Brunei

Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah celebrated 50 years in power in the oil-rich country of Southeast Asia, France press reported.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is to sign a free-trade agreement with Hong Kong in November, a Philippine government official said on Sept. 9, following three years of talks.

The Chinese special administrative region began free-trade negotiations with ASEAN in 2014, four years after the 10-nation economic bloc signed a similar trade deal with China in 2010.

Turkey has become a sectorial dialogue partner for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Aug. 6.

"Turkey has officially become the sectorial dialogue partner of ASEAN," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in the Philippine capital Manila, where he attended the organization's 50th Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Turkish banking sector is regulated and monitored more favorable than emerging economies, but it is still reliant on short-term external debt, according to global rating agency Standard and Poor's.        

China and other nations must strengthen efforts to curb North Korea's nuclear weapons program, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said yesterday, while also calling out Beijing over its South China Sea activities.

China yesterday sidestepped claims by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that it had threatened to go to war over the disputed South China Sea.

Duterte, who met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing last week, said May 19 that the leaders had raised conflict as an option to resolving their competing claims to the waters.  

Controversial Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on May 16 that he would push for the inclusion of Turkey and Mongolia in a grouping of Southeast Asian nations, dismissing concerns about their geographic location.

The 2017 World Press Freedom Index prepared annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) saw Turkey decline by four points compared to last year due to an "unprecedented purge" under the state of emergency declared after the July 2016 coup attempt. 

the restrictions on religion and social hostilities involving religion increased in 2015 for the first time in three years, according to Pew Research Center's latest annual study on global restrictions on religion. According to Pew, Turkey is among the countries where restrictions on religion are "very high." 

The European Parliament has voted to end visa-free travel for Americans within the EU.

It comes after the US failed to agree visa-free travel for citizens of five EU countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania – as part of a reciprocity agreement. US citizens can normally travel to all countries in the bloc without a visa.