ANKARA

Anadolu Agency is here with a rundown of the latest developments on the coronavirus pandemic and other news in Turkey and around the world.

Eastern Mediterranean

Dialogue and negotiation are key in addressing issues of delimitation of maritime boundaries and exploitation of resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, according to EU officials.

Turkey slammed a defense agreement Saturday between France and the Greek Cypriot administration, as there is a “risk of disrupting the efforts to ensure stability and security in the Eastern Mediterranean.”

The Greek Cypriot administration, which does not represent the entire island nor Turkish Cypriots, is not competent and authorized to make such an agreement, according to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara is fully focused on protecting its rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, Libya and the Aegean.


UAE, Israel normalization deal

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani decried as a “huge mistake,” a deal between the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel to normalize relations.

Turkey’s ruling party also criticized the deal as "political suicide" against the Palestinian cause.


Other developments

Turkey slammed remarks by the presumptive US Democratic presidential nominee who called for Washington to interfere in domestic Turkish politics.

In the remarks apparently made to the New York Times editorial board for a January episode of the FX documentary series The Weekly – Joe Biden calls for the US to try to interfere in Turkish domestic politics, saying it should take sides, and in the past he, in his role as vice president, had actually done so.

Biden also implied he would involve the US directly in domestic Turkish affairs.


Coronavirus

Turkey registered 1,256 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing its tally to 248,117.

A total of 992 patients have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, in the last 24 hours, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter. Citing Health Ministry data, Koca said the number of recoveries reached 229,972.

Greece reported 230 new cases of the virus, bringing total cases to 6,858. Three more deaths were added to the number of fatalities, now at 226.

India registered 57,381 new cases and nearly 1,000 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to official data.

Brazil reported 1,060 deaths, bringing the death toll there to 106,523, whereas the tally of confirmed cases rose to 3.2 million with more than 50,000 new cases.

Mexico reported 615 new deaths and 5,618 new cases.



Vaccine efforts

Russia started production of its first COVID-19 vaccine. Initial batches of the vaccine will be earmarked for doctors and health workers, before being made available to the general public.