SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Tuesday, March 18, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
After Trump halted funding for Afghans who helped the US, this group stepped in to help (AP)
AP [3/17/2025 5:28 PM, Rebecca Santana, 2017K]
When Andrew Sullivan thinks of the people his organization has helped resettle in America, one particular story comes to mind: an Afghan man in a wheelchair who was shot through the neck by a member of the Taliban for helping the U.S. during its war in Afghanistan.
"I just think … Could I live with myself if we send that guy back to Afghanistan?" said Sullivan, executive director of No One Left Behind. "And I thankfully don’t have to because he made it to northern Virginia.".
The charitable organization of U.S. military veterans, Afghans who once fled their country and volunteers in the U.S. is stepping in to help Afghans like that man in the wheelchair who are at risk of being stranded overseas. Their efforts come after the Trump administration took steps to hinder Afghans who helped America’s war effort in trying to resettle in the U.S.
No One Left Behind helps Afghans and Iraqis who qualify for the special immigrant visa program, which was set up by Congress in 2009 to help people who are in danger because of their efforts to aid the U.S. during the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars.
President Donald Trump in January suspended programs that buy flights for those refugees and cut off aid to the groups that help them resettle in the U.S. Hundreds who were approved for travel to the U.S. had visas but few ways to get here. If they managed to buy a flight, they had little help when they arrived.
The White House and State Department did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the situation for Afghans has become more tenuous in some of the places where many have temporarily settled. Pakistan, having hosted millions of refugees, has in recent years removed Afghans from its country. increased deportations. An agreement that made Albania a waystation for Afghans expires in March, Sullivan said.
Hovering over all of this is the fear that the Trump administration may announce a travel ban that could cut off all access from Afghanistan. In an executive order signed on Inauguration Day, Trump told key Cabinet members to submit a report within 60 days that identifies countries with vetting so poor that it would "warrant a partial or full suspension" of travelers from those countries to the U.S.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said Monday that the review was ongoing and no list had been finalized.
But groups that work with Afghans are worried.
When funding was suspended, No One Left Behind stepped in. Their goal is to make sure Afghans with State Department visas don’t get stuck overseas. Other organizations — many who got their start helping Afghans during the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Kabul in 2021 — are doing the same.
To qualify for this visa, Afghans must prove they worked for the U.S. for at least one year. That means tracking down documentation from former supervisors, who were often affiliated with companies no longer in business. They also undergo extensive vetting and medical checks.
"Our view was, OK, we’ve got to act immediately to try and help these people," said Sullivan. "We’ve been in kind of an all-out sprint.".
The organization has raised money to buy flights and help Afghans when they land. Between February 1 and March 17, the group said it successfully booked flights for 659 Afghans.
It also launched a website where visa holders can share information, giving Sullivan’s group a starting point to figure out where they might live in the U.S.
Sullivan and the organization’s "ambassadors" — Afghans and Iraqis who already have emigrated to the U.S., many through the special immigrant visa program — have gone to Albania and Qatar to help stranded Afghans.
Aqila is one of those ambassadors who went to Albania. The Associated Press is identifying Aqila by her first name because her family in Afghanistan is still at risk.
Aqila said many of the families didn’t know what would happen when they arrived in America. Would they be homeless? Abandoned? One man feared he’d end up alone in the airport parking lot because his contact in America — a long-haul trucker — couldn’t come pick him up. She assured him that someone would be there.
They gave them cards with contact information for attorneys. They printed papers with information about their rights in English, Dari, and Pashto.No One Left Behind reached out to family members and friends in the U.S. to help with the transition when they landed in America.
Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven children, worked as an electrician and A/C technician with international and U.S. forces for 17 years. Two months ago, he and his family boarded a plane to Albania in anticipation of soon being able to go to America. They landed in California on March 12, exhausted but safe.
The next day he and his family explored their new apartment in the Sacramento suburb of Rancho Cordova.
Saboor said he hasn’t felt safe in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over the country in August 2021. He worried that he’d be killed as retribution for the nearly two decades he’d worked with the U.S. and its allies. He wondered what kind of future his children would have in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The family picked the suburb in the hope that the large Afghan population in the Sacramento area would help them get settled and find work. He envisions a bright future in America, where his kids can go to school and eventually give back to the country that took his family in. Arriving in the U.S., he said, gave them a "great feeling.".
"I believe that now we can live in a 100% peaceful environment," he said.
Sullivan said he hopes there will be exceptions for Afghans in the special immigrant visa program if a travel ban is imposed. They’ve been thoroughly vetted, he said, and earned the right to be here.
"These are folks that actually served shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops and diplomats for 20 years," he said.
Aqila, the Afghan ambassador, said it’s stressful to hear stories of what people went through in Afghanistan. But the reward comes when she sees photos of those who have arrived in America.
"You can see the hope in their eyes," she said. "It’s nice to be human. It’s nice be kind to each other.". UN tells Afghan rulers: no peace and prosperity until they reverse bans on women and girls (AP)
AP [3/17/2025 6:55 PM, Edith M. Lederer, 62527K]
The U.N. Security Council told Afghanistan´s Taliban rulers Monday that peace and prosperity are "unattainable" until they reverse their bans on women and girls getting an education, being employed and speaking in public.
The U.N.´s most powerful body also condemned ongoing terrorist activity in Afghanistan "in the strongest terms" and called for strengthened efforts to address the country´s dire economic and humanitarian situation.
The council resolution, adopted unanimously by its 15 members, extended the U.N.´s political mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA, until March 17, 2026.
The Taliban seized power in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew following two decades of war. No country officially recognizes them as Afghanistan´s government because of their crackdown on women.
Not only are women barred from working, from many public spaces, and being educated beyond the sixth grade, but they must be fully veiled and their voices cannot be heard in public.
The Security Council called for the Taliban "to swiftly reverse these policies and practices.".
U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva, the head of UNAMA, told the Security Council last week that it´s up to the Taliban to indicate whether they want Afghanistan to be reintegrated into the international system - "and, if so, whether they are willing to take the necessary steps.".
The Taliban´s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, posted a statement on his official X account this month saying the dignity, honor and legal rights of women were a priority for the country, in accordance with Islamic law and Afghan culture and traditions. Islamic countries and religious scholars have said that denying women education and work is not part of Islamic law.
Otunbayeva said Afghans "increasingly resent the intrusions on their private lives" by Taliban officials and fear the country´s further isolation from the rest of the world.
"They have indeed welcomed an absence of conflict, and greater stability and freedom of movement, at least for the male population," she said. "But this is not a peace in which they can live in dignity with their human rights respected and with confidence in a stable future.".
More than half of Afghanistan´s population - some 23 million people - need humanitarian assistance, a humanitarian crisis caused by decades of conflict, entrenched poverty, climate shocks and large population growth, Otunbayeva said. She said a downturn in funding is having a significant impact.
In the past month, the U.N. envoy said, more than 200 health facilities have been forced to close, affecting some 1.8 million people, including malnourished children.
On another major issue, the Security Council called on the Taliban to strengthen efforts to combat terrorism, condemning all terrorist activity in Afghanistan and demanding that the country not be used to threaten or attack any other country.
Relations between Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan have become strained since the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is allied with the Afghan Taliban, have increased attacks on security forces in Pakistan. At the same time, militants from the Afghan chapter of the Islamic State group, which opposes the Taliban, have carried out bombings across Afghanistan. WHO flags funding shortage risk in Afghanistan (Reuters)
Reuters [3/17/2025 12:21 PM, Mrinmay Dey, 126906K]
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday said that the agency is concerned about funding shortages in Afghanistan which could force closure of 80% of WHO-supported essential health care services.As of March 4, 167 health facilities had shut down in the country due to funding shortages and without urgent intervention, over 220 more facilities could close by June, WHO said in a statement. Pakistan
Afghan women activists in Pakistan fear deportations (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [3/17/2025 4:14 PM, Haroon Janjua, 13.3M]
Zahra Mousavi, a women’s rights activist, fled from Afghanistan to neighboring Pakistan in March 2022 after months of fighting and protesting the oppressive Taliban regime.
She now lives in hiding and constant fear of being apprehended by the Pakistani police and deported to her home country.
Mousavi actively participated in street protests against the Taliban regime after the Islamic fundamentalist group seized power in the war-ravaged country in August 2021.
She advocated for women’s rights by taking part in public gatherings and demonstrations, and tried to make the voices of Afghan women heard in the rest of the world.
But with the Taliban slapping broad restrictions on women and girls and gradually squeezing them out of public life, Mousavi was forced to leave.
In Pakistan, however, she has struggled to secure the necessary documents to stay in the country.
"I could not obtain a valid Pakistani visa for myself and my family due to high costs and Pakistan’s strict visa policies," the 29-year-old told DW.
"This led to my arrest by Pakistani police on February 22. They entered my home in plain clothes, conducted an intense search, and arrested both me and my young daughter, taking us to a deportation detention camp," she said.
"We were kept there in extremely harsh conditions for two days and one night, and we were only released after providing guarantees and due to the pressure of human rights activists."
Afghan female activists fear for their lives
Mousavi’s is not an isolated case.
DW spoke to several other Afghan female activists, who are also living in hiding as Islamabad looks to accelerate deportations to Afghanistan.
Jamila Ahmadi, 27, said many of her fellow Afghan women had already been sent back to Afghanistan and warned that their lives, as well as hers, were in danger.
"My activism, especially my efforts toward women’s capacity-building before the Taliban takeover, my reporting on Taliban crimes, and my involvement with the National Directorate of Security (NDS), has placed me in significant danger," Ahmadi said.
"If I am compelled to return to Taliban rule, it would clearly be a certain death."
Many women’s rights activists only sought asylum in Pakistan when the situation became untenable in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
"In February 2021, I was attacked, resulting in a broken leg, but my determination remained unshaken," said Ahmadi.
"Again, in September 2021, we were brutally beaten by the Taliban."
A huge repatriation drive
Pakistan has hosted millions of Afghan refugees for decades.
But over the last three years, Pakistan’s relationship with Afghanistan has deteriorated.
Islamabad is angry with the Taliban authorities over the operations of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that formed in 2007 and has conducted numerous attacks on Pakistani security forces.
As cross-border tensions escalate, concerns about the well-being of Afghans in Pakistan have increased.
Islamabad is currently carrying out a huge drive to repatriate the roughly 4 million Afghans who have crossed the border in the past four decades.
Pakistan already repatriated more than 800,000 Afghan refugees between September 2023 and the end of last year, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
Legal experts and refugee rights activists have criticized the Pakistani government’s deportation plans, particularly when it comes to deporting Afghan women’s rights activists.
"Sending activists back to Afghanistan, where they are very likely to be subjected to torture at the hands of the Taliban regime, would put them in greater risk," Osama Malik, a refugee lawyer in Islamabad, told DW.
Growing worries about deportations
Ahmadi said her health had been affected by the deportation drive.
"Unfortunately, for more than a month, the Pakistani police have made life difficult for refugees, including issues with visas and visa extensions. My visa expired on February 25, 2025. My personal, psychological and emotional problems are due to not having a visa and being unable to extend it," she said.
While rights groups have accused the Pakistani authorities of harassing Afghan refugees, Islamabad has denied the allegations and stressed that the removals were part of a 2023 campaign called the "Illegal Foreigners Repatriation Plan."
There "is no specific category for activists among those being deported," a Pakistani official, who asked not to be named, told DW. "The responsibility of hosting Afghan refugees should not fall solely on Pakistan, as other countries can also accommodate them," the official added.
Qaiser Khan Afridi, spokesperson for the UNHCR in Pakistan, said the agency was worried about the deportations.
"UNHCR is especially concerned for Afghans who face a risk of harm upon return, such as ethnic and religious minorities, single women, journalists, human rights activists, and members of artistic professions like musicians."
"In view of these mounting challenges, UNHCR urged Pakistan to continue to provide safety to Afghans at risk, irrespective of their documentation status," said Afridi.
Calls for international help
Maria Noori, a 34-year-old activist from Kabul facing deportation, called on the international community to intervene and save the lives of Afghan female activists living in fear in Pakistan.
"Being sent back to Afghanistan would mean facing torture, imprisonment, or even death. The international community must understand that deporting human rights activists, particularly women, is a direct threat to our lives, and immediate action is needed to protect us," she told DW.
The lawyer Malik criticized Western governments for their inaction.
"It is unfortunate that none of the Western countries have stepped up to immediately allow these female activists to travel to their countries," he said.
Noori explained that the lack of a legal status and residency documents poses a big challenge. "Additionally, we face harsh economic conditions, unemployment, lack of access to health care and education, and security threats from extremists. What’s Behind The New Wave Of Violence In Pakistan’s Balochistan? (Radio Free Europe)
Radio Free Europe [3/18/2025 5:44 AM, Abubakar Siddique, 126906K]
Balochistan, a vast mineral-rich province in southwestern Pakistan, has been the scene of a simmering separatist insurgency for nearly a quarter-century.But a remarkable rise in violent attacks in the strategic region bordering Afghanistan and Iran and home to the marginalized Baluch minority has highlighted the region’s fragility.On March 16, the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), a separatist militant group pursuing Balochistan’s secession from Pakistan, claimed an attack on security forces in the remote district of Noshki.Pakistani officials said the attack, a suicide truck bomb, killed three soldiers and two civilians. But the BLA claimed the attack killed 90 soldiers.Train HijackingJust last week, the group declared a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, and others hijacked a passenger train in Balochistan’s historic Bolan Pass.The unprecedented attack, even by the standards of Pakistan’s violent recent past, went on for more than 36 hours.The BLA claimed it killed hundreds of members of the security forces traveling on the train.The Pakistani Army, however, said it killed dozens of militants in a successful rescue operation that freed most of the hostages.RFE/RL could not independently verify the conflicting claims of the two sides in the sparsely populated region inaccessible to journalists.But the rising violence marked a significant escalation at a critical time for Pakistan as the Muslim nation of 250 million people reels from political turmoil, economic downturn, and an escalating insurgency by the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State-Khorasan in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province."The major drivers of the worsening conflict are changes within the BLA and the worsening political and economic crises," said Zafar Baloch, a Balochistan researcher based in Britain."The current outcome was predictable because the BLA has transformed," he said.He said that during the past seven years, the BLA turned from a nationalist insurgent group into "a highly sophisticated, disciplined militant group, which now possesses sophisticated arms."Pakistani officials have frequently blamed the easy availability of sophisticated US arms left behind in Afghanistan. Groups such as the BLA and TTP now use sophisticated night-vision goggles, sniper rifles, and other military gear possibly acquired from Afghanistan.Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan, violence by both the Baluch separatist rebels and Islamist TTP has been on the rise.Pakistan has blamed Afghanistan’s Taliban government and its regional archrival India for the rising violence. Kabul and New Delhi have rejected Islamabad’s claims.During the past year, Baluch separatists carried out 175 attacks, up from 110 the year before. These attacks killed and injured nearly 700 people, most of whom were members of the security forces.Imtiaz Baloch, an analyst covering Balochistan for Khorasan Diary, a website tracking militant groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan, said the BLA’s increasing organizational sophistication is behind the rising violence.He said the Majeed Brigade, the BLA’s suicide squad, which works under its central command led by its leader Bashir Zeb, is now capable of planning and conducting sophisticated attacks."Their intelligence-gathering capacity has increased, which results in meticulous planning for attacks such as taking an entire train hostage," he said."Now they appear capable of successfully laying traps for the security forces," he said.Increasingly Sophisticated AttacksIn addition to the Majeed Brigade, the BLA claims to have separate guerrilla, special forces, and intelligence units that have launched increasingly sophisticated attacks against Pakistani troops and Chinese workers involved in numerous infrastructure, energy, and mineral extraction projects in Balochistan.Baloch, the analyst in Islamabad, argues the Pakistani government’s failure to win over Balochistan’s alienated residents through a genuine political process and dispensing justice has harmed its legitimacy in the impoverished region where literacy and development levels are low."The state is unable to connect to and address the problems of ordinary citizens," he said.Experts maintain that Balochistan’s political crises have been extenuated by Islamabad’s strategy of supporting figures loyal to the military over ethno-nationalist parties that hold genuine popularity among the Baluch populace.However, these Baluch political parties, whose leaders have led most elected provincial governments since the 1970s, lost controversial parliamentary elections in February 2024.The Baluch parties accused Islamabad of widespread rigging in the province.Sarafaz Bugti, a Baluch politician supported by the military, promised to defeat militant groups by promoting good governance and bringing development to Balochistan.But a year later, violence in Balochistan is mounting, which has added to public skepticism of Islamabad’s promises."The Baluch have given up on parliamentary politics, which has increased the lure of groups such as the BLA for the youth," said Baloch, the researcher in Britain. India
India Sees Positive Outcome From US Trade Talks as Tariffs Loom (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/17/2025 7:54 AM, Shruti Srivastava and Ruchi Bhatia, 5.5M]
India’s trade talks with the US should yield favorable results, a top New Delhi official said, striking an optimistic tone just weeks before US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs kick in.
There is “forward movement” on the talks and they should “see a positive outcome,” Trade Secretary Sunil Barthwal told reporters on Monday at a press briefing in New Delhi.
His comments come just days after India’s commerce minister visited the US to meet with Trump administration officials to discuss a bilateral trade deal. While Barthwal said the talks between the two sides are moving in a “positive direction,” the US President has indicated India could be among nations hit with reciprocal duties, which start April 2.“India is proactively engaged with the US on a bilateral trade agreement,” Barthwal said.
India has been making concessions to appease Trump, with New Delhi lowering levies on some American goods and pledging more duty cuts. The two nations have agreed to negotiate the first tranche of the proposed trade deal by the fall of this year.
The world’s fastest-growing major economy is also trying to hammer out free trade agreements with other major trading partners. The EU and India aim to conclude a deal this year, while the UK and the South Asian nation tried to revive long-running trade negotiations earlier this year.
India is “very openly engaging with rest of the world,” Barthwal said. “We feel that this openness will help in growing our trade. We are quite open, engaged and transparent about it.”
At the same briefing, another trade official said that India is mulling imposing a so-called safeguard duty on steel, an anti-dumping measure that will help protect its domestic industry. Earlier this month, major US trading partners were hit by Trump’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. US, India Boosting Work in Security, Intel Sharing, Gabbard Says (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/18/2025 2:05 AM, Dan Strumpf and Sudhi Ranjan Sen, 5.5M]
The US and India should enhance their cooperation on security and intelligence-sharing under the administration of President Donald Trump, a top American intelligence official said.Both Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi share a longstanding friendship, said US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, during an address at the Raisina Dialogue security conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.“I think there’s huge opportunity for continued growth and continued investment in our mutual interest,” said Gabbard, who was in New Delhi as part of a broader tour of Asia that includes stops in Japan and Thailand.Gabbard said she has had constructive meetings with Modi and other Indian leaders while in New Delhi, adding Trump remains committed to his country’s international partnerships including the Quad.The security grouping that also includes Japan and Australia has been seen as a counter to China’s assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific. Beijing has criticized the group as a “clique” that could stoke a new Cold War.“Both he and his team and our cabinet have already been engaging really from day one with our partners,” Gabbard said. Gabbard says Trump is ‘looking forward to success’ ahead of talk with Putin (AP)
AP [3/17/2025 11:33 PM, David Klepper, 126906K]
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, speaking ahead of an expected phone conversation Tuesday between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, said Monday that while the negotiations to end Russia’s war with Ukraine have just begun, Trump is “looking forward to success.”Gabbard criticized former President Joe Biden’s handling of the war in Ukraine and said Trump’s push for both sides to agree to a ceasefire comes from an “unwavering commitment to peace.”
“Under the previous administration, during which this war began, there was no effort, there was no effort at all towards peace. There was no effort to have direct dialogue with Putin and with Russia to try to bring about an end to this war. So already in a very short period of time, President Trump has made much more progress towards peace than any effort that has occurred by anyone, previously,” Gabbard said in an interview with India’s NDTV. “I’m sure that President Trump will have a very productive conversation with Putin, once again, rooted in his unwavering commitment to peace.”Trump will speak with Putin on Tuesday in a possible pivot point in efforts to end the war in Ukraine and an opportunity for Trump to continue reorienting American foreign policy.Gabbard’s visit to India holds special significance: Gabbard, a veteran, was the first Hindu elected to Congress when she served as a representative from Hawaii. In her new role Gabbard oversees and coordinates the work of more than a dozen intelligence agencies.While in India, Gabbard will speak to an international security and economics conference. Her trip also includes stops in Japan and Thailand.In the interview with NDTV, Gabbard hailed the relationship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said both leaders are committed to strengthening ties between their countries.“With President Trump’s leadership in the United States, of course Prime Minister Modi’s longstanding leadership here in India, we have two leaders of our two great countries who are very good friends and who are very focused on how we can strengthen those shared objectives and those shared interests.” New Zealand PM Hasn’t Given Up on Dairy in Trade Deal With India (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/17/2025 4:51 PM, Tracy Withers, 16228K]
New Zealand is ready for some tough negotiations with India as it seeks a free-trade agreement that includes dairy, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said.The two nations agreed to start working toward an agreement during Luxon’s official visit this week. He met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bilateral talks Monday in New Delhi.New Zealand efforts to secure better access to India’s huge markets have foundered in the past, in particular because India wants to shield its dairy industry from imports. Luxon said he understands those sensitivities but they aren’t a reason not to push for dairy’s inclusion in a free-trade deal.“I just don’t want us to give up on dairy,” he told Radio New Zealand Tuesday in Wellington. “We are going to try and find a way to make dairy work. Having done a lot of business in India in my past life, I can tell you it’s pretty brutal negotiations but we are up for that.”Luxon said New Zealand shouldn’t have an attitude of not starting a conversation because there are obstacles to overcome.“There’s very good chemistry between our respective trade ministers and prime ministers,” he said. “We are very determined and both Prime Minister Modi and I said to our trade teams today that we expect them to work hard and fast together and work their way through the issues and sensitivities that are there.”In the lead up to his election in late 2023, Luxon made the bold commitment to secure a free-trade deal with India in his first term, which will end in late 2026. He said that remains the ambition.“We’ve built a relationship that was non-existent at the beginning,” he said. “We are here now on a state visit, which people thought would be very difficult. We are here having kicked off FTA negotiations and we’re working really hard to make sure we get it done.” India and New Zealand look to bolster ties after reviving free trade talks (AP)
AP [3/17/2025 10:04 PM, Staff, 126906K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his New Zealand counterpart, Christopher Luxon, met Monday seeking to deepen their defense and economic ties, a day after the countries announced the revival of negotiations for a free trade agreement.Modi and Luxon met in New Delhi and signed agreements on enhancing cooperation in defense, food processing, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy and critical minerals.Luxon said he held “highly productive meetings” with Modi and other Indian leaders that will improve ties between India and New Zealand. The defense relationship includes joint military training, he said.“New Zealand is committed to doing more with India across a wide range of areas — defense and security, trade and economics, people-to-people ties, education, tourism, sports and culture,” Luxon said at joint press conference with Modi.Luxon was accompanied by business leaders and several parliamentarians on his five-day visit to India.India and New Zealand on Sunday agreed to revive free trade negotiations that have been stalled for more than 10 years.The announcement was made after discussions between New Zealand Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay and his Indian counterpart, Piyush Goyal. It follows India’s recent efforts to broker trade deal agreements with other nations after U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose reciprocal tariffs on imported goods from countries including India.India and the European Union last month agreed to finalize a long-pending free trade agreement by the end of this year. A similar trade deal between India and the United Kingdom is also in the works.India’s Commerce Ministry said the free trade deal between India and New Zealand aims to “achieve balanced outcomes that enhance supply-chain integration and improve market access.” It did not offer other details.Luxon in a statement Sunday said: “It is through trade that we can boost the economies of both our countries, providing more jobs and higher incomes for Kiwis and Indians.”The bilateral trade between India and New Zealand stood at $1.7 billion in 2023-24 financial year. India and New Zealand to start talks on free trade pact, Modi says (Reuters)
Reuters [3/17/2025 6:44 AM, Sudipto Ganguly and Shivam Patel, 41523K]
India and New Zealand have decided to start detailed negotiations on a mutually beneficial free trade agreement, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Monday after talks with his New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon.
The agreement is expected by the end of 2025, an Indian foreign ministry official told reporters.
India’s exports to New Zealand totalled $682 million in 2023, while New Zealand’s shipments to India aggregated to $369 million in the same year, figures from data visualisation platform Observatory of Economic Complexity showed.
"Free trade agreement is a process which has been initiated, in a timebound manner. Perhaps by the end of this year we hope to conclude (the) free trade agreement," said Jaideep Mazumdar, secretary east at the Indian foreign ministry. Pact with New Zealand could boost trade 10-fold in 10 years, says India trade minister (Reuters)
Reuters [3/18/2025 4:49 AM, Manoj Kumar, 5.2M]
The proposed free trade agreement between India and New Zealand could expand bilateral trade by 10 times in 10 years, India’s Trade Minister Piyush Goyal said on Tuesday.
The pact could expand trade in farm products, critical minerals, pharmaceuticals, and tourism, he said at a gathering of business leaders.
India and New Zealand have started negotiations for a free trade agreement after a decade-long hiatus, following a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, who is on a visit to India. Five things we learned from rare Narendra Modi interview on Lex Fridman podcast (The Independent)
The Independent [3/17/2025 7:26 AM, Shweta Sharma, 44838K]
Narendra Modi has appeared as a guest on the Lex Fridman Podcast, with the Indian prime minister offering a rare foreign interview to the technologist and former Elon Musk sparring partner.
Fridman described their interaction as "one of the most powerful conversations" he has hosted so far, and said he fasted for 45 hours in preparation to "talk spiritually" with Mr Modi.
The three-hour interview has received a huge amount of interest back home in India, where Mr Modi is known for avoiding questions from the media except in carefully controlled circumstances. He only recently addressed his first three press conferences abroad despite having led India for over a decade.
Here are five key takeaways from their conversation:‘I’m not neutral, I strive for peace’, Modi says on Ukraine war.
Mr Modi was asked about his "geopolitical leverage" in the world today amid a number of global conflicts, but particularly in the context of Russia and Ukraine.
Describing India as the land of Buddha and Mahatma Gandhi, Mr Modi boasted that is one of the few leaders who enjoys a close relationship with both Russia and Ukraine, warning Kyiv that no amount of discussion or support from allies will end the war until both parties are involved in negotiations.
"I have a close relationship with Russia and Ukraine alike," he said. "I can sit with president Putin and say that this is not the time for war. And I can also tell president Zelensky, in a friendly way, that brother, regardless of how many people stand with you in the world, there will never be a resolution on the battlefield.".
Mr Modi said an end to the war would only come when both Russia and Ukraine are at the negotiating table and the "current situation presents an opportunity for meaningful and productive talks between Ukraine and Russia".
"I am not neutral," Mr Modi said, apparently addressing the criticism the country has faced for not directly criticising Russia, a close ally and defence partner, for its war in Ukraine as New Delhi increased its trade with Moscow."I have a stance, and that is peace, and peace is what I strive for," Mr Modi added.
Pakistan is ‘epicentre of turmoil’ in the world
In a scathing attack on neighbouring Pakistan, Mr Modi said the "world has recognised that in a way terrorism and the terrorist mindset are deeply rooted in Pakistan".
His comments came as he was asked whether he saw a path to friendship and peace in the historical conflict being the "great peacemaker" and "visionary" he is.
"They chose not to foster a harmonious coexistence. Time and again, they decided to be at odds with India. They have waged a proxy war against us. Don’t mistake this for ideology," he said, referring to Pakistan.
Mr Modi asked what kind of ideology "thrives on bloodshed and the export of terror", adding that India was not the only victim.
"Wherever terror strikes in the world, the trail somehow leads to Pakistan. Let’s take the September 11th attacks, for example. The main mastermind behind it, Osama bin Laden, where did he eventually emerge from? He had taken refuge in Pakistan," Mr Modi said.
"Today, it (Pakistan) stands as an epicentre of turmoil, not just for India but for the world. And we have repeatedly asked them what good can come from this path?".
In his efforts in the pursuit of peace, he said he personally traveled to Lahore in 2015 and even invited Pakistan to his swearing-in ceremony in 2014.
"Yet, every noble attempt at fostering peace was met with hostility and betrayal," he claimed.
Trump is ‘far more prepared’ in his second term
Mr Modi was asked about his recent visit to the US and what he thinks about Donald Trump as a friend and as a leader.
Mr Modi hailed their "sense of mutual trust" and "strong bond", drawing similarities between their nationalist approaches in leadership.
"His reflection showed his ‘America First’ spirit, just as I believe in Nation First," Mr Modi told Fridman.
He said Mr Trump was "far more prepared" for his second term.
"He has a clear roadmap in his mind with well-defined steps, each one designed to lead him toward his goals," he added.
Mr Modi praised Mr Trump for his "graciousness and humility", underscoring a strong bond between the leaders.India is among the trading partners set to face the tariffs from April, which threaten to cause distress to its exporters in industries from automobiles to agriculture. After Mr Modi and Mr Trump met last month, the two nations agreed to resolve tariff rows and work on the first segment of a deal by the autumn of 2025, aiming to reach two-way trade of $500bn by 2030.
There is ‘no real history of conflict’ with China
Asked about India’s longstanding territorial disputes with China, Mr Modi attempted to downplay the recent tensions following a 2020 border standoff in the Himalayas that resulted in soldiers being killed on both sides.
Speaking of their historical ties, Mr Modi said there is no real history of conflict between the two and India and China are like "family" despite fighting a full-scale war along their border in 1962.
"If we look back centuries, there’s no real history of conflict between us. It has always been about learning from each other and understanding one another," Mr Modi said.
"Even within a family, not everything is always perfect, our effort is to ensure these differences don’t turn into disputes", he added.
India and China share a 3,488km border that runs from Ladakh in the west to Arunachal Pradesh in the east. China holds a large piece of territory called the Aksai Chin in Ladakh that it won during the 1962 war with India and claims Arunachal as part of the province of Tibet.
Relations between the hostile neighbours hit a new low in July 2020 after at least 20 Indian army personnel and four Chinese soldiers were killed in a deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in Ladakh. It was the first time in 45 years that a clash on the border had led to fatalities.
However, the two militaries reached a milestone pact last year to reduce tensions on the border, opening the possibility of a thaw in relations after years of standoff.
"Slowly but surely, trust, enthusiasm, and energy will return," Mr Modi said.
"But of course, it will take some time, since there’s been a five-year gap," he said, adding that the focus of the two nations was to ensure their differences "do not turn into disputes".
2002 Gujarat riots: Modi says he is victim of misinformation.
Mr Modi was also questioned about the 2002 Gujarat riots, a period of sectarian violence that lasted nearly three months and embroiled him in a long legal battle over his government’s handling of the situation. He was the chief minister of the western Indian state at the time, and was accused of ordering police to step aside and allow Hindu mobs to target Muslims.
Mr Modi has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the course of the religious riots that left more than 1,000 people – most of them Muslims – dead in his state, but the allegations continued to shadow him even after he became prime minister in 2014. He was finally cleared of wrongdoing by the Supreme Court of India and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) appointed to probe the matter.
Mr Modi said in the podcast it was a "tragedy of unimaginable magnitude" but denounced the "fake narrative" that spread regarding his role during the riots.
He refuted claims that they were the "biggest riots" India had seen and claimed the state had a long history of religious violence. He blamed his political opponents who were in power for seeking to leverage the issue.
"Before 2002, Gujarat witnessed over 250 significant riots. The riots in 1969 lasted nearly six months. So, there was a long history, long before I was in the picture," he added.
But Mr Modi claimed "criticism is the soul of democracy" as he denounced "sensationalism".
His comments on the riots have sparked a political row in India, with members of opposition party criticising him for "justifying" the violence.
Congress politician Danish Ali said: "The way the PM has tried to justify the Godhra riots shows the failure of Vajpayee government regarding the law and order situation of the country. The way he talked about the Kandahar hijacking, parliament attack and more, this is, in a way, a condemnation of Vajpayee government." Atal Bihari Vajpayee served as prime minister briefly in 1996 then again from 1998 to 2004. Vajpayee was one of the few leaders of the BJP to express anguish when hundreds of Muslims were killed rioting in 2002 in Gujarat.
Senior Congress politician Harish Rawat said Mr Modi has to take responsibility and the responsibility of the violence will always stick with him. India’s Modi joins Trump-owned platform Truth Social (BBC)
BBC [3/18/2025 2:47 AM, Meryl Sebastian, 69.9M]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become one of the few world leaders to join Truth Social, the social media platform owned by US President Donald Trump.
In his first post on Monday, Modi shared a photo with Trump taken in Houston, Texas, during his 2019 US visit and said he was "delighted" to be on the platform.
Trump launched Truth Social in February 2022 after he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden and was temporarily banned from major social networks like Twitter and Facebook, which accused him of inciting violence.
As of 03:30 GMT, Modi had 21,500 followers and was following Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
On Monday, Trump shared a link to an interview which Modi did with podcaster Lex Fridman where the Indian prime minister spoke on a range of topics, including his life journey, the Gujarat riots of 2002 and India’s relationship with China.
Much of Truth Social’s functionality is identical to X, formerly Twitter. Users are able to post ‘truths’ or ‘retruths’ as well as send direct messages. Adverts on the platform are called ‘sponsored truths’.
Truth Social is owned by Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG). Trump took the company public in March 2024 and now owns about 57% shares in the firm.
Kuwaiti-headquartered investment firm ARC Global Investments and some former Apprentice contestants also have a sizeable stakes, though those holdings are currently subject to legal fights.
The US president has 9.28m followers on Truth Social, far fewer than the 87m he has on X.
According to data compiled by Bloomberg, traffic at Truth Social remains minuscule relative to its competitors, with its total user numbers trailing X by 400 times.
TMTG reported losses of $400m (£308m) in 2024 and a revenue of $3.6m. It has a market valuation of $4.45bn. Indian city sets curfew after Hindu groups demand demolition of 17th century Muslim ruler’s tomb (AP)
AP [3/18/2025 5:00 AM, Sheikh Saaliq, 456K]
Authorities imposed an indefinite curfew in parts of a western Indian city on Tuesday, a day after sectarian clashes were sparked by Hindu nationalist groups who want to demolish the tomb of a 17th-century Muslim Mughal ruler.
Clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Maharashtra state’s Nagpur city broke out on Monday during a protest led by Hindu nationalist groups demanding the demolition of the tomb of Aurangzeb, a Muslim Mughal ruler who has been dead for more than 300 years.
Lawmaker Chandrashekhar Bawankule said at least 34 police personnel and five other people were injured and several houses and vehicles were damaged during the violence. Senior police office Ravinder Singal said at least 50 people have been arrested so far.
Devendra Fadnavis, Maharashtra’s top elected official, said the violence began after “rumors were spread that things containing religious content were burnt” by the protesters, referring to the Quran.
Aurangzeb’s tomb is in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar city, some 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Nagpur. The city was earlier called Aurangabad, after the Mughal ruler.
Aurangzeb is a loathed figure among India’s Hindu nationalists, who accuse him of persecuting Hindus during his rule in the 17th century, even though some historians say such stories are exaggerated.
As tensions between Hindus and Muslims have mounted under Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi, scorn for Aurangzeb has grown. Modi has made references to Aurangzeb in the past, accusing him of persecuting Hindus.
Such remarks have led to anxieties among the country’s significant Muslim minority who in recent years have been at the receiving end of violence from Hindu nationalists, emboldened by a prime minister who has mostly stayed mum on such attacks since he was first elected in 2014.
While there have long been tensions between India’s majority Hindu community and Muslims, rights groups say that attacks against minorities have become more brazen under Modi. They also accuse Modi of discriminatory policies towards the country’s Muslims.
Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party denies this.
Hindu extremists have also targeted Muslim places of worship across the country and laid claim to several famous mosques, arguing they are built on the ruins of prominent temples. Many such cases are pending in courts. South v North: The battle over redrawing India’s electoral map (BBC)
BBC [3/17/2025 6:35 PM, Soutik Biswas, 52868K]
A political storm is brewing in India, with the first waves already hitting the southern part of the country.
Leaders there are calling for mass mobilisation to protect the region’s political interests amid a heated controversy over the redrawing of electoral seats to reflect changes in population over time.
In a high-stakes push, they are urging citizens to "have more children", using meetings and media campaigns to amplify their message: that the process of delimitation could shift the balance of power.
"Delimitation is a Damocles’ sword hanging over southern India," says MK Stalin, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, one of India’s five southern states, and an arch rival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). (The other four are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana.).
These five states account for 20% of India’s 1.4 billion people. They also outperform the rest of the country in health, education and economic prospects. A child is less likely to be born here than in the north, due to lower population growth rates.
Their leaders are worried that the more prosperous south may lose parliamentary seats in the future, a "punishment" for having fewer children and generating more wealth. Wealthier southern states have always contributed more to federal revenue, with poorer, highly populated states in the north receiving larger shares based on need.
India’s Constitution mandates that seats be allocated to each state based on its population, with constituencies of roughly equal size. It also requires reallocation of seats after each census, reflecting updated population figures.
So India redrew parliamentary seats three times based on the decennial census in 1951, 1961 and 1971. Since then, governments of all stripes have paused the exercise, fearing an imbalance of representation due to varying fertility rates across states.
The next delimitation exercise is set for 2026, but uncertainty looms as India hasn’t conducted a census since 2011, with no clear timeline for when it will take place.
This has set the stage for a potential crisis. "Tamil Nadu is leading the charge and India is on the brink of a federal deadlock," says Yamini Aiyar, a senior fellow at Brown University.
The number of seats in the Lok Sabha - the lower house of parliament representing directly elected MPs - has risen from 494 to 543 and has remained constant since then. The freeze means that despite India’s growing population since 1971, the number of Lok Sabha seats per state has stayed the same, with no new seats added.
In 1951, each MP represented just over 700,000 people. Today, that number has surged to an average of 2.5 million per MP - more than three times the population represented by a member of the US House of Representatives. In comparison, a UK MP represents around 120,000 people.
Experts say all Indians are underrepresented – though not equally so – because constituencies are too large. (The original Constitution capped the ratio at one MP for 750,000 people).
That’s not all. Using census data and population projections, economist Shruti Rajagopalan of George Mason University has highlighted the "severe malapportionment" - unequal distribution of political representation - in India.
Consider this. In Uttar Pradesh (UP), India’s most populous state with over 240 million people, each MP represents about three million citizens.
Meanwhile, in Kerala, where fertility rates are similar to many European countries, an MP represents roughly 1.75 million.
This means the average voter in Kerala in the south has 1.7 times more influence in choosing an MP than a voter in UP in the north.
Ms Rajagopalan also notes that Tamil Nadu and Kerala now have nine and six seats more than their population share, while populous, poorer states like Bihar and UP have nine and 12 seats fewer than their proportion. (Stalin warns that Tamil Nadu could lose eight seats if delimitation occurs in 2026, based on projected population figures.).
By 2031, the problem will intensify: UP and Bihar will fall a dozen seats short of their population proportion, while Tamil Nadu will likely have 11 seats more than its proportion, with other states falling "somewhere in between," according to Ms Rajagopalan.
"Consequently," she says, "India is no longer living up to its fundamental constitutional principle of ‘one-person, one vote’." To make this principle meaningful, constituency sizes must be roughly equal.
Experts have proposed several solutions, many of which will require strong bipartisan consensus.
One option is to increase the number of seats in the lower house.
In other words, India should revert to the original constitutional ratio of one MP for every 750,000 people, which would expand the Lok Sabha to 1,872 seats. (The new parliament building has the capacity for 880 seats, so it would need a major upgrade.).
The other option is for the total number of seats in Lok Sabha to increase to the extent that no state loses its current number of electoral seats – to achieve this the number of seats in the Lok Sabha would need to be 848, by several estimations.
Accompanying this move, experts like Ms Rajagopalan advocate for a more decentralised fiscal system.
In this model, states would have greater revenue-raising powers and retain most or all of their revenue. Federal funds would then be allocated based on development needs. Currently, states receive less than 40% of the total revenue but spend about 60% of it, while the rest is raised and spent by the central government.
A third solution is to reform the composition of the upper house of the parliament. The Rajya Sabha represents states’ interests, with seats allocated proportionally to population and capped at 250.
Rajya Sabha members are elected by state legislatures, not directly by the public. Milan Vaishnav of Carnegie Endowment for Peace suggests a radical approach would be to fix the number of seats per state in the upper house, similar to the US Senate.
"Transforming the upper house into a real venue for debate of states’ interests could potentially soften the opposition to a reallocation of seats in the lower house," he argues.
Then there are other proposals like splitting big states - India’s top five states have more than 45% share of total seats.
Miheer Karandikar of Takshashila Institution, a Bangalore-based think-tank, cites UP as an example of how big states skew things. UP’s share of total votes cast in India is around 14% currently. He estimates this would likely increase to 16% after delimitation, "which allows it to retain its status as the most significant state politically and in terms of legislative influence". Splitting a state like UP could help matters.
For now, the anxious southern leaders - whose rhetoric is partly political with Tamil Nadu elections looming next summer - have been joined by counterparts in Punjab to urge the government to maintain current seats and freeze electoral boundaries for the next 30 years, beyond 2026. In other words, it’s a call for more of the same, preserving the status quo.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made little significant statement so far. Home Minister Amit Shah claimed southern states would not lose "even a single seat" in the upcoming delimitation, though the meaning remains unclear. Meanwhile, the federal government’s decision to withhold education funds and label Tamil Nadu’s leadership as "undemocratic and uncivilised" over a contentious education policy has deepened divisions.
Political scientist Suhas Palshikar warns that the north-south divide threatens India’s federal structure. "The north-south prism is only likely to persuade people and parties of the north to push for a delimitation that would give them an advantage. Such a counter-mobilisation in the north can make it impossible to arrive at any negotiated settlement, Mr Palshikar noted.
He believes that expanding the size of the Lok Sabha and ensuring that no state loses its current strength is not only "politically prudent step", but something which will "enrich the idea of democracy in the Indian context." Balancing representation will be the key to preserving India’s strained federal spirit. With Trudeau gone, can Canada and India patch up relations? (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [3/17/2025 4:14 PM, Murali Krishnan, 13.3M]
A thaw between Canada and India might be on the horizon with Justin Trudeau stepping down and being replaced by Mark Carney as Canada’s prime minister.
Trudeau had openly clashed with New Delhi since September 2023, when he linked the death of a Sikh separatist leader and Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar to Indian government agents. New Delhi angrily denied any involvement in the killing, which took place near Vancouver, and the ties between the two countries plunged to historic lows.
But Trudeau is now out of office, and his successor Carney is seen as having a technocratic and globally oriented perspective on foreign ties, including Ottawa’s relationship with the world’s most populous nation. Providing, of course, that Carney survives Canada’s upcoming parliamentary election.
"There are opportunities to rebuild relationships with India, there needs to be a shared sense of values around commercial relationships and if I am the prime minister, I look forward to the opportunity to build that," said Carney, before being elected as the leader of the governing Liberal Party.
In another sign of rapprochement, Daniel Rogers, the head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, visited New Delhi this past weekend for a meeting of international intelligence heads hosted by India’s National Security Council Secretariat. The US and the UK intelligence chiefs also attended the conference, which was held behind closed doors.
New Delhi angry over Sikh groups in Canada
In the wake of the Nijjar row, both countries expelled each other’s top diplomats — known as high commissioners — and suspended trade negotiations. But even before the row went public, New Delhi had complained to the Canadian government about the activities of Sikh hard-liners in the diaspora, accusing the activists of trying to revive the insurgency in India’s Punjab state.
Canada is home to the world’s largest Sikh diaspora community, with about 800,000 people, roughly 2% of the national population.
Nijjar himself was a proponent of the "Khalistan Movement," which calls for a Sikh homeland by carving out an ethno-religious state in the Punjab region. But recent informal contacts between former diplomats and experts from both nations suggest there is momentum to put these controversial issues aside, and instead focus on mutual interests such as trade, investment and fighting climate change.Is Trump driving Canada and India closer together?
David McKinnon, a former senior Canadian diplomat, believes the new US administration might inadvertently help Ottawa and New Delhi to bury the hatchet.
"Quite apart from whether Mark Carney or Pierre Poilievre is prime minister by mid-2025, the more compelling driver for a reset in the relationship with India is the upending by President Trump of Canada’s relationship with the US and the international order more generally," McKinnon told DW.
Canadians, according to McKinnon, are now focused on a future that is not so dependent on the US and keen on expanding relations with the Indo-Pacific and Europe.
"India is an obvious partner for this given our complementarities in resources, technology, education and investment — not to mention our shared democratic legacies, and interest in a functioning global order," said McKinnon.
"Canada has a lot to do to rebuild the relationship, but it will take pragmatic approaches at both ends, including when it comes to addressing serious disagreements. How Ottawa and Delhi respond to significant developments in coming months in the Nijjar murder case or the Khalistan issue more generally will be important to watch," he added.
Canada caught between US, China and India
Ajay Bisaria, India’s former envoy to Canada, agrees that Carney’s arrival is a "natural inflection point" to reset ties as Canada prepares for an election later this year.
"The pathway could include resuming high commissioners, inviting India to a G7 summit that Canada will host in June and progressing a trade agreement. All this should become politically more attractive, given the broader geopolitical problems that Canada now has with the US and continues to have with China," said Bisaria.
However, he warned that Canada’s new leadership might be so focused on economic challenges triggered by Donald Trump’s tariffs and trade demands that the diplomatic reset with India takes a back seat.
Who will make the first move?
Carney is a citizen of Canada, the UK and Ireland, although he has recently signaled he would renounce his British and his Irish passport. He has formerly served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, and stabilizing Canada’s trade ties is likely to be high on his list of priorities.
"Canada needs India to diversify its economic profile, and New Delhi would also benefit from a trade treaty with Canada," Shanthie Mariet D’Souza, founder of Indian independent research forum Mantraya, told DW.
"While establishing such a treaty may take time, one way to assess whether progress is being made is to observe how quickly India appoints its high commissioner to Canada," she said.This move would allow Canada to reciprocate and restore its diplomatic presence in New Delhi, she added.
"Given the low level of relations between the two countries, any potential change is likely to be positive. However, for improvements to occur, the new prime minister must address India’s primary concern with Ottawa: the perceived leniency towards Sikh militancy," said D’Souza. Southern California Hindu temple desecrated with anti-India and anti-Hindu graffiti calls for peace (AP)
AP [3/18/2025 2:15 AM, Deepa Bharath, 456K]
The recent desecration of an iconic Hindu temple in Southern California with anti-Hindu and anti-Indian government graffiti has heightened concerns among South Asian groups following a slew of such incidents over the past year.
Devotees who arrived early morning on March 8 at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Chino Hills were shocked to find the words “Hindustan Murdabad,” which means “death to” or “down with” Hindus and India, scrawled on a pink stone sign bearing the temple’s name, said Mehul Patel, a volunteer with the organization.
Expletive-laden graffiti targeting India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was written on one of the outer brick walls and abutting sidewalk, he said. San Bernardino Sheriff’s officials have said they are investigating the incident as a hate crime and have not identified any suspects yet.
Patel said the incident “invoked a sense of fear” among community members. The impact was felt as far away as India, where most major media outlets reported the incident, and India’s External Affairs ministry condemned the vandalism.“We condemn such despicable acts in the strongest terms,” said ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. “We call upon the local law enforcement authorities to take stringent action against those responsible for these acts, and also ensure adequate security to places of worship.”
Patel said the vandalized temple had nearly 1,000 visitors every day, with thousands of people gathering during Diwali and temple festivals.“We do have security protocols in place, but such a violation still makes you think twice about how safe you really are, especially if you have young children,” Patel said.
The majestic temple, the largest in California, sits on a 20-acre lot along a freeway, its arches and domes carved out of pink sandstone and interior decked with white Italian marble. In October 2023, the organization built in Robbinsville, New Jersey, the largest Hindu temple outside India in the modern era. The Swaminarayan sect, a branch of Hinduism, oversees more than 1,300 temples and 5,000 centers around the world, according to the group’s website.
This is not the first time the global Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha, known as BAPS, has been hit by vandals. The organization’s temple in Melville, New York, was tagged with similar writing on Sept. 16. Nine days later, their temple near Sacramento was hit, and there was also an incident at the Newark, California, temple in December 2023. Those incidents are also being investigated as hate crimes.
The denigration of Modi, under whom Hindu nationalism has surged in India, appears to be a common thread in these vandalism incidents across the country. Other non-BAPS Hindu temples in the U.S. have also been attacked recently. In Hayward, California, Vijay’s Sherawali Temple, dedicated to the Hindu Goddess Durga and run by a family of immigrants from Fiji, was vandalized in January 2024 with graffiti calling Modi a “terrorist” and with the words “Khalistan Zindabad” (Long live Khalistan).
Khalistan is the name by which Sikh separatists refer to a sovereign state they hope to create in Indian state of Punjab, birthplace of Sikhism. A violent Khalistani insurgency in India was quelled by the government in 1984; India has declared it a terrorist movement. Activists in the diaspora are currently holding a nonbinding referendum across the United States to create an independent Khalistan; voting will take place in Los Angeles on March 23.
In the summer of 2023, tensions escalated between India and Canada over allegations by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the Indian government had a hand in the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Canadian citizen who was shot dead outside a Sikh temple in Surrey, British Columbia. In November 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice stated that an Indian government official plotted to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist leader, in New York who is spearheading the Khalistan referendum. In August, the FBI opened an investigation into a drive-by shooting that targeted Satinder Pal Singh Raju, a close associate of Nijjar, in Yolo County, California.
The temple vandalism incidents in Northern California last year were condemned by local Sikh groups. Sikhs in the diaspora and in India are divided on the issue of Khalistan.
Immediately after the incident in Southern California, the Coalition of Hindus of North America posted on X raising the possibility of a connection between the tagging incident and the upcoming Khalistan referendum in Los Angeles. Pushpita Prasad, a spokesperson for the group, said Thursday that regardless of who committed the crime, “this repeated assault on the freedom of Hindus to gather in their place of worship is unacceptable.”“We go to a place of worship to find solace,” she said. “If that place becomes a target, how do you find solace there?”
Prasad called for a robust discussion on what is driving these attacks against Hindu temples and acknowledge that anti-Hindu hate exists. She called for treating Hindu places of worship equally.
Another South Asian group pointed out the perils of jumping to conclusions about perpetrators of a crime before an investigation has concluded. Without evidence, such assumptions only serve to further divide communities, said Prachi Patankar, board member of the interfaith Savera Coalition. Her group represents Indian Americans who are Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, Dalit or the people formerly regarded as “untouchables” in the caste system, and those unaffiliated with religion.“Such incidents should never be used to scapegoat other minority religious communities such as the Sikh community, because it can lead to further criminalization or repression of the entire community,” she said.
Patel said it is important for the public to understand that Hindus are not a monolith and the Chino Hills temple is a nonprofit that does not represent any single government, leader or country.“We are a Hindu temple in the United States,” he said. “We are Indian Americans. But people who are not of Indian origin who practice Hinduism worship here as well.”
He hopes surveillance video, which showed two suspects in the act of scoping the area and tagging the property, will help apprehend them.
Members of the organization gathered in front of their temple on March 9 where a priest chanted the “Shanthi Path,” a blessing and prayer for peace.“We prayed not just for our community, but also for the perpetrators,” Patel said. “We believe in the right of people to express themselves, but to get their message out in a peaceful and not in a hateful way.” Delhi airport operator sues government over defence airbase flights (Reuters)
Reuters [3/17/2025 6:28 AM, Abhijith Ganapavaram and Arpan Chaturvedi, 126906K]
The operator of the Indian capital’s international airport, majority owned by GMR Airports (GMRI.NS) is suing the government for allowing commercial flights from a nearby defence aerodrome, flagging financial risks, legal papers showed.The airport in Delhi is one of India’s busiest, with about 73.6 million passengers last year, although it made a loss of $21 million because of higher government fees. As more and more Indians fly, airports are a lucrative business for the likes of GMR and billionaire Gautam Adani who also operates in the sector.The Delhi airport will become "economically and financially unviable", after the government permitted commercial flights from the airbase, DIAL said in the March 10 lawsuit.In the lawsuit, which Reuters was the first to report, DIAL told the Delhi High Court that the government had breached aviation rules barring a new airport within an aerial distance of 150 km (90 miles) of an existing one, unless there was passenger demand.The Hindon Airport operates over 120 flights weekly, India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court on Monday as the judge asked the government to file written responses to DIAL’s plea.India’s civil aviation ministry did not respond to e-mails seeking comment.Shares of GMR Airports fell as much as 0.7% after the case was reported.The state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI), which operates the Hindon facility in Ghaziabad, also has a stake and three board seats in DIAL.DIAL said AAI had a conflict of interest as it was privy to confidential information on DIAL’s business practices and strategies.DIAL wants the court to overturn the government’s decision, citing media reports for its contention that flights by Air India Express began operating in March from the Hindon Airforce Station, about 30 km (19 miles) from the Delhi airport.From 2017, Hindon operated as a temporary extension of the Delhi airport for flights under the Indian government’s regional connectivity scheme while the capital’s airport expanded.DIAL is represented by Trilegal, a law firm based in India. India faces policy dilemma as Pakistan and Bangladesh draw closer together (Nikkei Asia – opinion)
Nikkei Asia [3/17/2025 10:06 PM, Toru Takahashi, 1191K]
Top-level diplomacy can sometimes break deadlock in international relations and even disrupt the global order, as exemplified by U.S. President Donald Trump’s approach to Ukrainian issues. His recent outburst against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House, along with his increasingly conciliatory stance toward Russian leader Vladimir Putin, has prompted European Union members to develop plans to boost defense spending and "rearm" themselves.
Though much smaller in scale, high-level engagements between traditionally hostile Pakistan and Bangladesh are reshaping the regional order in South Asia.
In September, Muhammad Yunus, the chief adviser to Bangladesh’s interim government, leveraged his attendance at the United Nations General Assembly in New York to meet with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif -- a move that has set in motion a rapprochement between the two nations.
Two months later, Bangladesh and Pakistan launched their first regular cargo shipping route, a milestone in bilateral trade, followed in December by the resumption of direct flights between the two countries after a seven-year hiatus. The momentum continued into the new year: In January, a delegation of prominent Pakistani business leaders visited the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, resulting in the decision to establish a joint council focused on promoting economic cooperation.
According to the International Monetary Fund, trade between Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2022 totaled just $1 billion, primarily consisting of Pakistani cotton exports to Bangladesh and Bangladeshi jute exports to Pakistan. During his February visit to Japan, Ashik Chowdhury, executive chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, emphasized further potential for collaboration, particularly in sugar production.
"Bangladesh has a huge state-owned sugar plant structure and factories ... [but we] import sugar because we don’t have enough," said Chowdhury. Investment from Pakistan can help "modernize the factories we already have and serve the Bangladesh market.".
"We could definitely leverage sectors and industries which Pakistan is really good at," he added.
Improvements in relations have gone beyond economic cooperation. In January, senior Bangladeshi military officials visited Pakistan to discuss potential joint exercises and arms transfers. The relationship has also quickly broadened to include education and culture, with initiatives like mutual scholarship programs to facilitate student exchanges and a performance by a renowned Pakistani singer specializing in Qawwali, a traditional form of Sufi devotional music, in Dhaka.
That said, the relationship between Bangladesh and Pakistan has been shaped by a complex and historically troubled past.
Following the end of World War II, British-ruled India was partitioned in 1947 along religious lines into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. The new Islamic state was geographically divided into West Pakistan (present-day Pakistan) and East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), with Indian territory separating the two.
Tensions escalated when the Pakistani government attempted to impose Urdu -- spoken primarily in West Pakistan -- as the sole official language. This decision sparked widespread protests in East Pakistan, where Bengali was the predominant language. The ensuing "Bengali language movement" became a key catalyst for Bengali nationalism, setting the stage for later autonomy movements and ultimately leading to Bangladesh’s independence.
In 1971, Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation following a liberation war supported by India. However, the massacre of an estimated 3 million people by West Pakistani forces left Bangladesh with deep-seated grievances. Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman -- Bangladesh’s founding father and first president -- later became prime minister. During her second time in power, which began in 2009, Hasina closely aligned with India and adopted a confrontational stance toward Pakistan, pledging justice for war crimes.
Hasina was ousted last August following widespread anti-government protests sparked by public discontent over privileges granted to the families of independence war heroes. Anger over her 15 years of authoritarian rule was also directed at India, her primary ally.
Reflecting this frustration, the Dhaka Tribune published an article titled "10 things India needs to know about Bangladesh," which criticized India’s attitude and stated: "Worst of all is the old ‘you are only free because of us’ chestnut. While it is undeniable that India played a seminal role in 1971, it’s time to give that particular line a rest.".
From her current place of exile in India, Hasina continues to denounce the interim Yunus administration, which is tasked with stabilizing the country, creating tensions between India and Bangladesh over her potential extradition. Meanwhile, Yunus, who has yet to hold direct talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, met with Sharif for the second time in December.
During this meeting in Egypt, held on the sidelines of the D-8 summit -- a platform for economic cooperation among developing Islamic countries -- Sharif reportedly said, "We are really looking forward to strengthening our relationship with our brother-in-country Bangladesh." In response, Yunus proposed reviving the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and holding its summit in Dhaka.
Established in 1985, SAARC is a regional cooperation framework comprising eight member countries. Although SAARC nations together account for only 4% of global gross domestic product, they represent 25% of the world’s population. However, the organization has remained effectively dormant, as it has not held a summit since 2014.
To understand why Yunus has brought up the idea of reviving this virtually "comatose" framework now, it is necessary to revisit the circumstances surrounding its founding 40 years ago.
The immediate catalyst for SAARC’s inception was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. While India had signed a Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation -- a de facto military alliance -- with the Soviet Union in 1971, other South Asian countries lacked similar assurances. Deeply concerned about this situation, Bangladesh’s sixth president, Ziaur Rahman, formally proposed the establishment of SAARC in 1980.
India initially viewed this proposal with suspicion. As the region’s dominant power, it preferred bilateral negotiations over multilateral talks and was concerned that collective action might diminish its influence.
However, India ultimately relented under pressure from the U.S., led by then-President Jimmy Carter, who sought to curb Soviet influence. Eager to avoid the perception of aligning with the Soviets, despite its stated nonalignment policy, and the associated risk of isolation, India agreed to join SAARC, provided that decisions would require unanimity and bilateral issues would be excluded from the discussions.
SAARC was likely influenced by the founding of ASEAN in 1967. Yet, while ASEAN was united as a bulwark against communist China, SAARC had to contend with India’s dominance in every decision it made. The founders of SAARC successfully leveraged the Soviet threat to bring India on board but had to accept the cost of having the regional giant within its structure.
In many ways, SAARC was ahead of ASEAN from the start; it quickly adopted a charter -- essentially a regional constitution -- and made annual summits a regular practice. In 2005, SAARC added Afghanistan as its eighth member and welcomed places such as Japan, the U.S., China and the EU as observers.
However, SAARC summits were often disrupted by political upheavals, armed conflicts and cross-border terrorism. The turning point came in 2016, when Modi, angered by terrorist attacks carried out by Pakistan-based Islamist militants, refused to attend the summit scheduled in Pakistan -- a stance later echoed by Hasina. As a result, the summit was indefinitely postponed and has remained dormant ever since.
Both Modi and Hasina then shifted their focus from the west to the east, prioritizing another regional body -- the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). Established in 1997 and headquartered in Dhaka, BIMSTEC consists of seven countries: five from eastern South Asia, along with Thailand and Myanmar from Southeast Asia. Notably, Pakistan is excluded.
"For the past decade, India and Bangladesh have conducted their affairs as if Pakistan did not exist in South Asia," said Mayumi Murayama, executive vice president of the Institute of Developing Economies at the Japan External Trade Organization. She sees Yunus’s plan to revive SAARC as an effort "to bring Pakistan back into the South Asian fold and reset the geopolitical clock to the pre-Hasina era.".
Professor Lailufar Yasmin of Dhaka University supports Yunus’s initiative. "It shows the revival of Bangladesh’s historical role in promoting regionalism in South Asia," she said. "It shows the rebuilding of Bangladesh’s role as an actor that is willing to work with all the nations instead of aligning its foreign policy with any other actor (India).".
However, Constantino Xavier, a senior fellow at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress in New Delhi, remains skeptical. "India will not reengage with SAARC unless it first normalizes its bilateral relations with Pakistan," he said. "This has been India’s policy for almost 10 years and is unlikely to change despite the Bangladesh interim government’s hopes and appeals.".
"Yunus’s attempts to revive SAARC are puzzling because Bangladesh hosts the headquarters of BIMSTEC, an alternative regional cooperation that has been far more active and in line with its geoeconomic interests," said Xavier.
"So the focus on SAARC may be either merely reflective of his outdated thinking on regional cooperation, or a more political attempt to distance himself from Hasina’s focus on BIMSTEC, engage Pakistan and pique India.".
Still, the importance of regional blocs is likely to increase as global dynamics rapidly change and the world enters the unpredictable era of "Trump 2.0.".
Recently, Colombia became embroiled in diplomatic tensions with the Trump administration after its president, Gustavo Petro, barred two military planes carrying Colombians deported from the U.S. from landing. In response, the regional bloc, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, considered holding an emergency summit to discuss a collective response to the situation, though the idea was ultimately shelved.
Similarly, the EU has repeatedly reaffirmed its unity through frequent summits, while ASEAN has sought closer ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council, a regional body formed by six Gulf monarchies. These moves reflect a global trend toward collective self-defense.
Despite their diplomatic rivalries, nations within the same region often face similar challenges when dealing with external pressures. India, despite being a dominant force in South Asia, could make good use of SAARC by leveraging it to mitigate pressure from the U.S. or counter China’s expanding influence.
A pivotal moment awaits. If things go as expected, the scheduled BIMSTEC summit in early April in Thailand will mark the first face-to-face meeting between Yunus and Modi. The big question for South Asia is how Modi will respond if Yunus proposes reviving SAARC.
The future of Modi’s ‘neighborhood first’ policy will depend on it. NSB
Bangladesh Rebukes US Spy Chief Over Religious Violence Remarks (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [3/18/2025 3:31 AM, Staff, 456K]
Bangladesh has rebuked Washington’s intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, saying her comments on religious violence in the South Asian country were unfounded and risked fanning sectarian tensions.
Gabbard arrived this week for a diplomatic trip to India, whose relations with Bangladesh have soured since a student-led uprising overthrew the latter nation’s government last year.
New Delhi has repeatedly accused its Muslim-majority neighbour of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu citizens -- charges denied by the caretaker administration now in charge.
But Gabbard appeared to give credence to the claims when she was asked about violence in Bangladesh during a Monday interview with Indian broadcaster NDTV.
"The long-time unfortunate persecution, killing, and abuse of religious minorities... have been a major area of concern for the US government," she said in response.
She added that the issue, along with Islamist extremism, remained "central focus areas of concern" and said the Trump administration has already raised them with the Bangladeshi government.
Bangladesh responded in a statement late Monday that Gabbard’s comments were both "misleading" and "damaging" to the country’s image and reputation.
"Political leaders and public figures should base their statements, especially on sensitive issues, on actual knowledge and take care not to reinforce harmful stereotypes, fan fears, or potentially stoke sectarian tensions," the statement said.
Hindus make up about eight percent of Bangladesh’s 170 million people.
In the chaotic days following the August ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina, there was a string of attacks on Hindus -- seen by some as having backed her rule.
The caretaker government that replaced her has insisted that many of those attacks were motivated by politics rather than religion.
It has also accused India’s media and government of spreading disinformation exaggerating threats to Bangladeshi Hindus.
Gabbard met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Washington last month soon after her confirmation as director of national intelligence under President Donald Trump.
The pair met again on Monday and Gabbard used a speech to a geopolitical conference in New Delhi to praise the enduring partnership between the United States and India.
"I am confident that this partnership and friendship between our two nations and our leaders will continue to grow and strengthen," she added. Bangladesh reaches out to U.K. for support recovering stolen money (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [3/18/2025 5:52 AM, Doulot Akter Mala, 1191K]
Bangladesh has established a road map to recover assets it says were stolen from the country -- estimated at between $75 billion and $100 billion -- during the government of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, aiming to claw back at least half of the assets in 11 priority cases involving Hasina, former ministers and nine business groups by the end of this year.Dhaka is reaching out to the U.K., hoping to persuade it to impose financial and travel sanctions on individuals who have allegedly laundered billions of dollars from Bangladesh and left them in the U.K., the U.S., Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and the Cayman Islands.According to the plan, Bangladesh Bank Gov. Ahsan H. Mansur was scheduled to meet with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) in London on Monday, seeking its support to encourage the U.K. government to take actions against 11 Bangladeshi business groups in order to quickly retrieve the allegedly siphoned money.At the meeting at Portcullis House, Mansur told members of the U.K. Parliament that a handful of business magnates directly syphoned $20 billion to $25 billion out of Bangladesh’s banking system."The U.K. is the first country we would like to get help from ... If something positive happens in the U.K.’s legal system, there are global ramifications," the governor said.He also sought the British government’s support in lobbying other countries to do the same.During the visit, Mansur and his team also plan to meet with the U.K. Foreign Office, the National Crime Agency and the current and former justice secretaries. On Wednesday, he will hold a conference with international law firms and law enforcement agencies.The interim government has not disclosed the names of the 11 groups whose assets it is trying to seize. But according to senior officials investigating alleged money laundering, they include former Land Minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, owner of Aramit Group, a building materials company; Mohammed Saiful Alam, chairman of conglomerate S. Alam Group; Nazrul Islam Mazumder, founder of NASSA Group, which has businesses in garments and banking, among others.Press secretary Shafiqul Alam said the interim government would draft a special law soon to expedite repartition of stolen assets.Last week, at a meeting to finalize the road map, central bank Gov. Mansur sounded hopeful that he would be able to persuade the U.K. to impose sanctions on the alleged Bangladeshi money launderers within three to six months. "Bangladesh Bank has compiled cases on money launderers, including at least 150 Bangladeshi lawmakers of Sheikh Hasina’s AL (Awami League) regime to proceed into recovery," Mansur told Nikkei Asia.In 2010 and 2015, Bangladesh returned stolen assets totaling more than $1.5 million at the request of the British government under the World Bank’s Stolen Asset Recovery Initiative (StAR).It also returned to the U.K. stolen assets worth 230 million taka ($1.89 million under the current exchange rate) from former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia’s son, Arafat Rahman Koko, in 2007."Bangladesh has twice returned assets to the U.K., now it’s our turn to get back stolen assets from the U.K.," Mansur said.Under the road map, the next step will come in May. The Bangladeshi central bank will co-organize the Bangladesh Asset Recovery conference in London in collaboration with the International Anti-Corruption Coordination Centre (IACCC), which operates under the U.K.’s National Crime Agency, and the World Bank’s StAR.By the end of this year, Bangladesh hopes to recover at least 50% of the assets in 11 priority cases, freeze all assets of the 11 business groups and establish an asset recovery agency."Bangladesh will appoint a private law firm to file civil lawsuits against alleged midsize money launderers [accused of stealing money ranging from $16.39 million to $40.98 million], while the government will launch criminal proceedings against tycoons [accused of] stealing larger amounts, the governor said."Once we get back the money, Bangladesh will compensate bank depositors who have lost their savings to money launderers, while for nonbank’s asset recovery, the amount will be spent on the welfare of commoners," Mansur added. Drones Will Do Some Schlepping for Sherpas on Mount Everest (New York Times)
New York Times [3/18/2025 12:58 AM, Bhadra Sharma and Mujib Mashal, 831K]
Help may at last be on the way for the Nepali Sherpas who carry heavy loads for foreign climbers through treacherous sections of the world’s tallest peak.
When the main climbing season begins next month on Mount Everest, expedition companies will test drones that can ferry loads as heavy as 35 pounds in the high altitudes, bring back ladders used to set the climbing routes, and remove waste that is typically left behind.
Goods that would normally take seven hours to be transported by foot from Everest’s base camp to Camp I can be airlifted within 15 minutes. By lightening the Sherpas’ burdens, drone operators hope that the chances of fatal accidents — which have risen as climate change has accelerated snowmelt — can now be reduced.“Sherpas bear enormous risks. The drone makes their task safer, faster and more efficient,” said Tshering Sherpa, whose organization, the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee, is responsible for fixing the route through the deadly Khumbu Icefall, southwest of Everest’s summit.
For about a year, operators have been experimenting with two drones donated by their Chinese maker. The pilot test during this year’s Everest climbing season is seen as an important opportunity to persuade expedition agencies to invest in more of the devices, which could be used to carry climbing gear and essential items like oxygen cylinders.
While the upfront cost of the drones may be high, their proponents say they will eventually reduce agencies’ costs.
Among those who could benefit most are the experienced Sherpas known as “icefall doctors.” Before every climbing season, they assemble at the Everest base camp for the daunting mission of establishing a route through the shifting ice.
They carry heavy loads of ladders, fix them over crevasses and lay rope to climb up the ice wall. Once the ladders and ropes are set along the Khumbu Icefall to Camp II, other Sherpas ferry oxygen bottles, medicine and various essentials to high camps. Sherpas make this dangerous climb at least 40 times a season, according to expedition organizers.
When the icefall doctors made their way to the base camp early this month, they were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the drone pilots, who were still in Kathmandu, the Nepali capital, finishing flight clearance documentation.“They are calling us to team up early,” said Milan Pandey, a drone pilot affiliated with AirLift, a startup drone company in Nepal.
The catalyst for the use of drones was the latest of the many deadly tragedies involving Sherpas on Everest. In 2023, three of the mountain guides were buried under an avalanche as they fixed rope for foreign climbers.
Their bodies could not be retrieved. Doing so could have damaged the ice block and endangered those trying to get the remains, said Mingma G. Sherpa, the managing director of Imagine Nepal, which led the expedition in which the Sherpas died.
His search for ways to improve safety drew him to Chinese expedition companies that were using drones on Muztagh Ata, a 24,757-foot peak in China near Pakistan’s border. The Chinese were using the vehicles to ferry climbing gear, food and other crucial items to Camp II and bring them down.“The Chinese cooked food at base camp and sent it to Camp II of Muztagh Ata, where climbers could eat hot food,” Mr. Sherpa said. “I thought, why not use drones on Everest’s south side, especially the Khumbu Icefall section?”
At his invitation, a team from the Chinese drone maker DJI went to Nepal in the spring of 2024 to test two FlyCart 30 delivery drones.
The DJI team donated the drones to AirLift, the Nepalese startup. Since then, AirLift has been testing the drones’ limits in the most dangerous sections of Everest.
The drones’ proponents hope that they can do more than carry items. Since the shape of icefall keeps changing, icefall doctors struggle to locate the previous climbing route, which complicates setting the new route each season. Drone operators believe they will be able to pinpoint old routes using geolocation.
The devices could also help make up for the declining numbers of Sherpas. More are leaving because of the safety risks and better employment opportunities abroad.
But even with all the drones can offer, their price tag has given some expedition companies pause.
Once customs duties, batteries, a winch system and other parts are factored in, a DJI drone can cost more than $70,000 — a huge sum in a poor country like Nepal. Startups like AirLift are exploring options to assemble the drones inside Nepal, which they say could reduce their cost by more than half.
The miracle of a warm meal may ride on that cost-cutting effort.
During a trial run last year on Mount Ama Dablam, a Himalayan peak where drones were used to remove 1,300 pounds of waste, Dawa Jangbu Sherpa, a drone pilot, saw the potential of the vehicle firsthand. Food sent from base camp was still hot when it reached Camp I.“It takes six hours if you follow the normal route to reach Camp I,” Mr. Sherpa said. “But the drone served food in six minutes.” Central Asia
Kazakhstan’s Fintech Giant Kaspi Targets $500 Million Bond Deal (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/17/2025 10:53 AM, Edward Clark and Nariman Gizitdinov, 5.5M]
Kaspi.kz JSC, Kazakhstan’s most valuable public company, could issue its first bond as soon as Tuesday, having marketed the debt to international fixed income investors last week, according to people familiar with the matter.
Almaty-based Kaspi, which operates banking and payment services across Kazakhstan, is looking to raise $500 million or more from a five-year bond, according to the people, who requested anonymity as details aren’t public. Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co. are arranging the transaction, the people said.
Controlled by billionaires Vyacheslav Kim and Mikheil Lomtadze, Kaspi is known for its mobile banking application. The company has 14 million users out of Kazakhstan’s population of 20 million and has a market capitalization of about $19 billion.
Kaspi is also expanding its footprint outside of its domestic market. The company spent $1.1 billion in cash on a 65% stake in Turkish e-commerce firm D-Market Electronic Services & Trading, known as Hepsiburada, in January, which JPMorgan analyst Reginald Smith described in a note to investors as “a big swing” that’s “Kaspi’s ticket to the big league.”
The deal valued Hepsiburada at around $1.7 billion when it was announced in October, about $1 billion more than its market capitalization at the time. Kaspi didn’t pay a dividend for the fourth quarter and doesn’t intend to for the first half of 2025 either in order to pay for the acquisition, a company presentation shows.
Meanwhile, Kaspi is also in talks to buy Rabobank Group’s Turkish unit, Rabobank AS. Deliberations are ongoing and any deal would be subject to approval from Turkish regulators.
Kaspi had a public offering of US stock last year, selling about $1 billion worth of shares at $92 a piece. The securities surged to almost $140 each by July but have since tumbled amid a series of setbacks including volatile geopolitics, regulatory scrutiny and allegations of widespread fraud by short-seller Culper Research in September — which Kaspi denied. Shares closed at $95.62 March 13.
Kaspi did not respond to a request for comment. Citi and JP Morgan declined to comment. Air quality in Tajikistan ranked among world’s worst – survey (EurasiaNet)
EurasiaNet [3/17/2025 4:14 PM, Staff, 57.6K]
Tajikistan is the poorest country in Central Asia, and it also remains the most polluted, according to a recent survey of global air quality.
The 2024 World Air Quality Report, compiled by Swiss-based firm IQAir, measured air quality at almost 9,000 locations in 138 countries worldwide. Tajikistan ranked as the sixth most polluted country, in terms of the measured volume of harmful, air-borne particles known as PM2.5. Chad, Bangladesh and Pakistan were the top three states with the worst air pollution in the survey.“Air pollution remains the greatest environmental threat to human health,” the report states. “According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 99 percent of the global population lives in areas that do not meet recommended air quality guideline levels.”
Tajikistan’s air quality showed slight improvement in 2024 over the previous year. A study published by Tajikistan’s State Statistics Agency published in early 2024 found that harmful emissions in the country increased by almost two times during the past decade. Vehicles, including cars, trucks, busses and agricultural machines, were the primary source of pollution.
Central Asia as a region ranked among the most polluted worldwide, with Uzbekistan ranked as having the 19th worst air quality, followed by Turkmenistan (26th), Kyrgyzstan (41st) and Kazakhstan (71st). Although Kazakhstan had Central Asia’s cleanest air overall in 2024, the industrial city of Karaganda was rated the third most polluted city in the world, with a PM2.5 measurement exceeding WHO guidelines by over 10 times. Kyrgyzstan, meanwhile, has made the most progress in reducing the volume of PM2.5 in the air over the past five years.
In the Caucasus, Armenia (34th) was found to have the dirtiest air, trailed by Azerbaijan (49th) and Georgia (75th). There has been comparatively little fluctuation in air quality in the three Caucasus states over the seven years that IQAir has produced its annual report.
IQAir is an air-quality technology company that bills itself as operating the “world’s largest free, real-time air-quality information platform.”PM2.5 is defined as fine particulate aerosol particles measuring up to 2.5 microns in diameter. Common man-made sources of PM2.5 are vehicle exhaust, heavy industrial processes, power generation, agriculture, construction, and coal and wood burning. Twitter
Afghanistan
Hamdullah Fitrat@FitratHamd[3/18/2025 3:28 AM, 23K followers, 1 retweet, 8 likes]
Regarding the extension of UNAMA’s mission: The UNAMA representation in Afghanistan should concentrate on its core objectives, including the enhancement of relations between Afghanistan, the United Nations, and other states; the support and accurate representation of security, economic, and social developments in Afghanistan; the safeguarding of Afghans’ access to their international rights; the removal of unjust sanctions; the cessation of the seizure of Afghan assets; and the restoration of Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations. It must not, as in the past, generate unwarranted concerns, exploit minor issues to facilitate propaganda against Afghanistan, or function as an instrument of adversarial political entities.
Hasina Jalal@HasinaJalal[3/17/2025 11:54 AM, 11.8K followers, 6 retweets, 85 likes]
Honored to speak on a panel at the UN Commission on the Status of Women, discussing the gaps, challenges, and opportunities in Afghan women’s rights movements and the path forward. #CSW69
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa[3/17/2025 11:01 AM, 5.7K followers, 35 retweets, 73 likes] “Let’s Study”—a new campaign by Afghan women activists protests the Taliban’s 4-year ban on girls’ education. “For four years, Afghan women and girls have been stripped of their rights.” Girls beyond 6th grade are still barred from school. The world must act! #Afghanistan Pakistan
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[3/17/2025 10:05 AM, 3.1M followers, 12 retweets, 37 likes]
Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif chairs a review meeting on the matters related to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[3/17/2025 7:09 AM, 3.1M followers, 14 retweets, 75 likes]
A delegation of Afiniti Information System led by CEO Mr. Jerome Kapelus called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad today. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/17/2025 12:23 PM, 105.9M followers, 3.4K retweets, 19K likes]
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and I visited Gurdwara Rakab Ganj Sahib, a place of profound faith and history. The Sikh community’s unwavering commitment to service and humanity is truly admirable across the world. @chrisluxonmp
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/17/2025 12:04 PM, 105.9M followers, 3.1K retweets, 22K likes]
Attended the @raisinadialogue and heard the insightful views of my friend, PM Christopher Luxon. @chrisluxonmp
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/17/2025 11:28 AM, 105.9M followers, 16K retweets, 118K likes]
Glad to welcome @TulsiGabbard to India. Exchanged views on further advancing the India-U.S. Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership. Both countries are committed to combating terrorism and enhancing maritime and cyber security cooperation. @DNIGabbard
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/17/2025 5:31 AM, 105.9M followers, 5.3K retweets, 39K likes]
Dr. Debendra Pradhan Ji made a mark as a hardworking and humble leader. He made numerous efforts to strengthen the BJP in Odisha. His contribution as MP and Minister is also noteworthy for the emphasis on poverty alleviation and social empowerment. Pained by his passing away. Went to pay my last respects and expressed condolences to his family. Om Shanti. @dpradhanbjp
President of India@rashtrapatibhvn[3/17/2025 3:21 AM, 26.5M followers, 258 retweets, 1.5K likes]
Officer trainees of Indian Naval Material Management Service and Indian Naval Armament Service called on President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan. The President told officers to adopt innovative approach to make inventory management and service delivery system seamless and effective.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar[3/18/2025 1:44 AM, 3.4M followers, 55 retweets, 425 likes]
Joined former PM @carlbildt, FM @DominiqueHasler, FM Juraj Blanár and @DubaiAbulhoul for a conversation on ‘Thrones and Thorns: Defending the Integrity of Nations’ at #Raisina2025. Highlighted the need for a world order, but a fairer one. Also the need to introspect on how it has delivered over the last eight decades. Do watch.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar[3/17/2025 12:34 PM, 3.4M followers, 237 retweets, 2.3K likes]A warm meeting with @FMBhutan D. N. Dhungyel on sidelines of #Raisina2025. Reaffirmed our commitment to further our unique and longstanding ties.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar[3/17/2025 10:45 AM, 3.4M followers, 1.5K retweets, 13K likes]
Delighted to meet US DNI @TulsiGabbard this evening. A useful exchange on contemporary global and regional security challenges.
Rajnath Singh@rajnathsingh[3/17/2025 3:34 AM, 24.4M followers, 1.2K retweets, 9.6K likes]
Happy to have met the US Director of National Intelligence Ms @TulsiGabbard in New Delhi. We discussed a wide range of issues which include defence and information sharing, aiming to further deepen the India-US partnership.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney[3/17/2025 8:21 AM, 270.9K followers, 102 retweets, 452 likes]
Biden administration openly played the Khalistan card against India, including briefing Khalistan militants at the White House. In her discussions in New Delhi today, @DNIGabbard heard Indian concerns about such violence-glorifying militants making terrorist threats from US soil.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney[3/17/2025 7:17 AM, 270.9K followers, 55 retweets, 229 likes]
Every Indian PM seeks to reinvent the foreign-policy wheel rather than learn the essentials of statecraft. They have cried betrayal, not by friends but by foreign adversaries in whom they reposed trust. Remember Nehru’s infamous words when China invaded India in 1962? He told the nation that China had “returned evil for good.” Or Vajpayee’s words after Pakistan’s Kargil incursion caught India napping? Vajpayee bemoaned that his bus to Lahore had been hijacked and taken to Kargil. Modi’s Lahore visit spawned a series of Pakistani terrorist attacks. Now he tells Lex Fridman in a podcast that his peace overtures, including inviting Pakistan to his 2014 inauguration, were intended to help Pakistan "turn over a new leaf," but instead his "noble attempt at fostering peace was met with hostility and betrayal." https://lexfridman.com/narendra-modi-transcript/ NSB
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh@BDMOFA[3/17/2025 8:21 AM, 74.6K followers, 22 retweets, 171 likes]
US Senator Gary Peters@SenGaryPeters arrives in Dhaka today on a 2-day visit. DG (North America) @BDMOFA has received Senator at HSIA. In his first-ever visit to BD, Senator Gary looks forward to having fruitful interactions with Chief Advisor@ChiefAdviserGoB and Foreign Adviser
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney[3/17/2025 12:59 PM, 270.9K followers, 47 retweets, 260 likes]
Bangladesh’s descent into Islamist violence: @DNIGabbard says persecution of religious minorities in Bangladesh remains a "central focus area" of US concern and that President Trump is committed to defeating the ideology behind "radical Islamic terrorism." https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/us-intelligence-chief-tulsi-gabbards-islamic-caliphate-remark-on-crisis-in-bangladesh-7942220 Ashok Swain@ashoswai[3/17/2025 12:11 PM, 621.7K followers, 97 retweets, 471 likes]
If ‘Hare Krishna’ cult member Tulsi Gabbard is right that the "Bangladesh situation is a major concern for the US", why is Bangladesh not in the list of 43 countries, on which Trump is going to impose visa ban? Tulsi is saying to Indian media, what Indian media likes to hear!
Ashok Swain@ashoswai[3/17/2025 6:10 AM, 621.7K followers, 8 retweets, 53 likes]
Can Bangladesh’s National Citizens Party (NCP) sustain its momentum, or will it fade like similar parties like Janata Party, AGP or AAP in India? Without strong leadership, grassroots support & clear ideology, history suggests a tough road ahead. #MyPiece https://scroll.in/article/1080260/warnings-for-bangladeshs-new-student-party-from-indias-aap-agp-on-running-the-long-race
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives@MoFAmv
[3/17/2025 12:06 PM, 55.5K followers, 35 retweets, 32 likes]
Minister @abkhaleel participates in the inaugural session of #RaisinaDialogue2025 alongside key leaders, Foreign Ministers & experts in Delhi. Inaugurated by PM @narendramodi & PM @chrisluxomp, the conference will hold discussions on challenging issues facing the global community
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maldives@MoFAmv
[3/17/2025 6:17 AM, 55.5K followers, 20 retweets, 17 likes]
Minister Dr. Khaleel arrives in India, on an Official Visit Press Release | https://t.ly/15YLe
MFA SriLanka@MFA_SriLanka[3/17/2025 10:51 PM, 39.1K followers, 2 retweets, 3 likes]
14 Sri Lankans Rescued from Cybercrime Centres in Myawaddy, Myanmar Read more: https://mfa.gov.lk/en/sri-lankans-rescued-myanmar/ #DiplomacyLK #lka
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/18/2025 12:39 AM, 146.4K followers, 3 retweets, 35 likes]
Yesterday (18), I emphasized the urgent need to enhance our infrastructure and services for tourists as Sri Lanka gains international recognition as a premier destination. I instructed officials from the Ministry of Tourism to prioritize these improvements, aiming for a world-class experience. Let’s attract three million tourists this year! Central Asia
Emomali Rahmon@EmomaliRahmonTJ[3/17/2025 5:22 PM, 3.4K followers, 6 likes]
After signing the new cooperation documents, the Heads of State #EmomaliRahmon and #VladimirPutin held a press conference for a wide circle of journalists and made statements on the results of the high-level talks. @KremlinRussia
Emomali Rahmon@EmomaliRahmonTJ[3/17/2025 5:21 PM, 3.4K followers, 5 retweets, 12 likes]
Following the conclusion of high-level negotiations in the presence of the President of the Republic of #Tajikistan #EmomaliRahmon, and the President of the #RussianFederation #VladimirPutin, new cooperation documents were signed@KremlinRussia
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz[3/17/2025 11:32 AM, 214.1K followers, 4 retweets, 13 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev met with a congresswoman @RepCarolMiller, participant of the Parliamentary Caucus on Cooperation with #Uzbekistan, who conveyed greetings from the #US President, Congressional leadership and the Uzbekistan Caucus. Discussions focused on expanding the Uzbek-American strategic partnership, enhancing inter-parliamentary cooperation, supporting key investment projects, and fostering regional ties.
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz[3/17/2025 10:40 AM, 214.1K followers, 8 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev chaired a meeting on improving water supply, heating, and agriculture. Plans include expanding private sector involvement in water and sewerage management, accelerating project implementation and digitalizing water systems. Land allocation will be simplified by ending installment-based agricultural land sales and reducing unsold plot prices by 10% daily. Farmers with a high ranking will benefit from tax cuts, fee reductions and loan insurance exemptions.
Furqat Sidiqov@FurqatSidiq[3/17/2025 4:49 PM, 1.5K followers, 1 retweet, 4 likes]
Congresswoman @RepCarolMiller had a productive first day in UZ. She was received by the President Shavkat Mirziyoyev @president_uz & met with Senate Chairperson Tanzila Narbaeva @TNarbaeva, Speaker of Parliament Nuriddin Ismoilov, & Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Saidov @FM_Saidov.
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov[3/17/2025 7:00 AM, 12.9K followers, 10 retweets, 24 likes] Glad to welcome U.S. Congresswoman H.E. @RepCarolMiller today at @UzbekMFA. We discussed strengthening UZ-US bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Our strategic partnership continues to expand dynamically across all sectors with even greater potential for future collaboration. Active inter-parliamentary ties remain a key priority and we deeply appreciate the role of the Congressional Caucus on #Uzbekistan as a vital bridge between our two nations.{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.