epubdos : Afghanistan
SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO:
SCA & Staff
DATE:
Wednesday, January 22, 2025 6:30 AM ET

Afghanistan
Two Americans Freed by Taliban in Prisoner Swap (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [1/21/2025 9:20 AM, Shan Li and Esmatullah Kohsar, 810K, Positive]
As one of its last acts in office, the Biden administration struck a deal to free two Americans held in Afghanistan in exchange for one Taliban member held in a U.S. prison.

The Taliban released Ryan Corbett and William W. McKenty III in exchange for Khan Mohammed, who was serving two life sentences for drug trafficking for the Taliban. The families of both men confirmed their release.

A Trump administration official confirmed the deal happened in the waning hours of the Biden era. “While it was not the deal we would have made, we’re always glad to bring Americans home,” the official said.

In a statement, the Taliban said it appreciated the U.S. for actions “that contribute to the normalization and expansion of relations between the two countries.”

The last-minute deal was the final capstone in Biden’s campaign to release dozens of Americans detained abroad. The Taliban has long wanted Muhammad Rahim al Afghani, an alleged associate of Osama bin Laden now held in Guantanamo, as part of any deal. But talks were in danger of collapsing last week over Biden’s insistence that any trade for Rahim include an American, Mahmoud Habibi, who disappeared in Afghanistan in 2022. The Taliban has denied holding him.

Corbett’s detention has gained public attention as his family pushed for the Biden administration to strike a deal. Earlier this month, his wife, Anna Corbett, had a call with Biden and met with then President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

Before the Taliban takeover in 2021, Corbett lived for years in Afghanistan supervising projects for several nonprofits. He returned in 2022 to work on his microlending and consulting business when he was detained.

His family released a statement on Tuesday saying that Corbett was on his way home and praising both the Trump and Biden administrations, as well as the government of Qatar, for their help in securing his release.

The McKenty family also thanked both administrations and asked for privacy. “This has been an extremely challenging time for our family, and we are relieved to finally have Bill back where he belongs,” said the family.

Two other Americans, Habibi and George Glezmann, remain captive in Afghanistan. Corbett’s family members expressed regret that they were not released.

“It was our hope that Ryan, George and Mahmoud would be returned to their families together,” the statement said. “We cannot imagine the pain that our good fortune will bring to them.”

Negotiations over the prisoner swap with Afghanistan proved one of the most difficult for the Biden administration.

Roger Carstens, Biden’s top hostage negotiator, traveled to Doha, Qatar, this month and offered to exchange two imprisoned Afghans in return for Glezmann and Corbett, an offer that the Taliban rebuffed. In November, Biden authorized a trade for three Americans—Habibi, Corbett and Glezmann—that the Taliban also rejected.

Ahmad Habibi, a brother of Mahmoud, said he was frustrated that the Biden administration failed to secure his brother’s release. “We are confident that the Trump administration will make a greater effort to bring home my brother,” he said.

The released Afghan, Mohammed, was convicted in 2008 on narco-terrorism charges. He was accused of participating in a Taliban plot to obtain rockets to attack a U.S. military base in Afghanistan and selling heroin and opium intended for export to the U.S.
White House cheers release of two Americans freed in a swap with Taliban brokered by Biden, Qatar (AP)
AP [1/21/2025 6:36 PM, Zeke Miller, Jon Gambrell, and Aamer Madhani, 57114K, Neutral]
A prisoner swap between the United States and Afghanistan’s Taliban freed two Americans in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges, officials said Tuesday.

The deal to release two Americans, Ryan Corbett and William McKenty, was brokered by Joe Biden ‘s administration before he left office Monday, according to a Trump administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul said the two U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two life terms in 2008.

Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, on Monday handed power to President Donald Trump. The Taliban praised the swap as a step toward the “normalization” of ties between the U.S. and Afghanistan.

That is likely a tall order, as most countries still don’t recognize the Taliban’s rule and two other Americans are believed held. The Trump White House cheered the release and thanked Qatar for its assistance with the deal while pressing the Taliban to free other Americans.

“The Trump Administration will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement.

U.S., Taliban and Qatar involved in the swap

Corbett, who had lived in Afghanistan with his family when the U.S.-backed government collapsed in 2021, was detained by the Taliban in August 2022 on a business trip.

“Our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family’s statement said. They thanked both Trump and Biden.

Corbett’s family also praised Qatari officials “for their vital role in facilitating Ryan’s release, and for their visits to Ryan as the United States’ Protecting Power in Afghanistan.” Qatar has hosted negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban over the years.

A Qatar Foreign Ministry statement said those who were traded passed through Doha and that it hopes the deal “would pave the way for achieving further understandings” to resolve disputes peacefully.

It was unclear what McKenty was doing in Afghanistan.

Biden administration’s effort to get a deal

Before Biden left office, his administration had been trying to work out a deal to free Corbett, McKenty as well as George Glezmann and Mahmood Habibi, in exchange for Muhammad Rahim, one of the remaining detainees at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Taliban had rejected multiple proposals that also would have included Glezmann and Habibi before accepting the deal to release Corbett and McKenty late last week following negotiations in Qatar, according to a former senior Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The official added that Biden officials found in past negotiations for American detainees in Russia that “one deal can make it easier to get future ones” and that the Trump administration should continue to push the Taliban for Glezmann and Habibi.

Russia had rejected proposals to include American Paul Whelan in separate prisoner swaps that freed Americans Trevor Reed and Britney Griner before ultimately including Whelan in a 24-person deal that included Wall Street Journalist Evan Gershkovich and others.

Glezmann, an airline mechanic from Atlanta, was taken by the Taliban’s intelligence services in December 2022 while traveling through the country. Habibi, an Afghan-American businessman who worked as a contractor for a Kabul-based telecommunications company, also went missing in 2022. The Taliban have denied they have Habibi.

Habibi’s family welcomed the exchange and said they were confident the Trump administration would make a “greater effort” to free him, expressing their frustration with the Biden team.

“We know they have evidence my brother is alive and in Taliban hands and it could have been influential in encouraging the Taliban to admit they have him,” Habibi’s brother Ahmed said in a statement shared by the nonprofit Global Reach.

Biden officials “refused to use” the evidence, he claimed. “We know Trump is about results and we have faith he will use every tool available to get Mahmood home.”

The trade for Corbett and McKenty was originally supposed to take place Sunday night but had to be delayed until Tuesday because of logistical delays, including bad weather, the former Biden administration official said.

Taliban prisoner first convicted of narco-terrorism

Mohammed, 55, was a prisoner in California after his 2008 conviction. The Bureau of Prisons early Tuesday listed Mohammed as not being in their custody.

Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, a Taliban Foreign Ministry deputy spokesperson, said Mohammed had arrived in Afghanistan and was with his family. Photos released by the Taliban showed him being welcomed back in his home province of Nangarhar, in the country’s east, with multicolored garlands.

Mohammed told Taliban-controlled media he had spent time behind bars in Bagram and in Washington.

“It’s a joy seeing your family and coming to your homeland. The greatest joy is to come and join your Muslim brothers,” he said.

He was detained on the battlefield in Nangarhar and later taken to the U.S. A federal jury convicted him on charges of securing heroin and opium that he knew were bound for the United States and, in doing so, assisting terrorism activity.

The Justice Department at the time referred to Mohammed as “a violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker” who “sought to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets.” He was the first person to be convicted on U.S. narco-terrorism laws.

Ahmed Rashid, the author of several books about Afghanistan and the Taliban, described Mohammed as the “biggest drugs smuggler the U.S. had to deal with and key funder of the Taliban.”

Taliban try to gain international recognition

The Taliban called the exchange the result of “long and fruitful negotiations” with the U.S. and said it was a good example of solving problems through dialogue.

“The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalization and development of relations between the two countries,” it said.

The Taliban have been trying to make inroads in being recognized, in part to escape the economic tailspin caused by their takeover. Billions in international funds were frozen, and tens of thousands of highly skilled Afghans fled the country and took their money with them.

However, some nations have welcomed Taliban officials, like the United Arab Emirates, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. On Tuesday, Emirati leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan again welcomed Taliban Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who also heads the Haqqani network, a powerful force within the group blamed for some of the bloodiest attacks against Afghanistan’s former Western-backed government.

Haqqani is still wanted by the U.S. on a bounty of up to $10 million over his involvement in an attack that killed an American citizen and other assaults. The meeting came even as the UAE maintains a close relationship with the U.S.
2 Americans released in exchange for Taliban prisoner (FOX News)
FOX News [1/21/2025 7:31 AM, Stephen Sorace and Alexis McAdams, 57114K, Neutral]
Two Americans have been freed in a prisoner swap between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s Taliban in exchange for a Taliban figure imprisoned for life in California, officials said Tuesday.

The family of Ryan Corbett, one American freed by the Taliban in the deal, told Fox News that he is finally on his way back home to the U.S. after being detained for more than two years ago while on a business trip.

"Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives," a statement from Corbett’s family said.

Corbett’s family thanked both President Trump and former President Biden, along with National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and other current and former government officials.

Fox News is working to confirm the identity of the second American freed in the deal.

Corbett was abducted Aug. 10, 2022, after returning to Afghanistan, where he and his family lived during the collapse of the U.S.-backed government a year prior. He arrived in Afghanistan on a valid 12-month visa to pay and train staff, as part of a business venture he led aimed at promoting Afghanistan’s private sector through consulting services and lending.

Corbett’s family also praised the Middle Eastern nation of Qatar, which hosted negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban over the years, "for their vital role in facilitating Ryan’s release, and for their visits to Ryan as the United States’ Protecting Power in Afghanistan.".

The Taliban’s Foreign Ministry in Kabul confirmed the swap, saying two unidentified U.S. citizens had been exchanged for Khan Mohammed, who was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment in 2008 on drug trafficking and terrorism charges. He was being held in California.

Mohammed was detained on the battlefield in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province. The Justice Department at the time referred to Mohammed as "a violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker" who "sought to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets." He was the first person to be convicted on U.S. narco-terrorism laws.

The deal comes less than a day after President Trump was sworn in as commander in chief, succeeding former President Biden, who oversaw the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

The Taliban called the exchange the result of "long and fruitful negotiations" with the U.S. and said it was a good example of solving problems through dialogue.

"The Islamic Emirate looks positively at the actions of the United States of America that help the normalization and development of relations between the two countries," it said.
Taliban free 2 Americans in prisoner swap with US (VOA)
VOA [1/21/2025 1:19 PM, Ayaz Gul, 2717K, Neutral]
Taliban authorities in Afghanistan announced Tuesday the release of two American nationals as part of a prisoner exchange for one of their members, who was held in the United States on narcotics-terrorism charges.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kabul identified the freed Afghan as Khan Mohammad and described him as a "mujahid," a term the Taliban use for their fighters.

The statement said that the man was arrested nearly two decades ago in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar and subsequently extradited to the U.S., where a federal court convicted him, resulting in his imprisonment for life in California.

The de facto Afghan government did not name the two freed American citizens or specify how many had been freed, but U.S. officials and relatives identified them as Ryan Corbett, 42, and William Wallace McKenty, 69.

"We celebrate the release of Ryan Corbett and William Mckenty, who will soon be reunited with their families and loved ones, and also thank the government of Qatar for their assistance," National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said in Washington.

"The Trump Administration will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years," Hughes said.

"Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives," his family stated Tuesday.

Limited public information is available about McKenty as his family reportedly requested U.S. authorities to maintain his anonymity.

The prisoner exchange was in the making for many months and reportedly occurred during Democratic President Joe Biden’s final hours in office before Republican President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Monday.

Corbett’s family statement praised both the Trump and Biden administrations for their efforts to facilitate the prisoner exchange.

A Trump administration official said that it was informed by the Biden administration of the prisoner exchange deal.

The Taliban said Tuesday that Qatar played an "effective role" in facilitating the agreement.

U.S. officials and relatives have reported that two other American captives, George Glezmann, a former airline mechanic, and Mahmood Habibi, a naturalized American, remain in Taliban custody in Afghanistan.

Habibi and Glezmann were apprehended shortly after a U.S. drone strike in July 2022 killed fugitive al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri in his hideout in an affluent Afghan capital neighborhood.

Glezmann, 65, was lawfully visiting Kabul as a tourist when he was seized by the Taliban’s intelligence services without charge, his relatives said.

Habibi’s family says he was arrested by the Taliban, along with 30 other employees of the company he worked at, following the U.S. drone strike. While his co-workers were released, Habibi’s whereabouts remain unknown, and Taliban officials have refuted claims that he is in their custody.

"It was our hope that Ryan, George, and Mahmoud would be returned to their families together, and we cannot imagine the pain that our good fortune will bring them," Corbett’s family stated Tuesday.

Habibi’s relatives welcomed the reunion of Corbett and McKenty with their families, confident the Trump administration will intensify efforts to secure his freedom from his "wrongful" detention.

"We have reason to be confident Mahmood is alive and in Taliban custody, despite their hollow denials of holding him," his brother Ahmad Habibi said.

Global Reach, a nonprofit organization working with the family of Mahmood Habibi since his arrest, shared the family statement with VOA via email.

"While we are happy for Ryan and William, we are disappointed that Mahmood was not included in the deal," said the organization’s CEO, Mickey Bergman.
Trump order leaves Afghans who were approved to resettle in the US in limbo (ABC News)
ABC News [1/21/2025 4:46 PM, Benjamin Siegel, 33392K, Neutral]
President Donald Trump’s executive order freezing refugee programs could impact thousands of Afghans approved to resettle as refugees in the United States, according to one major advocacy organization.

That includes family members of U.S. service members and Afghans who served alongside the U.S. military in partner forces, as well as others "who in one way or another are connected to the U.S. mission and are at risk through their association with us," Shawn VanDiver, the president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition working to bring Afghans safely out of Afghanistan, told ABC News.

"We have a commitment there," he said. "Our national security promises can’t be conditional based on who is in the Oval Office.".

VanDiver confirmed a Reuters report that nearly 1,660 Afghans cleared to resettle in the U.S. could have their flights canceled. As of Tuesday, the flights have not been canceled as the administration works through the order, which takes effect on Jan. 27.

The program will be suspended for at least 90 days, according to the order, after which the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security will submit a report to the president on whether restarting the program "would be in the interests of the United States.".

If it is suspended indefinitely, it could wind up affecting as many as 30,000 to 40,000 Afghans currently in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Qatar, some of whom could face reprisals from the Taliban for cooperating with American forces, VanDiver said.

America’s "bilateral relationships are at risk here," he said. "Our partners need to be able to trust our word.".

ABC News spoke to half a dozen senators Tuesday about the status of Afghan refugees. Several Republicans -- including Trump allies like Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota -- are in favor of clarifying the order to make sure that thousands of Afghans who helped the U.S. in Afghanistan aren’t left in limbo.

"I’d like to get them back here if there associated with helping our cause," Graham told ABC News.

"I hope they can work through that. The botched withdrawal from Afghanistan was traumatic enough," Cramer said. "One of the reasons was that it left behind so many of our allies.".

The White House, State Department and the National Security Council did not immediately respond to ABC News’ questions about the order and its impact on vetted Afghan refugees.

"I can’t imagine that their intention was to include interpreters and allies in Afghanistan who helped us, and we left them behind," Cramer said, adding that veterans groups have expressed concern to him about the status of Afghans under the new executive order.
‘Lives Are In Danger’: Afghans Devastated By Trump’s Refugee Resettlement Suspension (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/21/2025 11:58 AM, Firuza Azizi, 1089K, Negative]
Humayun Bayat was looking forward to moving to the United States in early February to begin a new chapter in his life.

The young Afghan man, who worked for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was happy to leave Pakistan, where he has lived for the past three years after fleeing the Taliban takeover of neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.

"Our lives are in danger," he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi after his flight to the United States was canceled due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s suspension of U.S. refugee programs on January 20.

"We won’t be able to go to Afghanistan either because I worked against the Taliban," Bayat said.

Jamshid Azizi, who also worked for U.S. forces during the nearly 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, also voiced distress after his planned flight to the United States early next month was canceled.

"We face death in Afghanistan," Azizi said. "We want President Donald Trump not to leave us in limbo.".

Bayat and Azizi are among some 1,660 Afghans who were chosen to move to the United States over the next three months after Washington cleared them for resettlement.

But their flights were canceled after Trump, soon after taking the oath of office on January 20, suspended the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) "until the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.".

"Afghans and advocates are panicking," Shawn VanDiver, a member of the Afghan Evacuation Association, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups, told Reuters.

"We hope they will reconsider," VanDiver said of his organization’s attempts to persuade the new administration to change its views on the issue.

"We are very sad," an Afghan physician who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul told Radio Azadi.

The doctor said his case was "pending" days before his previously planned departure to the United States on January 15.

"We are facing a lot of problems here," he added.

The United States resettled more than 200,000 Afghans in the country following its final withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Most of them worked with the U.S.-led international military coalition or were involved in projects funded by Washington and its allies.

Fears of Deadly Retribution

But thousands of Afghans are still waiting in Pakistan, Gulf states, and Europe for their cases to be resolved.

"I don’t care much about myself. It is my children and wife I am more worried about," one Afghan man living in Pakistan told Radio Azadi. He requested anonymity, citing security concerns.

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He said he fears deadly retribution from the Taliban because the Islamist group ruling Afghanistan considers anyone who supported the U.S. invasion of the country an "infidel.".

An Afghan woman also living in Pakistan said refugees there were facing tremendous pressure. Pakistani authorities have frequently harassed Afghans in apparent retaliation for the Taliban’s refusal to help Islamabad against its Pakistani Taliban allies.

"I hope we receive international support for a safe and stable future," she said.
Aid chief says US aid pause ‘disastrous’ for Afghanistan (Reuters)
Reuters [1/22/2025 4:57 AM, Charlotte Greenfield, 48128K, Neutral]
The head of a major humanitarian organisation said U.S. President Donald Trump’s order to halt foreign aid for 90 days would have immediate and disastrous consequences in Afghanistan where relief operations are already stretched thin.

As he took office on Monday, Trump ordered a temporary pause in foreign development aid pending assessments of efficiencies and consistency with his foreign policy.

The scope of the order was not clear, including whether it applied to Afghanistan’s humanitarian funding, which is channelled through NGOs and United Nations agencies.

Jan Egeland, the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, told Reuters that the decision had left agencies reeling as they braced for further cuts from the biggest donor to Afghanistan.

"A 90-day suspension of all aid, no new grants, no new transfer of funding, will have disastrous consequences immediately ... for an already starved aid operation for very poor and vulnerable girls and women and civilians in Afghanistan," he said during a video interview from Kabul late on Tuesday.

The war-torn nation is home to more than 23 million people requiring humanitarian assistance - more than half the country’s population - but aid has shrunk as donors face competing global crises and diplomats raise concerns about the Taliban’s restrictions on women in most areas of public life, including education and health.

Development funding that formed the backbone of government finances was cut after the Taliban took over and foreign forces left in 2021.

Reuters reported last year that non-governmental groups played a critical role in filling the humanitarian void.

"If you go back in time it was a well funded operation, we got development assistance, then we could have perhaps have lived through three months of suspension, we cannot any more," Egeland said.

Trump told a rally shortly before taking office that aid to Afghanistan would be contingent on getting back billions of dollars of military equipment that U.S. forces left behind.

Egeland said he had raised the issue of female education with Taliban leaders in his four visits to Kabul since they took control of the country. In his last trip he said he told them they must open schools and universities to all girls and women.

"You cannot not educate half your population," he said.

The Taliban have also banned Afghan women from working at NGOs since 2022, reiterating that position in a second announcement late last year.

Egeland said that in practice his organisation and others were able to work around the restrictions.

But that a lack of funding put that at risk.

"What is not understood in Western capitals is that recently, laying off female staff, laying off girls and women (recipients) is not the Taliban ban ... it is the cutting of aid," he said.
Pakistan
Pakistan says it has agreed $1 bln loan with two Middle Eastern banks (Reuters)
Reuters [1/21/2025 11:21 AM, Elisa Martinuzzi, 48128K, Neutral]
Pakistan has agreed terms for a $1 billion loan with two Middle Eastern banks at a 6%-7% interest rate, its Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Reuters on Tuesday, as the South Asian country looks for more financing.

"With two institutions we have now gone forward in signing up the term sheet - one bilateral and one for trade (finance)," Aurangzeb said during an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.

The loans were short-term, or up to one year, Aurangzeb added.

The country’s central bank chief told Reuters in August that Pakistan aimed to raise up to $4 billion from Middle Eastern commercial banks by the next fiscal year.

Aurangzeb added that Pakistan was aiming to discuss with ratings agencies a move towards a single B rating, and hoping to see an upgrade in the months to come.

"Ideally I would like to think that some action in this direction can take place before our fiscal year is over, which is this June," he said.

Moody’s upgraded Pakistan’s ratings to ‘Caa2’ in August, citing improving macroeconomic conditions, and Fitch raised its rating to CCC+ in July following the IMF staff level agreement.

However, both these ratings are still deep in sub-investment grade - or "junk" - territory.

IMF Hopes

Pakistan aims to boost its finances after securing a $7 billion International Monetary Fund bailout in September 2024, with the first review set for late February.

"We have the first formal review of the EFF coming through towards (the) end of February," Aurangzeb said. "I do think we are in good stead for that review.".

IMF extended fund facilities (EFFs) provide financial assistance to countries facing serious medium-term balance of payments problems resulting from structural weaknesses that require time to address.

In October, Aurangzeb said Islamabad had made a formal request for around $1 billion in funding from the IMF via its Resilience and Sustainability Trust.

The RST, created in 2022, provides long-term concessional cash for climate-related spending, such as adaptation and transitioning to cleaner energy. Pakistan is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index.

Aurangzeb said Islamabad will take discussions forward on RST financing when the IMF mission visits for the first review of the EFF programme.

"I’m hoping in the next sort of six to nine months, we can get there with the Fund as well," said Aurangzeb.

Cash-strapped Pakistan failed last year at an attempt to offload a 60% stake in its debt-ridden flag carrier, Pakistan International Airlines (PIAHa.PSX) which is part of an effort to raise funds and reform state-owned enterprises as envisaged under the ongoing bailout programme.

"In the next five to six months we should get to a good outcome," said Aurangzeb, referring to the privatisation of PIA.

He cited better business prospects after the EU aviation regulator lifted its 4-1/2 year ban on the flag carrier, with flights to Europe resuming this month.
Imran Khan aide named in corruption case says he was pressured to testify against former PM (The Independent)
The Independent [1/21/2025 5:57 AM, Maroosha Muzaffar, 57769K, Negative]
Days after Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 and seven years in prison respectively in a real estate corruption case, one of Khan’s closest aides says he was offered a lucrative deal to testify against the former Pakistan prime minister.

Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari is Khan’s international media adviser, and is based in London due to fears that – like many other officials in Khan’s Pakistan Threek-e-Insaf (PTI) party – he could be detained if he returns to Pakistan.

He is also one of the named defendants in the case that saw Khan and his wife convicted on Friday of obtaining land worth billions of rupees from powerful property tycoon Malik Riaz, in a deal that allegedly cost the national exchequer about Rs 50bn (£190m).

The allegations surfaced after Riaz made an agreement with the UK’s National Crime Agency in December 2019 to hand over assets, including properties, in a case linked to money laundering. Instead of depositing the funds into Pakistan’s treasury, Khan’s government allegedly used them to pay fines related to a separate land acquisition case in Karachi.

The case is arguably the most significant in dozens that have been filed against Khan since he was ousted as prime minister in 2022. In Pakistan it is known as the Al-Qadir Trust case after the welfare organisation founded by Khan and his wife that was said to have received land from Riaz. Prosecutors accused Khan, Bushra Bibi, Bukhari and others of a key role in the illicit transfer of state funds for private gain.

Khan denies any wrongdoing and says all the charges against him are designed to keep him and his party from power. Convictions in three other major cases have all either been overturned or suspended by higher courts.

Bukhari tells The Independent he faced "lots of pressure" from the authorities to turn witness against Khan in the Al-Qadir Trust case. "Anybody whose name is involved in this case was offered all sorts of deals (to testify) against Imran Khan. Luckily, none of them took that offer – not the businessman, not myself," he says.

As well as the offer of lucrative deals, Bukhari says he faced various forms of harassment back home in Pakistan, "from kidnapping family members, destroying homes, businesses, blocking bank accounts, stripping me of all my land... no pressure tactic was left".

"It was a two-pronged attack – carrot and a stick.".

Riaz is said to have provided land in Jhelum, Punjab and the capital Islamabad, including 458 kanals (roughly 57 acres) that was acquired to set up the Al-Qadir University, run by the trust of the same name.

"The Al-Qadir Trust case centres around the establishment of Al-Qadir University, which currently educates over 300 students... this is a nonprofit organisation... Imran Khan and his wife are not any form of beneficiaries of it. They don’t receive any wages, salaries or retainers from this trust. It is simply non-profitable at the moment," Bukhari says.

Bukhari argues that the case does not involve personal financial gain as the funds in question remain in the Supreme Court’s custody. "The £190m, which was sent from businessman Malik Riaz, is sitting with the Supreme Court of Pakistan. That money is actually earning interest in the Supreme Court’s account. That interest benefits the government and the judicial system," he says.

"So this whole narrative that is being spread that that money has been used or put into Mr Malik Riaz’s account, or Imran Khan’s, or his wife’s, or anyone else’s for that matter, is absolute rubbish.".

Khan told the media at Adiyala prison in Rawalpindi, where he has been detained since 2023, that Bukhari was offered a lucrative deal to testify against him "in cases like Al-Qadir Trust, but he outrightly refused", which he said has resulted in "business destroyed, family members displaced".

"He’s always been a key player of my team," Khan said.

He said that Bukhari "had requested to appear in this case via video link or embassy because if he came to Pakistan, the court would not protect him and like the rest, he would be arrested or kidnapped and tortured. Zulfi Bukhari’s house was illegally raided and vandalised, the family was harassed and deals were offered.".

Bukhari says he was only added to the case as a defendant because he refused to travel to Pakistan to appear as a witness in court.

Pakistan’s authorities have consistently denied that the allegations against Khan are politically motivated. In 2023 Marriyum Aurangzeb, the minister of information and broadcasting, told BBC News: "You have to be accountable for your deeds in law. This has nothing to do with politics. A person who has been proven guilty by the court has to be arrested.".

Prime minister Shahbaz Sharif, whose party orchestrated Khan’s ousting in 2022 through a vote of no confidence in parliament, has called Khan a "fraudster" and the "biggest liar in Pakistan’s history".

‘I know they will put me in jail’: Imran Khan speaks to The Independent.

On Friday, speaking about the corruption conviction from inside his jail cell, Khan said: "Today’s verdict has tarnished the reputation of the judiciary. In this case, neither I benefited nor the government lost. I don’t want any relief and I will face all cases.".

He claimed "a dictator is doing all this". "My wife is a housewife, who has nothing to do with this phoney case and she has been given this sentence to infuriate me," Khan said. "Dragging housewives into politics is shameful and against our traditions. Bushra Begum is a woman with strong nerves, she is not my weakness but my strength.".

PTI said Khan’s legal team planned to file an appeal against the Al-Qadir case judgement in the Islamabad High Court later this week. On Tuesday they issued a statement warning that if the PTI founder and his wife were not released promptly, and if prime minister Sharif and his associates persisted in their "stubbornness", a new political crisis would grip the nation.
Lawmakers in Pakistan’s Punjab impose total ban on kite fliers over safety concerns (AP)
AP [1/21/2025 7:05 AM, Staff, 33392K, Neutral]
Lawmakers in Pakistan’s most populous Punjab province on Tuesday passed a law permanently banning kite flying.

The measure, which includes enhanced prison terms and heavy fines on kite fliers and kite manufacturers, comes ahead of the decades-old festival of Basant.

A ban on kite flying was initially imposed in 2005 in Lahore, the capital of the province, when at least 11 bystanders were fatally cut by wire or string made from metal or coated with glass during competitions.

The ban was extended beyond Lahore to other cities and under the latest legislation it will come into effect across the province ahead of the Basant festival, whose centerpiece is kite flying to welcome spring.

Mujtaba Shuja-ur-Rehman, a lawmaker from the ruling Pakistan Muslim League party, moved the bill in the Punjab Assembly on Tuesday, which was passed with a majority vote. Those breaching the law could face a prison sentence of between three to five years and a fine of up to 2 million rupees ($7,200).

Manufacturers of kites and strings could also face custodial sentences of up to seven years and a fine of five million rupees ($18,000), Rehman said. He said the new law was needed to save the lives of innocent people.

The centuries-old Basant festival traditionally culminates with thousands of kites soaring into the sky. Basant means "yellow" in the Hindi language, a reference to the fields of blooming yellow flowers as spring approaches.
India
Modi Mulls Lower Tariffs, More Imports to Counter Trump’s Threats (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/22/2025 1:59 AM, Shruti Srivastava and Mihir Mishra, 5.5M, Neutral]
India’s government is evaluating options ranging from a trade deal, cutting tariffs and importing more goods from the US if US President Donald Trump follows through with threatened trade action.

Officials in the Narendra Modi-led administration have sketched out various scenarios to counter any steps a new Trump administration may take to narrow India’s trade surplus with the US which was $35.3 billion for the year ended March 31, people familiar with the matter said. US was India’s largest trading partner for the period, data from India’s commerce ministry show.

Among the options discussed, the government could buy more whiskey, steel and oil from the US, the people said, asking not to be identified as the talks are private. It could also reduce some import tariffs, with officials drawing up a list of likely products, such as bourbon whiskey and farm goods like pecan nuts, they said.

One of the proposals being considered is to reduce duties on good imported from US states that are politically important for the Republican party, one of the people said.

The plans under discussion are part of India’s larger strategy to avoid any confrontation with Trump, and also benefit from any potential US-China trade war, the people said. Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that New Delhi is set to take back at least 18,000 illegal Indian immigrants from the US to help placate the Trump administration.

An email seeking comments from the trade ministry spokesperson was not immediately answered. The plans have not been finalized and are still under discussions, the people said.

On his first day in office Monday, Trump said he would slap a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada by Feb. 1 while holding off on unveiling China-specific tariffs. He also threatened countries in the BRICS group of developing countries with increased tariffs.

Indian officials are also considering a limited trade deal with the US under one of its scenarios, people familiar with the matter said. New Delhi had tried unsuccessfully to implement this during the first Trump administration.

The plan under discussion would include reducing some “most-favored nation” tariffs, which are imposed on countries with which India doesn’t have a bilateral trade deal.

Here are more details of the scenarios being discussed, according to people familiar with the matter:

India could consider buying more goods from the US in sectors including soybean, dairy, vehicles, medical instruments, and aircrafts

Electronics, hi-tech machinery, textiles, footwear and chemicals among sectors to benefit if China slapped with higher tariffs by the US and curbs on access to advanced technology

India expects the new Trump administration to pressure the country on issues including data regulations, intellectual property rules and e-commerce

Across the board tariffs of 10%-20% on all countries would help boost India’s exports of auto components and metals
US and India discuss concerns about ‘irregular immigration,’ State Department says (Reuters)
Reuters [1/21/2025 9:39 PM, Kanishka Singh, 48128K, Neutral]
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed with his Indian counterpart, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, concerns related to "irregular migration" on Tuesday, the State Department said.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

New U.S. President Donald Trump took office on Monday and issued a raft of executive orders that aim to clamp down on illegal immigration and advance his goal of deporting millions of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally. He had made immigration a key issue of his election campaign last year.

The Indian government is prepared to work with the Trump administration to identify and take back all its citizens residing illegally in the U.S., Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources. The report added that the two countries have together identified some 18,000 Indian migrants who are in the U.S. illegally and could be sent back home.

KEY QUOTES

"Secretary Rubio also emphasized the Trump Administration’s desire to work with India to advance economic ties and address concerns related to irregular migration," the State Department said in a statement.

CONTEXT

India, separately on its part, has said that the movement of skilled professionals is an important part of India-U.S. ties and benefits both countries amid a debate over H-1B visas on which Trump and his billionaire backer Elon Musk offered support to the visas.

India, known for its massive pool of IT professionals, many of whom work across the world, accounts for the bulk of H-1B visas issued by the United States.

Trump says he fully backed the programme opposed by some of his supporters after Musk vowed to go to "war" to defend it. India received about 78% of the 265,777 H-1B visas issued by the United States in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2023.
Modi’s government planning to repatriate 18,000 Indians living in US illegally (The Guardian)
The Guardian [1/21/2025 12:48 PM, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, 82995K, Neutral]
The Indian government has identified 18,000 emigrants living in the US illegally that it intends to repatriate in a bid to ease pressures under Donald Trump, according to reports.

Sources who spoke to Bloomberg said the Indian government was collaborating with the US authorities to identify undocumented Indian immigrants for deportation in order to demonstrate a willingness to work closely with the new Trump administration and protect legal immigration visas for Indian citizens.

Many of Trump’s first executive actions in office have targeted illegal immigration into the US, including declaring a national border emergency and mobilising troops along the US-Mexico border.

Sources told Bloomberg that while 18,000 people of Indian origin living in the US illegally had been identified so far, the true number was likely far higher. According to the Pew Research Center, there are an estimated 725,000 undocumented Indian immigrants in the US, making them the third largest group after those from Mexico and El Salvador.

The move to identify and deport Indian immigrants was described as an attempt to placate Trump just as he takes office. The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, is seen as having a close personal relationship with Trump and the pair regularly refer to each other as a "great friends". However, the US president has also made threats of steep trade tariffs for India as part of his America-first policy, which would be crippling for India, and the Modi government is thought to be desperate to avoid any trade conflicts.

The Indian government did not confirm the deportation figure but said they were working closely with the US to tackle the problem of illegal immigration. Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s ministry of external affairs, said: "As part of India-US cooperation on migration and mobility, both sides are engaged in a process to deter illegal migration. This is being done to create more avenues for legal migration from India to the US.".

Jaiswal emphasised that the process had already begun, pointing to a deportation flight in October that brought back more than 100 undocumented Indians from the US, and said that more than 1,000 people had been brought back over the past year.

A key priority for the Indian government is to protect the status of the H-1B visa for skilled migrants to the US, often used in sectors such as technology and engineering. Indians accounted for almost 75% of all H-1B visas given out in 2023, and they are seen as a vital lifeline for Indian workers aspiring to move to the US for better employment prospects.

Yet some Republicans have alleged that the visas are allowing foreigners to take prestigious jobs that should go to Americans. Trump initially called them "very, very bad" for US workers but more recently appeared to soften his stance and referred to it as a "great programme".

Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of Tesla and Space X who helped bankroll Trump’s campaign and is now taking a prominent place in his government, has also expressed his backing for the H1-B scheme.

With Trump threatening mass deportations, the strategy by Modi’s government to spearhead the deportations was considered to be a move to prevent any potential embarrassment from tens of thousands of Indians being sent home by the US.

The India-US relationship is regarded by both sides as being on an upwards trajectory, with the Biden administration making great efforts to deepen ties with India as a geopolitical counterweight to China, even as India was accused of carrying out an attempted extrajudicial killing on US soil.

Since Trump’s election in November, the Modi government has made stringent efforts to show its willingness to work closely with Trump on his return to office. Speaking late last year, India’s foreign minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, said: "I know today a lot of countries are nervous about the US, let’s be honest about it. We are not one of them.".
India Near Sale of Russia-Backed Anti-Ship Missiles to Indonesia (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/21/2025 8:01 PM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen and Chandra Asmara, 21617K, Positive]
India is considering a $450 million deal to sell Russian-backed supersonic cruise missiles to Indonesia as the Southeast Asian country looks to bolster defenses, according to people familiar with the matter.

The sale of the BrahMos cruise missiles is expected to be announced as early as this week when Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto officially visits India, the people said, asking not be identified as discussions are private. Prabowo is set to attend the Republic Day celebrations as a special guest on Sunday.

A key hurdle for Indonesia is securing financing for the missile purchases given the nation’s budget constraints, one of the people said. Funding is still being discussed with India and it’s unclear when a deal can be finalized for the missiles, which have a firing range of at least 380 kilometers (186 miles).

If the sale goes through, Indonesia would be the second country after the Philippines to acquire the anti-ship cruise missiles. Southeast Asian nations are modernizing and bolstering their militaries as the South China Sea remains a flashpoint with an assertive China and President Donald Trump back in the White House.

India and Indonesia have been negotiating for about a decade for the sale of the BrahMos cruise missile, jointly developed by India and Russia. Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state owned military hardware supplier, is part of the negotiations, the people said.

India’s Defense Ministry and Ministry of External Affairs declined to comment on the missile deal. A spokesman with Indonesia’s Defense Ministry also declined to comment.

About a week before Prabowo’s visit, Indonesia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two countries will announce initial pacts for health, education, maritime safety and security.

Indonesia is keen to have access to the missile technology so that it doesn’t face shortages in spares and components, the people said. Last month, India’s ambassador discussed a technology transfer offer with Indonesia’s Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin.

The first Trump administration pressured Indonesia to abandon deals to buy Russian-made fighter jets and naval vessels from China. It was part of Washington’s efforts to stop its biggest rivals from eroding US military supremacy and threatening its national security.

Prabowo, a former general, had played a key role in negotiating arms deals when he was defense minister under Joko Widodo’s administration. He and his cabinet colleagues at the time decided to scrap the deals with China and Russia to avoid getting on the wrong side of the US.

Emerging markets including Indonesia are looking to bolster their economies as Trump returns to office with threats to roil global trade. Indonesia recently joined the BRICS group of developing nations — established by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — which has positioned itself as an alternative to the US-led global order.

Prabowo is likely to expand military and maritime security cooperation with India when he makes his official visit this week. It is expected to be a continuation of joint exercises and port visits by Indonesian warships, as part of Jakarta’s focus on maritime security across Asia.
Clash of the handouts as Modi’s BJP seeks to reclaim Delhi after decades (Reuters)
Reuters [1/22/2025 12:33 AM, Krishna N. Das and Aftab Ahmed, 5.2M, Neutral]
Having unexpectedly won two Indian state votes late last year, in big part due to a slew of handouts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party is deploying the same playbook in a bid to wrest back Delhi for the first time in nearly three decades next month.

Standing in the way of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a smaller but bitter rival that has ruled the national capital for a decade through largesse such as free water and power for the poor - its main voter base.

Governing the historic city of 20 million is considered prestigious, though, unlike full-fledged states, it is called the national capital territory where police and many other senior officials are directly or indirectly controlled by the federal government.

The BJP and Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have often been at loggerheads over how to run the city.

In a bid to capture power there, the BJP is now trying to beat the AAP at its own game, although both Modi and the central bank have warned against fiscally damaging freebies.

The BJP’s promises announced last week and this week include monthly payments of 2,500 rupees ($29) to all poor women, 21,000 rupees once to each pregnant woman, subsidised cooking gas, a monthly pension of 2,500 rupees for the elderly, 15,000 rupees for the young to prepare for competitive exams, and a monthly stipend of 1,000 rupees to students from underprivileged castes studying technical and vocational courses.

"Our manifesto has unsettled our opponents," BJP lawmaker Anurag Thakur told reporters. "They are scared that we are giving cash to women, subsidised cooking gas, free food and so on."

The Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party said the BJP was copying its formula of directly helping the poor. India’s main opposition party, Congress, meanwhile said it was the better alternative because, beyond handouts like 2,500 rupees for women a month, it was also focusing on issues like Delhi’s abysmal air and water.

The AAP’s pledges include a monthly payment of 2,100 to all women voters not working for the government or getting any other pension, 18,000 rupees a month to all Hindu priests and ceremonial readers of the Sikh holy book, financing foreign education of students from underprivileged castes, and payments for uniforms for autorickshaw taxis and money for the weddings of their daughters.

Delhi votes on Feb. 5 and results will be out on Feb. 8.

Opinion polls, which have often proved wrong, expect the BJP to trail the AAP.

Yashwant Deshmukh, founder of polling agency CVoter, said the AAP had an edge, especially among women voters. About half of the nearly 3,200 people it surveyed said they did not want to change the government.

"AAP has a good track record on delivering freebies in Delhi," he said.

For the current fiscal year ending March 31, the Delhi government has budgeted spending nearly 63 billion rupees ($728 million), or more than 8% of the total outlay, on populist programmes including free electricity, cash and free bus service for women.

If the new promises by the BJP or AAP come through after the election, it could mean additional spending of more than 50 billion rupees, pushing the share of subsidies in the city’s budget to about 20% of total expenditure, from 15%.

The AAP’s populism is already draining the city’s finances. Last fiscal year, Delhi’s revenue surplus fell by about a third to 49.66 billion rupees.

COMES AT COST

In recent years, cash giveaways, free power, loan waivers, and other goodies have become common features ahead of Indian elections. Late last year they helped the BJP buck opinion polls and retain Maharashtra and Haryana states, while the opposition kept Jharkhand.

While distributing pre-election goodies such as fans and kitchen utensils have long been part of Indian politics, political parties have been increasingly resorting to direct cash transfers in the past two years or so.

Such spending has worsened the finances of many states and forced them to borrow more at high cost. Indian states plan to raise 4.73 trillion rupees ($54.66 billion) between January and March, a quarterly record.

The Reserve Bank of India warned last month that such sops could come at the cost of critical social and economic infrastructure.

Six more states are due to vote this year and the next, and analysts at HDFC Securities expect a flurry of such promises as "they significantly increase the chances of a government coming back to power".

In the current fiscal year, more than a third of India’s 36 states or federal territories have announced or are running various handout programmes. Budgeted deficits for nearly all of them were higher than five years ago, with many cutting capital expenditure to fund the populist measures.

Rasheed Kidwai, a visiting fellow at the Observer Research Foundation think tank, said politicians’ rising reliance on handouts was bad for Indian democracy.

"This is against the grain of the Indian Constitution and the spirit of parliamentary democracy because votes seem to be getting auctioned," he said. "It’s going to the highest bidder."
Popcorn Is Taxed at Three Rates in India. A Nation Says This Is Why We’re a Mess. (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [1/22/2025 12:10 AM, Tripti Lahiri, 810K, Neutral]
A seemingly routine ruling by India’s top tax officials went off like metal in a microwave.

The government laid out a three-tiered system for taxing popcorn depending on if it is packaged or sold loose, carries a brand name or is generic, and is salted or sweet. Caramel popcorn, the government said in December, would be taxed at 18%—nearly akin to a luxury product.

The people weren’t pleased. An explanation from India’s finance minister, chair of the tax council, didn’t help.

“I want to explain the whole background of the popcorn taxes to you: Salted popcorn, caramelized popcorn, plain popcorn,” said Nirmala Sitharaman at a news conference in late December. “When it comes to popcorn’s tax treatment, as long as it is salty, whether it is with salt, spiced, tangy, chilli powder, that’s all 5%. But when it has added caramelized sugar, it is no longer salty.”

But the 5% will apply only if the popcorn is sold loose. Put it in a sealed plastic packet and slap a label on it and the rate jumps to 12%. An accompanying press note explained further that caramel popcorn had transformed into a confectionery, and merited a correspondingly higher tax rate. The finance minister’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The popcorn tax structure unleashed a flood of mocking memes, heated television debates and frustrated comments from prominent economists, including former advisers to the government. One called the ruling a “national tragedy.” A cartoon showed Mahatma Gandhi, famous for his march against the British colonial monopoly on the sale of salt, which was heavily taxed, marching against popcorn taxes instead.

For critics, the multiplicity of rates on the humble snack was emblematic of why India, despite ongoing efforts to cut red tape, remains a difficult place to do business.

“Popcorn is popcorn,” said Mohandas Pai, chairman of investment firm Aarin Capital Partners and former CFO of Infosys, one of India’s biggest technology services firms. “This shows the attitude that prevails among officials who try to nitpick and to create complications despite the need for simplicity.

Pai said that tax officials were making a mockery of a 2017 landmark tax reform—the Goods and Services Tax—aimed at simplifying a system in which sales and other taxes varied by state and knit India into a single market. Its backers had hoped for just two tax rates.

But the system was introduced with about half a dozen rates, as well as a compensation tax to make up for shortfalls. At regular meetings, the tax council deliberates on how to slot goods and services into these brackets.

Moviegoers, for example, face three different rates on popcorn. If they buy salted popcorn at the concession stand—independently of their ticket—they’ll pay 5%, said Nitin Datar, who heads an association for independent cinema operators. But theaters sometimes sell movie tickets and popcorn as a bundle, in which case the tax rate will depend on the type of ticket.

“So if you are selling popcorn along with tickets, then 18% or 12% will apply,” he said, adding that some cinema operators were experiencing confusion.

Popcorn is far from the only product that India has carved up into tax brackets. In December, India’s Supreme Court laid to rest a 15-year-tax dispute over whether small packages of coconut oil—widely used in Indian cooking—should be taxed at the low tax rate of 5% as a food product or at a double-digit rate as a beauty product, given many Indian women also apply it to their hair.

The dispute arose after tax officials started levying the higher tax rate on small pouches of the oil, reasoning the oil sold in small quantities could be used on hair and not only in frying pans. But the top court ruled that packaging size alone couldn’t be used as a justification for levying a different tax rate.

Defenders of the government say the differing rates are an effort to keep the indirect tax progressive, by taxing products likely to be purchased by the poor (like loose popcorn) differently than those likely to be purchased by more affluent individuals. India has a per capita income of around $2,500, but also is among the world’s top creators of millionaires and billionaires.

Some popcorn manufacturers said they were relieved at the clarification.

“There was always confusion in this popcorn matter,” said Sanjay Vasoya, who co-founded his Oceyan Funfoods business in 2016 to make and sell packaged popcorn. He also sells fox nuts—a popular snack with a texture similar to popcorn that is made from the seeds of an aquatic plant. Vasoya said when he was a child popcorn was only available at movies or fairs, and he wanted to make it more widely available.

After the rough patch of the pandemic, the business has been flourishing, he said. He offers 19 varieties of popcorn, including Peri Peri popcorn, sour cream and onion popcorn and strawberry popcorn.

However, he had mistakenly thought all his popcorn products fell under the 18% rate. Tax officials in his state had never told him that a lower rate applied to most of his products, which were largely salted.

The minister’s announcement has cleared things up, he said.

“Whatever madam has said is good in my opinion,” said Vasoya, referring to the finance minister.

The government, for its part, has noted it hasn’t imposed new taxes, and was merely laying out the status quo in response to a request for clarity from an Indian state.

Pai, the investor, said he wished the government had used the opportunity to replace the various rates with one rate.

“Putting it like that in the first place itself was wrong,” he said. “Now when you got a chance to clarify, you reiterate that—that’s even worse.”
It’s Time for a U.S.-India Trade Deal (Foreign Policy – opinion)
Foreign Policy [1/21/2025 2:58 PM, Kenneth I. Juster and Mark Linscott, 1436K, Neutral]
Ignore the conventional wisdom in Washington and New Delhi that the U.S.-India trade relationship is likely to deteriorate during U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term: The two countries in fact have a huge opportunity to expand trade and a realistic path forward for doing so.

Though U.S.-India economic ties have grown steadily in the 21st century, this cooperation has underperformed relative to the extraordinary advances in virtually every other aspect of the bilateral relationship. Over the years, the United States has accumulated a growing trade deficit in goods and services with India, reaching more than $45 billion in 2022. India’s high barriers to trade led Trump to label the country the "king" of tariffs. Indeed, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has used high tariffs to protect domestic industries, attract foreign investment, and promote his "Make in India" policy.

As Trump proclaims his own fondness for tariffs, skepticism has set in among U.S.-India experts about the prospects for bilateral trade. Trump has promised to impose a 10 to 20 percent tariff on all imports and to hit a select group of countries—including India—with even higher tariffs. If he goes forward with this pledge, some might respond with retaliatory tariffs. These circumstances might make one question whether the United States and India can negotiate a substantial trade agreement—something that they have never done before—in Trump’s second term.

Yet there are reasons to be optimistic. Trump loves the art of the deal and would like to improve the U.S. economy. His tariffs may well be designed as leverage to open foreign markets for U.S. companies, thereby creating U.S. jobs related to exports and lowering bilateral trade deficits. Modi is a strategic thinker who is focused on growing India’s economy and expanding its role in the world.

The United States and India both want to enhance their economic influence in the Indo-Pacific region and blunt China’s economic primacy. The time is ripe and the incentives are in place for these two leaders to beat the odds and make a major deal.

Early in Trump’s first term, when one of us served as the U.S. ambassador to India and the other as assistant U.S. trade representative for South and Central Asia, the United States put on the table its willingness to negotiate a broad trade agreement with India. While U.S. officials thought that the Indian government had signaled general interest in such an agreement, there did not seem to be the concrete follow-through in terms of the mutual concessions required to conclude any such large deal.

Over time, the necessary trade-offs by each side did not materialize, and the two parties were not even able to negotiate a smaller deal that would maintain India’s benefits under the U.S. trade program known as the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), created by Congress in 1974 to spur U.S. ties with developing countries. The GSP eliminates tariffs on hundreds of products imported from countries such as India, with the requirement that the beneficiary country provide adequate market access for U.S. products.

The mechanics of U.S.-India negotiations on the GSP were put into motion in 2017, after the U.S. medical devices and dairy industries filed petitions about India’s restricted market access with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). USTR subsequently undertook a review of these sectors and widened it to goods across other sectors, including IT products. Negotiations on a trade agreement continued into early 2019, but the parties’ efforts were unsuccessful, and USTR had no choice but to end India’s GSP benefits in March 2019.

Even after USTR determined that India no longer qualified for the GSP, the two sides continued to negotiate what was termed a "small" trade deal to try to restore the program for India. When Trump traveled to the country in February 2020, Indian officials finally signaled that they might be willing to conclude such an agreement. By that time, however, Trump was in the final year of his first term and wanted either a big deal or no deal—which resulted in the latter.

The two countries have since focused on minor fixes to trade irritants and sidelined ambitions for a groundbreaking agreement, even as the value of bilateral trade grows and the overall bilateral relationship deepens. This should be understood in a broader context: Under former President Joe Biden, the United States was unwilling to offer any country further access to its market and did not enter into any substantial new trade agreements. Instead, the Biden administration sought to develop a different model for trade negotiations that addressed concerns over the impact of market openings on U.S. workers and what it saw as new rules for the 21st-century economy.

It was against this backdrop that the United States rebuffed India’s new interest in exploring a U.S.-India free trade agreement early in Biden’s term. Modi’s government also declined to participate in one of the four pillars of Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF). The IPEF focused on nonbinding commitments among 14 countries on supply chain resilience; clean energy, decarbonization, and infrastructure; tax and anti-corruption measures; and selected trade issues, not including market access. India participated in negotiations on the first three pillars, which resulted in agreements on principles and cooperative mechanisms. The trade pillar, which included all countries but India, failed to produce any consensus.

India recently signed a flurry of targeted free trade deals with other countries, including Australia, the United Arab Emirates, and the EFTA states (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland). But India still has never locked in the benefits of preferential trade in goods and services with its largest and most significant partner, the United States. The Biden administration resolved seven outstanding disputes in the World Trade Organization (WTO) with India, but the idea of a bigger trade deal between the two countries never got off the ground.

Trump and Modi should now be ambitious and seek to negotiate a significant trade and economic arrangement. The new Trump administration will be laser-focused on lowering India’s trade barriers in a variety of sectors, including the ongoing concerns in the medical devices, agriculture, and IT sectors. For its part, India will want to secure continued growth in bilateral trade in goods and services and restore GSP benefits, if Congress reauthorizes the program, which expired at the end of 2020.

Once the Trump tariffs (and possible Modi retaliatory tariffs) go into effect, the United States and India should view this as only the beginning of the trade and economic dialogue. Both leaders and their advisors should see the logic of aspiring to conclude a broader deal. After all, Trump and Modi are drawn to high-profile initiatives and prefer bilateral deals to multilateral ones.

In short, neither leader is averse to thinking big. Trump showed during his first term that he is willing to sign trade deals, as he did with Canada, the European Union, Japan, and Mexico—and even in an initial phase with China, though its objectives were not realized. The negotiation of a GSP agreement with India was one of the few trade priorities for which Trump was not able to cross the finish line. Some of Modi’s initiatives have also been bold, such as his overtures to Pakistan early in his first term. Moreover, Modi’s trade negotiating agenda with other countries is unprecedented for India.

The current political climate in Washington and New Delhi, including a focus on promoting domestic manufacturing, would almost certainly not support negotiating a full-blown free trade agreement. However, the U.S.-Japan Trade Agreement (USJTA) negotiated under the first Trump administration in 2019 could provide a compelling model. The USJTA is not a free trade agreement, but it has some key features of one, particularly involving tariff cuts in several sectors on both sides.

Normally, any preferential tariff arrangements violate the WTO’s requirement that trade between members must be conducted on a nondiscriminatory or "most favored nation" basis, unless these arrangements are formulated as large-scale free trade agreements. Yet such deals can be cumbersome and difficult to negotiate. First, WTO rules require that free trade agreements cover "substantially all trade," which can make it difficult for trading partners to exclude their most sensitive sectors from tariff cuts.

Second, U.S. negotiators require special trade negotiating authority from Congress before they can submit a free trade agreement for an up-or-down vote by both houses. This means that there cannot be amendments to the terms already negotiated with a trading partner by the executive branch. Congressional votes on free trade agreements are rarely straightforward. Furthermore, utilizing trade negotiating authority from Congress is the only practical way to obtain the legislature’s approval for a comprehensive trade agreement—yet that authority expired in 2020.

While the USJTA included tariff concessions on both sides, the first Trump administration chose not to submit the agreement for congressional approval or notify the WTO. At the time, this raised some concerns among lawmakers that it was an end-around of congressional oversight, and there were questions about whether the USJTA violated WTO rules. Nevertheless, the agreement has endured and, in some respects, cemented the economic component of the broader U.S.-Japan strategic partnership. It even includes a groundbreaking side agreement on digital trade, which highlighted that nearly all sectors rely on the digital exchange of information and digital transactions.

A U.S.-India deal could certainly follow the USJTA model. The natural starting point would be to address most of the issues that the parties left on the table during Trump’s first term, when they came close to reaching an agreement. Such a deal now would require substantial tariff reductions by New Delhi because it has much higher tariff rates than Washington; Trump believes in some degree of reciprocity. But this market liberalization would solidify India’s economic relationship with the United States and enhance its prospects for becoming a supply chain hub.

To make tariff reductions more palatable, Trump and Modi could broaden their horizons to areas that would provide growth potential for both countries. The United States has a long history of negotiating new areas in its trade agreements. These initially included provisions related to labor and the environment, but trade agreements have become increasingly robust—expanding to include trade capacity building, state-owned enterprises, and good regulatory practices, among others.

There are significant and often complementary elements of the U.S.-India economic relationship that could provide benefits in a major bilateral agreement. For example, the United States is India’s largest trading partner, in part because of the substantial Indian services provided to U.S. companies that outsource their IT development and data processing needs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Indian companies were critical in maintaining the back-office operations of many aspects of the U.S. financial and medical sectors.

Indian services companies (as well as U.S. technology companies) also seek H-1B visas for highly skilled Indian engineers to work in the IT sector in the United States—though this need has lessened a bit with more than 1,000 U.S. companies now having Global Capability Centers in India. Nevertheless, there would be mutual benefits to an arrangement that addresses concerns regarding the flow of data and labor mobility in the services sector and ensures the continued success of this business model.

The technology ties between the United States and India have grown by leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. The recent Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), led by both countries’ national security advisors, is designed to advance the technology relationship and defense industrial cooperation. The iCET (or a rebranded version of it) should further the U.S.-India strategic partnership by fostering an ecosystem among governments, businesses, and academic institutions to advance joint development of cutting-edge technologies.

Under this technology initiative, India requires increased access to sensitive and regulated U.S. dual-use technologies for cooperative work with the United States in semiconductors, space-related technology, clean energy products, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and biotechnology, among other areas. The U.S. government sees India’s development in these sectors as beneficial to U.S. economic needs and interests and to strengthening India’s capabilities and economy.

Though there has been enormous progress over the years in streamlining the U.S. licensing process for dual-use technologies, it still has burdensome aspects. A U.S.-India trade arrangement could seek to reduce this export-control red tape while addressing related security concerns and establishing standard-setting mechanisms for the design and development of critical technologies. As two of the leading countries in the IT sector, the United States and India should also have a mutual interest in developing common standards for the digital economy rather than letting other major players, such as China, set those standards.

Energy supply and security is another critical need for India and a market opportunity for the United States. India is one of the world’s largest energy importers, and the new Trump administration will almost certainly support all forms of India’s energy needs, including oil, liquefied natural gas, clean coal, and advancements in renewables and nuclear power. A potential agreement should seek to support key elements of these interactions—regarding U.S. exports and India’s security of supply—while possibly addressing U.S. concerns about the high volume of Indian oil imports from Russia.

Similarly, in health care, India and the United States have complementary capabilities and needs. The United States is a leader in developing vaccines and pharmaceutical products, while India is a leader in manufacturing them. Trump and Modi share an interest in keeping drugs accessible and affordable. Moreover, India seeks to become a critical supply chain alternative to China in the pharmaceutical sector and reduce its own dependency on China, which the United States supports.

Related to each of these areas is the interest in facilitating further bilateral investments. There is already a substantial amount of U.S. investment in India and now a developing flow of Indian acquisitions and greenfield investments in the United States. Any economic agreement should lower barriers not only to trade but also to investments, especially encouraging increased levels of Indian investment in the United States, thereby creating more jobs for Americans.

The elements now exist for a significant deal between the United States and India. Such a deal can lock in the mutual benefits of the economic relationship, provide greater assurance and predictability to parties in both countries, and enable India to fill some of the void created by higher U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.

But the deal cannot be left solely to the bureaucracies in each country, which have a long history of meaningful engagement but unsuccessful efforts to resolve the most challenging bilateral trade policy disagreements. The bureaucracies lack the political clout to overcome the inevitable domestic resistance to market-opening measures and the need to make difficult political trade-offs. Any deal will require each side to make concessions with the type of give and take that only Trump and Modi can provide—if they have the ambition to make the deal.

There is another important imperative that should push Trump and Modi to strike a deal this time. Any agreement would provide not only economic growth opportunities but also a strategic benefit. Chinese President Xi Jinping’s major source of influence in the Indo-Pacific is Beijing’s economic clout. The United States and India need to work together to counterbalance China’s dominant economic presence in the region.

China is the major trading partner of nearly every country in the region and an integral part of the Indo-Pacific trade architecture through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), an agreement among 15 countries representing approximately 30 percent of global GDP. China has also applied for membership in the high-standards, 12-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

Neither India nor the United States is a party to these two regional agreements. India withdrew from RCEP negotiations during its final stages in 2019, concerned that the agreement would lead to a flood of imports from China. The United States withdrew from the CPTPP’s predecessor, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, at the outset of Trump’s first term.

An initial step for the United States and India in challenging China’s dominant trade influence in the region is for the two countries to strike their own economic arrangement by resolving long-standing trade and investment issues and locking in cooperation in critical and emerging technologies, energy, and health care. The United States would benefit from increased market access in India; New Delhi would benefit by strengthening its economic ties with Washington, its leading trade partner, and boosting its appeal as an alternative supply chain hub for those looking to diversify away from Beijing.

The United States and India would still need to increase their levels of trade, investment, and assistance with other countries in the Indo-Pacific to compete more effectively with China. But now is the time for Trump, Modi, and their respective teams to raise their ambitions, sit down at the negotiating table, and seize the opportunity to reinforce their strategic partnership by elevating the economic relationship to a new level.
NSB
Bangladesh Eyes Deeper Ties With China as India Relations Suffer (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [1/21/2025 8:41 AM, Arun Devnath, 21617K, Positive]
Bangladesh is planning to build closer economic ties with China, and other East Asian economies, at a time when the relationship with India remains strained.

“We would see more linkages” between China and Bangladesh, Lutfey Siddiqi, an economist and special envoy on international affairs for the interim government of the South Asian nation, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Tuesday. The country, which has historically been a close ally of India, is “very excited” about looking toward East Asian countries, he added.

In an effort to build closer ties with Beijing, Bangladesh’s Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain is on a state visit to China this week.

“We will have closer links with a wider range of countries. Multilateralism is the order of the day,” Siddiqi said. He expects “more investments from China into Bangladesh,” mentioning renewable energy and solar panels among areas he is interested in exploring with the world’s second-largest economy.

His comments come at a time when relations between India and Bangladesh remain acrimonious. While Dhaka wants New Delhi to return its exiled former leader Sheikh Hasina, Indian officials and news outlets accuse the interim government of failing to protect Hindus in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. A top Indian diplomat visited Dhaka recently to defuse tensions, but that may not be enough to rebuild trust.

Meanwhile, Bangladesh continues to grapple with political and economic instability. A violent student-led uprising last year forced long-serving premier Hasina to resign and flee to India, but the interim government has since struggled to restore law and order in the South Asian nation.
Bangladesh probe reveals children held in secret jails (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [1/21/2025 6:43 AM, Staff, 57114K, Negative]
Several children were among hundreds of people held in secret detention centres in Bangladesh, a commission investigating enforced disappearances carried out during the tenure of now deposed premier Sheikh Hasina revealed Tuesday.

At least half a dozen children spent months in black site jails with their mothers, the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances said in its preliminary report, saying babies were even used as leverage during interrogations, including denying them milk.

Dhaka has issued arrest warrants including on charges of crimes against humanity for 77-year-old Hasina, who fled to old ally India in August 2024 after she was toppled by a student-led revolution.

Hasina’s government was accused of widespread human rights abuses, including the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more.

The commission said it had detailed "multiple verified cases where women were disappeared along with their children", including as recently as 2023.

It highlighted a case where a pregnant woman -- held along with her two young children -- was beaten in a detention centre.

"This was not an isolated case," the report stated.

The commission said one witness showed investigators the room in the detention site she had been held in as a child with her mother, run by the much-feared paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion’s (RAB).

"Her mother never returned", the report read.

In another incident, a couple and their baby were detained, with the child starved of mother’s milk "as a form of psychological torture" to pressure the father.

When in power, Hasina’s government denied committing enforced disappearances, claiming some of those reported missing had drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe.

The commission says around 200 Bangladeshis abducted by security forces are still missing.

Committee member Sazzad Hossain said that while some victims could not pinpoint the exact officers who tortured them, their testimonies would be used to identify the forces involved.

"In such cases, we will recommend holding the commander accountable," Hossain told AFP.

"The effects on the victims’ families have been multifaceted, ranging from severe psychological trauma to legal and financial challenges", the report added.
‘We’ve lost all hope’: Rohingya trapped as Bangladesh closes Myanmar border (The Guardian)
The Guardian [1/22/2025 1:45 AM, Sarah Aziz, 83M, Negative]
In the dim light of his home in Arakan, Myanmar, Mohammed is talking above the wailing of his youngest child. All three of his children are hungry, he says. The 32-year-old Rohingya man’s parents, leaning together against the wall, are just visible as Mohammed speaks on the video call.

He fears for his safety too much to allow his surname to be used – Rakhine state is a dangerous place to be after four years of Myanmar’s civil war.

“We are struggling just to survive,” he says. “Food is scarce, clean water is a luxury, and every day feels like a battle to protect my family from the horrors unfolding around us.

“But after the events this month against our people in Bangladesh, we have lost all hope,” he adds.

The escape route for Rohingya in Myanmar has long been over the border to squalid refugee camps in Bangladesh. The neighbouring country has hosted almost 1 million refugees since 2017.

But on 5 January 36 Rohingya refugees were detained by the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) and forced back to Myanmar. On 11 January, at least 58 Rohingya refugees were picked up by the BGB while trying to cross from Myanmar with the help of people smugglers.

Four days after that detention, a group of 30 Rohingya women and children were “rescued” by the Bangladeshi police. The fate of these people – also fleeing Myanmar – remains uncertain.

Local Bangladeshi police told media there that the country’s law-enforcement agencies had been “instructed” to work together to prevent “the illegal entry of Rohingya refugees”.

Since Myanmar stripped them of their citizenship four decades ago, the Rohingya have been stateless, without the documents required to travel and unable to cross borders legally.

Khalilur Rahman, high representative on Rohingya issues for Muhammad Yunus, Bangladesh’s interim government leader, confirmed that the 58 Rohingya refugees detained on 11 January would also be sent back to Myanmar.

“Our policy is to not allow undocumented residents of a foreign country to enter Bangladesh. This applies to the Rohingya, who are residents of Myanmar,” he said.

“Now that it appears that the Arakan Army has become the de facto authority of most of Rakhine, our message to them is clear: echoing the secretary general of the UN, we ask them to abide by their international legal obligations,” he said, urging the AA to try to protect civillians and to “refrain from any action that may force them to cross over to Bangladesh”.

The Rohingya – a mostly Muslim ethnic minority in Buddhist-majority Myanmar – have faced what the UN has called genocidal violence. The fight for control of Rakhine between the Myanmar junta forces and the rebel Arakan Army (AA) has seen the insurgents occupy much of the state in recent months.

Rohingya civilians, about 600,000 of whom remain in Rakhine, have been trapped in the middle of hostilities. They have faced massacres, looting, rape, drone attacks and forced conscription, while struggling to keep themselves fed and sheltered.

According to estimates by the Bangladesh government, at least 65,000 Rohingya refugees have reached Bangladesh since late 2023. Other estimates have the numbers as high as 80,000.

Htway Lwin, a Rohingya activist who lives in Bangladesh, says the detention of the 58 Rohingya sent “shockwaves of fear across the Rohingya community still trapped in Myanmar”.

“I see this as yet another reminder of the precarious existence my people endure,” he says. “Such actions risk normalising the denial of protection to a persecuted group. It undermines international commitments to refugee rights and protection.”

Mohammed Shofique, 30, escaped to Bangladesh last June. “I was first abducted from my village by the Myanmar military in April 2024. They forced me to fight for them against the AA with little training,” he says, from the relative’s shelter where he lives now in a Cox’s Bazar refugee camp.

Then the military camp where Shofique had been held surrendered to the AA: “They kept us in a locked room with no ventilation, subjecting us to daily beatings . Food was provided once a day at noon. Some of my companions died due to the severity of the torture, while others struggled but still survived.

“On 17 June, we managed to break out of our room when the AA officials had left us unattended,” Shofique says. “I fled to Bangladesh on foot.”

Abuses against Rohingya in Myanmar are still happening, says John Quinley, director of the international advocacy organisation Fortify Rights.

“The new government in Bangladesh should ensure they don’t follow the restrictive policies of the old Sheikh Hasina government,” he says.

“The interim government should make sure that refugees are welcomed into the country, and work with the UNHCR [refugee agency] to register them.”

The UN Development Programme warned in November that Rakhine was heading towards famine as fighting squeezed farming and commerce. This month the UN said more than 3.5 million people had now been displaced by the conflict in Myanmar.

With the latest detentions on Saturday, anxieties are high in Myanmar that the exit may be closing.

“When I heard the news of their detention, it broke something inside me,” says Mohammed. “We had considered fleeing to Bangladesh too, thinking we might find safety there. But after hearing this, we have decided it might be better to die here.

“How can we run from a genocide in such a situation? Is seeking refuge a crime?” he asks. “It feels like the world has abandoned us."
Bangladeshi opposition leader will push for Tulip Siddiq to be extradited (The Telegraph)
The Telegraph [1/21/2025 :56 PM, Neil Johnston and Daniel Martin, 24814K, Negative]
Bangladesh’s opposition leader has said he would push for Tulip Siddiq to be extradited amid corruption allegations linked to her despot aunt’s regime.

Bobby Hajjaj, the founder and chairman of the Nationalist Democratic Movement, said that he would urge Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to ask the former city minister to "come and face law enforcement".

Ms Siddiq resigned as anti-corruption minister last week after Sir Keir Starmer’s ethics adviser found she had inadvertently misled the public.

The MP is the niece of Sheikh Hasina, the longest-serving prime minister of Bangladesh who is now in India having been ousted last year after 15 years in power.

During her tenure, opponents and critics were picked up, arrested and secretly imprisoned with some subject to extrajudicial killings.

Speaking on Monday, Mr Hajjaj claimed to the Guido Fawkes website that there were cases with "links with Tulip Siddiq herself", including a multi-billion pound embezzlement investigation into a nuclear power plant deal with Russia.

Court documents in Bangladesh claim Ms Siddiq was "instrumental in managing the affairs and co-ordinating meetings with Russian government officials".

Labour sources have said the claims, which first appeared unsourced on a US website, are "spurious".

Ms Siddiq said on Tuesday that "no evidence" had been presented on claims in Bangladesh, which she "totally denies".

Mr Hajjaj also claimed that the opposition had "long had suspicions that Siddiq has been working as the front person of the Hasina regime in the UK".

Before she was an MP, Ms Siddiq once described herself as a spokesman for the Awami League in the UK.

Mr Hajjaj claimed that Ms Siddiq had dual citizenship in Bangladesh and that he would push for her to be extradited.

"Even though Bangladesh and the UK don’t have an official extradition treaty I believe, but there are certain terms and understandings on those terms," he said.

"So from our end we will certainly push for the ACC and law enforcement here to ask for Tulip to come and face law enforcement, or face the courts.".

Mr Hajjaj said the UK Government was "heavily supported by confidants of the dictatorial regime".

The Telegraph has previously reported how supporters of Hasina’s Awami League Party in the UK have campaigned for Sir Keir Starmer and have links to other senior Labour members.

Mr Hajjaj added: "Labour and the Awami League party have been almost like sister parties and knowing very well the human rights abuses.".

Ms Siddiq, who was replaced as economic secretary to the Treasury by Emma Reynolds, remains an MP after resigning from Government last week.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Ms Siddiq admitted she had become a "distraction" from the Government’s agenda as she faced mounting corruption allegations.

Her resignation followed weeks of controversy over her ties to the political party led by her aunt.

She quit hours after Sir Laurie Magnus, No 10’s ethics adviser, urged Sir Keir to "consider her ongoing responsibilities" in light of the perception of a conflict of interest.

In her original letter to Sir Laurie, Ms Siddiq said she had "done nothing wrong" but the ethics adviser found she had "inadvertently misled" the public over a flat she received as a gift from a man with connections to the Awami League.

Ms Siddiq initially claimed her parents bought her the apartment in King’s Cross, north London, which she took ownership of in 2004 when in her early 20s.

However, earlier this month she admitted the two-bedroom home, now worth £700,000, had actually been given to her by Abdul Motalif, a Bangladeshi property developer.

Sir Laurie said she had told him that she was "unaware of the origins of her ownership" of the flat "despite" signing a Land Registry form for it.

He wrote in his report: "Ms Siddiq remained under the impression that her parents had given the flat to her, having purchased it from the previous owner.

"Ms Siddiq recognises that, as a result of this, the public were inadvertently misled about the identity of the donor of this gift in her replies to queries in 2022.

"This was an unfortunate misunderstanding which led to Ms Siddiq’s public correction of the origins of her ownership after she became a minister.".

Downing Street said it would not "get into hypotheticals" when asked about a possible extradition.

A spokesman for Ms Siddiq said: "No evidence has been presented for these allegations. Tulip Siddiq has not been contacted by anyone on the matter and totally denies the claims.".
Nepal sharply hikes permit fee for Everest climbers (Reuters)
Reuters [1/21/2025 1:39 AM, Gopal Sharma, 5.2M, Neutral]
Nepal will increase the permit fees for climbing Mount Everest by more than 35%, making the world’s tallest peak more expensive for mountaineers for the first time in nearly a decade, officials said on Wednesday.

Income from permit fees and other spending by foreign climbers is a key source of revenue and employment for the cash strapped nation, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest.

A permit to climb the 8,849 metre (29,032 feet) Mount Everest will cost $15,000, said Narayan Prasad Regmi, director general of the Department of Tourism, announcing a 36% rise in the $11,000 fee that has been in place for nearly a decade.

"The royalty (permit fees) had not been reviewed for a long time. We have updated them now," Regmi told Reuters.

The new rate will come into effect from September and apply for the popular climbing April-May season along the standard South East Ridge, or South Col route, pioneered by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

Fees for the less popular September-November season and the rarely climbed December-February season will also increase by 36%, to $7,500 and $3,750 respectively.

Some expedition organisers said the increase, under discussion since last year, was unlikely to discourage climbers. About 300 permits are issued each year for Everest.

"We expected this hike in permit fees," said Lukas Furtenbach of Austria-based expedition organiser, Furtenbach Adventures.

He said it was an "understandable step" from the government of Nepal. "I am sure the additional funds will be somehow used to protect the environment and improve safety on Everest," Furtenbach said.

Regmi did not say what the extra revenue would be used for.

Hundreds of climbers try to scale Mount Everest and several other Himalayan peaks every year.

Nepal is often criticised by mountaineering experts for allowing too many climbers on Everest and doing little to keep it clean or to ensure climbers’ safety.

Regmi said cleaning campaigns were organised to collect garbage and rope fixing as well as other safety measures were undertaken regularly.

Climbers returning from the Everest say the mountain is becoming increasingly dry and rocky with less snow or other precipitation, which experts say could be due to global warming or other environmental changes.
Sri Lanka agrees with China’s Sinopec to fast-track $3.7 billion refinery (Reuters)
Reuters [1/22/2025 2:11 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 5.2M, Neutral]
Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that the South Asian island nation had signed an agreement with Chinese state energy giant Sinopec to fast-track a proposed $3.7 billion oil refinery in its southern port city of Hambantota.

Sinopec and Sri Lanka will jointly decide the share of refined fuel that will be exported from the facility, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath told reporters.

"This is one of the largest foreign investment projects Sri Lanka has received and we feel it will be important for us," Herath said.

"This refinery has been discussed betweenn the two countries for many years and we are committed to taking it forward. We hope to break ground as soon as possible."

He declined to provide details on the planned capacity of the refinery.

A Sinopec representative in China did not respond immediately to a request for comment and its Sri Lanka office did not answer phone calls.

Sri Lanka is currently completely dependent on imported oil, which costs the cash-strapped country billions of dollars every year, though it does have some smaller refineries.

The country is looking to attract foreign investment to stabilise its economy which crumpled under a severe foreign exchange crisis in 2022. Sri Lanka posted a faster-than-expected rally after securing a $2.9 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme in 2023.

Sinopec and Sri Lanka will work to resolve land, tax and water issues within a month, Herath said, adding that Colombo expects the refinery to assist the Chinese-built Hambantota Port to function as a hub via bunkering services.

Last week, China and Sri Lanka signed 15 cooperation documents, including agreements on economic and technological development, when recently-elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake met China’s President Xi Jinping in Beijing.

Dissanayake’s visit to debt-ridden Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender came after he first travelled to Beijing’s regional rival India. Specifics of the deals signed between Sri Lanka and China were not disclosed at the signing ceremony.

Sinopec’s effort to build a refinery in the Indian Ocean island puts it in direct competition with India’s interests in expanding its role as an energy supplier to Sri Lanka.

Herath said Sri Lanka is continuing discussions with India on a proposed fuel pipeline between the two countries and is open to refinery proposals from India.
Sri Lanka Orders Ex-leaders To Move Out Of Deluxe Mansions (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [1/21/2025 5:00 PM, Staff, 9355K, Neutral]
Sri Lanka’s leftist government asked former presidents, including the once-powerful Rajapaksa brothers, on Tuesday to immediately vacate luxury government bungalows as part of a new austerity drive.

The government has decided to convert the stately homes into upmarket boutique hotels or museums, Information Minister Nalinda Jayatissa told reporters in Colombo.

He said the state would pay former leaders rent totalling $107 a month, as they are entitled to under a 1986 law, instead of providing government housing.

Jayatissa noted that former president Mahinda Rajapaksa was occupying a government house with a monthly rental value of $16,500 (4.6 million rupees), which is more than 150 times his official entitlement.

"The government will not provide housing for ex-presidents or their widows in future," Jayatissa said.

"They will only receive a rent allowance equivalent to one-third of their pension, which is 30,000 rupees."

There was no immediate comment from Mahinda Rajapaksa, but a local media report said he was willing to vacate if given written notice.

Jayatissa said the former leader could take Tuesday’s public statement as his notice and vacate the premises immediately.

Media reports said Rajapaksa, as prime minister in 2021, had spent some 800 million rupees of government money refurbishing the house he currently occupies as a former president.

His younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to step down from the presidency in July 2022 over allegations of economic mismanagement and corruption, is also occupying a state mansion.

Two other former presidents -- Chandrika Kumaratunga and Maithripala Sirisena -- are living in government housing in Colombo’s fashionable diplomatic quarters.

Many of the houses were built during British colonial rule for top civil servants from London.

Current President Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power in September on a pledge to fight corruption and tightened his grip after his party won a landslide in snap parliamentary polls.

The new government drastically reduced the number of security personnel assigned to former leaders last month, a move that authorities said saved more than 1,200 million rupees ($4.3 million) annually for taxpayers.

The security of the two Rajapaksa brothers cost the state more than 1,017 million rupees ($3.63 million) last year, the government said.

They ruled Sri Lanka for a decade until 2015 and again from November 2019 to July 2022.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to step down in 2022 as Sri Lanka faced its worst economic meltdown, with foreign reserves plummeting and the nation running out of dollars to finance imports of essentials such as food, fuel and medicines.

The number of bodyguards allocated to all former leaders has been reduced to a maximum of 60 since late December.
Central Asia
Trump administration likely to pursue steady US trade course in Central Asia (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [1/21/2025 4:14 PM, Almaz Kumenov, 57.6K, Neutral]
Donald Trump’s return to the White House is raising hopes in Kazakhstan that long-reviled Jackson-Vanik trade restrictions will be repealed soon. More broadly, the incoming US administration is sending signals that a Biden administration initiative to improve political and trade ties with Central Asia will continue.

Repeal expectations in Astana are based on comments made by Secretary of State Marco Rubio during his confirmation hearings earlier in January at which he expressed a commitment to improving trade relations with Central Asian states. He described Jackson-Vanik as “an absurd relic of the past.”

The Jackson Vanik amendment was adopted during the latter stage of the Cold War as a lever to compel improved observance of basic rights by communist-led governments around the world, in particular the former Soviet Union. The measure linked access to US goods and services for communist states to their willingness to permit the freedom of movement and emigration.

Since the 1991 demise of the Soviet Union, Congress has lifted Jackson-Vanik restrictions for most formerly communist nations, giving them permanent normal trade relations status (PNTR). But Jackson-Vanik still applies to five formerly Soviet republics – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Annual reviews are needed for those states to gain exemptions from the amendment’s provisions. Congressional approval is needed to lift the restrictions.

The United States during the Biden administration launched an initiative, known as B5+1, to boost westbound trade out of Central Asia by promoting regional connectivity. Rubio indicated that the new administration plans to continue promoting B5+1. Accordingly, Rubio indicated two key Central Asian states would be prioritized by Congress – Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – for the awarding of PNTR.

Steve Daines, a Republican senator from Montana who is a leader of the congressional caucus on Central Asia, stated at Rubio’s confirmation hearing that the United States “needs more friends” in Central Asia. “This is a part of the world that is often neglected, but has such strategic importance,” he said. In response, Rubio agreed that improved relations between Washington and Central Asian states were “important.”

On his first day in office, Trump ordered a review of US trade arrangements with China, including a provision contained in the 2020 agreement in which Beijing committed to expanding imports from the United States. If US officials determine China is not in compliance, the United States may impose punitive measures “up to and including the imposition of tariffs or other measures as needed,” according to a memo issued by Trump.

US-China trade tension could result in Washington’s increased attention to and activity in Central Asia, which sits on China’s western frontier.

Valery Volodin, a Kazakh political scientist, said in an interview with Eurasianet that the United States wants to widen its access to Kazakhstan’s natural resources, such as uranium, oil, natural gas and rare earths. Saying Trump “knows what is good and what is bad for” the United States, Volodin added that he expects the US congress to lift Jackson-Vanik restrictions in the not-too-distant future.

“For Kazakhstan, this would be great news: our land is rich in natural resources and we have something to offer America,” Volodin said.
‘Give Us Our Wives Back!’ Turkish Husbands Appeal To Turkmenistan (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [1/22/2025 2:09 AM, Chris Rickleton, 235K, Neutral]
In March 2023, Yilmaz Ozkan saw his wife, Maysa, off at the airport in Istanbul as she made a trip to her homeland, Turkmenistan, to renew her international passport.

But Maysa has not been able to return to their home in Turkey since then, despite Turkey’s embassy in Ashgabat issuing her a family visa.

And the couple has now learned that she may not be able to leave Turkmenistan until 2028 at the earliest, thanks to a five-year travel ban slapped on her by Turkmen authorities without any explanation.

With few other avenues of recourse, Yilmaz last year penned an appeal to the strongly authoritarian country’s president, Serdar Berdymukhammedov.

"You are the leader of a great country like Turkmenistan. We are ordinary citizens. You need to unite those who love each other. I ask the president of Turkmenistan to let my wife return to me," read the appeal, which he says has received no official response.

He is not alone.

Yilmaz, who spoke to RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, is one of nearly 60 members of a WhatsApp group consisting of Turkish men with Turkmen spouses who have been effectively trapped after making visits to the Central Asian country.

Gas-rich Turkmenistan appears embarrassed by the mass exodus of its citizens to Turkey, a trend that has highlighted a lack of opportunities in a badly mismanaged economy while contributing to what officials have privately admitted is a rapidly falling in-country population.

In 2022, Ankara revoked visa-free travel for Turkmen citizens at the Ashgabat’s request, and delays on Turkmen passport renewals have become systemic in recent years.

Turkmenistan’s diplomatic missions have also ceased to renew expired passports or replace lost ones for its citizens living abroad, with temporary travel documents phased out at the end of last year.

The treatment of Turkmen women married to foreigners is the latest example of how far it seems Ashgabat will go to keep citizens grounded in their home country.

Last year, Turkmen.News, a Europe-based dissident-run outlet covering Turkmenistan, reported that authorities were "removing passengers from flights en masse," in an apparent response to Turkey relaxing some of its migration rules.

According to data released by Turkey’s Migration Service in December 2024, there are 205,369 Turkmen citizens officially residing in Turkey, although the real number may be higher.

Turkish Husbands ‘Fall Into A Void’

Rustem Arslan, another member of the WhatsApp group, has also launched appeals to the Turkish and Turkmen governments in order to be reunited with his wife, Dilfuza.

Turkey initially deported Dilfuza in 2023 over migration violations and banned her from reentering the country until 2026.

Yet Turkish officials have since told Rustem that she will be able to return to the country so long as Turkmen authorities allowed her to leave.

That hasn’t happened, and Turkey’s Foreign Ministry now says that it considers Dilfuza’s case "an internal matter of Turkmenistan," Rustem told RFE/RL’s Turkmen Service, noting that staff at Turkmenistan’s consulate in Istanbul did not even allow him inside the building.

"When a person is separated from their loved one, they fall into a void. You wake up in the morning and have no appetite for breakfast. You can’t eat dinner. On top of that, I have a business to run. Even when I feel sick, when I’m in pain, I have to get up and open my shop because I’m alone," Rustem said of the wife he only recently married.

‘Arbitrary Interference’ With Freedom Of Movement

Turkmen were strongly critical of the inactivity of their country’s diplomatic mission and lack of consular services in Turkey during the pandemic period, with a small group of nationals staging regular protests outside the Turkmen consulate in Istanbul.

The passports issue was one of the many reasons for the protests.

In a November report, the Turkmenistan Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights (THF) and Human Rights Watch said that "Turkmen authorities’ refusal to renew passports of their citizens interfered with migrants’ ability to obtain legal status in host countries," and represented "an arbitrary interference with their right to freedom of movement."

The protests faded after demonstrators were attacked on the grounds of the consulate, with the victims of the attack identifying one of the attackers as a consulate employee.

The demonstrations seemed to spook authorities in Turkmenistan, where civil society barely exists and information is tightly controlled.

A number of the activists were later detained and threatened with deportation by Turkish law enforcement, moves that they told RFE/RL were likely requested by Ashgabat.

In 2023, Turkmenistan announced that its population had risen above 7 million. But dropping birthrates and a more than decadelong economic crisis have called that claim into question.

Speaking to RFE/RL anonymously in 2021 after a preliminary survey of the population, Turkmen officials suggested that the number of people permanently residing in the country amounted to around 2.8 million.
Indo-Pacific
Quad foreign ministers meet in Washington in signal of Trump’s China focus (Reuters)
Reuters [1/21/2025 11:42 PM, David Brunnstrom, Simon Lewis, and Alasdair Pal, 48128K, Neutral]
The United States, Australia, India and Japan recommitted to working together on Tuesday, after the first meeting of the China-focused "Quad" grouping’s top diplomats since President Donald Trump returned to the White House.

In a joint statement after the talks in Washington, hosted by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his first day in the job, the four nations said officials would meet regularly to prepare for an upcoming leaders’ summit in India, expected this year.

The four countries share concerns about China’s growing power and analysts said the meeting was designed to signal that countering Beijing is a top priority for Trump, who began his second term in office on Monday.

Rubio earlier said he said would stress the importance of working with allies "on the things that are important to America and Americans" during the meeting.

He posed with Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya in front of the flags of their countries before the meeting at the State Department, but did not respond to questions from reporters.

"Significant that the Quad (foreign ministers’ meeting) took place within hours of the inauguration of the Trump Administration," Jaishankar said on X after the meeting.

"This underlines the priority it has in the foreign policy of its member states.".

The four nations restated their "shared commitment to strengthening a Free and Open Indo-Pacific where the rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are upheld and defended," the joint statement said.

"We also strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion," it said, an apparent reference to the threat that China will act on its claim to sovereignty over democratically governed Taiwan.

That includes in the East China Sea, where Japan is locked in a territorial dispute with China, and in the contested South China Sea, Japan’s government said in a later statement.

Iwaya also raised concerns about North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile development at the gathering and asked for help to resolve a dispute with Pyongyang over the past abductions of Japanese by North Korea, it said.

In separate bilateral meeting Iwaya told Rubio and Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, that Japan had no choice but to continue strengthening its defence capabilities given the security situation in East Asia, Japanese Foreign Ministry Press Secretary Toshihiro Kitamura told a news conference.

Japan is undertaking its biggest military buildup since World War Two with a plan to doubled defence spending by 2027. The return of Trump has prompted expectations Washington may put more pressure on allies to further step up defence spending.

Iwaya also asked Rubio to create an environment where Japanese businesses can invest without concerns, he added.

Former U.S. President Joe Biden this month blocked Nippon Steel’s (5401.T), proposed $14.9 billion purchase of U.S. Steel (X.N), citing national security concerns, prompting concern from Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and other officials who said it was regrettable and raised concerns about future investment in the U.S.

Japan hopes to arrange a face-to-face meeting between Trump and Ishiba some time in February or March, Kitamura said.

Rubio also met separately with Wong and Jaishankar.

A key aim for Australia was to secure assurances from Washington about the massive AUKUS defense project, designed to allow Australia to acquire nuclear-powered attack submarines and other advanced weapons such as hypersonic missiles, which Trump has not commented on publicly.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Wong told a news conference in Washington she had a "very positive discussion" with Rubio on AUKUS.

Wong and Rubio discussed efforts to continue bilateral defence cooperation, AUKUS, as well as critical minerals and global supply chain security, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement after the meeting.

"The Secretary and the Foreign Minister hailed the longstanding U.S.-Australia Alliance as foundational to international security and prosperity, and to a secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific region free from coercion," she said.

Wong added that there was "a great deal of optimism and confidence about the opportunities ahead".

China has denounced the Quad as a Cold War construct and says the AUKUS alliance would intensify a regional arms race.

Trump officials were working on scheduling another gathering of the foreign ministers at the White House as well, a person involved in planning meetings said.

The Quad grouping met many times during the administration of former President Joe Biden, with a focus on Beijing’s military and economic activities in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea where U.S. allies have pushed back against Beijing’s territorial claims.

The grouping has also pledged to advance cooperation in cybersecurity to protect supply chains and critical infrastructure, including undersea cables.
Quad foreign ministers meet on Day 2 of second Trump era (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [1/21/2025 6:47 PM, Ken Moriyasu, 1286K, Neutral]
The Quad foreign ministers of the U.S., Japan, India and Australia met at the State Department on Tuesday, the second day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration.

On his first day at the department, Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted Japan’s Takeshi Iwaya, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar and Australia’s Penny Wong, signaling that the four-way gathering will remain a centerpiece of American diplomacy in the Indo-Pacific region.

"This was the first foreign meeting for the new Secretary of State Rubio," an official with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told reporters after the meeting. "It reflects just how much the new administration values the Quad."

The meeting lasted around an hour. After the meeting, the ministers issued a joint statement reaffirming a shared commitment to strengthening "a Free and Open Indo-Pacific where the rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are upheld and defended."

They said they "strongly oppose any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion."

The Japanese official told reporters that this is the first joint statement issued under the second Trump administration.

Lisa Curtis, director of the Indo-Pacific security program at the Center for a New American Security think tank here, told Nikkei Asia that by hosting a Quad meeting so early, the Trump administration is sending "a very good sign that we’re going to see a continued focus on working with allies and partners to counter China, whether it be finding alternative supply chains, staying ahead in the technology race, [or] countering Chinese aggression and bullying in the South China Sea."

The meeting came after Trump’s preinaugural phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that the two discussed trade, fentanyl, TikTok and many other subjects. "President Xi and I will do everything possible to make the World more peaceful and safe!" he concluded.

Curtis, who served as National Security Council senior director for South and Central Asia in the first Trump administration, said Trump’s China policy will likely be nuanced.

Some, like Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz, will focus on competing with China and pursuing export controls, whereas others in the administration will focus on the economic relationship with China, trying to find a good trade deal, she said.

"It won’t be China hawks all the time," Curtis said. "It will be a mixture of engagement, but also effectively competing with China."

Later, Iwaya met Rubio one on one for 30 minutes, explaining that Japan has been the top foreign investor in the U.S. for five straight years and continues to invest.

The meeting comes weeks after former President Joe Biden blocked Nippon Steel’s purchase of U.S. Steel. Iwaya told reporters that he asked the U.S. side to make efforts to dispel anxieties regarding investment in the U.S.

Ahead of the Quad, Rubio addressed State Department staffers at the building entrance in line with tradition. Minutes after commending the staff as "the greatest, the most effective, the most talented, the most experienced diplomatic corps in the history of the world," Rubio said change was coming.

"In our republic, the voters decide the course of our nation, both domestically and abroad, and they have elected Donald J. Trump as our president when it comes to foreign policy on a very clear mission," he said. "And that mission is to ensure that our foreign policy is centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interests, which they have clearly defined through his campaign as anything that makes us stronger or safer or more prosperous, and that will be our mission."

Rubio touched on how Trump said in his inaugural address on Monday that his overriding goal for global policy is the promotion of peace and the avoidance of conflict. "No agency will ... be more critical in that regard than this one," the secretary said.

"Without peace, it is hard to be a strong nation, a prosperous nation ... and one that is better off," he said.

Rubio said there will be changes, "but the changes are not meant to be destructive, they’re not meant to be punitive."
Twitter
Afghanistan
Metra Mehran
@Metra_Mehran
[1/21/2025 11:47 AM, 10.4K followers, 31 retweets, 77 likes]
Devastating: 1,600 U.S. allies from #Afghanistan, processed for 3 years and cleared all requirements, now stranded after resettlement flights were canceled under the new executive order. They can’t endure more uncertainty! flights must resume now!

Freshta Razbaan
@RazbaanFreshta
[1/21/2025 3:20 AM, 5.2K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Mr. President Trump, with the greatest admiration for your leadership, the principles of this nation, and the vital mission carried out so honorably, I respectfully urge you to remember the steadfast Afghan allies who stood shoulder to shoulder with American forces for two decades, defending the ideals we all treasure. They sacrificed not just their own safety, but also that of their families, placing their faith in the same values that define the best of the West. Among them are courageous individuals who firmly reject extremism, including religious minorities—some of whom are Christian and have been cruelly targeted for their beliefs—who now have nowhere to turn except to you. Their dedication, proven work ethic, and unwavering loyalty have been shaped by years of collaboration under the most challenging conditions, and they only seek a lawful refuge in a place that upholds freedoms so dear to your heart. By delaying or stopping their P-1 and P-2 processes, we risk leaving these vulnerable allies in peril and turning away those who are ready to contribute to our shared vision of prosperity. Please, Mr. President, do not block the path of these deserving friends who have already demonstrated their faith in everything that makes this nation remarkable.

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[1/21/2025 2:19 PM, 43K followers, 2 likes]
In the past NSA Mike Waltz has advocated strongly for America’s Afghan allies and SIVs. Will have to see if that impacts the administration’s policy on Afghan refugee admissions.
Pakistan
Anas Mallick
@AnasMallick
[1/22/2025 2:06 AM, 75.4K followers, 10 retweets, 49 likes]
#Pakistan’s President @AAliZardari to visit #China next month in the first week of February where first he will do the bilateral leg of his visit in Beijing and meet with Pres Xi Jinping and then will travel to Harbin for the Asian Winter Games, per sources.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/22/2025 2:57 AM, 217.2K followers, 7 retweets, 19 likes]
Shahid Khaqan Abbassi at Davos Pakistan panel gives a shout out to Pakistan’s diaspora, says it’s “passionate” and “sustains” Pakistan.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/22/2025 3:08 AM, 217.2K followers, 1 retweet, 15 likes]
Abbasi on Imran Khan: He’s getting the best education one can get (by being in jail).

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/22/2025 3:19 AM, 217.2K followers, 7 retweets, 25 likes]
Ismail on how to turn Pakistan around: Start with devolving power to local governments to facilitate better basic service provision (context: 18th amendment of 2010 devolved power only to provincial level).

Madiha Afzal
@MadihaAfzal
[1/21/2025 1:16 PM, 43K followers, 2 retweets, 6 likes]
While interest in Pakistan has waned in Washington, what does command US attention & worry is Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. Fears that Pakistan’s nuclear assets might fall into the wrong hands is the key lens through which the country is looked at. My piece: https://lawfaremedia.org/article/the-new--and-low--normal-in-u.s.-pakistan-relations
India
Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/21/2025 10:30 PM, 104.8M followers, 2.7K retweets, 13K likes]
Today we mark 10 years of the #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao movement. Over the past decade, it has become a transformative, people powered initiative and has drawn participation from people across all walks of life.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/21/2025 10:30 PM, 104.8M followers, 204 retweets, 343 likes]
#BetiBachaoBetiPadhao has been instrumental in overcoming gender biases and at the same time it has created the right environment to ensure that the girl child has access to education and opportunities to achieve her dreams.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/21/2025 10:30 PM, 104.8M followers, 454 retweets, 903 likes]
Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the people and various community service organisations, #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao has achieved remarkable milestones. Districts with historically low child sex ratios have reported significant improvements and awareness campaigns have instilled a deeper sense of the importance of gender equality.

Narendra Modi
@narendramodi
[1/21/2025 10:30 PM, 104.8M followers, 429 retweets, 879 likes]
I compliment all stakeholders who have made this movement vibrant at the grassroots level. Let us continue to protect the rights of our daughters, ensure their education and create a society where they can thrive without any discrimination. Together, we can ensure that the coming years bring even greater progress and opportunity for India’s daughters. #BetiBachaoBetiPadhao

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/21/2025 5:51 PM, 3.3M followers, 474 retweets, 3.9K likes]
Great to meet NSA @michaelgwaltz again this afternoon. Discussed strengthening our friendship to ensure mutual benefit and enhance global stability and prosperity. Looking forward to working together on an active and outcome oriented agenda.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/21/2025 5:40 PM, 3.3M followers, 1K retweets, 7.3K likes]
Delighted to meet @secrubio for his first bilateral meeting after assumption of office as Secretary of State. Reviewed our extensive bilateral partnership, of which @secrubio has been a strong advocate. Also exchanged views on a wide range of regional and global issues. Look forward to closely working with him to advance our strategic cooperation.

Dr. S. Jaishankar
@DrSJaishankar
[1/21/2025 5:32 PM, 3.3M followers, 1K retweets, 7.5K likes]
Attended a productive Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting today in Washington DC. Thank @secrubio for hosting us and FMs @SenatorWong & Takeshi Iwaya for their participation. Significant that the Quad FMM took place within hours of the inauguration of the Trump Administration. This underlines the priority it has in the foreign policy of its member states. Our wide-ranging discussions addressed different dimensions of ensuring a free, open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Agreed on the importance of thinking bigger, deepening the agenda and intensifying our collaboration. The meeting today sends a clear message that in an uncertain and volatile world, the Quad will continue to be a force for global good.

Michael Kugelman
@MichaelKugelman
[1/21/2025 1:07 PM, 217.2K followers, 140 retweets, 1.2K likes]
India-its central government, its states, its companies, its celebrities-are everywhere at Davos. Its presence is one of the most prominent of any country. Hard to miss.

Jon Danilowicz
@JonFDanilowicz
[1/21/2025 10:21 PM, 12.3K followers, 6 retweets, 28 likes]
Nothing surprising in this readout of Secretary Rubio’s first meeting with his Indian counterpart. What is most notable about the meeting is that it was Rubio’s first Bilat. Having met with his Quad counterparts it will be interesting to see how the Secretary allocates his time in the coming days and where his first travels take him. Meanwhile it will likely be some time before the full new team is in place at State. https://state.gov/secretary-rubios-meeting-with-indian-external-affairs-minister-jaishankar/

Jon Danilowicz
@JonFDanilowicz
[1/21/2025 7:27 PM, 12.3K followers, 12 retweets, 64 likes]
This is a very positive statement from the Quad Foreign Ministers. As I have noted before, the success of Bangladesh’s interim government is fully consistent with the goal of “a Free and Open Indo-Pacific where the rule of law, democratic values, sovereignty, and territorial integrity are upheld and defended.”. Based on this statement I see no reason why the Quad would not support political and economic reforms in Bangladesh leading to free and fair elections. This could be a concrete manifestation of what the Quad stands for. https://state.gov/joint-statement-by-the-quad-foreign-ministers/
NSB
Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:14 AM, 100.6K followers]
Delighted to meet @KarmeshVaswani Chairman of Infosys Consulting & EVP & Business Head of Consumer, Retail & Logistics Industries at Infosys. We discussed exploring opportunities in technology & computing, areas that hold immense potential for Bhutan’s growth & transformation.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:09 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 retweet, 24 likes]
Yesterday was a rewarding day of meaningful discussions with leaders and innovators from around the world. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Mohammad Alshaya, Executive Chairman of the Alshaya Group, to explore potential investments in hospitality, retail, and other sectors.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:09 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Also met Mr. Gurdeep Singh, Chairman & Managing Director of NTPC Limited, to discuss exciting opportunities in energy sector, esp in harnessing solar power. Bhutan’s future lies in clean & sustainable energy, & partnerships like these are crucial for our journey forward.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:09 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Later, I met with Mr. Mario Fehr, Councillor of the Department of Security of Zurich Canton, who reaffirmed their continued support in improving Bhutan’s traffic and fire safety systems.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:09 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
I also spoke at an event titled “AI for Sustainability: Unlocking Synergies for Climate Action, Health, & Responsible Governance.” I shared how, as a small yet resilient nation, Bhutan believes in leveraging human intelligence to guide technology in tackling global challenges.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:09 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Also met with Mr. Saurabh Agrawal, Executive Director and Group CFO of Tata Sons, about the progress of ongoing and upcoming projects in Bhutan. Tata’s long-standing partnership with Bhutan continues to inspire confidence in creating sustainable development together.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:04 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 like]
Pleasure speaking at the @wef event titled, “Giving to Amplify Earth Action: Can Wealth Be Catalytic in the Face of the Planetary Crisis?”

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:04 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 like]
It was inspiring to join global leaders like Prince Maximilian of Liechtenstein, Mr. John Kerry, and Mr. Ray Dalio, alongside philanthropists and private sector champions, to discuss how collective action can address the urgent challenges our planet faces.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:04 AM, 100.6K followers]
I shared Bhutan’s efforts toward building a sustainable future through His Majesty The King’s visionary initiative, the Gelephu Mindfulness City- a model of balance between progress and environmental stewardship.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:04 AM, 100.6K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
I also invited the participants to support the G-Zero Alliance, a unique collaboration between Bhutan, Madagascar, Panama, and Suriname formed at COP29 to lead bold climate actions.

Tshering Tobgay
@tsheringtobgay
[1/22/2025 2:04 AM, 100.6K followers, 2 retweets, 2 likes]
I left the session deeply moved and hopeful that with the right intentions and actions, we can catalyze real change for our planet. Let us continue to dream and act boldly for a future where humanity and nature thrive together.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[1/22/2025 3:06 AM, 111.8K followers, 25 retweets, 24 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu meets with the Parents and Teachers of Hulhudhuffaaru in North Maalhosmadulu Atoll. During the meeting, parents and teachers shared their concerns and needs. The President assured them that the Government will engage with relevant authorities to find the best solutions. The Government’s foremost priority next year will be implementing housing programmes, followed by improvements in the education and healthcare sectors.

The President’s Office, Maldives
@presidencymv
[1/22/2025 1:48 AM, 111.8K followers, 54 retweets, 48 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu attends the signing ceremony to establish @bankofmaldives ATM services on Hulhudhuffaaru. This initiative reflects the President’s commitment to expanding banking access across all inhabited islands in the Maldives, ensuring financial services are readily available to all Maldivians.

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[1/21/2025 8:17 AM, 261.3K followers, 17 retweets, 54 likes]
Rt. Hon. Prime Minister Mr. K P Sharma Oli launched the _Sagarmatha Sambaad_ today coinciding with the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation 2025. @kpsharmaoli @Arzuranadeuba @amritrai555 @krishnadhakal07

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[1/21/2025 8:17 AM, 261.3K followers, 2 retweets, 2 likes]
The _Sagarmatha Sambaad_ is envisioned to be a global platform hosted biennially by the Government of Nepal to deliberate on the matters of regional and global significance.

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[1/21/2025 8:17 AM, 261.3K followers, 1 retweet, 2 likes]
Addressing the launching program, the Prime Minister highlighted Nepal’s meaningful contribution to the global climate actions and underscored the need for collective and collaborative efforts to forge a sustainable and equitable future for all.

MOFA of Nepal
@MofaNepal
[1/21/2025 8:17 AM, 261.3K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
The first edition of the _Sambaad_ will be hosted in Kathmandu from 16 to 18 May 2025 on ‘Climate Change, Mountains and the Future of Humanity.’

Anura Kumara Dissanayake
@anuradisanayake
[1/21/2025 4:21 AM, 144.7K followers, 12 retweets, 133 likes]
Today (21), I met with @WorldBank VP @MartinRaiser to discuss financial & technical support for Sri Lanka’s key initiatives: youth employment, ‘Clean Sri Lanka,’ rural poverty alleviation, digital transformation, & Northern development. We agreed on timely disbursement of funds & explored new projects in education, energy, and public transport. I emphasized the need for agricultural sector improvements, enhanced facilities for our population, and plans to boost tourism & expedite port development. Together, we aim to drive sustainable progress for Sri Lanka.
Central Asia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[1/21/2025 11:31 PM, 210.7K followers, 4 retweets, 18 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev met with @jica_direct President Akihiko Tanaka, highlighting the agency’s role as a strategic partner in New #Uzbekistan’s reforms. The joint project portfolio is worth $8 billion and spans energy, transportation, agriculture, health, and education. Sides agreed to guide future cooperation projects with a "road map".

Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service
@president_uz
[1/21/2025 10:28 AM, 210.7K followers, 4 retweets, 14 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed initiatives for advancing poultry farming and optimizing pasture use. Plans include funding poultry enterprises, restoring underperforming farms, managing pastures with the “E-yaylov” map, establishing pasture farms for conservation and leasing. Efforts will focus on restoring degraded pastures, constructing wells and improving seed production for pasture plants.

{End of Report}
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