SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS

epubdos : Afghanistan

Prepared for the U.S. Department of State

Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs

By TechMIS
www.TechMIS.com

Mobile User Copy

TO:	SCA & Staff
DATE:	Friday, February 14, 2025 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan

Reclusive Taliban leader speaks of importance of modern education in a rare university visit (AP)

AP [2/13/2025 5:47 AM, Staff, 47097K]
The Taliban’s reclusive leader has made a rare visit to a university in Afghanistan in his first known trip to a modern education institution.

Hibatullah Akhundzada spoke of the importance of worldly subjects as he visited Kandahar University on Wednesday and addressed a large gathering of the university’s leadership, teachers, staff and students, according to government spokesmen. There are no official photos, videos or audio of the visit.

A spokesperson for the Higher Education Ministry, Ziaullah Hashmi, said Akhundzada told the Kandahar audience that religious schools and universities were one and the same and it was necessary to support and protect both types of institutions.

Akhundzada spoke about the value of knowledge and the importance of religious and modern education, according to Hashmi.

The Taliban prioritize Islamic knowledge over basic secular literacy and numeracy and are growing the number of madrassas, or religious schools, in Afghanistan.

Akhundzada’s language on Wednesday indicates a softening toward modern education, or at least an acknowledgement of a place for it in Afghanistan, which is struggling with humanitarian and economic crises.

"You should study both religious and worldly things (modern education)," Akhundzada said according to a statement. "Make your intention only to serve religion because you are highly valued in society. Society regards the students of madrassas, schools and universities very seriously.".

He asked students to write the history of Afghanistan’s fighters and heroes to make them known internationally. "Struggle hard to make foreigners come here, learn from you, and you rule the world with the help of your knowledge," he said.

There were no women at Wednesday’s event. Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 2021, Akhundzada has issued decrees restricting women and girl’s access to education.

They cannot study past sixth grade, including university, and authorities have yet to confirm or deny reports that they have stopped medical training for women.

Restrictions on women and girls are a major hurdle to the Taliban being recognised as the official government of Afghanistan.

Last month, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said he had requested arrest warrants for two top Taliban officials, including Akhundzada, for the repression of women.

Taliban chief claims Afghan governance rooted in divine commands (VOA)

VOA [2/13/2025 12:30 PM, Ayaz Gul, 2717K]
The leader of Afghanistan’s governing radical Taliban has defended his policies, including banning female access to education and employment, asserting that they are derived from the "commands of Allah.".

Hibatullah Akhundzada’s assertions came days after the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced he was seeking arrest warrants for the reclusive Taliban leader, holding him "criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women.".

A Taliban statement said that Akhundzada addressed teachers, staff and students at a public university in the southern province of Kandahar on Wednesday during his first known visit to a modern education institution, where he also discussed the significance of his edicts.

"The esteemed supreme leader stated that every decree he issues is based on consultation with scholars and derived from the Quran and Hadith [sayings of Islam’s prophet], and represents commands of Allah," the Taliban chief was quoted as saying.

Akhundzada seldom leaves his office in Kandahar and rules impoverished Afghanistan from there through numerous decrees he has issued over the past three years. He has barred girls from attending school beyond the sixth grade and blocked female students from accessing university education.

Afghan women are banned from most public and private sector employment nationwide. They are not allowed to travel by road or air without a chaperone and cannot visit public places such as parks, gyms or beauty salons.

The Taliban supreme leader stated in his speech on Wednesday that religious schools and universities are essentially the same and emphasized the importance of supporting and safeguarding both types of educational institutions in the country.

"Now it is your turn to make Afghanistan competitive globally with your knowledge and wisdom. Work hard so that foreigners come here to learn from you and use your knowledge to succeed globally," Akhundzada said. "Professors and students, you must acquire religious and worldly education but serve religion solely.".

The Taliban government, not recognized by any country, has established dozens of new Islamic seminaries, known as madrasas, to promote their strict interpretation of Islamic beliefs and laws, according to observers.

In his Jan. 23 declaration, ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan stated that his decision to seek Akhundzada’s arrest warrants was based on a thorough investigation and evidence collected.

"Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable. Afghan survivors, in particular women and girls, deserve accountability before a court of law," Khan said.

The Taliban condemned Khan’s action as "devoid of just legal basis, duplicitous in nature and politically motivated.".

The international community has refused to accept the Taliban as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, mainly over their harsh treatment of women and other human rights concerns.

The United States and other Western countries have slapped economic sanctions on the country and primarily isolated the Afghan banking sector since the Taliban takeover. Several senior leaders of the Taliban are still listed as terrorist entities by the United Nations.

An international conference of Muslim leaders hosted by Pakistan last month condemned "extremist ideologies" and religious edicts, known as fatwas, that are rooted in cultural norms obstructing girls’ education as a "grave misuse of religious principles to legitimize policies of deprivation and exclusion.".

The conference declaration, without naming the de facto Afghan rulers, noted that anyone who rejects or opposes Islamic principles mandating equal education for men and women "is considered outside the framework of the Islamic Ummah’s [Islamic world’s] concepts and cannot be regarded as part of it.".

Two Killed In Botched Suicide Bombing Attack On Taliban Ministry (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [2/13/2025 4:14 PM, Abubakar Siddique, 235K]
A suicide bombing attack on the Taliban-led Ministry for Urban Development office in the Afghan capital, Kabul, has killed two people and injured three more.

Taliban authorities said the attacker was one of the people killed in the February 13 attack.

“The suicide bomber was identified and eliminated at the entrance of the ministry,” said Mohammad Kamal Afghan, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Urban Development Ministry.

He told journalists that the attack happened just before noon local time.

No group has immediately accepted responsibility for the attack.

But the Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an ultraradical rival of the Taliban, claimed credit for a separate attack earlier this week.

On February 11, at least eight people were killed in a suicide bank outside a bank in the northern city of Kunduz. IS-K said it targeted the Taliban government employees while they collected their salaries.

Earlier on December 11, an IS-K suicide bomber killed Khalil ur-Rahman Haqqani, the Taliban’s refugee minister. Five more people were killed in the attack inside the Refugee Ministry compound in Kabul.

Haqqani, in his 60s, was the most senior Taliban figure killed by IS-K since the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

IS-K has repeatedly targeted Afghanistan’s Shi’ite minority and followers of the moderate Sufi orders.

In recent years, the group has embarked on terror attacks internationally. Last year, it claimed credit for attacks in Iran and Russia. Individuals linked to the group have also been detained in the United States and Europe.

On February 10, a meeting of the UN Security Council declared the group a significant threat to global security.

“We remain concerned about IS-K’s capabilities to plot and conduct attacks as well as sustain recruitment campaigns, particularly in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” said Dorothy Shea, the interim U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The Taliban promised security after returning to power three years ago but has not been able to stamp out attacks by the IS-K. It launched a brutal crackdown against the IS-K and claimed to have killed or detained hundreds of its members.

Afghanistan’s tiny Salafist minority, however, has complained of being on the receiving end of the Taliban clampdown on IS-K as its members were unjustly persecuted.

In 2015, the IS-K emerged as the local branch of the Islamic State, which ruled vast swathes of territories in Syria and Iraq.

Afghan Man Detained In Munich Car Attack Sparking Fears Among Rest Of Community (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [2/13/2025 4:14 PM, Ray Furlong, 235K]
Police in Munich arrested an Afghan asylum seeker after he rammed a car into a crowd in the German city, injuring 28 people and leaving many Afghans in the country on edge amid calls during an election campaign for tougher immigration laws.

Despite a heavy police presence in the city a day before many high-profile leaders such as U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attend the Munich Security Conference, the man, identified by German media as 24-year-old Farhad N., drove his vehicle into a demonstration held by trade unionists.

"The suspect will be brought before an investigating judge tomorrow [February 14]. We are still at the crime scene with our forensic team and specialists," Munich police said.

Police said they fired one shot at the vehicle, a Mini Cooper, and arrested the man at the scene where victims, clothes and even a stroller were strewn around the street.

Munich police said authorities have "indications of an extremist motive" and that prosecutors are investigating. Several news outlets, including Der Spiegel, cited sources as saying the man is thought to have posted Islamist content online before the attack.

"Afghans living in Germany are deeply saddened and worried about their future due to this and similar incidents," Rahmatullah Ziarmaal, an Afghan journalist who lives in the city of Limburg, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

"Many Afghans feel particularly distressed by such events, fearing that anti-immigration parties will exploit them for political gain, making life even more difficult for refugees."

Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister for the state of Bavaria, said the suspect’s application for asylum had been rejected, but he hadn’t been deported because of security concerns in Afghanistan.

The incident is likely to enflame already heated rhetoric as Germans prepare to vote in parliamentary elections on February 23.

Germany has the largest Afghan community in Europe with an estimated 377,000 Afghan citizens residing in the country at the end of 2022, according to the country’s statistics agency.

"We have to continue with deportations...even to Afghanistan, a very difficult country," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters in Munich.

Several violent incidents involving immigrants have bolstered far-right candidates, who narrowly trail center-right conservatives.

Both have been critical of Social Democrat Chancellor Olaf Scholz, accusing him of being soft on immigration, which they blame for an increase in violent crime rates.

Yousuf Rahimi, an Afghan resident of Munich who is awaiting approval of his asylum application, told RFE/RL that many Afghans come to the country because of the open immigration policies but fail to assimilate and end up getting involved in crime and drugs.

"People like this create difficulties for Afghans like me who genuinely seek asylum, want to contribute positively to German society, and hope to build a future here," he said.

Pakistan

Pakistan, Turkey to boost strategic ties (VOA)

VOA [2/13/2025 3:21 PM, Sarah Zaman, 2717K]
Pakistan and Turkey pledged to deepen cooperation in defense, mining, energy and other sectors during the 7th round of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Islamabad, Thursday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan co-chaired the highest-level bilateral discussion forum with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

After the closed-door delegation-level talks Thursday, the two sides exchanged 24 signed documents, including a joint declaration, a few agreements, and several memoranda of understanding (MoU).

"We have agreed to further strengthen our relations," Erdogan said in remarks broadcast live after the talks.

A brief statement from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued soon after the talks said the joint declaration "gives a roadmap for further deepening, diversifying, and institutionalizing the strategic partnership between Pakistan and Turkey.".

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Sharif welcomed the Turkish leader Wednesday night at a military airbase near the capital with much fanfare.

From a 21-gun salute to a fighter jet flyby and traditional Pakistani dancers on the motorcade’s route to a special song honoring Erdogan blaring across TV channels, Islamabad pulled out all the stops for the Turkish president, who returned after five years for a brief visit ending Thursday night.

Broad cooperation

Both sides agreed to cooperate in air force electronic warfare and to collaborate on defense production, with an MoU signed between Turkey’s Secretariat of Defense Industries and Pakistan’s Ministry of Defense Production and another MoU between Turkey’s state-owned Aerospace Industries and Pakistan’s Naval Research and Development Institute.

The two countries also created a new Joint Standing Committee on security, defense, and intelligence under the high-level council.

Over the last decade Pakistan and Turkey have ramped up defense production cooperation. That cooperation includes joint production of four MILGEM corvette warships for delivery to Pakistan, helping the South Asian country upgrade its aging fighter jet fleet, and sharing and transfer of defense technologies.

Pakistan and Turkey also agreed to upgrade their existing trade agreement and reiterated a past pledge to boost annual bilateral trade volume to $5 billion from roughly $1.5 billion. In May 2023, the two signed a Preferential Trade Agreement, reducing Pakistani tariffs on 130 product categories, while Turkey cut down tariffs on 261 products lines.

Sharif announced Turkish firms will build a special economic zone in Pakistan for industrial production, despite Pakistan’s struggle to attract investment to special economic zones set up as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Both sides agreed on a protocol to amend their existing agreement of cooperation in the field of hydrocarbons and signed an MoU to help Pakistan’s energy transition. The South Asian country is aiming to decrease reliance on expensive foreign fuel and transition to affordable and abundant green energy.

Pakistan reached an MoU with Turkey on mining cooperation as well, a sector Islamabad is anxious to bring foreign investment to.

Under the bilateral strategic cooperation council, six joint standing committees cover a broad array of sectors, including trade, investment, banking, finance, culture, tourism, energy, defense, agriculture, transportation, communication, IT, health, science and technology, and education. Both sides signed cooperation documents in almost all the fields.

In his brief remarks after the talks, Prime Minister Sharif pledged to fight terrorism jointly with Turkey. The Pakistani leader then singled out Afghanistan as a source of the violence.

"Afghanistan is a neighboring country, and we expect that Afghanistan will cooperate in fighting terrorism and not spreading terrorism and in that we are together," Sharif said.

Although Erdogan expressed support for Pakistan’s fight against terrorism in his remarks, the Turkish leader stopped short of naming Afghanistan as a root cause. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers reject accusation of harboring anti-Pakistan fighters on their soil.

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Critical timing

The two allies held their highest-level dialogue at a critical time in the Middle East.

"We discussed not only our bilateral relations but also regional and global developments extensively," Erdogan said.

The fall of the Assad regime in Syria has strengthened Ankara’s position in the region but it has also put Turkey in direct competition with Israel, whose troops have advanced into Syrian territory.

"Turkey understands that increasing defense and strategic ties with countries like Pakistan, another established middle-sized defense power, are even more for interest for Turkey," Umer Karim, a researcher at University of Birmingham told VOA.

"Sharing bilateral defense production technologies and learning is a key aspect," Karim added.

The civil war in Syria also has deeply impacted militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Fighters from those countries fought alongside Syrian militias. But Islamic State Khorasan or ISIS-K, a regional off shoot of the terror outfit IS, has brought more violence to the two South Asian neighbors.

With Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham or HTS, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization now controlling Syria, security observers say Ankara and Islamabad need help from each other to manage non-state actors.

"With Shia militias and movement from various non-state actors, from Sunni militias moving into Syria as well, and now that the conflict has subsided, their ultimate return and its impact on the region is going to play a tremendous amount of role," Iftikhar Firdaus, editor of The Khorasan Diary told VOA. The online platform monitors militant activity.

A delegation of Turkish corporate leaders joined Erdogan on the visit to boost trade ties with Pakistan. Sharif and Erdogan also addressed the Pakistan-Turkey Business Forum in Islamabad, Thursday.

"Turkey can explore Pakistan in two ways," Khurram Schehzad, advisor to Pakistan’s finance minister, told VOA. "One is as an investment corridor, the second is that Pakistan can become Turkey’s export hub into the Asia Pacific region.".

Schehzad acknowledged that despite deep strategic and people-to-people ties, Pakistan and Turkey have failed to develop a strong economic relationship.

"What I would like to have is, how the follow up is done post-MoUs and how that MoU is converted into value," Schehzad said.

The previous session of the Pakistan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council was held in Islamabad in February 2020.

Roadside bomb kills 11 coal miners in southwest Pakistan (VOA)

VOA [2/14/2025 4:22 AM, Ayaz Gul, 2717K]
Authorities in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province said Friday that at least 11 coal mine workers were killed and six injured when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb.

The early morning incident occurred near a coal mine in the Harnai district of the insurgency-hit province, which is rich in natural resources.

"The terrorists involved in this incident will be brought to justice soon," an official statement quoted Provincial Chief Minister Sarfaraz Bugti as saying.

In Islamabad, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s office said he expressed sorrow over the deaths of miners and said his government "is actively working to eliminate terrorism."

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing in Balochistan, where ethnic Baloch militants frequently stage insurgent attacks against security forces and workers associated with public and private mining projects.

The Baloch Liberation Army, particularly its suicide bomber unit known as the Majeed Brigade, has claimed responsibility for nearly all recent attacks in Balochistan, resulting in the killings of scores of civilians and security forces.

At least 18 Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed Jan. 31 when BLA militants assaulted their bus in the province’s Kalat district, marking one of the deadliest days for security forces in recent months.

The U.N. Security Council noted in its latest international terror threat assessment report released this week that BLA has been behind "several high-casualty attacks" in Balochistan.

The report quoted two U.N. member states as saying that the "Majeed Brigade maintained connections with TTP, ISIL-K and ETIM/TIP, including collaborating with the latter in its operational bases in Afghanistan."

TTP stands for Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, a globally designated terrorist group that carries out almost daily attacks in Pakistan, particularly in its northwestern districts near or on the Afghan border.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan, or ISIL-K, is the Afghan branch of the transnational Islamic State terrorist network. The East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, is an anti-China militant group operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

Balochistan is on Pakistan’s borders with Iran and Afghanistan and has experienced years of attacks attributed to BLA, TTP, and Islamic State loyalists.

Pakistan hopes hosting major cricket tournament will erase worries of instability (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 11:30 PM, Saad Sayeed and Asif Shahzad, 5.2M]
Pakistan is hoping that hosting its first major multi-country cricket tournament in nearly 30 years will help erase worries of instability in the country and restore confidence in it as a tourism and investment destination.

The Champions Trophy, which kicks off next week, comes to Pakistan as the country battles two insurgencies and a political crisis that has sent its former prime minister and greatest cricket hero, Imran Khan, to jail.

But the government and Pakistan’s cricket board believe the elite tournament of one-day games featuring the top eight teams in the world presents one of the most potent image-building opportunities in decades.

Cricket is a national passion in the countries of South Asia and a major money-spinner in neighbouring India.

"The return of global cricket is not just about hosting matches," said cricket board chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who doubles as Pakistan’s interior minister and security chief.

"It is about restoring pride, igniting national passion and giving back to the millions who have stood by Pakistan cricket."

Pakistan’s security environment has been clouded since the U.S. war in neighbouring Afghanistan began in 2001. The country was struggling to convince sports teams to visit when gunmen attacked a bus carrying touring Sri Lanka cricket players in the city of Lahore in 2009. At least six players were injured, and visits by international teams came to an abrupt halt.

Security has improved dramatically since then in major urban centres, and cricket teams from overseas have been touring since 2018.

The Champions Trophy will be the first major tournament to be held in Pakistan since 1996 and will feature the home side and teams from New Zealand, England, Australia, Afghanistan, South Africa, Bangladesh and India.

All have agreed to play in Pakistan except India, which will play its matches in Dubai, including its encounter with Pakistan, the latest in a storied rivalry.

India accuses Pakistan of supporting militant groups - charges Islamabad denies - and its government advised against sending the team across the border.

Despite the relatively improved security situation, Pakistan is still struggling to contain insurgencies in the north by Islamist militants and in the southwest by ethnic Baloch separatists. But officials say violence is limited to fringe areas.

The country is also navigating a challenging economic recovery path, buttressed by a $7 billion facility from the International Monetary Fund.

Naqvi said staging the tournament was a "monumental task" that involved vast logistical improvements from roads and hotels to security.

But he said the visiting teams were happy with the arrangements and the International Cricket Council had received the board’s security plan with "unanimous approval".

‘ENHANCED SECURITY’

"Players are treated as state dignitaries for enhanced security," said Shahzada Sultan, the deputy police chief for Punjab province where two of the three venues within Pakistan are located.

For the Champions Trophy, police in Lahore, Karachi and the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad have deployed over 20,000 troops, including snipers on rooftops along key routes. Hotels where players will stay, stadiums and airports will be heavily guarded as will the roads connecting these locations.

"Their movement warrants the best box security we can ever provide, with their routes under close surveillance," Sultan said.

Fans from the participating countries are also expected to fly to Pakistan in large numbers, but authorities have not disclosed details on the number of visas issued.

Police have said they will provide "iron clad" security to both players and supporters.

Punjab police said they have updated surveillance systems and installed around 10,000 AI-powered facial recognition cameras and additional CCTV cameras across the two cities.

Karachi police said they have set up an additional SWAT unit to respond to emergencies and conducted preventive intelligence operations to identify potential threats.

"The law and order situation is relatively better," Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said.

TRIUMPH TO DISASTER

Pakistan hosted cricket’s one-day international World Cup as defending champions in 1996 during a period of optimism about sports in the country.

The national team had triumphed in the previous edition under the leadership of Khan, who is now behind bars on corruption charges after falling out with the powerful military.

His party and supporters say the charges are politically motivated. They have taken to the streets to protest and clashed with security forces, adding to instability in the country.
A spokesman for Khan’s party described the political climate as "suffocating" but welcomed the return of international cricket and wished Pakistan’s national team luck.

While the tournament promises to stabilise Pakistan’s shaky image, the partial absence of arch-rivals India means it’s not a full diplomatic success.

The countries have fought three wars since their bloody partition following independence from Britain in 1947.

Their intense rivalry has meant cricket matches between the two are among the most watched sporting contests in the world but they only play each other at multi-nation events.

Pakistan’s cricket board did not comment on questions about India but former chairman Najam Sethi said hosting India would be the ultimate prize.

"This is a culmination of a long six-year trend of everyone coming to Pakistan... but the big thing will be when India and Pakistan play each other in Pakistan," he said.
"I think that will be the big breakthrough."

India

Trump and Modi Shove Disputes Into Background in White House Visit (New York Times)

New York Times [2/13/2025 4:14 PM, Maggie Haberman and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, 831K]
Hours after President Trump paved the way for upending the United States’ trade relationship with India with broad “reciprocal” tariffs, he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented a united front during a news conference on Thursday at the White House.

Mr. Modi became the latest head of state to seek to placate an increasingly power-flexing Mr. Trump by trying to accommodate his demands — even as Mr. Trump’s promised tariffs hung over the White House meeting. Mr. Modi heaped praise on Mr. Trump, using his motto “Make America Great Again” in English, despite mostly speaking through a translator, and applying the motto to India. “Make India Great Again,” Mr. Modi crowed.

The warm greetings also extended to Elon Musk, the constant Trump companion barreling through the federal government as the head of an initiative to reshape and cut down the federal government: The two had a meeting and photo op. Mr. Musk, the wealthiest man in the world, owns a number of companies, including Starlink, a high-speed internet service, that have sought to make an entry in India.

All the flattery concealed a number of tensions between the two nations, including on two of Mr. Trump’s signature issues, trade and immigration. Mr. Trump hinted at the biggest thorn when he said at the news conference that the United States had a nearly $100 billion trade deficit with India, though he inflated the number — in 2024, the figure was nearly $50 billion.

Just hours earlier, Mr. Trump had directed his advisers to devise new tariff levels for countries around the world that take into account a range of trade barriers and other economic approaches adopted by America’s trading partners. India is among the nations that could face particularly significant consequences from the tariffs.

At the news conference, Mr. Trump said that he had toyed with that idea during his first term, and noted that he could not get India to lower tariffs against the United States then. Now, “we’re just going to say, ‘whatever you charge, we charge,’” Mr. Trump said.

“I think that’s fair for the people of the United States,” Mr. Trump said. “And I think it’s actually fair for India.”

Despite the looming economic punishment, Mr. Modi opened his remarks by saying he was focusing on doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and “concluding very soon a mutually beneficial trade agreement” with the United States.

Mr. Modi also said that India and the United States would create a framework for defense cooperation for the next decade and added that the two countries would also collaborate to develop semiconductors, quantum technology and artificial intelligence.

Even on an issue that has infuriated some of his constituents in India, Mr. Modi sought to placate Mr. Trump. At one point, Mr. Modi was asked about a U.S. military plane filled with migrants from India that the United States sent to the Indian state of Punjab last week.

Video posted by a top U.S. border official showed migrants in shackles, and prompted outrage in India.

Mr. Modi made no acknowledgment of that. “We are of the opinion that anybody who enters another country illegally, they have absolutely no right to be in that country,” he said.

Earlier in the afternoon, Mr. Trump met with Mr. Modi in the Oval Office, joined by some of the president’s cabinet secretaries. The two leaders sat in chairs, fielding questions from reporters.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Trump have enjoyed a generally friendly relationship. Mr. Modi welcomed Mr. Trump with an enormous rally during a presidential visit to India during Mr. Trump’s first term.

Before Mr. Trump and Mr. Modi met, the Indian prime minister sat down with Mr. Musk.

Mr. Modi shared photos on Mr. Musk’s social media site, X, that underscored Mr. Musk’s power within the Trump administration: The billionaire sat in front of an American flag next to the prime minister and the Indian flag, the kind of pose usually struck by a head of state and that Mr. Trump himself has assumed in recent weeks. Mr. Musk was accompanied by Shivon Zilis, who is a longtime adviser and the mother to some of his children, as well as three of his children, who appeared to exchange gifts with Mr. Modi.

At the news conference, Mr. Modi said he had known Mr. Musk for some time.

It was Mr. Trump’s fourth visit from a foreign leader in rapid succession in the past few weeks, as he approaches foreign policy with an expansionist mind-set and a firm desire to push other countries to reimburse the United States for its military spending. He had already met with the leaders of Israel, Japan and Jordan.

Trump, Modi aim to cut U.S. trade gap with India amid global tariff concerns (Washington Post)

Washington Post [2/13/2025 11:48 AM, Pranshu Verma, Ellen Nakashima, and Dan Diamond, 40736K]
The United States and India are working toward a deal that aims to cut America’s sizable trade gap with India as New Delhi pledges to buy more U.S. energy, weapons and civil nuclear power, President Donald Trump said Thursday during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington.

The meeting with Modi — the fourth foreign leader to visit Trump in the White House since his inauguration — was one of the earliest measures of how Trump will handle his relationship with New Delhi. The partnership is a pillar of Washington’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific region, but one that is beset with trouble spots on illegal immigration, visas, America’s large trade deficit with India and controversies over India’s attempted assassination of a Sikh activist on American soil.

During the news conference, Trump sought to emphasize the friendship between Washington and New Delhi, even as he announced shortly before it that the United States would implement a “reciprocal” tariff policy that would tax foreign goods at the same rate that other nations apply to American products, potentially complicating talks with India.

Trump said the United States will increase military sales to India by “many billions of dollars” and would consider providing New Delhi F-35 fighter jets. He reiterated his dismay with India’s tariffs toward the United States, but said the two countries will negotiate a trade deal that will ensure a “level playing field.” Trump said India will reform its laws to welcome U.S. nuclear technology into its domestic market.

On the issue of immigration — which sparked outrage in India after the Trump administration sent deportees back to the country in shackles on military fights — Modi said New Delhi will comply with Trump’s desires. “We are of the opinion that anybody who enters another country illegally, they have absolutely no right to be in that country,” Modi said.

In one of the few moments the Indian prime minister spoke English, Modi became the latest leader trying to foster a personal relationship with Trump. The Indian leader borrowed from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rhetoric to announce his own vision: Make India Great Again, or MIGA, he said in English, adding that the two countries could continue to help each other.

“When it’s MAGA plus MIGA, it becomes ‘mega’ — a mega-partnership for prosperity,” the Indian prime minister said, according to a translator.

The United States is India’s largest trading partner, buying more than 18 percent of all its exports. India exported $45 billion more to the United States than it imported, and Trump is keen to shrink that deficit. The lack of parity, as well as lingering frustration from a trade deal that never materialized during his first term, drove Trump to describe India on the campaign trail last year as a “very big abuser” of tariffs.

In a call with Modi last month — the second such conversation between the two leaders since the American election — Trump stressed the “importance of India increasing its procurement of American-made security equipment and moving toward a fair bilateral trading relationship,” according to a White House readout.

Modi visited Washington armed with concessions aimed at averting a trade war and staving off damaging tariffs on the world’s fifth-largest economy. The concessions include a commitment to significantly boost purchases of American energy. New Delhi has already reduced tariffs on high-end American motorcycles — a fixation for Trump, who repeatedly called the 100 percent duty on Harley-Davidsons “unacceptable.”

India signaled it was open to offering tariff concessions for imports from the United States in several sectors, including electronics, medical equipment and chemicals, an analyst familiar with the matter said. The Modi administration is looking at potential deals on U.S. agriculture exports and nuclear energy investments, the analyst added, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. Reuters earlier reported the possible concessions.

Ahead of his meeting with Trump, Modi on Thursday met with the president’s national security adviser, Michael Waltz. He also held meetings with billionaire Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, according to Indian officials. On Wednesday, he held talks with Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard.

During the news conference Thursday evening, the two leaders said a key path to shrinking America’s trade gap with India involves selling billions of dollars worth of energy, especially liquid natural gas, to India. The Biden administration had paused liquid natural gas project approvals as part of its effort to curb climate change. While the leaders were speaking, Waltz posted on X: “Drill Baby Drill = Buy Baby Buy.”

Modi said that India and the United States will collaborate on artificial intelligence, semiconductors and quantum technology. Trump said the United States would also extradite one of the plotters of the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai.

Also, Modi announced that India was moving to change its liability laws to enable U.S. civil nuclear energy firms to sell reactors there. The law currently puts liability on the supplier, not the operator.

Such a move would be “a long-sought win for the Trump administration,” said Lindsey Ford, White House director for South Asia in the Biden administration. “But Modi’s decision to announce a similar agreement with France one day prior is a reminder for the United States that U.S. technology will not be the only game in town.”

A sign of the growing confidence between the two governments was Trump’s statement that his administration was open to considering selling the vaunted F-35 stealth fighter jet to India, a weapons platform the United States makes available to only its closest and most trusted allies and partners.

But the weapon is costly and India would need to “dramatically overhaul and upgrade its industrial security procedures to better protect against espionage and technology leakage,” said Sameer Lalwani, a senior expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

“It’s a gesture of trust” that Trump was even willing to contemplate that, he said. But the Indians are intent on building their own fighter jets, he said.

There would also be significant national security concerns with selling the fifth-generation fighter to India, which has recently fielded Russian S-400 air defense systems. Operating the two near one another enhances the risk that the Russian air defenses could acquire data that compromises the fighter’s stealth signature, and could be used by Russia or China to better detect and target American F-35s, he said.

The trip also came in the wake of tensions around immigration. Last week, scenes of the dramatic deportation of more than 100 Indians, who were sent back in shackles on a military jet, caused enormous embarrassment to Modi domestically. India is a major source of illegal immigration to the United States. As of 2022, it accounted for 725,000 out of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country, according to the Pew Research Center.

Over the Christmas holiday, far-right activists in Trump’s base engaged in a “civil war” with Musk and other senior Trump allies over the need for a skilled-worker visa program that Silicon Valley has long relied on. Many Indians decried the backlash as “racist.”

Modi said he did not discuss with Trump whether the American president would take action on the U.S. court case against Gautam Adani, an Indian billionaire and ally of the Indian prime minister accused of bribery schemes.

Trump and Modi have forged a positive relationship since their first meeting in 2017, punctuated by reciprocal mass rallies — “Howdy Modi” in Houston in 2019 and “Namaste Trump” in Ahmedabad, India, in 2020. Their bond stems from a shared strategic interest in countering China as well as the cultivation of a strongman image.

Washington has over the past 20 years grown closer to New Delhi, slowly diminishing India’s decades-long dependence on Russian arms, for instance, though it has been buying large quantities of Russian oil.

Heightened tensions with China after deadly border clashes in 2020 helped drive India closer to the United States, which has provided intelligence and equipment, including leased Predator drones, to help India defend its frontier.

Trump in his first term revived a grouping known as “the Quad,” consisting of India, Japan, the United States and Australia, widely seen as a counterweight to China’s growing influence in the region. The Biden administration advanced the initiative, and analysts say that Trump may push the group in a more security-oriented direction.

The two countries established a significant partnership in emerging technology during the Biden administration, announcing for instance co-production plans for military jet engines and armored infantry vehicles.

One area that is likely to have a lower profile now is human rights, analysts said. The attempted assassination of the Sikh activist in 2023 caused tension between the two governments and led to murder-for-hire charges against an Indian intelligence official, who has since left the government.

Administration officials declined to comment on the matter on Thursday.

“I think now that issue is somewhat behind us,” said Lisa Curtis, a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a White House South Asia aide in Trump’s first term.

Trump also sought to flatter his Indian counterpart, grinning as he responded to a question about who won their negotiations.

“He’s a much tougher negotiator than me,” Trump said. “He’s a much better negotiator than me.”

Trump calls India’s Modi a ‘great friend’ but warns of higher U.S. tariffs on Indian goods (AP)

AP [2/13/2025 9:35 PM, Will Weissert, 4917K]
President Donald Trump greeted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the White House with a bear hug on Thursday and called him "a great friend of mine," but nonetheless warned that India won’t be spared from higher tariffs he’s begun imposing on U.S. trade partners around the world.

Trump, who had previously derided India as the "tariff king," called the import levies imposed by Modi’s country "very unfair and strong."

"Whatever India charges, we charge them," Trump said at a joint news conference where he stood next to Modi. "So, frankly, it no longer matters to us that much what they charge."

As he has while recently hosting other foreign leaders, Trump talked about ensuring that the U.S. erases its trade deficit with India. He suggested that could be done by increasing U.S. energy exports to India but also promised to restore "fairness and reciprocity" to the economic relationship and said he and Modi had begun working on a major trade deal that could be completed later this year.

The U.S. and India have a trade deficit of $50 billion in India’s favor. The Indo-U.S. goods and services trade totaled around $190.1 billion in 2023. According to India’s External Affairs Ministry, the U.S. exports to India were worth nearly $70 billion and imports $120 billion.

Modi, meanwhile, continued his personal trend of heaping praise on Trump. The prime minister said that he’s determined to "Make India Great Again," or "MIGA" - a play on the president’s "MAGA" or "Make America Great Again" catchphrase and movement.

Trump also said he’d back extraditing one of the plotters of the 2008 Mumbai attacks - appearing to referencing Tahawwur Hussain Rana, who was convicted in 2011 in the U.S. for plotting an attack on a Danish newspaper.

"He’s going to be going back to India to face justice," Trump said. The president later added, "We’re giving him back to India immediately" and that more such extraditions could be coming.

Trump also said the U.S. would soon increase military sales to India by "many millions of dollars," paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighter planes - something the country has long sought.

Before Modi’s White House arrival, Trump signed an order to increase tariffs to match the tax rates that other countries charge on imports, which affects American trading partners around the world - including India.

Modi had been looking to avoid additional U.S. tariffs and to improve relations with Washington and the West overall, which have been frosty lately after Modi refused to condemn Russia for its war on Ukraine.

"The world had this thinking that India somehow is a neutral country in this whole process," Modi said, praising Trump for having phone calls with Russia and Ukraine’s leaders on Wednesday. "But this is not true. India has a side, and that side is of peace."

Trump previously imposed tariffs on China, and says more are coming against the European Union - while threatening similar against Canada and Mexico. He also expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum he initially imposed during his first term.

The White House insists that in signing Thursday’s round of what Trump called "reciprocal" tariffs, he is leveling the playing field between U.S. manufacturers and foreign competitors. These new taxes would likely be paid by American consumers and businesses either directly or in the form of higher prices, though.

Even before Modi arrived, New Delhi showed a willingness to buy more American oil and lower its tariffs on U.S. goods. That included levies on some Harley-Davidson motorcycles going from 50% to 40%. Also, India in 2023 dropped retaliatory tariffs on U.S. almonds, apples, chickpeas, lentils and walnuts.

Tariffs aside, Trump has used the opening weeks of his second term to say he’ll stamp out U.S. trade deficits around the world, including during his meetings at the White House last week with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

Modi is the fourth foreign leader to visit Trump since his inauguration last month, following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Ishiba of Japan and Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Prior to meeting with Trump, Modi sat down with national security adviser Mike Waltz. He also met with billionaire SpaceX founder and top Trump administration official Elon Musk.

Trump was asked if Musk spoke with Modi as a government worker or a tech magnate, amid concerns the meeting was related to the billionaire’s business dealings.

"India is a very hard place to do business because of the tariffs. They have the highest tariffs, just about in the world, and it’s a hard place to do business," Trump said. "No, I would imagine he met possibly because, you know, he’s running a company."

Modi and Trump also said they’d discussed immigration.

India recently accepted the return of 104 migrants brought back on a U.S. military plane - the first such flight to the country as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border.

More than 725,000 immigrants from India are in the U.S. without authorization, the third most of any country after Mexico and El Salvador, according to the Pew Research Center.

Recent years have also seen a jump in the number of Indians attempting to enter through the U.S.-Canada border. The U.S. Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians in the year ending Sept. 30 - 60% of all arrests there and more than 10 times the number from two years ago.

Trump has promised a "mass deportation" of all who are in the U.S. illegally. Modi said Thursday that, "Any verified Indian who is in the U.S. illegally, we are fully prepared to take them back to India."

Modi says US and India target $500 billion bilateral trade by 2030 (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 7:00 PM, Nandita Bose, Costas Pitas, Kanishka Singh, Simon Lewis, Andrea Shalal, and David Brunnstrom, 48128K]
Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi said on Thursday the United States and India have set a target of doubling their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and will work on concluding a mutually beneficial trade agreement very soon.

Modi made the comment at a press conference after a meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington. Modi said the U.S. and India would work together on artificial intelligence and semiconductors and focus on establishing strong supply chains for strategic minerals.

"We have ... set ourselves the target of more than doubling our bilateral trade to attain $500 billion by 2030. Our teams will work on concluding very soon, a mutually beneficial trade agreement," Modi said.

A Trump administration official told reporters earlier that U.S. and Indian officials were also moving forward with talks on a bilateral trade deal and they hoped to have a deal in place this year.

Trump told the news conference India had announced a reduction of tariffs on U.S. goods and said he and Modi would begin talks on disparities on trade with the goal of signing an agreement.

He said the United States was entitled to a level playing field and the U.S. trade deficit with India could be made up with the sale of oil and gas.

Trump said he had discussed India’s high tariffs during his first term, but was unable to extract any concessions. He said that under the new reciprocal tariffs system he announced on Thursday, the U.S. would simply charge the same tariff rates that India charged.

"It’s very hard to sell into India because they have trade barriers, very strong tariffs," he said.

"We are, right now, a reciprocal nation... We’re going to have whatever India charges, we’re charging them. Whatever another country charges, we’re charging them. So it’s called reciprocal, which I think is a very fair way.".

Trump Offers F-35 Jet to India in Push for More Defense Deals (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [2/13/2025 6:42 PM, Nick Wadhams, 21617K]
President Donald Trump said the US would offer the F-35 warplane to India as part of a bigger commitment to deepen defense ties.

The US will increase sales of military hardware to India by “many billions of dollars,” Trump said at a joint White House press conference alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening.

“We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” the president said.

Any such move would be a long way off and could face serious obstacles given that India already has deep defense ties with Russia, and the US has been loathe to sell the F-35 to countries where its technology might be stolen by adversaries.

A sale would also be complicated by India’s decision in 2018 to buy Russia’s S400 missile defense system. The US had previously scrapped F-35 co-production with Turkey after that country decided to buy the S400 over fears Russia would learn too much about the plane’s technology

Still, it amounts to the latest US salvo to weaken the country’s close military ties with Russia. Successive American presidents including Trump in his first term promised more weapons contracts

“In our meeting today, the prime minister and I reaffirmed that strong cooperation among the United States, India, Australia and Japan, and it’s crucial really, to maintaining peace and prosperity tranquility, even, in the Indo Pacific,” Trump said.

His announcement also suggests continued confidence in the costliest American weapons system, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp., which has been derided by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and a close Trump adviser. “Some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35” in an age of drones, he said.

Then-Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall defended the aircraft. “The F-35 isn’t going away” as it’s “a state of the art system that’s continuously being upgraded,” Kendall said during an Air Force Association webcast. “There’s a reason so many countries are buying the F-35,” he said of its 19 international customers. “There is no alternative to that in the near term. We should continue to buy it.”

The Modi government has intensified defense ties with the US as it proceeds with a 10-year, $250 billion military modernization.

Last year, the US approved the sale of nearly $4 billion in attack drones, Hellfire missiles and laser-guided bombs to India, as the Biden administration looks to chip away at the country’s long-time defense ties with Russia.

Trump says US to increase military sales to India, eventually provide F-35 jets (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 10:13 PM, Nandita Bose and Mike Stone, 48128K]
The United States will increase military sales to India starting in 2025 and will eventually provide F-35 fighter jets, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday.

"We’ll be increasing military sales to India by many billions of dollars. We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters," Trump told reporters.

Trump did not provide a timeline, but foreign military sales, especially for cutting-edge technology like the stealthy F-35 jet, typically take years to work through.

Addressing a joint news conference after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump also said the countries had struck an agreement that includes India importing more U.S. oil and gas to shrink the trade deficit between the two countries.

Trump also said that Washington and New Delhi will be working together to confront what he called "the threat of radical Islamic terrorism.".

Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri told reporters later that New Delhi follows an elaborate process for foreign military purchases including seeking proposals from manufacturers and evaluating them.

"I don’t think with regard to the acquisition of an advanced aviation platform by India, that process has started as yet," he said when asked about the F-35 announcement by Trump. "This is currently something that’s at the stage of a proposal.".

Lockheed Martin (LMT.N) which makes the F-35 jet, said that any discussions about the sale of F-35 to India would take place at the government-to-government level.

Foreign military sales like those of the F-35 are considered government-to-government deals where the Pentagon acts as an intermediary between the defense contractor and a foreign government.

India has agreed to buy more than $20 billion of U.S. defense products since 2008. Last year, India agreed to buy 31 MQ-9B SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian drones after deliberations that lasted more than six years.

According to the U.S. Congressional Research Service, New Delhi is expected to spend more than $200 billion over the next decade to modernize its military.

Lockheed is producing three models of the new warplanes for the U.S. military and allies including Britain, Australia, Italy, Turkey, Norway, the Netherlands, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Belgium.

Russia has for decades been the main weapons supplier to India, the world’s biggest arms importer, and its fighter jets are part of India’s military fleet. But Moscow’s ability in recent years to export has been hobbled by the war in Ukraine, making New Delhi look westward.

Russia has offered to make its fifth-generation stealth fighter jet Sukhoi Su-57 in India for the Indian Air Force, a Russian and an Indian official said on Tuesday, as Moscow looks to maintain strong ties with New Delhi.

Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, Nandita Bose, Mike Stone and David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by YP Rajesh and Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Writing by Ismail Shakil; Editing by Jamie Freed.

Trump and Modi agree to make U.S. top supplier of oil, replacing Russia (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia [2/13/2025 11:31 PM, Ken Moriyasu, 1286K]
The U.S. will replace Russia as India’s biggest oil supplier under a deal reached Thursday between President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi while they also agreed for New Delhi to purchase the F-35 fighter in the future.

The world’s largest economy and the most populous country will work together to bring "greater fairness and reciprocity" to the trading relationship, Trump told reporters in a joint news conference after the meeting.

The U.S. leader pointed to America’s trade deficit with India, which reached $45.6 billion in 2024, and said they will work to make up the difference. He said it can easily be done with the sale of oil and gas.

"The prime minister and I also reached an important agreement on energy that will restore the United States as a leading supplier of oil and gas to India, hopefully their number one supplier."

India’s top oil suppliers are currently Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with the U.S. in fifth place.

Trump also announced that the U.S. will increase military sales to India "by many billions of dollars," starting this year.

"We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters," he said. The fifth generation stealth fighter has to date been offered to only 19 nations, with Turkey kicked out of the program for obtaining Russia’s S400 missile defense system. India also has the Russian air-defense system.

Modi was the second Asian leader to visit the White House in Trump’s second term, following Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba. He was the fourth guest overall, alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah II of Jordan. The visit included a stay at the official guest residence Blair House, a bilateral meeting, joint news conference and a dinner.

Modi, for his part, said that the two sides have set a target of more than doubling bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030. "Our teams will work on concluding, very soon, a mutually beneficial trade agreement. In order to ensure India’s energy security, we will focus on trade in oil and gas," he told reporters.

"We will work together to enhance peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific. The Quad will play a special role in this," he said, referring to the four-way grouping with Japan and Australia. "During the Quad summit, scheduled to be held in India this year, we will expand cooperation in new areas with our partner countries," he said.

Modi also said India will "completely support" Trump’s efforts to reduce illegal immigration.

"We are of the opinion that anybody who enters another country illegally, they have absolutely no right to be in that country," he said.

"Any verified Indian who is in the U.S. illegally, we are fully prepared to take them back to India," he said. On Feb.5, India accepted over 100 immigrants who had entered the U.S. illegally.

Trump also agreed to extradite a suspect in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack "to face justice in India."

Shortly before the meeting, Trump had announced plans for reciprocal tariffs on goods imports from trading partners, singling out India as "a very hard place to do business in, because of the tariffs" there.

"India is a critical part of our Indo-Pacific strategy," a Trump administration official told reporters on a conference call previewing the meeting Thursday. This "has been in the public domain for some time, and I expect that will continue," he said.

Modi arrived in Washington on Wednesday evening from France, where he had attended a summit on artificial intelligence. He had met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on the sidelines of that gathering.

"Some observers call India ‘the world’s ultimate swing state’ and, by many accounts, the course of the U.S.-India partnership will be a determinant of 21st century global dynamics," the Congressional Research Service wrote in a recent report.

India has long pursued a foreign policy of nonalignment, or "strategic autonomy," and has largely avoided being seen as part of specific camps. But after border clashes with China in 2020, in which at least 20 Indian soldiers died, New Delhi has deepened engagement with the West, especially through the Quad grouping with the U.S., Japan and Australia. The Quad foreign ministers met in Washington on Jan. 21, the second day of Trump’s new term.

Yet India has strong defense ties with Russia, where it has long procured a large portion of its arms from.

"We will aim to build on defense sales to India to ensure they are prioritizing the use of American technology," another Trump administration official said on Thursday’s call.

Modi Says ‘Personal Matters’ Like Adani Not Discussed With Trump (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg [2/13/2025 8:00 PM, Josh Wingrove, 21617K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declined to say if he discussed billionaire Gautam Adani’s legal challenges in the US during his meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House.

"Firstly, India is a democratic country, and our culture and our thought philosophy is, ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ which basically means that the entire world is a family," Modi said in a translated response at a joint news conference with Trump on Thursday that highlighted ties between the two nations. "Every Indian is my own family member. And when it comes to such personal matters, two leaders of two countries will not get together on the topic and discuss anything on an individual matter."

The American president made no mention of the case.

US prosecutors have charged Adani, Asia’s second-richest man, of allegedly helping arrange bribes of more than $250 million to officials in India and defraud US investors. In a five-count indictment unsealed on Nov. 20, prosecutors alleged that Adani was part of a scheme to “corruptly offer, authorize, promise to pay and to pay bribes” of hundreds of millions of dollars to government officials in India. The Adani Group has denied the allegations.

To get Adani — India’s most powerful businessman and a close ally of Modi — to appear in an American courtroom, the US would likely have to pursue extradition.

In the months since the US brought the criminal as well as civil charges against Adani, court dockets have gone quiet. Adani has been building a political influence operation in the US spanning white shoe law firms and lobbyists, looking to simultaneously deal with the legal cases and expand his business, according to people with knowledge of the effort.

He is also leaning on political relationships, with mounting signs he’s gaining clout that could help sway the White House. In India, his camp reached out to officials there before Modi’s meeting with Trump, said some of the people, who asked not to be named discussing confidential talks.

Trump says US has approved extradition of suspect in 2008 Mumbai attacks (Reuters)

Reuters [2/14/2025 12:17 AM, Kanishka Singh, 129344K]
The U.S. has approved the extradition of a suspect in the 2008 militant attacks in India’s financial capital Mumbai in which over 160 people were killed, President Donald Trump said on Thursday in a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The three-day attacks on hotels, a train station and a Jewish center in which 166 people were killed began on November 26, 2008. India says Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba orchestrated the attacks. Pakistan’s government denies being involved.

"I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and one of the very evil people of the world, having to do with the horrific 2008 Mumbai terrorist attack to face justice in India. So he is going to be going back to India to face justice," Trump told reporters at the White House.

Trump did not name the individual but media reports identified him as Pakistani-origin Chicago businessman and Canadian citizen Tahawwur Rana.

The joint India-U.S. statement also called on India’s neighbor Pakistan to bring to justice those accused of extremist attacks against India and prevent its territory from being used for extremism. Pakistan’s government denies supporting extremist activities.

Late last month, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Rana’s review petition against his extradition.

Rana was previously sentenced to U.S. federal prison for providing support to the Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Trump was also asked in the press conference about Sikh separatists in the United States, whom India calls security threats. Sikh separatists demand an independent homeland known as Khalistan to be carved out of India.

Trump did not respond directly to the question but said India and the U.S. worked together on crime.

Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the U.S. and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in U.S.-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer in a foiled U.S. plot. India says it is probing U.S. allegations.

Trump, India’s Modi avoid discussing minorities, rights in meeting (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 10:34 PM, Kanishka Singh and Nandita Bose, 48128K]
U.S. President Donald Trump and India’s Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed issues ranging from weapons sales to trade when they met in Washington on Thursday but in public remarks avoided the sensitive subjects of human rights and minority abuses.

Concerns over India’s human rights track record have taken a bipartisan backseat in Washington in recent years as India gained clout by boosting its U.S. trade and emerging as a partner in countering China, experts say, noting Trump’s second presidency will continue that trend.

The leaders’ formal remarks as they met at the White House and then spoke at a joint press conference made no mention of rights issues, and neither did their online statements.

"Trump is unlikely to take a position on rights issues in India. And that’s largely because his foreign policy is staunchly interests-based, affording little space for values-based considerations such as human rights abroad," said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center think-tank.

While former President Joe Biden also maintained strong India ties, his top diplomat Antony Blinken occasionally condemned minority abuses.

State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom have noted abuses in India in recent years. New Delhi calls them "deeply biased.".

SIMILAR PERSONALITIES

Chietigj Bajpaee, senior research fellow at the Chatham House think-tank, called Modi and Trump "strongman" leaders with shared perceptions. Kugelman said their similarities, including on their approach to human rights, strengthen their chemistry.

Rights groups have over the years criticized both Trump and Modi’s records.

Trump has stopped U.S. engagement with the U.N. Human Rights Council and his plan to take over Gaza is called a proposal of ethnic cleansing by rights experts. He has also dismantled U.S. diversity, equity and inclusion programs aimed at uplifting marginalized groups.

Trump says he is advancing U.S. interests and calls DEI discriminatory.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch fault Modi’s government over its treatment of minorities.

They point to rising hate speeches, a religion-based citizenship law the U.N. calls "fundamentally discriminatory," anti-conversion legislation that challenge freedom of belief, the removal of Muslim-majority Kashmir’s special status and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.

Modi denies discrimination and says his policies, like food subsidy schemes and electrification drives, benefit everyone.

Immigration was a topic of discussion on Thursday. Trump has prioritized handling illegal immigration while India advocates for U.S. visas for skilled professionals. Indians account for the bulk of H-1B visas, which Trump backs.

In the press conference on Thursday, Modi urged dialogue to eradicate human trafficking that he blamed for illegal immigration. He said India was "fully prepared" to take back any verified Indian who was in the U.S. illegally.

Separately, since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists has emerged as a wrinkle in U.S.-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer in a foiled U.S. plot.

Kugelman noted that given his nationalist politics, "it’s hard to imagine Trump pushing for (the case) to be halted.".

India labels Sikh separatists, including in the U.S., as security threats. When asked, Trump did not comment directly but said the U.S. and India worked together on crime, citing the approval of the extradition to India of a man accused of involvement in the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed dozens.

India’s Modi talks space and ‘good governance’ with Musk in Washington (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 6:12 PM, Kanjyik Ghosh, 48128K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Tesla (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk on Thursday in Washington where they discussed issues including space, mobility, technology and innovation, Modi said on X.

"Their discussion also touched on opportunities to deepen cooperation in emerging technologies, entrepreneurship and good governance," India’s foreign ministry said separately in a statement.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Modi was slated to meet Musk, CEO and founder of SpaceX, during his trip this week to the United States, and Starlink’s entry in the South Asian market could come up for discussion.

SpaceX’s Starlink has long wanted to launch in India and has in recent months clashed with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s company over how the country should grant spectrum for satellite services. India’s government has sided with Musk that spectrum should be assigned and not auctioned, but Starlink’s license application is still under review.

India’s looming decision on U.S.-based Starlink has shaken the country’s domestic satellite internet sector and made its regulatory strategy on space-based communications a key issue in the country’s push to stimulate commercial space activities and become a competitive force in the global space race.

Musk, a "special government employee" helming a disruptive effort to rid federal agencies of excessive spending, often serves as a key link between heads of state and SpaceX, which has dominated the global space industry with its vast Starlink network and its Falcon 9 launches that much of the Western world uses for space access.

Big decisions on technology and space matters have followed state visits by Modi in the past. India in 2023 signed the U.S. Artemis Accords - a set of guidelines for modern space and moon activities - following meetings in Washington between Modi and former U.S. president Joe Biden.

Modi is also expected to meet U.S. President Donald Trump during his two-day U.S. visit, with discussions on trade and tariff concessions expected to be high on the agenda. He is, however, unlikely to meet other business CEOs during the trip, sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

Musk’s meeting with Modi drew the ire of some Democrats who say the billionaire executive’s influential role in the Trump administration poses conflicts of interest.

"Musk is effectively operating as the Secretary of State, and he is meeting with a key foreign leader not to ask for concessions that would benefit Americans, but for concessions that would make him rich," Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said of Musk’s Modi talks in a post on X.

Given Musk’s many powerful roles, it was unclear in what capacity he held his meeting with Modi.

"I would imagine he met possibly, because you know he’s running a company," Trump told reporters on Thursday.

Asked if Modi was meeting with Musk as a CEO or a representative of the U.S. government, Trump said: "Well, he’s meeting with me in a little while, so I’m going to ask him that question.".

India imposes direct rule on its restive Manipur state (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 10:00 AM, Sarita Chaganti Singh, 48128K]
The Indian federal government took over direct control of the restive northeastern state of Manipur on Thursday after the region’s chief minister resigned amid ethnic violence that has killed at least 250 people over two years and displaced thousands.

One of India’s smallest states, Manipur has seen intense clashes between its majority Meitei and minority Kuki community since 2023, when a court suggested that economic benefits and job quotas granted to Kukis also be extended to Meiteis.

The imposition of so-called president’s rule on an Indian state means it will be governed directly by the federal government through the federally-appointed governor.

Manipur’s current governor, Ajay Kumar Bhalla, is a former interior ministry bureaucrat.

In the notification issued by India’s interior ministry, President Droupadi Murmu stated that the decision was made on the basis of a report from the Manipur governor and other information received regarding the matter.

"I am satisfied that a situation has arisen in which the Government of that State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution," she stated.

Manipur’s Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a Meitei leader and a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), resigned last week but was asked by the governor to continue until alternative arrangements were made.

He had been under pressure from opposition groups and his own allies to step down.

The National People’s Party, a key BJP ally in the state, had also withdrawn from the ruling coalition in November citing Singh’s failure to resolve the crisis, but local media reported on Wednesday that it had returned to the fold.

Modi’s government has blamed the sectarian violence partly on an influx of refugees from Myanmar, which borders Manipur, and Singh said in December that he believed normalcy would return to the region in 2025.

Around 16% of Manipur’s 3.2 million population belongs to the Meitei community, which controls the more prosperous lowlands, while around 16% are Kukis, who live in the hills.

NSB

Older women in Nepal are learning how to read and write (AP)

AP [2/13/2025 10:34 PM, Niranjan Shrestha, 456K]
Sushila Gautam, 77, checks her smartwatch, a gift from her son living in the United States, to see if she should leave for her reading and writing lessons.

“At home, I get bored when my son and daughter-in-law go to work and grandchildren are at school. I want something to do,” she says with a smile.

When Sushila was young, girls in her village weren’t sent to school.

For about a year now, she has been going for free lessons near her home on the outskirts of Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, at the Ujyalo Community Learning Center. The center was set up three years ago by the local council to provide basic education to women like her.

“Now, I finally have the chance,” says Sushila.

She can now read signs in English and Nepalese, is able to check her heart rate on a smartwatch, and use a smartphone. But the skill she is most proud of is her ability to sign her name on official documents. Previously, she had to put thumbprints.

Bimala Maharjan Bhandari, who runs the center, says she had difficulties at first to convince women to join.

“I had to tell them that being able to read phone messages, product labels and signing documents can benefit the whole family,” Bhandari said.

Slowly, by quietly persevering, she was able to persuade the women and their families. The center has made more than 200 women literate in its first three years.

Women sit at desks reading aloud from their Nepali language textbooks, following their instructor. Some write down simple sentences in their notebooks. During a break, they file out of the classroom to play soccer on a small hard court.

Bhandari believes that the center encourages friendship and physical well-being among the learners, creating a supportive environment for personal and collective growth.

Among the older students is 88-year-old Thuli Thapa Magar, who has spent her entire life as a homemaker. She, like Sushila, never went to school and was illiterate before joining the center.

She is proud of the fact that she is finally learning.

Sri Lanka’s cenbank sees inflation peak above target in Q2 next year (Reuters)

Reuters [2/14/2025 3:56 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe and Chris Thomas, 63029K]
Sri Lanka’s headline inflation is expected to peak around 2 percentage points above the central bank’s target in the second quarter of 2026, the bank said in a monetary policy report on Friday.

The comments come after the Central Bank of Sri Lanka took advantage of a steep decline in inflation to slash policy rates by 125 bps last year, as the island nation focuses on a robust rebound from a severe financial crisis.

"While headline inflation may edge above the target between late 2025 and mid-2026, projections indicate that this deviation will be short-lived," the bank said in its report.

It attributed the increase to an unfavourable base effect, a faster increase in global food inflation and demand pressures.

Sri Lanka’s inflation stood at minus 4% in January, having tumbled from a peak of 70% in September 2022, mainly due to a reduction of a fifth in power tariffs.

It is expected to accelerate and approach the central bank’s target of 5% in the third quarter of 2025 and rise further afterwards, the bank said.

Economic growth in the final quarter of fiscal 2024 is expected to be robust, driven by healthy industry activity, the bank said, with annual growth projected at about 5%. The economy contracted 2.3% in 2023.

In his first full-year budget on Monday, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will lay out the government’s revenue and policy goals, as it seeks to extend the crisis recovery, and signal alignment with a $2.9-billion IMF bailout program.

A severe drain in dollar reserves plunged the Indian Ocean island into turmoil three years ago, sent inflation soaring, depreciating the currency and forcing a $25-billion foreign debt default.

The central bank report also projected a marginal current account deficit for 2025, mainly driven by an anticipated higher trade deficit, as vehicle imports resume.

Why is Sri Lanka’s budget key to recovery from a severe financial crisis? (Reuters)

Reuters [2/14/2025 1:05 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 63029K]
Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will present his first budget on Monday to outline how the island nation plans to strengthen its recovery from a financial crisis.

The budget is seen as crucial for Dissanayake’s attempts to cement a sustainable economic recovery after Sri Lanka plunged into its worst financial crisis in decades three years ago, sending inflation soaring, its currency into freefall, and forcing it to default on $25 billion of debt.

ELECTION PROMISES

Dissanayake swept into power last year promising income tax cuts, more welfare, and support to local businesses hardest hit by the crisis.

But he now faces the challenge of balancing those pledges with fiscal targets set under a $2.9 billion, four-year International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout program, which is at the core of Sri Lanka’s recovery.

IMF TARGETS

Under its agreement with the IMF, Sri Lanka has to trim its budget deficit to 5.2% in 2025 from a target of 7.6% last year, increase public revenue, and post a primary surplus of 2.3% of GDP to stay within the global lender’s requirements.

The government is widely expected to miss the 2024 budget deficit target, largely due to sluggish economic activity and restrictions on high taxable imports such as cars.

Sri Lanka will likely have to impose fresh taxes and realign expenditures to increase its public revenue from the 13.1% of GDP target for 2024 to 15.1% of GDP set by the IMF for 2025, analysts said.

Sri Lanka is awaiting approval from the IMF’s executive board to release about $333 million as the fourth tranche of the IMF bailout, which is contingent on the budget.

Sri Lanka’s economy is expected to have grown by 5% in 2024, according to the latest central bank data, after contracting 2.3% in 2023. The World Bank estimates Sri Lanka will grow 3.5% this year.

BUDGET IMPACTS

Investors will also be looking for any plans on how to attract more foreign investment as the government tries to rebuild its reserves.

Despite the faster than expected recovery, Sri Lanka’s growth is expected to remain modest in the next two years as the island struggles to emerge from the scarring effects of the crisis and build reserves to be ready for debt repayments.

Poverty is expected to remain above 20% until 2026, according to World Bank estimates.

Dissanayake’s government has outlined plans to hold island-wide provincial council and local government elections this year.

Central Asia

Kyrgyzstan Promotes ‘Traditional Names’ Amid New De-Russification Drive (Radio Free Europe)

Radio Free Europe [2/13/2025 7:13 PM, Farangis Najibullah, 235K]
Journalist-turned-politician Nurlanbek Turgunbekovich Shakiev has been a household name in Kyrgyzstan for more than two decades.

The speaker of parliament recently announced that he had legally changed his last name to Turgunbek uuly, abandoning his Russified patronymic and surname.

"I did not come to this decision overnight. It has been a longstanding dream of mine," Turgunbek uuly wrote in a Facebook post in which he stressed the importance of national identity, language, religion, and traditions.

On February 6, Kyrgyzstan’s parliament adopted a bill promoting traditional Kyrgyz last names and "expanding the choice of surnames in line with Kyrgyz customs and cultural characteristics," according to its authors.

Styling surnames in line with national tradition became a popular trend in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

The enthusiasm faded, however, as a widespread poverty in the region forced millions of Central Asians to migrate to Russia in search of work. Several migrants workers who spoke to RFE/RL said it was easier to then adopt Russified surnames.

The trend is making a comeback again, though, with some experts linking it to the changing mood following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which many in the region oppose.

What Has Changed?

In the early 2000s, tens of thousands of Kyrgyz changed their last names, removing the Russian suffixes of -ov/-ev and -ova/eva for men and women, respectively, in favor or the Kyrgyz endings -uuly and -kyzy.

The new Kyrgyz bill offers multiple versions of patronymics and surnames styled in line with national customs, such as the unisex ending of -tegi, or the -din and -den suffixes for men’s and women’s last names, respectively.

The bill also says Kyrgyz citizens are free to choose Russified last names, should they prefer. Members of various ethnic groups are free to style their names according to their own national traditions.

‘Pure Tajik’

Tajikistan is the only country in Central Asia that has officially banned Russian-style last names in 2016.

Dushanbe has also ordered its citizens to give their children "pure" Tajik first names, with the government even issuing a catalog of recommended first names for babies. The move has been widely seen as an effort to combat the growing popularity of Arabic and Islamic names.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon changed his Russified last name in 2007, the only head of state in Central Asia to do so.

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan adopted new laws in the mid-1990s allowing their citizens to style their names according to national tradition.

Most Uzbeks kept their Russified surnames, while in Kazakhstan traditional last names have gained popularity, especially among the cultural elite and the younger generations.

Tightly controlled Turkmenistan has so far largely maintained Russified last names.

There is also a renewed drive in Central Asia to change the Soviet-era names of cities, villages, streets, and schools.

Kazakhstan has adopted a "roadmap" for 2022-25 for replacing what the authorities call the "ideologically obsolete" names of geographical locations.

Such campaigns do not sit will with Moscow, which still holds a significant sway over the region.

In November 2022, Russian lawmakers fiercely condemned an initiative in Kyrgyzstan to rename Bishkek’s four districts that have kept their communist-era names: Lenin, Sverdlov (named after a Soviet politician), Birinchi Mai (May 1), and Octyabr (October, for the October Revolution).

Russian politicians and media described it as a "call to de-Russify Bishkek" and suggested the process should be stopped "at the earliest stage."

Mixed Feelings

Alisher Ilhomov, an expert at London-based Central Asia Due Diligence, says the new wave of "returning to original names in Central Asia in recent years has been fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."

"This movement…is a symbol of our deep desire to restore our national identity, which has been under pressure for many years," said Kazakh journalist Ghaziza Uzaq, who removed the Russian -ova suffix from her surname.

But not everyone is willing to follow the suit.

"My first name is Parvona. But in line with Tajikistan’s regulations, in my passport it is spelled with the suffix -i, making it Parvonai," a Tajik student in the Russian city of Kazan told RFE/RL.

"In Russia, my professors call me Parvonai, and I have to explain to everyone that I am Parvona. I’ll change my name to make my life easier in Russia," she said.

According to official figures, 323 Kyrgyz nationals dropped their Russified last names in favor of national surnames in 2024. In the same period, the number of those who changed their traditional Kyrgyz surnames to Russian-style last names exceeded 3,000, according to the Kyrgyz government figures.

Court in Tajikistan jails over 30 people for attempted mass poisoning linked to Islamic State offshoot (Reuters)

Reuters [2/14/2025 4:54 AM, Nazarali Pirnazarov, 63029K]
A court in Tajikistan has handed down prison sentences of between eight and 20 years to more than 30 people it convicted of trying to poison attendees of a festival last year, the prosecutor general’s office said on Friday.

A source in the Tajik security services told Reuters the convicted people were all tied to Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the Afghan offshoot of Islamic State.

Islamic State, the militant group that once sought control over swathes of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow last year which left 145 people dead.

Tajik prosecutors said the defendants had attempted to poison food served to attendees of a Nowruz, or New Year, festival last March in Vahdat, a small city east of the capital Dushanbe.

Ten more people are wanted for the crime, the head of the department for combating terrorism and extremism in the attorney general’s office, Jumanazar Sayidakhmadzoda, told reporters. He did not say exactly how many people had been sentenced.

Tajikistan is a landlocked country of some 10 million people sandwiched between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. The majority of Tajiks are adherents of the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam.

Three militant attacks were carried out in the country in 2024 and two attacks were thwarted, the foreign minister said this week.

Earlier this month, nine prisoners who had been convicted over links to Islamic State and the Jihadi Salafi movement assaulted guards at a prison in Vahdat in an escape attempt, leaving five inmates dead.

Tajik court issues long jail terms for attempted murder of top Muslim cleric (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 6:30 AM, Nazarali Pirnazarov, 63029K]
A court in Tajikistan has sentenced three men to prison sentences ranging from two to 26 years for attempting to kill the Central Asian republic’s chief mufti last year, the head of the Supreme Court said on Thursday.

Sayeedmukarram Abduqodirzoda suffered minor injuries in September after a person with "hooligan motives" stabbed him following a prayer service at a mosque in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, the interior ministry said at the time.

The perpetrator of the attack, a 24-year-old student, was jailed for 26 years after being found guilty of terrorism and attempted murder, Rustam Mirzozoda, chairman of Tajikistan’s Supreme Court, told a press conference on Thursday.

Another man was given 13 years for terrorism and a third was jailed for two years for failing to report the crime.

Mirzozoda said investigators had concluded there were "signs of extremism in the crime", without specifying further.

Tajikistan is a landlocked country of some 10 million people sandwiched between Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. The majority of Tajiks are adherents of the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam.

Abduqodirzoda, 61, has served as chairman of Tajikistan’s highest Islamic institution, the Islamic Council of Ulema, since 2010. He is known for speaking out against the spread of religious extremism in his sermons, and for urging young people not to join radical groups.

The Islamic State militant group was defeated in Syria in 2019 but splinter groups including Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), the Afghan branch, have continued attacks, including a mass shooting at a concert hall near Moscow last year.

Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin told reporters on Thursday the situation at the 843-mile-long (1,350 km) border with Afghanistan was "under control" and the frontier "heavily guarded" by border guards and Interior Ministry officers.

He said three militant attacks had been committed in Tajikistan in 2024, all in the southeastern city of Kulob, and two attacks had been thwarted.

Earlier this month, nine prisoners who had been convicted over links to Islamic State and the Jihadi Salafi movement assaulted guards at a prison outside Dushanbe in an escape attempt, leaving five inmates dead.

Tajikistan aspires to be an AI development hub (EurasiaNet)

EurasiaNet [2/13/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
Tajikistan’s minister of industry and innovation has made a bold prediction that the Central Asian nation is going to become a global leader of artificial intelligence (AI) and microchip development. He clearly must have been wearing a virtual reality headset when making the pronouncement, given the existing state of Tajikistan’s IT sector and educational base.

“The fifth industrial revolution will begin right here, in Tajikistan. We have not only natural resources, but also a strategic vision for the development of artificial intelligence,” the minister, Sherali Kabir, told journalists in Dushanbe recently. He based the prediction on the fact that Tajikistan possesses lots of elements, rare earths and minerals needed by the IT industry. He also claimed that leading Western entities, such as Nvidia and OpenAI, have expressed interest in doing business with Tajikistan.

Kabir’s prediction seems only thinly rooted in reality, and raises questions about governmental capacity. Tajikistan has long been ranked as having one of world’s most corrupt political and economic systems, and the country presently lacks an IT base. Dushanbe likewise lacks a track record for innovation.

A recent report that tracks global innovation trends, World Intellectual Property Indicators 2024, found that not a single application for a patent was filed in Tajikistan in 2023 (the last year covered by the report).

The Tajik education system also has substantial shortcomings, according to a recent World Bank brief.

"A considerable share of firms in Tajikistan identified an inadequately educated workforce as a significant constraint to meeting local and regional market demands," the bank brief stated. "The lack of skills is mainly due to outdated learning environments in universities, including curricular, staff’s skills, equipment, and technologies."

Problems are systemic, stretching from elementary school to higher education. A separate World Bank assessment shows that only 55 percent of Tajik second graders and just 41 percent of fourth graders are meeting minimum reading standards.

"Poor learning outcomes are evident starting in the early grades," the bank assessment states.

Indo-Pacific

Trump nominates S. Paul Kapur to head US South Asia Bureau (The American Bazaar)

The American Bazaar [2/13/2025 4:14 PM, Arun Kumar]
President Donald Trump has nominated S. Paul Kapur, an expert on India-Pakistan security, to be Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs looking after diplomatic ties with India and the region.

If confirmed by the Senate, Kapur will be the second U.S. diplomat of Indian descent after Nisha Desai Biswal, who served as Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs under President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017, to oversee U.S. relations with the region.

An expert in South Asian politics and security, international relations, Kapur is currently a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval Postgraduate School. Kapur also directs a United States-India Track 1.5 strategic dialogue, as well as other U.S.-India engagements, for the Department of Defense.

He is also a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. From 2020-2021, Kapur served on the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, working on issues related to South and Central Asia, Indo-Pacific strategy, and U.S.-India relations.

Previously, he taught at Claremont McKenna College, and was a visiting professor at Stanford University. Kapur is author of Jihad as Grand Strategy: Islamist Militancy, National Security, and the Pakistani State; Dangerous Deterrent: Nuclear Weapons Proliferation and Conflict in South Asia; co-author of India, Pakistan, and the Bomb: Debating Nuclear Stability in South Asia; and co-editor of The Challenges of Nuclear Security: U.S. and Indian Perspectives.

His work has appeared in leading academic journals such as International Security, Security Studies, Asian Survey, and Washington Quarterly; in outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the National Interest, and RealClearPolicy; and in a wide variety of edited volumes.

He received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and his B.A. from Amherst College.

At the core of Kapur’s approach is a belief that South Asia’s security dynamics are deeply interconnected—Pakistan’s militant strategies fuel instability, India’s responses shape deterrence, and nuclear weapons complicate crisis management.

His leadership at the State Department’s South Asia desk suggests a policy direction that will be critical of Pakistan, supportive of India, and mindful of the complexities that make regional stability so elusive, according to experts.

U.S. Deports Migrants From Asia to Panama (New York Times)

New York Times [2/13/2025 10:36 AM, Hameed Aleaziz, Annie Correal, Maria Abi-Habib, and Julie Turkewitz, 6595K]
The Trump administration deported migrants from several Asian nations to Panama on Wednesday night, Panamanian and U.S. officials said, in a move that could signal much faster removals of immigrants who have remained in the United States because their countries have made it difficult to return them.

The flight carrying the migrants, a military plane that took off from California, appears to be the first of its kind during the Trump administration. It came on the heels of Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit last week to Panama, which has been under tremendous pressure from President Donald Trump over how it runs the Panama Canal.

The more than 100 migrants on the flight, including families, had entered the United States illegally from countries such as Afghanistan, China, Pakistan and Uzbekistan. It is often difficult for the United States to return migrants to those nations.

President José Raúl Mulino of Panama, speaking at a news conference Thursday morning, said 119 people of "the most diverse nationalities in the world" had arrived the night before on a U.S. Air Force flight at an airport outside Panama City.

Mulino said they were being housed in a local hotel and would be moved to a shelter in Darién, a province in Panama’s east, a process managed by the International Organization for Migration. From there, he said, they would be repatriated.

"We hope to get them out of there as soon as possible on flights from the United States," Mulino said, adding, "This is another contribution Panama is making on the migration issue.".

The flight could herald a new front in Trump’s efforts to conduct a mass removal of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally, and it shows the willingness of at least some Latin American countries, under intense diplomatic pressure, to assist him. But it also raises questions about what will happen to migrants as they are shunted to another country where they may be unfamiliar with the language or culture.

The Panamanian government announced a proposal this week to send some newly arrived migrants to a small town at the end of the Darién Gap, a dangerous jungle in southern Panama, and then repatriate them "by air or sea to their countries of origin.".

Responding to reporters’ questions Thursday, Mulino said two more U.S. Air Force flights were expected to bring a total of about 360 deported migrants to Panama. He said he expected they would quickly be flown to their countries of origin from Darién in an effort that would be paid for entirely by the United States. Mulino did not give a timeline for when the other flights were scheduled to arrive.

In a statement on Thursday, the International Organization for Migration said it was providing support to the recently arrived migrants at the request of Panamanian authorities. It noted that it was working with local officials to assist the migrants, including “supporting returns to their home countries or safe alternatives.”

Migration at the southern U.S. border has shifted in recent years to include not just people coming from Mexico and Central America but also those from a wider range of countries, including ones that either do not accept deportation flights or take them sparingly.

The Trump administration has already received promises from El Salvador and Guatemala to accept migrants of other nationalities. Administration officials have indicated they are discussing similar deals with other countries.

But critics have noted that the United States could be sending migrants into more dangerous conditions. El Salvador, for example, has been accused of widespread human rights violations in its detentions, and Guatemala has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the world.

After meeting with Mr. Rubio this month, Mr. Mulino had also indicated a willingness to receive deportees from other countries. (Panama does not send large numbers of migrants to the United States, as Mr. Mulino noted.)

“We are completely certain that reverse immigrants will come at some point — that is, they will be sent back either along the same route or because the United States will bring them back to deport them from here,” Mr. Mulino said.

The government in Panama has been under greater pressure than other Latin American countries to show it is on board with Mr. Trump’s priorities for the region, including curbing China’s influence and controlling illegal migration. Mr. Trump has focused on what he sees as China’s role in the Panama Canal and threatened that the United States would retake control of it.

Mr. Mulino, who has sought to align himself with Mr. Trump on migration, made assurances that he would address the role of China in Panama after his meeting with Mr. Rubio. He also emphasized a 94 percent reduction over the past year in migration at the Darién Gap, where hundreds of thousands of migrants had been entering the country from Colombia on their way north to the U.S. border.

US deports to Panama nearly 120 migrants of different nationalities (Reuters)

Reuters [2/13/2025 5:51 PM, Staff, 48128K]
The United States deported 119 people of different nationalities to Panama as part of an agreement between the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump and the Central American nation, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino said on Thursday.

The first flight from the U.S., carrying people from Afghanistan, China, India, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam, arrived on Wednesday, and two more will land soon, Mulino said at a press conference. In total the U.S. will send Panama 360 people on the three flights.

Before being returned to their respective countries, the deportees will be transferred to a shelter near the Darien - the jungle separating Central America from South America which countless migrants traverse in a bid to reach the U.S.

"Through a cooperation program with the U.S. government ... yesterday (Wednesday) a U.S. Air Force flight arrived with 119 people of the most diverse nationalities in the world," Mulino said.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Earlier this month, after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mulino stressed that sovereignty over the Panama canal is not up for debate. However, he outlined the possibility of repatriating more migrants.

Mulino at that meeting also announced that a memorandum of understanding signed in July with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security could be expanded so Venezuelans, Colombians and Ecuadoreans can be returned from the perilous Darien Gap at U.S. cost, through an airstrip in Panama.

Panama deputy minister for security Luis Icaza said that thanks to bilateral collaboration between Panama and the U.S. the flow of migrants crossing the Darien was reduced by 90% in January, compared with the same month a year earlier.

Twitter

Afghanistan

Nargis Nehan
@NehanNargis
[2/13/2025 6:33 AM, 52.3K followers, 2 retweets, 29 likes]
The 1 billion USD reduction of assistance to Afghanistan from the US will quickly deteriorate the situation taking us to another phase of crises. We need to start a real dialogue among ourselves & decide whether we let our divisions continue destroying us or we can find a way for moving forward. The ball is in the court of elites of Afghanistan.

Habib Khan
@HabibKhanT
[2/13/2025 4:35 AM, 247.6K followers, 50 retweets, 192 likes]
In just three days, two suicide attacks have hit the Taliban—one today in Kabul, another on Tuesday in Kunduz—amid a wave of resistance attacks. Internal rifts, economic freefall, global pressure, and a crisis of legitimacy are pushing the regime toward inevitable downfall.

Pakistan

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 10:03 PM, 218.5K followers, 45 retweets, 216 likes]
It’s flying under the radar with everything else going on, but Erdogan’s visit to Islamabad is a boost for Pakistan’s foreign policy. Pakistan-Turkey ties are a stable and no-drama partnership-that hasn’t been the case w/other allies like China, KSA & US (an ally in name only).

Hamid Mir
@HamidMirPAK
[2/13/2025 10:47 PM, 8.6M followers, 84 retweets, 258 likes]
This order sheet of Islamabad High Court clearly stating the arguments of our lawyers who claimed that PECA law 2025 violates not only11 different articles of the constitution of Pakistan but also violates Universal Declaration of Human Rights.We demanded abolishment of this law.

India

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 11:30 PM, 105.3M followers, 1.3K retweets, 6.5K likes]
In today’s Pariksha Pe Charcha episode, Rujuta Diwekar, @foodpharmer2 and Shonali Sabherwal share nutrition tips to boost memory, stay energised and improve concentration during exams. #PPC2025

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 10:10 PM, 105.3M followers, 7.1K retweets, 42K likes]
Homage to the courageous heroes we lost in Pulwama in 2019. The coming generations will never forget their sacrifice and their unwavering dedication to the nation.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 8:25 PM, 105.3M followers, 17K retweets, 127K likes]
President Trump often talks about MAGA. In India, we are working towards a Viksit Bharat, which in American context translates into MIGA. And together, the India-USA have a MEGA partnership for prosperity! @POTUS @realDonaldTrump

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 8:23 PM, 105.3M followers, 10K retweets, 78K likes]
An excellent meeting with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump at the White House. Our talks will add significant momentum to the India-USA friendship!

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 6:12 PM, 105.3M followers, 4.5K retweets, 19K likes]
Addressing the press meet with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1vOxwXbVOmoKB

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 5:15 PM, 105.3M followers, 6.2K retweets, 30K likes]
Sharing my remarks during meeting with @POTUS @realDonaldTrump. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1nAKEgmemMgJL

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 3:23 PM, 105.3M followers, 10K retweets, 95K likes] Met Mr. @VivekGRamaswamy and his father-in-law in Washington DC. We talked about diverse issues including innovation, culture and more.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 1:06 PM, 105.3M followers, 21K retweets, 163K likes]
Had a very good meeting with @elonmusk in Washington DC. We discussed various issues, including those he is passionate about such as space, mobility, technology and innovation. I talked about India’s efforts towards reform and furthering ‘Minimum Government, Maximum Governance.’

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 1:04 PM, 105.3M followers, 28K retweets, 248K likes]
It was also a delight to meet Mr. @elonmusk’s family and to talk about a wide range of subjects!

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[2/13/2025 12:15 PM, 105.3M followers, 7.7K retweets, 57K likes]
Had a fruitful meeting with NSA @michaelgwaltz. He has always been a great friend of India. Defence, technology and security are important aspects of India-USA ties and we had a wonderful discussion around these issues. There is strong potential for cooperation in sectors like AI, semiconductors, space and more.

Rahul Gandhi
@RahulGandhi
[2/13/2025 11:11 AM, 27.6M followers, 5K retweets, 18K likes]
The imposition of President’s Rule in Manipur is a belated admission by the BJP of their complete inability to govern in Manipur. Now, PM Modi can no longer deny his direct responsibility for Manipur. Has he finally made up his mind to visit the state, and explain to the people of Manipur and India his plan to restore peace and normalcy?

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 6:48 PM, 218.5K followers, 25 retweets, 224 likes]
In his closing comments at joint press conference, Trump says he and Modi share many things in common and both want to promote peace and strength. Trump says the US relationship with Modi and India "has never been better."

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 6:41 PM, 218.5K followers, 32 retweets, 166 likes]
Key outcome from Trump-Modi summit: Trump announces that Tahawwur Rana, implicated in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is being extradited to India. Modi in a comment also condemned cross-border terrorism, a clear reference to Pakistan.Counterterrorism will likely be in joint statement.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 6:25 PM, 218.5K followers, 38 retweets, 207 likes]
Trump at press conference with Modi is asked how he would handle Khalistan supporters in the US. He declines to answer, saying he couldn’t hear and that the questioner’s accent was too strong. Too bad. I would have liked to hear his response to that question.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 5:24 PM, 218.5K followers, 3 retweets, 21 likes]
I suspect Russia/Ukraine was discussed at length by Trump & Modi, given Trump’s recent call w/Putin; similar views of Trump and Modi on the war; and both leaders said a lot about it in their exchange with the press. Will likely get a lot of space in the summit joint statement.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 5:19 PM, 218.5K followers, 154 retweets, 1.1K likes]
In the Trump-Modi presser, Trump was asked for his view on Bangladesh, and interestingly he demurred, saying “I’ll leave Bangladesh to the prime minister.”

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[2/13/2025 1:50 PM, 218.5K followers, 113 retweets, 774 likes]
Guess who Elon Musk met with today (virtually), not long before his meeting in Washington with Modi? Muhammad Yunus. They discussed bringing Starlink to Bangladesh.

Jon Danilowicz
@JonFDanilowicz
[2/13/2025 8:51 PM, 13.3K followers, 11 likes]
Looking at the ambitious agenda laid out in the U.S.-India joint statement on the Trump-Modi meeting, my question is what the impact will be of the reduction in the size and scope of the U.S. government. Presumably implementation will rely on a variety of agencies, many of which will be facing severe personnel and programmatic cuts.

Jon Danilowicz
@JonFDanilowicz
[2/13/2025 9:07 PM, 13.3K followers, 13 retweets, 64 likes]
Responding to a question in his press briefing, the Indian Foreign Secretary said PM Modi had raised concerns and shared his views about Bangladesh with President Trump. He added that India hopes the situation in Bangladesh moves forward in a way that can lead to a constructive and stable relationship. There was no specific mention of Bangladesh in the FS’ overview of the joint statement. Understandably, the FS did not share any reaction From President Trump on the topic of Bangladesh. He also did not refer to Trump’s mention of Bangladesh in the joint press availability at the top of the bilat. It is not hard to guess what concerns Modi may have shared with Trump. It is likely that Bangladesh also came up in other side meetings, including with the National Security Advisor. Over time we will see to what extent Indian concerns influence US policy towards Bangladesh, but for now nothing has changed.

Derek J. Grossman
@DerekJGrossman
[2/14/2025 2:41 AM, 96.1K followers, 16 retweets, 119 likes]
Today, Trump offered to sell India the F-35. Earlier, Russia offered to sell India the Su-57. If it can afford and wants them, then India might become the only country in the world to have both.

Dhruva Jaishankar
@d_jaishankar
[2/13/2025 10:31 PM, 108.3K followers, 9 retweets, 18 likes]
A few items that stand out in the U.S.-India joint statement just concluded by Trump and Modi:
- Autonomous Systems Industry Alliance
- Indian investments in the U.S.
- Indian Ocean Strategic Venture
- A possible secure mobility framework

NSB

Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh
@ChiefAdviserGoB
[2/13/2025 1:55 PM, 81.5K followers, 196 retweets, 1.1K likes]
Bangladesh Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on Thursday held an extensive video discussion with @elonmusk, the owner of SpaceX, Tesla, and X, to explore future collaboration and to make further progress to introduce Starlink satellite internet service in Bangladesh.

Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh
@ChiefAdviserGoB
[2/13/2025 10:52 AM, 81.5K followers, 24 retweets, 306 likes]
Chief Adviser Professor Yunus on Thursday joined a community engagement programme with expatriate Bangladeshis in Dubai, UAE.

Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh
@ChiefAdviserGoB
[2/13/2025 4:58 AM, 81.5K followers, 34 retweets, 359 likes]
Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus joined the plenary session of the Governments Summit-2025, moderated by Becky Anderson of CNN, at the WGS Conference Venue, Dubai, on Wednesday, February 13, 2025.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[2/13/2025 6:22 AM, 101K followers, 2 retweets, 17 likes] At #WGS25 Bhutan also participated in the Future of Tourism Roundtable, where I shared Bhutan’s “High Value, Low Volume” tourism policy, emphasizing sustainability, community benefits, and immersive experiences.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[2/13/2025 6:22 AM, 101K followers, 6 likes]
I highlighted that our people are at the heart of tourism, ensuring visitors gain meaningful experiences while local communities thrive. I also shared that visiting Bhutan is a journey of inner discovery that aligns tourism with long-term well-being for visitors and our nation.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[2/13/2025 6:16 AM, 101K followers, 1 retweet, 11 likes]
Yesterday on the 2nd day of the @WorldGovSummit, I had the privilege of speaking on Longevity and Well-being, emphasizing Bhutan’s commitment to holistic development, sustainable living, and policies that prioritize human well-being.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[2/13/2025 6:16 AM, 101K followers, 5 likes]
I shared our approach of integrating traditional wisdom with modern advancements to foster a balanced and fulfilling way of life.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[2/13/2025 1:38 PM, 112.1K followers, 90 retweets, 87 likes]
Vice President His Excellency Uz @HucenSembe attends the Plenary session - Global Government Award Excellence held at the World Governments Summit 2025. During the session, the awards for Best Minister of the World and the Global Teacher Prize of the World Governments Summit were presented.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[2/13/2025 6:26 AM, 112.1K followers, 115 retweets, 117 likes]
Vice President His Excellency Uz @HucenSembe attends the Climate Change Forum on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit 2025. The Vice President delivered a keynote at the Forum, highlighting the challenges the Maldives faces due to climate change and ways to mitigate climate issues globally through cooperative efforts,

Namal Rajapaksa
@RajapaksaNamal
[2/13/2025 1:55 AM, 436.8K followers, 3 retweets, 15 likes]
It was a pleasure welcoming U.S. Ambassador Julie Chung @USAmbSL to the #SLPP Headquarters today. We engaged in discussions of mutual interest and reaffirmed SLPP’s dedication to strengthening the bilateral relationship between the U.S. and Sri Lanka. We commend the non-interference foreign policy policy upheld by U.S. President @realDonaldTrump and his call for greater transparency in the use of taxpayer funds. Additionally, we briefed Ambassador Chung on SLPP’s proposal for a Parliamentary Select Committee to investigate the use of USAID funds by both registered and unregistered NGOs in Sri Lanka, with a focus on ensuring transparency in the allocation of U.S. taxpayer resources. The SLPP looks forward to collaborating closely with the new U.S. administration for the mutual benefit of both nations. #SLPP #USSriLankaRelations #Transparency #BilateralTies

Central Asia

MFA Kazakhstan
@MFA_KZ
[2/13/2025 10:26 AM, 57.1K followers, 2 retweets, 9 likes]
Kazakh Foreign Minister Received the Ambassador of Iran https://gov.kz/memleket/entit

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[2/13/2025 12:32 AM, 211.9K followers, 3 retweets, 19 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on the development of the #Olympic and #Paralympic movement, the expansion of mass sports, and the promotion of physical activity among the population. Government initiatives have played a key role in #Uzbekistan’s Olympic achievements, with new plans focusing on enhanced training programs, the establishment of regional branches of the @Olympicuz, and the organization of competitions to encourage young athletes. The development of Paralympic sports will be supported through specialized schools, improved selection processes, and systematic athlete monitoring.

{End of Report}

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