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China, Belarus Agree to Strengthen Cooperation in Trade, Security

FILE - In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel during his visit to Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus on March 26, 2024. A Belarusian human rights group said Thursday, July 4, 2024 that at least 10 political prisoners have been freed since the country’s authoritarian president this week promised to release seriously ill people jailed in connection with massive protests nearly four years ago. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel during his visit to Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus on March 26, 2024. A Belarusian human rights group said Thursday, July 4, 2024 that at least 10 political prisoners have been freed since the country’s authoritarian president this week promised to release seriously ill people jailed in connection with massive protests nearly four years ago. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP, File)
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China, Belarus Agree to Strengthen Cooperation in Trade, Security

FILE - In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel during his visit to Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus on March 26, 2024. A Belarusian human rights group said Thursday, July 4, 2024 that at least 10 political prisoners have been freed since the country’s authoritarian president this week promised to release seriously ill people jailed in connection with massive protests nearly four years ago. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP, File)
FILE - In this photo provided by the Belarusian Presidential Press Service, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko speaks to military personnel during his visit to Oshmyany District, Grodno region of Belarus on March 26, 2024. A Belarusian human rights group said Thursday, July 4, 2024 that at least 10 political prisoners have been freed since the country’s authoritarian president this week promised to release seriously ill people jailed in connection with massive protests nearly four years ago. (Belarusian Presidential Press Service via AP, File)

China and Belarus have agreed to strengthen cooperation in a range of sectors including trade, security, energy and finance, a joint communique showed.

Belarus, which has been hit by Western sanctions over its support for Russia's offensive in Ukraine, said Thursday it will sign a free trade deal with China for services and investment.

China's Prime Minister Li Qiang was in Belarus to meet President Alexander Lukashenko, following a visit to Moscow where he hailed strengthening ties with Russia and met President Vladimir Putin.

Minsk and Beijing will sign a series of bilateral partnership agreements during his visit, the Belarusian presidency said in a statement on its website.

"One of them can definitely be called historic -- an agreement on the creation of a free trade zone for services and investment," it quoted Lukashenko as saying.

Minsk said the deal would create "transparent and predictable rules" that would boost Belarus' exports to China by at least 12 percent and Chinese investment into Belarus by 30 percent over the next five years.

According to AFP, Belarus has been targeted by sanctions over its support of Russia's military offensive on Ukraine and Lukashenko's crackdown on protesters following his disputed 2020 re-election.

It is hugely reliant on economic support from Moscow.

China meanwhile is flexing its economic muscle across Eurasia through vast infrastructure and financial projects, seeking to build up its soft power in an investment splurge that has concerned the West.

Both Belarus and China have been accused of enabling and supporting Moscow's military offensive on Ukraine.

Lukashenko said he wanted to see a "large influx of Chinese technology" into Belarus over the coming years.

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Security is Stepped Up at a NATO Air Base in Germany Due to a 'Potential Threat'

US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)
US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)
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Security is Stepped Up at a NATO Air Base in Germany Due to a 'Potential Threat'

US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)
US soldiers during a ceremony handing over four F-16 fighter jets at Balad Air Base. (AP)

Security at a NATO air base in western Germany has been raised because of intelligence information pointing to a “potential threat,” and all staff not essential to missions have been sent home as a precaution, NATO said.
The Geilenkirchen air base, near the border with the Netherlands, is where the alliance's Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, aircraft are based.
A post on the NATO AWACS fleet's account on social media network X late Thursday night announcing that “we raised the security level" did not elaborate on the nature of the potential threat. It said that “operations continue as planned.”
German news agency dpa said a reporter saw police cars on the grounds of the air base. Police confirmed a deployment Thursday night but gave no details, and offered no information on Friday morning, The Associated Press said.
Last week, a major German air force based near Cologne was locked down for several hours amid fears that its water supply might have been tampered with. An investigation found no evidence of such sabotage. There were also reports of suspicious observations at Geilenkirchen and a person was briefly detained for questioning near the base, dpa reported at the time, but there turned out to be nothing untoward.
The incidents come at a time of jitters about the possible vulnerability of infrastructure to attempted Russian sabotage.
On Thursday, prosecutors in Flensburg, in Germany's far north, said they were investigating suspicions of espionage for the purpose of sabotage, without elaborating on who might be behind it. German media reported that drones had been spotted over a chemical park in Brunsbuettel, on the North Sea coast.