SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Tuesday, January 14, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Biden pokes Putin, defends Afghanistan withdrawal in State Dept. address (USA Today)
USA Today [1/13/2025 4:59 PM, Francesca Chambers, 89965K, Neutral]
President Joe Biden argued in a farewell foreign policy address that he made the country stronger and more secure by revitalizing America’s global relationships in the face of active conflicts that began during his tenure and remain unresolved.
When he came into office four years ago, Biden said, U.S. partnerships were under strain. The U.S. was falling behind China, he said, and had troops on the ground in Afghanistan as it struggled to extricate itself from its longest-ever war.
"Compared to four years ago, America is stronger," he declared at the State Department. "Our alliances are stronger, our adversaries and competitors are weaker. We have not gone to war to make these things happen.".
The remarks were the first of several legacy-shaping speeches that Biden will deliver as he prepares to hand over control of the White House to President-elect Donald Trump, a populist whose platform includes making America’s allies pay more for their defense.
Trump has signaled plans to shift the U.S. away from relying on multilateral groupings like NATO that Biden embraced in favor of a national security agenda that, he says, puts America first.
Biden leaves office in a period of global turbulence, with the Israel-Hamas war ongoing; Syria under rebel leadership after its dictator, Bashar al-Assad, was suddenly ousted; and a civil war raging in Sudan.
The exiting president made the case that strong American leadership during his administration led to the isolation of Russia after its leader, President Vladimir Putin, launched an unprovoked assault on Ukraine that threatened to become a war between the world’s two greatest nuclear powers.
"When Putin invaded Ukraine, he thought he’d conquer Kyiv in a matter of days," Biden said. "The truth is, since that war began, I’m the only one that’s stood in the center of Kyiv − not him.".
Biden’s administration organized a 50-nation coalition to counter Putin, he said, and most members of NATO are now spending 2% of their gross domestic product on defense.
"Our alliances are stronger than they’ve been in decades. NATO is more capable than it’s ever been," Biden said.
Biden said his administration also deserves credit for pulling together alliances such as AUKUS, with Australia and the UK, elevating the Quad, which is made up of Australia, India, Japan alongside the United States, and helping to resolve differences between South Korea and Japan.
The U.S. also armed and stood with Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks and formed a coalition of more than 20 countries to counter Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea.
Iran’s air defenses are in "shambles," their economy is "desperate straits, and their main proxy, Hezbollah, "is badly wounded," he said. "There’s no question, our actions contributed significantly.".
A hostage deal and ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has proven elusive, but the administration says it is doing everything in its power ahead of Trump’s inauguration to get one done.
Some 100 hostages are still in captivity, including seven Americans, three of whom the administration believes are no longer alive.
Biden stands by declaration that America’s back
Biden’s predecessor − and now successor − had pitched himself as an outsider. Biden put himself as a statesman who was inherently qualified as a 36-year veteran of the Senate and onetime chair of its Foreign Relations Committee, to put the country back on course.
In a speech at the State Department at the beginning of his term, Biden made a declaration that would become a hallmark of his time in office: "I want the world to hear today: America is back. America is back. Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy," he said.
He said Monday, as he reflected on his legacy, that he had strengthened the country’s alliances, weakened its enemies and competitors, and kept the U.S. from putting boots on the ground in new wars.
"My administration is leaving the next administration with a very strong hand to play, and we’re leaving them an America with more friends and stronger alliances, whose adversaries are weak and under pressure, an America that once again is leading, uniting countries, setting the agenda, bringing others together behind our plans and visions," Biden said.
Biden was accompanied at the speech by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield and national security adviser Jake Sullivan, all of whom served Biden for the entirety of his term.
At a briefing for reporters ahead of Monday’s speech, Sullivan said he does not believe Biden’s foreign policy was the reason voters chose Trump over outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who stepped in as the Democratic nominee after Biden ended his reelection bid.
Sullivan said the administration was working to put the incoming administration in the "best possible position" when it comes to the health of its alliances and its capacity to defend itself and its allies.
"What they do with that is fundamentally up to them. And then the American people will judge whether they like that or don’t like that. We are just going to do the best we can," he said.
Biden in his speech urged the incoming Trump administration not to halt the transition his administration started toward clean energy.
"I know some in the incoming administration are skeptical about the need for clean energy. They don’t even believe climate change is real. I think they come from a different century. They’re wrong," he said. "They are dead wrong. It’s the single greatest existential threat to humanity.".
Biden also spoke about efforts to position the U.S. as a leader in the technology revolution and artificial intelligence.
One area in which Biden was on the defense, was his 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which Trump and many Republicans say showed weakness and provided an opening for Russia to invade Ukraine a little more than six months later.
"When they saw that, they said these guys are incompetent, they don’t know what they’re doing. But we know what we’re doing now, and that’s going to all end," Trump said at a Jan. 7 news conference.
In the withdrawal, which was negotiated by the Trump administration and executed by the Biden administration, 13 Americans died during a terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport.
Biden said he grieves for the service members whose lives were lost during the withdrawal. "Ending the war was the right thing to do, and I believe history will reflect that," Biden said. Afghanistan Gold Star families tear into Biden for being ‘proud’ of deadly exit: ‘He is Satan to me’ (Daily Mail)
Daily Mail [1/13/2025 6:30 PM, Nikki Schwab and Kelly Laco, 63029K, Negative]
Members of Gold Star families tore into President Joe Biden after a speech Monday where he claimed that history would judge his messy withdrawal from Afghanistan kindly. Biden gave a closing foreign policy address from the State Department alongside Secretary of State Antony Blinken with just one week to go in his term. He gave a glowing review of the August 2021 chaotic pullout from Afghanistan - which killed 13 U.S. troops by an ISIS-K suicide bomber - calling it ‘the right thing to do.’Critics - including President-elect Donald Trump - said it emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine six months later.
‘There is nothing - I can tell you from my conversations with both Xi and Putin - nothing that our adversaries and competitors - like Russia and China - would like more than seeing us continue to be tied down in Afghanistan for another decade,’ he said. ‘For all those reasons, ending the war was the right thing to do.’
‘And I believe history will reflect that,’ the president argued. Darin Hoover, whose son Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover was killed on August 26, 2021 when a suicide bomber attacked the crowd gathered outside Kabul Airport, disagreed with the Democratic president. Taylor Hoover was among the 13 service members who died in the Kabul Airport attack, part of the U.S.’s chaotic exit from the 20-year war.
‘It blows my mind that he is taking credit for ending the war and being proud of it!!!’ Darin Hoover said in a statement to DailyMail.com. ‘WE LOST OUR KIDS for him to think that history will reflect him as this great human being when he is Satan to me.’Hoover said that Biden was ‘100 percent incompetent’ for the way the withdrawal was done.
‘He’s a disgusting man who holds ZERO integrity or any respect in my mind and has no idea how it feels to be in our shoes, especially when the withdrawal happened the way it did,’ Hoover also said. ‘There was NO need for it to happen that way.’Christy Shamblin, the Virginia Gold Star mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee - who also died in the blast - was also not impressed.
‘So sad. Disappointed to see the same head in the sand mentality,’ she told DailyMail.com in a statement. ‘Terrorist attacks are happening. It has absolutely taken Afghanistan back to Taliban rule and armed terrorist groups. Claiming success no one else can see.’
‘He should have said NOTHING,’ Shamblin said.
‘We need problem solving for our national security not hiding behind Ukraine relief and railroads in Africa,’ the Gold Star mother-in-law also said. With Biden canceling a trip to Rome last week that would have marked his final trek abroad, his final trip was his December trip to Angola where he toured a U.S.-financed train line. With the speech Monday, Biden wanted to express that America’s top enemies - namely Russia and Iran - were weakened during four years of the Democrat’s foreign policy. When discussing Russia, Biden indeed brought up successes in keeping Putin out of Kyiv. The president also said that the Afghanistan withdrawal didn’t have the negative impact that some predicted.
‘Remember critics said if we ended the war it would damage our alliances and create threats to our homeland of foreign-directed terrorism out of a safe haven in Afghanistan,’ Biden said. ‘Neither has occurred.’ The New Orleans New Year’s Day terror attack perpetrator was inspired by ISIS - not Al Qaeda, bin Laden’s group that operated out of Afghanistan and was behind 9/11. The war in Afghanistan started after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The pullout occurred in August 2021 - ahead of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. Wife of American held hostage in Afghanistan reveals ‘incredibly crushing’ call with Biden after two-year wait (FOX News)
FOX News [1/13/2025 11:00 AM, Bailee Hill, 57114K, Neutral]
A woman whose husband has been held hostage in Afghanistan since 2022 revealed the "devastating" details of her long-awaited phone call with President Biden, as he prepares to cement his foreign policy legacy before leaving office.
Anna Corbett — whose husband Ryan is being held by the Taliban — has pleaded for a meeting with the president since his detainment began, and was finally able to speak with him on the phone, Sunday.
But that phone call did not yield the results she had desperately searched for.
"He was very kind and empathetic, but what I heard him say is that he is not bringing Ryan home, and that was absolutely devastating because, as you just said, I have been advocating fiercely on Ryan’s behalf, on my family’s behalf. Ryan just keeps missing milestones," Corbett told co-host Ainsley Earhardt on "Fox & Friends," Monday.
"To hear after all this effort, there is a deal on the table, there is a way to bring Ryan home, and it’s not being taken, is incredibly crushing to our family," she continued.
The White House on Sunday confirmed Biden spoke with Corbett’s family, along with the families of George Glezmann, and Mahmoud Habibi – who have also been unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022.
Ryan was captured by the Taliban while in Afghanistan for business in August 2022, a year after the U.S. had pulled out of the country, and since his wrongful detainment began, Corbett wasted no time fighting for the safe release of her husband."It’s very difficult because his conditions are not livable," she said. "He is physically declining. He told me on a call that I would not recognize him.".
Corbett decided to take her advocacy efforts even further by traveling to Mar-a-Lago in hopes of bringing President-elect Donald Trump’s attention to her husband’s case.
"I have heard from several that President Trump is concerned about our family," Corbett said. "He knows that we are down here. He knows about our situation and is very concerned.".
To her avail, Corbett successfully met with incoming National Security Adviser Mike Waltz over the weekend to discuss Ryan’s situation.
"It was just mind-blowing because it took 16 months to actually get a meeting where I traveled to DC to meet with the current national security adviser, Jake Sullivan," she said. "This shows that President Trump is very concerned, is wanting to prioritize our family. I know he’s tough. He wants to make deals.".
"I am extremely encouraged, and the contrast of my experience is just mind-blowing right now," she continued.
Reports broke this week that the Biden administration was negotiating with the Taliban to swap three U.S. citizens being held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner alleged to have been a close associate of Usama bin Laden.
The deal seemingly stalled, as a senior Taliban official told The Guardian the group would rather wait to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration.
Even despite her previous setbacks, Corbett was hopeful the Trump administration would bring Ryan home.
"I absolutely believe they will bring Ryan home," Corbett said. "The details, of course, are unclear. This is complicated, and I’m not an expert in any of this, but it’s very clear that the incoming administration cares about bringing U.S. citizens back to their country and caring about Ryan and George, who is also held with him, who have done nothing wrong.".
Corbett said she spoke with her husband on Sunday when he voiced his frustration with the longevity of his detention.
"He wants to come home and be with his family," she said. "He’s an amazing dad. And he said, ‘I feel bad for all that you’re having to do for me.’ And of course, I will do everything I can. I’m a mom. This is what moms do, and I want my children to have their dad back to be part of their lives.". Wife of detained American in Afghanistan meets with Trump’s national security adviser (FOX News)
FOX News [1/13/2025 11:40 AM, Morgan Phillips, 57114K, Negative]
A wife working to bring her husband home from years of wrongful detainment in Afghanistan saw heartening progress over the weekend.
After traveling to Mar-a-Lago with no promise that anyone with President-elect Donald Trump’s team would see her, Anna Corbett had a meeting with incoming National Security Advisor Michael Waltz for more than an hour and received a phone call from President Biden.
"I have heard from several that President Trump is concerned about our family. He knows that we are down here. He knows about our situation, and is very concerned," Corbett revealed to Fox News on Monday morning.
On Sunday, Waltz came to Corbett’s hotel and met with her for over an hour, she said.
"I am extremely encouraged, and the contrast of my experience is just mind-blowing right now.".
Corbett said she "absolutely believe[s]" the Trump administration will bring her husband home, but "the details are unclear.".
Corbett spoke with Fox News Digital on Friday as she was heading down to Mar-a-Lago on a last-minute flight to beg for a meeting with Trump.
Biden had not called her once, she said, in the two and a half years since her husband was detained, until this weekend.
She told Fox News Biden was "very kind" and "empathetic," but the call was "absolutely devastating" because it was clear he was not going to bring Ryan Corbett home in his final days in office.
"What I heard him say is he is not bringing Ryan home," she said.
Since Ryan Corbett was detained two and a half years ago, he "just keeps missing milestones," according to Anna Corbett. One of their three kids recently shot his first buck while hunting, another was elected prom queen and another graduated from high school.
The Corbett family lived in Afghanistan, where Ryan Corbett operated a business prior to the Taliban takeover in 2021.
"We love the people, and had to evacuate when the Taliban took over, but Ryan kept his business open, and that’s why he returned to Afghanistan," said Anna Corbett.
In August 2022, Ryan Corbett and a German business partner returned to Afghanistan to train new hires for their business that offered consulting services and lending. Both were detained by the Taliban, and since then, Anna Corbett has had short calls with him about every two weeks as his condition in prison has deteriorated.
The White House on Sunday confirmed Biden spoke with Corbett’s family, along with the families of George Glezmann and Mahmoud Habibi – who have also been unjustly held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since 2022.
White House officials noted that over the last four years, Biden brought home more than 75 Americans unjustly detained around the world. All Americans detained before the U.S. military withdrawal in August 2021 have returned home, according to the White House.
"Globally, President Biden and his team have worked around the clock, often in partnership with key allies, to negotiate for the release of Americans held hostage or unjustly detained abroad so that they can be reunited with their families, and will continue to do so throughout the remainder of the term," according to the statement.
Reports broke last week that the Biden administration was negotiating with the Taliban to swap three U.S. citizens being held in Afghanistan in exchange for a Guantanamo Bay prisoner alleged to have been a close associate of Usama bin Laden.
The deal seemingly stalled, as a senior Taliban official told The Guardian the group would rather wait to negotiate with the incoming Trump administration.
Trump told Fox News’ Peter Doocy last week he would consider a prisoner swap but seemed skeptical.
"I haven’t looked at it," Trump said Thursday. "I have not been in favor of the trade, but I’ll be taking a look tomorrow. We’ll announce something tomorrow.".
Despite the detentions, the U.S. remains the largest financial supporter of Afghanistan, having offered the nation around $3 billion since the 2021 withdrawal.
The talks, which have been ongoing since at least July 2024, involve exchanging suspected senior al Qaeda aide Muhammad Rahim al Afghani for U.S. citizens Ryan Corbett, George Glezmann and Mahmoud Habibi, who were detained in Afghanistan in 2022.
The Taliban has long sought the release of Rahim, who has been held at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba since 2008, because the Pentagon believes he was a close associate of bin Laden.
In November 2023, the Guantánamo Bay prison review board cited Rahim’s work for senior al Qaeda members, and his participation in attacks on U.S. and allied forces in Afghanistan, as reasons to keep him in custody. Family optimistic about husband held by Taliban after Trump adviser meeting (Washington Examiner)
Washington Examiner [1/13/2025 11:19 AM, Mike Brest, 2365K, Neutral]
The wife of an American man who has been detained by the Taliban for more than two years spoke with leaders from the current and incoming administrations over the weekend about their efforts to secure the release of her husband, Ryan Corbett.
On top of acting as a single mother with three children, Anna Corbett has tirelessly advocated her husband, who has been held by the Taliban since August 2022. The family lived in Afghanistan before the collapse of the Ghani government in 2021, though Ryan Corbett went back to help the business he founded there, which is when the Taliban arrested him.
This weekend, Anna Corbett and her eldest daughter traveled to Florida, where they positioned themselves outside of Mar-a-Lago, President-elect Donald Trump’s current residence, with the hope of meeting with the incoming commander in chief. They weren’t able to speak with Trump directly, but they did meet with his incoming national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL).
Anna Corbett also got a call from President Joe Biden, though she said the in-person conversation with Waltz left her more optimistic.
Biden "was very empathetic and easy to speak with, but it was disappointing to realize on this call that he was not going to bring Ryan home and that the deal on the table is not something that he was willing to do, and after so much advocacy for the past almost two and a half years, it was just shocking and devastating for our family," she told the Washington Examiner.
Comparatively, Anna Corbett said Waltz gave her and her daughter "over an hour" of his time and "listened and expressed how much bringing Ryan home means to him, and he wants to prioritize this, and that was just extremely encouraging, a contrast with my previous experience. It took me 16 months to have my first meeting with the current national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.".
The Biden administration has agreed to several prisoner exchanges to secure the release of Americans that the State Department has determined are being held wrongfully, including one deal to return an American from Afghanistan. However, the deals require the United States to give up something or someone of interest to the government or group willing to use Americans as bargaining chips. Rogue governments have kidnapped or arrested Americans under false pretenses to secure concessions from the U.S. in what’s commonly referred to as "hostage diplomacy.".
George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi are also believed to be held by the Taliban, the former of whom is considered wrongfully detained. The Taliban denied holding Habibi, which has complicated the talks. There are reports that the Biden administration is looking to secure the release of all three Americans in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the 15 remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
"President Biden was very clear in telling us that he would not trade Rahim if the Taliban do not let my brother go," Habibi’s brother, Ahmad Habibi, said in a statement, according to the Associated Press. "He said he would not leave him behind. My family is very grateful that he is standing up for my brother.".
The U.S. has made offers to the Taliban involving other individuals as well, according to the official.
The Pentagon opposed Rahim’s release, as did the U.S. intelligence community, due to the threat it believes he poses, according to a U.S. official. The Department of Defense’s Periodic Review Board looks at detainees’ cases and determines whether they would pose a threat to the U.S. if released, and the PBR has not supported Rahim’s release.
Biden has reduced the population in Guantanamo Bay from 40 to 15 detainees over the course of his administration. Families of Americans held by Taliban upset by lack of deal for their release (Scripps News)
Scripps News [1/13/2025 2:53 PM, Maya Rodriguez, 960K, Negative]
In an interview with Scripps News on Monday, the wife of an American held by the Taliban in Afghanistan expressed her frustration with the lack of progress in getting her husband home.
It’s been more than 800 days since the Taliban took Anna Corbett’s husband, Ryan.
In all that time, she’s tried to meet with President Joe Biden, but that never happened. Over the weekend, though, the president called her and the families of other Americans held in Afghanistan.
However, Corbett said she came away from the call disappointed. She said while there is a deal on the table with the Taliban, the president indicated to them that the U.S. will not take the deal.
Part of the reason, according to The Associated Press, is that the deal would require the trade of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay for American hostages in Afghanistan.
There are at least three of them: Corbett, American George Glezmann and U.S.-Afghanistan dual national Mahmood Habibi. However, the Taliban will only include Corbett and Glezmann. As a result, President Biden told the families he was not moving forward with the deal.
In the meantime, Anna Corbett traveled to Mar-a-Lago, hoping to meet with President-elect Donald Trump. He sent his nominee for national security advisor, Mike Waltz, to meet with her.
"That was just mind-blowing because we took 16 months to meet with the current national security advisor — and here within 48 hours of coming down here, not only did we meet with him, but he actually came to us, gave us over an hour of his time and showed deep concern for Ryan and our family and expressed that President Trump is wanting to bring him home," Corbett said. "And he’s a deal-maker. He’s tough and he’s going to do what he can to bring Ryan home.".
Anna Corbett said she was also able to talk with her husband, Ryan, by phone over the weekend. The Taliban occasionally allows him a phone call. She said he was not in good shape there, but that he was hopeful about her trip to Mar-a-Lago. Pakistan
Pakistani security forces kill 27 insurgents during raid in Balochistan (AP)
AP [1/13/2025 10:23 AM, Staff, 33392K, Negative]
Pakistani security forces raided a militant hideout on Monday, killing 27 insurgents, the military said.
The operation in southwestern Pakistan was conducted in Kachhi, a district in Balochistan province, the military said in a statement. Security forces were acting on intelligence.
The slain "terrorists were involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as innocent civilians," and were being sought by law enforcement agencies, the statement said.
It provided no further details about the slain men, but small Baloch separatist groups and Pakistani Taliban have a strong presence in Balochistan, which is the scene of a long-running insurgency, with an array of separatist groups staging attacks, mainly on security forces.
The separatists are demanding independence from the central government. Pakistan claims killing 27 Baloch insurgents (VOA)
VOA [1/13/2025 2:35 PM, Ayaz Gul, 2717K, Negative]
Pakistan reported Monday that its security forces raided a "terrorists’ location" in southwestern Balochistan province and killed 27 insurgents during what was described as an intelligence-driven operation.
A military statement said that "multiple hideouts, including caches of arms, ammunition, and explosives, were also destroyed during the operation" in the central Kachhi district of the large but sparsely populated province.
The announcement noted that law enforcement agencies wanted the slain insurgents for allegedly orchestrating "terrorist activities" against security personnel and civilians in the district, where the outlawed separatist Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and its allies are active.
VOA could not immediately verify the official claims from independent sources, nor have Baloch insurgents commented on them.
Regional experts describe BLA as the largest and most lethal of all the separatist groups active in natural resources-rich Balochistan, which sits on Pakistan’s border with Iran and Afghanistan. The group, designated as a global terrorist organization by the United States, has claimed almost all local attacks in recent months, killing and injuring hundreds of people, mainly security forces.
Last week, dozens of heavily armed BLA fighters invaded the town of Zehri in the Khuzdar district of the province. They briefly took control of government facilities, including a security installation, and robbed a bank before setting several buildings on fire and escaping the area, according to the insurgent group and Pakistani officials.
The daring daylight insurgent attack sparked criticism regarding an alleged delay in the response of Pakistani security forces to the BLA strikes.
"Those responsible must explain how terrorists were able to commandeer the area for eight hours," the English-language DAWN newspaper wrote in a subsequent editorial.
The provincial government initiated an investigation into the attack, resulting in the dismissal of over a dozen members of the paramilitary Balochistan Levies force for their alleged failure to resist the insurgents and surrender their weapons.
Insurgents allege that the central and provincial Pakistani governments exploit Balochistan’s natural resources, such as gold and copper, while disregarding the poverty-stricken local population.
Islamabad rejects the charges as baseless, saying that massive infrastructure development projects are underway in the province, including those funded by China. BLA has also targeted Chinese nationals associated with some of the projects in the region. Pakistan poised to tap China capital markets, finance minister says (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [1/14/2025 2:46 AM, Kenji Kawase, 1.3M, Neutral]
Pakistan is eager to tap the yuan bond market and will encourage corporate stock listings in Hong Kong, its finance minister said in an exclusive interview, as the South Asian country aims to bolster and broaden its ties with China.
Muhammad Aurangzeb said that an initial issuance of a panda bond -- a yuan-denominated debt instrument from a non-Chinese entity issued in mainland China -- should take place by the end of this year. The move is expected to be worth around $200 million to $250 million, but "it’s not a question of amount," the minister said on the sidelines of the annual Asian Financial Forum in Hong Kong.
"What is important is that we do go for an inaugural issue and then, once it’s successful, we can always keep it on tap," he said.
Aurangzeb, a veteran former banker at multiple global firms including J.P. Morgan, said that not using the world’s second-largest capital market until now had "been a miss on our part."
"We are quite keen that during this calendar year, we do," he added.
Although Pakistan’s sovereign credit ratings have been upgraded since it secured a $7 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund, it has yet to break out of the "CCC" or "Caa" level as assessed by the three major global agencies. This severely constrains its options for financing in the global market.
While Aurangzeb expressed hope for reaching the "B" rating zone in due course by carrying out reforms in accordance with the IMF’s terms, he stressed the importance of "diversifying" the country’s funding sources.
Hong Kong’s stock market is also part of the picture. The minister said that an equity listing of Service Long March -- a Pakistani-Chinese joint venture that makes tires for trucks and buses -- in the city is in sight.
"These JVs want to do equity [fund] raising, and in the international markets, Hong Kong is a very, very obvious choice for these joint ventures," he said, eyeing future opportunities for primary and secondary listings by Pakistani companies in Hong Kong.
Pakistan has cultivated close ties with China for decades, exemplified by the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure project. Aurangzeb emphasized that the corridor is a "flagship" of the Belt and Road Initiative, a core economic and geopolitical drive spearheaded by Chinese President Xi Jinping.Asked how the IMF’s conditions might affect planned projects with China -- as offering new tax incentives and establishing new economic zones is not allowed -- the Pakistani minister brushed off such concerns. "It’s not really as big a deal as it’s being made" out to be, he said, since there are many existing projects that first need to be implemented.
One pressing matter, however, is how to guarantee security, after a series of militant attacks against Chinese nationals and projects in Pakistan. Beijing has repeatedly pressed Islamabad to do more to improve safety.
Aurangzeb said his government attaches "the highest attention at the highest level" to the safety issue, not only for Chinese but for all foreign nationals in the country. He added that the situation on the ground "is actually much better than what we see in the news and on various channels."
As for tangible progress on reform and restructuring under the IMF assistance, Aurangzeb pointed to data points such as falling inflation, increased foreign exchange reserves, and a record-breaking performance of the local stock market. "All of this has moved us in the right direction, including the biggest story for us, which is inflation," which dropped from nearly 38% in May 2023 to 3% this month.
At the same time, he admitted that his country "has not really come through" on the execution and implementation part yet, especially in four key areas -- taxation, the energy sector, state-owned enterprise reform and public finance. For instance, the ratio of taxes to gross domestic product still lags at 10.8%, versus the target of 13.5%.
Despite a failed attempt to sell the loss-making national flagship carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) last fall, he said the government was "very hopeful" about relaunching the effort in the coming months.
Pakistan has also been mired in internal political turmoil, particularly since last February’s controversial elections. But Aurangzeb shrugged off the tensions as "typical democratic differences in domestic politics." He argued that it is imperative for all sides to agree on fundamental points to move "the economy forward, because it is critical that we stay away from boom and bust cycles."
"We are now in the 25th IMF program, and we want to, you know, ensure that this is the last program," he said.
To do that, he believes the country needs to firmly establish an export-led growth model, attract more foreign direct investment and go back to the international capital market.
The return of President Donald Trump to the White House in less than a week could pose risks to this scenario. But while Aurangzeb acknowledged that he is closely monitoring trade barriers and other external factors, he said his primary focus is on oil and commodity prices.
"We are less concerned about the global situation on rates and effects, but the commodity prices will affect our economy, and certainly oil," he said. Pakistan to issue China’s panda bonds to transform economy, finance chief says (South China Morning Post)
South China Morning Post [1/13/2025 10:00 AM, Zhao Ziwen, 9355K, Positive]
Pakistan will issue yuan-denominated "panda bonds" as early as June to further integrate its capital markets with China’s, a move that will help Beijing in its push to expand the use of the currency, the South Asian country’s finance minister said.
In an exclusive interview with the Post on Sunday, Muhammad Aurangzeb also pledged more cooperation with Beijing on the next phase of the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a key initiative for boosting bilateral trade and investment.
He also called for more participation from China’s private sector and export-led industries to transform Pakistan’s debt-laden economy.
Aurangzeb said Pakistan aimed to raise US$200 million to US$250 million from Chinese investors, adding that it was "absolutely critical" for the nation to diversify its funding base.
The minister is in Hong Kong for the two-day Asian Financial Forum, which began on Monday.
"Since I took over [in March 2024], I have been very vocal about this – that we want to go for panda bonds, an inaugural sovereign panda bond … I’m pushing everyone, including our own teams, to see if we can get this done before June," Aurangzeb said.Panda bonds – typically denominated in yuan and issued in China by non-Chinese organisations, have gained traction as traders and countries seek to diversify from an over-reliance on the US dollar, while tapping into the world’s second-largest economy at attractive rates.The minister added that Pakistan had followed Egypt’s lead to issue the yuan bonds on the back of credit improvement from the Beijing-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).Last year, Egypt received guarantees from the AIIB and the African Development Bank, covering principal and interest, to issue panda bonds on the local mainland China market.“I’ve met the president of the AIIB in Washington … with a very clear view that we will replicate what Egypt did in terms of the credit enhancement … which allows us to access the local capital markets for the panda bond,” he said.Aurangzeb added that Pakistan would help to support the “internationalisation of the renminbi” and boost cooperation with the “second-largest and second-deepest capital market in the world”.Despite its low credit rating, Pakistan is reportedly pursuing the issuance of eurobonds in the 2026 financial year. But Aurangzeb has said his administration will try to achieve a “single-B” category of at least one major rating agency.Pakistan has endured years-long inflation and was pushed to the brink of default in 2023 as its economy withered amid political chaos and economic mismanagement.But the country’s economy rebounded last year as the inflation rate dropped from nearly 38 per cent in May 2023 to 4.1 per cent last month.The International Monetary Fund and Pakistan also reached an agreement on a 37-month extended bailout loan of about US$7 billion, with some of the country’s main debt holders, including China, agreeing to a one-year debt rollover last year.Amid what he called the “balance of payment problem”, Aurangzeb said that enhancing CPEC 2.0 cooperation would be crucial, adding that the newest version of a flagship Belt and Road Initiative project would help the country digest its debt through an export-led model.The CPEC is a key project under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, with more than US$65 billion pledged for development in Pakistan, including roads and railways.The second phase of the project, according to Pakistan, aims to set up special economic zones in partnership with China to reform the country’s agricultural and information technology sectors while attracting Chinese companies to relocate their low-end industries to the country.During their meeting last June, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif highlighted the upgrade to the CPEC project.Aurangzeb said Pakistan was in trouble because the economy had been “primarily import-led”, which caused the country to “run out of foreign currency and get into a balance of payment problem”.“Which means we have to fundamentally change the DNA of the economy towards export-led growth,” he added.“CPEC phase two is all about primarily business-to-business, especially the economic zones. We want to make it work for some companies from the mainland to come in and use it as a real export hub.”
“CPEC phase one was all about the infrastructure, and that is where most of this debt came in … [If] we go into phase two, where we go into export industries … we can create enough dollars and … repay this debt,” he added.Aurangzeb also pledged to step up security in his country to protect Chinese companies amid a series of deadly attacks in the region, with some targeting Chinese interests and personnel. Pakistan watches with caution as old ally Taliban gets closer to India (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [1/13/2025 10:00 AM, Abid Hussain, 19588K, Neutral]
When the Taliban took over Kabul in August 2021, then-Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan famously said the Afghan group had “broken the shackles of slavery” as they returned to power for the first time since 2001.Taliban’s ascension was seen as a boost to the regional influence of Pakistan, long regarded as the patron of the Afghan group in pursuit of “strategic depth” for Islamabad.This doctrine reflected Pakistan’s military interest in maintaining a strategic hold over Afghanistan through the Taliban and using it as leverage against India, its traditional adversary.Three years later, that calculation appears to have flopped, instead leaving Pakistan’s officials fuming at ties with Kabul even as the Taliban edges closer to an unlikely partner: India.India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met acting Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai last week, marking the highest-profile public engagement between New Delhi and the Taliban. That meeting followed a series of steps taken by both sides that suggest a dramatic break from a quarter century of animus and distrust rooted in Pakistan’s support of the Taliban.If this shift leads to an expansion of Indian influence in Afghanistan, that could strain Islamabad-Kabul ties, warned Iftikhar Firdous, co-founder of The Khorasan Diary, a portal tracking regional security issues. “Ultimately, the Afghan people, reliant on Pakistan’s borders, will bear the brunt of this tug-of-war,” he told Al Jazeera.Old friend, new partnerFrom the 1980s when it backed the mujahideen against the Soviet Union through the first two decades of the 21st century, Pakistan was a primary backer of the Taliban, many of whose leaders found shelter on Pakistani soil.India, by contrast, viewed the group as a Pakistani proxy, shuttering its embassy in Kabul after the Taliban first came to power in Afghanistan in 1996. It blamed the Taliban and its current allies in the government, including the Haqqanis, for repeatedly attacking Indian diplomatic missions in Afghanistan — the embassy in 2008 and 2009, and the Indian consulates in Jalalabad in 2013, Herat in 2014 and Mazar-i-Sharif in 2015.Yet, a decade later, those equations no longer stand.December 2024 saw Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanging strikes on each other’s territories, as Pakistan faced its deadliest year of violence, particularly against its law enforcement, since 2016. Pakistan said it was targeting Afghan bases of the Pakistan Taliban armed group, known by the acronym TTP, which Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of harbouring.Meanwhile, India appeared to have recalibrated its approach, engaging diplomatically with Taliban officials.The first significant meeting took place in Kabul in November 2024, when JP Singh, joint secretary of India’s Ministry of External Affairs overseeing the Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran desk, met acting Afghan Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob.A week later, the Taliban nominated Ikramuddin Kamil as their envoy to New Delhi, even though India is yet to formally recognise the current rulers of Kabul.And after last week’s meeting between Misri and Muttaqi, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs described India as a “significant regional and economic partner”. ‘Geography does not change’
Some Pakistani analysts say Islamabad has no reason to worry — at least yet.
Asif Durrani, a former Pakistani special representative to Afghanistan, said that Pakistan and Kabul share a relationship deeper than what New Delhi and Kabul share. “India left Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and has now returned upon assessing mutual business opportunities. Both India and Afghanistan are sovereign nations free to forge ties,” Durrani told Al Jazeera. “Pakistan may not object unless these relations become inimical to its interests,” he added.
Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United Nations, United States, and the United Kingdom, echoed this sentiment.
“Landlocked Afghanistan depends principally on Pakistan for trade as well as transit trade. Geography does not change just because India now seeks closer ties with Kabul,” she told Al Jazeera.
But while Afghanistan’s geography hasn’t changed, much else has, in recent years.
While India has poured in more than $3bn in Afghanistan during the last two decades, the primary trade route for the Afghan government remains the Pakistani border, where tensions have been escalating, as Islamabad’s worries about TTP attacks have grown.
The TTP, founded in 2007, shares ideological roots with the Afghan Taliban and has waged a violent rebellion against Pakistan. Data from last year showed more than 600 attacks in Pakistan, resulting in about 1,600 deaths, including nearly 700 law enforcement personnel. Most of these attacks were claimed by the TTP.
Pakistan has held multiple meetings with Afghan authorities, including a visit by its special representative, Mohammad Sadiq, in December after a TTP attack killed 16 Pakistani soldiers.
However, during Sadiq’s visit, who is serving his second tenure in this role, Pakistan’s military launched air attacks in Bermal, a district bordering Pakistan. The Afghan government, which denies sheltering armed groups, stated that the strikes killed at least 46 people, including women and children. Merely days later, Afghan Taliban retaliated, saying they targeted “several points” in Pakistan.
Lodhi pointed to Sadiq’s reappointment as special representative as a sign of efforts to repair ties. “Pakistan and Afghanistan are diplomatically re-engaging to reset relations after a year of intense tensions. Improved relations are a strategic imperative for both nations,” she said.
But the meeting between Misri and Muttaqi last week also included a conversation on a subject that some experts say could be another layer of complexity to Pakistan’s ties with the Afghan Taliban: development of Iran’s Chabahar port by India.
The Chabahar factor
The Afghan Foreign Ministry, in its statement on the meeting between Muttaqi and Misri, said they spoke about enhancing trade using Chabahar port, which can help otherwise landlocked Afghanistan bypass Pakistan to receive and send goods.
Chabahar is in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, just across the border from Pakistan’s Balochistan province — a resource-rich part of the country where Islamabad has long battled separatist groups. Many of these rebels have sought refuge in Iran.
Iran launched air raids on Pakistani soil in January 2024, targeting alleged hideouts of anti-Tehran armed groups that have found shelter in Balochistan. Pakistan also retaliated with its strikes.
While tensions between Iran and Pakistan following those strikes eased, Islamabad has long accused New Delhi of fomenting the Baloch nationalist movement.
Pakistan has cited the 2016 arrest of Kulbhushan Yadav, alleged by Islamabad to be an Indian spy operating in Balochistan. India denies the charges, claiming Yadav was abducted from Iran.
“Indian involvement in Balochistan and its support for separatists is a longstanding Pakistani narrative, underscored by Yadav’s capture,” Firdous said.
Against that backdrop, “references to Chabahar port and its involvement in Afghan-Indian trade will be seen by Pakistan as interventionist,” the Peshawar-based analyst added.
Growing Taliban-India Closeness: Should Pakistan be Worried? (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [1/13/2025 11:21 AM, Muhammad Murad, 857K, Neutral]
On January 8, India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri met with the Taliban’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai. It was the Taliban regime’s highest level of diplomatic talks with New Delhi since the group took over Kabul in August 2021. According to a statement from the Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "comprehensive talks were held on political, economic and people-to-people relations between the two countries during the meeting.".
Muttaqi also expressed gratitude for India’s humanitarian assistance and emphasized his wish to strengthen political and economic ties between the Taliban government in Kabul and New Delhi. He also called India a "key regional and economic player" that could complement his government’s economy-centric and balanced foreign policy.
During the meeting, Muttaqi also assured the Indian foreign secretary that Afghanistan "does not pose a threat to any nation" and hoped for increased diplomatic ties along with an easing visa regime for businessmen, patients, and students from Afghanistan.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said after the meeting in Dubai that New Delhi was not only looking to enhance trade ties with Afghanistan but also considering engaging in development projects in the country.
India made large investments in Afghanistan after the Taliban regime was toppled by the United States in 2001. According to official estimates, India spent approximately $3 billion on different projects including roads, dams, and trade infrastructure during two decades of the presence of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. When the Ghani government fell in August 2021, it was a huge blow to Indian interests, given the money it had spent to gain influence in Afghanistan.Right after the fall of the Ghani administration, India closed its embassy and consulates in Afghanistan. However, it has maintained a small mission, referred to as a technical team, in Afghanistan since June 2022 "to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuation of our engagement with the Afghan people" under the Taliban regime. There was more to this mission in Afghanistan. In this context, Gautam Mukhopadhaya, a former Indian ambassador to Afghanistan between 2010 and 2013, said, "It’s an opening gambit so to speak, in some ways you are back in the game." He further said, "Reopening the Indian Embassy is really about keeping our eyes and ears on the ground and exploring the possibility of a working relationship with the Taliban, which includes security assurances that Afghan territory would not be used, particularly by Pakistan against India.".
Thus, the meeting last week between Misri and Muttaqi seems to be a connecting dot in New Delhi’s foreign policy engagement in Afghanistan, linking its pre-Taliban investments in the country to the present reality under the Taliban’s de facto rule.
It is also pertinent to note here that Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi was closed in November 2023. Diplomats appointed by the previous government said that pressure from both the Taliban and the Indian government forced their decision to close. A few days after the exit of the previous diplomats, the Taliban claimed its own diplomats had taken charge of Afghanistan’s embassy in New Delhi. The turn of events was considered a dramatic change in India’s policy toward Afghanistan under Taliban.
Since seizing power from the Ghani administration, the Taliban have yet to receive official recognition from any foreign country, including India.
Despite its significance for the Taliban, the Misri-Muttaqi meeting came at a time when the relations between Pakistan and the Taliban are at their lowest after Pakistani forces launched air strikes inside Afghanistan claiming to target camps of the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan last month. India condemned the strikes, and External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "We unequivocally condemn any attack on innocent civilians. It is an old practice of Pakistan to blame its neighbors for its internal failures." Such a harsh condemnation in favor of the Taliban, followed by the Misri-Muttaqi meeting, seems to suggest that Pakistan is on the verge of losing, or has already lost, its erstwhile friend to none other than its arch-rival India.
For the Taliban, it is not only important to display their independence from Pakistan’s influence but also to remain relevant in regional affairs. After coming into power, the Taliban have shown again and again that they are not going to be controlled by any foreign force, including Pakistan. The Taliban, with their control of Afghanistan for over three years despite international isolation and economic sanctions, are giving a strong message that they do not require Pakistan’s support.
But Afghanistan is a landlocked country and relies heavily on trading routes from its neighboring countries, including Pakistan. In order to expand its trading horizons, Afghanistan wants to boost its trade through other routes. As per Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, during last week’s meeting, both countries discussed boosting trade through the Chabahar Port in Iran. In May 2024, India signed a 10-year contract with Iran to develop and operate the Chabahar Port. To bypass Pakistan’s Karachi and Gwadar ports, India has been developing Chabahar on the southeastern coast of Iran along the Gulf of Oman to transport goods to Iran, Central Asian countries, and to Afghanistan. The Taliban also seem resolute to move away from the dependence on Pakistan’s Gwadar port. Thus, they will get a trading boost, if Afghanistan gets access to Chahbahar port. All these developments in Taliban and India relations could be problematic for Pakistan’s interests not only in Afghanistan but also in the region. Pakistani security forces kill 8 militants in raids in northwest (AP)
AP [1/14/2025 2:11 AM, Staff, 456K, Neutral]
Pakistani security forces killed eight militants in two raids targeting militant hideouts in restive northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan, the military said Tuesday.
The raids were conducted Monday in the Tank and Tirah Valley districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, it said in a statement.
The military described the dead militants as “Khwarij,” a phrase the government uses for Pakistani Taliban. It gave no further details.
Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are allies of the Afghan Taliban but are a separate group. They have stepped up their assaults in the region since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021. The TTP are outlawed in Pakistan and have been emboldened since the Afghan Taliban came into power. Pakistan’s missiles will never be a threat to the U.S. (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [1/13/2025 3:05 PM, Farhan Bokhari, 1286K, Neutral]
The outgoing Biden administration’s recent warning about Pakistan’s missile development, which it says could threaten the U.S., presents an unconvincing case against the nuclear-armed South Asian country.The statement from U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer in December describing the missile program as an "emerging threat" appeared to put a simplistic spin on a complex regional context.Insecurity in South Asia has mainly been fueled by a chronic India-Pakistan conflict with implications for security interests beyond the immediate region. The two countries have been racing to keep up with each other’s conventional weaponry, nuclear and missile assets for more than seven decades.India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and had many skirmishes during their bloody history, with no indication in sight for resolving their dispute over the division of the predominantly Muslim mountainous state of Kashmir. Almost a third of that territory remains under Pakistan’s control, a slice of territory under China’s control while the remaining territory is controlled by India.In addition to their nuclear and missile assets, both India and Pakistan have built up large military forces which are well equipped with conventional hardware too. In this race, India has increasingly looked toward the Western world, notably the U.S. and France for purchasing sophisticated military hardware that has placed it among the largest global customers of arms for its land, naval and air forces.But for Pakistan, economic challenges mean it does not have the means to match India in financial terms. Yet, Islamabad continues to modernize its armed forces with uninterrupted support from China.The China-led supply line for Pakistan has repeatedly been used to help the South Asian country meet the gaps in its military capabilities. Moreover, Pakistan continues to hold Western defense equipment such as F-16 fighter planes, delivered when the country was a close U.S. ally in Washington’s war against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.The latest missile development by Pakistan that triggered the U.S. warning followed Islamabad’s expansion of its program to keep up with India’s missile development. This came in tandem with a continued expansion of the Indo-Pakistan nuclear programs with a focus on their frontiers across the air, land and sea borders, notably the Indian Ocean Region or IOR.Going forward, any global initiative to contain the Indo-Pakistan rivalry must also take account of India’s buildup being a reaction to the expansion of China’s nuclear and missile assets. Tackling the security challenges surrounding these three countries -- China, India and Pakistan -- is far from easy.Realistically in the short term, fresh confidence building measures between India and Pakistan in the first instance are necessary to encourage the two countries to work toward resolving their dispute over Kashmir.It would be much too easy to exaggerate chances of success from an India-Pakistan dialogue, as past efforts in this area have brought little joy. But given the scale of the potential benefits for global security that an Indo-Pakistan detente could bring, it is vital for policy makers to keep on pushing for breaking new ground in this area.At the same time, it is also vital for global powers to reduce prevailing tensions across the Asia-Pacific region. A continuing build up of U.S.-led military assets in that region to contain China will do little to improve the overall security environment. On the contrary, it is vital for key players, notably India, as well as external powers led by the U.S., to work toward improving ties with China.Though the conflict over Taiwan which has fueled the U.S. rift with China remains a major irritant, it is nevertheless vital for key powers in the region to step back from being on a collision course with Beijing. Instead, normalizing this relationship through greater engagement with Beijing might be a more fruitful track for future security interests in the region and beyond.Meanwhile, in tackling Pakistan’s missile development, the U.S. runs the risk of exaggerating the threat. Pakistan’s main intent all along has been that of developing its missile and nuclear assets to deter what it sees as a threat from India.But when the U.S. raised the specter of Pakistan’s missile program eventually threatening America, Washington essentially put forth an unrealistic view of the future. Across the world, open source published material as well as confidential sources have never before claimed that Pakistan’s missiles will one day have the range to reach the U.S.Besides, among Pakistan’s present or future key decision makers, targeting the U.S. with Pakistan’s missiles and/or nuclear assets has never been mentioned even remotely as an objective. On the contrary, the U.S. targeting of Pakistan for now appears to have closed all avenues for beginning a meaningful dialogue with the country to improve the regional security environment in South Asia. India
India army chief says China border ‘sensitive but stable’ (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/13/2025 7:37 AM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 6595K, Neutral]
India’s army chief said the situation along the country’s border with China remains calm but the two nations need to rebuild trust in order to normalize relations.
"The trust between the two countries has to have a new definition, therefore there is a requirement for us to sit together and thereafter come to a broader understanding how we want to calm down the situation," Gen. Upendra Dwivedi told reporters in New Delhi on Monday. "The situation is sensitive but stable.".
The two nuclear-armed nations - which share a 3,488-kilometer (2,167-mile) unmarked Himalayan border - reached an agreement in October that helped to ease a four-year stalemate following June 2020 clashes that left 20 Indian and at least four Chinese soldiers dead. Both sides bolstered border defenses, deploying troops and other war-fighting material toe-to-toe along the border after the fighting.
Dwivedi said the two nations still need to remove troops, weapons and fighter jets from the border areas. The Indian army would take its cue from diplomatic talks, with the next round of discussions between the Indian and Chinese special representatives on the boundary likely to happen soon, he said.
India’s government blocked Chinese investment, banned hundreds of mobile apps and curbed visas in the four years since the border clashes. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping shortly after the border agreement was reached in October, with both leaders pledging to strengthen ties. Naked, ash-smeared Hindu ascetics take holy dips at the Maha Kumbh festival (AP)
AP [1/13/2025 10:41 PM, Sheikh Saaliq, 63029K, Positive]
Naked Hindu ascetics and pilgrims took dips in the freezing waters at the confluence of sacred rivers in northern India on Tuesday, in the first major bathing day of the Maha Kumbh festival, which is the largest religious congregation on Earth.Holding tridents, swords, spears and small two-headed drums, ash-smeared Hindu holy men marched at sunrise toward the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers in the northern city of Prayagraj. The men — with matted dreadlocks and crowns of marigolds — chanted religious slogans praising Hindu deity Lord Shiva and were escorted to the bathing site on chariots in a large procession with singing, drumming and blowing of horns.The Maha Kumbh festival — held every 12 years — started Monday, with more than 15 million pilgrims bathing in the holy rivers, according to officials. Over about the next six weeks, the festival is expected to draw more than 400 million people, many of whom will take part in elaborate rituals.Hindus believe that bathing at the confluence will cleanse them of their sins and release them from the cycle of rebirth.The festival has its roots in a Hindu tradition that says the god Vishnu wrested a golden pitcher containing the nectar of immortality from demons. Hindus believe that a few drops fell in the cities of Prayagraj, Nasik, Ujjain and Haridwar — the four places where the Kumbh festival has been held for centuries.The Kumbh rotates among these four pilgrimage sites about every three years on a date determined by the cosmic alignment of the sun, moon and Jupiter.This year’s festival is the biggest and grandest of them all.Authorities have built a sprawling tented city on the river banks to accommodate the holy men, pilgrims and tourists visiting the festival. The government has shelled out more than $765 million for the event, hoping to impress India’s largely Hindu population and draw visitors from around the world.The tent city is equipped with 3,000 kitchens and 150,000 toilets and urinals. About 50,000 security personnel are also stationed in the city to maintain law and order and crowd management.Groups of Hindu ascetics have also set up sprawling camps at the site, with tens of thousands of pilgrims visiting them to hear religious discourses and attend prayers. These ascetics — called Naga Sadhus — are part of religious orders that were once mercenary armies who generally revere Hinduism’s Lord Shiva.Bathing takes place every day at the site, but on the most auspicious dates, Hindu ascetics charge toward the holy rivers at dawn.Many pilgrims also stay for the entire festival, observing austerity, giving alms and bathing at sunrise every day. The river baths, prayer, meditation and yoga sessions and other religious rituals are organized by Hindu ascetics, and financially supported with public funds. India’s Maha Kumbh marks first ‘royal bath’ with dreadlocked ascetics’ holy dip (Reuters)
Reuters [1/13/2025 10:55 PM, Saurabh Sharma, 48128K, Neutral]
Scores of naked Hindu ascetics smeared in holy ash charged into the water of holy rivers in northern India on Tuesday, dreadlocks flying, during the first ‘royal bath’ of the Maha Kumbh Mela, or Great Pitcher Festival.
The ‘royal bath’ is a key part of the event, held every 12 years in the city of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, significant because Hindus believe it confers salvation from the cycle of birth and death, in addition to absolution of sins.
The dip by the ascetics, who wore only holy beads, though some wielded tridents, spears, or maces, signals the start of the ritual, watched by thousands of devotees.
"I was a bit intimidated by the crowd at first but ... was able to take a dip within two hours of arriving in the city," said Pawan Yadav, who witnessed he event after travelling 200 km (124 miles) from his home in Lucknow, the state capital.
Earlier, to chants and the beat of drums, the ascetics had moved in procession towards the water, standing atop decorated trucks, riding horses, or walking.
Nearly 15 million people had taken a ritual dip at the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical, invisible Saraswati when the festival, expected to attract more than 400 million people, began on Monday.
The Kumbh originates in a Hindu belief that four drops of the nectar of immortality fell to earth, one in Prayagraj, during a battle between the god Vishnu, known as the Preserver, and demons to possess a golden pitcher holding the elixir.
Every 12 years, the festival is described as ‘maha’ or great, as the timing is considered to render it more auspicious, drawing bigger crowds.
More than 150,000 tents have been set up to accommodate visitors, 450,000 new electric connections made, and 40,000 police officers deployed to ensure the event - touted to be the world’s largest gathering of humanity - goes off smoothly.
The budget for the festival is estimated to be $800 million and analysts expect it to boost economic growth by an estimated $30 billion to $35 billion. India halts trade with US-sanctioned Russian companies and tankers, government source says (Reuters)
Reuters [1/14/2025 7:59 AM, Nidhi Verma, 5.2M, Neutral]
Indian refiners have stopped dealing with U.S.-sanctioned oil tankers and entities but the country does not expect disruption to Russian crude supplies during a two-month wind-down period, a government source said on Monday.
The U.S. Treasury on Friday imposed sanctions on Russian oil producers Gazprom Neft (SIBN.MM) and Surgutneftegaz (SNGS.MM) and insurers Ingosstrakh and Alfastrakhovanie Group, targeting revenue Moscow has used to fund its war with Ukraine.
Washington also sanctioned 183 vessels used for transporting Russian oil while allowing a winding down of some energy related transactions by March 12.
India will allow Russian oil cargoes booked before Jan. 10 to discharge at ports in line with sanctions parameters, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
"In the next two months we do not anticipate major problems because the ships that are in transit will come through. Going forward, it’s early days yet to anticipate the impact, how discounts shape up, if somebody is willing to sell below the $60 price cap," he said.
The official said Russia could offer deeper discounts to India to meet the $60 a barrel price cap imposed by Group of Seven countries in 2022 to be able to use western tankers and insurance.
"If we get Russian crude from a non-sanctioned entity which is below the price cap, I am sure we will be happy to look at it," the Indian government official said, adding that Indian banks will seek certificates of origin for Russian crude to ensure transactions do not involve sanctioned entities.
"We are the third-largest consumer. Russia will find ways to reach us," the official added.
The Kremlin said on Monday that the latest U.S. sanctions on Russia’s energy sector risked destabilising global markets and Moscow would do everything possible to minimise their impact.
Global Brent crude futures extended gains on Monday, climbing above $81 to touch their highest since August.
Most Indian refiners are negotiating annual contracts with major producers for 2025/26 and may seek higher volumes from major Middle Eastern producers.
Producers in the United States, Canada, Brazil, Guyana and members of the OPEC group of oil producers will boost output to meet demand to offset Russian supply shortages, the Indian official said.
He added that India was also examining the impact of the new U.S. sanctions on Russia’s Vostok oil project, in which Indian companies have a stake. India Reimposes Restrictions on Foreign Nationals Visiting Three Northeastern States (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [1/13/2025 5:34 AM, Rajeev Bhattacharyya, 857K, Neutral]
The Indian government has reimposed restrictions on foreign nationals wishing to travel to some states in the country’s sensitive northeastern region owing to "growing security concerns," 13 years after they were relaxed.
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has decided to reimpose the Protected Area Regime (PAR) in the states of Manipur, Nagaland and Mizoram to restrict and monitor the movement of foreigners. Henceforth, foreigners visiting these states will have to apply for and obtain the Protected Area Permits (PAP) from the government. The permit will include details such as the place of entry, residence and period of stay.
The PAR was introduced in 1958 for areas between the "Inner Line" as defined in the government directive and the "International Border" of the concerned state. The guidelines stipulate certain zones within the protected areas, which tourists can visit with a permit. All foreigners visiting these states must also register themselves with the Foreigners Registration Officer (FRO) of the district they visit within 24 hours of arrival.
Arunachal Pradesh in the northeastern region and Andaman & Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are also wholly under the PAR. Some areas of other states like Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir, Ladakh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand also come under the regime.
The restrictions were relaxed in 2011 to boost tourism in the three northeastern states, which are "special category states" that are heavily dependent on the central government for funds. However, the relaxing of restrictions did not apply to citizens of Afghanistan, China and Pakistan, who continued to require prior approval from the government for entry into these states.
Soon after the regime was reimposed, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government in Manipur said the decision was necessitated by the influx from neighboring countries. Chief Minister N. Biren Singh’s statement, which was also echoed by some civil society groups in the state, alleged that illegal immigrants from Myanmar was a key factor for triggering ethnic strife in the state between the majority Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities.
Incidentally, the government scrapped the Free Movement Regime (FMR) with Myanmar last year to ensure the "internal security of the country" and to maintain the "demographic structure" of India’s northeastern states that share borders with Myanmar. The FMR allowed citizens from one country to travel up to a distance of 16 kilometers (10 miles approximately) on the other side for a stipulated period.
An important reason for the PAP’s reimposition in Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland seems to be what Indian government sources allege as "suspicious activities" of foreign nationals over the past several years.
"There were many episodes when foreign citizens were found engaging in activities harmful to the interests of the country. Some among them have even gone to the extent of provoking the citizens of these states to consider themselves as belonging to another country," an official claimed. Describing the example of Daniel Stephen Courney’s secret visit to Manipur as alarming, the official said it had prompted the government to fast-track the decision to reimpose PAP in the three states.
An evangelist from the U.S., Courney’s visit to Manipur created a flutter among security agencies in Manipur and New Delhi. A video circulated which showed him distributing a drone, socks and bullet-proof vests to militants in Manipur. The report also quotes from his YouTube channel "Fool For Christ" where he claims that he had visited "war zones" in the state of Chhattisgarh.
Indian government sources claimed that Courney hails from New Jersey in the U.S. and had served in the U.S. military for some years before leaving his job to become a full-time evangelist. The video was shot during a secret visit to Manipur in the latter part of 2023 from Thailand through Myanmar.
In another incident in end-2022, four foreign nationals from Canada and the U.S. were apprehended by the Indian border police along Manipur’s border with Myanmar as they were about to cross over to the neighboring country. They were interrogated and instructed to exit from the state immediately.
The governments of the three states have reacted differently to the central government’s decision to reimpose the PAR. The Nagaland and Mizoram governments have urged the central government to exclude their state from the purview of the regime. The ruling Zoram People’s Movement of Mizoram has said that the flow of tourists to the state could be adversely impacted by PAR’s reimposition. India-Europe corridor push resumes, delayed by Middle East war (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [1/13/2025 11:52 AM, Satoshi Iwaki, 1286K, Negative]
Plans for an India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), first floated in 2023, are taking shape as the U.S. and others seek an alternative to China’s Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, though funding and geopolitical hurdles remain.The two segments of the project, connecting India with the Persian Gulf region and the Gulf with Europe, will result in "a transformative integration of Asia, Europe and Middle East," Kirti Vardhan Singh, an Indian minister of state for external affairs, said in the country’s parliament on Dec. 20.IMEC was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden at the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi in September 2023. India, the U.S., Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding to work on the project.They plan to build an economic corridor from the Indian Ocean to the Arabian Peninsula, passing through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel to the Mediterranean Sea and Europe.The corridor’s logistical needs include a rail line connecting the Gulf region and Arabian Sea ports to the port of Haifa in Israel. The project also will require power transmission networks, communication networks and pipelines for hydrogen exports.The project stalled just one month after the U.S.-India announcement due to fighting between Hamas and Israel, which led to delays in discussions among Middle Eastern countries.But plans are now moving forward. Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, met with Modi in India last month and agreed to proceed with IMEC, calling it a historic initiative.South Asia Gas Enterprise, an Indian energy company, is building an undersea natural gas pipeline connecting the country’s western state of Gujarat with Oman, a distance of about 1,200 kilometers. Surveying for the pipeline was completed at the end of last year, and the project soon advances to the basic design phase, according to local reports.IMEC is intended to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative. As Beijing extends its reach into the Middle East, including by mediating the restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the U.S. has been looking for ways to contain China’s influence.India is wary of the Chinese navy, which has been moving aggressively in nearby waters, and sees the potential for IMEC to also play a role in maritime security.Europe’s interest in IMEC has grown as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags on. With less Russian natural gas flowing into Europe, the bloc is looking to liquefied natural gas from the Gulf as an alternative.Italy, which was the only Group of Seven country to participate in Belt and Road, withdrew from it at the end of 2023. Rome is now taking the lead in efforts to establish IMEC, with Italian Ambassador to India Antonio Bartoli saying the project will promote stability in the Middle East and foster common prosperity.France sent Gerard Mestrallet, former CEO of energy company GDF Suez, as a special envoy to India in 2024. He signaled plans to make Marseille, France’s largest port city, the end point of IMEC, calling it one of the most important infrastructure projects of the century.Middle Eastern attitudes toward the project are complicated. Kabir Taneja of Indian think tank Observer Research Foundation said that India would like to tap into the economic development undertaken by the UAE and Saudi Arabia.But Turkey, which is proud of traditionally playing a central role in transporting goods between Europe and Asia, has voiced opposition to the corridor, which in its current form would bypass the country."We say that there is no corridor without Turkey," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in September 2023.Egypt, which earns foreign currency from tolls through the Suez Canal, is also wary of the project. Europe and India reducing their dependence on the canal would be a major blow to Egypt’s finances.The biggest problem facing IMEC is fundraising. Initial estimates put the cost of each leg of the corridor between $3 billion and $8 billion, but some think those figures could balloon. Unlike Belt and Road, which China funds and oversees alone, IMEC requires cross-border cooperation from various countries and companies."The participation of international financial institutions like development banks is essential to attract private investment," said Naoyoshi Noguchi, a director of the Institute for International Trade and Investment. "Japan should also explore opportunities to utilize it [IMEC] as economic security infrastructure." NSB
Party of Bangladesh’s former PM Khaleda urges elections by Aug (Reuters)
Reuters [1/14/2025 4:07 AM, Staff, 5.2M, Neutral]
Bangladesh’s interim government should hold general elections by August in the "greater interest of the country," the party of former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia said on Tuesday, citing growing political and economic instability.The interim government led by Nobel Peace laureate Muhammad Yunus has ruled the South Asian nation since August, when mass protests forced its then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to resign and flee to neighbouring India.Yunus has said elections might be possible by the end of 2025, but only following electoral reforms.There was no reason to delay elections any further, however, said Khaleda’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), one of the main political parties, besides Hasina’s Awami League."BNP wants elections in the middle of this year," its secretary general, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, told a press conference. "The longer the elections are delayed, the deeper the political and economic crisis will become."The BNP is among the opposition parties pushing for earlier elections. The poll would be feasible in July or August, Alamgir added, if the Election Reform Commission submitted its report in time."Reform is an ongoing process," he added. "It will continue."Hasina and her Awami League party face legal challenges, including trials for mass killings, graft, and other charges, and many of its top leaders are in hiding.Rushing through these trials without thorough scrutiny could undermine their legitimacy, Alamgir added."If trials are done in a hurry, it will be questionable," he said in reply to a question.Hasina’s son, Sajeeb Wazed, has said in the past he was happy for elections to be held by early 2026, as suggested by the army chief, which would make for a period of 18 months since the interim government took over. Tulip Siddiq faces fresh corruption investigation in Bangladesh (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [1/13/2025 3:08 PM, Samaan Lateef and Neil Johnston, 714K, Negative]
Tulip Siddiq has been named by investigators in Bangladesh in a second corruption investigation over a plot of land her family received “illegally” from her despot aunt’s government.Bangladesh’s anti-corruption commission (ACC) believes Ms Siddiq, Sir Keir Starmer’s anti-corruption minister, used “her influence” while serving as an MP to obtain the land for her mother, Sheikh Rehana, and two additional plots for her siblings.The claim is separate from a £4 billion embezzlement investigation by the anti-corruption commission into a nuclear deal struck by Sheikh Hasina, the ousted prime minister of Bangladesh, in which Ms Siddiq has also been named but which sources close to the minister have dismissed as “spurious”.Ms Siddiq is the niece of Hasina, the longest-serving prime minister of Bangladesh, who is now in India after being ousted last year. During her 15-year tenure, opponents were attacked, arrested and secretly imprisoned as the regime carried out extrajudicial killings.Ms Siddiq is under increasing pressure over ties to her aunt and the use of properties in London, which have been linked to allies of Ms Hasina.On Monday, the ACC said it intended to file a case against Ms Siddiq and others over the allocation of plots of land in the diplomatic zone of the capital Dhaka from the government of Hasina.Aktarul Islam, a spokesman for the commission, told The Telegraph Ms Siddiq is accused of involvement in the illegal allocation of a plot measuring 10 katha, or 7,200 square feet, from a scheme called the Purbachal New Town Project.The first information report seen by The Telegraph says that Muhammad Salahuddin, deputy director of the commission, has declared that Ms Siddiq used her influence over the project.“I Muhammad Salahuddin, deputy director, ACC, hereby declare that Tulip Siddiq by virtue of her direct influence and special power forced the Bangladesh officials to take measures for the allotment of plots for her family members in the project,” it says.ACC officials said Hasina allegedly allocated plots under political considerations in 2022 in collaboration with senior officials of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), the capital development authority of Bangladesh.Rajuk is responsible for urban planning, development, and regulation of construction within the Dhaka metropolitan development area.Mr Islam said: “Ms Tulip Rizwana Siddiq, while serving as a [British] MP, used her special authority to influence Sheikh Hasina, the ex-prime minister, to obtain a plot for her mother Sheikh Rehana, and two additional plots for her siblings.”He further explained that Ms Rehana already owned a house in Dhaka, making it illegal under Rajuk rules to acquire an additional plot for residential purposes.“Despite this, Tulip used her influence to have the plots allocated to her mother and siblings on Oct 10 2022,” he said. “We have listed her as an accused in this fraudulent activity.”Akhtar Hossain, director general of the ACC, said that Hasina, her sister Ms Rehana, and Ms Rehana’s eldest daughter, Ms Siddiq, along with officials from Rajuk and the ministry of housing and public works, had been named as the accused in corruption cases.Mr Hossain stated that the ACC investigation team recommended filing a case against Ms Siddiq for allegedly using her influence to unlawfully secure land allocations for her family by leveraging the authority of her aunt.According to the investigation, Ms Siddiq, along with her siblings Bobby and Azmina, is accused of using her influence relating to three plots of land, each measuring 10 katha, totalling 30 katha. These plots are situated on Road 203 in the diplomatic zone of Sector 27, part of the Purbachal New Town Project.Mr Hossain further disclosed: “In the case against Rehana (Tulip’s mother), 15 individuals have been named as accused, while 16 individuals have been implicated in each case concerning Bobby and Azmina.”In 2008, Rajuk announced through public advertisements that it would allocate plots under the Purbachal New Town Project.As per the provisions of Rajuk, a designated committee oversees the allocation process, ensuring plots are granted to eligible applicants. These provisions also mandate Rajuk to publish the list of successful applicants in newspapers for transparency.However, an ACC inquiry revealed that the published lists did not include the names of Hasina or any of her family members.According to the rules, individuals who own a house, flat, or other residential property within the development authority’s jurisdiction in Dhaka city are ineligible for additional plots. These regulations extend to family members of such property owners. Allocation of plots
However, the ACC believes that Hasina facilitated the allocation of plots in her name and those of her family members in collusion with senior officials.
These allocations reportedly involved irregularities and corruption during her tenure as prime minister and were allocated on various dates in 2022.
It comes after Sir Keir, the Prime Minister, was urged to “get a grip” and sack Ms Siddiq amid allegations over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt’s former Bangladeshi regime.
The anti-corruption minister has faced questions over her links to the Awami League, which is led by Hasina.
Ms Siddiq denied all wrongdoing and said any suggestion that her ownership of properties was linked to support for the party was “categorically wrong”.
However, Sir Keir, with whom she is a close personal friend, has been told that the minister cannot do her job “effectively” as a result of the allegations.
Labour Party posters and flyers produced by Ms Siddiq were also found in the ruins of Ganabhaban, her aunt’s formal official residence in Dhaka.
The Sunday Times reported that under the rubble, left when the site was stormed during a popular uprising last year, was a thank you note to local Labour Party members following Ms Siddiq’s election as MP for Hampstead and Kilburn.
Ms Siddiq has already referred herself to Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser of ministerial standards, who is examining claims surrounding her use of two flats in London.
It is unclear whether Sir Laurie will examine allegations in Bangladesh or only the claims around Ms Siddiq’s properties in the UK.
Asked about the plots in Bangladesh, a spokesman for Ms Siddiq said: “Tulip Siddiq has self-reported to the independent adviser on ministerial standards to independently establish the facts on these matters.
“She is clear that she has done nothing wrong. It would be inappropriate to comment further while that process is ongoing.”
UK’s Starmer Urged To Fire Minister Hit By Bangladesh Graft Probe (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [1/13/2025 5:38 PM, Staff, 9355K, Negative]
Britain’s Keir Starmer faced fresh pressure on Monday to sack his anti-corruption minister Tulip Siddiq, as Bangladesh’s corruption watchdog filed new cases against her and her aunt, the country’s ousted leader Sheikh Hasina.
Siddiq, 42, has been dogged by claims about her links to Hasina, who fled Bangladesh last August after a student-led uprising against her decades-long, increasingly authoritarian tenure as prime minister.
Hasina, 77, has defied extradition requests to face Bangladeshi charges including mass murder.
On Monday, Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission announced she and family members including Siddiq were subject to another corruption investigation, this time over an alleged land grab of lucrative plots in a suburb of the capital Dhaka.
Family members including Siddiq had already emerged as named targets of the commission’s investigation into accusations of embezzlement of US$5 billion connected to a Russian-funded nuclear power plant.Bangladeshi money laundering investigators have since ordered the country’s big banks to hand over details of transactions relating to Siddiq as part of the probe.Earlier this month, the UK minister referred herself to Starmer’s standards adviser, following the flurry of allegations, which also included that she lived in properties linked to her aunt’s Awami League party.Siddiq has insisted that she has done nothing wrong.Asked Monday whether her position in the UK government remained tenable, senior British minister Pat McFadden told Sky News she had "done the right thing" with the self-referral.He insisted the standards adviser had the powers to "carry out investigations into allegations like this"."That is what he is doing, and that is the right way to deal with this," McFadden said.However, following further accusations in British newspapers over the weekend, UK opposition politicians want Siddiq fired."I think it’s untenable for her to carry out her role," the Conservatives’ finance spokesman Mel Stride told Times Radio on Sunday.The party’s business spokesman Andrew Griffith sought to focus the spotlight on Starmer, arguing Monday it was "about the tone at the top"."Remember he called himself ‘Mr Rules’, ‘Mr Integrity’," he told LBC News, referring to Starmer’s pitch to voters before last year’s general election that he represented a break with years of Tory scandals.Siddiq is an MP for a north London constituency whose ministerial job is part of the finance ministry and responsible for the UK’s financial services sector as well as anti-corruption measures.Over the weekend, a Sunday Times investigation revealed details about the claims that she spent years living in a London flat bought by an offshore company connected to two Bangladeshi businessmen.The flat was eventually transferred as a gift to a Bangladeshi lawyer with links to Hasina, her family and her ousted government, according to the newspaper.It also reported Siddiq and her family were given or used several other London properties bought by members or associates of the Awami League party.Bangladesh’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel Prize-winning microfinance pioneer who heads a caretaker government, demanded a detailed probe in light of the allegations.He told the newspaper the properties could be linked to wider corruption claims against Hasina’s toppled government, which he said amounted to the "plain robbery" of billions of dollars from Bangladesh’s coffers. Central Asia
Japan joins US and EU in sanctioning Kazakh entity (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [1/13/2025 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Neutral]
Japan is joining its Western partners in sanctioning a Kazakh-registered company for supplying microchips to Russia that have military applications.
The penalty imposed on the Kazakh entity, Da Group 22 LLC, was part of a broader round of sanctions announced by the Japanese government on January 10 designed to curtail Russia’s ability to maintain its war effort in Ukraine. Overall, Japan added 22 Russian organizations and 31 companies from other countries to its sanctions list.
Japanese authorities also added over 300 objects – including engine components for cranes and motorbikes, as well as chemicals potentially useful for the development of chemical weapons – to the list of items prohibited for export to Russia.
Da Group 22 was registered in Astana in March 2022, just weeks after the Russian unprovoked attack on Ukraine. The entity has engaged in “wholesale [distribution] of electronic and telecommunication equipment and spare parts for it,” according to an online register of contractors. The US Treasury Department designated Da Group 22 for sanctions in February of last year; the European Union followed suit last June.
An investigative report published by the Kazakh outlet, Vlast.kz, showed that Da Group 22 funneled dual-use microchips to Russia via convoluted routes that passed through Europe. Trade statistics help shed light on the scale of the operation: in 2021, $35 million worth of components was imported to Kazakhstan, and in 2022, the total value of the same type of components more than doubled, exceeding $75 million. Over the same period, the value of microchip exports from Kazakhstan to Russia skyrocketed from $245,000 to $18 million.
Despite sanctions, Da Group 22 remains in business and Kazakh authorities aren’t showing an inclination to penalize it. A report distributed by the Kazakh news website Informburo.kz quoted a Finance Ministry official as saying the violation of sanctions is not a reason for authorities to force the liquidation of a private enterprise. Kazakh officials have maintained they are complying with Western sanctions, but explain that, given the longstanding trade connections between Russia and Kazakhstan, enforcement is difficult.“Kazakhstan has historical ties with both Russia and Ukraine. Our economies have been interconnected for a long time and it is for this reason that this situation is very difficult for us and for our economy,” then-foreign minister Mukhtar Tleuberdi told reporters in February 2023. “Kazakhstan is a member of the Eurasian Union [trading bloc], we do not have any customs borders between Kazakhstan, Russia and other members of this union.”
Japan is striving to increase its political and economic profile in Central Asia. Last August, Japanese government officials and business leaders presided over the inaugural Central Asian + Japan summit in Astana, signaling Tokyo’s growing interest in regional trade and investment. The gathering featured the announcement of an economic assistance package worth roughly $2 billion to support development of the region’s green energy and digital technology sectors. On the sidelines of the meeting, Japan’s Bank for International Cooperation signed individual development agreements with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan says part of Aral Sea has nearly doubled in volume (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [1/13/2025 12:31 PM, Staff, 9349K, Negative]
Kazakhstan said on Monday the northern part of the Aral Sea had nearly doubled in volume since 2008, a rare environmental success story in a region plagued by pollution. The Aral Sea between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan was once the fourth largest lake in the world, before Soviet irrigation projects caused most of it to dry up.The transformation of the freshwater sea -- once 40 metres (130 feet) deep and spanning 68,000 square kilometres (176,000 square miles) -- has been dubbed one of the world’s worst environmental catastrophes.Since 2008, the volume of water in the northern, smaller part of the sea has "increased by 42 percent and reached 27 billion cubic metres (950 billion cubic feet)", the Central Asian republic’s water resources ministry said.This was "thanks to the implementation of Phase One of the (Northern) Aral Sea conservation project", the ministry told AFP.The scheme, funded jointly by the Kazakh government and the World Bank, has involved constructing new infrastructure to prevent water flowing out of the sea.In 2024 alone, authorities directed 2.6 billion cubic metres of water from the Syr Darya river into the northern part, reducing the salinity of the water by a factor of almost four and promoting aquatic life, it said.Efforts to save the Aral Sea have required close cooperation between the five former Soviet republics of Central Asia, who set annual water quotas for the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, the two rivers that feed the Aral.Under the Soviet Union, the rivers were diverted to use for agriculture -- mainly for cotton and rice cultivation, causing the sea to shrink by up to 90 percent in size from the 1960s to the 2010s.By the late 1980s, the sea had split into two sections -- a larger section on the Uzbek side that has mostly dried out and a smaller section in the northern Kazakh side which has become the focus of conservation efforts.The drying of the Aral Sea has caused multiple animal species to go extinct and virtually ended human activity in the area.In addition, winds have carried tens of millions of tonnes of salt and toxic dust from the dried-up lake bed across Central Asia, causing cancer and respiratory diseases. Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats Under Pressure (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [1/13/2025 10:06 AM, Catherine Putz, 857K, Negative]
Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats are being subjected to "political terror," prominent party member Kadyr Atambayev said in a Facebook post after learning that fellow member Zhanna Samysheva had been detained on January 12 in a Bishkek cafe.
The next day, Atambayev – son of former President Almazbek Atambayev – reported that another Social Democrat had been detained: Anarbek Kataganov.
According to RFE/RL’s Kyrgyz Service, Radio Azattyk, Samysheva’s lawyer said on January 13 that their client had been questioned as a witness in a criminal case related to vote-buying and had been related.
The Social Democrats’ leader Temirlan Sultanbekov, and two other members, Irina Karamushkina and Roza Turksever, were arrested on November 13, suspected of a vote-buying scheme. The case stemmed from a clip of leaked audio of a conversation allegedly between Karamushkina and a candidate in which they appear to discuss buying votes. Party members contest that the two were talking about paying the salaries of campaigners.
Nevertheless, the party was rapidly disqualified from participating in the Bishkek City Council elections held on November 17.
The detentions of Sultanbekov, Karamushkina, and Turksever were extended on January 9 until February 13. Sultanbekov has been on a hunger strike for more than 50 days, with supporters and medical professionals expressing grave concern for his health.
Kyrgyzstan is due for a parliamentary election in 2025; a date has not been set.
The country’s last parliamentary election took place in late November 2021, more than a year after the October 2020 parliamentary election touched off the country’s third revolution – and brought Sadyr Japarov to power. The events of 2020 upended Kyrgyz politics once again, with Japarov spearheading a referendum that swung the country back toward a presidential system after its decade dalliance with parliamentarism, followed by a constitutional re-write.
Ten years ago, Kyrgyzstan’s Social Democrats were riding high. The Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan (SDPK) held 38 seats in the country’s parliament after the 2015 election. It was far from a majority in then then-120 seat body, but the SDPK had a plurality. And the party’s founder, Almazbek Atamabyev, was president.
The party fractured after Atamabyev’s presidency, with one faction supporting Atambayev and another that followed his successor, Sooronbay Jeenbekov. Their in-fighting tipped Kyrgyzstan toward another cycle of political chaos, which came to a head in the October 2020 election and its messy aftermath.
In the 2021 election, the Social Democrats – the pro-Atambayev faction that had been formed in 2019 – ran Kadyr Atambayev as their lead candidate. The party won just one seat in the body, which had been trimmed down in the constitutional referendum to 90 seats.
With an election due sometime this year, the criminal case against the Social Democrats’ leadership and the snatching up of party members takes on a darker tone. Uzbekistan launching effort to ban electronic cigarettes (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [1/13/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K, Neutral]
Uzbekistan’s parliament has taken the first step to prohibit e-cigarettes in the country, following Kyrgyzstan, which adopted a ban in late 2024.
The Uzbek bill, approved in its first reading by MPs, would prohibit the use, import, export, manufacture and transport of electronic nicotine delivery systems or their components, according to a January 7 report published by yuz.uz. It is uncertain how the measure would apply to foreign tourists.“Electronic cigarettes, in addition to nicotine, contain 80 different carcinogenic and toxic chemical compounds and heavy metals that cause serious harm to human health and the environment,” the report stated. E-cigarette marketing often targets children, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, an advocacy group.
Kyrgyzstan’s ban on e-cigarettes in set to go into effect in July. Overall, over two dozen nations worldwide have introduced e-cigarette bans, according to the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.
The clampdown on electronic means of consuming tobacco products is at odds with relatively lax attitudes in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan on smoking tobacco.
According to the Tobacco Atlas, a project operating under the auspices of The Johns Hopkins University, just over half of Kyrgyzstan’s male citizens are tobacco smokers, according to the most recent available data, and over 13 percent of deaths each year are linked to tobacco use. In Uzbekistan, just over 20 percent of males are tobacco smokers, and 8.5 percent of deaths annually are linked to tobacco use. The number of regular female smokers in both countries is comparatively small. Indo-Pacific
The Quad needs a functional two-ocean strategy in the Indo-Pacific (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [1/14/2025 2:05 AM, Don McLain Gill, 1.3M, Neutral]
The coastguards of the Quad nations -- the U.S., Japan, India and Australia -- will this month undertake their first joint drills at the Port of Yokohama, near Tokyo. Amid growing concerns over the utility and effectiveness of the group as a maritime security provider in the region, the mission is a welcome development aimed at enhancing interoperability between the four democracies and contributing more significantly to maritime safety.
However, to succeed, the Quad must operationalize a functional and persistent two-ocean strategy if its members are truly committed to keeping the Indo-Pacific’s maritime domain rules-based amid China’s disruptive behavior at sea.
Being home to vital chokepoints, sea lines of communication (SLOC), marine and energy resources, and disputed maritime territory, the Indo-Pacific must be contextualized based on the interdependent security dynamics of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Moreover, at the heart of the Indo-Pacific construct lies the intent of like-minded nations to preserve, maintain and strengthen the established rules-based order to manage its critical maritime dimensions based on international law rather than narrowly driven revisionist ambitions. Consequently, the reemergence of the Quad was catalyzed by this objective.
Whether or not the Quad members explicitly state it, China’s assertive expansionism is the most immediate challenge to the rules-based order of the Indo-Pacific’s maritime domain.
The location selected for the inaugural exercise reflects the worsening security conditions in the western Pacific due to China’s coercion. Given its geographic advantage, Beijing, through its coast guard, navy and maritime militia, has been pursuing a de facto occupation of key areas under the exclusive economic zones (EEZ) of its Southeast and East Asian neighbors. For instance, the past two years have seen increased escalatory activities by the China Coast Guard (CCG) against Philippine ships and fisherfolk in the Southeast Asian nation’s EEZ.
Similarly, Vietnam has been at the receiving end of China’s aggression. In October, China’s maritime force beat Vietnamese fishermen with metal rods close to the Paracel Islands. In the East China Sea, Beijing has also escalated tensions with Japan -- a Chinese military spy plane in August violated Japanese airspace for the first time off islands in the southwestern prefecture of Nagasaki. This was followed by a Chinese navy survey ship entering Japan’s territorial waters. Similar intrusions also occur vis-a-vis Taiwan, albeit on a much larger scale and more frequently. Beijing’s position has also emboldened countries like North Korea and Russia to engage in provocative activities in the region.
Therefore, because of the vulnerability of Southeast and East Asian nations to China’s coercive behavior, it is understandable why various minilateral security arrangements such as the Australia-U.K.-U.S. (AUKUS), Japan-Philippines-U.S. (JAPHUS), U.S.-Japan-Philippines-Australia (the "Squad"), and Japan-South Korea-U.S. (JAROKUS) concentrate their efforts in the western Pacific.
In fact, the Quad’s primary statements have been on affirming the significance of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to expressing concerns over China’s belligerence in the East and South China Seas. At the same time, the Quad’s notable projects have mainly focused on Southeast Asia. However, without utilizing a holistic approach that incorporates the interconnected security of the Indo-Pacific, merely trying to check China in its geographic locus of power will not be practical.
While the western Pacific is the fulcrum of China’s power projection, the Indian Ocean is also a significant element in its strategic calculations. The domestic legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party is anchored in its capacity to sustain national economic growth amid rising energy demands. Possessing over 30% of global manufacturing and a fast-expanding military, China has attributed energy security as a vital component in its foreign and security policy.
As an energy import-dependent country, China gets over 60% of its energy needs from western Asia and Africa, and most of these imports traverse through the Indian Ocean. However, China’s limited access to the Indian Ocean has always been a critical source of vulnerability. Former Chinese President Hu Jintao stated this vulnerability in 2003 when he used the term "Malacca dilemma" to explain the geographical constraints of China in forging direct linkages with oil-producing nations due to its operational constraints in the Indian Ocean.
However, since 2008, China has endeavored to expand its navy’s far-sea operations into the Indian Ocean to monitor its vital SLOC. Beijing established its first offshore naval base in Djibouti in 2017 to bolster its naval presence while also increasing its military presence in ports in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. It has also invested in port development projects in Sudan, Kenya, Mozambique and Comoros. More recently, China has also been trying to emulate its unfair fishing practices in the South China Sea in the western Indian Ocean region. Nevertheless, despite its efforts, China’s military is limited in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the Quad needs to leverage China’s energy insecurity and military limitations in the Indian Ocean.
Unlike in the Pacific, there is an absence of like-minded minilateral security arrangements around the Indian Ocean. Despite the Quad being an arrangement for the Indo-Pacific, its operations remain asymmetrically tilted to the eastern section of the region. This is likely due to the varied Indo-Pacific visions of particular Quad members.For instance, the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy does not include the entire Indian Ocean but only its east. Additionally, the Quad’s Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) program is also limited to the eastern Indian Ocean.
Another reason is geography. India is the only quad member located in the Indian Ocean. Therefore, the Indian Navy and the Indian Coast Guard function as the traditional security providers of the maritime space. While exercises with names such as MALABAR and MILAN bring Quad navies together in the Indian Ocean, they are not enough to impose the right amount of cost on China due the lack of persistence and long-term roadmap. As the balance of naval power in the Indian Ocean is still in India’s favor, China has been trying to offset its limitations by investing more in the area. However, given the lack of pressure in the Indian Ocean, China can consolidate its military force in the East and South China Seas, where it also enjoys a clear geographic advantage.
Therefore, Quad members must overcome these loopholes and muster the needed political will to maximize the geographic dimensions of its Indo-Pacific strategy by forging a more functional maritime security framework that aims to generate risk and pressure on China’s expansionism.
By keeping a collective, active and constant coast guard and naval presence in the vital chokepoints of the Indian Ocean, Quad countries can impose significant costs on China. This may also serve as a practical deterrent against its aggressive activities in the western Pacific. For the Quad, doing so will allow its members to exercise freedom of navigation and maritime safety operations that will push China to disperse its maritime assets, leading to a potential strain on its naval and coast guard presence in the western Pacific.
Thus, while the inaugural exercise in Yokohama is a vital development, Quad countries must collectively leverage the interdependent security architecture of the Indo-Pacific in order to impose more costs on China. More importantly, these efforts must be sustained to ensure its long-term effectiveness.
By utilizing a functional two-ocean strategy, the Quad will be able to incorporate a more holistic regional approach aimed at curbing China’s free run in the western Pacific. Twitter
Afghanistan
Amrullah Saleh@AmrullahSaleh2
[1/13/2025 11:22 AM, 1.2M followers, 44 retweets, 232 likes]
Respected foreign governments: Afghanistan is suffering through a profound crisis, with the Taliban’s empowerment challenging the nation’s rich fabric of cultural and ethnic diversity. This empowerment, tragically tied to geopolitics, has sown seeds of instability and suffering. Recognizing this crisis is vital for sound policy-making; overlooking it could lead to significant mistakes. Please note that there is no state in Afghanistan; the conflict fundamentally pits the Taliban against the populace. The Doha deal, rightly perceived as a conspiracy, is now faltering. The latter is a good news.Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
1/13/2025 3:11 PM, 247.4K followers, 150 retweets, 504 likes]
All support for Afghan women and girl is welcome, but Pakistan hosting a conference on Afghan girls’ education is absurd. Pakistan sheltered, financed, and enabled the Taliban’s return to power, fully aware they would ban girls from schools. It is complicit in this oppression.
Habib Khan@HabibKhanT
[1/13/2025 3:24 AM, 247.4K followers, 1.3K retweets, 5.9K likes]
Afghan men, now outraged over the men’s cricket team boycott, stayed silent when the Taliban dismantled women’s sports teams, shut their gyms, and banned them from all sports. Most Afghan men don’t mind the bans—as long as they target women.
Sara Wahedi@SaraWahedi
[1/13/2025 1:17 PM, 97.7K followers, 219 retweets, 518 likes]
Taliban’s morality police forced 19-year-old Samira to marry her 42-year-old boss after accusing her of ‘immorality’ for waiting outside his shop. Her family disowned her, leaving her trapped in a life of abuse. This is gender apartheid in Afghanistan. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jan/13/afghanistan-women-taliban-forced-marriage-morality-police-kabul-human-rights?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2wNEZ9_dC9CqQDTWiosWpVNfAI-sJSSBFThq0CKwRAjiMRR4f8DOtsnEQ_aem_VRP6faJ8-bsoJaameDlpSQ
Yalda Hakim@SkyYaldaHakim
[1/13/2025 4:39 PM, 218.1K followers, 143 retweets, 532 likes]
This story isn’t going away. Over the weekend the ECB called for the @ICC to take action against Afghanistan. Let’s also not forget that the Afghan women’s team in exile asked the ICC for support to start a team. Will the ICC offer them the help they need? Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/13/2025 7:57 AM, 3.1M followers, 15 retweets, 40 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chairs a meeting on the matters related to Federal Board of Revenue.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[1/13/2025 6:39 AM, 3.1M followers, 21 retweets, 55 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chairs a meeting regarding matters related to the Ministry of Housing and Works.
Madiha Afzal@MadihaAfzal
[1/13/2025 12:27 PM, 43K followers, 2 likes]
Macroeconomic stability may have returned to Pakistan (for now) but it faces a number of major challenges in 2025.
Consider:- a weak relationship with the US, strains with its close friend China, and tensions with Afghanistan- terrorism numbers are the highest in a decade /1
Madiha Afzal@MadihaAfzal
[1/13/2025 12:30 PM, 43K followers, 1 like] - a continuation of zero-sum politics that has absorbed the focus of the govt- a deep paranoia of the online space that has led to the state throttling the internet, resulting in mounting economic losses- continuing democratic decline, most recently with the 26th amendment /2
Madiha Afzal@MadihaAfzal
[1/13/2025 12:34 PM, 43K followers, 1 like]
Where does the country start addressing these formidable challenges? Tackling the political crisis is a good place to start; addressing that will give the state space to address the country’s security challenges as well. More here: https://www.dawn.com/news/1882255/five-for-2025-the-key-challenges-pakistan-must-tackle-head-on-in-the-new-year India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/14/2025 2:13 AM, 104.6M followers, 397 retweets, 2.5K likes]
On Armed Forces Veterans Day, we express gratitude to the brave women and men who dedicated their lives to safeguarding our nation. Their sacrifices, courage and unwavering commitment to duty are exemplary. Our Veterans are heroes and enduring symbols of patriotism. Ours is a Government that has always worked for the welfare of veterans and we will keep doing so in the times to come.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/14/2025 1:06 AM, 104.6M followers, 1.2K retweets, 5.8K likes]
Addressing the 150th Foundation Day celebrations of India Meteorological Department. https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1DXxydjMrWZJM
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/13/2025 10:30 PM, 104.6M followers, 6.5K retweets, 45K likes]
Yesterday, I took part in a very memorable Sankranti and Pongal programme. May this festival strengthen the bonds of togetherness, bring prosperity and inspire us to celebrate our cultural traditions with joy and gratitude.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/13/2025 9:58 AM, 104.6M followers, 3K retweets, 18K likes] Lohri has a special significance for several people, particularly those from Northern India. It symbolises renewal and hope. It is also linked with agriculture and our hardworking farmers. This evening, I had the opportunity to mark Lohri at a programme in Naraina in Delhi. People from different walks of life, particularly youngsters and women, took part in the celebrations. Wishing everyone a happy Lohri!
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/13/2025 9:00 AM, 104.6M followers, 5.3K retweets, 34K likes]
Attended Sankranti and Pongal celebrations at the residence of my ministerial colleague, Shri G. Kishan Reddy Garu. Also witnessed an excellent cultural programme. People across India celebrate Sankranti and Pongal with great fervour. It is a celebration of gratitude, abundance and renewal, deeply rooted in the agricultural traditions of our culture. My best wishes for Sankranti and Pongal. Wishing everyone happiness, good health and a prosperous harvest season ahead. @kishanreddybjp
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/13/2025 7:02 AM, 104.6M followers, 11K retweets, 77K likes]
Inaugurated the Sonamarg Tunnel, which will be a game changer as far as infrastructure for Jammu and Kashmir is concerned. It will boost tourism and commercial activities, which is great for J&K.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[1/13/2025 7:01 AM, 104.6M followers, 3K retweets, 17K likes]
Addressed a public meeting in Sonamarg. Our Government is fully committed to fulfilling the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. We will continue focussing on furthering ‘Ease of Living’ and providing top quality infrastructure.
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[1/14/2025 3:25 AM, 26.3M followers, 46 retweets, 400 likes]
A group of Indian Statistical Service (ISS) probationers called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President said that statistics is not only the backbone of efficient governance but also a tool for socio-economic development. She urged ISS officers to be sensitive to the needs of common people, especially the poor and underprivileged while collecting data.
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn
[1/13/2025 8:08 AM, 26.3M followers, 300 retweets, 1.6K likes]
President Droupadi Murmu virtually inaugurated/launched Cow Induction, Giftmilk and Market support for Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation initiatives of the National Dairy Development Board. The President said that by paying attention to both the number and health of animals, the quality of food products and other products obtained from animals including milk will improve.Rajnath Singh@rajnathsingh
[1/14/2025 3:42 AM, 24.4M followers, 51 retweets, 326 likes]
Addressing the Ex-servicemen on the occasion of ‘Veterans Day’ at Akhnoor (J&K). https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1gqxvNQAaWwxB
Dipanjan R Chaudhury@DipanjanET
[1/12/2025 8:29 PM, 5.8K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Jaishankar to represent India at Trump inauguration: To meet incoming administration to take forward strategic partnership: Agenda could focus on PMs possible trip to USA this year; Trumps India trip & Quad Summit to be hosted by India— I report @ETPolitics
Dipanjan R Chaudhury@DipanjanET
[1/13/2025 10:43 AM, 5.8K followers]
India summons Bangladesh’s top diplomat; says all border protocols & pacts observed. Calls for combating cross border crimes — I report @ETPolitics @PankajSaran11— https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/india-summons-bangladeshs-top-diplomat-says-all-border-protocols-observed/articleshow/117210592.cms NSB
Sabria Chowdhury Balland@sabriaballand
[1/13/2025 11:59 AM, 7.7K followers, 3 retweets, 5 likes]
A Federal Bureau of Investigation probe has found that deposed PM Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed owns eight luxurious cars and he has involvement in five companies. The FBI probe has also found that Hasina and Sajeeb laundered $300 million to the US & UK. #Bangladesh
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka
[1/13/2025 4:41 AM, 38.9K followers, 15 retweets, 11 likes]
Message by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism H.M. Vijitha Herath for Thai Pongal 2025 #DiplomacyLK #lka
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[1/13/2025 1:38 PM, 144.2K followers, 50 retweets, 278 likes]
As we celebrate Thai Pongal, let us reflect on the importance of gratitude towards the Sun, Earth, rain, and cattle for their vital roles in our harvests. This festival embodies renewal and harmony, values that resonate deeply with our ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ initiative. Let’s unite for a prosperous future filled with hope and cultural richness. Wishing all Sri Lankans a joyful and abundant Thai Pongal!
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[1/13/2025 8:58 AM, 144.2K followers, 23 retweets, 219 likes]
While on my state visit to China, I’ve appointed five capable acting ministers to ensure our key ministries continue to function smoothly. I trust that Deputy Ministers Eranga Weeraratne, Aruna Jayasekara, Dr. Anil Jayantha Fernando, Arun Hemachandra, and Dr. Prasanna Kumara Gunasena will handle their responsibilities with dedication.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[1/13/2025 6:02 AM, 144.2K followers, 37 retweets, 215 likes]
Looking forward to my four-day state visit to China, starting tomorrow! I am eager to engage with President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang to strengthen our diplomatic ties and explore opportunities in technology, agriculture, and poverty alleviation. Together, we can enhance our partnership! Central Asia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[1/13/2025 12:12 PM, 210.1K followers, 8 retweets, 20 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev arrived in #AbuDhabi on an official visit, where he was welcomed by HH Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President of the #UAE. Agenda includes high level meetings and participation in the @ADSWagenda summit.
Navbahor Imamova@Navbahor
[1/13/2025 6:05 PM, 210.1K followers, 3 retweets, 4 likes]
Uzbekistan’s Transport Ministry inviting domestic & foreign companies to apply to launch/run these bus routes: Kazakhstan Bukhara-Turkestan, Urgench-Aktau, Fergana-Almaty via Tajikistan; Tajikistan Samarkand-Dushanbe, Bukhara-Dushanbe; Kyrgyzstan Andijan-Osh, Andijan-Jalalabad, Andijan-Arslanbob, Kosonsoy-Jalalabad, Bukhara-Bishkek; Russia Surkhandarya-Bukhara-Urgench-Nukus-Moscow, Urgench-Nukus-Ufa, Nukus-Krasnodar, Tashkent-Ufa, Tashkent-Krasnodar, and China Nukus-Urgench-Bukhara-Urumqi.{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.