Asian Development Bank

More than six languages are spoken in the country, where Urdu is considered as the lingua franca with the understandability by over 75% of the total population. English is the official language, which is primarily used in official business, government and legal contracts. The Punjabi language is mostly spoken in Punjab, Saraiki in South Punjab, and Pashto in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Balochistan.

On 24 September at the 2nd ASEAN-US Leaders’ Meeting in New York, ASEAN welcomed the U.S. announcement at the 2010 NPT Review Conference that it is prepared to engage in consultations to resolve issues which have prevented it from acceding to the SEANWFZ Protocol. The statement also congratulated the United States on the successful outcome of the Nuclear Security Summit and promised the support of ASEAN countries to work towards preventing nuclear terrorism. At the 18th ASEAN Summit, which took place in May, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia called upon member states of ASEAN to lower their dependency on fossil fuels and search for alternative methods to produce energy. Given the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, Mr. Yudhoyono stated that nuclear energy needs to be reexamined. On 1 November, China deposited its instrument of ratification of the Third Protocol Amending the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia .

The border between Europe and Asia runs approximately along the Urals, which are located east of Moscow. Another was civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, and there were also various other well-known US journalists and athletes targeted including boxer Muhammad Ali. What they had in common was that they had all publically criticized the Vietnam War – actions supposedly protected and enshrined in the US First Amendment . In the lower income countries, Vietnam has achieved faster reductions in child mortality despite its low level of income—a consequence of its strong political commitment to PHC and very successful PHC initiatives. Declines in marital fertility are due primarily to increased contraceptive use.

Asian Alliances And Trade Agreements

New inventions including the use of interchangeable parts, the Bessemer steel production process, and the assembly line for mass production, helped significantly increase manufacturing output and production systems. Responsibilities include managing the U.S.-India Trade Policy Forum Cabinet-level bilateral trade dialogue, including coordinating the TPF’s four Working Groups and the Private Sector Advisory Group . Other areas of emphasis include leading the Trade and Investment Council Meetings under the U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreements with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq and the Central Asian states. Join our community of educators and receive the latest information on National Geographic's resources for you and your students. Europe's rich agricultural and industrial diversity has made the continent a center of commerce and culture for centuries.

Countries & Regions

The facility opened in the late 1950s, when the steppes of Central Asia were part of the Soviet Union. The world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched from Baikonur in 1957, and the first spacecraft to carry a person into orbit was launched in 1961. Today, the Baikonur Cosmodrome is in southern Kazakhstan, although it is leased to and maintained by Russia. The state-of-the-art facility allows for the launch of both manned and unmanned spacecraft, and is vital to the support and maintenance of the International Space Station . A surge of economic investment, primarily funded by the oil, technology, and pharmaceutical industries, has fueled the development of medium-sized cities into important metropolitan areas.

Asian Countries

More than 75 percent of the city’s population is male, represented mostly by laborers from countries such as India and the Philippines who have come to work in Dubai’s construction business. The laborers’ poor working and living conditions have come under criticism from the international community, especially in contrast to the city’s image as a luxury capital of the world. The continent’s north/central zone is affected by cold and dry Arctic winds, especially the Siberia region of Russia. Hardier grains, such as barley, buckwheat, millet, oats, and wheat, are grown in the central and southern areas of this zone, where permanent frosts inhibit plant growth.

While growth in Pakistan at the end of 2019 was less than projected, a three-year program in conjunction with the International Monetary Fund aimed at stabilization and structural reform is promising to address macroeconomic issues. In the intellectual sector, knowledge on Southeast Asia has been consumed generally by the NGOs, namely, those that are national-based ones as well as those that have regional networks. The strength and success of their operation is very much dependent on the amount of knowledge they have about Southeast Asian societies in general as well as the specific issue that they are focusing on as a cause in their struggle. In the receiving countries, the major thrust of the current policy is to reduce the percentage of expatriates.