epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Tuesday, September 17, 2024 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Veteran Warlord Dostum Seeks Parallel Afghan Government To Undermine Taliban (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/16/2024 6:43 AM, Staff, 1251K, Negative]
Veteran Afghan warlord and former politician Abdul Rashid Dostum has urged groups that oppose the fundamentalist Taliban to unite to form a government-in-exile for Afghanistan to challenge that extremist group’s unrecognized leadership.

Dostum, an ethnic Uzbek and longtime kingmaker who along with his private army has been accused of past rights abuses, was speaking to a virtual gathering of a Turkish-based Afghan resistance group on September 15.

Dostum said last year that his fighters were prepared to take on the Taliban once the international community concluded that it cannot deal with the hard-line extremist group.

The chameleonic Dostum formerly served under the UN-backed former Afghan government as a deputy defense minister.

He also held other party and military posts in Afghanistan before the U.S.-led international forces withdrew in mid-2021.

Dostum, whose historical power bases were in northern and western Afghanistan, ran unsuccessfully for the Afghan presidency in 2004.

He was also widely thought to be a major figure in factional fighting that plagued the country for decades and sometimes pitted ostensibly allied armed forces against each another.

In 2019, when he was first vice president, Dostum was said to have narrowly escaped when his convoy was attacked by Taliban forces in a northern province.

A day later, the Taliban, which was waging a fierce insurgency against the central government in Kabul, said Dostum remained on its hit list.

The Taliban raided homes and summarily executed many perceived enemies as the group swept into de facto power after capturing most of the country in 2020-21.

The subsequent Taliban-led government has waged a campaign of discrimination and abuse against women and been accused of persecuting minority groups in Afghanistan, among other alleged wrongdoing.
Taliban Suspend Polio Vaccination Campaigns (Newsweek)
Newsweek [9/16/2024 10:25 PM, Lilith Foster-Collins, 49093K, Negative]
The Taliban has suspended polio vaccination campaigns across Afghanistan, the United Nations announced Monday.

News of the suspension was relayed to U.N. agencies right before the September immunization campaign was due to start.

Polio is one of the world’s most contagious viruses, and the suspension poses a risk of reversing years of progress if unvaccinated populations begin to spread the virus.

No explanation was provided by the Taliban-controlled government, and no one from the Taliban-controlled government was immediately available for comment.

Afghanistan and Pakistan are the only two countries where the transmission of polio has never been halted.

The Taliban’s decision is expected to have far-reaching consequences for the region and beyond.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are discussions about moving away from door-to-door vaccination efforts in the country.

"The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is aware of the recent policy discussions on shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan," said Dr. Hamid Jafari of the WHO.

"Partners are in the process of discussing and understanding the scope and impact of any change in current policy."

Afghanistan has already reported 18 polio cases this year-16 of which are concentrated in the southern region.

This is a significant increase from the six cases recorded in 2023.

The WHO has expressed concern that any setbacks in Afghanistan could threaten polio eradication efforts in Pakistan, given the high population movement between the two countries.

Pakistani health official Anwarul Haq said the polio virus would eventually spread and continue affecting children in both countries if vaccination campaigns aren’t run regularly and in a synchronized manner.

"Afghanistan is the only neighbor from where Afghan people in large numbers come to Pakistan and then go back," said Haq, the coordinator at the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication. "People from other neighboring countries, like India and Iran, don’t come to Pakistan in large numbers."

There needs to be a united effort to eliminate the disease, he told The Associated Press.

In Pakistan, polio vaccination efforts are frequently disrupted by violence.

Militants often target health workers and police involved in the campaigns, promoting the conspiracy theory that vaccination efforts are part of a Western plot to sterilize children.

Earlier in June 2024, Afghanistanemployed a door-to-door vaccination strategy for the first time in five years, successfully reaching the majority of the targeted children.

However, in southern Kandahar province, the base of Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, vaccination efforts remained limited to site-to-site and mosque-to-mosque campaigns.

The WHO says that this less effective approach has left a large number of children in Kandahar susceptible to the disease.

The organization noted that women’s participation in vaccination campaigns remains around 20% in Afghanistan, limiting access to children in certain areas.

The suspension is the latest in a series of challenges for the global campaign against polio, which costs around $1 billion annually.

The initiative has repeatedly missed its targets, and technical flaws in the vaccination strategy have led to setbacks.

The oral polio vaccine has inadvertently caused outbreaks in numerous countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, now accounting for the majority of global polio cases.

One such outbreak occurred recently in Gaza, where a baby was partially paralyzed by a mutated strain of the virus derived from the oral vaccine.

This marked Gaza’s first polio case in over 25 years.
Taliban Denies Suspending Or Stopping Anti-Polio Campaign (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/17/2024 12:00 AM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
Afghanistan’s Taliban-run Health Ministry on September 17 rejected reports saying the hard-line group has suspended or delayed a major polio vaccination drive.

Ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman called such reports false and said there was no official directive to postpone or stop the anti-polio plans.

Instead, he said, Taliban health officials are trying to implement the vaccination campaign in a legitimate and technical way that benefits society.

A day earlier, AP quoted a top official from the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying it was aware of discussions to move away from house-to-house vaccinations and instead administer immunizations site-to-site in places like mosques.

Local and international observers have repeatedly warned of humanitarian challenges since the Taliban took control of the country as the U.S.-led international coalition withdrew in mid-2021, heightened by a lack of recognition of the group’s government in Kabul.

The WHO has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, up from six cases in 2023, and had announced a sweeping anti-polio drive for September.

A nationwide house-to-house anti-polio campaign in June was the first in at least five years, and WHO authorities said the scheme allowed its vaccinators to reach most of the children it was targeting.

Kamal Shah, a former communications officer at UNICEF, the UN agency responsible for humanitarian and other aid to children worldwide, has urged officials to better integrate the Taliban into polio vaccination efforts.

Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan are the only countries in the world where polio is still endemic.

The WHO has warned that high cross-border traffic between those two countries heightens the risk of polio spreading.
Afghan YouTubers fear for future as Taliban ban women´s voices (Reuters)
Reuters [9/16/2024 12:07 PM, Rohullah Talaash and Orooj Hakimi, 88008K, Neutral]
With a microphone and mobile phone in hand, Husna loved hitting the streets of Kabul every week to interview people for her YouTube videos. That excitement has turned to fear after the Taliban banned women from speaking in public.

The Taliban last month formally codified a host of morality laws in Afghanistan, which included requirements for women to veil themselves from head to toe in public and a prohibition on speaking outside of their homes.

Even at home, they should not be heard singing, reciting or reading out loud, according to the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue.

"Every time I go to the city to film and interview people, I fear the Taliban might arrest me. It gives me a lot of anxiety," said Husna, a 25-year-old YouTuber who requested to use a pseudonym to protect her identity.

"Our voice has become a source of shame. (The Taliban) want us to be imprisoned at home," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Her YouTube channel has garnered more than 5,000 subscribers since its launch in July last year.

Before the latest diktats, Husna created about 10 videos a month on topics ranging from clothes, textile production, ice-cream making, Afghan cuisine and the kind of social life people enjoy in an increasingly restrictive country.

While the new rules do not directly target YouTube or other social media platforms, content creators say their ability to make videos in public and at home will be curtailed.

Scores of women who turned to YouTube in search of income after the Taliban seized power in 2021 and largely confined them indoors now fear for the future of their work.

"If you’re not actively producing videos, how can you earn? The current situation has negatively affected my work, income and mental well-being," Husna said. She did not disclose how much she earned from her videos, but said that it was enough to support her family.

"We can no longer work freely. I fear I may not be able to continue working in the future and pay for even basic expenses."

‘WORLD MUST PAY ATTENTION’

The Taliban’s restrictions on women and freedom of expression have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and many foreign governments.

They have barred girls from secondary education and women from universities and most jobs and curbed their freedom of movement - echoing the harsh constraints imposed when they were first in power in 1996.

The latest laws have sparked fresh international outrage and calls for an immediate repeal.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law and local customs and that these are internal matters that should be addressed locally.

Neither the Taliban spokesman not the Ministry of Information and Culture responded to requests for comment.

Mawloda Tawana, an Afghan women’s rights activist, said the latest curbs not only harm women’s economic situation, but also their mental health.

"The new restrictions prevent these YouTubers from doing their job, leaving them to live like dolls in a silent corner," said Tawana in comments shared via WhatsApp.

She said technology and social media had helped women protest, express themselves and share "Taliban atrocities" with the world, and warned that without their voices it would be "impossible to report on events."

"The world must pay attention to the plight of the Afghan people, especially women," she said.

Husna has already noticed a shift in women’s willingness to speak on camera.

"Everyone was eager to speak with the media and share their opinions earlier, but now it is rare to find women and girls in public spaces, and they refuse to do interviews because they fear for their lives," she said.

‘DARK FUTURE’

Shadab Gulzar, deputy head of the Afghanistan YouTubers Union, said the new restrictions had already reduced online activity and created economic challenges. But he urged women to stick with the video-sharing website.

"YouTubers can continue their activities by following Islamic principles. New restrictions specifically target vocal and recitation activities by women, not YouTube itself," he said.

"YouTubers should continue their work, as social media platforms, especially YouTube, are crucial for amplifying the voices of the Afghan people. If they stop, their voices will be less heard, and restrictions may increase." YouTube channels had become a significant source of income for many women, "with most of them meeting their living expenses" by posting content, Gulzar said.

About 10% to 15% of all Afghan YouTubers earn between $1,500 and $2,000 a month, and a little over half earn an average of up to $500, according to his data.

This is a significant amount of money in a country where per capita income is just over $350, according to the World Bank.

Women say such home-based jobs are key for survival.

For Sitara, a 24-year-old YouTuber who also asked to use a pseudonym to protect her identity, the latest rules have started impacting her work - despite her content focusing on Islamic teachings and culture.

"Earlier I could report freely, but not anymore," said Sitara, a graduate in Islamic studies whose YouTube channel has gained more than 10,000 followers since its launch in September 2022.

"(The Taliban) claim these restrictions enforce Islamic law, but in Islam women have the right to work and education," she said.

She wants the international community and human rights organisations to mount pressure on the Taliban to restore women’s rights and freedoms.

"If the current situation does not change, a dark future awaits Afghan women."
The Taliban Is Trying to Silence Women. We Cannot Stand Silent (Newsweek – opinion)
Newsweek [9/16/2024 5:27 AM, Azadah Raz Mohammad and Gissou Nia, 49093K, Negative]
Since August 2021, the world has witnessed a complete erosion of human rights in Afghanistan.

The situation of women and girls under the Taliban controlled Afghanistan is unparalleled in the world in terms of its severity and systematic deprivation of their fundamental rights. Last month, the oppression reached an unprecedented low when dozens of laws restricting women’s rights were formalized and published, including forbidding women from showing their bare faces and banning women’s voices in public.

But how did we get here? A combination of miscalculations from the West have emboldened the Taliban. But it’s not too late for the international community to reverse course and prevent the further oppression of the women of Afghanistan.

On February 29, 2020, the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement which was the impetus for the U.S. and its allied forces to withdraw from Afghanistan, ending one of the longest wars in American history.

The government of Afghanistan was not a party to the agreement, and the terms of the agreement was contingent on a number of issues, e.g., reduction of violence by the Taliban and initiation of intra-Afghan peace negotiations.

However, the Taliban continued its offensive more violently than before and the intra-Afghan peace talks were intermittent and continually stalled on many issues, such as the Taliban’s rejection of a ceasefire and the government of Afghanistan’s refusal to agree to the Taliban’s ultra conservative version of Sharia law.

In August 2021, the U.S. completed its 20 years of military presence in Afghanistan resulting in the Taliban regaining control of Afghanistan and creating one of the most drastic human rights and humanitarian crises in the world.

Joining forces with Al-Qaeda, the Taliban governed Afghanistan between 1996 to 2001, through terror and intimidation. The Taliban was overthrown from power soon after the tragic events of 9/11. Between 2001 to 2021, Afghanistan had made much progress on human rights and establishing democracy. Although there were many shortcomings and Afghanistan was transitioning from three consecutive decades of conflict and widespread allegations of corruption and security issues posed by the resurgent Taliban, Afghanistan was on it is way to realizing human rights and democratic values. Despite weak enforcement mechanisms, important laws were passed, and institutions were built which emphasized human rights and democratic values. The 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), and Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) were established. Internationally, Afghanistan ratified major international human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, among others.

These developments guaranteed the protection of fundamental rights for the women of Afghanistan and provided them social and economic growth that significantly improved their socio-economic condition between 2001 and August 2021.

In August 2021, the Taliban returned to power with a promise to respect human rights and fundamental freedoms. However, immediately after seizing power, the Taliban dismantled Afghanistan’s national laws, dissolved the AIHRC and dissolved the MoWA. Through more than 150 decrees and edicts, the Taliban systematically banned or limited women’s rights to education, work, freedom of expression, freedom of movement and assembly, and severely limiting their access to health care and justice. Similar to their first time in power in the 1990s, the Taliban also resumed and reintroduced horrific measures such as public stoning of women to death and flogging.

The Taliban is entrenching its institutionalized oppression of women with complete impunity. On Aug. 21, 2024, through the Ministry of Justice’s Official Gazette, the Taliban issued a new series of extremely restrictive measures on women called"The Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Law". Article 13 of the law states that if for urgent matters a woman must leave her home, she is required to cover her entire body, including their face, and that women’s voices should be concealed in public.

But laws without enforcement have no teeth. So, to institutionalize their systematic oppression of women and animate their written edicts, the Taliban has re-introduced the Ministry of Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice. The feared ministry has arbitrarily arrested detained, tortured, publicly flogged, stoned, and killed women for not following the Taliban’s dress code or protesting for their rights. The Taliban has created a system of governance that is deliberately built to systematically oppress and subjugate the women of Afghanistan and to deprive them of their livelihoods and identity. The situation of women in Afghanistan parallels the apartheid regime in South Africa during 1948 to 1994-institutionalized, systematic oppression and domination. The women in Afghanistan call their experience under the Taliban gender apartheid.

We need a full set of diplomatic, political and legal tools to address the multifaceted crisis Afghanistan is facing under Taliban rule. To move forward, the people of Afghanistan need long-term sustainable policy and political support from the international community.

Currently, gender apartheid is not criminalized under international law. In March 2023, a group of prominent Afghan and Iranian jurists and human rights defenders, launched the End Gender Apartheid Campaign, which calls for the recognition and codification of "gender apartheid" under the draft Convention on the Prevention of Crimes Against Humanity.

In October 2024, the United Nations’ Sixth Committee is scheduled to deliberate on the draft convention. Codifying it under international law will oblige the international community to take collaborative action to end the Taliban’s gender apartheid, similar to what was done against South Africa decades ago.

At the political level, we are increasingly concerned about the international community’s political engagement with the Taliban and the possibilities of closing down or handing over Afghanistan’s embassies to the Taliban. We urge nations not to hand over these embassies, the only diplomatic representations of the people of Afghanistan, to the Taliban. The Taliban’s treatment of women and ethnic and religious minority groups should not be normalized and accountability for the ongoing gross human rights violations by the Taliban should be at the forefront of any kind of political engagement with them.
Afghan women like me can’t work, go to the shops without a male chaperone or even speak in public - because the West abandoned us to the Taliban (Daily Mail – opinion)
Daily Mail [9/16/2024 8:49 PM, Anonymous, 88008K, Neutral]
Even from many metres away in the crowded passageway of my local bazaar I could hear the voices of the Taliban.

Clad in their traditional robes and wielding automatic weapons, they were pulling people aside and questioning their business there, one of the arbitrary spot checks aimed at rooting out those who dare to break their oppressive rules.

I was accompanied by my brother – my ‘mahram’, or guardian – for single women like me are unable even to shop for groceries without a male chaperone. As Taliban rules also demand, I was covered from head to toe in my burka despite the stifling 30c heat.

Nonetheless, I still nudged my brother and gestured with a nod to him that we should quickly return home – the only way I could communicate with him as a new law introduced last month has banned women from speaking in public.

For encountering the Taliban is not worth the risk: however much you think you have complied with their evermore stifling demands, they find ways to brutalise you. We know of a woman who was sent to prison, and her husband tortured, because when they were stopped and questioned about what they had for lunch that day they gave ­different answers.

Even buying medicine for your sick child is no armour against their ­cruelty. Desperate for medicine for her sick son, a widowed friend was ‘caught’ at the bazaar alone. She was given a draconian fine, and told that next time she would be physically punished.

This is the reality of life in ­Afghanistan in 2024. A world where women have lost all their basic human rights and freedoms since the Taliban took control three years ago.

We are banned from schools, offices, public baths, parks, and gyms. When we dare to step outside the confines of our homes, there must not be a single bit of our body or face visible apart from our eyes – through a mesh covering – and we must be accompanied by our husband or a male family member.

Reduced to nothing more than ­domestic chattels, we find the ­boundaries of our lives shrunken to the four walls of our family home. Banned from looking directly at men we are not related to by blood or marriage, we have now even been robbed of the one thing left to us – our voice.

As the new law tells us: ‘Whenever an adult woman leaves her home out of necessity, she is obliged to conceal her voice, face and body.’

Those who do disobey risk being fined if they are ‘lucky’ – and flogged or jailed if they aren’t. It is why the internet is the only way left for us to communicate, the ­predominant emotion among Afghan women young and old is fear and despair.

The older generation weep for their daughters who in turn see no hope for the future after being abandoned by Western democracies which have stood by while everything has been taken from us. This is why I am speaking out, although I must ­disguise my story, as ­anyone who dares to exposes the reality of life under the Taliban regime will feel the full weight of their punishment. Earlier this year, the Taliban spies managed to track down a woman who gave an anonymous interview to an American television network. She has since disappeared.

I can say I am a woman in her mid-twenties who, before the ­Taliban returned to power, had a happy life in my small city. I worked in IT, and my salary helped support my extended family. I still lived at home and while I did not have a sweetheart, I hoped, even assumed I would marry for love.

In the meantime, I enjoyed many of life’s simple pleasures: ­picnics in the park, meeting friends in cafés.

How could I have known how quickly these freedoms would be taken from us when the Taliban swept back again?

My mother knew: I remember her choking sobs as we huddled around our television set and watched their fighters riding through the streets of Kabul.

My sister and I clung onto hope; over WhatsApp groups, we speculated feverishly this time would be different. We thought perhaps just a few small things would change, that we could continue to work and go to school.

Not once did we think it would be even worse, and today I could weep at that ­astonishing naivety, for it took only weeks to realise that the Taliban’s intention was to slowly erase women, ­systemically stripping them of their rights.

What they want of us is to stay home, cooking and ­cleaning for a husband who may have many wives, raising their ­children and obeying their every instruction.

Since the Taliban returned to power, they have issued nearly a hundred mandates restricting our freedoms, banishing us from the workplace and education.

Last year, they ordered the ­closure of all beauty salons, one of the only remaining ways for women to earn an income. I know of a widow in another city who has no choice but to work surreptitiously in ­neighbour’s houses, leaving her home under cover of darkness.

She has no other way of feeding her five children, but lives in fear of being caught. ‘The torment is constant,’ she told me in a text message. ‘It is all I have, the anxiety of not knowing if we’ll have enough to eat tomorrow, or if my secret attempts to work will bring harm to my family.’

The financial consequences of women’s abolition from the ­workplace cannot be overstated. In my home, only my brother is now able to work, without the income that I and my sister brought in, we have had to make a strict timetable to make every tiny bit of food last as long as possible.

Gone are the cakes and any other small luxuries. Now we exist on rice and other basics, and cannot eat every day.

In a country where there is a chronic shortage of food, all of us have become used to the feeling of an aching empty stomach.

Even men have found their ­livelihoods affected.

One of my friend’s husbands is a shopkeeper, but his income has plunged since the women who could once pop in while passing can now not enter his shop without a mahram to ask for goods by pointing rather than speaking.

The Taliban have visited him more than once to warn him that if they hear that a woman has come in alone they will close his shop.

Another friend who was at ­university and who dreamed of opening her own business has retrained as a midwife, the only ‘job’ left to women in Afghanistan, although it pays very little.

She has no interest in the work, but told me that it at least allowed her to help her family, as well as leave the house and mingle with other women – although she must be careful: earlier this year three female health workers were detained because they were ­traveling to work without a male chaperone.

But then, the Taliban’s dreaded morality police are everywhere. They conduct spot checks on our homes, to make sure we are living under their laws, while random checkpoints spring up overnight.

If you answer questions the ‘wrong’ way, you can be sent to jail, and men who are considered to not have their women under control are tortured. It takes so little to be a dissident, and anyone who once worked for the ‘infidels’, as any western business or agency is seen, remains a target.

A friend who once worked for a European NGO was told by a ­Taliban fighter that her disloyalty could only be compensated for by ­marrying him.

When she refused, her brother was brutally beaten at a Taliban checkpoint, and she was run over by a car in the street leaving her hospitalised for a month. Terrified, she went into hiding until some contacts in the UK helped her and her family to escape.

Escape is not possible for most people though. Fathers must stand by as their daughters – some barely teenagers, are sold into marriage to older men who repulse them.

In the past few months I have seen it happen to two family friends, young girls both married to men they had never even set eyes on before they exchanged vows. On her wedding night, one of them was beaten by her new ­husband because she had cried.

I know her father cried, too: her marriage was the price he paid for one less mouth to feed. For both girls, the best they can hope for is that their husbands do not tire of them.

Earlier this year, the Taliban also announced the reintroduction of the public flogging and stoning of women for adultery, and they are only too aware that as a man’s word is prized over that of any woman, they do not have to do anything wrong to find themselves cast out to their deaths.

As one friend told me: ‘Even when I can go out with my husband, I do not want to. I feel frightened the moment I step out of my house.’

Is it any wonder we feel like caged birds? Our days rest heavy on us, trapped in our homes. We try to keep busy with ­domestic chores or reading – and even then only ‘approved’ books – but there are too many hours in the day.

Now that under the new rules our voices are also deemed to be instruments of vice, we cannot even speak freely indoors. If a passing Taliban hears singing, or loud reading, this too is an offence. We must speak softly at all times, even when reciting the Quran.

It means the sound I hear most in my home is not laughter, or excited chatter, but soft crying, because we cannot see any way out.

Our only lifeline is our WhatsApp groups, although we are careful what we say, because we cannot be sure the Taliban’s spies are not monitoring them somehow. I know that more than one teenage girl has tried to take her own life rather than face a future in which she has no hope.

It is the lack of hope that is hardest, in fact. The West remained silent when they banned our ­education, silent as they took away all our other freedoms, too.

Now we have lost our voice, and again the West does not raise theirs. It means there is nothing left for us.
Pakistan
Pakistan defendants face ‘grueling’ legal battles over blasphemy allegations, says new report (VOA)
VOA [9/16/2024 2:53 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4566K, Negative]
A new report finds Pakistan’s blasphemy laws are being significantly misused, with many defendants facing baseless accusations, protracted legal battles and lengthy pre-trial prison time as judges tread carefully to avoid offending religious groups.

The U.S.-based Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) on Monday released its findings after monitoring 24 blasphemy lawsuits for six months during 2022 in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab.

The CJF said 15 of the accused are facing mandatory death sentences if convicted. However, the report said its monitors had noted little progress in most cases, with 217 out of 252 hearings adjourned, leaving many defendants stuck in pre-trial detention.

“This report shows a process fraught with significant delays and unfairness, exacerbating the widespread climate of misuse, discrimination, and intimidation that has developed around Pakistan’s blasphemy law,” said Zimran Samuel, a CFJ legal expert and visiting professor in practice at the London School of Economics.

“Pakistan’s blasphemy provisions in their current form and as they are being implemented are in urgent need of reform and reconsideration,” Samuel said.

Making derogatory remarks against Islam or the Prophet Muhammad in Muslim-majority Pakistan is punishable by death under the country’s blasphemy laws, though no one has ever been executed under the laws.

The CFJ’s report criticized the country’s blasphemy laws for being inconsistent with international standards, especially the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The study noted that many blasphemy accusations lack evidence, with complainants often not witnessing the alleged acts. In some cases, it added that the specific blasphemous words are not even identified.

Despite safeguards in place, such as the requirement for government approval of charges, these are often disregarded, the report alleged.

The CFJ stated that defendants are often arrested without warrants, denied bail, and subjected to repeated adjournments due to missing witnesses, prolonging their legal ordeals. It called for Pakistan to repeal its blasphemy laws, raise the standards for filing allegations, deter false accusations, and reform court procedures to prevent endless delays.

"The judicial system in Pakistan has completely failed in preventing the abuse and malafide (bad faith) use of the blasphemy laws in Pakistan,” the report quoted Hina Jilani, a leading human rights lawyer and activist in Pakistan.

“While there are concerns regarding the laws as they are currently framed, the way that courts disregard the few procedural safeguards that were added to the legal framework has rendered prosecution in such cases farcical and an epitome of injustice,” stated Jilani, a recipient of the American Society of International Law award.

The report highlighted that some cases do not even go to trial, with mob violence against those accused of blasphemy on the rise.

Pakistani officials did not immediately respond to the CFJ findings, which came ahead of the United Nations Human Rights Committee’s review of the country, scheduled for October 17.

Islamabad has consistently rejected foreign criticism of its blasphemy laws, calling it an internal matter for Pakistan to deal with.

The report came just days after a police officer in the southwestern province of Balochistan shot and killed a man who was being held in custody on blasphemy allegations. The victim, a Muslim, was arrested a day earlier for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Prophet Muhammad.

In June, a 73-year-old Pakistani man from the minority Christian community died in a hospital a week after being violently attacked by a mob in his native Sargodha district in Punjab following accusations he insulted Islam.

Days later, on June 20, a Muslim man from Punjab was visiting the scenic Swat Valley in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when a mob violently lynched him for allegedly desecrating Islam’s holy book, the Quran.

Hundreds of suspects, mostly Muslims, are languishing in jails in Pakistan because fear of retaliation from religious groups deters judges from moving their trials forward.

The CFJ report backed long-running local and international rights groups’ concerns that the strict blasphemy laws are often misused to settle personal vendettas or to persecute Pakistani minority communities.

The organization says its CFJ legal experts are tasked to monitor criminal trials globally against those who are most vulnerable, particularly journalists, democracy defenders, women and girls, LGBTQ+ persons, and minorities.
Pakistani pleads not guilty in alleged Iran plot to kill US official (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [9/16/2024 6:36 PM, Staff, 88008K, Negative]
A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty Monday to plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the American military killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a government official in the United States, the Justice Department and prosecutors said in a statement.

A court document showed that Merchant pleaded not guilty to all counts, with a next hearing scheduled for November 6, 2024.

Soleimani, the head of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to avenge his killing.

"As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans," US Attorney General Merrick Garland said previously.

The intended victim was not identified but the Garland has previously said no evidence has emerged to link Merchant with the July 13 assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the Pakistani national had "close ties to Iran" and that the alleged murder-for-hire plot was "straight out of the Iranian playbook."

Another FBI official said the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were in fact undercover FBI agents.

"After spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the United States from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme to kill a politician or government official," the Justice Department said in a statement.

"That person reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source."

Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he planned to leave the country.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August it had "not received any report on this from the American government."

"But it is clear that this method is contrary to the Iranian government’s policy of pursuing Soleimani’s killer," the mission said in a statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.
India
Modi’s Key Rival in Kashmir Says Restoring Statehood Is Priority (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [9/16/2024 10:30 PM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Debjit Chakraborty, 27782K, Neutral]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s top political opponent in India’s volatile Jammu and Kashmir region says restoring power in the hands of the people is a priority if his party wins local elections that begin this week.

Omar Abdullah, who is seen as the likely next chief minister of the region if his coalition wins the most number of seats in the local assembly elections, said statehood is necessary for peace and stability.

“The first thing any elected government should do is to immediately demand the restoration of statehood,” Abdullah, 54, said in an interview at his residence in Srinagar. He leads an alliance between his party — the Jammu & Kashmir National Conference — and the Indian National Congress, the country’s main opposition group.

In August 2019, Modi stripped Jammu and Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority state in the country, of autonomy by downgrading its status to a union territory, bringing it under federal control. Part of the region was also split off into a separate union territory known as Ladakh. At the same time, Modi’s party amended the constitution to remove Article 370 that gave the people in Jammu and Kashmir special privileges and the ability to make their own laws, except on defense, foreign affairs, communication and finance.

Local elections in Jammu and Kashmir — which will take place in three phases from Sept. 18 to Oct. 1 — will be the first since the state lost its autonomy five years ago. Residents will elect 90 candidates for the assembly, with the party or coalition winning the most number of seats selecting a chief minister.

Unlike a state, a union territory with a legislature has reduced powers. The chief minister will have no control over important functions like policing, health and financing, which will fall under the authority of the central government — represented in the region by the lieutenant governor.

Abdullah and his allies want to ensure state powers are returned to Jammu and Kashmir so local lawmakers have more say over governance. Restoring statehood was the first step toward that goal, the political leader said in the interview.

“After that we will look to start implementing the promises made to improve the quality of governance and delivery of services to the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. Abdullah is contesting the elections from two constituencies.

Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader in the Congress party and ally of Abdullah, pledged at an election rally on Sept. 4 in south Kashmir that statehood would be restored to the region whether Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party “wants it or not.”

The process to restore Jammu and Kashmir as a state won’t be straightforward though, according to legal experts.

“Restoration of statehood would be somewhat lengthy, starting with the lieutenant governor making a recommendation to the federal government, who then will move parliament to amend the 2019 Act,” said Abani Sahu, a senior counsel in India’s Supreme Court and a constitutional lawyer.

The BJP is contesting 62 of the 90 seats up for grabs, with the majority of those in the Hindu-dominant Jammu constituencies. Abdullah’s main contest will be against the People’s Democratic Party, led by Mehbooba Mufti, also a former chief minister in the state.

Separatist Sentiment

Avinash Mohananey, who previously worked on the Kashmir desk in the central government’s Home Ministry, said there were a number of independent candidates — some of them aligned to separatists movements — who could determine the election outcome.

“Omar Abdullah’s alliance has an edge despite being vilified by the BJP, but a lot depends on how independents candidates,of which there is a substantial number, fare and which they go after the elections,” he said.

Jammu and Kashmir has faced decades of separatist violence, with frequent clashes between militants and India’s military. Kashmir is claimed in full by both Pakistan and India, but divided and controlled by both countries.

Fearing protests after stripping the state of its autonomy in 2019, Modi’s government cut internet access, imprisoned leaders including Abdullah for months and curtailed political activity.

Election results will be released on Oct. 8, along with the vote count in the northern Indian state of Haryana, home to companies like Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The regional elections come just months after Modi’s party returned to power in June with a reduced majority in the parliament. While a victory for Abdullah’s coalition in the Jammu and Kashmir elections won’t threaten Modi’s federal government, it would be another symbolic blow for the prime minister’s strongman image.

“I don’t think there is anybody who’s willing to compromise on statehood,” Abdullah said. “Making us union territory was simply to humiliate us.”
Large turnout is expected in a crucial vote for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir (AP)
AP [9/17/2024 2:06 AM, Aijaz Hussain, 456K, Neutral]
In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule. But in the run-up to the local election beginning Wednesday, many are willing to buck that trend and use their vote to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the power to form a local government in the disputed region.

The vote is the first in a decade, and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in 2019 scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s special status and downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in the region as an assault on its identity and autonomy.

“Boycotts will not work in this election,” said Abdul Rashid, a resident in southern Kashmir’s Shangus village. “There is a desperate need to end the onslaught of changes coming from there (India).”

The election will allow residents to have their own truncated government and a local parliament called an assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule. The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time ruled the region in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party.

But the government collapsed in 2018 after BJP withdrew from the coalition. Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.

This time, New Delhi says the polls are ushering in democracy after more than three decades of strife. However, many locals see the vote as an opportunity not only to elect their own representatives but also to register their protest against the 2019 changes.

Polling will be held in three phases. The second and third phases are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1. Votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day.

Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Since 1947, the neighbors have fought two wars over its control, after British rule of the subcontinent ended with the creation of the two countries. Both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.

In 2019, the Indian-controlled part of the region was divided into two territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, ruled directly by New Delhi. The region has been on edge since it lost its flag, criminal code, constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.

Multiple pro-India Kashmiri parties, many of whose leaders were among thousands jailed in 2019, are contesting the election, promising to reverse those changes. Some lower-rung separatist leaders, who in the past dismissed polls as illegitimate exercises under military occupation, are also running for office as independent candidates.

India’s main opposition Congress party, which favors restoration of the region’s statehood, has formed an alliance with the National Conference, the region’s largest party. Modi’s BJP has a strong political base in Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu that largely favor the 2019 changes but is weak in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of anti-India rebellion.

“Our main concern is governance through local representatives. It will be good for us if the BJP forms the government here as it’s already in power at the center,” said Chuni Lal, a shopkeeper in Jammu city.

The vote will see a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly, with a chief minister at the top heading a council of ministers. But Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — a region directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament remaining its main legislator.

The elected government will have partial control over areas like education, culture and taxation but not over the police. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states in India. However, it will not have the special powers it enjoyed before the 2019 changes.

Last year, India’s Supreme Court endorsed the government’s 2019 changes but ordered New Delhi to conduct local polls by the end of September and restore Kashmir’s statehood. Modi’s government has promised to restore statehood after the polls but has not specified a timeline.

Elections in Indian-held Kashmir have remained a sensitive issue. Many believe they have been rigged multiple times in favor of local politicians who subsequently became India’s regional enforcers, used to incrementally dilute laws that offered Kashmir a special status and legitimize New Delhi’s militaristic policies.

In the mid-1980s, the region’s dissident political groups emerged as a formidable force against Kashmir’s pro-India political elite but lost the 1987 election widely believed to have been rigged. A public backlash followed, with some young activists taking up arms and demanding a united Kashmir, either under Pakistani rule or independent of both.

India insists the insurgency is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting, which most Kashmiri Muslims consider a legitimate freedom struggle.

Noor Ahmed Baba, a political scientist, said the outcome of the polls “is not going to change the dynamics of the Kashmir dispute” since it will end with a largely powerless legislature, but will be crucial for optics.

“If local parties win, it is going to put some pressure on the central government and perhaps delegitimize from a democratic perspective what has been done to Kashmir. But a BJP win can allow the party to consolidate and validate 2019 changes in the local legislature,” Baba said.

India’s ruling BJP is not officially aligned with any local party, but many politicians believe it is tacitly supporting some parties and independent candidates who privately agree with its stances.

The National Conference party says Modi’s BJP is trying to manipulate the election through independent candidates. “Their (BJP’s) concerted effort is to divide the vote in Kashmir,” said Tanvir Sadiq, a candidate from the National Conference.

The BJP’s national secretary, meanwhile, says his party’s former ally, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the National Conference are being supported by former militants. Ram Madhav said at a recent rally that they want to return the region to its “trouble-filled days.”

For residents whose civil liberties have been curbed, the election is also a chance to choose representatives they hope will address their main issues.

Many say that while the election won’t solve the dispute over Kashmir, it will give them a rare window to express their frustration with Indian control.

“We need some relief and end of bureaucratic rule here,” said Rafiq Ahmed, a taxi driver in the region’s main city of Srinagar.
India in talks with ethnic groups clashing in Manipur state (Reuters)
Reuters [9/17/2024 2:44 AM, Pushkala Aripaka and Tora Agarwala, 5.2M, Neutral]
The Indian government is in talks seeking to resolve a long-running conflict between two ethnic communities in the northeastern state of Manipur, Interior Minister Amit Shah said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Internet and mobile data services were restored in Manipur on Monday, official orders showed, after being suspended in some areas last week when student protests turned violent amid fresh fighting between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki groups.

"We hope that we will be able bring the situation (in Manipur) under control," Shah told reporters at an event outlining the first 100 days of the third term of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration.

"If both (ethnic groups) do not come to an understanding, there won’t be a resolution to the matter," Shah said, adding that the government was prepared with a "road map" outlining a range of efforts for the coming days.

Manipur’s government is led by Modi and Shah’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The local government imposed a curfew in the Imphal Valley and surrounding districts last week, and government and private colleges in the state, which borders Myanmar, were also ordered shut for a few days.

Schools are set to reopen on Tuesday, according to a government order, while a partial curfew is still in effect.

At least 225 people have died and some 60,000 have been displaced since fighting broke out last year between the Meitei and Kuki communities over the sharing of economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education that are given to the tribal Kukis.
Indian State Reopens Schools, Restores Internet After Ethnic Clashes (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [9/17/2024 12:00 AM, Staff, 1.4M, Positive]
Schools reopened in India’s northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday, more than a week after they shuttered due to deadly ethnic violence and clashes between protesters and police, the local government said.

Fighting broke out in Manipur in May 2023 between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community, an ethnic conflict that has since killed at least 200 people.

Since then, communities have splintered into rival groups across swaths of the northeastern state, which borders war-torn Myanmar.

After months of relative calm, an uptick in violence again this month saw at least 11 people killed, including by insurgents reportedly firing rockets and dropping bombs with drones.

Subsequent demonstrations by Meitei students against the fighting in the state capital Imphal turned violent, prompting the authorities to issue a curfew and an internet blackout in parts of the state.

The violence has since abated, and a government order said "normal classes will resume for all schools in the state" starting Tuesday, a day after internet services were restored.

"I urge everyone to use the internet responsibly and refrain from sharing or posting any unnecessary or inflammatory content that may disturb the peace and harmony," state chief minister Biren Singh said.

Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.

Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.

Manipur is ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
India condemns Iran supreme leader’s comments on treatment of minorities (Reuters)
Reuters [9/16/2024 11:23 PM, Tanvi Mehta, 5.2M, Neutral]
India has condemned comments made by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the treatment of Muslims in the South Asian nation, calling his remarks "misinformed and unacceptable".

"We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in Myanmar, Gaza, India, or any other place," Khamenei said in a social media post on Monday.

In response, India’s foreign ministry said it "strongly deplored" the comments.

"Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others," the foreign ministry spokesperson said.

The two countries have typically shared a strong relationship, and signed a 10-year contract in May to develop and operate the Iranian port of Chabahar.

India has been developing the port in Chabahar on Iran’s south-eastern coast along the Gulf of Oman as a way to transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan and central Asian countries, bypassing the ports of Karachi and Gwadar in its rival Pakistan.

Khamenei, however, has been critical of India in the past over issues involving Indian Muslims and the troubled Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
India Finance Minister Is Confident of Meeting Deficit Aims (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [9/16/2024 9:57 AM, Anup Roy, 27782K, Neutral]
Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday that the country’s fiscal deficit will be brought down to or below 4.5% of gross domestic product by the next financial year, which ends in March 2026.

“I am confident and hopeful” that the deficit will be lowered in line with what was announced in the budget in July, Sitharaman said in an interview with CNBC TV18. The government plans to cut its budget deficit to 5.1% of GDP this financial year.

Sitharaman also warned retail investors about speculating in the stock markets. The authorities must ensure that people don’t end up investing in “highly fluctuating or high risk ventures,” she said.

“There is no harm in participating in futures and options, or no harm in going on investing in the equities markets, but eventually we need to be using authentic financial information before we take a call,” Sitharaman said.

The finance minister had previously warned

against heavy investments by retail investments in the F&O segment of the markets.

Sitharaman reserved her judgment on allegations of impropriety against the chair of India’s market regulator Madhabi Puri Buch.

“Quite a few of the allegations are answered by her and by her husband, and they are putting out facts to contradict those alleged by the Congress party,” Sitharaman said, referring to India’s main political opposition. “Facts have to be taken on board.”

She also said it’s the duty of the government to safeguard small traders and retailers from predatory pricing of e-commerce firms.
Adani Airport Controversy in Kenya Discredits India’s Reputation in Africa (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [9/16/2024 8:18 AM, Rushali Saha, 1198K, Neutral]
Earlier this month, a long-simmering dispute involving the Adani Group erupted into a full-blown aviation crisis with hundreds of passengers strandedat Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA). Kenya Aviation Workers Union (KAWU) members are protesting against the build-and-operate agreement allegedly in the works with the Adani Group, which critics say is expected to result in significant job losses and impose additional tax burden on Kenyans.

Union workers are demanding the government disclose all details of the proposed agreement, which remains shrouded in secrecy. They have found support from opposition leaders, who are calling for the project to be abandoned.

In response to a petition by the Kenya Human Rights Commission and Law Society of Kenya to stop the deal, the high court hasgranted a temporary order, suspending the deal pending the determination of the case. While the government’s position is that only a legally non-binding "head of terms" agreement has been signed with Adani, senators allege that the "takeover" project is a "done deal."

This controversy surrounding the deal comes soon after weeks of youth-led demonstrations against the Finance Bill, which resulted in President William Ruto not only withdrawing the bill but also replacing his entire Cabinet, with the promise of tackling corruption within the bureaucracy.

The Ruto government is in a particularly precarious position with little room left to negotiate with the public. Not only has it brought back focus on corruption and transparency within the government but also the involvement of an Indian conglomerate has put New Delhi’s hard-earned reputation as a trusted partner in Africa at stake.

The project to upgrade JKIA has a long, troubled history. In 2012, Kenya began work on a $653 million expansion projection at JKIA, which would involve the construction of a new terminal and runway under an agreement with Chinese companies, Anhui Civil Engineering Group and China National Aero-Technology International Engineering Corporation. Launched in 2013, the tender was subsequently canceled in 2016, citing "material differences between the terms of the request for proposal and the construction contract." Following a long and arduous process, which even moved to the International Court of Arbitration, Kenya Aviation Authority (KAA) agreed to pay $4 million to the Chinese contractors in an out-of-court settlement.

In 2021, reports emerged that KAA was planning to revive the project by constructing a new terminal, which would be operational by 2027. In 2023, the then-minister of roads and transport revealed that the expansion project would proceed under a public-private partnership (PPP) model, the tender process for which would begin on January 15, 2024. No advertisement had been released by the KAA untilMay 2024 when an invitation for bids was published for "Provision of Consultancy Services For PPP Project Of Construction Of New Terminal Building & Associated Works At JKIA."

Moreover, it was only in June 2024 that the Cabinet approved the JKIA Medium-Term Investment Plan. However, the KAA revealed that it received the proposal from Adani Airport Holdings of India in March 2024, after a whistleblower claimed in a social media post that JKIA would be leased to the Indian conglomerate.

Initially, it was reported that the proposal came after the government approved the investment plan. This raises some key questions about whether due diligence was done for the bidding and if a competitive process was put in place.

Despite the government’s insistence that no deal has been signed, it is clear that the agreement is in its advanced stages. Amid protests, Kenyan officials have already completed a due-diligence visit to India, just days after Adani Enterprises established a Kenyan subsidiary called Airports Infrastructure PLC to "take over, operate, maintain, develop, design, construct, upgrade, modernize, and manage the airports." The next steps would involve stakeholder engagement, approval from the National Treasury, clearance from the attorney general, and Cabinet approval.

With Indian private companies playing an increasingly important role in India’s foreign policy making, New Delhi is left in a vulnerable position of losing trust amongst the Africans. New Delhi has built for itself the reputation of a reliable and trustworthy investor, which is touted as a model for other countries.

Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India-Africa relations soared to new heights, exemplified by the African Union’s permanent membership in the G-20 under India’s presidency. In recent years, India hasemerged as one of the top five investors in Africa, with investments estimated to be around $74 billion.

Despite the criticism that Indian projects spearheaded by state-run companies face challenges with project delivery and implementation, India has successfully carved a niche for itself as a strategic partner by successfully employing soft power tools. Several private Indian companies such as Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel are well-established players in the African industry, complemented by the presence of a rich Indian diaspora.

While the Adani deal does not directly involve the Indian government, the group’s alleged links with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party have garnered international attention and raised speculations. Gautam Adani has said that his overseas investments are "sound business decisions," which also "help India and the region’s interests." In the face of growing international pressure on the Adanis, especially since the Hindenburg report, this association, however distant and tenuous, comes with more challenges than benefits for New Delhi.

Adani’s overseas projects in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are facing similar challenges, further complicating matters for New Delhi. While India’s Ministry of External Affairs has distanced itself from the projects and urged associated parties to deal with them at an "appropriate level," the lack of transparency around how private companies liaise with Indian authorities overseas complicates matters.

At a time when India is leaning more toward the private sector to fulfill its overseas economic goals, New Delhi needs to introspect and take necessary measures to ensure its credibility remains unaffected.
India’s Struggle to Find a Meaningful Role in Southeast Asia (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [9/16/2024 8:16 AM, Sandeep Bhardwaj, 1198K, Neutral]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Singapore and Brunei Darussalam in early September once again underscored Southeast Asia’s enormous significance in Indian foreign policy - not only for strategic and economic reasons but because India cannot credibly claim to be a global power until it demonstrates that it can play a meaningful role within its own extended neighborhood. The Indian government has pursued the Look/Act East policy for three decades with the aim of strengthening its security, trade, and cultural presence within the ASEAN region. "For India, no region now receives as much attention as this," Modi declared at the Shangri La Dialogue in 2018.

Yet, after 30 years of the Look/Act East policy, the relationship has failed to gain momentum on its own, and India is struggling to define a meaningful role for itself in Southeast Asia. For the last six years, the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s The State of Southeast Asia surveys have found that the region’s elites consistently rank India lowest among all major powers in terms of its strategic, political, or economic influence in Southeast Asia. In 2024, nearly 2,000 respondents from academia, governments, and civil society across the region ranked India ninth out of 11 major powers in its strategic relevance to the ASEAN countries.

A key cause of India’s inability to carve out a greater role for itself in the region is the fundamental divergence in their international approaches. Although Southeast Asian countries are not a monolith, they have developed a broad consensus on four key questions. India maintains a markedly different outlook on all four.

First, as small countries facing significant external threats, Southeast Asians support and wish to strengthen the existing U.S.-led rule-based global order, some misgivings aside. The ISEAS-Yusuf Ishak survey shows that the regional elites continue to favor U.S. leadership of the world. India, on the other hand, espouses a multipolar world. Despite its improving relations with the United States, it has often expressed skepticism toward U.S. global leadership. The ongoing Ukraine War provides a clear instance of the stark divide between India and Southeast Asian countries. While most of the region has supported United Nations resolutions condemning the Russian invasion, India had consistently abstained from voting against Moscow’s interests.

Second, Southeast Asian countries have pursued a relatively firm but friendly approach toward China. While wary of Beijing’s rising assertiveness, they have sought mutually beneficial economic cooperation and tried to avoid sustained confrontation with it. They have been careful not to be swept up in the emerging China-U.S. rivalry. Meanwhile, India’s relations with China have sharply deteriorated following their border skirmish in 2020. New Delhi considers Beijing to be its strategic and economic rival, and it increasingly sees its presence in Southeast Asia as a direct competitor to China. This zero-sum mindset has made many in the region uncomfortable.

Third, export-dependent Southeast Asian countries broadly support liberal international trade, while India is often ambivalent and hesitant to open up its markets. While calling for an "open" Indo-Pacific, the Modi government has also promoted protectionist policies under its "Make in India" campaign. As per the latest data from the World Trade Organization, the average import tax in India is 18.3 percent, while in Southeast Asia it ranges from 0 to 11.5 percent. In 2019, India backed out of the ASEAN-centered free trade agreement called the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the last minute. India’s trade deficit with Southeast Asia has grown rapidly in the last two decades to reach nearly a quarter of the total trade, which makes it all the more hesitant to keep its market open to the manufacturing hubs of the region.

The final point of difference is regional multilateralism, a highly-prized feature of Southeast Asian politics. ASEAN is one of the most successful regional organizations in the world, instrumental in fostering peace and economic cooperation in the region. In contrast, India is a reluctant regionalist. Historically, New Delhi has preferred to deal with its smaller South Asian neighbors bilaterally rather than multilaterally. South Asia is one of the least integrated regions in the world, with moribund regional forums. While New Delhi has sought to act as a constructive partner to ASEAN, it has yet to demonstrate that it can champion regional cooperation and lead the establishment and management of regional institutions.

The divergence between the international outlooks of India and Southeast Asia places limits on what the Look/Act East policy can achieve. India’s incremental investments in the region through trade deals or military exercises are unlikely to bridge the divide. In fact, as the international order comes under growing strain, differences over such first-order principles will become increasingly salient. To establish itself as a significant actor in the region, India needs to consciously seek common ground with Southeast Asian countries on fundamental questions of regional order. Rather than assuming that others will follow its lead by default, it has to invest in understanding the needs and perspectives of its neighbors in order to encourage a united front to confront future challenges.

To lead Asia, India may need to rethink some of the basic precepts of its worldview.
Narendra Modi starts losing battles (The Economist)
The Economist [9/16/2024 1:43 PM, Staff, 7430K, Neutral]
For many Indians, the general election result in June was a stunning repudiation of Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister. But to hear him speak of it, that isn’t the case. He insists that despite the damning loss of his party’s parliamentary majority, which forced him to rely on coalition partners, the vote was for "continuity". He has barely changed his cabinet since scraping together a minority government. In public, he has doubled down on pledges to turn India into a developed nation by 2047, the centenary of its independence. And his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is campaigning for imminent regional elections on a familiar platform of development and Hindu nationalism.

The new government also claims to be on track to complete a plan for its first 100 days that Mr Modi and his ministers started to compile as soon as campaigning started. Mr Modi has ordered all ministries to report their progress, details of which are expected to be published on September 17th, the 100th day of his third term and also his birthday. They are likely to include approving infrastructure projects worth $39bn, expanding an affordable-housing programme and launching a new national pension scheme.

On the surface, Modi 3.0 may look much like his first two terms. Dig deeper, however, and a significant change becomes apparent. Mr Modi’s new government has, in fact, withdrawn a series of politically important initiatives under pressure from an emboldened opposition and from pressure groups. India’s courts have been showing their mettle too, challenging the government or the BJP in a number of high-profile cases. And even within his own political camp, Mr Modi is facing demands to adjust his leadership style, as well as some of his policies.

Further hazards loom. The BJP faces bruising contests in all five state elections due in the next six months. One in Jammu & Kashmir, starting on September 18th, is the first since Mr Modi scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomous status in 2019. The BJP may struggle to retain control of Haryana, which votes on October 5th, and Maharashtra, where a November poll is likely. The opposition, meanwhile, is likely to hold onto Jharkhand and Delhi in elections due by January and February, respectively.

To Mr Modi’s supporters, his recent record demonstrates sound leadership. They say he has learned from the election result and is willing to consult more broadly, even as he advances his reform agenda. He is still popular, they add, and deserves credit as the first Indian politician to win three consecutive terms as prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in the 1950s and 1960s. Besides, the BJP controls many more parliament seats than did the Congress party, its main national rival, while leading coalition governments from 2004 to 2014.

But can Mr Modi really turn from strongman to consensus-builder? He has never had to share power before. While campaigning he suggested he could be of divine birth and sidelined many political allies. Hence the unusually public criticism of late from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Hindu-nationalist organisation from which the BJP grew. And even if he makes the transition, a more collaborative approach might force him to scrap some promised reforms and offer costly handouts.

The compromise candidate

Mr Modi may yet master consultative government, ultimately leading to better policy-making, says Rahul Verma of the Centre for Policy Research, a think-tank in Delhi. But results will be slower. And early signs suggest he has yet to adjust fully: he could, for example, have consulted more broadly on the recently withdrawn initiatives before putting them forward. Failure to adapt, meanwhile, could lead to further electoral losses and even a challenge to Mr Modi’s leadership from within.

One of the government’s first climb-downs came in early August, when it referred new legislation on Muslim charitable endowments to a joint parliamentary committee. That was remarkable because Mr Modi rammed most laws through parliament in the last decade. Opposition and Muslim leaders denounced the bill as a curb on religious freedom. More tellingly, one of Mr Modi’s key coalition partners also backed referral to the committee.

Soon after that came a U-turn on a broadcasting services bill. The government published one draft in November, aiming to tighten regulation of digital and other media. A beefed up version was then circulated among stakeholders in July but suddenly recalled in mid-August following objections from many. They feared it would stifle social media platforms such as YouTube, now widely used by Mr Modi’s critics. A new draft might not appear for two years, people involved say.

Then, on August 20th, the government withdrew an advertisement seeking applicants for senior bureaucratic posts from outside the civil service. The advertisement was part of a Modi initiative to bring expertise into government. But it, too, caused an outcry as no posts were reserved for lower Hindu castes and other minorities as they usually are in the bureaucracy under an affirmative action scheme. The episode sparked fresh calls for a national caste census, opposition demands for which won wide support in the general election. The BJP has long opposed such an exercise but may be preparing another U-turn: the RSS voiced support for a caste census for the first time on September 2nd.

That may appease some lower-caste voters but it could alienate upper-caste Hindus, many of whom are BJP stalwarts. If a caste census is conducted, its results could undermine BJP claims about improved social mobility. And such big policy reversals come at the expense of Mr Modi’s public image as a muscular, infallible leader. "We have finished Modi psychologically," Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition, said on September 4th. "I sit in front of him in parliament and I know his confidence is gone."

Another boost for the opposition came on September 13th when the Supreme Court granted bail to Arvind Kerjiwal, the chief minister of Delhi and leader of an opposition party. That will allow him to contest the Delhi election more aggressively. It is also the court’s latest move to rein in investigative agencies that have targeted several opposition leaders. Mr Kejriwal was arrested in March on corruption charges that he says are politically motivated.

Although India’s courts are still susceptible to government pressure, the Supreme Court has been more assertive in other politically charged cases too. In July, it blocked three BJP-ruled states from requiring shops and eateries on a Hindu pilgrimage route to display their owners’ names (a policy clearly aimed at Muslim owners). In September the court also warned state governments against demolishing the property of those accused of crimes before they are convicted. Such demolitions often target Muslims in BJP-ruled states.

As for Mr Modi’s 100-day plan, he has indeed hit many of his targets. But he had to adjust several parts after the election result. One omission was a proposal to privatise at least two state-owned companies. That apparently faced opposition from some coalition members. He also added new details, including a review of a scheme to recruit soldiers for fixed four-year terms. That scheme was designed to lower pension costs, which absorb more than a fifth of military spending. But it was hated by recruits, who were previously hired for at least 15 years with a full pension. Another of Mr Modi’s coalition partners demanded a review.

None of this spells disaster for Mr Modi. It is early days and he has scored some important wins, quickly winding up government-forming talks with coalition partners and then tweaking his budget to allocate more money to job creation. India is still the world’s fastest growing major economy: on September 3rd, the World Bank upgraded its GDP forecast for this financial year from 6.6% to 7%. Still, Modi 3.0 clearly needs more than continuity. It demands compromise too.
NSB
Islamist Parties Gaining Ground in Bangladesh Amid Post-Hasina Political Vacuum (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [9/16/2024 8:27 AM, Saqlain Rizve, 1198K, Neutral]
With the fallof Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year autocratic regime, Bangladesh’s political landscape is shifting into a new dimension. As the once-dominant Awami League (AL), led by Hasina herself, and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) struggle to maintain their grip, a political vacuum has set the stage for a realignment. Amid the weakening of traditional parties, the weakness of leftist factions and people’s frustration with the AL-BNP power cycle, Islamist groups are seizing the moment to step into the spotlight.

For example, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which had operated at a minimal level during the Hasina regime, especially in public university campuses through their student wing Bangladesh, Islami Chhatrashibir, and by promoting Islamic preachers around the country, is now reasserting its presence. Now JI is expanding its influence from urban centers to rural areas and among conservative sections of the population.

Bangladesh’s political landscape is characterized by a wide array of parties, including 44 active political parties. Among these are 13 Islamic parties, which are becoming increasingly prominent. Key players in this movement include JI, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, and Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis. Hefazat-e-Islam, though not a political party, wields significant influence through its large support base and vocal leader, Mamunul Haque. The group gained popularity during the 2013 protests at the capital’s Shapla Chattar.

While the AL committed to secularism and modernization, promoting economic development and a secular state, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has traditionally appealed to nationalist sentiments, with a focus on social justice, which grants the party a more conservative agenda than that of the AL but less in line with the ideas of Islamists.

Islamist parties do promote a political model of governance based on Islamic doctrine and, therefore, focus on an inclusive policy toward Sharia within the political context. It is worth mentioning that around 90 percent of the population in Bangladesh practices Islam. Hindus comprise 8 percent of the population. Christians, Buddhists, and others account for the remainder.

Although the BNP is still considered the largest opposition party, it was substantially weakened during Hasina’s rule. Years of harassment and imprisonment by the AL government along with internal strife took a heavy toll on the party. The recent release of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and the potential return of her son Tarique Rahman could give the party some momentum. Yet it may not regain its erstwhile importance.

Moreover, the absence of a robust leftist presence has also inadvertently paved the way for radical parties to gain prominence. Historically, leftist parties like the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB) played crucial roles in historical movements. However, today, these parties are numerically small and significantly divided by internal dissensions. The AL’s crackdown is also one of the main reasons for their weakness.

A look at the past indicates that the advent of Islamist parties in a popular opposition has created a comfortable environment for extremism to operate, whether intentionally or unintentionally. In fact, during the period beginning with 1991-1996 under the BNP, Islamist parties like JI gained more influence. There was a greater inclusion of religious rhetoric into mainstream politics during this period.

This influence became more entrenched when the BNP came to power again in 2001 in coalition with Islamist parties. Data shows an increase in extremist activities during this period. Groups such as Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) and Hizb Ut Tahrir (HTB) carried out bombings and targeted foreign diplomats, judges, and writers, including the perpetration of a spate of bombings across the country in 2005. The most alarming aspect is that the HTB is now actively protesting in various places demanding the lifting of the ban on the outfit. The organization was banned in 2009 due to its calls for the establishment of a caliphate, which is a threat to national security and democratic values.

Apart from political activities, Islamist parties have gained significant popularity through social welfare, disaster relief, and educational support work. Their grassroots humanitarian initiatives, especially during recent floods in Cumilla, Feni, and Noakhali, have built a strong community presence and trust, expanding their support beyond mere politics.

In contrast, since August 5, numerous accusations surfaced against BNP leaders for engaging in illicit activities especially extortion and attacks on AL leaders, leading to public disillusionment. Although the BNP has suspended several implicated activists, the damage to their credibility poses a significant concern.

Despite gaining popularity among people day by day, Islamist parties are now aiming for coalition-building - a new development, as traditionally, they had differing theological bases.

Mia Golam Parwar, secretary of JI, recently told BBC Bangla, "We hope that all the Islamic parties will do the election in a coalition. A desire for unity is clearly noticeable among the parties, which we never saw in the past."

At a rally in Dhaka on August 31, Islami Andolan Bangladesh’s Senior Naib-e-Ameer Mufti Syed Muhammad Faizul Karim hinted at a potential alliance between Islami Andolon Bangladesh and JI. He said that if there is consensus, the two parties could unite.

He remarked, "Today, I say to Jamaat: a golden opportunity is approaching. The election will not take place tomorrow. This is a remarkable chance to fight the election together."

This coalition, comprising some parties that were earlier fragmented, may just prove to be a game-changer in the case of Bangladesh. If the coalition wins, many believe there will be an increase in Islamist representation and possibly a policy change in the growing inclination toward conservative and religiously aligned governance.

However, the process of coalition building will face various obstacles on different theological beliefs. For example, the bone of contention for the alliance would be differing views regarding shrines, as one group has a pro-veneration stance toward these places of worship whereas another group is against this type of veneration. Ideological differences promote vandalism activities, which make efforts toward attaining a consolidated posture difficult. Already many shrines have been vandalized in various places around the country.

Moreover, historical and political baggage, like the controversial past of JI during the Liberation War in 1971, add difficulties to forging a cohesive coalition. Many parties don’t like JI for their involvement with Pakistan during the war and its different political agenda.

Moreover, while Islamic political parties have generally performed well in street protests, they haven’t done as well at the ballot box. In the 1991 national election, JI won only 18 seats among 300 in the coalition of the BNP. In the 2001 elections, JI secured only 17 seats. Yet, this was followed by a series of setbacks. By the 2008 elections, JI could only manage to obtain two seats through its four-party alliance with the BNP.

So, the current political vacuum in Bangladesh presents both opportunities and challenges for Islamist parties and the people of the country. While their rise is facilitated by the weakening of mainstream parties and growing public discontent with the AL and the BNP alternating in power, the path ahead is fraught with obstacles, including internal theological differences and historical baggage. The success of Islamist parties in forming a cohesive coalition and gaining electoral success will significantly shape Bangladesh’s future political landscape. As the country navigates this transitional period, the balance between radicalism and moderation will be crucial in determining the stability and direction of Bangladesh’s democracy.
Chased out by protesters, a political dynasty plots its comeback (BBC)
BBC [9/16/2024 6:50 PM, Ayeshea Perera, 67197K, Neutral]
Exuberant young men splashing around in a pool with one theatrically soaping himself as a crowd cheered. Sri Lankans dancing in an opulent hallway as the iconic papare bands played festive tunes with trumpets and drums.

These scenes beamed across the world on 13 July 2022 in the hours after crowds overran the presidential palace, forcing then-leader Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.

It was a moment of triumph for them.

Hundreds of thousands of people from across Sri Lanka had defied a national curfew - they braved tear gas shells and water cannons to march peacefully to the presidential palace, calling on Rajapaksa to step down.

For weeks, he had resisted calls to resign, even though his elder brother Mahinda Rajapaksa had already quit as prime minister to try to defuse public fury.

Months of protests - called the "aragalaya" (struggle) in Sinhala - had culminated in the events of July 2022, leading to Mr Rajapaksa’s humiliating, hurried exit.

Just a few months earlier, such events would have been unthinkable.

For years, the Rajapaksa family – led by Mahinda - held a vice-like grip over Sri Lankan politics.

In his first term, Mahinda Rajapaksa presided over the bloody end to Sri Lanka’s civil war against Tamil Tiger rebels. That victory helped him establish himself as a national “saviour" among the island’s majority Sinhalese - his most ardent supporters compared him to an emperor.

As he grew more powerful, so did his family. He appointed his younger brother, Gotabaya, as defence secretary - a position he wielded ruthlessly, critics say. Two other brothers - Basil and Chamal - rose to the jobs of finance minister and parliamentary speaker respectively.

The family appealed to a majority-Sinhalese nationalist base. So, for years, they survived allegations of corruption, economic misrule, widespread human rights abuses and suppression of dissent.

That changed in 2022, when a slew of policies set off the country’s worst-ever economic crisis.

Seventeen years after Mahinda first became president, Sri Lankan crowds celebrated the Rajapaksas’ fall, certain the family was finished.

But was it?

Cut to two years later, and Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, Namal, has thrown his hat into the ring for the presidential election to be held on 21 September.

“It is bad enough that the people who were driven out after the aragalaya [mass protests] are contesting these polls," Lakshan Sandaruwan, a university student who took part in the demonstrations, told BBC Sinhala. "What is even worse is that some may actually vote for a member of that family.”

Namal is not the only Rajapaksa who is back on the scene.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa himself – the man angry protesters chased out of the country - did not stay away for long.

He returned just 50 days after his inglorious departure, first to Singapore and then Thailand. On his return, he was given the privileges of a former president: a plush bungalow and security, all of it paid for by the government.

Ranil Wickremesinghe, an opposition politician, was appointed as president for the remaining two years of Rajapaksa’s tenure. The family-led Sri Lanka Podu Jana Peramuna Party (SLPP), which has a two-thirds majority in parliament, threw their support behind him.

Before his unexpected elevation, Wickremesinghe, a six-time former prime minister, was the only MP from his United National Party after their abysmal showing in the 2020 parliamentary elections.

He has focused on rebuilding the economy. But he has been accused of protecting the Rajapaksa family, allowing them to regroup, while shielding them from prosecution - allegations he has denied.

Hours after Wickremesinghe became president, the military was deployed to clear the crowds at Galle Face in Colombo, which had been the epicentre of the protests.

Dozens of soldiers swooped on the site, dismantling tents and other belongings of demonstrators. In the following months, those who had stormed the presidential palace and were seen walking out with “souvenirs” - such as bed sheets or the odd keepsake to remember a historic day - have been jailed.

“Ranil protected the Rajapaksa family from the wrath of the people, ensuring the continuity of the SLPP-led parliament, cabinet and the government, and not doing anything to stop corruption, and even suppressing the progress of any investigation against the Rajapaksa family members," said political scientist Jayadeva Uyangoda.

"He also protected them from international pressure for holding them accountable to serious human rights violations and war-related allegations.”

This has angered many Sri Lankans who are living through a cost-of-living crisis, and enduring more hardships because of reforms intended to revive a stagnant economy.

Although there are no shortages or power cuts, prices have sky-rocketed. The government has also scrapped subsidies on essentials such as electricity, and cut welfare spending.

Taxes, meanwhile, have gone up as Wickremesinghe has sharply increased tax rates and widened the net to shore up public revenue.

Some economists say the painful measures are necessary to restore Sri Lanka’s macro-economic stability as it attempts to restructure its international debt and stick to the terms of the bailout agreed with the International Monetary Fund.

The country’s foreign reserves have risen to around $6bn from a mere $20m at the height of the crisis, and inflation is around 0.5%.

But the real-world impact on millions of ordinary Sri Lankans has been devastating.

A study from policy research organisation Lirne Asia, which surveyed 10,000 households, estimated that as many as three million people fell below the poverty line in 2023, pushing the number of poor from four million to seven million.

These families are going hungry and, desperate for more money, they are pulling their children out of school.

The Rajapaksas have denied any wrongdoing but in 2023, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the family – including Gotabaya and Mahinda – was directly responsible for economic mismanagement between 2019 and 2022, which triggered the crisis.

Nimesha Hansini, a university student in Colombo, told BBC Sinhala she felt the Rajapaksas were “directly responsible for the economic crisis due to the financial frauds carried out under the guise of development projects during their reign”.

“But nothing has changed for them – only their political power has decreased,” she added.

“I don’t have much to say about them,” says Rashmi, a farmer in the traditional Rajapaksa stronghold of Hambantota. “We are suffering because of what they have done. We voted for them before, but that will never happen again.”

These are the minds that Namal Rajapaksa is hoping to change - he wants to win back the base.

His campaign has centred around the legacy of his father Mahinda, who is still seen as a hero by some Sri Lankans.

This is despite some international calls to prosecute him for war crimes. The UN estimates that 100,000 people including 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed by Sri Lankan armed forces in the final stages of the conflict, but Mahinda Rajapaksa has never been convicted of any wrongdoing and rejects such allegations.

Mahinda’s images adorn Namal’s campaign rallies and his social media posts feature illustrations showing him alongside his father when he was younger.

He has even tried to highlight their resemblence to each other, growing out his moustache and wearing Mahinda’s trademark red shawl.

Many of his campaign posts strike a note of defiance: “We do not fear challenges; in fact, we welcome them. That’s something I learned from my father."

Another post refers to him as “patriotic, courageous and forward-thinking”.

“It seems to me that Namal Rajapaksa thinks, not incorrectly, that representing the legacy of his father will enable him to protect his father’s vote base and benefit from it," Prof Uyangoda said.

"It is one way to rebuild the shattered electoral bases of the SLPP.”

But many voters don’t appear to be buying it – and polls don’t suggest Namal is a serious contender for the top job.

One comment on a campaign post on Namal’s Instagram account was scathing: “The latest heir of the Rajapaksa family taking a shot at the presidency? Quite the family business isn’t it?”

Reactions on the ground were more vitriolic. “I will never vote for Namal Rajapaksa. The years of hardship we have lived are a curse on that family,” HM Sepalika, a villager who’s been resettled in Vavuniya in the north, told BBC Sinhala.

“The people of this country got together and staged this struggle because they didn’t want the Rajapaksas. But they still have so much greed and lust for power that they are trying to come back and ask people to vote for them," said Nishanthi Harapitiya, a shop assistant in Hambantota.

Others say they cannot take Namal seriously.

“Why should he ask for our vote? He is a child with no experience. Who will vote for him? Unless someone votes for him out of pity for his father, he cannot be elected president,” said Mohammed Haladeen, a trader from Kathankudy in eastern Sri Lanka.

Attention is now largely focused on three candidates: opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, the leftist National People’s Party alliance’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Wickremesinghe, who is running as an independent candidate.

But Namal Rajapaksa could be playing a longer game.

Recent elections have shown that families or allies of once-unpopular strongmen do make big political comebacks – such as Bongbong Marcos in the Philippines or even Prabowo Subianto of Indonesia.

“He wants to remain politically relevant, protect the SLPP’s voter base, and be politically active till 2029,” Prof Uyangoda said.

Lakshan Sandaruwan, the university student who took part in the demonstrations, agrees.

“Namal is contesting the polls to prepare the necessary background for 2029, not to become the president this time," he said.

"But if the people do not act intelligently, the people themselves will create a Rajapaksa president again.”
Central Asia
Kazakh leader urges Scholz to support China’s peace plan for Ukraine (Reuters)
Reuters [9/16/2024 12:48 PM, Andreas Rinke, 37270K, Neutral]
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev urged visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday to give up on the idea that Russia can be defeated on the battlefield and to support China’s peace plan for Ukraine, a suggestion Scholz rejected.

Scholz is on his first official tour of Central Asia as Berlin looks for new sources of energy and minerals in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kazakhstan remains a close ally of its former Soviet overlord Russia, though the Astana government has not taken sides in the conflict or supported Moscow’s claims to some Ukrainian territories.

"It is a fact that Russia cannot be defeated in the military sense," Tokayev told Scholz in Astana.

"A further escalation of war will lead to irreparable consequences for the whole of humanity and above all for the countries involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict," he added.

Scholz diplomatically disagreed, saying Germany was supporting Ukraine because Russia had invaded it.
"That is the case and will remain so, so that the country can defend itself and protect its integrity and sovereignty," he said."

"It is also clear to us that, at the same time, it remains necessary to continue to explore opportunities to open up peaceful development."

Scholz said the Western-backed peace conference in Switzerland needed to be followed up by another one which would include Russia.

"And it is clear to me that it will not work the way Russia is currently pushing ahead with everything, pushing ahead with the war, continuing to attack Ukraine with great aggression," he said.

"And that is why this is something that must never be ignored in everything we discuss. It is Russia that has not only started the war, but is continuing it and could contribute to ending it at any time by stopping its aggression."
Germany wants trade with Kazakhstan, won’t circumvent Russia sanctions, Scholz says (Reuters)
Reuters [9/16/2024 10:58 AM, Andreas Rinke, 2376K, Positive]
Germany is interested in expanding trade with Kazakhstan while also ensuring such trade is not used to circumvent EU sanctions on Russia, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on a visit to the Central Asian nation.

"I am grateful for the trusting dialogue between us, through which we want to prevent trade between us from being misused to circumvent sanctions," Scholz said.

After Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the West imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia, prompting Moscow to seek circuitous routes for importing technology and goods.

Sources have told Reuters that Russian businesses seeking goods banned by the West sometimes procured them from companies based in neighbouring Kazakhstan or other former Soviet nations. The Astana government has said it would abide by the sanctions.

Both Scholz and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said their countries were interested in increasing trade in oil, rare earths, lithium and other raw materials.

"Both sides benefit from this exchange because it allows us to diversify our economies and make them more resilient," Scholz said. "A very concrete example of this is the oil supplies from Kazakhstan, which helped us a lot after Russia failed as a supplier."

The two met ahead of a broader meeting between Scholz and all five Central Asian leaders, an example of more active Western diplomacy in what has traditionally been Russia’s backyard.

Kazakhstan has already stepped in to replace Russia as the supplier of crude for Berlin’s Schwedt refinery. Scholz’s visit comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to curb sales of metals such as titanium to "unfriendly" nations.
Scholz Stands By Ukraine Support Despite Kazakh Leader’s Claim Russia ‘Cannot Be Defeated’ (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/16/2024 4:15 PM, Staff, 1251K, Neutral]
Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev told visiting Chancellor Olaf Scholz that Russia’s military "cannot be defeated" in its war against Ukraine and instead urged support for a peace plans being pressed by China and Brazil, a consideration the German leader quickly rejected.

"It is a fact that Russia cannot be defeated in the military sense," Toqaev on September 16 told Scholz, who is in Astana as part of his historic trip to Central Asia.

"A further escalation of war will lead to irreparable consequences for the whole of humanity and above all for the countries involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict," Toqaev added.

Scholz disagreed with Toqaev’s suggestion, saying Berlin was providing support to Kyiv because Russia had invaded Ukraine in an unprovoked attack in February 2022.

"That is the case and will remain so, so that the country can defend itself and protect its integrity and sovereignty," he said, adding that Russia was "continuing to attack Ukraine with great aggression."

"And that is why this is something that must never be ignored in everything we discuss. It is Russia that has not only started the war but is continuing it and could contribute to ending it at any time by stopping its aggression."

In June, more than 90 countries met for a first peace conference hosted by Switzerland, although Russia was not invited and Russian ally China declined to attend.

Ukraine has put forward a peace proposal that would demand the withdrawal of Russian troops from its territory. Other countries, including China and Brazil, have pressed for deals that would allow the Kremlin to hold on to some captured Ukrainian lands -- something flatly rejected by Kyiv.

Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic of some 20 million people, has long been a close ally of Russia, although the government has expressed some concerns about the Kremlin’s claims to Ukrainian territory and has tried to maintain good relations with the West.

"Since the war in Ukraine began, Central Asia has had a chance to reinvent itself in a comfortable geopolitical space," Luca Anceschi, a lecturer at the University of Glasgow, told RFE/RL last month.

"They are trying to say that they are not on Russia’s side in Ukraine, like Belarus is, but they are not with Ukraine, either. They have ties with the West, but are not pro-Western," Anceschi said.

Germany has provided Ukraine with financial backing but has shown resistance to supplying Kyiv with heavy armaments, including tanks.

Scholz’s three-day trip started in Uzbekistan on September 15 with the signing of a migration deal and is continuing in Kazakhstan on September 16-17 for the second meeting of the Central Asia-plus-Germany format that was launched a year ago in Berlin.

International watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on Scholz to promote human rights when he "makes history" this week as the first German chancellor to attend a summit in Central Asia with all five of that post-Soviet region’s presidents.

"The German government cannot pretend closer ties with Central Asia are possible without a significant improvement in human rights in the region," HRW said. "The upcoming summit offers a chance to make this clear."

In its statement, HRW cited persistent rights issues across the region including the "suppression of the rights to protest and express opinions, including online, jailing of activists, torture in detention, crackdowns on civil society, violence against women, impunity for abusive security forces, and a lack of free and fair elections."

HRW last month demanded that Kazakhstan stop limiting freedom of expression and end its persecution of comedians, citing the jailing of 31-year-old stand-up comic Aleksandr Merkul.

Germany has long been interested in boosting energy relations with Central Asia, but Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has further encouraged Germany and other European states to look elsewhere for energy and mineral imports.

This week’s summit with the Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Tajik, Turkmen, and Uzbek heads of state is expected to focus heavily on energy along with broader economic and development talks.

Kazakhstan, the largest and wealthiest of the five, has been accused of failing to adequately ensure compliance with sanctions on Russia.

But energy cooperation has been on the rise with Kazakhstan.

Crude oil from Kazakhstan began flowing last year through the 4,000-kilometer Druzhba pipeline from Russia’s southern Tatarstan region through Belarus and Poland to Germany, as part of a pivot to make up for lower supplies of Russian oil.

Toqaev praised the meeting with the German chancellor and said it will help lift the countries’ relations to a "new level."

"Our bilateral cooperation will be expanded in the spirit of a strategic partnership," he added.
Denied Asylum In Kazakhstan, Karakalpak Activist Faces Extradition To Uzbekistan (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/16/2024 8:09 AM, Staff, 1251K, Negative]
Kazakh authorities have rejected an asylum request by jailed Karakalpak activist Aqylbek Muratov (aka Muratbai), who is wanted in Uzbekistan on charges that human rights activists say are groundless.

Muratov’s sister, Fariza Narbekova, told RFE/RL on September 16 that Kazakhstan’s commission on asylum issues had made the decision three days earlier.

"The legal matter blocking the extradition [to Uzbekistan] is now lifted. Kazakhstan’s Prosecutor-General’s Office may order his extradition at any time now. Everything is up to the government’s position," Narbekova said.

Kazakh authorities arrested Muratov in late February at Tashkent’s request on a charge of undermining constitutional order and other charges.

Muratov is an Uzbek citizen who has legally resided in Almaty for 10 years. Kazakh officials in February granted his request for asylum-seeker status, a move that defendants sometimes use to delay possible extradition.

Muratov has been known for his activities defending the rights of Karakalpaks living in Kazakhstan. He also raised awareness among international audiences about the situation in his native Autonomous Republic of Karakalpakstan within Uzbekistan.

Several Karakalpak activists have been arrested in Kazakhstan following mass rallies in Karakalpakstan’s capital, Nukus, in July 2022. Thousands of people protested Tashkent’s plans to change the constitution in a way that they said would have undermined the republic’s right to self-determination.

The protests were violently dispersed. Uzbek authorities said at the time that 21 people died during the protests, but the Austria-based Freedom For Eurasia human rights group said at least 70 people were killed during the unrest.

In January last year, an Uzbek court sentenced 22 Karakalpak activists to prison terms on charges including undermining the constitutional order for taking part in the protests.

In March 2023, another 39 Karakalpak activists accused of taking part in the protests in Nukus were convicted, with 28 of them sentenced to prison terms of between five years and 11 years. Eleven defendants were handed parole-like sentences.

The violence forced Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev to make a rare about-face and scrap the proposal to change the constitution.

Kazakh and international human rights organizations have called on Kazakhstan’s authorities to release Muratov, saying that if extradited to Uzbekistan Muratov may face arbitrary detention and unfair trial.

Karakalpaks are a Central Asian Turkic-speaking people. Their region used to be an autonomous area within Kazakhstan before becoming autonomous within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in 1930 and then part of Uzbekistan in 1936.
Imprisoned Leader Of Unregistered Kazakh Opposition Party Starts Hunger Strike (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/16/2024 6:57 AM, Staff, 1251K, Negative]
The leader of the unregistered Algha, Qazaqstan (Forward, Kazakhstan) political party, Marat Zhylanbaev, has launched a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. Zhylanbaev’s lawyer, Meiirzhan Dosqaraev, told RFE/RL on September 16 that his client had begun a 40-day hunger strike four days earlier. Zhylanbaev was sentenced to seven years in prison in November on a charge of taking part in the activities of the banned Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and its financing. International and domestic human rights organizations have urged Astana to release Zhylanbaev, who has held several hunger strikes during his detention.
Turkmenistan: Another wrong turn taking Ashgabat into gas-export dead end (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [9/16/2024 4:14 PM, David O’Byrne, 57.6K, Neutral]
It’s been just over a year since Turkmenistan, a country boasting the world’s fourth or fifth biggest largest natural gas reserves, ended decades of indecision and finally announced it was serious about exporting to Western markets.

For just about any other country, such an announcement would have touched off a frenzy of courtship by countries and companies interested in developing export deals. But with Turkmenistan the process has been slower and more difficult than would normally be expected, as recent events have highlighted.

In March this year, Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov visited Turkey where he signed what appeared to be a landmark agreement with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, opening the way for a “swap deal” enabling Turkmen gas to be supplied to Iran, which would then supply the same volume of its own gas to Turkey.

Turkish officials at that time seemed confident that a commercial agreement would follow swiftly. Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced in a TV interview July 26 that he would fly to Ashgabat within days to conclude a deal that would see 1.5-2.0 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year from Turkmenistan exported to Turkey via Iran. Supply could start as soon as early 2025, and the gas could be re-exported to Europe, he indicated. It seemed like a done deal.

But almost two months after Bayraktar’s initial announcement, the commercial agreement is still awaiting signatures.

If concluded, the agreement with Turkmenistan would be a major coup for Ankara, which has been trying since the late 1990s to bring Turkmen gas to Turkey, and which is keen to bring in more gas from anywhere it can to reduce its dependence on Russia and Iran. Legacy contracts with Russia and Iran that account for around half of Turkey’s gas demand are expiring over the next two years, and, as of today, there is no indication either will be renewed.

But it would also be a major step forward for Turkmenistan, giving Ashgabat the chance to prove that it can be a reliable supplier, worthy of the attention of European gas buyers. The deal could also reassure Western investors to a sufficient degree that they would be willing to fund the construction of a dedicated pipeline across the Caspian Sea that Turkmenistan needs if it is to export gas to Europe in large volumes.

But as has been the case throughout the post-Soviet era, getting a firm commitment out of Turkmen officials has proven challenging. Bayraktar announced the pending deal in advance of his visit to Turkmenistan on July 29. His trip had been slated to last only one day, but it was extended for a second day. Ultimately, the minister returned to Turkey apparently with little more than an agreement for the two sides to continue talking.

Deepening the mystery surrounding the trip, reports differed over exactly what meetings had taken place. Bayraktar himself reported meetings with officials from Turkmengaz, Turkmenpetrol, and the Turkmen parliament, along with a meeting with Turkmen Energy Minister Annageldy Saparov.

Neither Bayraktar’s X/Twitter feed nor the Turkish Energy Ministry’s website mentioned any meeting with Turkmen President Berdymukhamedov. The ministry’s website simply posted a single photo of Bayraktar and Saparov shaking hands.

The Turkmenistan government Internet site, however, reported that Berdymukhamedov had indeed met with Bayraktar, although, unusually, there was no photograph published of the two men together. For two countries which set great store on protocol and diplomatic formalities, the reporting discrepancy marked an unusual departure from established norms.

Neither side has revealed any details of why the expected swap agreement for exporting Turkmen gas to Turkey via Iran has not been concluded. However, the recent experience of Azerbaijan, which did manage to conclude an agreement with Turkmenistan to import gas via swaps with Iran may, shed some light on recent developments.

In late 2021, Baku agreed to a swap arrangement under which Turkmenistan would send around 2 bcm a year of gas to northeast Iran, which would send the same volume of its own gas to Azerbaijan.

The swap began in early 2022, and by mid-year was reportedly going so well that the three partners reached an agreement to double trade volume. But for reasons that have never been confirmed, the doubling of volume didn’t happen, and by January this year trading operations appear to have halted: reports circulated that Turkmenistan, buoyed by the operation’s initial “success,” sought to hike the price of gas beyond what Azerbaijan was prepared to pay. Given Baku’s own production having risen to a level where it could meet its domestic and export commitments without resorting to imports, Azeri officials supposedly halted talks.

Although nothing has been said, it very much appears that Ashgabat has attempted to employ a jack-up-the-price tactic with Turkey.

Again, as with the Azerbaijani swap arrangement, Ashgabat may be overreaching in the Turkish negotiations. While Ankara remains outwardly committed to bringing Turkmen gas to Turkey, both via swaps through Iran and a dedicated pipeline, Ankara is not short of other options.

In May, Turkey concluded an LNG purchase agreement with Exxon Mobil, details of which have yet to be announced. And on September 2 Turkey’s state gas importer, Botas, signed a 10-year agreementwithShell for the import of 4 bcm per year of LNG – twice the planned swap imports from Turkmenistan. Two days later, Turkish officials gave notice that they were expecting another major LNG agreement to be signed at the Gastech conference to be held in Houston Sept 17-20.

Turkey also has other options for importing gas by pipeline, with neighboring Iraq also boasting significant reserves that could be transited to Turkey far more easily, cheaply, and reliably, than gas from Turkmenistan.

The real loser in this is Turkmenistan, explains John Roberts, a Caspian energy analyst. “Turkey is still Turkmenistan’s best option for developing a major new export route,” he said, explaining that the nature of energy markets means that for any gas export deal to succeed, reliability is the key.

“The Turkmens need to prove they are reliable partners,” he added, pointing out the number of projects to export Turkmen gas which have been proposed but not progressed. “Their persistent failures to conclude firm sale and purchase agreements casts doubt on whether they can persuade buyers that they can be reliable.”
Twitter
Afghanistan
Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[9/16/2024 2:56 PM, 236.6K followers, 156 retweets, 301 likes]
Following Taliban’s crackdown on women, the regime has now targeted Afghan children by suspending polio vaccinations nationwide. With 18 new cases this year, Afghanistan remains one of only two countries where polio is endemic.

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[9/17/2024 1:08 AM, 3.9K followers, 4 retweets, 1 like]
The Taliban have suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, the U.N. said Monday. It’s a devastating setback for polio eradication, since the virus is one of the world’s most infectious and any unvaccinated groups of children where the virus:

Jahanzeb Wesa
@JahanzebWesa
[9/16/2024 3:11 PM, 3.9K followers, 83 retweets, 192 likes]
Free Afghanistan Huge thanks to Afghanistan National Music Institute girls giving Afghanistan a voice when it’s needed. —The Afghan young generation shows the world the true essence of our nation—a place of creativity, beauty, & resilience, not the Taliban’s twisted version.
Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan
@ForeignOfficePk
[9/16/2024 8:20 AM, 479.8K followers, 24 retweets, 60 likes]
The US Under Secretary of State John Bass @UnderSecStateP and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Elizabeth Horst called on Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 in his office today. They discussed Pakistan-US bilateral relations and ongoing collaboration projects. DPM/FM underlined the importance of positive and productive engagement between Pakistan and the United States.

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[9/16/2024 2:47 PM, 73.6K followers, 14 likes]
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk to arrive in Pakistan on 18th September for a 2 day visit where he will hold talks with Pak Deputy PM @MIshaqDar50 -- Key bilateral visit by Russian side ahead of Pakistan taking its UNSC seat next year. #Pakistan #Russia

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[9/16/2024 7:30 AM, 73.6K followers, 4 likes]
Visiting US Under Sect of State John Bass meets Pakistan’s Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 at @ForeignOfficePk — Discuss bilateral relations, ongoing projects collaboration. #Pakistan #USA

Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[9/16/2024 6:22 AM, 73.6K followers, 8 retweets, 45 likes]
Prime Minister @CMShehbaz will depart for visit abroad, to New York for the United Nations General Assembly session on the 21st of September — The PM will reach New York on 23rd and will address the GA on 26th, he will also hold sideline meetings and will return to #Pakistan on 28th Sept.
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/16/2024 11:11 PM, 102M followers, 3.2K retweets, 23K likes]
Leaving for Bhubaneswar. It is very special to be among the wonderful people of Odisha to launch SUBHADRA, an important scheme of the Odisha Government. This scheme will boost women empowerment and ensure financial independence for our Nari Shakti. Several other works will also be launched in the programme.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/16/2024 6:52 AM, 102M followers, 3K retweets, 10K likes]
The first 100 days of our third term have brought impactful development for all. Today, several projects shaping the vision of Viksit Bharat are being launched from Ahmedabad.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/16/2024 5:25 AM, 102M followers, 2.3K retweets, 8.6K likes]
Sharing my remarks during inauguration of new international container terminal at Thoothukudi port. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1BRJjwlqRZWxw

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/16/2024 4:46 AM, 102M followers, 6.7K retweets, 52K likes]
Inaugurated Phase-II of the Ahmedabad Metro Rail Project and on the way to today’s programme with energetic youngsters.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[9/16/2024 4:24 AM, 102M followers, 3K retweets, 15K likes]
Attended the 4th Global Renewable Energy Investor’s Meet and Expo. This platform brings together stakeholders working towards sustainable energy. Glad to see innovative solutions and investments aimed at building a greener tomorrow!

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[9/16/2024 1:14 PM, 3.2M followers, 826 retweets, 6.5K likes]
100 years young! We celebrate a legend of the Indian Foreign Service today, former Foreign Secretary MK Rasgotra, who just turned 100. A titan of his times, Foreign Secretary Rasgotra indeed is the #GOAT of IFS. Wish him continued happiness and good health.
NSB
Sabria Chowdhury Balland
@sabriaballand
[9/16/2024 12:46 PM, 7.1K followers, 2 likes]
What an absolute annoyance having this constant counterproductive broken record every few days. The BNP must explain to the people that apart from their own political agenda, why the election should happen immediately. Is this pressure for immediate elections coming from India? Most likely. Anyone who says this has no intention or respect to repair the country, which takes time. It’s also becoming clear that apart from political agendas, Mr. Fakhrul thinks that he’s carrying out the job of an opposition leader. He is wrong in thinking that he’s in the opposition now. He should be helping the interim government & reforming his own party. Hopefully, the people of #Bangladesh see through this agenda. @trahmanbnp @bdbnp78 @bnpmediacell Election must be arranged immediately: Fakhrul https://newagebd.net/post/politics/245425/election-must-be-arranged-immediately-fakhrul

Moosa Zameer
@MoosaZameer
[9/17/2024 2:21 AM, 13.8K followers, 13 retweets, 14 likes]
Honoured to sign the Exchange of Notes with Ambassador Takeuchi Midori for the renovation of the Malé seawall. This vital initiative strengthens our resilience against rising sea levels and climate challenges, continuing the long-standing partnership between the Maldives and Japan. Grateful for Japan’s unwavering support. Pleased that Minister Dr @muththo attended the signing ceremony. @MofaJapan_en

Harsha de Silva
@HarshadeSilvaMP
[9/16/2024 12:25 PM, 356.7K followers, 1 retweet, 27 likes]
Met with the @commonwealthsec Observer Group today. Honored to discuss #lka upcoming Pres election (Sep 21) with the team led by former Seychelles President @DannyFaure. Their 200th observation mission highlights the importance of free & fair elections. #SriLankaElection2024 #SJB

Harsha de Silva
@HarshadeSilvaMP
[9/16/2024 4:48 AM, 356.7K followers, 35 retweets, 157 likes]
Those who believe JVP/NPP can change the DSA better open their eyes to the reality of international financial negotiation. Attempting to mess with the DSA upon which the @IMFNews program and the debt restructure is built will spell disaster #SriLanka

M U M Ali Sabry
@alisabrypc
[9/16/2024 8:25 AM, 6.5K followers, 11 retweets, 63 likes]
At the "Ranil Can" victory rally in Badulla today (16), former councillors from Ambagamuwa, Walapane, and Nuwara Eliya, along with trade union leaders from P. Digambaran’s National Union of Workers and the SJB, came together to show their support for President Ranil Wickremesinghe
Central Asia
Yerzhan Ashikbayev
@KZAmbUS
[9/16/2024 10:03 PM, 2.7K followers, 4 likes]
I had the privilege of meeting with Senate Finance Committee Chairman @RonWyden, focusing on our shared commitment to strengthening trade and economic relations between KZ&US. Excited to explore new paths toward predictability and stability to deepen our trade partnership.

Leila Nazgul Seiitbek
@l_seiitbek
[9/16/2024 6:38 AM, 3.9K followers, 4 retweets, 8 likes]
Commission on Refugee Status in Kazakhstan denied the asylum application of Karakalpak human rights defender Akylbek Muratbai @muratbaiman even though Muratbai meets the criteria for refugee status outlined in the law. The criminal case against him was initiated because he posted clips from a human rights conference organized by the OSCE (#WarsawHDC) on his YouTube channel and organized a peaceful online flash mob in memory of those killed during the suppression of protests in the Republic of Karakalpakstan. https://freedomforeurasia.org/denial-of-refugee-status-to-karakalpak-human-rights-defender-akylbek-muratbai-in-kazakhstan/

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/17/2024 12:14 AM, 5K followers]
Meeting at Khorasan Razavi Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mining and Agriculture https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15721/meeting-at-khorasan-razavi-chamber-of-commerce-industry-mining-and-agriculture

MFA Tajikistan
@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/17/2024 12:13 AM, 5K followers]
Meeting with Governor of Khorasan Razavi Province of Iran https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15720/meeting-with-governor-of-khorasan-razavi-province-of-iran

Furqat Sidiqov
@FurqatSidiq
[9/16/2024 8:40 PM, 1.5K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
Thrilled to announce that today in Tashkent, MOU was signed to boost UZ-US cooperation on critical minerals. The memorandum highlights our shared commitment to advancing effective environmental, labor, and management practices in the global mining sector. https://gov.uz/en/mingeo/news/view/21761

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[9/16/2024 5:27 PM, 23.7K followers, 2 retweets, 1 like]
US, Uzbekistan sigh MOU to strengthen cooperation on critical minerals. The document serves as an important step in continuing the U.S.-Uzbekistan dialogue on exploration, mining, and value-added product chain development.

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[9/16/2024 12:03 PM, 23.7K followers, 6 retweets, 9 likes]
Termez, Uzbek-Afghan border: Akfa Medline, Uzbekistan’s private healthcare provider, is offering separate services for Afghan men and women. When asked if this was a Taliban demand, its management told VOA that they respect the culture and mentality of the neighboring country. Airitom economic zone also has a hotel belonging to Akfa Group. Pretty much everything is of Akfa. https://youtu.be/veohTzukHDk

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[9/16/2024 11:43 AM, 23.7K followers, 8 retweets, 24 likes]
Uzbekistan-Afghanistan border: Exploring the new free economic zone in Termez, Surkhandarya. Afghans have a special corridor to enter Uzbekistan now for two weeks for business and medical treatment (Akfa Medline). They will also be offered special visas for study (Central Asian University) and tourism. https://youtu.be/veohTzukHDk

Navbahor Imamova
@Navbahor
[9/16/2024 8:28 AM, 23.7K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
Last week @StateDept Special Advisor on International Disability Rights Sara Minkara traveled to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to discuss inclusive policies, C5+1 framework.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[9/16/2024 6:59 AM, 200K followers, 1 retweet, 20 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev and @Bundeskanzler @OlafScholz have inaugurated a joint management training institute. This initiative has been realized through the collaboration of the Academy of Public Administration and the Agency for the Development of Public Service under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, in partnership with the Hanns Seidel Foundation and the Bavarian School of Public Administration. The primary objective of the institute is to strengthen managerial competencies in regional areas and to facilitate the attraction of investments and innovative technologies.

Zalmay Khalilzad
@realZalmayMK
[9/16/2024 2:01 PM, 211.8K followers, 19 retweets, 203 likes]
Today in Tashkent, I toured the amazing Center for Islamic Civilization in #Uzbekistan, which is under construction. The Center will be a structure for the ages and place enlightenment!

{End of Report}
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