SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Thursday, April 3, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
American children of British couple in Taliban captivity appeal directly to Trump (CBS News)
CBS News [4/2/2025 8:05 PM, Camilla Schick, 51661K]
The American children of a British couple held captive by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban regime appealed Wednesday to President Trump in a video, asking for his help in securing their release.
Britons Peter and Barbie Reynolds, both in their 70s, were detained by the Taliban on Feb. 1 this year alongside their American friend, Faye Hall, and their Afghan interpreter, as they traveled to the British couple’s home in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan province, the Reynolds family told CBS News.
Faye Hall, an American citizen, was released last Saturday into the custody of Qatari officials who helped broker her release and return to the U.S., just as the Reynolds family marked eight weeks of their parents being in Taliban captivity.
Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban’s ambassador in Qatar, told CBS News that Hall was released as a "goodwill gesture" and that they "want to have positive relations with (the) U.S. and other countries.".
Peter and Barbie Reynolds have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, where they run a registered organization that provides teacher training to local schools and education reform that integrates Islamic values, their family told CBS News. They have Afghan passports that allow them to travel freely in and out of the country, and their work is known and supported by local Afghan elders and police, the family said.
After the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, the Reynolds were invited to present their work to senior leaders, and Barbie was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation, believed to be the first such award ever given to a woman by the Taliban, the family said.
"We are overjoyed that Faye Hall has been released after eight weeks in an Afghan prison. She endured an unimaginable ordeal. We are in close contact with her and deeply grateful she’s safe," the Reynolds’ children said.
But their parents continue to be held without being charged. "Each week, they are promised a court date that never materializes," the family said.
"Our father’s health is rapidly deteriorating. He’s run out of vital medication," the family also said. "Our mother is also weak and desperately in need of iron supplements. Their physical condition is worsening by the day.".
In a video filmed by the family outside the White House on Wednesday, the Reynolds’ American son, Jonathan, with his daughter Annabelle by his side, appealed to President Trump. "We are continuously told that (our parents) have done nothing wrong, they have committed no crime, and they will be released shortly. But still they remain in jail. Last week, you were somehow able to get Faye Hall out," Jonathan states in the video, addressing Mr. Trump directly.
"We have been told by the British government that they’re doing everything they can to see my parents released. Yet—as a (Briton) by birth, American by choice—I’m standing here appealing to you to help get my parents out of that jail. I love this country. I’ve lived here for 26 years, and I’m standing here with my youngest daughter and the youngest grandchild of Peter and Barbie Reynolds. They have 13 American citizen grandkids, great grandkids and children, and we are appealing to you to do everything that you can to get them out of that jail and out of their country," Jonathan also said in the video.
"Please get my grandparents out. I just want to see them again, please. I know you can, and I really want you to. Please," Anabelle said in the video.
"My whole family—13 American citizens—are appealing to you, Mr. Trump, as one leader that we believe can actually do this," Jonathan said at the end of the video.
Peter and Barbie have four children, 17 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren, of whom two sons, 13 grandchildren and one great grandchild are American citizens, their daughter Susie Romer told CBS News. Their sons, including Jonathan, live in Chicago, and Susie, who is a green card holder, lives in California.
Friends detained together
Peter and Barbie Reynolds were detained by Taliban authorities along with Faye Hall in Bamiyan province, central Afghanistan on Feb. 1.
Hall, an American citizen from California and friend of the Reynolds, had traveled to Afghanistan to visit the couple and help them with their humanitarian work, according to the Reynolds family.
Just one day after Hall arrived in the country, the three traveled from Kabul to central Bamiyan province, where the Reynolds’ Afghan home is located, and were arrested along with their Afghan interpreter.
After eight weeks of imprisonment, Barbie Reynolds and Faye Hall were summoned by Taliban authorities to the gate of their prison compound last Thursday, according to the Reynolds family, who have been granted permission by the Taliban to speak with their parents by phone. Both women then insisted that all four detainees should be released together, but the Taliban authorities forcibly separated Hall from Barbie Reynolds and took her away. The Reynolds family told CBS News that Hall had again pleaded for the release of the other three, but was told by Taliban authorities, "We are only dealing with you." Hall was then released to Qatari officials shortly after.
Peter and Barbie are still being held in separate wings of the same Kabul prison, in "harsh and degrading conditions", the Reynolds family said, with no consular access or legal representation. The U.S. and U.K. suspended embassy operations in Kabul when the capital fell to the Taliban in August 2021. The Taliban have repeatedly denied written requests by Peter and Barbie to see each other, the family said.
The family has told CBS News that the Taliban had given prior assurances that the case of all four detainees would be resolved as a group. The family also told CBS News that they’re not aware of any coordination by both the U.K. and U.S. governments towards trying to get all three hostages out at once prior to Faye Hall’s release.
A U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office Spokesperson said in a statement, "We are supporting the family of two British nationals who are detained in Afghanistan." A U.K. official also told CBS News, "We do not comment on specific cases. Our travel advice is clear that individuals should not travel to Afghanistan. There is a heightened risk of British nationals being detained and the Government’s ability to help those in need of consular support is extremely limited".
On Hall’s release, the State Department said in a statement, Monday, "We extend our sincere gratitude to the Government of Qatar for its support of American citizens in need and we thank the European Union delegation in Kabul for their assistance.".
Trump’s former special envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, confirmed Hall’s release via a post on X on Saturday. Khalilzad accompanied Adam Boehler, whom the White House has told CBS News is a "special government employee for hostage negotiations", to meet Taliban authorities in Kabul last month. The visit was the first by U.S. officials since the 2021 Taliban takeover. American George Glezmann was released after that visit, in what Trump’s former envoy for Afghanistan also described as a "goodwill" gesture by the Taliban.
President Trump intends to withdraw his nomination of Adam Boehler for the official State Department role of Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs, two sources told CBS News last month, so that Boehler can avoid divesting from his own business interests. "Adam Boehler will continue to serve President Trump as a special government employee focused on hostage negotiations," White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly told CBS News.
The Taliban have arbitrarily detained many U.S., British and other Western nationals in the past three years in what appears to be a deliberate effort to use them to secure concessions from the West.
In January, Americans Ryan Corbett and William Wallace McKenty were freed in a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and the Taliban, for Khan Mohammed, an Afghan serving a life sentence in a federal prison in California. The Taliban senses an opening as it pushes for diplomatic recognition in talks with Trump administration (CNN)
CNN [4/2/2025 10:55 AM, Alex Marquardt, 52868K]
In the two months since Donald Trump became president, the Taliban has ratcheted up its efforts to ingratiate itself with the Trump administration, appearing to sense an opening to re-establish official ties and a presence in the US, according to people familiar with the American conversations with the group, which is still designated as a terrorist organization by Washington.
"There’s a path that’s positive and if they walk that path, we walk that path," said an American official who described the early conversations as "exploratory" and fluid.
"I wouldn’t rule out negative things too," the official said, emphasizing that normalization of ties wouldn’t be expected to happen in the near-term.
In talks last month with American officials in Kabul, to secure the release of an American prisoner, Taliban officials again raised the prospect of the US recognizing the group as Afghanistan’s official government.
The Taliban also put forward a request to open an office in the US to handle issues with the Afghan community, the official and a second person familiar with the discussions said. The office wouldn’t necessarily be an embassy and the location could be somewhere outside Washington, the Taliban officials proposed.
Establishing formal diplomatic ties with the Taliban would mark a profound shift in US-Afghan relations following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan after the US withdrew its forces from the country in 2021. That came after nearly two decades of fighting which claimed the lives of almost 2,500 American troops.
It was in the last year of Trump’s first term that he reached an agreement with the Taliban which stipulated the full withdrawal of US troops in 2021, meaning it would take place under President Joe Biden. As the Afghan security forces collapsed and allowed the Taliban to sweep to power that summer, the Biden administration executed the chaotic withdrawal with dramatic scenes of desperate Afghans chasing evacuation planes at Kabul’s airport. Almost 200 Afghans and 13 American servicemembers were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber at an airport gate.
After last month’s meeting over the release of American airline mechanic George Glezmann, both the Taliban and Trump’s former envoy for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, who flew to Kabul to get him, said that the move was a "goodwill gesture.".
The release had been brokered by Qatar, where Taliban officials have been hosted for years. After Glezmann, the Taliban released American Faye Hall less than two weeks later, again without receiving anyone in exchange.
In January, the group delayed the release of two other Americans until after Trump took office, to allow him to take credit instead of Joe Biden. In that case, a Taliban member convicted of narco-terrorism in the US was handed back.
"They realize this is a step-by-step normalization," the second person familiar said. The group is "eager to please Trump" and understood they needed to offer something to the transactional American president.
The moves are not just from the Taliban side.
After Glezmann’s release, the US removed millions of dollars of bounties on three members of the Haqqani network, which for years carried out deadly attacks on American forces and is still designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US. One of them, Sirajuddin Haqqani, is the Taliban’s interior minister.
The three kept their US designations as terrorists but bounties across the board are being reviewed, the US official said.
"If all Americans are not released, the leaders will face VERY big bounties, maybe even bigger than [Osama] Bin Laden," another US official said following Glezmann’s release, echoing a similar earlier warning by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The March meeting in Kabul was led on the American side by Adam Boehler, whom Trump has charged with freeing detained Americans around the world. He sat next to Khalilzad, who has had no official role, but led the negotiations with the Taliban during Trump’s first term over the US pulling out of Afghanistan.
Before Trump took office, the Taliban was asking for not just normalized ties but the release of prisoners being held by the US at Guantanamo Bay. They also wanted billions of dollars unfrozen, said a former US official who engaged with the Taliban.
"I told them that unconditional releases [equals] great relations with Trump. Clear out your holding cells - Trump will be free to work with you," the former official said while saying they also warned: "Hold Americans: expect cruise missiles.".
The Taliban admires Trump, the former official continued, and the apparent strength he projects.
Trump has also been flattering about the group’s fighters in the past, calling them "good fighters" and "really smart" in a Fox News interview during Biden’s presidency.
During his own first term, Trump secretly invited the Taliban to Camp David for talks around pulling US troops out of Afghanistan and a peace deal with the Afghan government, right before the anniversary of September 11th.
The decision divided his team and Trump scrapped the plans, claiming he canceled the talks after a Taliban attack killed an American soldier.Once it became public there was a huge outcry, including from then-Congressman Mike Waltz who now serves as Trump’s national security advisor.
Despite having agreed to the US withdrawal himself in early 2020, Trump has repeatedly attacked Biden over the catastrophic way in which it played out and made it a major issue in last year’s election campaign.
Last week Trump again raised the possibility of demanding the Taliban return US military equipment, accusing Biden of abandoning billions of dollars’ worth of hardware. The Taliban has so far refused.
The Taliban was not mentioned in the annual report just published by the intelligence community on global threat to the United States. But a mutual enemy was: ISIS-Khorasan, which the report called the "most capable" ISIS branch.
Under the terms of the agreement struck in 2020, the Taliban was supposed to prevent another terror group, al Qaeda, from regrouping. But ties remained and in 2022 the Biden administration targeted and killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri with a missile from a drone on his home in Kabul.
No country has recognized the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, but the group is making progress on the diplomatic stage.
The Taliban now has ambassadors in both China and the United Arab Emirates as well as a long-held political office in Doha. The regime has also settled into diplomatic posts around the world and sent out diplomats to staff them.
In Washington, the embassy of Afghanistan remains closed but its re-opening under the Taliban government would no doubt be a crowning achievement.
"You need to be forthcoming and take a risk," the Taliban was told in the March meeting in Kabul, according to the person familiar with it. "Do this, it will likely open up the door for better relationship.". ‘Hope in my heart’: big Texas welcome for displaced Afghans as White House freezes refugee programs (The Guardian)
The Guardian [4/2/2025 11:00 AM, Alexandra Villarreal, 78938K]
The 24-year-old Afghan woman wants to become a surgeon – and she had set her sights on training in the US.
She wants to care for other women and girls, so they don’t have to be afraid to visit the doctor – so at least in one crucial aspect of their lives they won’t have to endure the unwanted advances, dismissive comments and blatant disrespect that she’s experienced from many of the men who have always surrounded her, first in her native Afghanistan and now in legal limbo in Pakistan.
"I hope a lot that I will be a doctor in the future. I don’t know it will happen, but I hope," she said. "It means that a woman is powerful, that if she wants to do something, she can.".Yet for the moment, she has no way to attend medical school anywhere. She can barely step outside the apartment in Islamabad where she and her two sisters, her teenage brother, and their mother spend each day terrified that police will arrest and deport them back to face Taliban rule.
Simply as a woman in the Taliban’s Afghanistan her lifestyle would be severely restricted, but as Christians the whole family would literally be in mortal danger.
Her family has documents from the United Nations Refugee Agency proving that they’re certified asylum seekers, and they were on the verge of getting the green light to come to the US.
But to the Trump administration right now, these plans don’t matter – despite volunteer groups in Texas preparing for months to welcome them.
To the police in Pakistan, where they are in exile, those UN documents don’t matter either. What matters is that the family is Afghan and is no longer wanted there.
"Everywhere is policed. Every day, police come to our house. It’s too difficult for us," said the woman in an interview over Zoom. The Guardian is withholding the family’s identity while they remain at risk.
"In these days, we awake with a fear," she said of her family. They have already been lying low in Pakistan for three years after fleeing Afghanistan.
A few months ago, it seemed as though the family was finally on the cusp of relief, soon to fly to east Texas.
"They were nearing the finish line. We didn’t have any certainty, they hadn’t actually been approved and travel wasn’t being scheduled yet. But we were right there – everything, all the screening, was done," said Justin Reese, one member of a group of Texas volunteers who were getting ready to welcome the family.
Then, on the first day of Donald Trump’s second term as president, one of his many immigration-related executive orders indefinitely suspended the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) – and with it, the family’s chance at reaching imminent safety.
"By every metric, they have played by the rules and they are being treated like this," said Reese. "It’s very damaging to them individually, and it’s damaging, I think, to the future security of the US, for us to be seen as this mercurial, as this incoherent.".
A federal district judge temporarily blocked Trump’s effective ban on refugees coming to the US, offering those on the brink of resettlement a flicker of hope, but a circuit panel has now rolled back that decision, saying only people already approved must be allowed to come. And whether an administration ideologically opposed to refugee resettlement will resume the program at scale – or in any meaningful way – remains an open question, particularly after the state department has tried to terminate essential funding agreements with all of the US’s resettlement agencies for the entire fiscal year. That was even before the prospect of new Trump travel restrictions on Afghans entering the US, and before immigration officials suddenly paused green card processing for refugees already here.
"I don’t know how you get to a place of suspending refugee resettlement as policy without a series of ideological turns that I don’t understand how to unwind," Reese said.
Before the ascent of Trumpism, USRAP enjoyed widespread bipartisan support for myriad reasons: its protection of American allies and related benefits to national security; its solidarity with "frontline states" such as Turkey and Colombia that are taking in so many of the world’s displaced people; its signal to other nations that the US cares about human rights.
In fact, even before the refugee resettlement program was written into US law, organizations cropped up across the nation in response to the atrocities of the second world war – and the US’s role in rejecting refugees early on who then became victims of the Holocaust. These agencies welcomed displaced people from around the world, many fleeing communism from the Baltic states, Hungary or Vietnam.
After Congress established a more universal, standardized refugee framework, general support for resettlement continued, even following the 11 September 2001 attacks that reshaped much of the US immigration system. Sometimes, scandals would arise within the program, but administrations would address them and move on.
Then, in 2015, Trump ran for president and soon started trumpeting a narrative that refugees posed a security threat to American communities, despite them being some of the most thoroughly vetted newcomers in the country.
"There [was] already a kind of deteriorating bipartisan support," Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, the humanitarian organization, recalled of that moment.
By fiscal year 2020, the first Trump administration had gutted the US’s refugee resettlement infrastructure and set the annual ceiling on refugee admissions at 18,000 – the lowest cap on record.
When Joe Biden took office, his administration eventually rebuilt resettlement capacity in the US, with more than 100,000 people welcomed in his last full fiscal year in office.
To do so, Biden made innovations, such as an initiative called the Welcome Corps, which invited Americans and green card holders to form private groups and financially sponsor refugees for resettlement in the US.
"I think the idea of the Welcome Corps was that it was politically foolproof," said Schacher, and that "because it relied on private funds and private individuals to step up … that these folks would push back against the Trump administration and make sure that folks still come. And they would step in if government funding was withdrawn. I think it remains to be seen if that’s actually going to work politically.".
Reese and his family knew that they wanted to participate in the Welcome Corps. A software developer by trade, he had spent the better part of a decade learning about the politics and policy of offering refuge.
Just before the coronavirus pandemic gripped the US, he traveled to Greece to serve in a refugee camp with 20,000 residents representing 40 different nationalities. The corner of camp where he volunteered hosted mostly Afghans, and he returned home to east Texas with new friendships and phone numbers from within that community.
So when Kabul fell to the Taliban and the US withdrew troops from Afghanistan in 2021, his phone started buzzing with alerts from worried Afghans whose loved ones were still stranded in danger. He sprang into action, attempting to cut through red tape to try to get desperate families in Afghanistan on US evacuation flights. It was frantic and exhausting.
"Everything felt like an inch away and then a mile away at the same time, because you just knew if you just were smart enough or well-resourced enough, then you could make this happen," he remembered.
Simultaneously, the Afghan family of five he would eventually try to resettle through the Welcome Corps was fleeing Afghanistan for Pakistan. The Taliban’s return to power was the final straw that dashed any hope they had for stability in their homeland, though it was hardly their first brush with persecution.
As members of the Hazara ethnic community, their people had long been victims of massacres and genocides, including by the Taliban at the turn of the 21st century. Having converted from Shia Islam to Christianity, the family had been targeted by their neighbors, beaten and forced to move many times. And as a household in which the patriarch died about a decade ago, the women had been subject to constant unwanted attention and harassment from unscrupulous men.
"We miss, a lot, our country," one of the daughters said. "We miss our memories that we had. But unfortunately we can’t go back because I have lots of bad memories from Taliban … situations, and it makes me sad." As she described the family’s experience, she wept.
Her family met Reese in person when they were all in Islamabad in late 2023. Until then, they had been names on a list for Reese, names he was still trying to help find refuge. After getting to know the family face to face, he wanted to bring them to his own community, where he thought their life experiences would resonate with people.
He found willing volunteers back in east Texas. With 10 members, Reese’s Welcome Corps group is far larger than required and includes a veteran who served in Afghanistan, a missionary’s kid who grew up in Afghanistan and Pakistan, a couple whose children work with Afghans abroad, and others uniquely equipped to help.
Offers of housing and other support flowed in. And Reese’s commitment to sponsor the Afghan family made a huge difference in their lives, even as they remained in a precarious situation abroad. They suddenly felt as though they were waiting in Pakistan for a reason, and they stopped worrying as much about their future while imagining safety together in the US.
"It made my family so happy," one of the daughters said. In Texas, she hoped, "we can continue our studies and we can continue our lives without any worries".Now Reese’s garage is full of donated household items from an online wishlist to outfit what would have been the family’s new home in Tyler, Texas. It’s unclear when or if the family will ever arrive – news Reese had to deliver personally.
"I have a hard time talking about how it made us feel without being angry because I do feel that it’s not just unnecessary and harmful, but strategically incompetent," he said. "I don’t believe that anybody involved in turning [USRAP] off had to deliver phone calls like the ones that we had to over the last few weeks.".
Despite the setback and the increasingly serious threats of deportation the family faces in Islamabad, one of the daughters expressed gratitude for "brother Justin", as she calls Reese, and appreciates at least hearing an update on their case.
Trump’s actions have made her "sad, but I hope", she said, adding: "I have hope in my heart that this program will open again.". Pakistan
Dead or alive? Surviving Pakistan’s 28-hour train hijack in an engine (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [4/3/2025 12:01 AM, Saadullah Akhtar, 18.2M]
On the cold morning of March 11, Saad Qamar wore his white and blue uniform, said goodbye to his parents and left his home at 7:30am (06:30 GMT) for the Pakistan Railways loco-shed half a kilometre away.
The 31-year-old assistant train driver signed a duty form before examining the engine he was going to attach to the Peshawar-bound Jaffar Express for its journey of 1,600km (994 miles) from Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta to Peshawar in the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
It was an ordinary day. The train left with Qamar, the main driver Amjad Yasin, and more than 400 passengers on board — just as it always did.
They had crossed four stations through the rugged mountains of the Bolan range when he heard a powerful explosion hitting the locomotive from below and rattling him and the driver.
It was 12:55pm (07:55 GMT), and the drivers knew, instinctively, that they were under attack. The Jaffar Express had been targeted by armed groups earlier too, including in January 2023 when it was hit by a bomb, injuring several passengers and overturning three carriages of the train. “The driver [Yasin] applied the emergency brake,” Qamar recalls. The train was running at 40km/h (25mph) at the time.
Over the following two days, the Jaffar Express would make headlines not just in Pakistan but across the world, as the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), an armed group, claimed responsibility for the attack, and held the passengers hostage. A deadly siege by Pakistan’s armed forces followed as they tried to free passengers amid gun battles with the BLA fighters.
Eventually, more than 300 passengers were rescued, and the army said it had killed 33 fighters, including suicide bombers. According to the Pakistan Armed Forces’ media wing, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), 21 army soldiers and 10 civilians were killed in the country’s deadliest train hijack.
But more than three weeks later, the memories and horrors of those hours still haunt Qamar.
Trying to save his life
As the train halted after the attack, Qamar said he knew his first job was to place wooden pieces beneath the wheels to stop it from rolling ahead.“When I stepped out and managed to place one wooden shoe, intense firing started,” he recalled, sitting inside his three-room official railways-sponsored residence in Quetta. “Some bullets hit the wheels near me. My driver asked me to climb inside the engine to save my life, and we locked the doors of the locomotive.”
According to other witnesses, the attackers targeted the train with gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs). They started offboarding passengers and separating them based on their ethnicities after checking their identity cards.
Qamar managed to inform a nearby railway station about the attack using a wireless communication system available on the train. However, the connection was lost after the driver switched off the engine to avoid the risk of fire; diesel was leaking from cans full of fuel after bullets had pierced them.“We were not able to communicate with our family and friends because it was a no-signal area,” he said, referring to mobile phones.
Fear of certain death
Qamar, the eldest among his four siblings, was eventually rescued on March 12 at 4:30pm by the commandoes of the Special Services Group (SSG), who moved him and 135 other rescued passengers to Quetta.
By that point, he had spent 28 hours at the site of the attack, almost all of it inside the engine.
The month of Ramadan was ongoing, and Qamar was fasting. “I had food which my mother gave me, but I broke my fast at dusk with a sip of water and I again kept my fast the next morning with another sip of water because at that time I thought of nothing except praying to God,” he said.
But he was not the only one scared for his life.
With the military imposing a communications blackout in the region, rumours spread fast and wild across Pakistan — including that the attackers had killed the driver and the assistant driver, Qamar.
Until the evening of March 11, Qamar’s father, Ghulam Sabir, was unaware of the attack. He was unwell, and the family did not want to worry the 67-year-old.“I sensed that something bad had happened because my younger brother and younger son were constantly gossiping with tense faces, and the entire environment of the Railway Colony was not normal,” Sabir, who had also worked as a train driver for Pakistan Railways for 40 years, told Al Jazeera.“When I returned from the evening prayer, I received a call from a friend who lives in Sibi [a small city south of Quetta], who first asked, ‘How is your son Saad?’ because the Jaffar Express had been attacked and hijacked near Paneer Railway Station.”
Sabir, who retired from the railways in 2019, rushed to the railway control room in Quetta for more information about his son. But no one had firm details. Some officials said Qamar was likely dead, others that he had possibly been taken hostage.
The father stayed in the control room, waiting for any update. It was during the iftar meal the following day that confirmed news came through.
Qamar was alive.“Other drivers and staff members hugged me with tears in their eyes,” he recalled.‘Perform your duty’
Pakistan has one of the world’s oldest railway systems, which was introduced during British colonial rule in the 18th century to transport weapons and other military equipment close to its northwestern and southwestern borders with Afghanistan.
Trains are an affordable means of transport for the majority of Pakistan’s 244 million people and are often packed with passengers. That also makes them easy targets for armed groups looking to stir up attention.
Before this, ethnic Baloch separatist groups carried out multiple attacks on passenger trains, stations, railway tracks and bridges in the volatile Balochistan province. The BLA, which is seeking independence for Pakistan’s largest but least developed province and claimed responsibility for the March 11 ambush, had earlier attacked a crowded railway station in November, killing more than 30 people.
Yet the latest attack was the deadliest — and most audacious — in Pakistan’s history.
It was also the first time that Qamar, in his five years with the railways, had found himself in the middle of an attack. When he returned home, his mother tried to convince him to quit the job, but his father pressed him to stay on.“Being an assistant driver or driver, we always try to provide timely and safe travel to the passengers because we are the leaders of the passenger trains and responsible for hundreds of lives who are sitting behind us and trusting without even knowing us,” Qamar said.Sabir, his father, who witnessed three train attacks during his career, said: “I told my son to perform his duty with bravery even after this train hijack.”
On March 28, Pakistan restarted the train service connecting Balochistan to the rest of the country, after it had been suspended following the attack.
On Thursday, April 3, Qamar will be back at work for the first time since the Jaffar Express hijack, on the same train, wearing his trusted white and blue uniform. India
Trump Pressures ‘Friend’ Modi With 26% Tariff on India (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [4/2/2025 11:20 PM, Shruti Srivastava and Ruchi Bhatia, 16228K]
President Donald Trump slapped India with some of the highest tariff rates imposed on any major US trading partner, saying his good personal ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not affect his decision.The Trump administration imposed a 26% tariff on imports from India, which is slightly higher than the 20% levy for the European Union, the 24% for Japan and the 25% for South Korea. India’s levies though were far lower than China’s rate of at least 54%, and those imposed on other regional manufacturing rivals like Vietnam, which was hit with a 46% tariff.The tariffs are a setback for Modi’s government, which had sought to ward off the new levies by rolling out sweeping concessions on issues central to Trump’s agenda. During a visit to Washington by Modi in February, the two nations agreed to work toward a trade pact this year.“India, very, very tough. Very, very tough,” Trump said at a news eventat the White House on Wednesday to announce the tariffs. “The prime minister just left, and he’s a great friend of mine. But I said, you’re a friend of mine, but you’re not treating us right. They charge us 52%.”Reactions from the South Asian nation early Thursday morning were restrained, with officials attempting to allay concerns, and exporters saying that India is in a relatively better position than key regional competitors.“It is a mixed bag and not a setback for India,” a government official told the Press Trust of India.Indian exporters said the levies will ratchet up pressure on officials in New Delhi to hash out a trade pact with Washington soon.While the tariffs would lead to a slowdown in global trade, India can take “solace in the fact that we are already engaged with the US” on a bilateral trade agreement, said Ajay Sahai, director general, Federation of Indian Export Organizations. “Our competitors like Vietnam and Cambodia have been hit harder than us,” he added.Market strategists favored reducing China holdings in favor of India, highlighting a growing interest in assets tied to domestically-driven economies.Ahead of the move, the Trump administration had been signaling India would be a target of the new duties, given that New Delhi charges some of the highest tariffs of any major economy. Trump has repeatedly criticized India’s high levies, branding the country as the “tariff king.”Over the past few weeks, New Delhi overhauled its tariff regime, reducing import duties on some 8,500 industrial items, including on prominent American goods like bourbon whiskey and high-end motorcycles made by Harley-Davidson Inc., satisfying a longtime grievance of the US president.India also indicated its willingness to buy more American oil, LNG and defense equipment to narrow its bilateral trade surplus. Officials have also signaled that more tariff cuts would be in the offing. Modi, who was one of the first foreign leaders to meet Trump after his return to the Oval Office, recently lavished praise on the US president, underscoring their close personal ties. The two nations agreed to conclude the first tranche of a trade deal by the fall of this year and boost bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030, up from $127 billion in 2023, following the meeting.The levies will also add further pressure on India to make even deeper cuts to its tariff regime. As a part of the discussions, India is considering US demands of duty cuts on US farm products, Bloomberg News reported last week, although agriculture is a politically sensitive issue in India. Officials were optimistic of a favorable outcome in wake of these concessions.India will likely respond to the levies with moves over the coming months including the lowering of tariffs on a broad array of US imports, buying more American energy products and increasing market access, said Sonal Varma, an economist with Nomura Holdings Inc.The new duties could also push New Delhi to yield to the US demand on dismantling non-tariff trade barriers, such as opaque import restrictions and licensing requirement on some imports.Trump and Modi held multiple meetings during the US president’s first term. The US over multiple administrations has cultivated India as a regional partner and a bulwark against a more assertive China. US slaps 26% tariff on India amid ongoing bilateral trade talks (Reuters)
Reuters [4/2/2025 8:06 PM, Aftab Ahmed, Manoj Kumar and Shubham Batra, 41523K]
The U.S. slapped a 26% reciprocal tariff on India in a setback to the South Asian country’s expectation of getting relief from President Donald Trump’s global trade policy that has unnerved world markets for weeks.
The reciprocal tariff will be effective from April 9, according to a statement from the White House.
Trump’s Wednesday announcement on India was part of his wider plan to impose a 10% baseline tariff on all imports from April 5 and higher duties on certain other countries including 34% on China and 46% on Vietnam.
"They (India) are charging us 52% and we charge almost nothing for years and years and decades," Trump said at the White House while announcing the reciprocal tax.
The duty of 26% was based on tariff and non-tariff barriers including currency manipulation, the Trump administration said.
India imposed "uniquely burdensome" non-tariff barriers, the removal of which will increase U.S. exports by at least $5.3 billion annually, the White House said in a statement.
The tariffs would remain in effect until Trump determined that the "threat posed by the trade deficit and underlying non-reciprocal treatment is satisfied, resolved, or mitigated," the statement added.
The U.S. has a trade deficit of $46 billion with India.
The reciprocal tariff will add pressure on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who counts himself among Trump’s friends, to find ways to get India off the hook.
Last week Reuters reported that New Delhi is open to cutting tariffs on U.S. imports worth $23 billion to mitigate the impact on its exports in sectors like gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals and auto parts.
Modi’s administration has taken a number of steps to win over Trump by lowering tariffs on high-end bikes, bourbon and dropping a tax on digital services that affected U.S. tech giants.
Before the reciprocal announcement, the U.S. tariff rates were among the lowest, with simple average tariffs at 3.3%, compared with India’s 17%, the White House said.
Nigel Green, CEO of global financial advisory deVere Group, said the U.S. duties risked pushing India closer to alternative trade blocs and strategic partners.
"(This) makes Indian exports immediately less competitive ... it dents investor confidence just as India is trying to attract global capital fleeing China," he said.
Ajay Sahai, director general at the Federation of India Export Organisations, said the reciprocal tariff on India was lower than key competitors like Vietnam and Bangladesh, which could help Indian apparel and footwear sectors. India backs EV tariff cuts for Trump trade deal, defying autos lobby, sources say (Reuters)
Reuters [4/2/2025 8:04 AM, Aditi Shah, Shivangi Acharya and Aftab Ahmed, 41523K]
India plans to lower import tariffs on electric cars, rejecting requests from local automakers to delay such cuts by four years, as New Delhi prioritises closing a trade deal with the United States, government and industry sources told Reuters.
The automakers are lobbying Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to delay any cut in EV tariffs until 2029, and then phase in a reduction to 30% from as high as roughly 100%, two industry sources and one government official said.
However, New Delhi is serious about lowering EV tariffs - which have riled U.S. President Donald Trump and his ally Tesla (TSLA.O), CEO Elon Musk - and the sector is set to be part of the first tranche of tariff reductions in a planned bilateral trade deal, this government official - and another - said.
"We have protected the auto industry for far too long. We will have to open it up," the second government official said, adding the plan was to lower tariffs "significantly", including on EVs.
The officials declined to disclose the size of the planned duty cut given ongoing negotiations with Washington.
The sources, who are familiar with the talks and the auto industry’s demands, declined to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media.
India’s commerce ministry and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, which represents carmakers in the world’s third-largest auto market, did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
New Delhi’s plan to cut duties on EVs and other goods comes as it seeks to build bridges with Trump - who has referred to India as a "tariff king" - even as he prepares to announce reciprocal tariffs on trading partners later on Wednesday.
An immediate cut would be a victory for Tesla, which has finalised showrooms in Mumbai and New Delhi to begin selling imported cars in the South Asian nation this year. Trump has said it is currently "impossible" for Tesla to sell in India and it would be unfair if it had to build a factory there.
But it would be a setback for domestic players like Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), and Mahindra & Mahindra (MAHM.NS), which have invested millions of dollars in local EV manufacturing, with more to come, and lobbied against duty cuts.
Automakers fear any agreement with the U.S. would set a precedent for ongoing trade talks with the European Union and Britain, intensifying competition in India’s small but fast growing EV sector, three of the sources said.
India’s EV sales, dominated by Tata Motors, accounted for just 2.5% of total car sales of 4.3 million in 2024, and the government wants to increase this to 30% by 2030.
Carmakers are open to some immediate duty cut on gasoline models, followed by a phased reduction to 30%, but say their EV investment is tied to New Delhi’s incentive programme for local manufacturing that runs until 2029, and allowing cheaper imports before then would hurt their competitiveness, the sources added.
"They are not so rigid on ICE (internal combustion engine vehicles) but have sought careful consideration for EV duties given early investment commitments," the first government source said. India Says ‘Examining The Implications’ Of US Tariffs (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/3/2025 5:39 AM, Staff, 931K]India said Thursday it was "examining the implications" of sweeping US tariffs, saying it was eyeing "opportunities" after rival competitors were harder hit by US President Donald Trump’s hike in duties.New Delhi, which is in the process of negotiating the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement with Washington, said it was pushing ahead with talks for a deal.India’s Department of Commerce said it is "carefully examining the implications of the various measures", adding in a statement that it was "also studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development".Trump, speaking while unveiling the tariffs at the White House on Wednesday, said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a "great friend" but that he had not been "treating us right".An initial White House chart revealing the tariffs listed India at 26 percent, but a subsequent annex -- cited by New Delhi -- put duties at 27 percent."Discussions are ongoing between Indian and US trade teams for the expeditious conclusion of a mutually beneficial, multi-sectoral Bilateral Trade Agreement," the statement said.The commerce department added that talks "are focused on enabling both nations to grow trade, investments and technology transfers"."We remain in touch with the Trump Administration on these issues and expect to take them forward in the coming days."India’s pharmaceutical sector, which exported more than $8 billion of products to the United States in the 2024 fiscal year, emerged unscathed -- with drugs exempt from its reciprocal tariff move. Can Trump’s sweeping global tariffs spark a manufacturing boom in India? (BBC)
BBC [4/3/2025 3:56 AM, Soutik Biswas, 69.9M]
Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs have shaken global trade, but disruption often creates opportunity.
Starting 9 April, Indian goods will face tariffs of up to 27% (Trump’s tariff chart lists India’s rate as 26%, but the official order says 27% - a discrepancy seen for other nations too). Before the tariff hike, US rates across trading partners averaged 3.3%, among the lowest globally, compared to India’s 17%, according to the White House.
However, with the US imposing even higher tariffs on China (54%), Vietnam (46%), Thailand (36%) and Bangladesh (37%), India "presents an opportunity" in textiles, electronics and machinery, according to the Delhi-based think tank Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI).
High tariffs on Chinese and Bangladeshi exports open space for Indian textile manufacturers to expand in the US market. While Taiwan leads in semiconductors, India can tap into packaging, testing and lower-end chip manufacturing - if it strengthens infrastructure and policy support. Even a partial supply chain shift from Taiwan, driven by 32% tariffs, could work in India’s favour.
Trump tariffs a ‘major blow to world economy’
Machinery, automobiles and toys - sectors led by China and Thailand - are ripe for tariff-driven relocation. India can capitalise by attracting investment, scaling production and boosting exports to the US, according to a note by GTRI.
But will India be able to seize the moment?
High tariffs have increased costs for companies dependent on global value chains, hobbling India’s ability to compete in international markets. Despite growing exports - primarily driven by services - India runs a significant trade deficit. India’s share of global exports is a mere 1.5%. Trump has repeatedly branded India a "tariff king" and a "big abuser" of trade ties. With his new tariffs, the fear is that Indian exports will be less competitive.
"Overall, the US’s protectionist tariff regime could act as a catalyst for India to gain from global supply chain realignments," says Ajay Srivastava of GTRI.
"However, to fully leverage these opportunities, India must enhance its ease of doing business, invest in logistics and infrastructure and maintain policy stability. If these conditions are met, India is well-positioned to become a key global manufacturing and export hub in the coming years."
That’s easier said than done. Biswajit Dhar, a trade expert from the Delhi-based Council for Social Development think tank, points out that countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are possibly better positioned than India.
"We may regain some lost ground in garments now that Bangladesh faces higher tariffs, but the reality is we’ve treated garments as a sunset sector and failed to invest. Without building capacity, how can we truly benefit from these tariff shifts?" says Mr Dhar.
Since February, India has ramped up efforts to win Trump’s favour - pledging $25bn in US energy imports, courting Washington as a top defence supplier and exploring F-35 fighter deals. To ease trade tensions, it scrapped the 6% digital ad tax, cut bourbon whiskey tariffs to 100% from 150% and slashed duties on luxury cars and solar cells. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s Starlink nears final approval. The two countries have launched extensive trade talks to narrow the US’s $45bn trade deficit with India.
Yet, India did not escape the tariff war.
"India should be concerned - there was hope that ongoing trade negotiations would shield it from reciprocal tariffs. Facing these tariffs now is a serious setback," says Abhijit Das, former head of the Centre for WTO Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade.
One upside: pharmaceuticals are exempt from reciprocal tariffs, a relief for India’s generic drug makers. India supplies nearly half of all generic medicines in the US, where these lower-cost alternatives account for 90% of prescriptions.
However, exports in key sectors like electronics, engineering goods - automobile parts, industrial machines - and marine products could take a hit. It would be especially troubling for electronics, given the heavy investments through India’s flagship "production-linked incentives" (PLI) schemes to boost local manufacturing.
"I’m apprehensive about our exporters’ capacity - many are small manufacturers who will struggle to absorb a 27% tariff hike, making them uncompetitive. High logistical costs, rising business expenses and deteriorating trade infrastructure only add to the challenge. We’re starting at a major disadvantage," says Mr Dhar.
Many see these tariffs as Trump’s bargaining chip in trade negotiations with India. The latest US Trade Representative report underscores Washington’s frustration with India’s trade policies.
Released on Monday, the report flags India’s strict import rules on dairy, pork and fish, requiring non-GMO certification without scientific backing. It also criticises India’s sluggish approval process for genetically modified products and price caps on stents and implants.
Intellectual property concerns have landed India on the ‘Priority Watch List’, for which the report cites weak patent protections and a lack of trade secret laws. The report also frets about data localisation mandates and restrictive satellite policies, straining trade ties further. Washington fears India’s regulatory approach is increasingly mirroring China’s. If these barriers were removed, US exports could rise by at least $5.3bn annually, according to the White House.
"The timing couldn’t be worse - being in the middle of trade negotiations only deepens our disadvantage. This isn’t just about market access; it’s the whole package," says Mr Dhar. Also, gaining an edge over Vietnam or China won’t happen overnight - building opportunities and competitive strength takes time. Tariff Shocker Can Be India’s Chance at Trade Reform (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [4/2/2025 9:16 PM, Andy Mukherjee, 5.5M]
Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” package of tariffs is being interpreted in India in three different ways.
The immediate reaction is relief mixed with schadenfreude: At 26%, the tax on India is not the slap on the wrist that diplomats in New Delhi would have hoped for, especially after making concessions to Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc., and Starlink Inc., as well as to Alphabet Inc. and Meta Platforms Inc. But it’s at least less severe than China’s 34% and Vietnam’s 46%.
The second view, popular among geopolitical analysts, is that this is nevertheless a betrayal of an important ally: Is it fair to be punished like this for agreeing to be America’s bulwark in Asia against China’s rising dominance? Has Prime Minister Narendra Modi erred in placing too much trust in his friendship with Trump, and by refusing technology and capital from Beijing?
The final opinion, which some businesspeople hold privately, is that the White House’s shocker on trade is a once-in-a-generation opportunity: It can help resolve an unfinished political debate from the early 1990s on just how open the Indian economy must be, to whom, and for what.
Marry the three assessments, and the obvious conclusions are rapprochement and reform. Modi should mend bridges with Chinese President Xi Jinping and seek to actively participate in intra-Asian production networks. At the same time, for a quick exit from Trump’s doghouse, New Delhi should dangle the carrot of duty-free (and hassle-free) access for American firms to the most-populous nation.
This has to go on alongside technical negotiations. For instance, in coming up with the rate of 26%, how did the Trump administration conclude that India was charging American exporters double of that? Did it count the South Asian nation’s goods and services tax as a trade barrier? If the GST is lowered, but agriculture remains behind high tariff walls, will India qualify for Trump’s global rate of 10%?
Until those wrinkles are ironed out, Indian exporters will suffer along with the rest of the world. The broader economy may have to put up with capital costs that remain elevated globally. Beyond that, however, the only interests that have to be sacrificed are of a tiny group of local tycoons. For 600 million workers and 1.4 billion consumers, Trump’s trade war is a wake-up call to revive the three-decade-old liberalization project.
The Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, which was in opposition when the project began, didn’t care much about pre-1990s, Soviet-style state socialism. But it was also suspicious of the agenda being thrust by the West. The BJP’s intellectual fountainhead, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or the RSS, wanted an economy in which a large number of local manufacturers, traders and shopkeepers are at the vanguard of production with multinationals tapped only for their technology. When Kentucky Fried Chicken was trying to open its first restaurant in 1995, a prominent BJP leader famously quipped: “Computer chips, yes. Potato chips, no.”
Over the next 30 years, the BJP would wield power in the federal government more than half of the time, including a continuous run since 2014. Yet, when it comes to trade and investment, the early 1990s commitment to greater international openness has prevailed, albeit with a serious setback in the past decade under the most popular leader in the party’s history.
Modi didn’t exactly align with the ideological preference of the RSS. Under him, however, a small group of local billionaires lobbied for and received protection from foreign competition, packaging their goal of dominance as national interest. Import taxes, which had fallen steadily since 1991, shot up again to among the highest in the world.
A longstanding territorial dispute with China erupted as border clashes in 2020, leading to a prolonged economic estrangement: The trade deficit with the neighboring economy ballooned to $100 billion a year, and yet New Delhi wouldn’t let Chinese firms reinvest those gains in India. That also meant missing out on technology, like BYD Co.’s five-minute supercharger that can help control emissions in polluted cities.
Rapprochement of investment relations with Beijing and reform of trade under pressure from Washington will put the squeeze where it should be: on large conglomerates such as the Tata Group and the empires run by Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani, the two richest Asians. They should accept bold risks with uncertain payoffs, like DeepSeek. Or they must stop expecting to be coddled by state protection.
Chest-thumping nationalism has merely meant a transfer of billions of dollars in subsidies to assemble mobile phones or solar panels and call it a success of Modi’s “Make in India” program. But if opposition on the political left is unhappy with stalled manufacturing and high youth unemployment, many in the ruling right wing aren’t exactly thrilled with the relentless rise of a few big firms, especially as genuine entrepreneurship remains hampered by red tape.
The RSS might be pleased with the rapid spread of Hindu nationalism in the social sphere. But its economic vision of computer-chips-not-potato-chips remains a chimera. India still doesn’t make semiconductors, though it now has more than 1,100 KFC stores. China has more of both.
A complete repudiation of the discredited ideology of self-sufficiency is overdue, and a global trade war offers an excuse for Modi to rebrand himself as the antithesis of Trump. After all, that’s how the 1990s reforms also started; a balance-of-payment crisis exacerbated by the collapse of the Soviet Union turned staunch socialists into overnight free marketers. There’s no need for New Delhi to feel shackled by “Liberation Day.” India’s Modi Heads To Thailand For Regional Summit (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/3/2025 1:15 AM, Staff, 931K]
India’s prime minister flew to Bangkok Thursday for a regional summit and talks with his Thai counterpart, but made no mention of a widely speculated meeting with Bangladesh’s leader.
Narendra Modi said he would meet with Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and attend the BIMSTEC grouping of the seven nations on the Bay of Bengal.
Top representatives of BIMSTEC members -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand -- are expected to attend the Bangkok summit.
Bangladeshi media have widely speculated that Modi and Muhammad Yunus will meet in a bid to ease tensions after tit-for-tat barbs between top figures from both governments.
Yunus took charge of Bangladesh in August 2024 after India’s old ally Sheikh Hasina was ousted as prime minister by a student-led uprising and fled to New Delhi.
India was the biggest benefactor of Hasina’s government, and her overthrow sent relations into a tailspin.
Hasina, who remains in India, has defied extradition requests from Bangladesh to face charges including mass murder.
Yunus had sought a meeting with Modi in a bid to reset to relations, with Indian foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar saying the request was "under review".
Nepali media have said Modi is also expected to meet with Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, which would be the first since Kathmandu’s leader returned to power last year. India has not confirmed the meeting.
Modi said he will then head to Sri Lanka for talks with leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, as Colombo grapples with the competing interests of its powerful northern neighbour and China.
Sri Lanka’s presidential office has said Modi will be the first foreign head of government to visit the island nation under the new administration.
Dissanayake’s first foreign visit after his election last year was to New Delhi. Indian parliament’s Lower House passes controversial bill that would change Muslim endowments (AP)
AP [4/2/2025 10:19 PM, Aijaz Hussain and Sheikh Saaliq, 34586K]
The Lower House of India’s parliament early Thursday passed a controversial bill moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to amend laws governing Muslim land endowments.
The bill would add non-Muslims to boards that manage waqf land endowments and give the government a larger role in validating their land holdings. The government says the changes will help to fight corruption and mismanagement while promoting diversity, but critics fear that it will further undermine the rights of the country’s Muslim minority and could be used to confiscate historic mosques and other property.
An hourslong debate in the Lower House was heated as the Congress-led opposition firmly opposed the proposal, calling it unconstitutional and discriminatory against Muslims. Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party lacks a majority in the Lower House, but its allies helped to pass the bill.
The debate that began Wednesday ended with 288 members voting for the bill while 232 were against it early Thursday. The bill will now need to clear the Upper House before it is sent to President Droupadi Murmu for her assent to become law.
Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju introduced the bill to change a 1995 law that set rules for the foundations and set up state-level boards to administer them.
Many Muslim groups as well as the opposition parties say the proposal is discriminatory, politically motivated and an attempt by Modi’s ruling party to weaken minority rights.
The bill was first introduced in parliament last year, and opposition leaders have said some of their subsequent proposals on it were ignored. The government has said opposition parties are using rumors to discredit them and block transparency in managing the endowments.
What’s a waqf?
Waqfs are a traditional type of Islamic charitable foundation in which a donor permanently sets aside property — often but not always real estate — for religious or charitable purposes.
Waqfs in India control 872,000 properties that cover 405,000 hectares (1 million acres) of land, worth an estimated $14.22 billion. Some of these endowments date back centuries, and many are used for mosques, seminaries, graveyards and orphanages.
Law would change who runs waqfs
In India, waqf property is managed by semi-official boards, one for each state and federally run union territory. The law would require non-Muslims to be appointed to the boards.
Currently, waqf boards are staffed by Muslims, like similar bodies that help administer other religious charities.
During the parliamentary debate, Home Minister Amit Shah said non-Muslims would be included in waqf boards only for administration purposes and helping run the endowments smoothly. He added that they were not there to interfere in religious affairs.
"The (non-Muslim) members will monitor whether the administration is running as per law or not, and whether the donations are being used for what they were intended or not," he said.
One of the most controversial changes is to ownership rules, which could impact historical mosques, shrines and graveyards since many such properties lack formal documentation as they were donated without legal records decades, and even centuries, ago.
Questions about title
Other changes could impact mosques on land held in centuries-old waqfs.
Radical Hindu groups have laid claim to several mosques around India, arguing they are built on the ruins of important Hindu temples. Many such cases are pending in courts.
The law would require waqf boards to seek approval from a district level officer to confirm the waqfs’ claims to property.
Critics say that would undermine the board and could lead to Muslims being stripped of their land. It’s not clear how often the boards would be asked to confirm such claims to land.
"The Waqf (Amendment) Bill is a weapon aimed at marginalising Muslims and usurping their personal laws and property rights," Rahul Gandhi, the main opposition leader, wrote on social media platform X. He said the bill was an "attack on the Constitution" by the BJP and its allies "aimed at Muslims today but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future.".
Fears among Muslims
While many Muslims agree that waqfs suffer from corruption, encroachments and poor management, they also fear that the new law could give India’s Hindu nationalist government far greater control over Muslim properties, particularly at a time when attacks against minority communities have become more aggressive under Modi, with Muslims often targeted for everything from their food and clothing styles to inter-religious marriages.Last month, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in its annual report that religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate while Modi and his party "propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities" during last year’s election campaign.
Modi’s government says India is run on democratic principles of equality and no discrimination exists in the country.
Muslims, who are 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, are the largest minority group in the Hindu-majority nation but they are also the poorest, a 2013 government survey found. Musk’s X is suing India, as Tesla and Starlink plan entry (BBC)
BBC [4/2/2025 10:27 PM, Umang Poddar, 52868K]
An Indian court is due to hear a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s social media company X, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of misusing the law to censor content on its platform.
Last month, X sued the government saying a new website - Sahyog - launched by the federal home ministry last year, was being used to expand its censorship powers and take down content.
X argued the portal gave government officials wide-ranging powers to issue blocking orders that were "in violation" of India’s digital laws. It said it could not be compelled to join Sahyog, which it called a "censorship portal".
The Indian government has said that the portal is necessary to tackle harmful online content.
Other American technology giants such as Amazon, Google and Meta have agreed to be on Sahyog.
Sahyog describes itself as a portal developed to automate the process of sending government notices to content intermediaries like X and Facebook.
The lawsuit filed in the southern state of Karnataka came after the federal railway ministry ordered X to remove "hundreds of posts".
These included videos of a crush in Delhi in which 18 people died as they were making their way to the world’s largest religious gathering, the Kumbh Mela.
In its petition, X argues that the portal and the orders issued through it fall outside the remit of the original law that allows the government to block content.
Under this law, senior officials have the power to issue takedown orders, but after following due procedure like giving notices, opportunities for hearings and allowing for a review of any decision.
But X says the government is bypassing these procedures to issue arbitrary content takedown orders through other legal provisions that have no safeguards.As a result, "countless" government officials, including "tens of thousands of local police officers", are "unilaterally and arbitrarily" issuing orders, X argues in its petition.
India’s federal IT and home ministries did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
In court, the government has argued that its actions are lawful. It said it was not sending blocking orders but only issuing "notices" to platforms against unlawful content.
The government also defended the Sahyog platform saying it was a "necessity" because of the "growing volume of unlawful and harmful content online".
The case is of "vital importance" as the blocking mechanism of the Sahyog portal has resulted in "a wholesale increase in censorship", said Apar Gupta of the digital rights organisation, Internet Freedom Foundation.
This is not the first time the Indian government and X are at loggerheads.
The Delhi police had raided the offices of X (then Twitter) in 2021, before Musk took over, after a tweet by a ruling party spokesperson was marked as "manipulated media".
In 2022, the company had sued the Indian government against blocking orders, at least one of which pertained to a year-long protest by farmers against new laws brought in by the government. However, the court ruled against the company and imposed a fine of 5m rupees ($58,000; £45,000).
Under Musk’s leadership, X appealed against this decision, which is currently separately being heard in the Karnataka high court.
In 2023, India called X a "habitual non-compliant platform" during the appeal proceedings.
India is also reportedly investigating X’s chatbot Grok regarding its use of inappropriate language and "controversial responses" after it made politically sensitive comments to user prompts recently.
The timing of the lawsuit is interesting as it comes when Musk’s other companies Starlink and Tesla have just begun making inroads into India with their business plans.
Earlier in March, Starlink signed an agreement with two of India’s biggest telecoms firms to bring satellite internet to India and is awaiting government approval to start providing its services.
Tesla could finally be making its debut and has begun hiring for a dozen jobs in Delhi and Mumbai. It is also reportedly hunting for showrooms in both cities.
Musk also met Prime Minister Modi when he visited the White House last month.
His growing business interests in India and closeness with US President Donald Trump give him "ample leverage" with India, Michael Kugelman, director of the Wilson Centre’s South Asia Institute in Washington, told the BBC.
"This means he has a lot of leeway in terms of how he operates, including making a decision to sue the Indian government," he added, saying the case might not hurt Musk’s business prospects in the country. India appoints former World Bank, IMF economist Poonam Gupta as central bank deputy (Reuters)
Reuters [4/2/2025 7:08 AM, Swati Bhat, 126906K]
India appointed former World Bank and International Monetary Fund economist Poonam Gupta as the new central bank deputy governor for a three-year term, the government said on Wednesday.
Gupta currently serves as the Director General of the National Council of Applied Economic Research, India’s largest economic policy research institute, and is also a member of the Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The appointment comes at a crucial time as the South Asian nation is struggling to boost economic growth lagging at four-year lows, while also facing uncertainty from global geopolitical and economic uncertainties.
India’s economy is expected to have grown at 6.5% in the fiscal year ended on March 31, marginally higher than the government’s initial estimate of 6.4%, but well below the revised growth rate of 9.2% for FY24.
Gupta will replace Michael Patra, a career central banker who joined the Reserve Bank of India in 1985 and served as a deputy since mid-January 2020 until mid-January 2025.
In his role as deputy, Patra was in charge of various key departments including monetary policy, financial markets operations, financial markets regulation and also economic and policy research at the RBI.
Poonam Gupta ideally would replace deputy governor Rajeshwar Rao as a member of the six-member monetary policy committee which is due to meet next week. Rao has been temporarily handling the monetary policy portfolio at the RBI after Patra’s exit in January.
The RBI is widely expected to cut interest rates at a second straight meeting on April 9, with just one more cut expected in August, which would mark the shortest easing cycle on record, a Reuters poll of economists found.
There is no clear trade-off between growth and inflation at moderate inflation levels while the trade-off is more clearly established for very low or very high levels of inflation, Gupta had written in an article soon after the rate cut in February.
"RBI has been chasing a dated inflation number and has often missed its forecast by a large margin. Households’ inflationary expectations have remained misaligned, and transmission of monetary policy has not improved sufficiently," she said, calling for a fresh look at the inflation targeting framework.
Gupta in a separate opinion piece in March said while avoiding excessive appreciation or volatility of the exchange rate, RBI should still let the rupee move more than has been the case in the recent past.
Persistent interventions had driven down the rupee’s volatility to decadal lows last year but that has changed since Donald Trump won the U.S. elections late last year.
Gupta’s three-year term would begin from the date of her assuming office or until further orders, a notification from the government’s cabinet appointments committee showed.
Gupta has held senior roles at the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund apart from the various academic positions over the last three decades. She also chaired the Task Force on Macroeconomics and Trade during India’s G20 Presidency. British activist in solitary confinement in India despite acquittal, family say (The Guardian)
The Guardian [4/2/2025 11:17 AM, Patrick Wintour, 126906K]
The British Sikh activist Jagtar Singh Johal, detained for seven years in an Indian jail, has been placed into solitary confinement and under 24-hour surveillance despite being acquitted of all terrorism charges against him by a Punjab court on 4 March, his family have claimed.
Johal is still facing the exact same charges in a parallel case in a clear example of double jeopardy, his brother Gurpreet said when giving testimony at Westminster to an all party committee on arbitrary detention. He said the Indian courts have not granted his brother bail, despite the prosecutor’s failure to produce any credible evidence or witnesses in the Punjab court.
Gurpreet said UK consular staff met his brother in jail on Tuesday and were told he had been put into solitary confinement with a 24-hour guard, adding no explanation had been given.
He said: "I fear for his physical and mental welfare since he is being excluded from contact with all other prisoners. He has been in jail for seven years, acquitted and now he is being further punished. He is being mentally tortured and I am concerned something is going to happen to him. The aim is to break him.".
Gurpreet added that a critical window of opportunity existed after the Punjab acquittal, in which the judge was damning about the quality of evidence assembled by the Indian prosecutors, to secure his brother’s release.
He said the Foreign Office had to realise his brother was not being held to secure his conviction but to keep him in detention. "What is missing from the British government is political will. I am told the prime minister raised the case when he met the Indian external affairs minister, S Jaishankar, but I do not know what exactly they are raising, or how central it is to the conversations ministers are having.".
Gurpreet said that what the former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Patten had dismissed as "by the way diplomacy" was not enough to make India sense there would be consequences for the mistreatment of British nationals.
He added: "The current prime minister is an ex-prosecutor, the current foreign secretary is an ex-lawyer and both should be well apprised of what double jeopardy means and how this can be applied.".
Dan Dolan, the deputy executive director of the legal NGO Reprieve, said double jeopardy protected people from being put on trial twice for the same crime and was enshrined in international law and India’s constitution.
Reprieve and Johal claim the eight other cases brought by the Indian National Investigation Agency are essentially duplicate cases, with no additional evidence provided, and all the evidence is based on torture.
The Indian government denies torture has been used. The central allegation in all nine cases is that Johal transferred money to supposed co-conspirators, and that this was used to fund a series of attacks in Punjab between 2016 and 2017. The Indian authorities do not claim Johal was directly involved in any of these attacks.
David Lammy, the foreign secretary, who met Gurpreet in November, has said he is willing to meet again but not for a further seven weeks, a timetable that Gurpreet says fails to understand the urgency of the crisis. "The window of opportunity is narrow, and he needs to meet a lot sooner. It is urgent," Gurpreet said. NSB
Bangladesh Manufacturers Say US Tariffs ‘Massive Blow’ To Textile Industry (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/3/2025 4:14 AM, Staff, 931K]
Bangladeshi textile industry leaders said Thursday that US tariffs posed a "massive blow" to the world’s second-largest garment manufacturer, which accounts for some 80 percent of the South Asian nation’s exports.
"Buyers will go to other cost-competitive markets -- this is going to be a massive blow for our industry," said Rakibul Alam Chowdhury, chairman of RDM Group, a major manufacturer with an estimated $25 million turnover. "We will lose buyers." Dauphin County Commissioner calls on Trump administration to end deportations to Bhutan (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)
Pennsylvania Capital-Star [4/2/2025 6:46 PM, Ian Karbal, 52868K]
Dauphin County Board Chairman Justin Douglas says the Trump administration Wednesday should end the deportation of Bhutanese residents.
Since President Donald Trump took office, Dauphin County officials say as many as 18 Bhutanese residents who legally immigrated to the U.S. as refugees may have been deported back to the country where many fled ethnic cleansing. Alyson Wert, a spokesperson for Douglas, said three lived in the county.
"We owe it to these individuals and to the promise we’ve made as a nation committed to protecting the vulnerable," Douglas said at a Dauphin County Commission meeting on Wednesday. "We have a moral and legal obligation not to return refugees to a country that once ethnically cleansed them. … Some may say this is political, but for me it’s about people. It’s about my constituents. ".
As of April 1, at least four of the deportees appear to have been arrested in Nepal while attempting to contact family members in refugee camps there. Fourteen were unaccounted for, at this point. Douglas said at least nine other Bhutanese Pennsylvanians have been detained.
Central Pennsylvania is home to the largest population of Bhutanese Nepali refugees in the country. In the last decades, tens of thousands of them were welcomed into the U.S. as refugees following ethnic cleansing of Nepalese-speaking minorities in Bhutan. Many settled around Harrisburg which has a Bhutanese Nepali population estimated in the tens of thousands.
All of the Bhutanese residents detained or deported by ICE appear to be men, and at least some had criminal charges that Douglas and family members describe as "minor.".
He said the impact of the arrests has reverberated across the Bhutanese community.
"The community right now is living in uncertainty, unsure of who might be targeted next," Douglas said. "Yes, these individuals may have minor criminal histories, which enabled ICE to attempt to remove them from the United States. But that is no reason to rip them away from their wives, children, brothers, sisters and community.".
The detentions have caught the attention of Pennsylvania lawmakers at both the state and federal level.
Democratic state lawmakers representing Dauphin County in Harrisburg have spoken out against the arrests. On March 29, U.S. Congressman Scott Perry (R-Dauphin), a supporter of Trump’s hardline immigration policies generally, said on social media that he met with Bhutanese community members in Harrisburg.
A spokesperson for ICE did not immediately respond to a request for more details on the deportations and arrests. Sri Lanka’s Crackdown On Dogs For India PM’s Visit Sparks Protest (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/3/2025 4:01 AM, Staff, 931K]
Sri Lankan animal rights activists marched on Thursday to protest the round-up of stray dogs a day ahead of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Authorities in Colombo and the Buddhist pilgrim city of Anuradhapura have reportedly deployed dog catchers to impound hounds ahead of Modi’s visit, which begins on Friday.
Many of Colombo’s strays are beloved by their adopted neighbourhoods despite lacking formal owners -- and are dubbed "community" canines rather than street dogs.
Around a dozen protesters from the Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE) waved placards outside President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s office in Colombo after submitting a petition to India’s high commission.
"Stop the cruel removal of our community dogs," one placard read.
Protesters said that many of the dogs in public parks had been vaccinated and neutered and were cared for by locals and animal welfare groups.
"How can Sri Lanka promote tourism when we are a country known for animal cruelty?" another placard read.
Protesters urged New Delhi’s intervention to "prevent the cruel and unnecessary removal of these dogs", saying that the round-up of dogs would create "displacement, suffering, and potential harm".
Modi is set to receive an official welcome at Colombo’s Independence Square, where dog catchers are reported to have been busy in this week.
He is also set to visit Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of the capital, to pay homage to a fig tree believed to have grown from a cutting from the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.
The tree is both an object of worship and a symbol of national sovereignty on the majority Buddhist island of 22 million people. Central Asia
EU Aims To Elevate Ties With Central Asia At Landmark Samarkand Summit (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [4/3/2025 12:34 AM, Reid Standish, 235K]
The European Union and Central Asian countries have kicked off their first-ever high-level summit as the bloc eyes new trade and infrastructure investments while aiming to significantly elevate Brussels’ ties with the region, according to a draft document for the meeting seen by RFE/RL.“Reaffirming our commitment to deeper cooperation in an evolving global and regional geopolitical landscape, we have decided to upgrade relations between the European Union and Central Asia to a strategic partnership,” states a draft EU version of the joint declaration for the April 3-4 summit’s intended outcomes.
Beyond strengthening political ties between Brussels and Central Asia, the draft document -- which could still be subject to change -- outlines deepening the EU’s partnership with the region through enhanced cooperation on water management, critical minerals, and a focus on digital connectivity.As outlined in the draft document, the 27-country bloc also calls for a greater focus on trade and investment and lumping the array of proposed initiatives for Central Asia under the Global Gateway -- the EU’s infrastructure partnership plan launched in 2021 that’s seen as an alternative to China’s worldwide Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
A key part of the Global Gateway’s early footprint in Central Asia is the Trans Caspian Transport Corridor (TCTC) -- also known as the Middle Corridor -- a 6,500-kilometer developing trade route that connects China to Europe through Central Asia and the Caucasus by bypassing Russia. The EU document calls for the route to be expanded further.
The summit is something of a watershed moment for the EU as it aims to boost its regional standing at a time when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has shifted the geopolitical balance in Central Asia and China’s economic expansion has left the region more integrated with Beijing.
But analysts say that there are still questions in the region about the EU’s interest in Central Asia.“Central Asia wants a bigger EU presence, but the region’s leaders don’t have high expectations,” Temur Umarov, a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin, told RFE/RL.“So far, the EU hasn’t put enough money on the table to make them think that Europe can be this third player that allows Central Asia to rely less on Russia and China,” he said.
Why Is The EU Looking To Expand Its Relationship With Central Asia?
Since 2023, Western leaders have been flocking to Central Asia on high-level state visits as they’ve looked to take advantage of the economic and political window opened by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
While Central Asian governments have maintained strong ties with Moscow, they’ve also accelerated their efforts to diversify their relations with other countries. This push to woo new partners and deepen preexisting ties has been boosted by the region containing some of the world’s largest hydrocarbon reserves and critical raw materials.
The result has been a flurry of diplomatic inroads made by Brussels and individual European states such as France and Germany in recent years. Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and other Middle Eastern countries have also expanded their presence.
But the region’s deepest inroads have been carved out by China. Beijing has established itself as a leading trade partner and top foreign investor in Central Asia, and China hosted its own landmark summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and his regional counterparts in 2024.
Bilateral trade between Central Asia and China, its largest individual trade partner, has been rising steadily in recent years, hitting a record high of $94.8 billion in 2024, but with its 27 member states, the EU is Central Asia’s biggest foreign investor.
The EU and the five Central Asia states signed a road map for expanding their ties in 2023. This was later followed by an investors forum in 2024 that saw the EU pledge 10 billion euros ($10.8 billion) toward the Middle Corridor trade route.
Can The Global Gateway Compete With China?
The EU’s heightened interest in Central Asia is driven in part by its need to secure new energy supplies and gain access to critical minerals, but also to help diversify the region away from its historical reliance on Moscow.
Central to these needs are the development of the Middle Corridor and deepening of the Global Gateway’s profile.“One of the core elements of the EU’s approach to Central Asia is to develop connectivity to and through this region,” Marie Dumoulin, a program director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told RFE/RL. “Central Asian countries should benefit from the Global Gateway initiative, but concrete projects are slow to materialize and not very visible.”
Since the all-out war in Ukraine, the Middle Corridor has attracted new investment and seen the amount of cargo traveling along its roads, railways, and shipping lanes expand after being avoided for years due to rising costs and border issues.
But the trade route is still grappling with limited capacity and bottlenecks at key ports due to a lack of infrastructure, which still holds it back from being an alternative to the traditional Northern Route that takes goods from China through Russia to Europe.
The EU-Central Asia summit in Samarkand is looking to inject new momentum into those initiatives.
Jacob Mardell, a senior fellow at Sinification and the author of a new report about the future of the Global Gateway, says that the EU’s infrastructure program gives Brussels an opportunity to create more goodwill in Central Asia and become a more visible player on the ground in a way similar to how the BRI allowed China to expand as an investor and create new opportunities for Chinese businesses.“Global Gateway might not be a direct response to BRI, but it’s a response to the changing environment that the BRI created when it challenged the status quo for development finance,” Mardell told RFE/RL. “The EU now has a chance to respond.” EU hopes to sway Central Asia in first interregional summit (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [4/3/2025 2:36 AM, Joe Luc Barnes, 1.2M]
The first EU-Central Asia Summit is taking place in Samarkand on Friday, with leaders expected to discuss trade, security and energy cooperation as Europe aims to exert more influence over a region in the thrall of Russia and China.
The summit will bring together the leaders of the European Union and Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The EU unveiled in March a raft of investments in the region, including an EU-backed loan of 200 million euros ($216 million) to the Development Bank of Kazakhstan to be deployed for sustainable transport and renewable energy. That was followed by a meeting of foreign ministers in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, last week. The Samarkand summit is expected to expand on those ties.
"It’s an opportunity to strengthen [the EU’s] standing and visibility in Central Asia," the Estonian ambassador to Kazakhstan, Jaap Ora, told Nikkei Asia. "Central Asia is a vast region with a total population of over 80 million, with great development potential and rich human capital. It is right for the EU to pay more attention to this partnership."
In a press briefing Tuesday in Brussels, a senior EU official said, "The European Union has to make a credible offer," adding that it has to be mutually beneficial.
Against a backdrop of the U.S. administration’s rapprochement with Russia and China’s growing influence, there is renewed impetus for the EU to deepen ties in the region, analysts said.
"[The EU] is not in a position to shift the relationship between Russia and the countries of the region to any significant degree," said London-based Neil Melvin, director of international security at the Royal United Services Institute, a defense and security think tank.
"What it can do is offer Central Asia an additional option in external relations that helps governments across the region balance, although to a limited degree, the dominant ties to Russia, China and, increasingly, Turkey and the Gulf," Melvin said.
Russia’s and China’s hold on the region is evident in some of the groupings that individual states have joined -- for example, the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a wide body that includes China, Russia and India.
Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, both members of the EAEU, have faced accusations of facilitating Russia’s efforts to bypass Western sanctions. This is an area that EU officials said they would also focus on in Samarkand.
Ora said the EU hopes Central Asian states will diversify their political and economic links "to make their own choices without external pressures," hinting at Russian and Chinese influence.
Increasingly, the five Central Asian states, or "C5", are collectively engaging with the world. Intra-regional ties are deepening after decades of troubled relations and this process has accelerated since Russia invaded Ukraine.
"The Central Asian states are not big enough alone to represent any significance [to the Europeans]," said Zhanibek Arynov, an assistant professor at Nazarbayev University. "As a region, cooperation could be more fruitful."
Away from the political, trade discussions are likely to center on infrastructure, energy and critical minerals.
Arynov said regional leaders have one priority: "Investments, investments, investments. The pace of inbound investment has slowed over recent years. And governments are facing quite significant social and economic issues domestically."
The totemic piece of infrastructure investment is the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor, a route for the transportation of goods between Asia and Europe without encroaching on Russian territory. All eyes will be on the EU after it pledged 10 billion euros toward upgrading the corridor last year, promising to mobilize resources from European institutions, member states and businesses, Arynov said.
"The corridor, for us, is really a priority," said the senior EU official during Tuesday’s briefing. "The corridor, altogether, will cut by half the distances, the journey between the EU and the Central Asian countries [to] roughly 15 days."
Shairbek Dzhuraev, president of research institute Crossroads Central Asia, stressed the need to unify customs procedures and technical standards to fully expand trade prospects.
"If Kyrgyz honey cannot be exported to Europe due to unmet quality and safety standards, that points to deeper policy and regulatory gaps," he said.
Energy will also be an area of discussion. Kazakhstan has been identified as having huge potential to generate solar and wind energy, and could be another source for Europe, which has been cutting reliance on Russian gas.
Oil purchases from Kazakhstan form the bulwark of EU-Central Asian trade, most of which is piped through Russia before being exported to Europe by sea. But Kazakhstan is aiming to divert flows away from Russia and instead potentially export up to 20 million tonnes a year via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline from the current 1.5 million.
The Europeans also have a growing interest in critical minerals. Central Asia has significant deposits of lithium, copper, and rare earth elements, crucial for technology and energy sectors.
Deals aside, Amnesty International released a statement on Monday calling on the summit to focus on upholding human rights and safeguarding civil society in Central Asia, saying "the overall situation in the region remains concerning." EU hones in on Central Asia in race for raw materials (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [4/2/2025 4:59 PM, Anchal Vohra, 126906K]
The EU has raised billions for the region to diversify supply chains and reduce dependence on China. Experts say the idea is to offer competitive deals and build local industry while encouraging sustainable mining.
The European Union’s first-ever summit with the five resource-rich states of Central Asia, will focus on critical minerals needed for a growing defense industry and the bloc’s green transformation.
The EU is taking a keen interest in Central Asia that comprises Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, as realization seeped in that Europe was far too dependent on China for critical minerals.
As EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa meet Central Asian leaders in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, sustainable development and Russia’s attempts to evade sanctions, among other issues, will be on the table.
But most attention will be paid to infrastructure development required to tap into the region’s valuable resources.
Central Asia: Key for critical minerals supply chains.
"Critical Raw Minerals (CRMs) are indispensable for a broad range of strategic sectors, including the net zero industry, the digital industry, aerospace, and defense sectors," according to Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office.
China controls some 60% of global production and over 85% of the processing of critical minerals. In 2023, 94% of EU imports of rare earth elements came from China, Malaysia, and Russia combined.
However, China is a key Russian ally and is building its own green tech industry, for which it requires the same minerals. As a result, it has in the past restricted the export of at least one critical mineral, which has led to concerns in the EU about the possibility of disruption to its supply chains.
Recently, China restricted the export of antimony, a mineral used in night vision goggles, precision optics, and various military applications.
Central Asia, experts say, is an alternative source for most of what Europe requires.
"A lot of critical raw materials the EU needs are in Central Asia," Samuel Vesterbye, the director of the think tank European Neighborhood Council, told DW.
"For instance, silicon is necessary for solar panels, certain types of tungsten are needed for radars and other defense equipment, and most famous is lithium that is needed for batteries.".
Central Asian nations are rich in all three, and many more, but the bulk of these resources is trapped in an undeveloped mining sector.
The European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS) noted that the potential for production expansion is significant. "Kazakhstan currently produces 19 of the EU’s 34 critical raw materials and is poised to expand to 21. Uzbekistan ranks as the world’s fifth-largest uranium supplier and is also rich in silver, titanium, molybdenum, and gold," it found.
Experts say the EU’s efforts are aimed at infrastructure development to help Central Asia extract these minerals in a sustainable way and, in turn, help the EU diversify its supplies.
"The EU offers something different than China and the US, and that’s joint ventures with Central Asian companies," Vesterbye said, "That means more investments, industrialization, and growth for local businesses. That’s music to the ears of Central Asian leaders.".
The EU is investing billions in Central Asia
The region is a big part of the EU’s €300-billion ($324-billion) Global Gateway Project that is billed as a rival to China’s Belt and Road Initiative and focuses on developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). This corridor will improve connectivity between the EU and Central Asia and cut travel time to 15 days.
According to estimates, Central Asian governments need €18.5 billion to develop the required infrastructure. In January last year, the EU raised more than half of that at an investors forum with money from member states, the private sector as well as the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Marie Dumoulin, Director of the Europe Program at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), told DW via email that one of the core elements of the EU’s approach to Central Asia is to develop connectivity to and through this region.
However, to lure Central Asia from other suitors, such as Russia and China, the EU needs to be proactive and visible.
"Central Asian countries should benefit from the Global Gateway initiative but concrete projects are slow to materialize and not very visible. The EU needs to fix it if it wants to be a competitive player in the region," she said.
The TITR is touted as the shortest route from China to Europe and as an alternative to both the Suez Canal and Russia. Vesterbye, the European Neighborhood Council expert, thinks that the modernization of infrastructure along the route would substantially multiply trade.
"Currently a little under 100,000 containers arrive in the EU from Central Asian states, but once the corridor is ready and modernized, the EU can get more than 800,000," he said.
The EU, he added, would use the summit to focus on "an increase in business-to-business contracts" and on the procurement of more critical minerals. "I think the EU would probably want to see more infrastructure, more bridges, more harbors, more mining.".
Infrastructure development to challenge Russia’s sanctions evasion?
During a visit to Turkmenistan’s capital, Ashgabat, last week, the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, raised the issue of how Russia was using Central Asian nations to avoid sanctions.
"Russian companies must not use Central Asia to bypass these restrictions," she said.
Some experts suggest that to counter Russian influence in the former Soviet states, the EU needs to use a carrot-and-stick approach and that a development partnership could have various advantages.
"Supporting infrastructure development can be a way of demonstrating European commitment to building up long-term trade relationships that foster cooperation in other areas, such as sanctions implementation," according to a recent analysis by The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), a UK think tank. Kazakh Lawmaker Calls For Regulation To Protect Caspian Sea (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [4/2/2025 12:42 PM, Staff, 931K]
A lawmaker from Kazakhstan’s ruling party called on Wednesday for tougher regulation to protect the Caspian Sea, warning decades of pollution and shrinking water levels had decimated its plant and animal life.
The Caspian Sea, wedged in between Europe and Asia, is the world’s largest inland body of water.
It spans 371,000 square kilometres (143,000 sq miles), but has shrunk in recent decades due to hotter temperatures and agricultural use. It has also suffered from pollution due to oil and gas exploitation.
"If we do not take the necessary actions, the great Caspian Sea will turn into a puddle without fish, animals, plants and people," ruling party MP Sergei Ponomarev told the lower house of parliament in a plenary session.
"Companies are not only ignoring environmental regulations, but are also shifting financial responsibility to the state, contesting fines or offsetting them with other payments," he added, accusing some of extracting oil and gas in protected areas.
The number of Caspian seals has dropped from one million to one hundred thousand, while people living in lakeside regions have suffered a decrease in life expectancy and increase in cancer rates, Ponomarev said.
Water levels in the Caspian Sea have fallen by 1.85 metres (six feet) since 2005, losing 31,000 square kilometres in volume, according to the "Save the Caspian Sea" advocacy group.
Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev warned last year that the Caspian was "on the verge of extinction."
The sea borders five countries -- Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan -- and while all have become more aware of the problems affecting its fragile ecosystem, addressing them has been slow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in December warned the Caspian must not "under any circumstances" be allowed to become another Aral Sea -- a lake further east which was once the world’s fourth largest before Soviet irrigation projects dried most of it up.
The drop in the level of the Caspian Sea also has economic consequences, threatening the functioning of oil, gas and port infrastructures, and jeopardising ambitious transportation projects linking Europe and Asia. Kazakhstan says it has discovered 20 million ton rare earth metals deposit (Reuters)
Reuters [4/2/2025 8:27 AM, Mariya Gordeyeva, 41523K]
Kazakh geologists have discovered a rare earth metal deposit with estimated resources of more than 20 million metric tons at a depth of up to 300 metres, the country’s industry and construction ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Kazakhstan does not currently feature in the U.S. Geological Survey’s list of countries by rare earth metal deposits. If confirmed, the deposit would place Kazakhstan behind only China and Brazil by size of reserves.
In a statement on Telegram, the ministry said that the Zhana Kazakhstan site, which is 420 km (261 miles) from the country’s capital, contained neodymium, cerium, lanthanum and yttrium, and that its average rare earth metal content is 700 grams per ton.
It did not specify which companies may develop the site, or when. OPEC+ to discuss Kazakhstan output at Thursday’s meeting, sources say (Reuters)
Reuters [4/2/2025 8:43 AM, Ahmad Ghaddar and Alex Lawler, 466K]
Eight OPEC+ countries meeting on Thursday will focus debates on how to convince Kazakhstan to stop exceeding its output quota and its plans to compensate for overproduction as the group steps up gradual production hikes, two delegates told Reuters.Record Kazakh output has angered several other members of the group, including top producer Saudi Arabia, sources have told Reuters. OPEC+ is urging the Central Asian country, among other members, to make further cuts to compensate for excess production."Tomorrow’s meeting is just to make the new Kazakhstan minister aware of the importance of meeting his required production and compensating for the surplus," one of the delegates said. Both declined to be identified by name due to the sensitivity of the matter.The Kazakh energy ministry and OPEC did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.Last month, Kazakhstan’s president appointed Erlan Akkenzhenov as new minister of energy after his predecessor was named the head of the country’s newly created atomic energy agency.Eight members of OPEC+, a group that includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies led by Russia, are scheduled to raise oil output by 135,000 barrels per day in May.The group is expected to proceed with this plan, both sources on Wednesday said, following similar comments on Tuesday from other OPEC+ delegates.The May hike is the next increment of a plan agreed by Russia, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, Algeria, Kazakhstan and Oman to gradually unwind their most recent output cut of 2.2 million bpd, which came into effect this month.OPEC+ also has 3.65 million bpd of other output cuts in place until the end of next year.This week, Russia ordered the Black Sea terminal handling Kazakhstan’s oil exports to close two of its three moorings, a move which is widely expected to slash the country’s production as a result.An OPEC+ ministerial committee, with the power to recommend to the larger group changes in production policy, was initially scheduled to meet on April 5, although one source said this may also take place on Thursday. Kremlin says Caspian pipeline oil export infrastructure restricted after Ukrainian drone attacks (Reuters)
Reuters [4/2/2025 6:15 AM, Gleb Stolyarov, 126906K]
Russian restrictions were imposed Black Sea oil export infrastructure from the Caspian pipeline (CPC) due to Ukrainian drone attacks on the pipeline’s infrastructure, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.
Russia ordered the Black Sea terminal handling Kazakhstan’s oil exports pumped by U.S. majors Chevron and Exxon Mobil to close two of its three moorings earlier this week following snap inspections by Russia’s transport watchdog.
Moscow has accused Ukraine of striking a CPC Kropotkinskaya pumping station and a nearby oil depot in southern Russia.
Russia’s pipeline monopoly Transneft also said earlier on Wednesday that it suspended an oil berth at the Novorossiisk Black Sea port due following the watchdog’s checks.
"This is due to the damage that was caused to the CPC infrastructure after the strikes by Ukrainian drones," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a daily conference call.
"We must not forget that enormous damage was done there, very complex damage in technological terms. And this cannot, of course, not have consequences for the functionality of the entire system, unfortunately," he said.
The attacks occurred amid efforts, mediated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. Kazakhstan and Chevron have said the flows via the pipeline had not been interrupted.
Trump has said he was unhappy with Russia and the rate of progress in peace talks with Ukraine, and threatened to impose secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil. Indo-Pacific
India, Pakistan armies exchange fire after incursion attempt (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [4/2/2025 4:52 AM, Shakeel Sobhan, 13.3M]
Indian and Pakistani forces reportedly exchanged fire on Tuesday following an attempted incursion in the Poonch district of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
A source told India’s NDTV, "A mine blast occurred in the Krishna Ghati sector while the Pakistan Army was patrolling along the Line of Control. This was followed by unprovoked firing and a ceasefire violation by the Pakistan Army."
An Indian Army official told the Hindustan Times that the mine was set off due to the "Pakistan Army intrusion across the Line of Control."
The Indian Army said the situation was under control and being closely monitored. There was no immediate reaction from the Pakistani military.
Meanwhile, Indian security forces have intensified operations in the Panjtirthi region of Jammu following an encounter with militants on March 31.
Decades of deadly clashes
The recent firing occurred in a region where separatist militants have fought security forces for decades. Thousands of people have been killed in the subsequent clashes.
India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire in 2003 along the de facto border called the Line of Control.
India and Pakistan both claim the strategically significant Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is currently divided, with different portions administered by India, Pakistan, and China.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, while Pakistan refutes the accusation. Many Kashmiris, meanwhile, consider it a legitimate struggle for freedom. Twitter
Afghanistan
Rep. Tim Burchett@RepTimBurchett
[4/2/2025 10:18 AM, 158.8K followers, 156 retweets, 732 likes]
I have extended an invitation to Ambassador @ZahirAghbar, Afghanistan’s Ambassador to Tajikistan, to meet with me in the United States, with President @AmrullahSaleh2 copied on this correspondence. Ambassador Aghbar has courageously refused to surrender Afghanistan’s embassy to the terrorist regime now governing Kabul, and faithfully represents the true will of the Afghan people. All other Afghan embassies in states neighboring Afghanistan are presently under the influence of the Taliban.
Beth W. Bailey@BWBailey85
[4/2/2025 11:48 AM, 8.2K followers, 6 likes]
Lawyer Alison Tabor is back on the Afghanistan Project Podcast with an update about Green Card revocations and a pause in Green Card issuance that may impact Afghans in the States https://youtu.be/fbtwWYNRzN0
Beth W. Bailey@BWBailey85
[4/2/2025 9:31 AM, 8.2K followers, 11 retweets, 21 likes]
As many as 3.5 million Afghan children face threat of malnutrition in 2025. Two-thirds of women-led households are unable to access essential food supplies according to reporting from @AmuTelevision "‘This is enormous. We haven’t seen anything like this in the past four years,’ said Mona Shaikh, head of nutrition for WFP in Afghanistan." https://amu.tv/165382/ Pakistan
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[4/2/2025 7:22 AM, 8.6M followers, 74 retweets, 733 likes]
Dr Asim Hussain, personal physician to President of Pakistan has stated that after conducting various tests it has been established that President has COVID and he has been advised to stay in isolation. A team of specialist doctors attending him.
Zalmay Khalilzad@realZalmayMK
[4/3/2025 12:29 AM, 259.7K followers, 2.6K retweets, 5.3K likes]
The Pakistani establishment is responssible for the current triple crises of security, politics, and economic well-being facing the country. What is to be done? @ImranKhanPTI must be freed. There must be negotiations and agreement on a roadmap for the country by PTI, the establishment and key players in the current government with a timeline for a free and fair elections. #Pakistan needs fundamental reforms. #USA @realDonaldTrump @DOGE https://x.com/sufisal/status/1907595882733670758?t=LBgNxkLGPwqMQHmaRG3wDA&s=09 India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[4/2/2025 9:07 PM, 107.3M followers, 2.6K retweets, 18K likes]
My visit to Sri Lanka will take place from the 4th till the 6th. This visit comes after the successful visit of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to India. We will review the multifaceted India-Sri Lanka friendship and discuss newer avenues of cooperation. I look forward to the various meetings there. @anuradisanayake
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[4/3/2025 12:19 AM, 3.4M followers, 148 retweets, 835 likes]
Delighted to participate in the 20th BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok this morning.
Expressed India’s solidarity and support for Myanmar & Thailand in face of the massive earthquake.
Highlighted that: - BIMSTEC represents the trifecta of India’s three crucial initiatives: the Act East policy, the Neighbourhood First approach and the MAHA-SAGAR outlook. It is also on the pathway to our Indo-Pacific commitment. To promote BIMSTEC, India is drawing the best from all of them and then synergizing that with our collective efforts. - Nations around and proximate to the Bay of Bengal have both common interests and shared concerns.- Task before BIMSTEC is to be realistic about where we stand today, confident about the foundation of our endeavours and optimistic about its coming possibilities.- India is aware of its special responsibility in regard to BIMSTEC. India connects most of them, provides much of the interface between the Indian Sub-continent and ASEAN. - Our North-Eastern region in particular is emerging as a connectivity hub for the BIMSTEC. The IMT Trilateral Highway will connect India’s North East all the way to the Pacific Ocean. - We are conscious that our cooperation and facilitation are an essential pre-requisite for the smooth flow of goods, services and people in this larger geography.- BIMSTEC should deepen our collaboration by directing energies towards the most visible convergences, especially in grid connection, digital infrastructure, business activities, maritime & land transport, blue economy and health, food and energy security. - World is moving to an era of self-help. Every region needs to look out for itself, whether it is in food, fuel and fertilizer supply, vaccines or speedy disaster response. Shorter supply chains and immediate neighbors have a salience much more than before.- BIMSTEC needs to recognize the seriousness of cyber security, counter-terrorism, human trafficking, illegal narcotics trade and other associated activities. We need to create the necessary frameworks to deal with them effectively. Nor can we disregard the ever-present dangers of extremism, radicalization and terrorism.
Confident that the deliberations today and the Summit tomorrow will set the stage for the emergence of the Bay of Bengal as a vibrant and energetic region. https://mea.gov.in/Speeches-Statements.htm?dtl/39321
Rahul Gandhi@RahulGandhi
[4/2/2025 1:02 PM, 27.7M followers, 8.2K retweets, 26K likes]
The Waqf (Amendment) Bill is a weapon aimed at marginalising Muslims and usurping their personal laws and property rights. This attack on the Constitution by the RSS, BJP and their allies is aimed at Muslims today but sets a precedent to target other communities in the future. The Congress party strongly opposes this legislation as it attacks the very idea of India and violates Article 25, the Right to Freedom of Religion.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/2/2025 11:38 PM, 219.2K followers, 114 retweets, 361 likes]
US tariffs on South Asia
India 26%
Bangladesh 37%
Pakistan 29%
Sri Lanka 44%
The US is a top (the top for the latter three) export destination for all of them.
Textiles (main export for Pakistan and Bangladesh) could be quite impacted.
All 4 already dealing w/economic stress.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/2/2025 11:31 PM, 219.2K followers, 58 retweets, 217 likes]
India has-Lowered tariffs on thousands of goods-Offered tariff cuts on half of US imports valued at $23B -Begun trade talks w/US-Increased (in recent years) US imports by $3B and invested $40B+ in the US, creating 400,000+ US jobs
And it still was hit with a 26% tariff.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/2/2025 11:31 PM, 219.2K followers, 7 retweets, 31 likes]
Yes, it’s a discounted tariff, but many countries got discounted tariffs. India’s government may have gone further than any other in taking preemptive steps to try to head off US tariff risks. But in the end, it couldn’t dodge them. NSB
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[4/2/2025 11:01 PM, 132.9K followers, 36 retweets, 739 likes]
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus departed for Bangkok at 8:55am on Thursday by a Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight to attend the sixth BIMSTEC Summit.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh@BDMOFA
[4/3/2025 12:51 AM, 76K followers, 10 retweets, 54 likes]
Hon’ble Foreign Affairs Adviser Md. Touhid Hossain participated in the 20th #BIMSTEC Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok.Bangladesh remains committed to a peaceful, prosperous, and connected BIMSTEC.- Signed the BIMSTEC Maritime Transport Cooperation Agreement- Emphasized regional trade & FTA implementation- Urged for conducive atmosphere in Myanmar for the return of 1.2M Rohingyas to their land with rights and security
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[4/2/2025 11:25 AM, 219.2K followers, 17 retweets, 123 likes]
Bangladesh media report Modi will meet Yunus at BIMSTEC in Thailand this week. If true, this will be the biggest India-Bangladesh diplomatic development since Hasina’s ouster. Also notable if it happens even after Yunus’s controversial recent comments about northeast India.
Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba@Arzuranadeuba
[4/3/2025 1:53 AM, 5.2K followers, 7 likes]
Held a productive meeting with H.E. Arun Hemachandra, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, on the sidelines of the 6th BIMSTEC Summit. We exchanged views on Nepal-Sri Lanka ties, with a focus on enhancing diplomatic and tourism exchances, air connectivity, and trade
Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba@Arzuranadeuba
[4/2/2025 11:34 PM, 5.2K followers, 8 retweets, 40 likes]
Reaffirmed Nepal’s commitment to regional cooperation, emphasizing the need for stronger political will to realize a Prosperous, Resilient, and Open BIMSTEC. Urged expedited implementation of the Bangkok Vision 2030 and the EPG Report. #BIMSTEC ¼Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba@Arzuranadeuba
[4/2/2025 11:34 PM, 5.2K followers, 3 likes]
Highlighted the urgency of implementing the BIMSTEC Free Trade Area and Transport Connectivity Master Plan. Called for deeper economic, technological, and cultural integration while ensuring macroeconomic stability across the region. 2/4 #EconomicCooperation
Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba@Arzuranadeuba
[4/2/2025 11:34 PM, 5.2K followers, 2 retweets, 8 likes]
Nepal is committed to enhancing regional cooperation in Culture, Tourism & Poverty Alleviation. Announced the upcoming BIMSTEC Agriculture Ministers’ Meeting in Kathmandu. Also invited BIMSTEC leaders to the Sagarmatha Sambaad in May. 3/4 #StrongerTogether
Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba@Arzuranadeuba
[4/2/2025 11:34 PM, 5.2K followers, 1 retweet, 5 likes]
Called for greater cooperation on climate change & disaster preparedness. Welcomed India’s initiative to establish the BIMSTEC Centre of Excellence in Disaster Management and stressed the need for resilient infrastructure & AI-driven solutions. 4/4 #ClimateAction
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka
[4/3/2025 1:15 AM, 39.1K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
Sri Lanka signs BIMSTEC Maritime Transport Cooperation Agreement : Leading the Sri lanka delagation Hon. Arun Hemachandra, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment signed the BIMSTEC Maritime Tranport Cooperation Agreement. (1/4)
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka
[4/3/2025 1:15 AM, 39.1K followers]
This is a crucial step enhancing regional cooperation at the 20th BIMSTEC Ministirial Meeting on 3rd April 2025. (2/4)
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka
[4/3/2025 1:15 AM, 39.1K followers]
As the lead country in Science , Technology and Innovation, the Deputy Minister Hemachandra informed that the BIMSTEC Technology Transfer Facility to be established at the earliest as commitment of Sri Lanka. (3/4)
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka
[4/3/2025 1:15 AM, 39.1K followers, 1 like]
As the Chair of IORA, Sri Lanka also welcomed the signing of an MOU between BIMSTEC and IORA at the meeting. (4/4) #DiplomacyLK #LKA #BIMSTEC #Regionalcooperation #IORA
Sajith Premadasa@sajithpremadasa
[4/3/2025 12:38 AM, 234.5K followers, 21 retweets, 81 likes]
The 44% US tariff is not just a trade issue, it’s a wake-up call. Those who are now in government in the past blocked every trade deal, distrusted globalization, and saw investment as intrusion. That legacy must end and they have to switch up their stance.
Sri Lanka needs a strategic reset:
Embrace partnerships over paranoia.
Stop the hate-mongering for the sake of appeasing some local cartels.
Build an Asia-centric trade strategy with India, ASEAN & Bangladesh.
Shift from tariffs to production-led, investor-friendly growth.
And above all, we must stop the silent defiance of regional interests of other nations. Protecting mutual interests is the only way forward. Posturing is not strategy. Mature nations negotiate. It’s time we did too. Central Asia
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ
[4/2/2025 4:37 AM, 56.4K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes]
Accreditation of Journalists for the Coverage of the Meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers and the 8th Meeting of Foreign Ministers in the “Central Asia – Russia” Format https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/967782?lang=en
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/2/2025 10:49 AM, 215.1K followers, 5 retweets, 20 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev arrived in #Samarkand to participate in the events of the first “Central Asia - European Union” summit. Today, he will hold an informal meeting with the President of the European Council António Costa.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[4/2/2025 9:02 AM, 215.1K followers, 5 retweets, 36 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev received Head of the international relations department of the Central Committee of #China’s Communist Party Liu Jianchao, who conveyed sincere greetings and best wishes from President Xi Jinping. Sides considered further expansion of practical cooperation between the countries, particularly inter-parliamentary and inter-party interaction in such areas as poverty reduction, anti-corruption, accelerated digitalization and industrialization.
Saida Mirziyoyeva@SMirziyoyeva
[4/2/2025 11:15 AM, 21.9K followers, 3 retweets, 25 likes]
Ahead of the 43rd UNESCO GC in Samarkand, Uzbekistan shared its cultural spirit in Paris. On Apr 1, the National Symphony Orchestra & Richter Trio performed works inspired by Navoi, Babur, Khayyam & Nodira—blending heritage with modern sound at UNESCO HQ.
Saida Mirziyoyeva@SMirziyoyeva
[4/2/2025 6:11 AM, 21.9K followers, 7 retweets, 58 likes] A historic moment at @UNESCO HQ: Uzbekistan officially signed on to host the 43rd General Conference in Samarkand — the first outside Paris in 40 years. A true honor, and a testament to our cultural diplomacy, creativity & global engagement. Welcome to Uzbekistan, @UNESCO!{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.