Francesco Guarascio News

A Chinese research ship and five escort vessels were in Vietnam's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on Friday, close to gas blocks operated by Russian firms in the South China Sea, a day after Vietnam urged the ships to leave.The Chinese vessel Xiang Yang Hong 10 began operating in Vietnam's EEZ on May 7, representing the most significant incursion since 2019, according to Ray Powell, who leads Stanford University's Project Myoushu on the South China Sea.He said China's conduct and Vietnam's reaction were a "worrying escalation."China claims most of the energy-rich waters of the South China Sea, including areas that are within Vietnam's EEZ. The 2019 standoff lasted for more than three months and largely targeted a block then operated by Russian state oil firm Rosneft ROSN.MM.

A Chinese research vessel flanked by coast guard and nearly a dozen boats on Wednesday entered a gas block operated by Russian and Vietnamese state firms, two monitoring groups said, another potential flashpoint in the South China Sea.It follows a pattern of assertive moves of late by Beijing in its neighbors' exclusive economic zones (EEZ), as it presses its claim to sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea, testing the United States and its allies at a time of heightened regional tension.Strong relations between Russia and China are a major factor supporting global stability…

The European Commission has proposed to ban in a month's time all shipping, brokerage, insurance and financing services offered by EU companies for the transport of Russian oil worldwide, an EU source told Reuters on Wednesday.The measure is part of a proposed embargo on Russian oil that is meant to cripple Russia's oil industry. Read full storyProvided the proposal gets the approval of EU governments, all insurance, finance, and shipping services for Russian oil transport would be banned in a month's time…

The European Union's foreign ministers disagreed on Monday on whether and how to slap sanctions on Russia's lucrative energy sector over its invasion of Ukraine, with Germany saying the bloc was too dependent on Russian oil to decide an embargo.The EU and allies have already imposed hefty measures against Russia, including freezing its central bank's assets.Russia's siege and bombardment of Mariupol port, which EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called "a massive war crime"…

The European Union will launch a new Mediterranean naval and air mission in April to stop more arms reach warring factions in Libya, EU diplomats said on Thursday, with Greece agreeing to take in any migrants rescued at sea.The decision, which was delayed by divisions over migrants, followed warnings by EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell that the bloc risked becoming irrelevant if it could not act, potentially leaving Libya's fate to Turkey and Russia."Greece has allowed disembarkation (of rescued migrants) in its ports…

EU antitrust regulators launched on Wednesday a full-scale investigation into Italian shipyard Fincantieri's bid for France's Chantiers de l'Atlantique, saying the deal may reduce competition and push up prices for cruise ships.The European Commission said it was unlikely that the entry of other ship builders into the market would offset the possible negative effects of the deal, confirming a Reuters story on Oct. 29.The EU competition enforcer will now decide by 17 March whether to clear or block the deal.(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Francesco Guarascio)

The European Commission approved on Friday the expansion of a Danish scheme to tax shipping companies on their tonnage, the EU executive said in a statement.Under the so-called tonnage tax schemes, shipping companies pay taxes on the basis of the size of the shipping fleet rather than on their actual taxable profits.The Commission authorized Denmark to expand its existing scheme for shipping firms to several new categories including guard vessels and ships servicing off-shore installations, it said in a statement.(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio)

The French government continues to support Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri's takeover of STX France, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Wednesday, but cautioned against hastening a related defense naval merger.Speaking in Rome after a meeting with the Italian government, he told journalists France had not changed its position on the deal, quelling concerns the takeover could be hampered by tenser relations between Paris and Italy's new anti-establishment government.However, he warned against hastening a merger between Fincantieri and French military shipyards operator Naval Group which ha

A rescue operation in which an Italian towboat rescued more than 100 migrants and returned them to Libya earlier this week may have been in breach of international law, the United Nations said on Tuesday.A spokesman for the U.N. migration agency said it could not establish the location of the rescue, which is key to establishing migrants' rights, although some other parties involved in the case have made contradictory assertions about the incident including where it took place.The rescue coincides with a growing perception among human rights groups that some European countries are taking an increasingly hard line in their efforts to cut the number of migrants arriving on their shores…

Euro zone's surplus for goods traded with the rest of the world dropped in May as exports fell and imports increased, one month before United States' tariffs on European steel and aluminium kicked in, official data showed on Monday.The European Union's statistics office, Eurostat, said the 19-country currency bloc had a goods trade surplus of 16.5 billion euros ($19.3 billion) in May, compared with 19.3 billion a year earlier, according to non seasonally adjusted estimates.The reduced surplus was caused by a 0.8 percent fall in exports compared with a year earlier…

British and German warships made ready to sail for waters off Libya as Europe ramped up rescue operations in the Mediterranean after up to 900 desperate migrants drowned last weekend on a boat heading for Italy. Yet hours after European Union leaders agreed in Brussels on Thursday to treble funding for EU maritime missions and pledged more ships and aircraft, 14 clandestine migrants were killed when a train ploughed into dozens of Somalis and Afghans making their way in darkness along a rail track in a Macedonian gorge. The incident highlighted the variety of routes that growing numbers are taking to escape war and poverty in Asia, Africa and the Middle East and chance their luck in a wealthy region that offers, at best, a chilly welcome.

The European Commission said on Wednesday it would launch an EU version of Italy's sea rescue operation to help it deal with the droves of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in crowded boats from North Africa, something Italy has repeatedly called for. Europe's border control agency Frontex will take over the new operation, dubbed "Frontex Plus", by merging two existing ones and eventually it will replace Italy's costly mission to patrol the seas for boat migrants. "The aim is to put in place an enlarged Frontex Plus to complement what Italy has been doing," said Cecilia Malmstrom, EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, on Wednesday. The civil war in Syria and breakdown of order in Libya have pushed the number of sea-borne arrivals in Italy to a record of more than 100…