Six party talks
Nuclear deliberations
A new round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programme takes place in Beijing. Delegation heads (meeting for the first time in nine months) are expected to discuss ways to verify the list of North Korea's nuclear programmes, which Pyongyang submitted to China in June (Chinese news agency Xinhua, Japanese news agency Kyodo).
Benedict XVI
Pope down under
Pope Benedict XVI visits Australia to attend World Youth Day 2008 events (Vatican website).
Foreign ministers
Asia-Africa conference
The Asia-Africa foreign ministers' conference on Palestine takes place in Jakarta, Indonesia, co-chaired by South Africa (Indonesian news agency Antara).
Touhid Hossain
Annual consultations
Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon meets his Bangladeshi counterpart Touhid Hossain in Delhi for their annual consultations (Bangladeshi newspaper New Age).
Arms
Expo 2008
International arms exhibition "Russian Expo Arms 2008" is to be held in Nizhniy Tagil, Russia (Russian ITAR-TASS news agency).
Tony Blair
Ukraine summit
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair attend the Yalta European Strategy summit in Ukraine. The annual meeting focuses on Ukraine's reforms and transition to the EU (Interfax-Ukraine news agency).
US Navy
War games?
A joint Ukraine-US naval exercise, 'Sea Breeze 2008' takes place in the northwestern part of the Black Sea, Odessa, the Mykolayiv Regions and Crimea. The exercise will also involve forces from Azerbaijan, Belgium, Armenia, UK, Georgia, Greece, Denmark, Canada, Latvia, Macedonia, Germany, Turkey and France (Ukrainian Radio website).
Giorgio Napolitano
Italy-Russia relations
Italian President Giorgio Napolitano visits Russia for talks with Russian leaders (Russian Interfax news agency).
Javier Solana
Nuclear negotiations
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana visits Tehran, to meet the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Sa'id Jalili. They are to discuss the 5+1 group proposals for stopping uranium enrichment(Iranian Fars News Agency).
Ban ki-moon
Mediterranean Union launch
A summit of Mediterranean and European Union countries takes place in Paris to launch the Mediterranean Union. The plan -- initially proposed by President Nicolas Sarkozy -- is designed to help the EU boost ties with its southern neighbours. A scaled-down version the plan was approved by EU leaders at a summit in March. Some 50 heads of state and government will attend and all have been invited to stay for July 14 Bastille Day ceremonies. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is guest of honour (French news agency AFP).
Álvaro Colom
PetroCaribe summit
The heads of state of the PetroCaribe nations meet in Maracaibo, Venezuela. They are expected to discuss high oil prices and energy security. Guatemala is to sign a framework agreement on joining the group (Venezuelan TV).
