Trump to host Armenia, Azerbaijan leaders for peace talks on Friday, US official says
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan for peace talks at the White House on Friday, a U.S. official told Reuters.
The official said it was possible that the framework for a peace agreement could be announced at Friday's meeting. The Washington Post was first to report on the talks.
The two countries, both of which won independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, have been at loggerheads since the late 1980s when Nagorno-Karabakh - an Azerbaijani region that had a mostly ethnic-Armenian population - broke away from Azerbaijan with support from Armenia.
Azerbaijan retook Karabakh in 2023, prompting 100,000 ethnic Armenians to flee to Armenia.
In March, the two sides said they had agreed on the text of a draft peace agreement, but progress since then has been sporadic and slow. The countries' leaders met in July in Abu Dhabi for talks.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, additional reporting by Costas Pitas and Christian Martinez, editing by Ross Colvin and Lincoln Feast)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
21 minutes ago
- The Star
Apple leads surge in global tech shares after Trump tariff relief
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks as he and Apple CEO Tim Cook present Apple's announcement of a $100 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., August 6, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File photo (Reuters) -Global technology stocks advanced on Thursday in a relief rally after the latest tariff salvo from U.S. President Donald Trump largely exempted industry heavyweights from his threat to impose 100% levy on chips and semiconductors. Trump said the new tariff rate would apply to "all chips and semiconductors coming into the United States," but would not apply to companies that had made a commitment to manufacture in the U.S. or were in the process of doing so. Apple's stock rose 3.3% in premarket trading after Trump's announcement on Wednesday that the company will invest an additional $100 billion in the U.S., a move that could help it sidestep potential tariffs on iPhones. U.S.-listed chipmakers advanced broadly, with Advanced Micro Devices up 2.5%, Intel gaining 2.1% and Nvidia up 1.1%. "A major uncertainty has been removed and investors can finally move on," UBS analysts said in a note. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment supplier Applied Materials and chipmakers Texas Instruments, GlobalFoundries and Broadcom - Apple's partners in the investment effort - climbed between 0.8% and 10.1%. European chipmakers also joined the rally, with ASML, ASMI and BE Semiconductor Industries climbing about 3% each. Germany's Infineon said it could not speculate on possible semiconductor tariffs, as no details have been disclosed yet. Its shares were up 0.6%. Trump's latest on semiconductor tariffs seemingly rules out Taiwanese chip contract manufacturer TSMC, which makes chips for most U.S. companies, including Nvidia, as it has factories in the U.S. "The market remains keen to buy TSMC on dips. Investors also believe they need to remain positioned in AI - with or without tariffs," UBS analysts said. TSMC shares closed almost 5% higher to hit all-time highs, while Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix climbed 2.5% and 1.4%, respectively. South Korea's Samsung and SK Hynix will also not be subjected to 100% tariffs on chips, the country's top trade envoy said. Samsung has invested in two chip fabrication plants in Austin and Taylor, Texas, while SK Hynix has announced plans to build an advanced chip packaging plant and research and development facility for artificial intelligence products in Indiana. Since stepping into the White House in January, Donald Trump has made several tariff threats, specifically on semiconductors, aimed at reshaping the supply chain of the industry and spurring domestic production. "The (100% tariff) figure fits Trump's approach of 'open high, negotiate down' and the final figure could be similar to reciprocal tariffs to limit inflation in consumer goods, given that many have chips," said Phelix Lee, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. Not everyone has come out of the latest blitz on the right side, with the Philippines and Malaysia looking to find out more details about the tariff rate. Dan Lachica, the president of the trade body for the Philippine semiconductor industry, said 70% of its electronics exports are semiconductors and the new tariff rate would be "devastating". Philippine stocks were down 0.1% after falling as much as 0.9% during the day. Malaysia's trade minister said the country has reached out to U.S. counterparts for clarity on the tariffs. (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Rae Wee in Singapore and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Arun Koyyur)
Borneo Post
an hour ago
- Borneo Post
Trump announces 100 pct chip tariff, pressuring Asian producers
An employee works at a semiconductor chips factory in Huai'an, in eastern China's Jiangsu province on April 29, 2024. – AFP photo TOKYO (Aug 7): Donald Trump has announced a 100 per cent tariff on semiconductors from firms that do not invest in the United States — sparking volatility in Asian chipmaker shares today. The US president unveiled the levy at the White House on Wednesday ahead of the imposition of sweeping tariffs on goods from dozens of countries, with chips so far exempt. It comes with the United States and China locked in a high-stakes race to develop the high-end semiconductors used to power artificial intelligence systems. 'We'll be putting a tariff of approximately 100 per cent on chips and semiconductors, but if you're building in the United States… there's no charge,' Trump said. He did not give a timetable for the new levy, which he has repeatedly threatened in the past, to be enacted. Arisa Liu, senior semiconductor researcher at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, said it would impact the 'strategic direction of global semiconductor companies'. 'Since the United States is the world's largest player in AI and related high-performance computing, this will have a relatively greater impact on companies involved in advanced processes,' she said. 'The highest-end semiconductors will be excluded,' Alicia Garcia-Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, told AFP. But 'this kills producers of low-end chips', including those based in Malaysia or China, she warned. Today, shares in Taiwan's TSMC — world's largest contract maker of chips, which counts Nvidia and Apple among its clients — soared nearly five per cent after the government said the company would not be affected. Taiwan is a global powerhouse in semiconductor manufacturing, with more than half of the world's chips and nearly all of the high-end ones made there. 'Fight for Malaysia' Trump has previously accused Taiwan of having stolen the US chip industry, and earlier this year, TSMC unveiled a plan to invest an extra US$100 billion in the United States. Samsung Electronics, which is pumping billions into the United States, rose more than two per cent in Seoul, but a range of Japanese chip-making shares sank on the news. Apple is also investing an additional US$100 billion in the United States, Trump and the US tech giant's CEO Tim Cook announced Wednesday, with Cook calling it 'the largest investment Apple has made in America'. Malaysian trade minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz told parliament today that the country, a key chip manufacturing hub, was seeking an explanation from the US side. 'We will continue to fight for Malaysia to ensure that any policy changes or exemption criteria are communicated and negotiated in advance, and that Malaysia's position as a strategic partner is preserved,' he said. Chiang Min-yen, a non-resident fellow at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society, and Emerging Technology, said the tariff would hit legacy chipmakers who don't have the deep pockets to invest in the United States. 'Most of the legacy chip manufacturers in Taiwan, in the US, even in Japan… all face very serious, unfair market competition from Chinese competitors,' he said. If US policies undermine these companies' production efficiency, the Chinese competitors 'will be able to more easily enter the global market' and come to dominate the field in the future, Chiang told AFP. That 'would be very harmful for US industrialisation policies', he warned. 'In the end, we may have to rely more on the Chinese legacy chips, and it would hurt our cybersecurity or even national security.' – AFP Asian semiconductors tariffs trump us
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Indian PM Modi vows to protect farmers as Trump builds tariff pressure
On top of an existing 25 per cent levy on goods from India, US President Trump imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff to penalise India for buying oil from Russia. - Photo: Reuters NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to safeguard the interests of farmers, a day after President Donald Trump doubled tariffs on Indian goods, with pressure mounting on New Delhi to open up its markets to US exports. The welfare of farmers remain the country's top priority, Modi said at a conference in New Delhi. The government is constantly working to boost their incomes, lower cultivation costs, and diversify their sources of livelihood, he said on Thursday (Aug 7), without making any direct reference to Trump's move to raise tariffs on Indian goods to 50% as a penalty for India's Russian oil purchases. His commitment to protect farmers comes as Washington wants greater market access for its dairy products and genetically modified crops. It underscores New Delhi's efforts to protect a politically-sensitive sector, while managing stalled trade talks and potential domestic backlash. "Our government has considered the strength of farmers as the foundation of the nation's progress,' Modi said. "For us, the welfare of our farmers is the highest priority.' The world's top milk producer and the second-biggest grower of rice, wheat, sugar and cotton doesn't allow cultivation of GM food crops, even though those varieties can boost yields. The commercial release of genetically altered mustard has been stalled due to a legal challenge in the country's top court, and in 2010, the government rejected a GM variety of brinjal, or eggplant. However, India is weighing to ease some dairy market access rules for the US, Bloomberg News reported earlier. Currently, the South Asian nation prohibits the import of dairy products if the cattle were given feed made from animal-derived ingredients. The country has a Hindu majority, and cows are considered as sacred. Farmers are a major voting bloc in the most-populous nation, where millions of smallholders own less than 2 hectares (5 acres) of land. "India will never compromise' on the interests of its farmers, fishermen and the dairy sector, Modi said. - Bloomberg
