SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Tuesday, June 17, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Afghan Women Fear They Have Fallen Off West’s Radar Amid Global Conflicts, Aid Cuts (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [6/16/2025 6:49 PM, Farangis Najibullah, 763K]
Since the Taliban returned to power almost four years ago, few women have been able to keep their jobs amid an increasing array of restrictions on women’s freedoms. Ameena is one of them.
Now, Ameena, and the few others like her who haven’t lost their careers to the Taliban’s restrictive measures, fear another blow: that ongoing global conflicts such as those in Ukraine and the Middle East, and shifting international priorities -- the United States and many European countries are cutting aid as foreign policies shift -- are exacerbating the dire situation for women’s rights in Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
"The Taliban is getting away with their crackdown on us because it knows that Afghanistan is not a priority for the international community anymore," Ameena said.
Ameena, whose name has been changed over security concerns, says her work at a private media outlet has been vital for her "survival both financially and mentally.".
Her salary of around 12,000 Afghanis ($170) a month doesn’t just help put food on the table for her parents and family.
"Being able to work is much more than just money to me: it gives meaning to my life -- I feel that I’m doing something with my life. I would literally lose my mind if I was confined to the four walls of my home like most women in my country today," Ameena, 25, told RFE/RL.
But Ameena fears that the "rope is tightening further" around women’s lives in Afghanistan, especially outside of Kabul, as the Taliban-led government continues to roll back the rights they enjoyed during the two decades of the Western-backed government before it collapsed in August 2021.
Despite making promises to form an inclusive government, adhere to basic human rights norms, and prevent Afghan territory from becoming a safe haven for transnational extremist groups, the Taliban have failed to deliver.
The hard-line Islamist regime has systematically denied Afghan women and girls access to education, employment, and freedom of movement, and prevents them from holding prominent roles in government or society.
The UN has condemned the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women as "gender apartheid," highlighting their systematic erasure from public life and severe punishments for resistance.
In a new report last month, the United Nations office in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented ongoing, widespread discrimination against women as the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice implements strict morality laws ratified by Supreme Spiritual Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada in 2024.
ICC Arrest Warrants
The Taliban’s morality laws bar women from speaking or showing their faces in public, going to amusement parks, and travelling or eating out without a male guardian, among other restrictions.
Women’s gyms and beauty salons have been closed across the country.
Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Akhunzada and the chief justice of the Taliban’s Supreme Court, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of persecuting females.
The Taliban administration has dismissed the arrest warrants as well as the UN condemnation of its restrictive policies on women’s rights.
While the primary driver of women’s rights violations in Afghanistan is the Taliban’s repressive policies, global conflicts and shifting international priorities are starting to compound the challenges faced by Afghan women.
Keeping Spotlight On Women’s Rights
The recent decision by the Trump administration to make deep cuts to its aid program, USAID, is one such shift.
According to the advocacy group OneAid, the move will cost Afghanistan more than $500 million in aid that won’t reach the country.
"It feels like Afghanistan and its issues, including its women’s rights are forgotten by the West," says Rahila Yousofi, an independent Afghan journalist, who recently left Kabul for neighboring Pakistan."Afghanistan is being pushed further aside from the radar by new conflicts, like Iran and Gaza. Western countries also focus more on their own domestic matters, obviously," Yousofi told RFE/RL in a phone interview.
With the world’s attention wandering, many Afghan women’s rights activists are doubling down in an effort to keep their cause in the international spotlight.
Fawzia Koofi, a former lawmaker and the founder of the Women for Afghanistan group, is one of those activists working with United Nations, the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, and human rights groups to document what they call the "ongoing gross violations" of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Koofi warns Western governments not to abandon Afghanistan and its women, saying that "doing so would be a mistake they might regret.".‘Leverage’ Over The Taliban
Despite the crippling poverty that has overwhelmed Afghanistan, the Taliban administration has rejected Western demands to attach conditions to receiving aid such as upholding women’s and ethnic minorities rights.
Instead, the hard-line government in Kabul has turned to countries such as China, Russia, and Central Asian states that pay less attention to Afghanistan’s human rights records. They have established trade, economic, and political ties with the Taliban-led government, which has not been officially recognized by any country in the world.
"The West still has great leverage over the Taliban," says Yousofi. "The Taliban is desperate to get international recognition. The West should not give the Taliban government legitimacy if it continues to ignore the grievances of the people of Afghanistan.". Pakistan
Pakistan Closes Border with Iran as Israeli Strikes Continue (Breitbart)
Breitbart [6/16/2025 4:33 PM, John Hayward, 3077K]
Pakistan on Saturday vowed to "stand behind Iran" against Israeli airstrikes, but indefinitely closed all of its border crossings with Iran on Monday.
"Border facilities in all five districts – Chaghi, Washuk, Panjgur, Kech and Gwadar – have been suspended," a senior official in Pakistan’s province of Baluchistan said Monday.
Border crossings into Iran were "suspended until further notice," although hundreds of Pakistanis fleeing Iran were allowed to cross back into Pakistan. Border officials said commerce between Pakistan and Iran would still be allowed.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Isaq Dar said on Sunday that about 450 Pakistani "pilgrims" had been evacuated from Iran, with more expected to follow. Dar said Pakistani citizens were also leaving Iraq during the Israel-Iran conflict.
The Taftan border crossing said the number of returnees from Iran was up to 714 on Monday, as three busloads of Pakistani students arrived from Tehran. Meanwhile, 269 Pakistani nationals arrived on two special flights from the Iraqi city of Basra.
"The Ministry remains actively engaged with Iraqi Airways and all other relevant Iraqi authorities to ensure the safe and timely return of the remaining Pakistani zaireen in Iraq," said a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry. "Zaireen" means "pilgrim.".
"All zaireen are further advised to remain prepared for travel at short notice. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to monitor the situation closely and remains fully committed to facilitating the safe and orderly return of all Pakistani zaireen," the spokesman added.
Pakistan’s population is around 97 percent Muslim, but only ten to 15 percent are Shiites, the form of Islam dominant in Iran. Iran and Iraq host some of the most important holy sites in the Shia tradition, so Pakistani Shiites travel to both countries for religious purposes.
The Hindustan Times reported on Monday that the Pakistani Foreign Ministry has established a 24-hour "crisis management unit" in the capital, Islamabad, to help Pakistani nationals return from Iran and Iraq.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khwaja Asif said in a speech to the National Assembly on Saturday that Islamabad would "stand behind Iran," and all Muslim countries should do likewise, although he notably refrained from advising military action on Iran’s behalf.
"Israel has targeted Iran, Yemen, and Palestine. If Muslim nations don’t unite now, each will face the same fate," he said.
"We stand behind Iran and will support them at every international forum to protect their interest," he declared.
The Iranians were probably hoping for a little more than Pakistan’s full-throated support at international forums. On Sunday, more high-level Iranian officials were reportedly killed by Israeli airstrikes, including the intelligence chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Kazem.
On Monday, Asif trashed a claim from IRGC commander Gen. Mohsen Rezaei that Pakistan – the only nuclear-armed Muslim country – agreed to launch a nuclear attack against Israel, if the Israelis deploy nuclear weapons of their own.
"Pakistan has told us that if Israel uses a nuclear bomb on Iran, then Pakistan will also attack Israel with a nuclear bomb," Rezaei claimed during an interview with Iranian state television.
Asif said Pakistan has made no such commitment.
"Our nuclear capability is for the benefit of our people and defense of our country against the hostile designs of our enemies. We do not pursue hegemonic policies against our neighbours, which are being amply demonstrated by Israel these days," Asif said. Pakistan’s solar surge lifts it into rarefied 25% club (Reuters – opinion)
Reuters [6/17/2025 2:04 AM, Gavin Maguire, 5.2M]
Pakistan is rapidly emerging as a key leader in solar power deployment, and not just within emerging economies.
The South Asian country has boosted solar electricity generation by over three times the global average so far this year, fuelled by a more than fivefold rise in solar capacity imports since 2022, according to data from Ember.
That combination of rapidly rising capacity and generation has propelled solar power from Pakistan’s fifth-largest electricity source in 2023 to its largest in 2025.
What’s more, so far in 2025 solar power has accounted for 25% of Pakistan’s utility-supplied electricity, which makes it one of fewer than 20 nations globally that have sourced a quarter or more of monthly electricity supplies from solar farms.
EXCLUSIVE CLUB
Over the first four months of 2025, solar farms generated an average of 25.3% of Pakistan’s utility electricity supplies, Ember data shows.
That average compares with a solar share of 8% globally, around 11% in China, 8% in the United States and 7% in Europe.
And while the average solar shares in the Northern Hemisphere will climb steadily through the summer months, very few countries will even come close to securing a quarter of all utility electricity supplies from solar farms any time soon.
Indeed, only 17 countries have ever registered a 25% or more share of monthly utility electricity supplies from solar farms, according to Ember.
Those nations are: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Portugal and Spain.
That list is heavily skewed towards Europe, where the power sector shock from Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 sparked urgent and widespread power-sector reform and the rapid roll-out of renewable generation capacity.
Indeed, Australia and Chile are the only nations aside from Pakistan that are outside Europe, and all included nations boast a far higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita than Pakistan.
IMPORT DRIVE
The chief driver of Pakistan’s solar surge has been an accelerating import binge of solar capacity modules from China.
Between 2022 and 2024, Pakistan’s imports of China-made solar components jumped fivefold from around 3,500 megawatts (MW) to a record 16,600 MW, according to Ember.
Pakistan’s share of China’s total solar module exports also rose sharply, from 2% in 2022 to nearly 7% in 2024.
And that import binge has continued into 2025.
Over the first four months of the year, Pakistan imported just over 10,000 MW of solar components from China, compared with around 8,500 MW during the same period in 2024.
That rise of nearly 18% in imported capacity has lifted Pakistan’s share of China’s solar exports to new highs too, with Pakistan accounting for around 12% of all of China’s solar exports so far this year.
SOLAR-CENTRIC
The frantic deployment of imported solar modules across Pakistan in recent years has upended the country’s electricity generation mix.
So far in 2025, solar is by far the single largest source of electricity, followed by natural gas, nuclear reactors, coal plants and hydro dams.
As solar farms were the fifth-largest supply source for electricity just two years ago, solar’s pre-eminence so far this marks a sharp swing towards renewables within the country’s utility network.
In addition, the country is committed to much more growth in renewable energy generation capacity through the rest of this decade.
Pakistan is targeting 60% of electricity supplies to come from renewable sources by 2030, according to the International Trade Administration.
Through the first four months of 2025, renewable energy sources generated 28% of the country’s electricity, so energy planners are aiming for a more than doubling in that share by the end of the decade.
With solar modules representing the quickest and cheapest means to meet those goals, further rapid build-out of the country’s solar farm system looks likely, which will cement Pakistan’s status as a global solar superpower. India
Modi Misses Chance to Push for US Trade Deal as Trump Leaves G-7 (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/17/2025 4:27 AM, Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 20678K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had no opportunity to push for a US trade deal with Donald Trump after the American president left the Group of Seven leaders’ summit early, a potential setback for New Delhi as recent tariff negotiations hit hurdles.Modi was expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Trump on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting in Canada this week. Trump said Monday he was leaving the summit a day early because of the unfolding tensions in the Middle East.A Trump-Modi meeting was widely expected to take place this week to give much-needed political direction to trade negotiators as they race to conclude a deal ahead of a July 9 deadline when higher US tariffs take effect. US and Indian trade officials have hardened their positions in recent talks, with India’s restrictions on genetically modified crops emerging as one of the key sticking points.“A meeting would have been helpful” to clarify the trade deal, said Harsh Pant, a lecturer in international relations at King’s College London and vice president of the New Delhi-based think tank Observer Research Foundation. Negotiating with Trump is difficult, especially now when the president has other pressing concerns, he said. It’s unclear if India is a priority for the US given the latest developments, he added.India isn’t a member of the G-7 but Modi was invited by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to attend the leaders’ summit in Kananaskis given the country’s size and importance as a major developing economy. Indian officials had previously indicated Modi wouldn’t attend the G-7.Trump held a bilateral meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Monday, but failed to reach an agreement on a trade package. The US leader also met with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and signed a document as a follow-up on the trade framework agreed in May.A bilateral meeting with Trump wouldn’t have been without its hazards for Modi. The US leader has repeatedly said the US had mediated a ceasefire between India and Pakistan following last month’s military conflict that brought the two South Asian neighbors to the brink of war. Trump has also insisted that he used trade as a negotiating tool to clinch a peace deal, comments disputed by Indian officials.Modi is expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Carney on the sidelines of the G-7 meeting, where the two leaders may announce a new initiative to combat cross-border crimes. The Indian prime minister is also expected to meet with leaders from Germany, Ukraine and Italy.The Indian leader had a stopover in Cyprus for a state visit on Monday en route to Canada, and will visit Croatia on Wednesday on his way back, according to an official schedule. G7 summit: Canada, India seek joint intelligence plan despite feud over alleged assassination (Washington Examiner)
Washington Examiner [6/16/2025 4:40 PM, Timothy Nerozzi, 1934K]
Canada and India are reportedly set to announce a new intelligence-sharing initiative after years of bad blood stemming from assassinations in the North American country linked to the Indian government.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Kananaskis, Alberta, on Monday to join fellow world leaders at the G7 summit, where his Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he intends to discuss “crucial global issues, including energy security, technology and innovation, particularly the AI-energy nexus and Quantum-related issues.”
Not listed in that statement was an anti-terrorism intelligence sharing agreement with Canada, which a report from Bloomberg alleged could be announced by the end of the summit.
Reports of an Indian-Canadian information-sharing agreement claim the nations’ law enforcement will be empowered to swap information on terrorism, extremist groups, and international crime syndicates.
Such an arrangement would be a shocking reset to foreign relations between the two countries after the Canadian government alleged India was involved in political assassinations on its soil.
Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian-born Canadian national, was fatally shot in June 2023 while sitting in his vehicle outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. He was a prominent voice in the Khalistan movement — an international campaign to establish a Sikh ethnostate in Punjab.
The Khalistan movement is banned as an illegal separatist ideology in India, but it remains active among the Sikh diaspora, especially in Canada, where Sikhs make up 2% of the population.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched an investigation that found Indian government officials inside and outside the country were linked to the killing of Nijjar.
"Investigations have revealed that Indian diplomats and consular officials based in Canada leveraged their official positions to engage in clandestine activities, such as collecting information for the government of India, either directly or through their proxies; and other individuals who acted voluntarily or through coercion," Commissioner Mike Duheme said in 2024.
Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly affirmed the RCMP’s allegations, saying the Indian government was involved in "homicides, extortion and violent acts" against the Khalistan movement.
India denied the allegations and accused the Canadian government of carrying a "political agenda" against it.
Danish Singh, president of the World Sikh Organization, denounced Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to invite Modi to the G7 summit this week.
"Prime Minister Carney’s decision to invite Narendra Modi, while India continues to deny any role in the assassination of Bhai Hardeep Singh Nijjar and refuses to cooperate with Canadian authorities, is both shameful and dangerous," Singh said in a statement.
He added, "We would never welcome leaders from Russia, China, or Iran under such circumstances. Yet India has done far more on Canadian soil in terms of foreign interference and transnational repression, including orchestrating murders, and is being rewarded with a red carpet welcome.".
Carney was pressed by a reporter this week about his decision to invite Modi despite the government’s claims of transnational foul play. He implied that a development was forthcoming in the case but stopped short of expanding on the details.
"There is a legal process that is literally underway and quite advanced in Canada," the prime minister said. "It’s never appropriate to make comments with respect to those legal processes.".
The G7 summit, which marks the group’s 50th anniversary, is set to run through Tuesday.
Carney is joined by President Donald Trump, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will also attend to represent the European Union, which is a "nonenumerated member.".
India was just one of several nonmember nations invited to attend the summit. Other guest countries include Mexico, Ukraine, South Africa, Brazil, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, and the United Arab Emirates.
Modi will arrive in Canada immediately after wrapping up a visit to Cyprus. Following the visit, he will travel to Croatia — the first-ever visit by an Indian prime minister to the country. India and Cyprus to step up defense, maritime and cybersecurity cooperation, Indian PM says (AP)
AP [6/16/2025 7:51 AM, Menelaos Hadjicostis, 58908K]
India will step up its defense ties with Cyprus through collaboration between the two countries´ respective defense industries, the Indian prime minister said Monday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn´t offer details, but he said talks would begin on boosting bilateral maritime and cybersecurity cooperation.
He said after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides that the two countries would also set up an information exchange mechanism geared toward combatting the threat of terrorism.
Modi´s two-day visit to Cyprus, ahead of his trip to Canada for the G7 summit, is the first by an Indian prime minister in more than two decades.
In a joint declaration, the two countries also pledged to expand maritime cooperation through more frequent Indian navy calls to Cypriot ports and looking at enhancing joint maritime training and search and rescue operations.
Modi underscored the role of the envisioned India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a means to usher peace and prosperity in the Middle East.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, left, and Cyprus’ President Nikos Christodoulides attend a news conference during their meeting at the Presidential palace in Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, June 16, 2025.
Cyprus figures to act as the linchpin between India, the Middle East and Europe in the trade, energy and digital connectivity corridor, given the island nation´s geographical location as the nearest European Union country to the Middle East and India.
Christodoulides said Cyprus was India´s "gateway into Europe" as a base for Indian businesses. He pledged to help implement initiatives such as IMEC that will connect India through specific infrastructure works with the Gulf, the Mediterranean and the European continent.
The Cypriot president said India-EU ties and an upgraded free trade agreement would be among his country´s top priorities when Cyprus assumes the 27-member bloc´s rotating presidency in the first half of 2026.
The Indian prime minister hailed the visit as a harbinger of a new era of India-Cyprus relations built on shared values and deep historic ties that "have been tested time and again.".
Former British colonies Cyprus and India were among members of the Non-Aligned Movement, a collection of nations which opted out of the Cold War choice of allegiance to either the West or the Communist bloc. India expects EU trade deal by year end as Cyprus pledges support (Reuters)
Reuters [6/16/2025 6:21 AM, Michele Kamabs, 51390K]
India expects to finalise a free trade agreement with the European Union by the end of this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday, while Cyprus, which assumes the EU presidency in 2026, said better ties would be its priority.
Modi, on an official visit to the east Mediterranean island, said there were unlimited possibilities in expanding economic ties with Cyprus in a visit aimed at pushing forward India’s global trade agenda.
"We are working on finalising a mutually beneficial India-EU trade agreement by the end of this year," Modi said in joint remarks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.
India is pursuing a trade link by sea and rail known as the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor, but the visit is being held in the shadow of an escalating crisis in the Middle East. "We agree the India - Middle East Europe Corridor will pave the way for peace and prosperity in the region," Modi said.
Cyprus, which has close relations with India through its shared membership of the Commonwealth, is offering facilities to be a first point of entry to Europe and a transhipment hub, Christodoulides said.
"A strengthening of EU-India relations will be among the priorities of the Cypriot EU presidency," Christodoulides said. Cyprus assumes the rotating six-month presidency of the bloc in early 2026. U.S. Investigators Arrive at Scene of India’s Plane Disaster (New York Times)
New York Times [6/16/2025 4:14 PM, Anupreeta Das and Pragati K.B., 831K]
Crash investigators from the United States have reached Ahmedabad to help piece together how one of India’s worst plane disasters unfolded, with Indian government officials saying the cockpit voice recorder had been recovered.
The investigators, from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, are conducting “a parallel probe under international protocols since the aircraft is American-made,” the Indian government said in a statement late Sunday.
Government officials also said that both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder had now been located. The flame-resistant “black box” devices could hold information about what happened leading up to the disaster, including the final communications between the pilots of the plane, which crashed less than a minute after takeoff.
At least 270 people, including 241 passengers on an Air India flight bound for London Gatwick Airport from the city of Ahmedabad, in the western Indian state of Gujarat, died last week as a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane smashed into buildings including the dining hall of a medical college.
The intensity of the flames from the crash has made the identification of passengers a mammoth task. As of Monday afternoon, 99 victims had been identified by matching their DNA with samples from relatives, said Dr. Rakesh Joshi, superintendent at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, where most of the bodies are being held. So far, the remains of 64 victims have been handed over to family members.“Slowly and steadily the process is becoming faster,” Dr. Joshi said. “We’ll finish in a day or two.”
Hundreds of people were milling about the Civil Hospital on Monday, where grief mixed with frustration as relatives waited for news of their loved ones.
The body of the former Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani, one of the crash victims, was handed over to his family on Monday in a coffin wrapped in the Indian flag.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said last week that it would coordinate with the American transportation safety board if the Indian government asked for assistance. An Indian agency, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, opened a formal investigation on Thursday, the day of the crash.
Before the Ahmedabad disaster, there had been no fatalities tied to the Dreamliner model, although the plane has experienced problems that caused passenger injuries. Air India, the country’s flagship carrier, also has a mixed safety record that it has been working to improve after a number of dangerous episodes nearly 15 years ago.
On Monday, the pilot of an Air India flight from Hong Kong to New Delhi turned back in midair and landed safely, Hong Kong airport officials said. Technical issues were behind the pilot’s decision, according to Indian news reports, which said the plane was also a Dreamliner.Another Dreamliner, operated by British Airways and flying from Heathrow to Chennai, India, returned to the London airport on Sunday after reporting technical issues.“This was not an emergency landing, and it is not unusual for an aircraft to return to its origin if there are reports of any technical issues,” British Airways said in a statement.
Glitches affecting planes happen often, for a variety of reasons and usually without major incident. Air India crash seen triggering $475 million in insurance claims (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/16/2025 4:28 PM, Saikat Das and Mihir Mishra, 20678K]
India’s deadliest plane crash in more than decade is set to send shock waves through the aviation insurance industry and trigger one of the country’s costliest claims, estimated at around $475 million.
"This aviation insurance claim could be one of the biggest in India’s history," said Ramaswamy Narayanan, chairman and managing director at General Insurance Corporation of India, one of the firms that has provided coverage for Air India.
The claim for the aircraft hull and engine is estimated at around $125 million, according to Narayanan. He estimates additional liability claims for loss of life for passengers and others will be around $350 million. The sum is more than triple the annual premium for the aviation industry in India in 2023, according to GlobalData.
The financial repercussions of the crash that killed 241 people on board and others as it fell in a densely populated part of Ahmedabad in western India on Thursday will ripple through the global aviation insurance and reinsurance market. It’s also likely to make insurance costlier for airlines in India.
Insurance premiums across the aviation industry are expected to rise in India, either now or at the time of policy renewals, according to people familiar with the matter.
On the Air India insurance payout, totals could climb, since there were foreign nationals killed in the accident, and those claims will be calculated according to the rules in their respective jurisdictions, the people said, who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.
A spokesperson for Air India did not immediately reply to request for comment.
Insurers will first settle the hull claim followed by liability claims, according to Narayanan. "It will take some time for liability claims to be settled," he said.
The impact on the domestic market will be partly mitigated by the fact that both companies only generated about 1% of their total insurance premium from aviation, and ceded most of it to global reinsurers, according to GlobalData’s insurance data.
Broadly, domestic insurers have offloaded more than 95% of their aviation insurance direct written premium, or DWP, to global reinsurers.Due to this, "the financial burden will predominantly fall on international reinsurers, leading to the hardening of the aviation reinsurance and insurance market," said Swarup Kumar Sahoor, senior insurance analyst at GlobalData in a release on Monday. Black boxes analyzed for cause of Air India crash that killed 270 (AP)
AP [6/17/2025 4:24 AM, Sheikh Saaliq and Rajesh Roy, 456K]
Investigators in India are studying the black boxes of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner after recovering them from the aircraft wreckage to ascertain the cause of last week’s plane crash that left at least 270 people dead.The black boxes will provide cockpit conversations and data related to the plane’s engine and control settings to investigators and help them in determining the cause of the crash.The London-bound Air India aircraft, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, crashed on a medical college hostel soon after taking off from the western city of Ahmedabad. Only one passenger survived the crash, while 241 people on board and 29 on the ground were killed in one of India’s worst aviation disaster in decades.Experts from India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau are probing the crash with assistance from the U.K., the U.S. and officials from Boeing.Black box data is crucialAmit Singh, a former pilot and an aviation expert, said the recovery of the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, or black boxes, are crucial to piece together the sequence of events.The cockpit voice recorder records pilots’ conversation, emergency alarms and any distress signal made before a crash. The plane’s digital flight data recorder stores information related to engine and control settings. Both devices are designed to survive a crash.“The data will reveal everything,” Singh said, adding that the technical details could be corroborated by the cockpit voice recorder that would help investigators know of any communication between air traffic control and the pilots.India’s aviation regulatory body has said the aircraft made a mayday call before the crash.Singh said the investigating authorities will scan CCTV footage of the nearby area and speak with witnesses to get to the root cause of the crash.Additionally, Singh said, the investigators will also study the pilot training records, total load of the aircraft, thrust issues related to the plane’s engine, as well as its worthiness in terms of past performances and any previously reported issues.Investigation into the crash could take timeAurobindo Handa, former director general of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said the investigators across the world follow a standard UN-prescribed Manual of Accident Investigation, also called “DOC 9756,” which outlines detailed procedures to arrive at the most probable cause of a crash.Handa said the investigation into last week’s crash would likely be a long process as the aircraft was badly charred. He added that ascertaining the condition of the black boxes recovered from the crash site was vital as the heat generated from the crash could be possibly higher than the bearable threshold of the device.The Indian government has set up a separate, high-level committee to examine the causes leading to the crash and formulate procedures to prevent and handle aircraft emergencies in the future. The committee is expected to file a preliminary report within three months.Authorities have also begun inspecting and carrying out additional maintenance and checks of Air India’s entire fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners to prevent any future incident. Air India has 33 Dreamliners in its fleet.The plane that crashed was 12 years old. Boeing planes have been plagued by safety issues on other types of aircraft. There are currently around 1,200 of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft worldwide and this was the first deadly crash in 16 years of operation, according to experts. When an Air India flight crashed into a medical campus, surviving doctors rushed to save lives (AP)
AP [6/16/2025 9:22 PM, Shonal Ganguly, Aijaz Hussain, and Piyush Nagpal, 456K]
Navin Chaudhary had just begun eating his meal when a loud bang startled him. He turned back to see a massive fire taking over the dining area where he and other trainee doctors had assembled for lunch.
The blaze approaching him, he rushed toward a window and jumped.
From the ground, looking upwards, the sight of the Air India plane’s tail cone hanging from the burning building propelled Chaudhary and fellow medical students into action.“There was fire and many were injured,” said Chaudhary.
He said he felt lucky to survive but knew he had a task at hand. He rushed to the hospital’s intensive care unit, where the injured, most of whom had burns, were wheeled in on stretchers.“I felt that as a doctor I could save someone’s life,” he said. “I was safe. So I thought, whatever I can do, I should.”
At least 270 died when the Air India flight crashed into the campus of a medical college in Ahmedabad shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Only one passenger among the 242 aboard survived. At least 29 others on the ground, including five medical students inside the hostel, were also killed.
Many believe that the death toll would have been higher if it had not been for the intervention of the trainee doctors and students who emerged from the smouldering hostel and rushed to save their colleagues.Akshay Zala, a senior medical student, said the crash felt “like an earthquake.”“I could hardly see anything as thick plumes of smoke and dust engulfed everything. I was barely able to breathe,” he said.
Zala rushed to safety, running through dust and smoke. He cleaned and bandaged a wound on his left leg then joined others at the medical college’s trauma center to treat the injured.
On Monday, the crash site teemed with excavators and workers clearing the debris. Officials inspected the building in search of clues that could enable the investigators to figure out what led to the tragedy.
Barely a kilometer (less than a mile) away, trainee doctors who survived one of India’s worst aviation disasters were still working to identify the victims through DNA testing.
Indian authorities have so far handed over the remains of 47 victims The bodies of 92 others have also been identified through DNA matching and will be transferred to relatives soon.
College dean Minakshi Parikh said that many of the doctors who pulled their colleagues out of the debris, later that day went back to their duties to save as many lives as they could. “They did that and that spirit has continued till this moment,” Parikh said.
Images of the hostel’s dining area shortly after the crash showed parts of the aircraft and pieces of luggage strewn on the floor. Dining plates still containing food lay on the few dusty tables that were left intact by the impact.“So that is human nature, isn’t it? When our own people are injured, our first response is to help them,” Parikh said. “So the doctors who managed to escape ... the first thing that they did was they went back in and dug out their colleagues who were trapped inside.”“They might not even have survived because the rescue teams take time coming,” she added. Air India chairman says crash should drive effort to build safer airline (Reuters)
Reuters [6/16/2025 8:27 AM, Aditya Kalra, 51390K]
Air India’s Chairman N. Chandrasekaran on Monday told staff that last week’s plane crash that killed at least 271 people should be a catalyst to build a safer airline, urging employees to stay resolute amid any criticism.
In a town hall held at the headquarters of the Tata Group-owned airline near New Delhi and attended by 700 staff, Chandrasekaran said the crash was the "most heartbreaking" crisis of his career, a spokesperson told Reuters.
"I’ve seen a reasonable number of crises in my career, but this is the most heartbreaking one," he said, according to a Tata Group spokesperson.
"We need to use this incident as an act of force to build a safer airline," Chandrasekaran told the meeting.The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with 242 people on board bound for Gatwick Airport south of London began losing height seconds after take-off in Ahmedabad on Thursday, and erupted in a huge fireball as it hit buildings below.
All but one on board were declared dead in the world’s worst aviation disaster in a decade, and around 30 people died on the ground.
The airline and the Indian government are looking at several aspects of the crash, including the plane’s engine thrust, flaps, and why the landing gear remained open as the plane took off and then came down.
"We need to wait for the investigation ... It’s a complex machine, so a lot of redundancies, checks and balances, certifications, which have been perfected over years and years. Yet this happens, so we will figure out why it happens after the investigation," Chandrasekaran, 62, said during the staff meeting.
He is also the chairman of the Tata Group conglomerate.
The crash poses a new challenge for both Air India which has for years been trying to revamp its ageing fleet, and Boeing, which is trying to rebuild public trust following a series of safety and production crises.
After taking the carrier over from the government in 2022, the Tata Group unveiled its investment plans to create a "world-class airline" after years of financial losses, persistent flight delays and poor maintenance under government ownership.
On Monday, an Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner plane bound for New Delhi returned to its origin of Hong Kong shortly after takeoff following a technical issue.
"It’s not easy to face criticisms," Chandrasekaran said. "We are going to get through this. We need to show resilience.".
In Ahmedabad, dozens of anxious family members have been waiting to collect bodies of relatives killed in the crash, as doctors worked to gather dental samples from the deceased and run identification checks.
Only 99 samples have been matched so far, and 64 bodies have been handed over to the families, Rakesh Joshi, Medical Superintendent of a civil hospital in the city, said.
Authorities late on Sunday also said both the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been located and secured, which will be key in the investigation. Family of Air India crash victims feel ‘abandoned’ (BBC)
BBC [6/16/2025 1:32 PM, Leigh Boobyer and Charlotte Scarr, 65518K]
The family of three Britons who died in the Air India plane crash are calling on the UK government to provide more support in India.
Akeel Nanabawa, Hannaa Vorajee and Sara Nanabawa, aged four, were returning home to Gloucester when their plane ploughed into a residential area in Ahmedabad on Thursday.
Akeel’s brother, Hamzah, said they have not received his body despite giving DNA and waiting three days. A family spokesperson added: "We’re not asking for miracles – we’re asking for presence, for compassion, for action. Right now, we feel utterly abandoned.".
A Foreign Office spokesperson said there is an advice helpline and a support centre has been set up near the airport.
The plane was carrying 242 people when it crashed shortly after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India, including 53 Britons.
The sole surviving passenger was Briton Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.
Mr Nanabawa said: "I need the UK government to come out by themselves, if they’ve given up all this big talk over in the UK, come out here and help.".
He added there is no UK leadership in India, no medical team and no crisis professionals stationed at the hospital.
"No one from UK has even reached out to me, my family, to my sister in law’s family. Nobody has. So you’re saying no one from the foreign office in the UK or here reached out to us at all, nobody," Mr Nanabawa said.
"They haven’t done anything for us [or] what we wanted. You have to understand, this is the highest, highest incident in the UK’s history of 53 lives, and we are now on day four.".
He added: "All I want is you guys to come and help and help my brother, my sister in law, my niece and all the other 53 people that were on that plane.
"Come and help them, please. Because they are grieving. They are hurt. They haven’t got anybody. They [haven’t got any] structure, no structure at all.".
UK air accident investigators are already in India and are assisting the Indian authorities, and UK forensic experts are there to support, a Foreign Office spokeswoman said.
She added: "Our staff continue to work around the clock in the UK and India to support the families and loved ones of all those impacted by the crash.
"We have set up a Reception Centre at the Ummed Hotel, near the Ahmedabad airport, and have a dedicated helpline to provide support and advice for the families and friends of British nationals.". India Warns Citizens To Leave Tehran As Some Flee Iran (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/17/2025 2:38 AM, Staff, 931K]
India on Tuesday urged its citizens to leave Tehran, while some nationals have already fled across the Iranian border as the country comes under Israeli bombardment.With Israel vowing to keep up its attacks four days after launching its assault on Iran, which has launched retaliatory strikes, New Delhi said Indian students have already left Tehran.
"Residents who are self sufficient in terms of transport have also been advised to move out of the city in view of the developing situation," the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The warning came after Israel’s ally US President Donald Trump said "everyone" should "immediately" leave the Iranian capital, which is home to nearly 10 million.
New Delhi said "some Indians have been facilitated to leave Iran through the border with Armenia", hundreds of kilometres (miles) northwest of Tehran.
The foreign ministry did not detail how many of its citizens have been affected in Iran, where there are around 10,000 Indians according to government data last year.
Thousands of Indians are also in Israel, and New Delhi has issued warnings for its citizens there to "stay vigilant". Diamond Tycoon Alleges India Abducted Him to Get Confession (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [6/16/2025 11:05 AM, Upmanyu Trivedi, 88K]
A diamond tycoon wanted in a $1.5 billion fraud case told a UK court he was kidnapped by Indian agents in 2021 and tortured to extract a confession that he colluded with political opponents to defraud local banks.
Mehul Choksi, the chairman of Gitanjali Gems Ltd., sued the Indian government and five individuals involved in the alleged abduction at a London court. The Indian government denied the allegations and argued that the case shouldn’t be heard in English courts.The tycoon remains in Belgium, where he was arrested in April following an extradition request from India’s federal investigators. The London allegations and the £250,000 ($339,690) claim were initiated to upend India’s call for his extradition, a lawyer for the Indian government said in court on Monday.Choksi, 66, and his former diamond billionaire nephew Nirav Modi, 54 left India before the fraud was unearthed at Indian state-owned banks in 2018. Modi and Choksi were the most high profile men facing charges after a series of frauds involving the diamond industry hit the banks in India, which cuts or polishes about 90% of the world’s diamond supply.Modi, who remains in a UK jail, previously lost his extradition case while his uncle Choksi lived in Antigua. Modi and Choksi face charges linked to bribery, fraud and money laundering in India. Both men have previously denied any involvement in the fraud.Choksi was kidnapped from near his then home in Antigua in May 2021, his lawyers said. “He was brutally beaten, including being punched, tasered to the face, blind-folded, tied to a wheelchair and gagged. He was knocked unconscious,” Edward Fitzgerald, Choksi’s lawyer said in a court document.Choksi’s lawyers said he woke up on a sailing vessel to be beaten further and threatened that he and his family would be killed if he didn’t agree to return to India.Five individuals who are, or were British residents, tortured and threatened him “to extort a false confession from him that he — in cahoots with the political opposition — was guilty of the allegations against him in India,” Fitzgerald said.The five included a diplomat, his driver, a woman in luxury goods business, a retired ironworks foundryman and a ex-forklift driver, according to court documents.They “seem a rather unlikely band of state-sponsored conspirators,” Harish Salve, a lawyer representing India, said in court filings. “India has no knowledge of these individuals.”
“There is no evidence of India having anything to do with the alleged events,” Salve said. Choksi’s account is based on unsupported assumptions and speculations, he said.Choksi has a compelling case that the Indian government orchestrated the kidnap, his spokesperson said in a statement.“India should not be able to avoid accountability for the allegations against them by citing ongoing extradition proceedings,” he said.Lawyers for the Indian government sought sovereign immunity. None of the alleged acts took place in the UK and the case shouldn’t be heard in the UK, they said. NSB
Bangladesh Orders Fugitive Ex-leader Hasina To Return To Face Trial (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/16/2025 4:52 AM, Staff, 931K]
Bangladesh’s war crimes court ordered fugitive ex-leader Sheikh Hasina on Monday to return to face trial on charges amounting to crimes against humanity.
Hasina, 77, fled Dhaka by helicopter to India in August 2024 at the culmination of a student-led mass uprising. She has defied an extradition order to return to Bangladesh.
Up to 1,400 people were killed between July and August 2024 when Hasina’s government launched a crackdown in a failed bid to cling to power, according to the United Nations.
Hasina and former senior figures connected to her ousted government and her now-banned party, the Awami League, are being prosecuted in Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
Prosecutors have filed five charges against Hasina, including abetment, incitement, complicity, facilitation, conspiracy and failure to prevent mass murder -- charges that amount to crimes against humanity under Bangladeshi law.
"The court directed the prosecution team to issue a notice as soon as possible summoning them to appear before the court," chief prosecutor Muhammad Tajul Islam said on Monday.
The trial will resume on June 24 without her if she fails to return.
The prosecution argues that Hasina ordered security forces, through directives from the interior ministry and police, to crush the protests.
Hasina is on trial with two other officials.
One of them, former interior minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, who faces similar charges, is also a fugitive.
The second, ex-police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun, is in custody and was in court on Monday.
The prosecution of senior figures from Hasina’s government is a key demand of several of the political parties now jostling for power.
The interim government has said it will hold elections in April 2026, although some parties are pushing for an earlier vote. Sri Lanka economy reports 4.8% growth in first quarter (Reuters)
Reuters [6/16/2025 7:40 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 58908K]
Sri Lanka’s economy grew 4.8% year-on-year in the first three months of 2025, official data showed on Monday, indicating a strengthening recovery from its worst financial crisis in decades.
Sri Lanka’s agriculture sector shrank by 0.7% in the first quarter from a year earlier, but industrial output expanded by 9.7%, and services grew by 2.8%, the census and statistics department said in a statement.
Struck by a severe dollar shortfall, the economy went into free fall in 2022, contracting 7.3% as it grappled with soaring inflation, a sharply weaker currency and foreign debt default.
The economy shrank 2.3% in 2023.
But it made a stronger-than-expected recovery last year, posting 5% growth as measures implemented under a $2.9 billion, four-year bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), secured in March 2023, bore fruit.
"We expect growth to be less in the second quarter due to taxes and higher power prices, but we are bullish on growth in the second half of the year," said Dimantha Mathew, head of research at First Capital.
"We expect full year growth to be between 4%-5%.".
Colombo hiked power prices by 15% last week in its effort to secure IMF executive board approval for the fifth, $334 million, tranche in its programme.Sri Lanka has made substantial progress on IMF-supported reforms, but more work is needed to reduce the Asian country’s 24.5% poverty rate, tackle corruption and reduce domestic debt, Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s first deputy managing director, said during a meeting with officials and economists in Colombo on Monday.
Sri Lanka plans to discuss strategies with the IMF to lure foreign investment, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said on Monday.
Sri Lanka started talks with the United States after Washington imposed tariffs of 44% in April on its exports of about $3 billion. The tariffs were later suspended.
The World Bank estimates the island will grow 3.5% this year. Crisis-hit Sri Lanka Vows Reforms As Growth Slows (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/16/2025 10:22 AM, Staff, 931K]
Sri Lanka’s president on Monday vowed to press ahead with unpopular reforms, including the closure of loss-making state institutions, as official data showed economic expansion slowing down.
President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said maintaining the country’s 1.5 million-strong public service was unsustainable and that there would be cutbacks.
Addressing an IMF-backed review of the country’s economic recovery from the unprecedented meltdown of 2022, the leftist president said he has identified several state institutions to be shut down.
"We have already decided that certain state institutions should be closed," Dissanayake said, without naming them.
"These institutions were established in response to the socio-economic needs of a bygone era, which are no longer relevant."
He added that the government would retain its hold on the energy and financial sectors, which he considered "sensitive to the economy."
Dissanayake’s remarks came as the census department said the country’s economy expanded by 4.8 percent in the first quarter of this year, down from 5.4 percent in the previous quarter and 5.3 percent a year ago.
The island’s worst economic performance was in 2022, when GDP shrank by 7.3 percent after the country ran out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports such as food and fuel.
After two consecutive declines in GDP in 2022 and 2023, Sri Lanka’s economy recorded positive growth of 5.0 percent in 2024, indicating the country was emerging from its worst crisis.
Months of shortages led to street protests that eventually forced then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down in July 2022.
His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, secured a $2.9 billion, four-year bailout loan from the IMF.
However, Wickremesinghe lost the September elections to Dissanayake, who has done a U-turn on his election pledges to renegotiate the terms of the bailout and has maintained austerity.
Dissanayake said he was committed to reforms in line with the International Monetary Fund’s prescriptions and hoped it would be the island’s last bailout.
The current IMF bailout is its 17th.
"By the year 2028, we aspire to build a stable economy with sufficient growth to service our debt independently," he said.
Dissanayake has signed off on a controversial debt restructuring his predecessor had agreed with both bilateral and private creditors. Central Asia
Xi Jinping attends Central Asia summit in strategic push (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [6/16/2025 10:20 PM, CK Tan, 1083K]
Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to meet counterparts from Central Asian countries in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, aiming to expand Beijing’s economic and geopolitical influence in the region against a backdrop of U.S. tensions and spiraling international conflicts.Held in the Kazakh capital of Astana, China’s second summit with the landlocked region is expected to focus on a wide range of cooperation, from deepening trade through road and rail connectivity to infrastructure development, energy and institution-building. Looming over the discussions, though, will be two nearby hot wars -- Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the unfolding Israel-Iran clash.China’s moves in the region "directly support Central Asian countries’ ambitions to expand their trade options and reduce dependency on Russia for transit," Yunis Sharifli, a nonresident fellow at the China Global South Project, a U.S.-based multimedia organization, told Nikkei Asia.A Eurasian trade route running through the region from China to Europe, along with an existing gas pipeline stretching 1,833 kilometers from the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan border to Xinjiang in western China, have contributed to improved economic ties.The Middle Corridor, or the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, has grown in importance as countries involved seek safer and faster routes to transport goods amid the Ukraine war, now in its third year. Central Asia recently attracted 12 billion euros ($13.7 billion) in investment pledges from the European Union.The Central Asia-China gas pipeline, operational since late 2009, has transported over 500 billion cubic meters of natural gas to China, Chinese state media Xinhua reported Monday. For context, China’s total natural gas imports reached 373 billion cubic meters in 2024.China’s trade with the five Central Asian countries -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan -- has doubled since 2013, reaching 674.15 billion yuan ($94 billion) in 2024, according to the same report.Once part of the Soviet Union, these Central Asian countries have increasingly turned to China for economic growth, seeking to diversify away from Russia as a hedge against geopolitical risk. They are forming partnerships in energy, transport infrastructure, and electric vehicle manufacturing.The shift reflects how China is "gradually expanding its economic influence even areas traditionally dominated by Moscow without overtly challenging Russia’s security role," Sharifli said.Both Chinese and Russian state-owned companies are set to build separate nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan, Astana’s atomic energy agency said over the weekend, reflecting the uranium-rich country’s balancing strategy.China’s involvement in Central Asia is not confined to the economic sphere but is expanding through education and people-to-people exchanges. This worries some observers."As an increased reliance on Beijing could push the region toward further authoritarianism, eroding democratic values and human rights, the EU and the U.S. should offer Central Asian countries an alternative model of cooperation," Nargiza Muratalieva wrote in a December report published by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.Tuesday’s summit comes amid tensions with the U.S., despite a recent effort to keep a trade truce on track. But the most pressing concern is the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, which shares a border with Turkmenistan. Central Asian states including Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have urged both sides in the war to de-escalate."Xi’s visit sends a clear message that China views Central Asia as a strategic buffer and a key partner in its broader efforts to stabilize its western frontier," said Global South’s Sharifli.The last China-Central Asia summit was held two years ago in Xi’an, where Beijing pledged 26 billion yuan in fresh loans and grants to the region. China’s Xi Jinping meets Central Asian leaders: Why their summit matters (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [6/16/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 17M]
Chinese President Xi Jinping reached Kazakhstan on Monday to attend the second China–Central Asia Summit, a high-stakes diplomatic gathering aimed at deepening Beijing’s economic and strategic ties with the region.
The summit, which will be held on Tuesday in the Kazakh capital Astana, comes at a time when China is intensifying its outreach to Central Asian countries amid shifting global power alignments — and mounting tensions in neighbouring Iran, which is roiled in an escalating conflict with Israel.
The summit will bring together the heads of state from all five Central Asian nations — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan — along with Xi.
The Astana summit also carries symbolic weight: it is the first time that the five Central Asian nations are holding a summit in the region with the leader of another country.
So, what is the importance of the China-Central Asia Summit? And is China battling both the United States and Russia for influence in the region?
What’s on Xi’s agenda in Astana?
On Monday, Xi was greeted by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and other senior officials at the airport in Astana. The Astana summit follows the inaugural May 2023 China–Central Asia Summit, which was held in Xi’an, the capital city of China’s Shaanxi province.
Xi is expected to be in Astana from June 16 to 18 and is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Kazakhstan’s leaders on Monday before the summit on June 17.
At the summit, he is expected to deliver a keynote speech and “exchange views on the achievements of the China-Central Asia mechanism, mutually beneficial cooperation under the framework, and international and regional hotspot issues,” said a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
The office of Kazakhstan’s president noted that both countries are “set to further strengthen bilateral ties” and Xi will also chair “high-level talks with President [Tokayev] focused on deepening the comprehensive strategic partnership”.
Tokayev, who has been in office since 2019, is a fluent Mandarin speaker and previously served as a diplomat in China.
Zhao Long, a senior research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (SIIS), told Al Jazeera that Central Asian countries see their partnership with China as a deep, multifaceted cooperation grounded in shared strategic and pragmatic interests.“The alignment with China helps Central Asian states enhance their regional stability, pursue economic modernisation, and diversify their diplomatic portfolios,” said Zhao. Where Central Asia has abundant energy resources, he said, China offers vast markets, advanced technology, and infrastructure expertise.
Last Friday, Lin Jian, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, told a news briefing that establishing “the China-Central Asia mechanism was a unanimous decision among China and the five Central Asian countries, which dovetails with the region’s common desire to maintain stability and pursue high-quality development”.
Since China first formalised and chaired the China-Central Asia Summit in May 2023, Lin said, “China’s relations with Central Asian countries have entered a new era … injecting fresh impetus into regional development and delivering tangibly for the peoples of all six countries.”“We believe through this summit, China and five Central Asian countries will further consolidate the foundation of mutual trust,” Lin added.“During the summit, President Xi will also meet with these leaders and lay out the top-level plan for China’s relations with [the] five Central Asian countries,” said the spokesperson.
SIIS’s Zhao said Xi’s attendance at the second summit sends a clear message: “China places high strategic importance on Central Asia.”
What’s ‘C5+1’ – and is China racing the US for influence?
Experts are dubbing the China-Central Asia Summit as a C5+1 framework, because of the five regional nations involved.
The United States first initiated the concept of such a summit with all five Central Asian nations in 2015, under then-US President Barack Obama. But at the time, the conclave was held at the level of foreign ministers. Then-US Secretary of State John Kerry led the first meeting in September 2015 on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
In January 2022, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a virtual summit with the five Central Asian state heads, and then in June 2025, he invited them for a follow-up conclave in India.
Meanwhile, in 2023, Xi hosted the leaders in Xi’an. Four months later, then-US President Joe Biden hosted the C5 state heads on the sidelines of the UNGA in New York. It was the first time a US president met with Central Asian heads of state under this framework.
But current US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies could upset that outreach from Washington. Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have all been tariffed at 10 percent.
Trump initially imposed an even higher 27 percent tariff on imports from Kazakhstan, the region’s largest economy, though as with all other countries, the US president has paused these rates, limiting tariffs to a flat 10 percent for now.
China has cited these tariff rates to project itself as a more reliable partner to Central Asia than the US. At the meeting with the foreign ministers of the region in April, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi criticised unilateralism, trade protectionism, and “the trend of anti-globalisation [that] has severely impacted the free trade system”.
The US, Wang said, was “undermining the rule-based multilateral trading system, and destabilising the global economy”.
Why does Central Asia matter to China?
The region, rich in uranium, oil, and rare earth metals, has become increasingly important to China as a key corridor for trade with Europe. Subsequently, China has increased its engagement with Central Asian countries.
Xi, who has curtailed his foreign visits since the COVID-19 pandemic, is visiting Kazakhstan for the third time since 2020. He visited in 2022, and then again in 2024.
Central Asia is also a critical part of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) — a network of highways, railroads and ports connecting Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America — as a gateway to Europe.
Experts expect the BRI to figure prominently at the summit in Astana on Tuesday, with additional emphasis on collaboration in energy and sustainable development.
A planned $8bn railway connecting China’s Xinjiang region to Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan is likely to be on the agenda, the SIIS’s Zhao said. Construction on the project is scheduled to begin in July. Expected to be completed by 2030, the railway route will provide China with more direct access to Central Asia and reduce the three countries’ reliance on Russia’s transport infrastructure.
Additionally, Zhao said, the summit may feature agreements on reducing tariffs, streamlining customs procedures, and lowering non-tariff barriers to boost bilateral trade volumes.
How much does Central Asia depend on China?
A lot.
China is today the top trading partner of each of the five Central Asian republics.
Kazakhstan imported goods worth $18.7bn from China and exported goods worth $15bn in 2023 — making up 30 percent of its total imports and 16 percent of exports.
Tajikistan imported goods worth $3.68bn from China and exported goods worth $250m in 2023 — making up 56 percent of its total imports and 16 percent of exports.
Kyrgyzstan imported goods worth $3.68bn and exported goods worth $887m in 2023 from China — constituting 29 percent of its total imports and 26 percent of exports.
Uzbekistan imported goods worth $12.7bn and exported goods worth $1.82bn in 2023 from the world’s second-largest economy — representing 32 percent of its total imports and 6 percent of exports.
Turkmenistan imported goods worth $957m and exported goods worth $9.63bn in 2023 from China — or 20 percent of its total imports and 62 percent of exports.
China is also ramping up its investments in the region. It has committed to an estimated $26bn in investments in Kazakhstan, for instance.
Is China replacing Russia in Central Asia?
It’s complicated.
Formerly parts of the Soviet Union, the five Central Asian republics have long belonged in Russia’s strategic sphere of influence. Millions of people from the five republics live and work in Russia, and since 2023, Moscow has become a supplier of natural gas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, which have faced energy shortages — even though Central Asia was historically a supplier of energy to Russia.
But though Russia remains a major economic force in the region, China has overtaken it as the largest trading partner of Central Asian republics over the past three years — a period that has coincided with Russia’s war on Ukraine. Some of that increased trade, in fact, is believed to be the outcome of China using Central Asia as a conduit for exports to Russia of goods that face Western sanctions.
Still, there are ways in which Russia remains the region’s preeminent outside ally. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — three of the region’s five nations — are part of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) — along with Russia, Armenia and Belarus. Like NATO, this bloc offers collective security guarantees to members. In effect, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have the cover of Russia’s protection if they are attacked by another nation — something that China does not offer. China’s Xi meets Kazakh leader Tokayev, widen cooperation, Xinhua says (Reuters)
Reuters [6/16/2025 10:32 AM, Staff, 51390K]
China and Kazakhstan exchanged cooperation documents covering trade, investment, tech, tourism and customs on Monday as Chinese President Xi Jinping met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Astana, Beijing’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The two countries should practice multilateralism and safeguard the common interests of developing countries, Xi said, adding that they should promote the construction of cross-border railway projects and the transformation of port infrastructure.
Xi also called on the two countries to expand law enforcement and defence exchanges, and to jointly combat terrorism, separatism and extremism, according to Xinhua. China’s Xi in Kazakhstan to cement Central Asia ties (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [6/16/2025 10:22 PM, Staff, 58908K]
Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Central Asian leaders at a summit in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, his second trip to the region in under a year as Beijing competes with Russia for influence there.
The summit in the Kazakh capital brings together Xi -- who arrived in Astana on Monday -- and the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Under Russia’s orbit until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the five countries of Central Asia have courted interest from major powers including China and the United States since becoming independent.
The region is rich in natural resources and strategically located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia.
While Central Asian leaders continue to view Russia as a strategic partner, ties with Moscow have loosened since the war in Ukraine.
The five nations are taking advantage of the growing interest in their region and coordinating their foreign policies.
They regularly hold summits with China and Russia to present the region as a unified bloc and attract investment.
The "5+1" format high-level talks have also been organised with the European Union, the United States, Turkey and other Western countries.
"The countries of the region are balancing between different centres of power, wanting to protect themselves from excessive dependence on one partner," Kyrgyz political scientist Nargiza Muratalieva told AFP.
Russia says China’s growing influence in the region does not pose a threat.
"There is no reason for such fears. China is our privileged strategic partner, and the countries of Central Asia, naturally, are our natural historical partners," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
But China has now established itself as Central Asia’s leading trading partner. Trade volume with the region was estimated at $95 billion in 2024, according to Chinese customs.
That figure is far ahead of the European Union (around $64 billion according to the EU Council in 2023) and Russia, with $44 billion.
Central Asia is also an important target for China in its Belt and Road initiative -- which uses huge infrastructure investments as a political and diplomatic lever.
Xi’s visit to Kazakhstan will "(open) up more room for the joint construction of the Belt and Road", Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said on Monday.
Construction of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway and the China-Tajikistan highway, which runs through the Pamir Mountains to Afghanistan, are among the planned investments.
New border crossings and "dry ports" have already been built to process trade, such as Khorgos in Kazakhstan, one of the largest logistics hubs in the world.
"Neither Russia nor Western institutions are capable of allocating financial resources for infrastructure so quickly and on such a large scale, sometimes bypassing transparent procedures," said Muratalieva.
Developing transport corridors in Central Asia allows China to reduce delivery times by sending goods to Europe via the Caspian Sea, bypassing Russia.
Chinese companies are also increasingly present in Central Asia’s energy sector, seeking contracts for gas in Turkmenistan, uranium in Kazakhstan and rare earths in Tajikistan, among others.
Kazakhstan said last week that Russia would lead the construction of its first nuclear power plant but that it wanted China to build the second.
"Central Asia is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, uranium, gold and other minerals that the rapidly developing Chinese economy needs," Muratalieva said.
"Ensuring uninterrupted supplies of these resources, bypassing unstable sea routes, is an important goal of Beijing," the analyst added.
China also positions itself as a supporter of the predominantly authoritarian Central Asian leaderships.
At the last Central Asia-China summit, Xi called for "resisting external interference" that might provoke "colour revolutions" that could overthrow the current leaders in the region.
"Central Asia directly borders Xinjiang... Beijing sees the stability of the Central Asian states as a guarantee of the security of its western borders," Muratalieva added.
Beijing is accused of having detained more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims as part of a campaign which the UN has said could constitute "crimes against humanity".
Central Asia remains sparsely populated and has just 80 million inhabitants despite being as geographically large as the European Union.
This is far less than the 1.4 billion Chinese population, now exempt from visa requirements in some countries of the region.
Some in Central Asia are concerned by this arrangement and fear a loss of sovereignty. Kazakhstan threads diplomatic needle, gives both Russia and China nuclear deals (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [6/16/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
Kazakhstan has taken the meaning of multi-vector foreign policy into a new dimension: to split atoms, Astana has decided to divide a tender, creating deals to build two nuclear power plants when only one had previously been authorized.
With Kazakhstan’s two powerful neighbors, Russia and China, both vying aggressively to secure the contract to build the planned reactor on the shores of Lake Balkhash, Astana faced a difficult choice. Not wanting to face potential blowback for offending either the Kremlin or Beijing, Kazakh officials got creative, or what many might describe as pragmatic.
Formally, Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency (KAEA) announced June 14 that Russia’s Rosatom had received the tender to build at the Lake Balkhash site. But at the same time, the agency announced a second nuclear power plant would be constructed at a location to be determined and that China’s National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) had secured that contract.
In addition to Rosatom and CNNC, entities from France and South Korea were in the running to win the tender. KAEA officials maintained the pretense that the awards were based on a fixed set of criteria, including “reactor technologies ... plant safety, technological and financial aspects, international experience, personnel training, level of localization, etc.”“Working on the issue of attracting state export financing at the expense of the Russian Federation has begun,” adds the KAEA statement, which was posted on Telegram.
Details about the second nuclear plant still need to be finalized, but there’s no doubt the job is CNNC’s, KAEA’s chief, Almasadam Satkaliev, indicated.“Objectively, there are not so many countries in the world that can master the entire atomic cycle on their own,” the statement quotes him as saying. “China is one of the countries that has all the necessary technologies.” Russia’s Rosatom Selected to Take Lead on Kazakhstan’s 1st Nuclear Power Plant (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [6/16/2025 11:00 AM, Catherine Putz, 555K]
On June 14, Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency announced that Russia’s Rosatom had been selected to lead construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant.
In a separate statement, agency head Almasadam Satkaliyev said that there were plans to sign a separate agreement with China to construct a second nuclear power plant.
Shortly after an October 2024 referendum on whether Kazakhstan should build a nuclear power plant – which passed in the wake of a heavy-handed government campaign in favor – Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev suggested that an international consortium be formed to work on the project. At the time, I argued that "[t]he present geopolitical context makes that highly unlikely." That geopolitical context remains a high hurdle as Moscow continues to prosecute its war in Ukraine.
Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic company, has been excluded from sanctions since the onset of the Ukraine war, though some policymakers, including in the U.S. have proposed changing course and imposing sanctions.
Kazakhstan’s Atomic Energy Agency preempted critiques that the choice of Rosatom was a political one, stating, "In terms of geopolitical balance, we maintain a neutral stance: the consortium remains open to other technological solutions, and key decisions are made at the interagency level, taking into account national interests and international commitments.".
The June 14 statement said that Kazakhstan would "continue to work with foreign partners to form an effective international consortium for the construction of the first [nuclear power plant] in Kazakhstan," without providing details.
Rosatom was selected from a shortlist that included China’s China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), France’s Électricité de France (EDF), and South Korea’s Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP). According to Kazakh authorities, "It was determined that the most optimal and effective proposals for the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan came from the Russian company Rosatom.".
Kazakhstan’s first nuclear power plant is slated to be built near Lake Balkhash.
Rosatom’s Director General Alexei Likhachev noted in a statement that the company’s VVER-1200 reactors are already operating in Russia and Belarus and have been selected by partners in Hungary, Egypt, Turkiye, Bangladesh and China.
The announcement of a possible second nuclear power plant, built in cooperation with China, inadvertently (or purposefully) sets up a race between Russia and China, with Kazakhstan the venue and beneficiary.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Astana this week for bilateral meetings and to attend the second Central Asia-China Summit. That timing cannot be easily dismissed.
Satkaliyev’s comments on the second nuclear power plant are illustrative: "Realistically, there are not many countries in the world capable of managing the entire nuclear cycle on their own. And without a doubt, China is one of the few that possesses all the necessary technologies and a strong industrial base. Our next top priority is cooperation with China.". Indo-Pacific
36 More Countries May Be Added to Trump’s Travel Ban (New York Times)
New York Times [6/16/2025 4:14 PM, Charlie Savage and Edward Wong, 831K]
The Trump administration is considering expanding President Trump’s new travel ban to as many as 36 additional countries, most of which are in Africa, according to a June 14 cable reviewed by The New York Times.
This month, Mr. Trump imposed a full ban on entry to the United States on citizens of 12 countries and a partial ban on seven more, reviving a form of a much disputed policy from his first term.
The cable says that in addition to the 19 countries, the State Department had identified 36 more that must improve on certain benchmarks within 60 days. It set a deadline of 8 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday for the affected governments to provide remediation plans.
The countries in question “must take immediate action to mitigate ongoing vetting and screening concerns, develop corrective action plans to remediate deficiencies and evaluate progress,” the cable said.
The State Department said in a statement on Monday that it was “committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process.” It has declined to comment more specifically on internal deliberations.
The cable, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post, cited a range of concerns that it said had put the countries on the list, but it cautioned that not every country raised the same issues. It did not say what the concerns were in each case.The categories of concern included a lack of a competent central government that could produce reliable identity documents and criminal records; dubious passport security; significant rates of visa overstays; a lack of cooperation in taking back citizens being deported from the United States; and selling citizenship to people who do not live in their countries.
It also said a country could be subjected to a travel ban if its citizens were involved in terrorism or “antisemitic and anti-American activity in the United States.”
But the cable said that a country could help mitigate concerns if its government agreed to accept people from other countries whom the United States was trying to deport but could not repatriate, or agreed to serve as a “safe third country” that took in migrants who applied for asylum in the United States.
The countries on the new list included Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Times reported in March that the Trump administration was developing a travel ban that would have three tiers — a “red” list of countries whose nationals were completely banned; an “orange” group of countries whose access would be curtailed but not completely barred; and a “yellow” category in which countries would be given 60 days to change some perceived deficiencies or they would be added to one of the two other lists.
The Times also reported that month on a draft list of 43 countries that were provisionally slated for one of those three lists. But on June 4, Mr. Trump issued a proclamation that contained only full and partial bans — essentially, the red and orange lists, though the public document did not call them that.
Some countries had shifted from the draft. The countries whose citizens were fully banned from entering the United States were Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Mr. Trump also named seven others whose citizens cannot come to the United States permanently or get tourist or student visas, but can travel for business. They included Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Mr. Trump’s policy of categorically barring entry to citizens of targeted countries traces back to his campaign call, in December 2015, for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
Soon after taking office in 2017, Mr. Trump issued what became the first of a series of bans. They initially focused on a set of Muslim-majority countries but later also encompassed other low-income and nonwhite countries, including in Africa. Courts blocked enforcement of the first two versions, but the Supreme Court eventually permitted a rewritten ban to take effect.
One of the first acts taken by Joseph R. Biden Jr. when he became president in 2021 was to rescind Mr. Trump’s travel bans and return to a system of individualized vetting for people from those countries. He called the bans “a stain on our national conscience” that undermined national security by jeopardizing “our global network of alliances and partnerships.”
When Mr. Trump returned to office in January, one of his first acts was an order directing the government to develop a new travel ban. He wrote that he was protecting Americans “from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.” Twitter
Afghanistan
UN Special Procedures@UN_SPExperts
[6/16/2025 11:48 AM, 94.5K followers, 8 retweets, 8 likes]
UN expert @SR_Afghanistan warns that Taliban is instrumentalizing legal and justice sectors in Afghanistan to entrench an institutionalized system of gender oppression, persecution and domination and abolish protections for women and girls.#HRC59 https://ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/06/taliban-weaponising-justice-sector-entrench-gender-persecution-afghanistanJahanzeb@WeJahanzeb
[6/16/2025 6:47 PM, 5.9K followers, 3 retweets, 9 likes]
Freshta Abbasi, HRW researcher, says: Today in Geneva, the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan presented a new report detailing the Taliban’s systematic assault on the rights of women and girls. —Meaningful international action is urgently needed. #Afghanistan #HumanRights #HRW
Jahanzeb@WeJahanzeb
[6/16/2025 6:41 PM, 5.9K followers, 5 retweets, 5 likes]
Richard Bennet, UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, says: The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan continues to deteriorate, the #HRC59 was told. The international community must stand with Afghans risking everything for justice, dignity, and peace.
Jahanzeb@WeJahanzeb
[6/16/2025 3:18 AM, 5.9K followers, 2 retweets, 5 likes]
8AM, Kabul: Taliban Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khwarazmi has proposed marriage to several female journalists, claiming he is “modern” and unlike other Taliban members. Out of fear, many women journalists have stopped covering the ministry reports.
Lynne O’Donnell@lynnekodonnell
[6/17/2025 1:21 AM, 27.4K followers, 2 likes]
The @NRFafg supports a theocratic misogynist regime that funds terrorist proxies in the cause of destroying the only democratic state in the region. Just like the #Taliban. Makes me wonder where the funding for nice suits, expensive dinners & international travel is coming from..
Beth W. Bailey@BWBailey85[6/16/2025 8:40 AM, 8.7K followers, 10 retweets, 24 likes]
Veteran Matt Zeller, co-founder of No One Left Behind, talks about the broad spectrum of support for our Afghan allies among the U.S. population amid new difficulties facing Afghans in the latest episode of The Afghanistan Project Podcast. In this clip, from the second segment of the episode, Matt confronts the enemy on the battlefield: https://youtu.be/UVDIhOfuzw0?si=kJJexnK828GmqaE3 Mariam Solaimankhil@Mariamistan
[6/17/2025 1:33 AM, 101.4K followers, 10 retweets, 61 likes]
Iranians are now seeking refuge in the same Afghanistan where their regime drowned our refugees in rivers and shot them at borders. But we’re not like them. We don’t respond to cruelty with cruelty. Even under Taliban rule, we still have more dignity than the IRGC. Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[6/17/2025 12:35 AM, 3.2M followers, 39 retweets, 269 likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in a group photo at the soft launch of Pakistan International Maritime Expo and Conference.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[6/16/2025 10:53 AM, 3.2M followers, 257 retweets, 1.9K likes]
Islamabad: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif interacts with the Ambassador of Iran to Pakistan H.E. Reza Amiri Moghadam at Pakistan International Maritime Expo and Conference on 16 June, 2025.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[6/16/2025 9:30 AM, 3.2M followers, 21 retweets, 150 likes]
Members of the National Assembly, Amir Talal Gopang and Malik Ibrar Ahmed, called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad today.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[6/16/2025 8:37 AM, 3.2M followers, 15 retweets, 189 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chaired a meeting regarding matters related to FBR in Islamabad today.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[6/16/2025 5:56 AM, 3.2M followers, 24 retweets, 116 likes]
Message of Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on International Day of Family Remittances In FY2024-25, our overseas compatriots have remitted a record $34.9 billion, marking a 28.8% increase over the previous fiscal year, while May 2025 noted $3.7 billion, a 13.7% increase compared to May last year. These historic figures are a testament not only to the hard work and loyalty of our diaspora but also to their growing confidence in the government’s economic policies. This trust reinforces our resolve to redouble efforts for the revival and growth of our economy.
BilawalBhuttoZardari@BBhuttoZardari
[6/16/2025 1:40 PM, 5.1M followers, 419 retweets, 795 likes] ‘What lies ahead for India and Pakistan in Kashmir? – DW – 06/16/2025 ‘ my interview with @dwnews https://www.dw.com/en/what-lies-ahead-for-india-and-pakistan-in-kashmir/video-72936582
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[6/16/2025 12:16 PM, 8.7M followers, 106 retweets, 638 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan @MIshaqDar50 don’t see any possibility right now of US President @POTUS joining Isreal against Iran. He said that if US joins this war then there is a possibility that this regional war could turn into a third world war.
Hamid Mir@HamidMirPAK
[6/16/2025 8:46 AM, 8.7M followers, 185 retweets, 891 likes]
Deputy Prime Minister & Foreign Minister Senator @MIshaqDar50 contradicted the propoganda that Pakistan allegedly made some assurance to Iran for attacking Israel with a nuclear bomb. In an interview given to me Mr. Dar said that our nuclear program is just a deterrence.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[6/16/2025 12:02 PM, 226.6K followers, 271 retweets, 1.8K likes]
The Israel-Iran war could deliver the biggest boost to Pakistan-Iran ties in years (assuming the current Iranian government remains in power). The Saudi Arabia-Iran rapprochement deal opened up more space, but cross-border violence was a constraint. The calculus has now changed.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[6/16/2025 8:27 AM, 298.3K followers, 109 retweets, 450 likes]
Pakistan has spent decades setting fires across South Asia — yet this arsonist (as @CChristineFair once wrote) has long posed as the fire brigade. Now Trump is doing much the same — backing Israel’s military assault on Iran while posturing as a peacemaker.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[6/16/2025 7:54 AM, 100.7K followers, 10 retweets, 18 likes]
Pakistan: Dr Farah Waseem, a young doctor from Lahore, Pakistan, has noticed a marked increase in cases of heat-related illnesses in the hospital where she works. She is part of a healthcare system that is currently under immense strain as the region experiences an extended heatwave. As temperatures in the region break records this summer, it is doctors like Farah who are on the frontlines, carrying the weight of this escalating crisis. Amnesty International’s recent report, ‘Uncounted: Invisible Death of Older People and Children During Climate Disasters in Pakistan’, finds that older people and young children are most vulnerable to rising temperatures. Pakistan remains unprepared with an inadequate number of cooling centers and ineffective heat action plans.
What can you do?
Read the report
Share stories of healthcare workers on the frontlines
Demand an effective heat action plan from the Pakistani authoritieshttps://amnesty.org/en/documents/asa33/9007/2025/en/ #TraceTheErased #ClimateJustice #Pakistan #Heatwaves
Anas Mallick@AnasMallick
[6/16/2025 2:21 PM, 81.3K followers, 5 retweets, 17 likes]
UN Conference on a two state solution to the Israel - Palestine, which was to be held on 17-19 June, to be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia has been Postponed following tensions in the Middle East -- Pakistan’s Foreign Minister @MIshaqDar50 was due to travel to NewYork for the conf but will NOT be traveling now.
Mariam Solaimankhil@Mariamistan
[6/16/2025 11:50 AM, 101.4K followers, 4 retweets, 25 likes]
Pakistan claims to stand with Iran- but when the pressure’s on, all that brotherhood talk disappears. Empty words, no guts, no action. Just another loud bark from a state built on bluff. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[6/16/2025 10:47 PM, 108.8M followers, 5.8K retweets, 55K likes] Landed in Calgary, Canada, to take part in the G7 Summit. Will be meeting various leaders at the Summit and sharing my thoughts on important global issues. Will also be emphasising the priorities of the Global South.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[6/16/2025 12:04 PM, 627.3K followers, 413 retweets, 1.8K likes]
Modi got a very late invitation to attend G7 meeting in Kananaskis, Canada. Before his arrival, Khalistan supporters have organized a massive protest on the Calgary-Kananaskis highway.
Derek J. Grossman@DerekJGrossman
[6/16/2025 10:09 AM, 102.9K followers, 37 retweets, 269 likes]
India went from having 172 nuclear warheads in 2024 to 180 in 2025. https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/india-expands-nuclear-arsenal-to-180-warheads-maintains-edge-over-pakistan-1885550 NSB
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[6/16/2025 12:01 PM, 177.3K followers, 23 retweets, 309 likes]
Chief Adviser seeks UN support over probe into incidents of enforced disappearances Dhaka, June 16, 2025: Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus said Bangladesh would welcome any support from the United Nations in its investigations into the incidents of enforced disappearance in the past one and a half decades.”I wish the United Nations were associated with our ongoing enquiry into the incidents of enforced disappearance. It will give the process some strength,” said Professor Yunus. The Chief Adviser made the comments when the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) Vice-Chairperson Grazyna Baranowska and member Ana Lorena Delgadillo Perez called on him at the State Guest House Jamuna. The UN officials lauded the initiatives of Bangladesh’s Interim Government in addressing the issue of enforced disappearances, particularly the country’s accession to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), but emphasised that there was still much to be done.
The UN officials also praised the work and commitment demonstrated by the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances. The Chief Adviser said that the government was extending the tenure of the Commission until December. “Even though they got threatened in many ways, the commission is doing an important job. When they submitted the last report, I told them there should be a horror museum for visitors. We need your support too. We need assistance and collaboration,” said the Chief Adviser. The Chief Adviser expressed his satisfaction that Bangladesh could welcome the UN team here after more than a decade. “We are extremely happy that you’re here after 13 years of waiting. We would like you to support the work of our Commission and keep your association with them to provide guidance and strength. "
Baranowska said that since 2013, they had been trying to work on enforced disappearance in Bangladesh and thanked the Interim Government for setting up the enquiry commission. “Investigation commission and its work-- this is a huge commitment from your government. Thanks very much for that. It’s a big honour for us.. “ she said. Baranowska said they would visit outside Dhaka and hold meetings with victims, civil society, political actors.
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[6/16/2025 11:53 AM, 100.7K followers, 3 retweets, 13 likes] Bangladesh: Extend the Mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances to Ensure Truth and Accountability. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa13/9500/2025/en/
Amnesty International South Asia, Regional Office@amnestysasia
[6/16/2025 11:53 AM, 100.7K followers, 1 like]
International human rights organizations urge the Interim Government of Bangladesh to extend the mandate of the Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances until at least December 31, 2025. While the Commission’s mandate is set to expire on June 30, victims and their families deserve adequate time for the Commission to complete its mandate to conduct independent, impartial, and credible investigations into the disappearances that took place under Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government over the past fifteen years.
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[6/17/2025 2:11 AM, 113.7K followers, 8 retweets, 7 likes]
Special Envoy of the President highlights resilient Maldives and vision 2040 at New York Investment Forum https://presidency.gov.mv/Press/Article/33967
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives@MoFAmv
[6/16/2025 12:09 PM, 55.8K followers, 9 retweets, 7 likes]
The Maldives Participates in the 59th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council Press Release | https://t.ly/zSX3j
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[6/16/2025 4:51 AM, 152.6K followers, 18 retweets, 231 likes]
Today, I met with a delegation from the @IMFNews, including Deputy Managing Director @GitaGopinath, at the Presidential Secretariat. I emphasized our commitment to attracting new investment and advancing a people-centered economic policy framework. I’m grateful for the IMF’s continued support in restoring Sri Lanka’s economy and advancing our reform programme.
Harsha de Silva@HarshadeSilvaMP
[6/16/2025 8:46 AM, 360.6K followers, 12 retweets, 109 likes]
In response to Pres @anuradisanayake comment that this has to be #SriLanka last visit to @IMFNews, @GitaGopinath it’s 1st Dep MD agreed “… as long as you stay the course”. My Q; “Is not reversing reforms of 2024 Electricity Act deviating from the course?” Central Asia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/16/2025 12:42 PM, 217.8K followers, 7 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev reviewed public transport construction and development projects planned in #Tashkent. During major projects’ implementation special attention will be paid to quality, sustainable power supply, uninterrupted water supply, as well as convenience to population.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[6/16/2025 9:33 AM, 217.8K followers, 2 retweets, 17 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting to assess current reforms and governance. New measures aim to improve the population and districts’ welfare by establishing “Reform Centers” to drive development and People’s Reception Centers to effectively address citizens’ appeals.
Javlon Vakhabov@JavlonVakhabov[6/16/2025 11:18 PM, 6.2K followers, 1 retweet, 1 like]
Just released! My piece at @ChinaDaily highlighting the Uzbekistan’s vision for a broader, comprehensive and more sustainable Central Asia-China Dialogue as the Presidential Summit kicks off in Astana today. Read more here: https://enapp.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202506/17/AP6850aac0a310f193d87665f1.html{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.