SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Thursday, September 19, 2024 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
‘Very Worrying’: Afghanistan’s Long Battle To Eradicate Polio Faces New Obstacle (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/19/2024 4:30 AM, Abubakar Siddique and Khujasta Kabiri, 235K, Neutral]
Afghanistan’s decadeslong fight to eradicate the crippling polio virus has suffered a new blow after the Taliban suspended a national vaccination campaign.The hard-line Islamist group informed UN agencies of its decision just before the start of the immunization drive in September, the world body said on September 16. The Taliban has denied halting the vaccinations.Afghans have expressed fear that any suspension would represent a major setback to eradicating polio, a childhood virus that leads to deformed limbs, paralysis, and even death.Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan are the only countries in the world where polio remains endemic."This is very worrying for our children," Mari Amiri, a mother of four who lives in the northern Takhar Province, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. "They are the future of our country."Noorullah, a resident of the capital, Kabul, criticized the Taliban’s decision to "limit access to such a vital means for preventing a dangerous disease.""Instead of addressing our problems, they are creating new ones," Zuhal, a woman who lives in Kabul, told Radio Azadi.Rising Number Of CasesThe Taliban’s suspension of vaccinations comes as the number of polio cases rise in Afghanistan.The World Health Organization (WHO) says it has detected 18 new poliovirus cases so far this year, a significant increase compared to 2023, when six cases were recorded.The Taliban’s Health Ministry on September 17 denied that the group had suspended or delayed the polio vaccination drive.In a statement, ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman said the Taliban was trying to implement the vaccination campaign "through the best possible means available."But a polio worker in the eastern province of Nangarhar, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the polio-immunization campaign in the region was suspended because local Taliban officials were "demanding tax from aid organizations." The worker’s claim could not be verified by RFE/RL.The Taliban has previously been accused of attempting to divert or manipulate aid distribution as well as imposing taxes on humanitarian groups and their activities.During a nationwide campaign in June, a house-to-house vaccination strategy was used for the first time in five years in a bid to reach more children.But in the southern province of Kandahar, a stronghold of the Taliban, less-effective site-to-site or mosque-to-mosque vaccination campaigns were used, WHO said.Hamid Jafari, director of polio eradication at WHO, told the Associated Press that the organization was holding discussions with the Taliban over "shifting from house-to-house polio vaccination campaigns to site-to-site vaccination in parts of Afghanistan."
‘Impede Or Influence’In recent decades, Afghanistan’s battle to eradicate polio has been thwarted by militant attacks and anti-vaccination propaganda.Some radical Islamic clerics and militants have claimed that the polio vaccine is a Western conspiracy to harm or sterilize children.Anti-vaccination propaganda has been fueled by a distrust of Western governments who fund vaccine programs, including after the CIA reportedly staged a fake hepatitis-vaccination campaign in 2011 to confirm the location of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden -- living in the Pakistani garrison town of Abbottabad -- where he was killed by U.S. SEALs.Insurgents in Afghanistan and Pakistan have even kidnapped, beaten, and assassinated dozens of vaccinators or their armed police escorts in recent years in a bid to stop local anti-polio campaigns.Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s late founder, in 2007 issued a decree in support of polio vaccinations.But Ashley Jackson, the co-founder of the Center on Armed Groups, says the vaccinations have long been a source of contention within the Taliban."The Taliban cannot go against a decree from its founder," she said. "But they can try to impede or influence how vaccinations are carried out."Jackson added that there is a "feeling, especially with house-to-house vaccinations, that vaccinators ask invasive questions and might have ulterior motives."She said the Taliban’s recent suspension is a setback, but "both sides will find some compromise that allows them to resume," as has happened in the past.The polio vaccination campaign is seen as a boon for the cash-strapped Taliban government.Vaccine campaigns employ thousands of health workers in Afghanistan, which is grappling with mass unemployment and rising poverty."Many within the [Taliban] government see this external funding as an essential form of support for the struggling health sector," Jackson said. Blinken subpoenaed to appear on Sept. 24 before House committee over Afghanistan (Reuters)
Reuters [9/18/2024 9:43 PM, Costas Pitas, 37270K, Neutral]
The U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday to appear before it on Sept. 24 over the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021."If Secretary Blinken fails to appear, the chairman will proceed instead with a full committee markup of a report recommending the U.S. House of Representatives find Secretary Blinken in contempt of Congress for violating a duly issued subpoena," according to a statement from the committee.The committee had previously wanted Blinken to appear on Sept. 19. The State Department said earlier this month that Blinken was not available to testify on the dates proposed by the committee, but has proposed "reasonable alternatives."The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters on Wednesday.The Republican-led committee has been investigating the deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan for years and an appearance next week before lawmakers by Blinken over a heavily politicized issue would come just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.Blinken has testified before Congress on Afghanistan more than 14 times, including four times before the committee, and the State Department has provided the committee with nearly 20,000 pages of records, multiple high-level briefings and transcribed interviews, a department spokesperson said earlier in September. Pakistan
Islamabad complains to Kabul after an Afghan diplomat disrespected Pakistan’s anthem (AP)
AP [9/18/2024 9:26 AM, Staff, 88008K, Negative]
Islamabad has complained to Kabul after an Afghan diplomat failed to stand up when the Pakistani national anthem was played during an event in the country’s northwest, officials said Wednesday.The Foreign Ministry also summoned Ahmad Shakib, Afghanistan’s chargé d’affaires and its most senior diplomat in Islamabad, in protest over the incident on Tuesday evening.According to Pakistani officials, Mohibullah Shakir, the Afghan consul general in the northwestern city of Peshawar, remained seated when the anthem was intoned during an official ceremony.The ministry spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said such disrespect of the host country’s anthem went against diplomatic norms.The Afghan Consulate in Peshawar said in a statement that Shakir did not stand up because music was part of the anthem. Had the anthem been sung without music, Shakir would have stoop up in respect, the statement said.Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have banned music as part of restrictive measures and their harsh interpretation of Islamic, or Sharia, law that they imposed since seizing power in August 2021.Since then, relations between Islamabad and Kabul have deteriorated. Pakistan alleges that Afghanistan’s new rulers openly support the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group that has stepped up attack over the past years. Moscow will support Islamabad’s bid to join BRICS, says Russian deputy prime minister (AP)
AP [9/18/2024 2:04 PM, Staff, 31638K, Neutral]
Moscow will support Islamabad’s bid to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies, the Russian deputy prime minister said on Wednesday while visiting the Pakistani capital.
Pakistan applied last year for membership in the alliance that has a stated aim to amplify the voice of major emerging economies to counterbalance the Western-led global order. Founded in 2006, it included Brazil, Russia, India and China, with South Africa joining in 2010. Recently, it expanded to include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
"Of course, we would be supportive" of Pakistan’s request to join the BRICS alliance, Alexei Overchuk said in a televised news conference, standing next to his counterpart Ishaq Dar, who is also the country’s Foreign Minister.
Dar and Overchuk said they also discussed ways to improve economic ties and bilateral trade that touched the $1 billion mark last year.
Also on Wednesday, Overchuk met with Pakistan’s powerful army chief Gen. Asim Munir.
In recent years, Pakistan has taken steps to boost commercial relations with Russia.
Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan visited Moscow in February 2022 to meet with President Vladimir Putin when the Russian invasion of Ukraine seemed imminent. Since then, Pakistan has avoided condemnation of the Russian invasion, though it wants the resolution of the conflict through peace talks. Russia pledges to back Pakistan’s BRICS membership (VOA)
VOA [9/18/2024 7:37 PM, Ayaz Gul, 4566K, Positive]
Russia expressed support Wednesday for Pakistan’s entry into the BRICS intergovernmental group of major emerging economies from the Global South.Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk made the pledge after holding delegation-level talks in Islamabad with Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who is also the deputy prime minister.Pakistan announced last November that it had formally requested to join BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.“We are happy that Pakistan has applied … and we would be supportive of that,” said the Russian deputy prime minister during a joint news conference with Dar when asked about Moscow’s position on Pakistan’s bid to join BRICS.“At the same time, there is a consensus that needs to be built within the organization to make those decisions,” Overchuk said, noting that “we have shared a very good relationship with Pakistan.”Moscow initially launched BRICS in 2009 to provide members with a conduit for challenging the world order dominated by the U.S. and its Western allies. South Africa joined in 2010, and the group expanded this year with new members from the Middle East and Africa.The Russian deputy prime minister said Wednesday that the organization acts as a platform for discussions "based on quality, mutual respect and consensus" among member countries. “It’s actually what is attracting many countries from throughout the world to BRICS,” he stated.Russia will host the 2024 BRICS Summit in Kazan on October 22-24.Overchuk said that Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin would attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, or SCO, heads of government meeting in the Pakistani capital next month.The SCO is a security, political and economic grouping launched by China, Russia and Central Asian states in 2001 as a counterweight to Western alliances. It expanded to nine countries after archrivals Pakistan and India joined in 2017 and Iran in 2023.In a post-talks statement Wednesday, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry quoted Dar as conveying to Overchuk Islamabad’s “desire to intensify bilateral, political, economic and defense dialogue" with Moscow.The statement said the two sides "agreed to pursue robust dialogue and cooperation” in trade, industry, energy, connectivity, science, technology and education. Pakistan, Russia expand economic ties amid Western sanctions (VOA)
VOA [9/18/2024 7:56 PM, Iftikhar Hussain and Malik Waqar Ahmed, 4566K, Neutral]
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk met with Pakistani officials in Islamabad on Wednesday to deepen economic ties and expand cooperation "across multiple sectors," as Moscow grapples with U.S. and EU economic sanctions over its war against Ukraine.Overchuk’s visit comes after two days of meetings between John Bass, U.S. acting undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Pakistani army chief General Asim Munir and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad.During a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Wednesday in Islamabad, Dar said discussions centered on expanding economic ties between the two countries.Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Russia reached an unprecedented $1 billion last year. The countries are committed to expanding trade ties by addressing logistical and related issues, Dar said.According to Dar, Pakistan and Russia are expanding ties in many fields, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases. However, sanctions against Russia restrict cooperation between the two countries.“Even today, we looked at how to expand our relationship, and overcome this constraint of the banking system, which you know are facing sanctions, which obviously constrains our relationship, the volume of our relationship could have been much bigger,” Dar saidDar said Pakistan and the U.S. Department of State had detailed discussions in October 2023, and American officials agreed to Pakistan’s request to purchase Russian LNG, as long as a committee of U.S. trade officials determines the price.According to Dar, Pakistan views Russia as an important player in West, South and Central Asia. He said Pakistan aims to work with Moscow toward peace and stability in Afghanistan.Pakistan’s army media wing said in a statement on Wednesday that Russia’s Overchuk spoke with General Syed Asim Munir, chief of the army staff (COAS), in Rawalpindi.“Both reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to fostering traditional defense ties with Russia. Both sides reaffirmed their resolve to strengthen security and defense cooperation in multiple domains,” the statement says.Analysts say the Russian deputy prime minister’s visit and the expansion of cooperation shows Moscow is expanding its influence in the region.“In my view, a vacuum has emerged after the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and Russia is positioning itself to fill that void. China is also making efforts in this direction. As a result, Pakistan is working under this policy framework to improve its relations with regional countries, including Russia,” professor Manzoor Afridi, a Pakistani academic on international relations, told VOA.Muhammad Taimur Fahad Khan, a Pakistani international affairs expert at Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, told VOA, “The primary goal during this period is to enhance trade, strengthen diplomatic ties, and develop infrastructure, particularly in the energy sector. However, the United States has restricted certain aspects of Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, while tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated. In this context, Pakistan’s relationship with Russia holds significance.”Pakistan received its first shipment of Russian liquefied petroleum gas in 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the possibility of liquefied natural gas supplies earlier in July on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit at Astana, Kazakhstan. Pakistan police arrest key suspect in gang rape of a woman polio worker (AP)
AP [9/18/2024 9:37 AM, Asim Tanveer, 456K, Neutral]
Pakistani police arrested the key suspect in the gang rape of a woman polio worker who was assaulted by three men during last week’s vaccination campaign, officials said Wednesday. Two other suspects are still at large.
The assault on Thursday in Jacobabad, a district in the southern Sindh province, was one in a spate of attacks targeting polio vaccination teams going door to door in the campaign across Pakistan.
The woman who was attacked had alerted the authorities, saying she was raped by three men after going into a house in Jacobabad to administer polio drops to the children there, local police official Mohammad Saifal said.
The suspect, identified as Ahmad Jakhrani, was arrested overnight, Saifal added.
Police are still seeking the arrest of the two other men, accused of taking turns to assault the woman, Saifal said. A local police chief and a district administrator were fired for negligence following the attack, for failing to provide the polio worker with adequate security.
The attack shocked many Pakistanis as such sexual assaults are rare, though women polio workers have complained of harassment in the past during the campaigns. The provincial government in Sindh has said it would fully investigate the case.
Police also detained the husband of the attacked woman for kicking her out of their home and threatening to kill her after the assault over allegedly tarnishing the family’s honor by being raped.
Sadia Javed, the spokesperson for the Sindh government, said others involved in the rape should soon be arrested as well.“We are providing protection to the victim of assault,” she said. “The government will ensure that all women polio workers get maximum security during the upcoming anti-polio campaigns.”
So-called honor killings, in which women and girls are slain by their own relatives for allegedly dishonoring the family’s reputation, are still common in Pakistan.
Saifal also said police have been deployed to the house where the woman was now staying with her relatives for her protection.
Anti-polio campaigns in Pakistan are regularly marred by violence. Militants often target polio vaccination teams and police assigned to protect them, falsely claiming that the campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Since January, Pakistan has reported 17 new cases of polio, jeopardizing decades of efforts to eliminate the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease from the country. Polio often strikes children under age 5 and typically spreads through contaminated water.
Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only countries in which the spread of polio has never been stopped.
Pakistan’s government is planning another polio vaccination drive in October, said Anwarul Haq, who oversees polio campaigns in the country. Gang Rape of Female Polio Worker Shocks Pakistan (Newsweek)
Newsweek [9/18/2024 4:04 PM, Shannon McDonagh, 49093K, Negative]
Pakistani authorities have apprehended a key suspect in the gang rape of a female polio worker. Ahmad Jakhrani, one of the three men accused of the assault, was arrested overnight, local police confirmed on Wednesday.
Last week in Jacobabad, Sindh province, a female care worker was attacked during a polio outreach home visit. She had arrived with the intention of administering the vaccine to children living there.
According to local police official Mohammad Saifal, the woman was raped by three suspects, who took turns assaulting her. The other two attackers remain at large. A local police chief and a district administrator were fired for negligence following the attack, for failing to provide the polio worker with adequate security. Police have been stationed at her relatives’ home, where she is currently staying to protect her.
Pakistani publication Dawn reported that the woman initially recounted that a man with a gun robbed her mobile phone and money before fleeing.
During court proceedings, the victim retracted her previous statement and testified that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint in Allah Bakhsh Jakhrani village while doing her job.
Authorities have also detained the husband of the assaulted woman, who allegedly expelled her from their home and threatened her life following the attack, accusing her of dishonoring the family by being raped.
So-called honor killings-crimes, where women are murdered by relatives for perceived dishonor, remain a significant issue in the country.
The Sindh provincial government has pledged a thorough investigation into the assault and has committed to enhancing security for vaccination teams moving forward.
Polio remains endemic in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries where the disease has not been fully eradicated.
Although violence and harassment against polio workers during vaccination campaigns is not unheard of, gang rape is exceedingly rare.
Militants often attack vaccination teams, fueled by conspiracy theories falsely claiming that the campaigns are designed to sterilize children.
This has been happening for more than a decade in various forms. In 2012, a series of shootings against polio workers in Karachi, Peshawar and other cities led to numerous deaths and injuries. More than 68 worker deaths were reported in the two years that followed.
In response to the attacks, the Pakistani government, along with international organizations like the World Health Organization and UNICEF have increased security measures for vaccination teams. This includes deploying armed guards and collaborating with local law enforcement to protect health workers during campaigns.
The provincial government’s spokesperson, Sadia Javed, assured that further arrests are anticipated and emphasized the government’s commitment to safeguarding all female polio workers.
"We are providing protection to the victim of assault," she said. "The government will ensure that all women polio workers get maximum security during the upcoming anti-polio campaigns." India
U.S. and India to hold first dialogue on Indian Ocean this fall (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [9/18/2024 3:31 PM, Ken Moriyasu, 2376K, Neutral]
The U.S. and India will hold a dialogue for the first time on the Indian Ocean, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told Congress on Wednesday, amid China’s growing presence in the area.The participants will "talk about what our mutual concerns are, how we can work together," Campbell told the House Foreign Affairs Committee during a hearing on power competition in the Indo-Pacific.He added that the White House, Defense Department and the State Department will be involved in the dialogue. "This is the new frontier, working more closely with a partner like India in the Indian Ocean," he said.A source told Nikkei Asia the dialogue is scheduled to be held this fall, most likely in India.Campbell also alluded to the disjointed coordination between the U.S. government and the military on handling the large oceanic division that touches Asia, Africa and Australia.The Indian Ocean "falls between the cracks" of combatant commands, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has asked Adm. Samuel Paparo, the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, to help "fuse together" the military and security approach, Campbell said.The dialogue will seek to coordinate policies in the Indian Ocean region, an area where China is increasing its presence. In a testimony to the House Subcommittee on the Indo-Pacific in April 2023, Indian Ocean scholar Darshana Baruah said China is the only country with an embassy in each of the six islands in the Indian Ocean -- Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros.Baruah also highlighted that the State Department views the Indian Ocean through four different departments: the bureaus of African affairs; East Asian and Pacific affairs; Near Eastern affairs; and South and Central Asian affairs.In the U.S. military, the Indian Ocean is divided into three combatant commands -- the Indo-Pacific Command, Central Command and Africa Command. The Indo-Pacific Command, based in Hawaii, has the largest naval resources and capacity to understand and respond to maritime developments in the Indian Ocean, Baruah said."However, INDOPACOM’s area of responsibility ends with India, leaving a large portion of the Indian Ocean out of Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategic purview," she testified last year."If there truly is a competition with China, then the U.S. is not paying particular attention to China’s interests, vulnerabilities and opportunities in the Indian Ocean," she added.The idea of an Indian Ocean dialogue was raised in the joint statement issued by U.S. President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2023, during his official state visit to the U.S.The Indian Ocean is a vital trade route and includes some of the world’s most strategically important chokepoints, including the Strait of Hormuz that sits at the mouth of the oil-rich Persian Gulf, the Bab-el-Mandeb, through which all ships sailing the Suez Canal pass, and the Malacca Strait, which connects the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.Campbell on Wednesday called the relationship with India "deeply consequential" and "maybe our most important going into the 21st century."The U.S. and India are part of the Quad, together with Japan and Australia, and leaders of the four countries will meet in Delaware on Saturday. The grouping has called for a free, open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific and is expected to be part of the Indian Ocean dialogue. Ammunition from India enters Ukraine, raising Russian ire (Reuters)
Reuters [9/19/2024 1:09 AM, Krishn Kaushik, 5.2M, Neutral]
Artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers have been diverted by European customers to Ukraine and New Delhi has not intervened to stop the trade despite protests from Moscow, according to eleven Indian and European government and defence industry officials, as well as a Reuters analysis of commercially available customs data.
The transfer of munitions to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia has occurred for more than a year, according to the sources and the customs data. Indian arms export regulations limit the use of weaponry to the declared purchaser, who risks future sales being terminated if unauthorised transfers occur.
The Kremlin has raised the issue on at least two occasions, including during a July meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Indian counterpart, three Indian officials said.
Details of the ammunition transfers are reported by Reuters for the first time.
The foreign and defence ministries of Russia and India did not respond to questions. In January, Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a news conference that India had not sent or sold artillery shells to Ukraine.
Two Indian government and two defence industry sources told Reuters that Delhi produced only a very small amount of the ammunition being used by Ukraine, with one official estimating that it was under 1% of the total arms imported by Kyiv since the war. The news agency couldn’t determine if the munitions were resold or donated to Kyiv by the European customers.
Among the European countries sending Indian munitions to Ukraine are Italy and the Czech Republic, which is leading an initiative to supply Kyiv with artillery shells from outside the European Union, according to a Spanish and a senior Indian official, as well as a former top executive at Yantra India, a state-owned company whose munitions are being used by Ukraine.
The Indian official said that Delhi was monitoring the situation. But, along with a defence industry executive with direct knowledge of the transfers, he said India had not taken any action to throttle the supply to Europe. Like most of the 20 people interviewed by Reuters, they spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The Ukrainian, Italian, Spanish and Czech defence ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Delhi and Washington, Ukraine’s main security backer, have recently strengthened defence and diplomatic cooperation against the backdrop of a rising China, which both regard as their main rival.India also has warm ties with Russia, its primary arms supplier for decades, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has refused to join the Western-led sanctions regime against Moscow.
But Delhi, long the world’s largest weapons importer, also sees the lengthy war in Europe as an opportunity to develop its nascent arms export sector, according to six Indian sources familiar with official thinking.
Ukraine, which is battling to contain a Russian offensive toward the eastern logistics hub of Pokrovsk, has a dire shortage of artillery ammunition.
The White House declined to comment and the U.S. State Department referred questions on Delhi’s arms exports to the Indian government.
India exported just over $3 billion of arms between 2018 and 2023, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute think-tank.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said at an Aug. 30 conference that defence exports surpassed $2.5 billion in the last fiscal year and that Delhi wanted to increase that to about $6 billion by 2029.
Commercially available customs records show that in the two years before the February 2022 invasion, three major Indian ammunition makers - Yantra, Munitions India and Kalyani Strategic Systems - exported just $2.8 million in munitions components to Italy and the Czech Republic, as well as Spain and Slovenia, where defence contractors have invested heavily in supply chains for Ukraine.
Between February 2022 and July 2024, the figure had increased to $135.25 million, the data show, including completed munitions, which India began exporting to the four nations.
Arzan Tarapore, an India defence expert at Stanford University, said that Delhi’s push to expand its arms exports was a major factor in the transfer of its arms to Ukraine.
"Probably in the sudden recent expansion, some instances of end-user violations have occurred."
DISCREET DELIVERIES
Unlisted Italian defence contractor Meccanica per l’Elettronica e Servomeccanismi (MES) was among the companies sending Indian-made shells to Ukraine, said the former top Yantra official.
MES is Yantra’s biggest foreign client. The executive said the Rome-based company buys empty shells from India and fills them with explosives.
Several Western firms had explosive filling capabilities but lack the manufacturing capacity to mass produce artillery shells, the executive said.
Yantra said in its 2022-23 annual report that it had agreed a deal with an unnamed Italian client to set up a manufacturing line for L15A1 shells, which the former Yantra executive identified as MES.MES and Yantra India did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Customs data indicate that Yantra shipped $35 million worth of empty 155mm L15A1 shells to MES between February 2022 and July 2024.
Customs records also show that in February 2024, U.K.-based arms company Dince Hill - whose board includes a top MES executive - exported $6.7 million in ammunition from Italy to Ukraine.
Among the exports were 155mm L15A1 shells, which the customs declaration said were manufactured by MES for Ukraine’s Defence Ministry and supplied for "promoting the defense capability and mobilization readiness of Ukraine."
Dince Hill did not respond to an email seeking comment. Its new owner, Rome-based Effequattro Consulting, could not be reached.
In another instance, Spain’s Transport Minister Oscar Puente shared on social media in May an end user agreement signed by a Czech defence official that authorised the transfer of 120mm and 125mm ammunition shells from Munitions India to arms dealer Czech Defence Systems.
Pro-Palestinian activists had alleged that the Borkum, a vessel carrying Indian-made arms which had stopped in a Spanish port, was carrying the weapons to Israel.
Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported in May the final destination was actually Ukraine. A Spanish official and another source familiar with the matter confirmed to Reuters that Kyiv was the end user. Munitions India and CDS did not respond to questions.
Customs records dated March 27 show Munitions India had shipped 10,000 rounds of 120mm and 125mm mortar shells, worth more than $9 million, from Chennai to CDS.
FRIENDLY FIRE
Russia, which supplies more than 60% of Delhi’s arms imports, is a valued partner for India. In July, Modi chose Moscow for his first bilateral international trip since being elected to a third term.
At another meeting that month in Kazakhstan between top Indian diplomat Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Lavrov, the Russian minister pressed his counterpart about Indian munitions being used by Ukrainians and complained that some were made by state-owned Indian companies, according to an Indian official with direct knowledge of the encounter.
The official did not share Jaishankar’s response.
Walter Ladwig, a South Asia security expert at King’s College London, said the diversion of a relatively small amount of ammunition was geopolitically useful for Delhi.
"It allows India to show partners in the West that it is not ‘on Russia’s side’ in the Russia-Ukraine conflict," he said, adding that Moscow held little leverage over Delhi’s decisions. Kashmiris Are Voting Again. But Do They Have a Voice? (New York Times)
New York Times [9/18/2024 4:14 PM, Sameer Yasir and Showkat Nanda, 831K, Neutral]
The Tao cafe in Srinagar, capital of the disputed Kashmir region in India, is a bustling place. At outdoor tables shaded by majestic trees, Himalayan trout is served with loaves of fresh bread to the young, affluent Kashmiris who frequent it.
But when conversation turns to politics, a hush falls, even though it’s an election season. People describe a loss of direction, a drift into an unsettled future.
They are not sure what place mostly Muslim Kashmir has in an increasingly Hindu-nationalist India. They see themselves as caught between India and Pakistan, the two powers still bitterly at odds over the region. They feel trapped in cycles of oppression by India’s government and violent resistance to that authority.
On Wednesday, people began voting in the first election for Kashmir’s regional legislature in a decade. The vote will restore a degree of self-rule five years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped Kashmir of its semiautonomous status and brought it more tightly under Indian control.
But many young Kashmiris say the return of democracy is partial at best. They say the ballot will not fully restore their voices, taken away by what they call India’s criminalization of dissent and freedom of expression in Kashmir.“Should we accept our fate or just wait for the situation to change? I am confused,” Idrees Ahmad, 33, told friends at the cafe. It was a markedly resigned statement for a young man who, 14 years earlier, had joined a bloody civilian uprising after a Srinagar teenager was struck and killed by a tear-gas canister.
During the decades when India was trying to crush a Pakistan-backed militancy and fully assimilate Kashmir, many young Kashmiris found solace in two things. One was street protests and other forms of public expression; the other, participation in local democratic politics.
Even as tens of thousands died in fighting between separatist insurgents and Indian security forces, a culture of free speech — graffiti, gatherings in public parks, discussions in cafes like Tao — provided many with a sense of nonviolent release for their rage and confusion.
No matter how dynastic and self-serving the political parties were, participating in the process gave Kashmiris some semblance of ownership, even if it all played out in the shadow of an Indian military presence.
The worst of the violence has subsided in recent years. But a chill has fallen over the region. Bringing Kashmir under New Delhi’s direct rule in 2019 ushered in what local leaders called an occupation administered mostly by outsiders.
Even Kashmiri politicians who had fought against the separatists were put under house arrest in large numbers. Rights groups, journalists and civil society have been cowed, with any questioning of the legitimacy of New Delhi’s rule essentially outlawed. Many Kashmiri dissidents still languish in jails in faraway Indian cities.
At a corner table at the Tao, most of a group of eight young Kashmiris said their identity and their dignity were under threat. They spoke of feeling suffocated and uncertain about the future.
Siddiq Wahid, a professor of international relations at Shiv Nadar University near New Delhi, said the Indian government was not solely to blame for that sense of alienation.
The Kashmiri leaders who spearheaded the long struggle for self-rule lacked a clear strategy, he said. While most Kashmiris wanted an independent homeland, separatists were divided over whether to seek independence, integration into Pakistan or more autonomy within India.“You can fight a state, you can resist a state, but you can’t play a zero-sum game, because you don’t stand a chance,” Mr. Wahid said.
New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, and the region’s police chief did not respond to requests for interviews.
The election — a multistage process whose results will be announced on Oct. 8 — is being held against the backdrop of a slowly changing political landscape.
Mr. Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P., has been working for years to secure a foothold in Kashmir. In villages and towns, many young Muslim men have joined its ranks, believing that as India’s governing party it can bring more development. But they often wear masks while campaigning for the B.J.P., fearing retribution.
During a speech this week in Jammu, the Hindu-majority part of the state once called Jammu and Kashmir, Mr. Modi said his policies had indeed led to more investment and infrastructure development.“In the last 10 years, the change witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir is nothing short of a dream come true,” he said. “The stone which used to be thrown at police and the army is now being utilized for building a new Jammu and Kashmir.”
Even as the B.J.P. hopes to gain greater acceptance, high turnout in an election for the national Parliament last spring showed that people would use whatever instrument they were left with to keep Mr. Modi’s party at bay.
On a recent afternoon, about 30 miles south of Srinagar, Abrar Rashid, 26, was being carried on the shoulders of young supporters. In June, his father, widely known as Engineer Rashid, won a seat in India’s Parliament despite being imprisoned. His son led his campaign.“We are Kashmiris first, and we have to fight to preserve our identity,” said Mr. Rashid, whose father was jailed years ago on charges of funding terrorism.
Just a few years ago, some of these same supporters were using stones and their own bodies to try to stop soldiers from killing militants. Now, they were celebrating the elevation of a Kashmiri leader in the national legislature of India, a country whose elections many people in Kashmir boycotted for decades.
Shahid Reyaz Thoker, a political activist, shouted slogans and danced on a pickup truck as he campaigned for a candidate from the People’s Democratic Party, a regional organization that once governed the state.
When he was a teenager, Mr. Thoker was detained by the police and sent to a juvenile home. Officers told his father he had participated in protests over the killings of militants and was preparing to join the insurgency.“What does a 20-year-old want?” Mr. Thoker asked, as a loudspeaker blared slogans of self-rule. “A mobile phone, a few friends, a good number of Instagram followers and some pocket money.”“But I want nothing of that sort,” he added, “just peace, and peace with dignity.”
At the Tao cafe, a group of teenage girls, some wearing Kashmiri-embroidered silk salwar kameez, giggled as they took selfies in front of flower beds. An irritated waiter served them fried vegetable pakora.
One girl said she hoped to become a physician, another a fashion designer. They were holding tight to those aspirations, despite what they described as the childhood trauma of the Indian military presence.“These children have dreams; they need a stable environment to achieve them,” said Ruhani Syed, an artist at another table.
A police officer arrived at the cafe, apparently to meet some friends. Suddenly, everyone went silent, and the mood grew somber.
Ahmad Parvez, a singer, said he sometimes felt that the world around him was collapsing. Ugly high-rises were replacing old bazaars. India, hoping to present a picture of normalcy, has encouraged tourism in Kashmir, and money has poured into the ecologically fragile region.
As a child, Mr. Parvez said, he performed with a school troupe inside military garrisons. That changed after he took a picture of a camp near his home, which had once been a watch factory. Soldiers beat him.
As he got older, he began reading books, and questions about his identity and nationality seemed to resolve themselves. One day, he borrowed a guitar from a friend and started singing. Within a few months, he was an internet sensation.
Then India revoked the semi-autonomy of Kashmir, and everything seemed tenuous again.“I used to hate taking pictures,” he said. “Today, I don’t leave anything without capturing. I feel all this will vanish very soon, and there will be nothing left.” Brisk voting for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir for first time after losing autonomy (AP)
AP [9/18/2024 12:35 PM, Aijaz Hussain, 4566K, Negative]
Voting for the first phase of a staggered election to choose a local government concluded Wednesday in Indian-controlled Kashmir, the first such vote since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.Turnout was about 59%, the region’s chief electoral officer said in a statement, as voting was “incident-free and peaceful.”Authorities had deployed thousands of additional police and paramilitary soldiers for security in the seven southern districts of the region, which has been roiled by an insurgency against Indian rule for decades. Over 2.3 million residents are eligible to cast their votes to choose 24 lawmakers out of 219 candidates in the first phase of the election.Wearing riot gear and carrying assault rifles, troops set up checkpoints and patrolled constituencies as long lines of voters stretched around the polling booths.The second and third phases are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1. The process is staggered for logistical reasons and to allow troops to move around to stop potential violence in the Himalayan region.For the first time, authorities limited access to polling stations for foreign media and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including to The Associated Press, without citing any reason.India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and most Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.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 semi-autonomy, downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory and stripped its separate constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs. It was also divided into two federal territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run the territories along unelected bureaucrats and security personnel.Many people said they knew their votes won’t solve the dispute over Kashmir, but provided a rare window to express their frustration with direct Indian control.Aamir Ahmed, a first-time voter in Pulwama town, said it was important to elect a local representative “who does not condone wrongdoing.”
“We have witnessed a lot of suffering in the last 10 years,” Ahmed said.Another voter, 80-year-old farmer Ali Mohammad Alai, said he had been “reduced to penury by the Modi government” after authorities took away his land given to him decades ago for cultivation by the local administration. “All I want is to get that land back,” he said. “Our own government can do that.”People in the Kashmir Valley had layered rights to use of land since reforms in the 1950s that mainly gave Muslim farmers possession of land they tilled for the minority Hindu rulers and its elite. Some of those rights were rescinded after 2019 changes.In Kishtwar town, multiple voters said they hoped the polling would culminate in a government that cared about economic development and addressed their main issues. “Be it BJP or some other party or a coalition, we urgently want development and better life. Politics can wait,” said Chander Jeet Sharma, 49.The multistage election will allow Kashmir to have its own truncated government and a local legislature, called an assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule. A chief minister will head a council of ministers in the government.However, there will be a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly as Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — 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 of India.Multiple local parties have campaigned on promises to fight for reversal of 2019 changes and address other key issues like rising unemployment and inflation in the region where locals have struggled amid curtailed civil liberties particularly after the revocation of the special status.India’s ruling BJP, however, has vowed to block any move aimed at undoing those changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time ruled 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. In Kashmir, voting begins in first local elections since India revoked autonomy (NPR)
NPR [9/18/2024 3:43 PM, Omkar Khandekar and Diaa Hadid, 40123K, Negative]
Men and women filed into gender-segregated lines, huddling in shawls early Wednesday morning in this Himalayan territory. Many prepared to do something that they’d never done before: vote.
Across Indian-controlled Kashmir, residents are casting ballots in assembly elections that are being held for the first time in a decade - and since the Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped away the territory’s statehood in 2019, a move that rights activists say was followed by a dramatic clampdown on people’s freedoms.
The folks lining up to cast a ballot included Shahid, a 33-year-old businessman. He requested NPR withhold his family name, fearing reprisals by authorities if he spoke freely, nodding to the police, border forces and soldiers who had fanned around the polling area. Ever since Kashmir’s statehood was dismantled, Shahid says, "We are in an open jail. We can’t protest against anything, even power cuts or water supply."
Shahid says he once ignored elections, like many in Kashmir who boycotted to protest India’s rule of the territory. Now, he says, he’s voting "so someone can fight for us."
It’s a fight for the prosaic, like employment and services, and the political: to restore Kashmir’s statehood, although analysts say a return of its partial autonomy is unlikely. That past autonomy was a nod to its unique status: it was India’s only Muslim-majority state, part of a region straddling India and Pakistan, which both claim it. Kashmir was fought over by those nuclear-armed neighbors in three wars, and each administers part of it.
Its special autonomy in India was largely symbolic, but analysts say its very existence irked Hindu nationalists, who saw it as a form of appeasement to India’s minority Muslims. That was echoed in a campaign rally by the powerful interior minister, Amit Shah, who rallied supporters during federal elections this year, roaring into a crowd, "Tell me: Is Kashmir ours, or not?"
Perhaps to prevent violence, just as Kashmir’s statehood was revoked in 2019, its phone lines and internet access were cut, a curfew was imposed, journalists and politicians were detained. So were hundreds of men, say residents, some over critical Facebook posts.
Even five years on, most residents - from those manning roadside stalls selling apples to shopkeepers and fertilizer traders - declined to speak to NPR reporters when asked about elections, saying they feared being punished by authorities. They described friends and relatives who received threats from India’s security agencies and loved ones detained for weeks and months at a time, sometimes over social media posts.
Real or perceived oppression is pushing people to vote, say analysts, because people feel they have no other way of expressing their discontent.
"The vote is truly the new stone," says the former Kashmir finance minister,Haseeb Drabu, referring to young men hurling rocks at security forces in years of upheaval in Kashmir.
"This is not going to be a vote for something," says Drabu, "it’s a vote against [the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party], at least in the Kashmir Valley," he said, referring to the Muslim-majority region. The other part of the territory, known as Jammu, is dominated by Hindus and is expected to elect BJP-loyal candidates.
Voting in Kashmir will be undertaken in three phases to end on Oct. 1 - but the new legislators will have few powers, with analysts saying the real power will lie with the governor, chosen by New Delhi. But that’s not the point, candidates say. A strong anti-BJP turnout would send a message to the government in New Delhi, as well as the courts and international observers, that the status quo must change.
"There are no powers with the assembly. All of us know it," says Waheed ur Rehman Para, of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Democratic Party. "But this is a democratic mandate which will give a lot of legitimacy," he says, to the push to restore Kashmir’s statehood.
Kashmiri residents say reclaiming statehood is more than symbolic.
They say bureaucrats from New Delhi have been running their affairs badly. Apple growers say their market has been pounded by a2023 agreement to relax import duties on American apples. Many residents NPR interviewed spoke of a growing problem of drug addiction among young men, and there are so few jobs that "you’ll see graduates selling bananas on the street," lamented 30-year-old toy seller King Maqbool, a university graduate himself.
These elections have seen a proliferation of independent and first-time candidates, including some with the party led by Shaikh Abdul Rashid, a politician who was elected to India’s parliament from jail, where he has been held for five years on terror financing charges. Rashid’s Awami Ittehad Party has formed an alliance with independents widely understood to be loyal to the influential Jamaat-e-Islami, a banned Islamist outfit whose members in the past joined militant outfits.
If the Kashmiri Muslim vote is divided among multiple independents, it could produce an assembly with the Hindu nationalist BJP as the largest party, and in control of a coalition. "The government’s hope is that this will divide the vote," says Siddiq Wahid, a professor in the department of international relations and governance studies at Shiv Nadar University near New Delhi. "The BJP obviously will be in the driver’s seat," he says, arguing that it will allow the assembly to "put the stamp of approval on the dismantling of the state."
But even critics of the BJP concede that militant attacks have declined, and stone-throwing and strikes that shuttered shops and schools on and off for years have halted. "I’m absolutely an anti-BJP kind of person, but I will never deny the truth," says Rouhani Syed, a Kashmiri model and artist from Srinagar.
Syed says with violence quelled, tourists have flocked to the area’s postcard-pretty meadows, lakes and snow-capped peaks. That’s shifted the culture here, which she says was once deeply conservative. "There is less misogyny, which was like hardcore in Kashmir towards modern women," she says.
A few miles away, in the Habba Kadal constituency, BJP candidate Ashok Bhat says the area "was one of the worst affected" during the most violent days of the insurgency that raged in Kashmir. "The first shot of an AK-47 rang out from this place."
He says that’s precisely why the BJP set up its campaign office here - to highlight the contrast between the years of violence and the years of quiet. During campaigning, Bhat says they remind residents: "If your son steps out of the house, they’ll be able to return safely."
Bhat is a Kashmiri Hindu. Most fled this area over the years as they became the targets of violent attacks by Muslim militants, unraveling a once famously syncretic culture. He says now, with peace in the area, his party has plans for their return.
But quiet is not peace, says candidate Para of the PDP.
"There are less killings," he says, "but more arrests." He estimates that more than 2,000 Kashmiri youths, including students, activists and journalists, are in jails outside the region, where their families struggle to see them. Many of them were accused of throwing stones or militant activity, and arrested after Kashmir’s autonomy was curbed.
Para himself says he spent 18 months in prison in 2020 on terror charges. He says it’s because he spoke out against the Indian government. In detention, he was "stripped, tortured, locked up," he says, and began craving the simplest of things, like sunlight.
At a rally that Para held in Pulwama, a town near the administrative capital, that jail time seemed to resonate with thousands of Kashmiri men and women, who tripped over each other to greet him and kiss his hands. Many spontaneously shouted a chant that has become a refrain across Kashmir this election season: "We will avenge jail with our votes." India Takes Step Toward Simultaneous Local and National Polls (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [9/18/2024 7:15 AM, Swati Gupta and Abhijit Roy Chowdhury, 27782K, Positive]
India’s federal cabinet Wednesday accepted the recommendation by a government-appointed committee for conducting national and state elections simultaneously, a policy favored by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.The cabinet’s announcement is many steps away from the enforcement of the policy. The implementation of the plan, named ‘One Nation, One Election’, would require support of parliament by a two-third majority, among other approvals. The federal government’s argument for concurrent elections has been to cut down expenditure on elections and improve efficiency for the duration of five years that a state or national government presides at a time.“By unanimous decision, the cabinet has accepted the recommendations for simultaneous elections,” Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in New Delhi after the meeting.Last year, a government-appointed committee headed by India’s former President Ram Nath Kovind submitted its report recommendingthe implementation of the strategy. State elections are non-concurrent as of now, with few polls scheduled almost every year. The national elections were held earlier this year while those in one state are currently underway. Three more states are headed for elections in the coming months.The policy will be implemented in two phases. The national and state elections will be conducted together in the first phase, while voting for local bodies will be in the second, Vaishnaw said.To implement the plan, the government will need to amend the constitution, a task made considerably harder with an opposition staunchly opposed to the proposal. Modi’s opponents have long feared that the BJP will use its national popularity to also sweep simultaneously-held state elections. Currently, off-cycle elections spread over a five-year period mean local issues — and parties — often dominate voters preferences.“You will ultimately give the center the power to determine the period of the assembly which is completely damaging of the federal structure,” said Amit Pai, a lawyer at the Supreme Court of India. “It would be contrary to the basic structure of the constitution.”After losing its majority in the parliament, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has formed the current government with coalition partners and has been grappling with an expanded opposition bench. India’s cabinet accepts recommendation to hold simultaneous national, state elections (Reuters)
Reuters [9/18/2024 8:19 AM, Shivam Patel, 37270K, Positive]
India’s cabinet has accepted a recommendation to hold simultaneous elections to state assemblies and the national parliament, the information minister said on Wednesday, a move pushed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to improve governance.A government-appointed panel had recommended in March that simultaneous elections in the world’s most populous country will help increase transparency, but the move is contentious and will have to be approved by parliament.Simultaneous election will strengthen democracy, minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters, adding that the plan is supported by a large section of India’s young population.The government will build consensus and take all legal aspects into consideration before moving forward, he said.Simultaneous elections used to be the norm in India, but the cycle was disrupted decades ago, resulting in the current staggered system which sees on average five or six state polls being held either at the same time or separately every year.Frequent election campaigns take politicians away from governance, raise electioneering expenses and also pause new policies and programmes from being announced due to an election code, Modi and his government say, and have been pushing what is called the "One Nation, One Election" plan.The nine-member government panel, appointed by Modi’s government last year, also said it found that real GDP growth was higher when simultaneous polls were held, compared to a decrease when they were not.Those opposed to the idea, including some prominent opposition parties, say it violates India’s federal politics. Scot detained in India on terror charges is denied bail (BBC)
BBC [9/18/2024 10:29 AM, Staff, 67197K, Negative]
A Scottish Sikh man arrested in India seven years ago over alleged terror offences has had his bail refused.Jagtar Singh Johal, from Dumbarton, faces charges related to political violence after being detained after his wedding in the country in November 2017.His family has accused the Indian authorities of torturing him and has repeatedly asked for the Scottish and UK governments to intervene.Mr Johal, who campaigned for Sikh rights in Punjab, had been bailed on two previous cases - but the High Court in Dehli rejected his latest appeal.Mr Johal’s brother, Gurpreet, said prosecutors in India could be allowed to drag the case out for decades unless the UK government steps in to help bring him home.He said: “My brother should not be in prison. All he ever did was stand up for human rights, as we have said from day one.“Today’s ruling is a harsh reminder that the system is stacked against him.“Even these simple bail applications have taken more than a year to be considered because the prosecution has sought so many needless adjournments."Mr Johal was arrested in Jalandhar in November 2017 and charged with conspiracy to murder.His family claims he has been tortured and was forced to sign blank pieces of paper and record video statements to make it stop.Campaigners allege he was electrocuted and threatened to be doused in petrol and set alight, but this is denied by the Indian authorities.Mr Johal was an active blogger while still living in Scotland, and regularly wrote about historical human rights abuses against Sikhs in the Punjab region.In May 2022 a UN panel of human rights experts found his detention was arbitrary - in other words lacked legal basis - and he should be released.Scotland’s first minister John Swinney said he was "gravely concerned" about Mr Johal’s case.Mr Johal has been granted bail twice before, according to human rights group Reprieve.The organisation said the High Court in Punjab previously granted Mr Johal bail in March 2022 on the basis that he had been jailed without trial for five years, which violated his right to justice.Reprieve said this ruling was upheld by India’s Supreme Court in August 2023.‘Clearly unjust’The charity, which has been supporting Mr Johal’s family, claim the latest refusal of bail by the High Court of Delhi is at odds with the Supreme Court ruling and subject to challenge.Deputy director, Harriet McCulloch, said the latest decision should "shock the UK government into action".She said: “To deny Jagtar bail when there is no end in sight to his trials and no credible evidence has been presented is clearly unjust.“India is keeping a British human rights activist in arbitrary detention while his government stands by."The UK Government should be actively seeking his release, doing whatever it takes.”The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has been approached for comment. NSB
Bangladesh, Struggling to Restore Order, Gives Army Policing Powers (New York Times)
New York Times [9/18/2024 4:14 PM, Saif Hasnat, 831K, Neutral]
Bangladesh’s interim government on Tuesday granted the army special powers to maintain law and order, a sign of the country’s continuing instability after its autocratic leader fled last month following widespread protests.
The new order, while falling short of an emergency declaration, gives army officers wide-ranging local policing powers. They can now issue search and arrest warrants and are authorized to disperse large gatherings.
The Ministry of Public Administration said the powers would last for two months and would apply across the country of 170 million people. Asif Nazrul, the interim government’s top law official, told local news outlets that the measures were needed because of public disorder in several parts of the country, including industrial areas.
There have been reports in recent weeks of attacks on Bangladesh’s long-persecuted Hindu minority, as well as on the shrines of Sufis, an Islamic sect seen as heretical by many fundamentalists. Operations at garment factories, a main driver of the country’s economy, have been affected by the insecurity.
The sudden departure of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for India on Aug. 5, after a crackdown that killed hundreds of protesters, plunged the country into near-anarchy.
The police disappeared from the streets, fearing for their lives, after dozens of officers were killed. The police had been responsible for most of the killings of protesters and were widely seen as an extension of Ms. Hasina’s political party.
The resulting vacuum was filled by mob rule and revenge killings. Students took up the task of managing the notoriously congested traffic in Dhaka, the capital.
Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel laureate who became Bangladesh’s interim leader days after Ms. Hasina fled, has struggled to restore order. Police officers have gradually gone back to their jobs, but many don’t venture far from their stations, and their confidence and credibility are low. Many officers returned to work in civilian clothes, under the protection of the army.
Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, a Dhaka-based security analyst and a former senior officer in Bangladesh’s military, said the army had already taken on much of the work of law enforcement in recent weeks. The new temporary powers, he added, will help officers carry out those duties more effectively.“There has to be a legal cover behind it,” Mr. Choudhury said. ‘A long way to go’: in revolution’s wake, questions linger over direction of the new Bangladesh (The Guardian)
The Guardian [9/18/2024 10:07 PM, Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Redwan Ahmed, 92374K, Neutral]
Like so many of Sheikh Hasina’s political rivals, Amir Chowdhury was in jail the day that the prime minister fled Bangladesh.
Chowdhury, a senior leader in the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP), had been picked up by police three weeks earlier, in July, as mass protests began to engulf the country and a violent crackdown began in response. It was Chowdhury’s third stint in prison since Hasina took power 15 years ago and began a campaign to destroy his party.
This time it was university students, not opposition parties, who started the protests. As their movement began to gather momentum and public anger swelled against Hasina, the BNP and other parties also took to the streets, alongside garment workers, farmers, lawyers and intellectuals.
The state hit back at protesters, using beatings, teargas, rubber bullets and live ammunition, but the protests swelled, escalating into a fully fledged revolution calling for the end to Hasina’s autocratic rule. Thousands were arrested and over 1,000 people were killed over the course of three weeks, one the bloodiest episodes in Bangladesh’s history.
On 5 August, Chowdhury became aware that the prison cells around him, filled with arrested students and BNP members, were abuzz. Some had smuggled in radios and were listening to the news as it began to be reported that Hasina had fled in a helicopter as almost a million people had marched towards her residence.
"When we heard she had gone," said Chowdhury. "It was like a bomb blast in the jail." he said. . The next morning Chowdhury and swathes of fellow prisoners were freed.
With just over a month since Hasina’s regime collapsed, Bangladesh now stands at a crossroads. At the request of the triumphant student leaders, Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel Laureate and former political rival of Hasina, agreed to return to the country from the US to head an interim government, tasked with restoring democracy. Many of the advisers Yunus has appointed were once deemed enemies of the state by Hasina, including prominent NGO heads, lawyers, journalists, activists and students.
A giddy optimism still grips the streets of the capital Dhaka. People spoke gleefully of a "second independence for Bangladesh", of the relief of the overnight return of freedom of speech and no longer having to fearfully look over their shoulders as they discussed politics.
Sitting in a hotel lobby in Dhaka, renowned human rights activist Nur Khan Liton recalled that, until a few weeks ago, he had been under constant police surveillance and could never have imagined being able to hold meetings freely in public. BNP leaders, many of whom were slapped with hundreds of criminal cases, revelled at no longer spending their days sitting in courtrooms or jail cells.
Yet the country still has yet to return to normality and remains in a state of insecurity. For the past month, hundreds of factories have been shut down due to mass protests, bringing the lucrative garment industry to an economically devastating halt.
Police - routinely used by Hasina’s regime to terrorise civilians and commit abuses - still remain largely absent from the streets, fearing attacks by civilians. Several police stations have been set on fire and in many instances, civilians have taken to calling student groups rather than the police to help resolve incidents or report injustices.
This week, in what many saw as a bid to get the law and order situation under control, the interim government granted the military special powers to carry out policing duties, including arrests and search warrants. While the government insisted the measure was only temporary, lasting two months, the move was viewed with some concern.
Analysts say the roster of ambitious democratic reforms that Yunus and his advisers have promised are complex - involving rebuilding key state institutions from scratch - and are likely to take years to implement. For students at the forefront of the revolution, several of whom now sit at Yunus’s right hand, the task at hand is a complete overhaul of everything from the police to the judiciary, the banks and the electoral system to ensure that authoritarianism can never take hold again. Many also spoke of the necessity of changing the constitution, which Hasina had amended.
"It’s a huge and complicated process," said Rezwan Ahmed Refat, a protest coordinator who is studying law at Dhaka university. "The main challenge is that many of the fascist systems that Hasina put in place are still there. We have a long way to go with reforming the government secretariat, the police and the judiciary. Until these institutions are independent, then nothing will change."‘These reforms will take time’
Refat said that while Yunus still had a powerful mandate from millions who took to the streets, if the government did not move faster and clearly lay out the specifics of their reform agenda soon, students would not hesitate to protest once again.
Privately, several prominent figures voiced concern that the interim government appeared to be "lost" and trying to take on too much. Few however wanted to speak publicly, not wanting to be seen to undermine Yunus.
After the public highs following Hasina’s departure, the government admitted that weight of expectation was enormous and the pathway to reform was fraught with challenges, particularly as Hasina left the country in deep economic crisis. According to government advisers, tens of billions of dollars were illegally laundered out of Bangladesh by Hasina’s so-called "cronies" since 2014, and the scale of the corruption and losses are still only just becoming apparent.
Touhid Hossain, the newly appointed foreign affairs adviser, called for patience, stating that the outlines of exactly what the interim government meant by reform was "still being finalised" and would probably "crystallise in the next few months".
Hossain emphasised that he, like others in the new government, stepped up simply to implement a new vision of Bangladesh that the youth has sacrificed their lives for. Yunus himself is already 84-years old.
"Once we do the job, we will hold the elections," said Hossain. "Politicians will come in and run the country and we will fade away. None of us has any ambition to hold any post in the future government."
Nonetheless, one of the biggest questions is just how long they intend on staying in power. While initially it was suggested it would be just a few months, many now believe it could be up to five or six years, in order to give them time to overhaul the country’s key institutions. Activists tasked by the government to look into issues such as enforced disappearances said it would take them 18 months minimum just to do their initial investigations.
"I would not speculate on timeframe, but I don’t think that it is going to be over in three or six months. These reforms will take time," said Hossain.
For now, political parties, namely the BNP, have agreed to step back and let the interim government implement reforms with their tacit support, namely in the hope that Yunus’s strong connections with the US and other western countries will encourage much-needed foreign economic assistance into the country.
"If this transition government does not succeed, it will not only destroy the government, it will destroy Bangladesh," said Abdul Moyeen Khan, a senior BNP leader.
Yet the BNP pushed back at the suggestions of the unelected interim government lasting several years. It is widely acknowledged that with Hasina’s Awami League party in tatters, with most of its leaders in hiding or abroad, the BNP would sweep any election. Analysts said BNP’s impatience to return to power could be a cause of unrest down the line, with the first protests taking place this week. Others warned that an ongoing political vacuum could enable more extremist Islamist elements, already present in Bangladesh, to take greater hold.
But on the streets, most remained hopeful for the future. Gazi Jakaria, 35, was among about 400 people who was partially blinded during the protests after he was shot at by police and then held in jail for several weeks with no treatment. "I have no regrets about making this sacrifice to bring down Hasina," he said. "We went out into the streets to fight for change and that’s what Yunus’s government is doing so I am happy. We can’t fix everything overnight." Bangladesh at a Crossroads: The Urgent Need to Revitalize Foreign Investment (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [9/18/2024 1:36 PM, Anik Dey, 1198K, Neutral]
Bangladesh is at a critical crossroads in its economic development, where the urgent need to boost foreign direct investment (FDI) has never been more pronounced. As the country grapples with macroeconomic challenges, it is essential to recognize that attracting FDI is not merely an option; it is a necessity for sustainable growth and diversification. With recent trends indicating a decline in FDI inflows, Bangladesh must take decisive action to create a more favorable investment climate.
Recent FDI Trends
Bangladesh’s economy, like its politics, was upended by the protests that led to Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as prime minister, and the lingering uncertainty amid a new interim government. But it’s important to note that Bangladesh’s FDI was on a downward trend even before the events of this summer.
In 2023, Bangladesh’s net FDI inflow decreased to $3 billion, representing a 14 percent drop from $3.48 billion in 2022. Despite a remarkable increase of 20.2 percent from 2021 to 2022, the subsequent drop in FDI highlights the volatility and uncertainty that foreign investors face in Bangladesh.
Notably, in 2023 existing companies reinvested earnings of $2.20 billion, which accounted for 73 percent of the total net FDI inflow. This indicates that a significant portion of the FDI in Bangladesh came from reinvestments by existing investors rather than new foreign investments.
The decline of FDI in Bangladesh is particularly concerning given the backdrop of significant FDI inflows in the region, with India attracting over $40 billion and Vietnam $15 billion in the same year. The country’s total FDI stock is estimated at $21.1 billion, representing only 4.6 percent of its GDP, which is significantly lower than many of its peers in South Asia and Southeast Asia, despite Bangladesh offering similar economic conditions and opportunities.
The United States and China have emerged as significant sources of FDI for Bangladesh, yet their overall contributions remain limited compared to what they invest in other countries. In 2023, China became Bangladesh’s largest FDI source country in terms of the gross flow of $940 million. Meanwhile, the inflow of FDI from the United States to Bangladesh dropped by 11 percent year on year to approximately $315 million in 2023.
Reasons for Low FDI in Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange regime is currently experiencing one of its worst periods, with the taka losing 35 percentof its value against the U.S. dollar over the past two years. This volatility raises concerns among foreign investors about currency risk and the overall economic environment.
On top of that, corruption remains a significant barrier to attracting FDI. Reports indicate that bureaucratic inefficiencies and requests for bribes create an unwelcoming environment for foreign investors. A lack of governance in various sectors further exacerbates this issue.
Though Bangladesh in the last decades experienced a boom in infrastructural development, for attracting FDI the current reality is still inadequate. A lack of infrastructure, particularly in transport and energy, hampers operational efficiency. Bangladesh’s port handling facilities are often congested, leading to delays and increased costs for businesses. Additionally, the energy supply remains unreliable, affecting production schedules.
Policy inconsistency and limited sector diversifications are some of the other reasons attributed to the low inflow of FDI. Frequent changes in investment policies create uncertainty for foreign investors. The government’s approach to taxation and regulation has lacked predictability, making it challenging for businesses to plan for the long term - and that was during a 15-year period of rule by the same government. The abrupt ouster of Hasina has stoked further uncertainty among foreign investors who are unsure what the interim government’s economic approach will be, and how long it will stay in power.
Additionally, the heavy reliance on the textile sector, which accounts for over 86 percent of Bangladesh’s export earnings, makes the economy vulnerable to global market fluctuations. Investors are increasingly seeking opportunities in diversified sectors, but Bangladesh has yet to fully capitalize on this trend.
Steering Through the FDI Crunch
In the current economic landscape, prioritizing investment over loans is crucial for Bangladesh, especially given the pressures on its foreign reserves. As of recent reports, Bangladesh’s foreign reserves have fallen significantly, dropping from over $29 billion in August 2023 to around $25.6 billion in August 2024. This decline has been exacerbated by rising debt servicing costs, which have put additional strain on the reserves.
Relying on loans can lead to a cycle of debt that hinders long-term development. While loans lead to increased debt burdens, FDI brings not only capital but also technology transfer, skill development, and integration into global supply chains. FDI can stimulate local economies and create jobs, making it a more sustainable option for economic growth.
What Bangladesh Can Do to Attract Foreign Investors
To enhance its appeal as an investment destination, Bangladesh must implement several strategic initiatives aimed at improving the overall business environment. The first and foremost step should be the streamlining of the regulatory framework by simplifying bureaucratic processes and establishing a one-stop service for foreign investors. This will significantly reduce the time and effort required to set up operations.
Additionally, investing in infrastructure projects, particularly in energy and transportation, is critical. Leveraging public-private partnerships can help fund these initiatives, ensuring that the necessary facilities are in place to support foreign investments.
Furthermore, promoting sector diversification beyond textiles - such as technology, pharmaceuticals, and renewable energy - will attract a broader range of investments, while targeted incentives can encourage growth in these areas.
At the same time, strengthening governance and addressing corruption are essential for building investor confidence. Implementing clear anti-corruption measures and e-governance initiatives will enhance transparency and accountability. Showcasing successful foreign investments can serve as a powerful marketing tool to attract potential investors by demonstrating the benefits of investing in Bangladesh.
Finally, creating a stable economic environment is vital for regaining investor confidence. This includes managing inflation, ensuring a stable exchange rate, and maintaining healthy foreign currency reserves, all of which will encourage foreign investors to commit to long-term investments in the country.
For Bangladesh, the time to boost foreign investment is now. The country has immense potential, but it must address existing challenges and implement strategic reforms to position itself as a leading investment destination in South Asia. By creating a conducive environment for foreign investors, Bangladesh can harness the power of FDI to transform its economy and improve the lives of its citizens.
The opportunity is ripe, and the world is watching. It is imperative for policymakers to act decisively, ensuring that Bangladesh not only attracts foreign investment but also fosters sustainable economic growth for years to come. Sri Lanka’s presidential election a test for current leader, 2 years after its economy hit bottom (AP)
AP [9/19/2024 1:06 AM, Bharatha Mallawarachi and Sheikh Saaliq, 456K, Neutral]
Two years ago, food cart worker Fathima Shiyama had to wait in line, sometimes for days, to get cooking gas, fuel and other essentials. It was a test of patience for her and millions of other Sri Lankans as their country languished in economic and political chaos.
Since then, under President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the South Asian island nation’s economy has begun a fragile recovery. As the country gears up for a crucial presidential vote, key economic indicators have improved and there are no shortages of food and fuel. Inflation is almost under control after peaking at 70%.
Sri Lankans who usually vote along religious and ethnic lines will be keeping the state of the economy in mind when they vote Saturday on a new president. Many are still struggling, borrowing money or leaving the country to cope with rising living costs and limited opportunities.
Shiyama says she isn’t still earning enough to cover her monthly expenses and pay for her ailing daughter’s medical tests. In desperation, she has turned to borrowing from loan sharks at an exorbitant 20% interest rate.“We are trying our best to survive despite many difficulties,” said the 48-year-old mother of five, as she was selling “string hopper” noodles and coconut “pittu,” popular traditional dinner items, from a cart on the outskirts of Colombo.
As Sri Lanka sank into economic collapse in 2022, a popular uprising led its then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country.This weekend’s election pits his successor, Wickremesinghe, against opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Anura Dissanayake, leader of a Marxist-led coalition that has been gaining popularity. Poll results are due Sunday.
All the candidates have promised to lead Sri Lanka into a prosperous future by developing new industries, improving agriculture, broadening the tax base to increase revenue and creating tens of thousands of new jobs.
Under Wickremesinghe, Sri Lanka has been negotiating with the international creditors to restructure the country’s staggering debt and get the economy back on track. The International Monetary Fund approved a four-year bailout program last year, but many Sri Lankans are unhappy over the government’s efforts to increase revenue by raising electricity rates and imposing heavy taxes on professionals and businesses, to meet IMF conditions for its assistance.
Overall conditions have improved after the long dry spell during and after the pandemic. Vital tourism earnings have risen and the Sri Lankan rupee has recovered. But rising prices due to the government’s austerity measures are squeezing many households.“We are in a very critical time” said Murtaza Jafferjee, an economic analyst and chairman of Advocata Institute, a Colombo-based independent policy think tank.“The economy is looking up,” he said, but has not fully recovered. The government should aim for at least 4% growth this year, instead of its target of 3%. Politicians need to focus on policies that don’t just benefit the country’s elite, Jafferjee said.“It is high time that we run this country for the benefit of the 22 million people,” he said.
Sri Lanka’s economic crisis began well before the upheavals of 2022.
Staggering economic mismanagement by successive governments was compounded by poor policy choices and then the pandemic. Rajapaksa pushed through big tax cuts in 2019. Then, he banned imports of chemical fertilizer to preserve Sri Lanka’s scarce foreign reserves, hurting crop yields in a a country largely dependent on agriculture.
With the war in Ukraine, food and fuel prices surged and fuel, cooking gas, medicine and food ran short. Sri Lankans lined up for government rice handouts and charity meals.
Today, inflation has dropped below 5% and there’s no need to line up to buy essentials. But key parts of the economy remain in crisis.
Jagath Dissanayake said conditions remain dire for his construction firm in Gampaha, a town located about 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Colombo after prices of building materials tripled. Most of Dissanayake projects are suspended and he had to lay off two-thirds of his employees.“People have no money to do new construction as they give priority to buying essentials. We hardly get any new work,” Dissanayake said.His income is down almost 75%, he said, so there is no more dining out and Dissanayake rides a motorbike instead of driving a car, to save money on fuel.“Of course, there are no queues for petrol anymore, but we don’t have enough money to buy it.” he said.
Sri Lanka’s construction industry has shed about 400,000 jobs in the last four years, according to some estimates. Once a booming industry that contributed nearly 12% to the country’s growth figures, its share has dropped to 7% this year.
Many Sri Lankans have sought jobs abroad.
Viraj Maduranga, formerly a teacher in a government school, went to Dubai in 2021 to find work when he became unable to repay loans he had taken to build his house and buy a vehicle.“Either I had to sell off the house and the car, or find an alternative income. So, I decided to leave. It was not an easy decision for me and my wife, but we have to make sacrifices to build our lives,” said Maduranga, who now works as a teacher in Dubai and won’t be able to vote in the election.
Not everyone is impressed with the promises made by the candidates in this election.“We have seen it in the past, politicians saying various things, but when they come into power they have simply ignored what they have said during campaigns,” said W.A. Wijewardena, an economic analyst and former deputy governor of Sri Lanka’s central bank.
Jafferjee, the economic analyst, said the election is “extremely crucial” for Sri Lanka’s economic recovery. The next president should use his executive powers to “enact pro-consumer policies” and be more open to trade.“This (crisis) is not insurmountable, but you need to make unpopular choices. What you need basically is a president who looks to grow the pie,” said Jafferjee.
In the meantime, Sri Lankans like Maduranga are impatiently waiting for change.
He longs to rejoin his wife and 8-year-old son in Sri Lanka, but still needs to repay his loans.“This is not the best time to go back,” Maduranga said. “I want to live in Sri Lanka as a free man without being indebted to anyone.” Sri Lanka’s presidential election to test economic green shoots (Reuters)
Reuters [9/19/2024 2:13 AM, Libby George and Uditha Jayasinghe, 5.2M, Neutral]
Sri Lanka’s knife-edge election on Saturday has raised doubts over when its long-awaited debt deal with bondholders will be finalised, if it keeps up with its IMF programme targets and even whether it results in a president inclined to change both.
Two of the leading presidential contenders, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa and Marxist-leaning parliamentarian Anura Kumara Dissanayake, have expressed interest in reworking Sri Lanka’s $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund bailout.
Sri Lanka has struggled since suicide bombings in 2019 hit its key tourism industry, worsening its over-spending and capping growth. Less than a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing global food and fuel price spikes, combined with interest rate hikes, tipped its economy over the abyss.
In April 2022, Sri Lanka defaulted on its debt, sparking protests that forced out former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Voters in the south Asian island nation of 22 million people, a tranquil tourist destination full of tea plantations and beautiful beaches, have since endured years of hardship.
However, green shoots have begun to surface under President Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office in 2022.
"Everyone in Sri Lanka, be it the politicians, the upper class or middle class or lower class, they do see the economy is returning back to a steady, recovering track," said Clifford Lau, a portfolio manager at William Blair.
"All this could only happen with the IMF deal being at the centrepiece of revamping the country," Lau added.
Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to grow 3% this year, reversing last year’s contraction, while inflation, which peaked at 70% in September 2022, moderated to 0.5% in August.
Vital foreign reserves - once so low that Sri Lanka ran out of fuel and medicines - have bounced back to $6 billion.
"The government is outperforming its typical targets at the moment, but obviously policy continuity really depends on the outcome of the election," said Patrick Curran of Tellimer.
Changing tack could be "immensely disruptive both to the economic recovery and to the restructuring," said Curran.
Wickremesinghe, who is among 38 presidential candidates, trails in third place in opinion polls behind Premadasa, leader of Samagi Jana Balawegaya and Dissanayake, who heads the Marxist-leaning National People’s Power party.
Premadasa has called for alterations to the IMF programme and tax changes to cut the cost of living.
Lau said the potential disruption of reopening the IMF deal - and tinkering with targets required to release more money - would be so disruptive that he thinks it is unlikely.
A victory for Dissanayake, Citi analysts said, raises the risk of delays to IMF reviews which trigger the release of money, and a "high probability of debt deal renegotiation".
Lau and other analysts said debt talks are almost certain to drag on for several months if one of the challengers wins.
Sri Lanka already signed a $10 billion debt rework with official creditors Japan, China and India in June.
But Colombo and its bondholders are in last-ditch formal talks to tweak a $12.5 billion debt rework proposal, after official creditors and the IMF objected to the "upside" scenario of a macro-linked bond - a debt instrument that would reward investors if the economy outperforms expectations.
Wickremesinghe, speaking at a rally on Wednesday, said government officials would meet with bondholders on Thursday.
"I have the ability to complete this process and make the announcement before 21 September," he told a packed crowd.
However, a bondholder deal this week would be particularly tenuous, as a new government could seek changes or even scrap it in search of a better proposal.
"Additional delays to restructuring are likely if a new government comes to power and wants to rework the IMF program in a fundamental way," said Chris Celio, senior economist and strategist with ProMeritum Investment Management LLP.
Without a deal, Sri Lanka is stuck in a perilous position.
"Sri Lanka remains officially in default and will remain so until this is over the line. Access to global capital is therefore much more constrained than it otherwise would be," said Mark Ledger-Evans, portfolio manager with Ninety One.
Although the vote winner will also determine the timing of mandated parliamentary elections, another source of uncertainty, investors and observers say Sri Lanka’s fragile recovery could keep them from taking drastic steps.
And Tellimer’s Curran said revenue outperformance means the new government might even have room to tinker on the margins.
"But the risk is that they go a bit too far." Crisis-hit Sri Lanka’s poor hope new president will change their fortunes (Reuters)
Reuters [9/18/2024 1:35 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe and Sudipto Ganguly, 5.2M, Neutral]
Sri Lankan housewife Lankika Dilrukshi says she is tired of the daily struggle needed to provide for her children. On Saturday, she is voting in a presidential poll she sees as key to securing a better future for herself, and her nation.
Dilrukshi, 31, is one of the millions of people barely able to make ends meet since the island nation’s economy plunged into its worst financial crisis in decades in 2022.
"Life has become so difficult, we need change," she said. "We need a leader who will work for the poor."
The economic recovery is at the core of the three-way election battle between President Ranil Wickremesinghe, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, and Marxist-leaning politician Anura Kumara Dissanayake.
The three are frontrunners and have promised new strategies to rescue the economy, lower taxes and support businesses.
Sri Lanka’s poor and middle class want an equitable economic recovery that will support their aspirations, said Umesh Moramudali, who teaches economics at the University of Colombo.
"The poor are really, really struggling. Higher prices hurt them most, especially higher food prices," he said.
Although inflation cooled to 0.5% last month and GDP is forecast to grow 3% in 2024, for the first time in three years, the change is slow and yet to trickle down.
Sri Lankans were hit hard by the 2022 economic crisis, which was triggered by a severe shortfall of foreign currency that added to problems caused by the pandemic.
Inflation soared to 70%, the rupee depreciated 45% and the economy shrank by 7.3%, forcing the government to seek a International Monetary Fund bailout.
The latest government data shows that in 2023, 7 million people - almost one-third of the total population - were considered poor.
By mid-2023, about nearly half of all families had limited their food intake, data from 10,000 households gathered by Colombo think tank LIRNEasia showed.
Rising food insecurity also led to malnutrition in children, with the number of those with stunted growth increasing to over 17% in 2023 from 12% in 2021.
Burdened by new taxes and fewer high-earning jobs, migration has skyrocketed. More than 600,000 people left the country for work over the last two years, compared to 122,264 in 2021, according to government data.
Fruit seller Nancy Hemalatha, 61, borrowed 150,000 rupees ($495) to fund her business, and says she barely has 2,000 rupees left every day after repaying the loan.
"My two youngest sons want to migrate. That is their focus now," Hemalatha said.
As for housewife Dilrukshi, whose labourer husband earns about 2,500 rupees ($8) daily, frugality is the only way to survive.
She keeps poultry and fish out of meals to funnel funds towards her 13-year-old daughter’s education and borrows small amounts from neighbours."I want everyone to have a better future...so that my daughter can become a doctor," she said. "That is what I want to see happen." Central Asia
Central Asia: Facing 5 Assertive Presidents, Germany’s Scholz Gets Rebuffed on Ukraine (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [9/18/2024 7:51 AM, Timon Ostermeier, 1198K, Neutral]
Olaf Scholz’s visit to Central Asia from September 15 to 17 was long overdue. Fourteen years had passed since a German chancellor last set foot in Kazakhstan - and more than two decades for Uzbekistan.
Scholz looked a bit like a latecomer, as his visit was preceded by other well-known European leaders: France’s Emmanuel Macron, the Netherlands’ Mark Rutte, Hungary’s Viktor Orban, and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel - they all were in Central Asia before the German leader.
But Germany’s foreign minister and president had already laid some groundwork with trips to the region in 2022 and 2023. Exactly one year ago, in Berlin, Scholz became the first European head of government to establish a "regional strategic partnership" with Central Asia, foreseeing regular meetings with the five regional leaders in the so-called "C5+Germany" format.
The second meeting with the "C5" (or "Z5," as they are called in Germany), served as the right occasion for the head of Europe’s largest economy to visit the region, which finds itself wrenched between Russia, China, Iran, and India. Scholz’s three-day trip nevertheless demonstrated the country’s unequal engagement with the five countries, which differ in size and political openness. On day one, the chancellor traveled to Uzbekistan; on day two he arrived in Kazakhstan. For Scholz, it seemed to suffice to meet the other three leaders on the third day, on the sidelines of the multilateral "Z5" summit in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
Oil, Green Hydrogen, and Critical Raw Materials
This prioritization came as no surprise: Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are the region’s demographic and economic powerhouses - and Germany’s most important trade partners in Central Asia. Scholz was accompanied on his trip by a large business delegation.
Kazakhstan has become Germany’s third-largest supplier of crude oil after Berlin stopped oil imports from Russia last year. Ironically, however, the Kazakh oil flows through the Russian Druzhba pipeline, providing Moscow with transition fees.
Berlin and Astana extended the contract for one more year this week. Yet Germany chose to expand its volume only marginally - despite the Kazakh side offering many more barrels.
It’s not just about the oil business, though. The trade volume between Germany and Kazakhstan rose by 41 percent in 2023, and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev welcomed the 64 percent increase in German direct investment, expressing hopes that German companies would expand their presences and produce products "made in Kazakhstan with German quality."
In this vein, business and state institutions signed 36 agreements and declarations worth $6.3 billion, ranging from finance over green hydrogen to agricultural machinery. The Kazakh transport ministry sealed a $500-million agreement with a Kazakh-German consortium to build a cargo-passenger airport in Khorgos, a major logistical hub close to the border with China.
Tokayev also praised plans by Germany’s mining company HMS Bergbau to explore and process lithium in East Kazakhstan. The company has acquired licenses for copper, lithium and other rare earths over the past two years. But its CEO warned that more money and co-investors were needed; he also pointed to the political risks of doing business in the authoritarian state. At the same time, German companies face strong competition from Chinese actors, who appear willing to take larger financial risks in exploring critical raw materials.
Thus it would be a promising step if the German Mineral Resource Agency (DERA) and Kazakh partners would set up a consortium for purchasing critical materials soon. The plan was announced by Tokayev at a bilateral business forum on Monday.
The German delegation’s discussions in Uzbekistan, too, had a strong emphasis on cooperation in critical raw materials and green hydrogen. Addressing the "Z5+1" summit two days later, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev suggested a stronger involvement of the German Mineral Resource Agency in the region.
Tajikistan’s president, too, pitched his country’s hydroelectric potential and ambition to produce green ammonium, copper, and lithium to the German business delegation.
Kyrgyzstan’s president, speaking about the green potential and need for a regional approach to tackle climate change and water shortages, proposed establishing a regional center for energy-efficient and resource-saving technologies (of course, in his capital, Bishkek). The Kyrgyz president also asked the German chancellor for debt relief for the financing of green projects and, like his Tajik counterpart, advertised a large-scale hydropower project.
A "Mobility Partnership" or Just a Bargaining Chip for Deporting Afghan Nationals Through Uzbekistan?
Apart from trade and energy, the chancellor also tried to work on one of the grave domestic troubles his unpopular coalition government is grappling with: migration.
Germany’s Minister of Interior Nancy Faeser accompanied Scholz to Uzbekistan to sign a "Comprehensive Migration and Mobility Partnership," which had been negotiated for about a year and a half. The deal is part of a wider system of bilateral migration agreements, in which partner states pledge to readmit nationals who have no right to stay in Germany. A few days earlier, Germany inked such a document with Kenya.
In the case of Uzbekistan, however, it is not Uzbek migrants that are of concern, but Afghans.
While the German government refused to comment on the negotiations, the first reports on Germany’s attempt to strike a deal emerged during the summer. Like most countries, Germany does not recognize the Taliban government in Afghanistan and thus rejects any official cooperation with them. As Tashkent is said to have stable working relations with Afghanistan, Berlin sought it as a middleman for the planned deportations. In August, with the help of Qatar, Germany deported Afghan nationals for the first time since the Taliban took over the country after the U.S. withdrawal. More deportation flights were planned, said Faeser.
Yet it is still unclear if and how Uzbekistan will fulfill its role. After signing the agreement, both Scholz and his minister remained tight-lipped on this matter when pressed by journalists. According to a media report, however, the signed document includes a general provision for the transfer of criminal offenders via Uzbekistan. Reportedly, both sides already discussed plans to transfer deportees to Uzbekistan with the Afghan Airline Kam Air; Berlin also considered direct flights between Leipzig and Kabul.
But why should Tashkent be interested in helping Germany to deport Afghans? Because Germany offered to ease restrictions on Uzbek nationals in return.
In theory, the agreement addresses Germany’s severe shortage of skilled labor. Faeser mentioned health care, the construction sector, and IT as sectors that could benefit from hiring Uzbek workers. Yet no figures or targets were presented to illustrate how many Uzbeks could be covered by the agreement, and no plan was presented on how to integrate workers into German labor markets - casting doubt on whether Germany is genuinely interested in hiring skilled workers strategically, or just using eased regulations as a bargaining chip for readmissions.
Visa regulations, in general, have been highly asymmetrical between Europe and Central Asia. While most Central Asian states allow European nationals, including Germans, to roam their countries for 30 days without a visa, their nationals face severe travel restrictions. This has caused much dismay, and the countries have been pushing the EU to start negotiations on visa liberalization. This was also echoed in a joint declaration concluding Scholz’s visit, in which Germany vowed to support the EU Commission’s negotiations with Kazakhstan. Furthermore, the first meeting of a German-Kazakh working group on readmissions was announced for 2025.
Deeper Cooperation, Even With NATO?
A look at the joint declarations endorsed by Scholz is quite instructive. The one with Kazakhstan is twice as long as with Uzbekistan, listing more concrete initiatives and institutionalized collaboration. In particular, Germany and Kazakhstan established strong ties between universities and research institutions, especially in the technological sector. New projects are in the pipeline, including a German-Kazakh school in Astana, an institute for sustainable engineering, and potential exchanges of German and Russian language teachers at the university level. The German side also committed to further supporting environmental initiatives, green energy transition, and digitalization in both countries.
Interestingly, the second item of the joint declaration adopted between Germany and Uzbekistan concerns defense and security, an area in which the EU and Germany mostly provide training and light equipment to border guards and police forces. Germany’s main development agency, GIZ, for example, cooperates with four Central Asian governments - all but Turkmenistan - on the "prevention of violent extremism in Central Asia".
In the German-Uzbek declaration, however, Berlin and Tashkent further agree on "exploring opportunities… within the framework of the Partnership of Peace Program," referring to NATO’s main initiative for cooperation with third states, which Uzbekistan joined in 1994.
Although the formulation is fairly general, it taps into the most explosive policy area. It comes at a time when NATO states and Russia face high noon in Ukraine and security relations with China are increasingly hostile, including with Germany whose navy now participates in freedom of navigation missions in the Taiwan Strait. Any move by NATO in Central Asia will be monitored closely. It thus speaks of Uzbekistan’s balancing act and self-confidence to signal openness to further security cooperation with NATO while expanding trade, energy, and cultural relations with Russia.
Tokayev: "Russia Cannot Be Defeated"
Nevertheless, it does not mean that Germany’s chancellor found like-minded partners. The Uzbek and Kazakh presidents generally avoided critical questions in public as they held no joint press conferences after their bilateral meetings with Scholz.
According to the Kazakh presidential administration, Scholz even faced a strong rebuff from Tokayev, who was asked about his opinion on the war during the closed meeting.
"In military terms, it is a fact that Russia cannot be defeated," the Kazakh president was quoted as saying. "The further escalation of the war will lead to irreparable consequences for all humanity and, above all, for all countries directly involved in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict."
His remarks that "a good chance to achieve at least a truce was missed with the refusal to conclude the Istanbul Agreement" might be read as a veiled criticism of Germany’s position. Tokayev backed the Sino-Brazilian initiative, which called for negotiations as the only viable solution in May (and was subsequently slammed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy). While the German side named Russia the aggressor responsible for the continuation of the war, Tokayev reminded Scholz of the growing relations and "strategic partnership" between Kazakhstan and Russia.
Different Views on Afghanistan and How to End the War in Ukraine
Tokayev’s call for negotiations may shock some transatlantic observers, who have previously focused on incidents where he seemed to snub Putin in public by holding up Ukraine’s territorial integrity, speaking Kazakh, and vowing that his country would comply with sanctions imposed on Russia. Yet it has been largely overlooked that, at the first Z5+Germany meeting in 2023, he already opposed what he called "sanction confrontations."
"We believe that the time has come for constructive diplomacy to find a mutually acceptable formula for peace and cooperation," Tokayev said last year.
In August this year, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister stated bluntly that his country "won’t blindly follow sanctions" if they hurt domestic companies that function as main employers in their areas.
In the end, Scholz may return home with the right impression that Central Asians neither align with Russia, nor the West. Instead, the five regional states have demonstrated confidence and a strong sense of self-interest. They engage happily with any partner available, especially when it helps them to modernize their economies and infrastructure. But Europe is one partner among many. And when it comes to promoting good governance and addressing the grave human rights situation, Germany may have to come to terms with its limits, too.
Tellingly, the Uzbek and Turkmen presidents urged the German chancellor to normalize relations with Afghanistan and take a more pragmatic approach to the Taliban-ruled country.
Lack of Strategy, Lack of Leadership
Most unfortunate, however, was that Scholz’s visit gave off the impression that the chancellor traveled with the business delegation, and not the other way around. Scholz displayed what he is criticized for at home: a lack of vision and leadership. Although the trip was announced to "bring to life" the strategic regional partnership, he failed to send any memorable messages or signal a commitment that would go beyond the already established bilateral and multilateral trade and development ties.
Suspiciously, it was the Kazakh president who announced the upcoming establishment of a German consortium for critical raw materials, not his German guest. And while it seemed convenient to engage with the apparently "less important" Central Asian states through the multilateral Z5+1 format on the last day, Scholz had to listen to lengthy speeches in which five assertive presidents promoted their countries rather than a tangible, multilateral strategy.
EU representatives, however, will read the final joint declaration by the "Z5+1" with some satisfaction, as the EU’s Central Asia strategy and regional platforms visibly provide the backbone for Germany’s diplomatic engagement with Central Asia.
In the end, Scholz succeeded in institutionalizing the Z5+Germany framework as an annual opportunity for discussing a patchwork of initiatives and dialogues. But to breathe life and strategy into the regional partnership, it requires more political investment, showing that Central Asia is a true priority. There will be opportunities: the summit concluded with an announcement of a civil society conference in Berlin in November and a foreign ministers’ meeting in spring 2025. Kyrgyz President’s Relative Accused Of Fraud Released To House Arrest (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [9/18/2024 4:14 PM, Staff, 235K, Neutral]
A court in Bishkek announced on September 18 that a relative of President Sadyr Japarov who is suspected of fraud had been transferred from pretrial detention to house arrest.
According to the court’s press service, Ulan Japarov, who is a son of President Sadyr Japarov’s cousin, Rakymjan Japarov, was transferred to house arrest on August 24.
The same court ruled in July to send Ulan Japarov to pretrial detention for at least two months.
Local media has reported that Ulan Japarov is suspected of obtaining a significant amount of cash from a person in exchange for securing an official post for him, which in the end never happened.
Japarov was initially arrested in July 2023 on corruption charges.
Presidential spokesman Erbol Sultanbaev said at the time that Ulan Japarov was suspected of involvement in corruption linked to the Customs Service.
In October 2023, the Birinchi Mai district court transferred Japarov to house arrest.
In July this year, media reports in the Central Asian country said a brother-in-law of the chief of the State Committee for National Security (UKMK), Kamchybek Tashiev, was arrested on a fraud charge.
The reports gave the man’s initials as A.T.O.
Sources close to the UKMK leadership confirmed to RFE/RL that a man with those initials was arrested but did not give any further details.
Neither the authorities nor Tashiev have commented on the reports.
The Birinchi Mai district court told RFE/RL at the time that its judge sent A.T.O. to pretrial detention for at least two months. The court neither elaborated on the case nor confirmed if the suspect was related to Tashiev.
Also in July, the Birinchi Mai district court said the boyfriend of President Japarov’s niece had been arrested on a charge of producing illegal drugs.
Aftandil Sabyrbekov, the boyfriend of Lazzat Nurgojoeva, who is a daughter of President Japarov’s younger brother, Davletbek, was arrested days after a video showing him proposing to Nurgojoeva in a lavish ceremony circulated on the Internet, sparking a public outcry. Uzbekistan opens free economic zone on Afghan border (VOA)
VOA [9/18/2024 9:41 PM, Navbahor Imamova, 4566K, Positive]
Afghans longing for closer connections with the outside world are finding an outlet in the border city of Termez, where neighboring Uzbekistan invites them to visit a new international trade center aimed at boosting regional trade and creating business opportunities.“It’s uplifting to be here, as we’ve been dreaming about creating a common market for so long. Perhaps this is the beginning of it, despite all the challenges,” said Ajmalik Nader Saghpi, a visitor from Afghanistan’s Laghman Province.Nearby, other Afghan men approach along a dedicated corridor leading from the border control area and lounge on a green lawn in front of a prayer hall.Branded as the Airitom Free Zone, the facility sits on the banks of the Amu Darya, a river marking the border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and feeding much of Central Asia. Airitom is a neighborhood in Termez, the administrative center of Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya region, which also borders Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.Built at a cost of around $70 million, the zone spans 36 hectares and is guarded by special forces and police. It features a customs office and storage area capable of handling 100,000 trucks and 900,000 tons of goods a year.It also includes a Hilton Garden Inn, a high-tech hospital, an academic campus, Uzbek and Turkish restaurants, and 50,000 square meters of business space, along with banking and legal services. It is separate from the nearby Termez Cargo Center, an international transport and logistics hub.When VOA toured the zone in August and saw the model, managers said the site, once fully functional, is projected to generate $1.2 billion in trade and attract 1.5 million visitors a year.“We’re not fantasizing,” said Bakhtiyor Rahimov, the zone’s manager, acknowledging challenges in the region. “We believe this is realistic because we have studied the neighboring country and others around us, surveyed businesses, and discussed our vision with Afghan leaders. We know they are keen to work with us.”Those high hopes have been echoed by high-profile visitors including Uzbek Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, Taliban’s acting Prime Minister Abdul Ghani Baradar, and cabinet members from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan.Any foreigner can stay in the zone for two weeks visa-free. Visitors can conduct commerce in any currency, customs-free.President Shavkat Mirziyoyev instructed that 40% of the space be allocated to Afghan manufacturers and traders, and up to 30% of the projected 5,000 jobs can go to them.Hakim Yar, a businessman from Balkh, the nearby Afghan province, plans to open a couple of offices here for export-import and for an agricultural firm he runs in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif. He is satisfied with what’s available in the zone and is among those Afghans already occupying 5% of the space.Qari Shergulan, from Nangarhar, envisions that more Afghans will come if entrepreneurs like him return home with positive experiences. He says his people are eager to seize opportunities wherever they find them and won’t waste any chance to grow.“We have not lost our potential. We can still work, build, trade, earn, expand, and invest,” Shergulan told VOA when asked about the economic conditions in Afghanistan.None of the Afghan visitors VOA spoke with complained about the Taliban. Instead, they praised Kabul’s cooperation with the Uzbek government and its support for efforts like the new trade center.However, they mentioned electricity shortages, unemployment, diminishing manufacturing, and lack of opportunities across Afghanistan, particularly for youth.Tashkent-based Central Asian University is opening a campus in the zone, promising free education and residence for 200 Afghans, as well as business training for others.“We will soon have a visa office here,” said Mirkhamid Mirpulatov, the zone’s CEO. “Foreigners seeking work, study, or services here for a longer period can apply for visas.“The special corridor on the border, once you cross the bridge over the Amu Darya, is only for our zone. The access is limited to this area. Those interested in doing business outside the Airitom Free Zone need additional permissions,” Mirpulatov explained.Airitom is on the main transportation route linking Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Russia. This is a key factor for landlocked Uzbekistan, which is eager for access to ports on the Indian Ocean. The zone is also starting daily bus service between Airitom and Mazar-i-Sharif, about 60 kilometers away.The private hospital in the zone is a branch of Tashkent-based Akfa Medline.“The costs here are lower than in the capital,” Mirpulatov said. “Afghans have been patients for years, so offering health care here on the border simplifies everything for them.”With 315 staff members and state-of-the-art operating and treatment facilities, Akfa Medline has adjusted its services to mainly cater to Afghans, creating separate units for men and women, something it does not do in Tashkent.“We’re doing this out of respect for our neighbor’s culture, just as we’re not allowing alcohol in the zone,” Mirpulatov said, denying that Airitom is run under Taliban rules. “We do discuss business with them but make our own decisions.”Uzbek tycoon behind enterpriseJahongir Artikkhodjayev, an Uzbek business tycoon and former mayor of Tashkent, is the mastermind behind the Airitom Free Zone. Mirpulatov confirmed that the zone is under Akfa Group, one of the largest Uzbek industrial holdings, founded and run by Artikkhodjayev.As with other major projects in the country, President Mirziyoyev entrusted Artikkhodjayev with delivering this trade center, according to Mirpulatov, who calls Artikkhodjayev his mentor.Akfa Group secured the funds for the zone. There is no Western involvement so far, though South Asians, Russians, Chinese and Arabs have shown interest.US view on developmentWhen VOA asked U.S. Ambassador to Uzbekistan Jonathan Henick about the Airitom Free Zone, he underscored America’s overall position on Afghanistan and the Taliban.“Broadly speaking, we support anything that helps ordinary Afghan people and contributes to stability along the border. We recognize that Uzbekistan has legitimate economic concerns that need to be addressed,” he said.“That should be separate from the question of the Taliban’s desire for international recognition and access to funds. These issues must continue to be handled collectively by the international community through the Doha process,” under which some 30 countries have been discussing how to advance international engagement on Afghanistan.Henick added, “We have a very strong dialogue with Uzbekistan about Afghanistan. Uzbekistan is an active participant in the Doha process. Our interests are closely aligned.”Other Western diplomats in Tashkent agreed with Henick that recognizing the regime in Kabul, based on human rights and governance conditions, is key to normalizing relations and attracting investment.The Taliban remain angry over a recent deal under which several dozen U.S. aircraft that were flown to Uzbekistan as the Taliban seized control in Afghanistan have been transferred to Uzbek control. But, Henick said, Washington and Tashkent maintain “a robust military and security relationship.”At the same time, Henick told VOA: “The U.S. is the largest contributor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to this day. We provide enormous amounts of aid because, like Uzbekistan, we have an interest in ensuring there is no humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.” Indo-Pacific
Biden to host Quad leaders at Delaware home (VOA)
VOA [9/18/2024 9:31 PM, Anita Powell, 4566K, Neutral]
President Joe Biden has made it a priority to elevate the relationship of the Quad, four countries touched by the Indo-Pacific region, the White House said, as he prepares to host the leaders of Japan, India and Australia on Saturday at his Delaware home.The region stretches from the U.S. West Coast to the shores of India to the northeast waters of Japan to the waters around Australia, and includes the many tiny, diffuse islands of the Pacific. That swath of the globe, the U.S. Commerce Department says, holds more than half the world’s people and two-thirds of its economy.And, administration officials said, this summit is personally important to Biden, as demonstrated by his decision to host the visitors in his private home in Wilmington, about 160 kilometers from the White House."The Biden-Harris administration has made elevating and institutionalizing the Quad a top priority," White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "And this leaders’ summit will focus on bolstering the strategic convergence among our countries, advancing our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and delivering concrete benefits for our partners in the Indo-Pacific in key areas."Officials say the leaders will act on the region’s concerns and will announce moves on illegal fishing in Southeast Asia and the Pacific."We’ve moved forward substantially on efforts that basically allow for the Pacific and Southeast Asia to track — largely untracked to this point — illegal fishing fleets that are the scourge of these extraordinarily important fishing areas," U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters Wednesday. "Vast majority of those fishing fleets are Chinese. We think these capacities will be indeed very helpful in helping local governments repel illegal fishing in their home waters."Biden often likes to say that the U.S. is at an inflection point — a fact he has stressed recently as American voters face a tense November election with two very different presidential candidates.Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump disagree on how to maintain the crucial U.S.-China relationship.Trump is campaigning hard on harsh tariffs on China, saying, in a recent rally, "I’m putting a 200% tariff on them," while making false claims that Chinese automakers are putting up large factories in Mexico.And Harris is expected to continue Biden’s more cautious policy of keeping lines of communication open even while competing forcefully in many areas.Beijing recently showed its sensitivity to hearing its name in U.S. election rhetoric, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning saying last week: "The election is an internal affair of the U.S. I won’t comment on election remarks. But we oppose the U.S. using the election to criticize China."Analysts say pulling the leaders of four powerful democracies into one room gives them space to talk freely."So really, I think the real agenda is not spoken about. It’s China," said Rafiq Dossani, a senior economist at the RAND research corporation and a professor of policy analysis. "It’s how to manage the rivalry with China.""Each has their concerns about China," he told VOA. "That becomes, then, the text of the subtext or the background story."But this group’s interests extend far beyond China, analysts say."This is certainly not a Contain China club," said Kathryn Paik of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The primary objectives of the Quad have focused on health, on delivering infrastructure needs, on enhancing countries’ ability to monitor their maritime domains and their maritime resources, and on people-to-people ties between these countries." Twitter
Afghanistan
Shaharzad Akbar@ShaharzadAkbar[9/18/2024 4:35 AM, 174.8K followers, 1 retweet, 10 likes]
3 years. 1.5 million girls. The Taliban’s ban on girls education is causing irreversible damage to Afghanistan’s future. Depriving women of education based on their gender is a crime against humanity. We must hold the Taliban accountable & put an end this crime. #IQRA
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[9/18/2024 10:26 PM, 236.6K followers, 60 retweets, 172 likes]
It has been exactly three years since the Taliban shattered the dreams of millions of girls like her, banning them from schools and making Afghanistan the only country in the world where a girl’s right to education is illegal. #LetHerLearn
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[9/18/2024 5:14 PM, 236.6K followers, 117 retweets, 259 likes]
The first Afghan Women’s Summit calls on the global community to withhold recognition of the Taliban, hold them accountable for the human rights violations, acknowledge the gender apartheid, and demand the reopening of schools and universities. Pakistan
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[9/18/2024 11:55 AM, 479.8K followers, 39 retweets, 75 likes]
Pakistan and Russia today signed an MOU of bilateral cooperation in the domain of economy and trade at a ceremony held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Islamabad and witnessed by the Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MishaqDar50 and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Overchuk. The MoU between Pakistan Mercantile Exchange (PMEX) and Saint Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange (SPIMEX) was signed by Acting Managing Director PMEX Farhan Tahir from the Pakistan side and by President SPIMEX Igor Artemyev from the Russian side. Pakistan also announced its accession to the MoU on Creation and Development of International Transport Corridor Belarus-Russia-Kazakhstan-Uzbekistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan. The instrument of accession was signed by Secretary Ministry of Communication, Ali Sher Mahsud from the Pakistan side.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Pakistan@ForeignOfficePk
[9/18/2024 9:42 AM, 479.8K followers, 63 retweets, 175 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar @MIshaqDar50 today held delegation-level talks with the Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two sides reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral cooperation and agreed to pursue robust dialogue and cooperation in areas of trade, industry, energy, connectivity, science, technology and education. The two sides also agreed to continue coordination on multilateral fora including at the United Nations and the Shanghai Cooperation. Deputy Prime Minister Overchuk’s visit is taking place in pursuance of the vision of Prime Minister Mohammad Shehbaz Sharif and President Vladimir Putin on transforming bilateral relations into a solid, mutually beneficial economic partnership.
Imran Khan@ImranKhanPTI
[9/18/2024 3:39 PM, 20.9M followers, 11K retweets, 21K likes]
I urge my nation to come out for the Lahore jalsa on Saturday with unwavering resolve and commitment. Resistance against this illegitimate government is a responsibility that every conscientious citizen must undertake. This is a battle for the survival of our future generations!
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[9/19/2024 2:48 AM, 73.6K followers, 8 retweets, 30 likes]
Pakistan REJECTS the explanation by Acting Afghan Consul General in Peshawar, disrespect of the National Anthem is against Diplomatic Norms, says @ForeignOfficePk spox in response to a question. #Pakistan #Afghanistan India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 11:50 PM, 102M followers, 2.1K retweets, 10K likes]
Every year, I auction the various mementoes I receive during the public programmes. The proceeds of the auction go to the Namami Gange initiative. I’m delighted to share that this year’s auction has opened. Do bid for the mementoes you find interesting! https://pmmementos.gov.in
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 11:30 PM, 102M followers, 2K retweets, 13K likes]
I look forward to being among the people of Jammu and Kashmir today. Will address a rally in Srinagar and Katra. Yesterday’s turnout has shown that the people of J&K are very enthusiastic about the elections and are keen to make the poll process vibrant. I will speak about our development agenda and seek people’s blessings.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 8:59 AM, 102M followers, 11K retweets, 62K likes]
The Cabinet has accepted the recommendations of the High-Level Committee on Simultaneous Elections. I compliment our former President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji for spearheading this effort and consulting a wide range of stakeholders. This is an important step towards making our democracy even more vibrant and participative. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2056059
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 8:48 AM, 102M followers, 3.1K retweets, 14K likes]
India’s space ambitions take yet another important leap with the approval of the Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV)! This will bring us closer to establishing the Bharatiya Antariksh Station and achieving a crewed Moon landing by 2040. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2055979
Narendra Modi@narendramodi[9/18/2024 8:47 AM, 102M followers, 5.2K retweets, 32K likes]
It would make everyone proud that Chandrayaan-4 has been cleared by the Cabinet! This would have multiple benefits, including making India even more self-reliant in space technologies, boosting innovation and supporting academia. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2055983
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 8:46 AM, 102M followers, 3.2K retweets, 17K likes]
Glad that the Cabinet has cleared the Venus Orbiter Mission. This will ensure more in-depth research to understand the planet and will provide more opportunities for those working in the space sector. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2055982
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 8:44 AM, 102M followers, 7K retweets, 35K likes]
Great news for the space sector! The Union Cabinet has approved the first step towards the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS), expanding the Gaganyaan programme! This landmark decision brings us closer to a self-sustained space station by 2035 and a crewed lunar mission by 2040! https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2055978
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 8:42 AM, 102M followers, 4.1K retweets, 20K likes]
The Cabinet approval to establish the National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality is great news for the world of media and entertainment. The eco-system of creators will get a big boost and many more job opportunities will be created. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2055999
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[9/18/2024 8:41 AM, 102M followers, 2.2K retweets, 9.9K likes]
The Cabinet has approved the ‘Bio-RIDE’ scheme, which will further support India’s strides in biotechnology. Emphasis will be given to innovation, funding and capacity building. This scheme will also encourage sustainable development. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2056001
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:46 AM, 3.2M followers, 469 retweets, 2.2K likes] Important #CabinetDecisions today:
1 Accepted recommendations of High Level Committee on ‘One Nation One Election’ initiative. Will streamline governance & development and help lower election expenses.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:46 AM, 3.2M followers, 28 retweets, 104 likes]
2 Approved Chandrayaan-4 Mission. Will build on the success of Chandrayaan - 3, and augment technical capacities for an Indian manned mission to the moon.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:46 AM, 3.2M followers, 27 retweets, 97 likes]
3 Approved Venus Orbiter Mission. For a better understanding of Venusian atmosphere & geology and helping Indian scientific community undertake future planetary missions with larger payloads.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 25 retweets, 89 likes]
4 Approved Gaganyaan Follow-on Missions and building of Bharatiya Antariksh Station. A step forward in developing technological capabilities in India for human space missions to Low Earth Orbit.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 24 retweets, 85 likes]
5 Approved development of New Re-usable Low-cost Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV). Will complement the development of Bharatiya Antariksh Station and help in India’s manned mission to Moon by 2040.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 24 retweets, 87 likes]
6 Approved Bio-RIDE scheme to support cutting edge research and development in biotechnology. Will foster innovation, promote bio-entrepreneurship, and strengthen India’s position as a global leader in biomanufacturing and biotechnology.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 24 retweets, 89 likes]
7 Approved development of National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality. Will help position India as a leading content hub in digital creative arts and design sector.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 32 retweets, 105 likes]
8 Approved Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Unnat Gram Abhiyan. Will boost infrastructure development, economy, health and education outcomes for more than 63,000 tribal majority villages in India.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 39 retweets, 156 likes]
9 Approved continuation of schemes under Pradhan Mantri Annadata Aay Sanrakshan Abhiyan. Aims to provide remunerative prices to farmers for their produce and control price volatility of essential commodities for consumers.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[9/18/2024 10:47 AM, 3.2M followers, 39 retweets, 148 likes]
10 Approved Nutrient Based Subsidy rates for Rabi Season 2024 on Phosphatic and Potassic fertilizers. Will ensure supply of fertilizers to farmers at affordable and reasonable prices. NSB
Tshering Tobgay@tsheringtobgay
[9/18/2024 1:21 PM, 99.5K followers, 2 retweets, 11 likes]
Thank the @MilkenInstitute for inviting me to speak at the 11th annual Asia Summit. I had the privilege of sharing the space with Ambassador Curtin S Chin.
Tshering Tobgay@tsheringtobgay
[9/18/2024 1:21 PM, 99.5K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
I talked about the enlightened leadership of our successive monarchs who gifted Bhutan & the world with Gross National Happiness, about His Majesty The King’s vision for the Gelephu Mindfulness City. I also took the opportunity to promote Bhutan & encouraged everyone to visit us.
Moosa Zameer@MoosaZameer
[9/18/2024 10:55 PM, 13.8K followers, 42 retweets, 43 likes]
At the Resumed 10th Emergency Special Session, the Maldives, today, co-sponsored and voted in favour of the #UNGA Resolution on the Advisory Opinion of the #ICJ on the legal consequences arising from Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem, leading to a lasting solution. The unlawful acts of genocide being committed in Gaza must end now. A humanitarian ceasefire and the safe passage of aid must be urgently assured. We must ensure that the #ICJ rulings rendered on 19 July 2024 is fully implemented by Israel within 12 months as the resolution demands. International law and humanity must prevail. Palestinians’ aspirations for justice, peace and statehood must be realised. This can only be possible with the recognition of #Palestine as an independent and sovereign state based on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Ranil Wickremesinghe@RW_SRILANKA
[9/18/2024 11:41 AM, 323K followers, 55 retweets, 325 likes]
The whole country is ready for the most decisive election in history! #SriLankaCan recover from the crisis, but #WeCantGoBack ! Cast your Vote for the Gas Cylinder #Ranil2024
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[9/18/2024 1:20 AM, 356.7K followers, 10 retweets, 30 likes]
People asking me will @sjbsrilanka PIT slabs change after Gov changed structure. We said will maintain ‘current’ structure. So our solution ‘current’ (by 2025 Apr) shall be LKR 60k/mo (not 41.7k) Thus max marginal 24% will go slightly above LKR 500k/mo. https://sajith.lk/manifesto Central Asia
UNODC Central AsiaUNODC Central Asia
[9/18/2024 7:12 AM, 2.5K followers, 3 retweets, 9 likes]
Today, UNODC Representative @oliverstolpe met with H.E. Mr. Nigmatulla Yuldashev, General Prosecutor of Uzbekistan to discuss strengthening collaboration in countering organized crime, corruption, asset recovery, promoting international cooperation, advancing the rule of law.
UNODC Central AsiaUNODC Central Asia
[9/18/2024 7:10 AM, 2.5K followers, 2 retweets, 4 likes]
We appreciate the warm welcome extended by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Uzbekistan to UNODC Regional Representative, Oliver Stolpe @oliverstolpe. We look forward to further strengthening our partnership in crime prevention, promoting the rule of law and justice for all.
MFA Tajikistan@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/19/2024 2:02 AM, 5K followers, 2 retweets, 2 likes]
Meeting Ambassador at the Minister of Defense of Pakistan https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15751/meeting-ambassador-at-the-minister-of-defense-of-pakistan
MFA Tajikistan@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/19/2024 1:07 AM, 5K followers, 3 retweets, 3 likes]
Celebration of the Tajikistan’s State Independence Day in Geneva https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15750/celebration-of-the-tajikistans-state-independence-day-in-geneva
MFA Tajikistan@MOFA_Tajikistan
[9/18/2024 6:56 AM, 5K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Meeting of the Deputy Minister with the Deputy Secretary General of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) https://mfa.tj/en/main/view/15745/meeting-of-the-deputy-minister-with-the-deputy-secretary-general-of-the-economic-cooperation-organization-ecoShavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[9/18/2024 3:21 AM, 200.3K followers, 1 retweet, 17 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev attended a high-level meeting between the leaders of Central Asian countries and the heads of prominent #German companies and financial institutions. He underscored the importance of boosting the investment attractiveness of the Central Asian region and extended an invitation to German companies to take an active role in the implementation of regional cooperation projects on mutually advantageous terms. After the meeting, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev returned to Tashkent.Javlon Vakhabov@JavlonVakhabov
[9/18/2024 1:36 PM, 6K followers, 2 retweets, 6 likes]
Excellent meeting with Esfandyar Batmanghelidj (@yarbatman), founder and CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, at The International Institute for Central Asia (@IICAinTashkent). We discussed the rapidly evolving cooperation between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states and the Central Asian region. We emphasized the outcomes of the First GCC-Central Asia Summit and highlighted some of the key proposals as Samarkand is going to host the Second Summit in 2025. We also explored research priorities and potential areas of collaboration between the IICA and the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.