partnerships and do projects together in third countries, as well as work together on human resource development in countries along the Belt and Road.

He said Singaporean companies are natural partners for Chinese companies in expanding to the region, as Singaporean companies have good market knowledge of Southeast Asia and can do engineering design and master-planning, project management, financing, logistics and servicing.

Russia hopes to further strengthen military and military-technical cooperation with Mongolia, said the Russian defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at the meeting with Mongolian counterpart Padmanabhapuram bat-Erdene.

“Mongolia regularly participates in the Military games, and it certainly contributes to further strengthening of friendly and good-neighborly relations between our military. And it can not but rejoice,” — said Shoigu.

The Minister recalled the adoption of a programme of long-term cooperation between the two countries in military and military-technical spheres, as well as the continued implementation of previous plans.

“This programme of preparation and training of Mongolian specialists in our schools. This program of joint exercises and, of course, programs of military— tehnicheskogo cooperation,” Shoigu listed. He noted that the intensity of interaction between Moscow and Ulan Bator is the fact that the heads of departments meet for the second time in two months.

The Mongolian Minister expressed gratitude for the invitation of the military of the Asian country at the international Military games. “Our government attaches great importance to the relations with Russia, and pursuing a consistent development policy established with Russia strategic partnership” , — said bat-Erdene.

International military games that started on July 29, ends August 12. In total in competitions on the territory of the five countries involved teams from 28 States.

The Canada Fund has been operating since 1997 in Mongolia, contributing significantly to the development of Mongolia’s economy, culture and society for the past 20 years. During this time, the Canada Fund has provided grants in over 240 soums of 21 aimags through over 400 projects worth CAD 6 million.

From over 750 project proposals sent to the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives for 2017-2018, 13 projects in Ulaanbaatar, Bulgan and Uvurkhangai has been selected to be granted CAD 175 thousand. The selected projects include projects, such as installment of medical equipments in the HIV/AIDS/STI diagnostic center of National Center for Communicable Diseases, “Opportunities of Hiring Intellectually Disabled People for Personal Assistance” project implementing by “Tugeemel Hugjil” /Universal Development/.

The CFLI program has been implemented in over a hundred developing countries to empower gender equality; to promote human development, specifically in the areas of health, nutrition and education; to champion human rights, inclusive and accountable governance, democracy, peaceful pluralism, and respect for diversity; to support inclusive and green economic growth; to promote action on the environment, including water and climate change; to promote peace and security.
B.Tugsbilig

The country's gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 5.3 percent from a year earlier, to 12.8 trillion tugrik ($5.26 billion), the National Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

In the first quarter, Mongolia reported 4.2 percent annual growth. For all of 2016, the economy expanded only 1 percent, the slowest pace in seven years.

The northeast Asian country's economy has improved since an agreement in May for a $5.5 billion economic rescue package from the IMF and partners helped prevent defaults on sovereign loans and bolstered the flagging currency.

The coal industry in Mongolia has also seen a boon from a Chinese ban on coal from North Korea and curbs on deliveries into smaller ports.

Coal exports grew more than four times from January through July compared with the same period last year, to $1.4 billion. Mongolia sold 97 percent of its coal to China, with the remainder going to Russia and the United Kingdom.

Copper exports in the first seven months this year fell by 14.3 percent to $888.75 million, the statistics office reported.

Mongolian President Khaltmaa Battulga, who was sworn in July, on Monday met with a council of business leaders to discuss how he plans to run the country alongside a parliament and cabinet run by an opposing political party.

"The business environment should be expanded, and I will work in collaboration with the government on this," said Battulga, according to a summary of the event from the Business Council of Mongolia (BCM) on Tuesday.

$1 = 2,433 tugrik Reporting by Terrence Edwards; Editing by John Ruwitch and Richard Borsuk