October 6, Wednesday, 2021 (1:30 p.m.) Newsline

1.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has met with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss the soured bilateral ties and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific. Bilateral relations deteriorated last month after Australia decided to scrap a major submarine contract with France. Canberra instead opted for U.S. and U.K. technological support under a new three-way security partnership called AUKUS.
2.A senior U.S. government official will on Wednesday meet with China’s top diplomat for the first time since March, in an apparent bid to ease bilateral tensions. The White House said that National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan will meet with China’s foreign policy chief Yang Jiechi in Zurich, Switzerland.
3. NHK has learned that in late June a North Korean ship armed with a man-portable surface-to-air missile was sighted in Japanese fishing grounds in the Sea of Japan. Sources told NHK that the Japan Coast Guard confirmed the presence of the North Korean official ship in the Yamatotai area off Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture.