SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Friday, March 7, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Taliban urge Pakistan, Iran to slow return of Afghan nationals (VOA)
VOA [3/6/2025 12:54 PM, Sarah Zaman, 2913K]
Afghanistan’s Taliban Thursday called on neighbors Pakistan and Iran to be patient with Afghan refugees and follow an organized process for their return, considering Afghanistan’s economic challenges.
Pakistan and Iran have sent back more than 2.7 million Afghans to their home country since the 20-year U.S.-led war in Afghanistan ended in August 2021.
Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban acting minister of refugees and repatriation affairs, separately met with Ubaid Ur Rehman Nizamani, Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Afghanistan, and Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Alireza Bekdali, in Kabul.
In a post on social media platform X, the Afghan ministry said Kabir expressed hope that the "host countries will exercise patience and forbearance toward refugees.".
"Islamic Emirate encourages Afghan refugees to return to the country," said the statement. "But due to lack of conditions at home, host countries should consider organized return process instead of forced deportation, and act according to a gradual mechanism.".
Afghan expulsion
Since Pakistan launched a drive in late 2023 to remove foreign nationals residing illegally in the country, citing security concerns, more than 825,000 Afghans have left, according to data compiled by the U.N. High Commission for Refugees. However, only a small fraction — roughly 40,000 — have been deported.
Pakistan approved a multistage plan in late January targeting nearly 3 million Afghan citizens. It includes legally declared refugees, documented as well as undocumented migrants, and those awaiting relocation to the United States and other Western countries.
That plan calls for repatriating documented Afghan migrants and undocumented Afghan citizens in Phase 1. It also calls for the removal of Afghans awaiting third-country relocation from Islamabad by March 31.
Last July, Pakistan extended the validity of Proof of Registration, or POR, cards for Afghan refugees until June 30, 2025. The government’s January plan to expel Afghans says POR card holders will be dealt with later.
Driven largely by economic concerns, Iran deported more than 1.8 million Afghans between 2022 and 2024, according to aid website Relief Web that takes data from UNHCR. Last September, Tehran announced it plans to deport up to 2 million by March 2025.
Time needed
Kabir called on Iran and Pakistan to slow the pace of returns until bilateral mechanisms are put in place.
"Time should be given to hold bilateral and trilateral meetings in this regard," the statement said.
Nizamani, Pakistan’s top diplomat in Afghanistan, said refugees are not a political tool, according to the Afghan ministry’s post.
"He said that Pakistan’s future is linked to Afghanistan, therefore, it does not use Afghan refugees as political tools, but wants the problems to be resolved through understanding," the refugee ministry said on X.
A request to Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, seeking confirmation of Nizamani’s remarks, was not returned.
Iranian ambassador Bekdali called for a permanent solution to the issue, the Taliban ministry said.
"We want to see the illegal migrants living in Iran, refugees, provided with the necessary legal documents," the statement quoted Bekadli as saying. There was no immediate confirmation from Bekdali’s office regarding his remarks.
Refugee rights groups and human rights watchdogs have repeatedly called on Iran and Pakistan to ensure that the rights of Afghan refugees and undocumented migrants are protected, and they are not forced to return to Afghanistan, where the economy is in shambles, the majority relies on aid, and women face severe curbs on basic rights and liberties. Capture of suspected ISIS-K operative wasn’t solely work of Trump, Biden officials say (NBC News)
NBC News [3/6/2025 7:04 PM, Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube, Carol E. Lee and Andrea Mitchell, 44.7M]Since President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday the surprise arrest of a man accused of taking part in the killing of 13 U.S. service members in Afghanistan, his top national security aides have repeatedly disparaged the Biden administration as either unwilling or unable to bring those responsible to justice.
The attack, conducted by an ISIS-K suicide bomber, killed an estimated 170 Afghan civilians waiting outside Kabul airport near an entrance known as "Abbey Gate." The deaths were emblematic of the chaotic withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
Five former Biden administration officials, as well as a current U.S. official, say the capture of the suspected ISIS-K operative, Mohammad Sharifullah, was not solely the work of the Trump administration. They say it was aided by a yearslong joint intelligence effort by the United States and Pakistan targeting ISIS-K, the Afghan branch of the Islamic State, including Sharifullah in particular.“This didn’t just happen overnight,” a former senior Biden administration national security official said. “This is the culmination of efforts that were quite deliberate.”
Asked about the claim, Brian Hughes, a National Security Council spokesman for the Trump administration, dismissed it.“This arrest and extradition was made possible because of the emphasis the Trump Administration placed on this case," he said in a statement. "Since January 20th, we have prioritized engagement with the Pakistani government on this case and provided the critical intelligence.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe also credited the Trump administration. “Remember, the Biden administration had that 3½ years to do this. They didn’t find anyone," he said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday. "They didn’t hold anyone accountable.”
National security adviser Mike Waltz said on Fox News: “In three years, the Biden administration couldn’t bring this man to justice. In a month, through our intel sharing relationship, the great work of Director Ratcliffe, [Attorney General] Pam Bondi, [FBI Director] Kash Patel, he landed overnight.”
But the former senior Biden national security officials and two U.S. defense officials said the Biden administration stepped up intelligence sharing with Pakistan many months ago and built an intelligence sharing cell designed to target ISIS-K members living along the Afghan-Pakistan border. They said this weekend’s capture was a result of those efforts.
Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of U.S. Central Command, visited Pakistan several times in recent years and played a key role in strengthening relations and intelligence sharing, said the former Biden administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence-gathering efforts.
Last summer, Pakistani security forces arrested a man with the same name along the Afghan-Pakistan border, only to learn they had the wrong man, the two former officials said. “We were very focused on this guy in particular,” one of the officials said.
Ratcliffe said that he highlighted the case with Pakistani officials on his second day on the job as CIA director. But he credited Trump himself for the arrest.
"It’s the Trump effect," Ratcliffe said on Fox Business. "Everywhere I go, everyone I talk to, all of our foreign partners, allies and even problematic partners, want to do more with the United States. It’s the Trump effect."
The former Biden administration officials credited the new administration for continuing the intelligence sharing and spurring Pakistan to find the terrorist, but they also expressed annoyance that Trump aides had accused them of being negligent.“That’s just false,” one said.
Sharifullah’s role in attack
Trump also appeared to overstate Sharifullah’s role in the attack, at least as it was described in an FBI affidavit and a Justice Department news release.
In his address to Congress this week, Trump said Sharifullah was the "top terrorist responsible" for the Abbey Gate bombing.“Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity," he said. "And he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice.”
Kelly Barnett, whose son, Darrin "Taylor" Hoover, was killed in the attack, told NBC News that Trump told her Sharifullah was one of the key planners.“The president came on and he told us they had caught this guy, this terrorist. He said, ‘We’re not going to call him mastermind, because he’s not a mastermind,’” Barnett said. “He’s, you know, pure evil. But he was the architect of the bombing.”
Justice Department prosecutors say in court papers that Sharifullah said he had been in prison until two weeks before the bombing. He told the FBI he was recruited after his release from prison and was provided with a motorcycle and a cellphone. “Sharifullah admitted to helping prepare for the Abbey Gate attack, including scouting a route near the airport for an attacker,” says a Justice Department news release summarizing the court documents. “Sharifullah specifically checked for law enforcement and American or Taliban checkpoints; he then communicated to other ISIS-K members that he believed the route was clear and that the attacker would not be detected.”
Court papers also say he confessed to participating in other terrorist attacks in Moscow and Kabul. ISIS-K, which stands for ISIS-Khorasan, is an offshoot of the group that emerged in Syria and Iraq more than a decade ago known as ISIS.In April 2023, the Taliban killed an ISIS-K figure described as the mastermind of the Abbey Gate attack, with no U.S. involvement, Biden administration officials said at the time. Father of Marine killed in Abbey Gate bombing rips Dems’ ‘incredibly insulting’ reaction to terrorist’s capture (New York Post)
New York Post [3/6/2025 1:17 PM, Patrick Reilly, 33298K]
The father of a US Marine killed in the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan said he was "incredibly insulted" by Democrats’ apathetic reaction to President Trump’s announcement that the mastermind behind the attack has been captured.
Mark Schmitz, whose son Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz was killed in the blast, said he was "disturbed" that only a fraction of Democrats cheered when Trump revealed in Congress Tuesday that the US had nabbed ISIS-K terrorist Mohammad Sharifullah.
"You would think that every single person in that place would be standing up and applauding and cheering," Schmitz told Fox News on Wednesday.
"But we all know there was only one side that seemed to be doing that," he said.
"There was probably only a third of the Democrats who even so much as clapped,which is incredibly insulting as a Gold Star family.
"This has got nothing to do with politics," he said, complaining that the "death of our kids" should "not be a partisan issue.".
Sharifullah allegedly confessed to plotting the suicide bombing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal of US forces in August 2021 after the Taliban seized power.
Family members of those killed in the explosion, which also left 170 Afghan civilians dead, had criticized former President Joe Biden’s failure to mention the slain soldiers in any of his State of the Union addresses following the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, according to Fox News.
A week after the attack, Biden sparked further outrage by checking his watch during a solemn ceremony for the fallen at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when the service members’ bodies were returned.
Since then, the families had minimal communication with the Biden administration, Schmitz said — a sharp contrast to the stunning breakthrough announced by Trump just weeks into his second term.
"To find out that they got this guy is amazing," the dad said.
Sharifullah confessed to plotting the airport terror attack, national security adviser Mike Waltz said Wednesday.He was delivered to Dulles airport in northern Virginia Wednesday morning, masked and handcuffed and escorted by armed FBI agents. Trump accused of ‘betraying’ Afghan allies with aid cuts as his new Muslim ban proposal sends shockwaves (Daily Mail)
Daily Mail [3/6/2025 1:42 PM, Geoff Earle, 62527K]
The Trump aid who has been spearheading cuts to foreign assistance and USAID got an earful from lawmakers in a closed-door meeting, including from a senior Republican furious over a stalled program to resettle Afghans who helped US troops.
It came during a tense meeting that did not appear to bring concrete resolution to slashing cuts in foreign aid, which have led to court battles and a clash over separation of powers.‘All these protesters were banging on the door. It was so loud you could barely hear him,’ Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul told DailyMail.com.
The clash over foreign aid came as Trump’s new proposed travel ban that could take effect as soon as next week would bar visitors from Pakistan and Afghanistan, renewing some of the fury of his explosive 2017 ‘muslim ban’.
The Trump official taking the heat was Peter Marocco, the State Department’s head of foreign assistance who has been directing the USAID cuts as deputy administrator-designate at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
McCaul said he pressed Marocco on the halt in refugee flights and other assistance to Afghans who served the U.S. military as translators and in other roles, and who can get special immigrant visas to come to the U.S.
It comes with up to 40,000 of them stuck in third countries like Qatar.‘I just said, like, you have always waivers for humanitarian assistance … medications that are sitting in Houston in my state, all those foods rotting, and they get 500,000 metric tons on the ships at sea. And the waivers aren’t being implemented,’ said McCaul.‘And he said, Well, we found a lot of fraud, waste and abuse, and that’s slowing it down, this and that,’ he said.
The situation is grave for those who might get sent back to Afghanistan, where the Taliban still rules. (The feds on Wednesday released in image ISIS-K terroristalleged to have help carry out the Abby Gate bombing during the US troop withdrawal).‘They put a pause on all refugees and they paused foreign assistance to allow them, under this CARE office, to be flown. And so they’re just stuck there, but it’s a betrayal, because they fought alongside our [troops] in combat.’‘And they’re like, well, you know, some say they’re terrorists. They fought against the terrorists - at great risk. And many of them died, and they will die if they get sent back to Afghanistan,’ he added.
Marocco is a controversial figure. A former Marine, he filed an affidavit amid a lawsuit of his efforts to slash foreign assistance saying he had ‘grave concern about whether U.S.A.I.D. was faithfully following the president’s and secretary’s directives.’
A member of the Sedition Hunters effort posted an image from video footage purporting to show Marocco and his wife inside and outside the Capitol on January 6. Marocco blasted ‘petty smear tactics and desperate personal attacks in an interview with D magazine, after spearheading efforts to change the Texas constitution. He was never charged, and President Trump pardoned January 6 defendants.
Protesters outside the bipartisan meeting Wednesday held up signs that said ‘Marocco lies, people with AIDS die.’ Thousands of USAID employees have been placed on leave, with DOGE overseeing cuts in government contracts. ‘He didn’t say anything,’ fumed Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.‘I mean, there was no real transparency. Didn’t have a lot of answers.’ He said there should have been a public hearing. ‘We only had 30 seconds to ask a question. He’s only there for an hour. But when we asked to show the documents, because he said there were some mistakes. Well, shows what the mistakes were made? how big was it? What’s the money? But he didn’t have any answers at all?’
He said Republicans are being ‘too gentle’ with Marocco. ‘He couldn’t answer some of their questions, two or three of the members,’ he said, but said Republican House members didn’t criticize Marocco when he didn’t.
He said it was his understanding that Marocco is now the sole employee at the independent Inter-American Foundation, which funds economic development in Latin America and the Caribbean, after a purge of the 37-member staff. ‘You get rid of all of the inspector generals, you get rid of all the individuals that should have oversight, like Congress,’ said Meeks. ‘He’s bypassed Congress, you know, money that was directed clear congressional intent - no consultation with us at all in that regard. So it is basically what he’s doing is unconstitutional.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the State Department for comment on the meeting. Afghan man urges St. Louisans to advocate for federal refugee resettlement funding (St. Louis Public Radio)
St. Louis Public Radio [3/6/2025 :00 AM, Andrea Y. Henderson, 156K]
A few weeks before the change in presidential administrations, Mohammad sat in his St. Louis-area home talking on the phone with his niece in Iraq about schools she wanted to attend when she arrived in St. Louis on Feb. 12.She never made it. Her flight from Iraq was canceled along with 120 other flights with refugees headed to St. Louis from countries like Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan. Mohammad’s family and thousands of other refugees have been in limbo since President Trump paused federal immigrant and refugee funding and canceled resettlement flights on his first day in office.
"She was looking at the pictures of schools here, and she wanted to be in the same school with my daughter because she already has some friends and they could spend some time together," Mohammad said. "It was a hard thing for me to do when I had to call her and tell her she would have to wait.".
St. Louis Public Radio is not using Mohammad’s last name because he is afraid of retaliation against his family from the Taliban or the Iraqi government.
Mohammad’s niece, nephew, brother-in-law and sister went through a vigorous vetting process with the federal government, including health screenings, background checks and work authorizations. Mohammad and his family went through the same process at the end of 2021 to escape the Taliban in Afghanistan.
He said he chose to live in St. Louis because he heard how welcoming it was for immigrants and refugees, and he wanted his family in Iraq to have the same experience. His brother-in-law worked with an organization in Afghanistan that supported the U.S. ambassador before the fall of the Afghan government. Mohammad’s sister and her family went to Iraq in 2023 for refuge until they were cleared to resettle in the U.S.
However, while they wait in Iraq, Mohammad said their life is not easy.
"The situation in Iraq is not good because the government is pushing companies to hire Iraqi citizens, so Afghans, Pakistani people or any other people from foreign countries, if they want to work, they get paid less," he said. "They don’t have benefits like insurance, and their job is not guaranteed.".
Central Reform Congregation’s Refugee Resettlement Circle, a St. Louis-area refugee and immigrant group, helped resettle Mohammad and his family in 2021 under the support of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. The aid society’s Sponsorship Circles Program has been helping resettle refugees for years since many immigrant organizations have been federally underfunded.
A group of faith organizations, including the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, filed a federal lawsuit last month against the Trump administration, arguing that the pause in refugee resettlement and its funding is illegal because Congress appropriated the funds. A federal judge in Seattle blocked the refugee resettlement funding pause, saying the president cannot revoke a law that Congress has put in place.
"They’ve gone through medical checks. They’ve gotten all their vaccinations … and still had the rug ripped out from under them," said Helen Petty, team leader of Central Reform Congregation’s Refugee Resettlement Circle.
Many new arrivals cannot advocate for themselves because they are just now learning the systems of the state they reside in. Petty said it is incumbent upon organizations, community members and families of those affected by Trump’s executive orders that paused resettlement funding to participate in nonstop advocacy.
"I consider it an obligation, and I mean that in the most positive way, to advocate on these families’ behalf," Petty said. "We’ve certainly been doing that. It does feel a little bit like screaming into the void, but we will continue to do so for not just Mohammed’s family, but for anybody who wants to come here and make a life here.".
As for Mohammad, he hopes that during the federal pause in immigrant and refugee services, the government will make an exemption for Afghans who helped carry out missions for the U.S. in their home country.
"Believe me, they are living in a very hard situation, people inside Afghanistan and also people outside Afghanistan," he said. "They are not feeling safe inside Afghanistan because of the Taliban and outside Afghanistan because of the foreign government.".
The 90-day pause in federal funding for refugee and immigrant services ends toward the end of April, and many local service providers are terrified about the future of refugee resettlement in this country.
Last year, the Biden administration increased the resettlement cap to 125,000 refugees allowed in the U.S. during fiscal 2025; however, only 44,000 have been resettled so far. Last year, St. Louis resettled over 1,500 refugees and was approved to resettle more than 1,900 this fiscal year.
Local providers say not having the funds to dispense to families that resettled in the St. Louis area is immense. Still, a greater loss for the city’s economy is not welcoming new immigrants to the community.
"The positive impact that we have seen locally in terms of jobs, in terms of economic uplift, and that we’ve seen over the generations of the refugees that we’ve been able to welcome to this community — whether they’re Vietnamese or Bosnian or Ethiopian or Congolese — we’ve seen over several generations of folks contribute, build and add to the fabric of this community," International Institute of St. Louis interim President and CEO Blake Hamilton said. "Not being able to do so puts that at risk and really limits the growth potential that we have as a region.". Holding the Taliban Accountable for the Grave Violation of Women’s Rights Still Matters (The Diplomat – opinion)
The Diplomat [3/6/2025 10:10 AM, Nazifa Haqpal, 777K]
On March 4, 2025, the German Federal government convened a civil society consultation to discuss Afghanistan’s obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). This consultation was part of broader international efforts to hold the Taliban accountable for severe violations of women’s rights.
In September 2024, four applicant countries – Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands – launched a landmark initiative to pursue legal proceedings against Afghanistan at the International Court of Justice (ICJ).In her opening remarks on March 4, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock expressed deep disappointment over the Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women. "The Taliban are building a social dungeon for Afghan women and girls," she said.
Baerbock emphasized the significance of consultation with Afghan women to understand the violation of women rights. She also noted that bringing a CEDAW case could be a milestone for demanding women’s rights not just in Afghanistan but also worldwide, as no state has been sued for violating the convention since its inception.
Bringing the CEDAW case against Afghanistan under the de facto Taliban authorities highlights the dire situation of women in the country. The Taliban’s rule has subjected Afghan women to one of the most extreme systems of oppression in modern history. Women and girls have been banned from education beyond sixth grade, prohibited from working, and barred from traveling without a male guardian. Public spaces are increasingly inaccessible, and acts of protest are met with brutal repression. This persecution has devastated Afghan women economically and psychologically.
In a recent report on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett noted progress in international accountability, including International Criminal Court arrest warrant requests and the initiative under the CEDAW Convention that may lead to a case before the ICJ. These steps are crucial in holding perpetrators accountable and seeking justice for Afghan victims. Resorting to international accountability and justice mechanisms is the only avenue currently left for Afghan women. No legal remedies for justice and accountability are available under the Taliban regime, which has waged a gender apartheid.
Last August, the Taliban adopted so-called virtue and vice laws, based on which women’s voices have been forbidden from public.
Soon after, I set up an organization – Her Voice International – to amplify the voices of Afghan women. During one of our consultations, a woman prosecutor named Tahmina, who prefers to be known by a pseudonym, told me that being confined to her home and unable to work has severely impacted her mental well-being, her children, and her household life in every way.
Her three daughters, on the verge of graduating from university, now spend their days counting the moments until they can return to their education, find employment, and support their family. Tahmina expressed deep sadness not only for her daughters but also for her two sons. Due to the financial burden caused by her inability to work – along with her husband and daughters – her sons have been forced onto the streets to work. She emphasized that the strict restrictions on women and the stripping of their basic human rights have not only affected women but have also brought immense suffering to the male members of her family.
In comparing her life before the Taliban, she recalled when she used to work as a prosecutor, not only contributing toward her family and enjoying her professional status, but also helping women to seek legal remedies for the violation of their rights either in public or private life. As of today, she is under the Taliban’s gender apartheid policies and suffers from domestic violence and systematic violence from the regime. She also fears Taliban retaliation, as she worked under the previous government.Yet, despite it all, her resolve is steadfast, and she finds ways to resist the Taliban. She is determined to help other girls and her community.
As other issues occupy headlines, the discussion on Afghanistan and women’s rights appears globally muted. But the consultation hosted by the German government with Afghan women activists sheds light on the fact that the world is still watching the Taliban’s atrocities and attempts are being made to hold them accountable under international law.
Justice and accountability are the only way to achieve peace for Afghans who, for more than 40 years, have suffered from perpetual conflict.
While the direct enforcement of international accountability mechanisms, particularly of an ICJ judgment, is weak, it is important to understand the broader implications.
Unlike domestic courts, the ICJ lacks a policing mechanism to enforce its rulings. Compliance with international law is largely voluntary, and the Taliban are unlikely to adhere to an adverse ruling. In addition, major powers may prioritize strategic interests over enforcement, potentially weakening global efforts to hold the Taliban accountable. Furthermore, political divisions and the veto power of permanent Security Council members can hinder enforcement through the U.N. However, despite all these challenges, in essence, triggering international legal instruments is a powerful tool that could have detrimental political, diplomatic, and legal implications for Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.
While the ICJ case is not a criminal proceeding like those under the International Criminal Court (ICC), it carries significant political, diplomatic, and legal weight. The ICJ’s jurisdiction over Afghanistan was established through the country’s ratification of CEDAW and its acceptance of Article 29, which grants the court authority over disputes related to the treaty.
A ruling against the Taliban could yield several important outcomes.
This case would provide official recognition of the Taliban’s systemic gender discrimination and persecution, reinforcing the global legal framework against discrimination and setting a precedent for similar cases.
An ICJ ruling would strengthen the international community’s position in negotiations concerning Afghanistan’s political future, particularly under frameworks like UNSCR 2721, which conditions Afghanistan’s integration into the global system on adherence to international obligations. For instance, the ruling would elevate Afghanistan’s treatment of women as a key issue within the U.N. Security Council, potentially prompting sanctions, travel bans, or other diplomatic actions.
The future of Afghanistan will be influenced by the growing number of madrassas, deteriorating Pakistan-Taliban relations, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, and the escalating economic rivalry between China and the United States. However, the ICJ judgment could also deter countries from normalizing their relationships with the Taliban, fearing that they may be viewed as aiding in the violation of international law. For instance, if countries consider normalizing relations with the Taliban, they will face greater scrutiny, as engagement with a regime officially condemned for gender persecution could damage their international standing.
An ICJ case and the court judgment would also strengthen the Afghan women’s movement. It would provide a legal foundation for advocacy, bolstering the efforts of civil society organizations, journalists, and human rights groups fighting for Afghan women’s rights.
On the issue of asylum and humanitarian protections, the decision could facilitate asylum claims for Afghan women, as it would establish legal recognition of the persecution they face, making it easier for them to seek refuge abroad.
Furthermore, this case could also play a role in documentation for future prosecutions. For instance, it could establish an official record of Taliban abuses, serving as evidence for future legal proceedings, including potential ICC cases for gender persecution or the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime under international law.
While an ICJ case may not immediately change conditions on the ground in Afghanistan, it carries profound symbolic, political, and legal weight. The case signals a shift in international legal discourse, highlighting gender persecution as a severe violation of human rights and reinforcing the principle that impunity for such crimes is unacceptable.
As the international community gathered in Germany for the civil society consultation, I, as a participant of this historic gathering of the Afghan women’s movement, remain hopeful. Despite the slow pace and the weak direct implications, there is a powerful bigger picture. These moments of gathering and working with other partners must remind us that the fight for Afghan women’s rights is not just about one country – it is a global issue with ramifications for how the world responds to such systematic gender-based oppression in the future, everywhere. Pakistan
Afghans in Pakistan awaiting U.S. resettlement are stuck in a treacherous limbo (NPR)
NPR [3/7/2025 5:00 AM, Betsy Joles, 30M]
Around midday one recent Wednesday, in a drab apartment block on the outskirts of the Pakistani capital, neighbors rushed to warn each other they’d seen police nearby. The building is inhabited almost entirely by Afghan families, and the alarm sent children who were playing in the hallway dashing into their apartments. A woman discreetly pulled her door shut, letting a neighbor padlock it from the outside. Another urged visitors to come in and told them to stay quiet.
Several minutes later, word spread that the coast was clear. Doors were unlocked and people reemerged from hiding. But for many Afghans like these, who fled across the border to Pakistan after the Taliban took power in August 2021, now is an especially precarious time. The Trump administration has halted the U.S. refugee program, Pakistan wants them out, and their lives may be at risk if they return to their own country.
Pakistan issued an internal directive in late January ordering the deportation of Afghans awaiting resettlement to third countries if their cases are not processed by March 31, according to an official document from the prime minister’s office shared by a Pakistani official and reviewed by NPR. The official did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to share the document, which specifies that "no public announcements shall be made" about the new policy.
Among those at risk of deportation are tens of thousands of Afghans who were waiting in Pakistan for decisions about their U.S. resettlement applications when President Trump issued his executive order in January suspending the U.S. refugee program. The order pauses the resettlement process responsible for vetting Afghans and other refugees who seek to relocate legally to the United States.
The new Pakistani and U.S. orders have converged to make these Afghans’ already uncertain prospects more tenuous than ever. Even before these orders were issued, Amnesty International was criticizing Pakistani authorities for "police night raids, harassment and arbitrary detention of hundreds of Afghan refugees, including women and children, in the capital city." It says more than 800 Afghans were detained in Islamabad in the first week of January alone.
A slow-moving process and a recent crackdown
Those most in limbo are Afghans who were affiliated with the United States and who fled to Pakistan after the Taliban took over in August 2021. Early on, the Taliban promised amnesty for former Afghan government officials and those who worked with Western forces — but the pledge hasn’t been respected and many Afghans in these groups preferred to take no chances.
They include a 38-year-old former employee of Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry, who requested anonymity for fear of Taliban reprisal after working closely with U.S. colleagues for more than a decade. He relocated to Pakistan with his family in early 2022 so their resettlement application could move forward from a third country, as required.
He expected resettlement to be a speedy process, in part because he was referred to the refugee admissions program by a U.S. government employee. Now, three years later, he has spent all his savings and must borrow money from friends and relatives to get by. He cannot get a Pakistani work permit. "I’m somehow stuck in life. I can’t make a decision about my days, weeks and months," he said. "These things are ruining me, to be honest."
An Afghan couple in their 50s, whom NPR is not naming because they lack Pakistani visas and remain vulnerable to arrest and deportation, are finding the waiting game especially agonizing. Their resettlement case was still in process when Trump issued his executive order. Their daughter lives in the U.S. and works with a wing of the U.S. government handling the relocation of Afghans, but the Trump administration is taking steps to close the office she works for — and intervening in their case was never an option anyway.
U.S. resettlement applicants in Pakistan had already been raising the alarm about a slow-moving process. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad only began processing Afghan refugee cases in the summer of 2023, and a resettlement support center under the U.N.’s International Organization of Migration became operational in April 2024, according to a U.S. Embassy official who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the Afghan resettlement issue with the Pakistani government. The embassy could not provide a figure for the number of Afghan resettlement cases pending in 2025.
After an uptick in terrorist attacks two years ago, Pakistan began cracking down on migrants without legal status. The government announced what it called its Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan to deport migrants lacking documentation in October 2023, and then started deporting Afghans en masse later that same year, vowing to return anyone who did not have the requisite paperwork. The United Nations Refugee Agency reported that 9,000 were deported from Pakistan to Afghanistan in 2024, with 1,200 deportations in December alone. That same year, 10,500 Afghans were arrested or detained.
In all, 813,000 Afghans in Pakistan made a return to Afghanistan between October 2023 and mid-January 2025, according to the agency.
Hundreds of thousands had come to Pakistan after the 2021 Taliban takeover, some with the sole purpose of applying for resettlement elsewhere. This presented a challenge that Pakistani officials say the country was unprepared to handle. Although Pakistan has had plenty of experience in the last half-century taking in Afghan refugees, the majority did not arrive for the purpose of a stopover on their way elsewhere.
When it comes to processing resettlement candidates, "We never had any systems in place," explains Abbas Khan, commissioner for Afghan refugees in Islamabad. "We never had such a big number of refugees who would transit through Pakistan."
Pakistan does not have a domestic law to provide a framework for refugee claims and the country has handled Afghan arrivals over the past four decades on an ad hoc basis. Pakistan has held two exercises since 2006 to register Afghan refugees and provide them with temporary residence documents, the most recent ending in 2018.
Pakistan is specifically ordering Afghans out of Islamabad
Most Afghans see no possibility of a legal future in Pakistan — especially in the capital, Islamabad.
Late last year, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi announced that no Afghans would be allowed to reside in Islamabad without permission from the government.
Before this, the U.S. gave Pakistani authorities the names of around 24,000 Afghans in the United States resettlement pipeline and requested they not be deported, according to Mumtaz Baloch, former spokesperson for Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Many Afghans seeking resettlement choose to stay in or near the capital for convenience and proximity to foreign embassies and Pakistani government offices.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s new directive calls for resettlement applicants to be moved out of Islamabad and neighboring Rawalpindi by the end of March. It doesn’t specify whether they’ll be allowed to settle elsewhere in Pakistan.
Last month, UNHCR and the IOM in Pakistan issued a joint statement expressing their concern about the relocation of Afghans from Islamabad and seeking clarity from the government about the details of the plan.
Afghans have navigated a tenuous existence in Pakistan for decadesPakistan has a long history of accepting Afghan refugees, who began arriving in huge numbers more than 40 years ago. Millions of Afghans crossed the border during the Soviet war in their country, the civil war that followed in the early 1990s and during the first period of Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001. Many have stayed for generations.
But Pakistani authorities also have made it clear for years that they would like the Afghans to leave. In 2000, Pakistan shut its border with Afghanistan altogether to try and stem the flow. Harassment, discrimination and persecution of Afghans is commonplace.
In the neighborhood outside Islamabad, some Afghans awaiting resettlement had cleared all the necessary rounds of U.S. interviews and were only awaiting a flight to the United States when President Trump issued his executive order.
Maiwand Alami Afghan, the leader of a local community organization for Afghans, says he has received hundreds of calls and messages from frantic Afghans trying to understand what the order means for their cases. He urges patience and faith.
"Hopefully President Trump’s mind will be changed," he says. "We should wait. This is the only way."
At least one legal challenge is in the works against the new executive order, and some Republican lawmakers have made clear they support an exception for Afghans who helped the U.S. But late last month, speaking to CBS News’ Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan about Afghan refugees awaiting admission to the U.S., Vice President Vance referred to vetting and safety concerns when pressed on Afghan refugee resettlement.
Under former President Joe Biden, the United States vowed to prioritize the protection of Afghan refugees — including those who worked directly with U.S. forces — through the Operation Allies Welcome program. Biden authorized the admission of up to 125,000 refugees from around the world for 2025, with 30,000 to 45,000 from South Asia and the Near East. Through Dec. 31, 2024, the United States also had a quota of 38,500 Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans who worked directly with U.S. forces.
The difficult limbo continues
Trump’s new executive order will likely force some Afghans to choose between staying in Pakistan illegally or returning to Afghanistan, where they fear for their lives with the Taliban in power.
This was the choice confronting a former employee of a U.S.-supported tribunal that dealt with terrorism and national security cases. He did not want to be named for fear of Taliban reprisal.
His U.S. resettlement case was denied in December. Appealing the decision would have meant hiring a lawyer, which he could not afford. "I never imagined such an issue would arise for me," he said. "From the time we received the denial, we were in shock." But he had decided to remain in Pakistan.
Last month, he and his wife and children were arrested from their building on the outskirts of Islamabad and deported back across the Torkham border to Afghanistan, where they are now in hiding.
Meanwhile, the former Afghan Department Ministry employee and his family have resigned themselves to waiting. He worries about his children and two college-age sisters being out of school — Afghan children awaiting resettlement cannot register to attend Pakistani government-run schools and he can’t afford private school fees. He feels drained by the everyday logistics of his case, including navigating the bureaucracy of Afghan passport and Pakistani visa renewals.
The suspension of the U.S. refugee program feels personal, he says — in large part because he hadn’t imagined living anywhere else.
"I grew up with the American system," he said. "Even if I don’t go to the U.S., I feel myself an American." Her Father Took Her on a Trip to Pakistan. The Police Say It Was a Trap. (New York Times)
New York Times [3/7/2025 3:00 AM, Sarah Maslin Nir and Zia ur-Rehman, 831K]
When Hira Anwar’s father dropped her off every morning at middle school, she would duck out of his car and scamper up the steps of Public School 16 in Yonkers, N.Y., the Westchester County town where she grew up.
Inside, Hira would greet her principal and catch up with her classmates, sharing tracks by her favorite band, Chase Atlantic, or TikTok videos of the singer Zayn Malik, whom everyone knew she had a particular crush on because he was of Pakistani descent, as she was.
Then, a few months ago, something changed: When her father’s car was out of sight of the school, Hira, 14, would remove her hijab. Hira’s principal took notice, and, concerned that she was being bullied to conform, she pulled Hira aside to check in.
Hira said it was the opposite, according to her principal: She finally felt free to express herself.
That freedom did not last long.
In late January, while on a vacation with her father to his hometown, Quetta, Pakistan, Hira was shot to death in front of her father’s family home. Shortly after, her father, Anwar ul-Haq Rajpoot, tearfully told the police that a random attack had taken his daughter’s life. But the Pakistani police now say that the shooting, and in fact the entire trip, was a trap that he orchestrated.
In a chilling confession, Mr. Rajpoot told investigators he ordered Hira’s execution because her behavior was an embarrassment. Mr. Rajpoot had his daughter killed, he told the police, because “Hira’s clothing choices, lifestyle and social relationships” had brought her family shame.
In Yonkers, her school, her friends and her family are reeling, unable to process the death of an eighth grader whose sass impressed her teachers and whose staunch character made her a go-to referee among her girlfriends.“It is hard for us to even understand mentally that this actually happened,” the eldest of her two sisters, Heba Anwar, 22, said before declining to comment further. “We were living a very happy nice life.”
A Future Lawyer
Hira lived with her parents on the ground floor of a pink brick split-level home in a semi-suburban housing development in Yonkers, a working-class area where neighbors spoke Bengali, Urdu and Spanish. Her mother, Sumara Anwar, was also originally from Pakistan, and was not out of place in the neighborhood wearing a niqab that exposed only her eyes. Her father had worked as an Uber driver.
Hira and her sisters, like many children of immigrants, often served as interpreters for their parents. A local real estate agent, Albina Durgaj, said that when the family bought an apartment to rent out, their daughters translated the entire transaction. She recalled Mr. Rajpoot and his wife as warm. Until this year, they had never failed to send her holiday greetings at Christmas.
Hira had just started at School 16, but only a few days into the fall semester she already had a gaggle of admiring girlfriends, her principal, Vanessa Vasquez, said in an interview. She was a dedicated student who sometimes seemed like a little adult, Dr. Vasquez recalled: After an “aha” moment in science, her favorite subject, Hira turned to her teacher and complimented her teaching style.
For most of her childhood, Hira and her sisters attended religion classes on the weekends at the Andalusia Islamic Center not far from their home, according to Rashid Jamshaid, a member of the board. Lately, she had spent her weekends at the Cross County Center mall with her friends, shopping for the boxy tops and baggy jeans favored by the pop star Billie Eilish, one of her idols.
Though Hira was new to School 16, she had no problem standing up to authority or other students when she felt she was being treated unfairly. She was usually the appointed leader of her friend group to, say, argue their case against a demerit for being late to class. Her teachers thought she would grow up to be a politician or a lawyer, Dr. Vasquez said, adding, “She had that personality of not being afraid to speak up.”
In the schoolyard, Hira used that spark to challenge bullies who picked on her friends, said her close friend, Layla Blanca. “She had so much courage to be a good friend,” Layla said. Shortly after the school year began, Layla recalled, Hira slipped off her hijab in class to reveal cute blonde streaks she had dyed into her dark hair.
There are 16 languages spoken by students at School 16, which sets aside special prayer rooms for students during Ramadan. “I think she got more comfortable in herself, and I think she wanted to maybe show what she really is,” Layla said. “She respects her culture, but as a teenage girl in middle school, I think she wanted to be like other girls.”
It was around that point when Dr. Vasquez called Hira aside to make sure she wasn’t being bullied into removing her head covering. Hira told her not to worry. “This was her choice,” the principal said.A ‘Vacation’
Just before winter break, Hira’s parents unenrolled her from School 16, according to Akeem H. Jamal, a spokesman for Yonkers Public Schools. Mr. Jamal declined to comment on whether any reason was given, citing student privacy rules. For a student to be legally withdrawn from a school, her guardian must show proof she is registered elsewhere. Hira was newly enrolled in a school in Pakistan, according to someone with direct knowledge of the situation who was not permitted to speak publicly about it.
But her friend Layla said Hira never mentioned that she was moving abroad or that she was aware she was enrolled in a Pakistani school. According to Layla, all that Hira knew was that she and her father were going on a trip.
On Jan. 15, Hira and her father arrived in Pakistan. She told her friends it was a vacation, and indeed, the two spent a week sightseeing in Lahore, according to the Pakistani police. On Jan. 20, Hira posted pictures on Instagram of soldiers marching in the pomp-filled daily military ceremony at the Wagah-Attari crossing at the border with India. Later that day, she shared photos she appeared to have taken at a market: glittering souvenirs, jewelry and embroidered bridal gowns.
The pair arrived in Quetta, in the province of Balochistan, near the Afghan border, on Jan. 22. The region, in the southwest of Pakistan, is in the throes of a violent separatist insurgency, and in recent months killings between insurgent groups have escalated. Hira and her father were staying in a house with a bright blue door on Balochi Street that Mr. Rajpoot owned with several family members, near the city center.
On Jan. 26, Hira sent a message to Layla back in Yonkers, a video clip of Zayn Malik. Layla sent her love.
Hira didn’t text back.
A Funeral Without Grief
The next evening at about 11 o’clock, Hira was headed out with her father to visit Muhammad Tayyab, one of her mother’s brothers, her father later told the police.
In Hira’s father’s telling, he happened to duck inside moments before she was gunned down in front of the blue door on Balochi Street. “I realized I had forgotten my phone, so I went back inside to retrieve it. Suddenly, I heard gunshots and Hira crying, ‘Father, father,’” Mr. Rajpoot wrote in Urdu in a statement to the Quetta Police. “When I rushed outside, I found her lying injured at the doorstep. The attacker had already fled. With the help of neighbors, I took her to the hospital, but she later succumbed to her injuries.”
Neighbors ran out into the dark street, just as a motorcycle roared away. They found Hira on the ground, hit by two bullets: one in her chest, one her arm.“I rushed outside and saw Hira lying injured at the doorstep,” one of the neighbors who found her, Abdul Manan, 16, said in an interview. “Her father was there, crying.” Abdul said that Hira’s father told friends, neighbors and police officers that he believed Hira was an innocent bystander killed by robbers or insurgents. “They said ‘unidentified assailants’ had opened fire on her,” Abdul recalled.
But things didn’t seem to add up, according to Capt. Zuhaib Muhsin, the head of investigations for the Quetta Police. “From the beginning, we suspected the killing was linked to the family,” Captain Muhsin said.
To start, it was only after he buried his daughter on Jan. 28 that Mr. Rajpoot filed an official police report. And in it, he wrote that he had brought her to Pakistan to visit her ancestral homeland for the very first time — but Hira’s social media posts appeared to show she had visited previously over the summer.
It was her funeral that set off alarms for investigators. Pakistani funerals are typically days-long affairs full of prayer and collective grief expressed out loud, where no death is as wrenching as that of a child. The ritual is so important that burials are often put on hold until far-flung family can gather.
Hira was buried at noon the day after she died, while her mother and sisters were still in New York. At the gravesite, mourners were taken aback when her father announced Hira would receive a single day of prayer, rather than the customary three days, said Zafar Ali, a longtime family friend who was there.
Some policemen had joined to pay their respects and were troubled by what they saw. To one officer, who asked that his name not be used because he is not permitted to speak to reporters, it seemed that Mr. Rajpoot was in a hurry to bury his daughter. But what most raised his suspicions, he said, is that at her graveside, no one seemed to be grieving.
The police now say Mr. Rajpoot ordered his daughter’s death and that the gunman was Mr. Tayyab, the uncle that Hira was told they were going to see. The two men were arrested on Jan. 29. After hours of questioning, Captain Muhsin said, each confessed to the crime.
On March 3, Mr. Rajpoot and his brother-in-law appeared handcuffed in court in Quetta. They were permitted a few moments to meet with a group of family members at the hearing where documents were submitted and the case adjourned to a later date. Mr. Rajpoot’s wife and other daughters did not appear to be present.
Naveed Qambrani, a lawyer for both men, said his clients insist they are innocent and believe they are being framed for a crime they did not commit. “Rajpoot insists that the accusation is driven by an ulterior motive to frame him in the case,” Mr. Qambrani said. “Ultimately, it is up to the court.”
The Last Text
So-called honor killings are murders of women who supposedly brought shame to their families for such actions as refusing a marriage or behaving in ways deemed immodest and contrary to hard-line Islamic codes of female conduct. They are an ancient problem that has evolved in the era of social media. Hira’s death is part of a pattern of violence targeting women that is deeply ingrained in Pakistan and within some parts of the diaspora, experts said. There were 588 such killings in Pakistan in 2024, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent watchdog group, a more than 20 percent increase from 2023.“Cases like this shake us to the core,” Captain Muhsin said. “This tragedy is a reminder that we, as a society, must work harder to challenge outdated and oppressive attitudes that lead to such violence.”
He added, “This is not just a crime against one girl — it is an attack on the basic rights and freedoms of all individuals.”
That Mr. Rajpoot could be behind the murder of his own daughter stunned people who knew him. From the outside, he seemed not especially religious and content to raise three American daughters.
Originally from Quetta, where his family ran a business renting out tents, chairs and tables for parties, Mr. Rajpoot was the envy of his friends when he won the U.S. green card lottery in his 20s, several said. Today he is a dual Pakistani and U.S. citizen, and the Rajpoots have called Yonkers home for decades. His daughters seemed to have been given opportunities to excel. Information online shows Hira was a contestant in a fifth-grade spelling bee; her older sister, Heba, studied nursing at the University of Mount Saint Vincent, according to her LinkedIn.
But there were bumps on the way. In 2014, Mr. Rajpoot filed for bankruptcy with just $4,400 to his name, according to court filings that list him as a cabdriver. A spokeswoman for Uber confirmed Mr. Rajpoot had been a driver, but not for several years.
The family had rented the pink split-level since Hira was an infant, but by 2022, things had turned around enough for them to purchase a four-bedroom home not far away, which they rent out for income.
Among the close-knit Muslim community of Yonkers, Mr. Rajpoot was not known to be devout, according to Shabbir Gul, a community activist who also belongs to the Andalusia mosque; for years, he recalled, he saw him only infrequently at Friday prayers, dressed in jeans and with a clean-shaven face. But about two years ago, Mr. Rajpoot grew a beard and began showing up more regularly, sometimes in traditional Pakistani dress.“Nobody knows what happened, how come this guy suddenly did this,” Mr. Gul said. “Islam says that kids have freedom,” he added. “They can go pray, they can play, they can have their own life.”
After the killing, Mr. Rajpoot had planned to flee back to the United States, according to Captain Muhsin. Instead, he and Mr. Tayyab are still in jail in Quetta. From their interrogations, the police were led to a motorcycle they say was the getaway vehicle and a pistol registered in Mr. Tayyab’s name at his home; the police now say it is the murder weapon.
Back in Yonkers, the eighth graders at School 16 are planning a memorial for Hira. In the spring, they will plant a tree in her honor, the principal said, and the students are putting together a collage of snapshots of her. She had made so many friends in just a few months that it seems like almost everyone has a photo of Hira on their phone.“She is being the glue right now that is keeping our school community together,” Dr. Vasquez said.
The day she found out her friend had been killed, Layla Blanca could not go into the school where they had met, had giggled, had gossiped. She spent the day unable to get up from her bed, looking through old messages from Hira. The last one came in on Jan. 26 at 5:10 a.m., Yonkers time — 3:10 in the afternoon in Pakistan. In it, Zayn Malik is onstage at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. He pulls a microphone close and sings in Urdu, “I love you.” Pakistan separatists launch new ‘army’ in war on Chinese interests (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [3/7/2025 3:57 AM, Adnan Aamir, 1.2M]
Pakistani separatist groups responsible for deadly attacks on expatriate workers are ramping up a decades-old insurgency by uniting for the first time to target Chinese interests in the country.
On Sunday, Baloch Raji Aajoi Sangar (BRAS), a loose alliance of militant organizations pushing for independence in resource-rich Balochistan province, announced plans to restructure into a centralized force called the Baloch National Army. It was unclear how many personnel would take part in this new force.
The agreement came after a three-day meeting of banned separatist groups which have previously killed Chinese nationals and targeted investments in the restive region -- the center of the $50 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
In a statement, BRAS vowed to "inflict greater losses on the enemy" as it ramps up a "war" against Pakistan and China.
"To intensify resistance against the looting of Baloch resources, the exploitative projects of Pakistani and Chinese capitalists and the presence of the occupying army, it was decided to intensify the blockade on all important highways of Balochistan to disrupt the logistical, economic and military interests of the occupying state," it added.
Visiting Chinese workers, who number about 20,000 in Pakistan, have been the prime target of Baloch separatists in recent years.
At least 20 Chinese nationals have been killed and 34 injured across more than a dozen attacks since 2021, according to Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority.
News of the militant army came a day before a female suicide bomber attacked a security forces convoy in Balochistan, while several security personnel were wounded in late February when militants attacked a Chinese truck convoy carrying copper shipments.
Apart from armed attacks and highway blockades, the militant alliance also announced plans to launch a diplomatic campaign to bring international attention to their claims of Chinese exploitation of Balochistan’s resources.
"This is the first instance, not only in the region but in the world, in which militant groups have allied for the expressed purpose of opposing Chinese influence," said Tricia Bacon, a scholar and author of "Why Terrorist Groups Form International Alliances."
It also underlined how tribal rivalries that challenged previous efforts to unite militant groups may be losing their grip.
"Traditionally, insurgency in Balochistan was organized around tribal lines, which also hindered any effort to unite multiple groups under one umbrella. This is, however, no longer the case," said Khuram Iqbal, an Islamabad-based counterterrorism expert.
"The growing participation of the educated middle class [in Balochistan] could possibly overcome tribal rivalries to sustain a united front more effectively than any such effort in the past," he added.
Observers said putting disparate groups under a single command could significantly expand separatist militancy which, compounded by attacks linked to Islamists groups, has made Beijing wary about its extensive investment in the cash-strapped country.
"The Baloch National Army is bringing together the most influential and lethal militant factions in Balochistan, and this merger is not just an alliance. It is a full integration of groups under one command structure," said Kiyya Baloch, an independent analyst who tracks violence in the region. "By pooling manpower and funding, they could mount larger-scale attacks against both Pakistan and Chinese interests in the region, intensifying pressure on security forces."
The Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, a separatist militant group operating in Pakistan’s southeastern Sindh province, also agreed to join forces with BRAS at the recent meeting.
"The Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army and Baloch separatist militant groups will coordinate their activities, particularly in Karachi and other parts of Sindh, to destabilize Chinese interests in the region," Baloch said.
But separatist alliances can be difficult to manage unless one group emerges as a clear leader and essentially absorbs the weaker groups, said Bacon, who is also an associate professor at the American University’s School of Public Affairs.
"Otherwise, mistrust and concerns about betrayals often limit the amount of cooperation and the effectiveness of the alliance," she told Nikkei.
Pakistan has also been attracting some non-Chinese investment including Canada’s Barrick Gold operating a copper and gold mine. Saudi Arabia is finalizing an expected investment in the same project.
"The Government of Pakistan is keen to involve other major powers in Balochistan’s mining sector," said Iqbal, author of "The Making of Pakistani Human Bombs". "This could help Islamabad to seek international support and legitimacy for its future counterinsurgency operations in the province." Analysts see seventh Pakistan rate cut amid low inflation, IMF review (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 12:43 AM, Ariba Shahid, 5.2M]
Most analysts predict a seventh consecutive rate cut by Pakistan’s central bank on Monday, amid the first International Monetary Fund (IMF) review of a $7-billion bailout at the time of the lowest inflation in nearly a decade.
The cash-strapped South Asian nation could unlock a further tranche of funding if the IMF review is approved before the budget is unveiled in June, as it pursues economic reforms mandated by the IMF programme.
The central bank’s easing cycle, one of the most aggressive among emerging markets, follows a series of rate cuts totalling 1,000 basis points (bps) over six months, that took the key rate to 12%, down from a record high of 22% in June.
The latest cut, of 100 bps, was in January.
February inflation stood at a near-decade low of 1.5%, largely due to a high base a year ago.
A Reuters survey of 14 analysts suggests that the central bank may further reduce rates, with a median forecast for a cut of 50 bps.
Of the 10 analysts expecting a rate cut, three estimated its size at 100 bps, one at 75 bps, and six at 50 bps. The rest saw no change.
Most analysts expecting a rate cut believe the central bank will stop when rates hit 10.5% to 11%, due to a potential rise in inflation. They anticipate a moderate rise from March to May.
Inflation will "bottom out" in the year’s first quarter before gradually rising, said Ahmad Mobeen, senior economist of S&P Global, who anticipates average inflation of 6.1% for 2025.
Despite the "sharp drop" in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), he said urban core inflation, indicative of price pressures, remained high, at 7.8%.
"The S&P Global HBL Pakistan Manufacturing PMI also indicates rising input costs, pushing manufacturers to hike prices in February 2025 at the fastest pace since October 2024," he added.
At its last policy meeting, the central bank kept its forecast of full-year GDP growth at 2.5% to 3.5%, and predicted faster growth would help boost foreign exchange reserves that had been lacklustre.
"While GDP posted 0.9% growth in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025, large-scale manufacturing remains in negative territory, and production has yet to gain momentum," said Sana Tawfik, head of research at Arif Habib Limited.
"The transmission of lower rates to economic activity is yet to be seen."
The target was only possible if industrial activity picked up and agricultural output improved, she added.Here are survey responses on Monday’s policy rate decision:
[Editorial note: consult survey responses at source link] Pakistan-Turkiye Agreements: A New Era of Cooperation or More Symbolic Diplomacy? (The Diplomat)
The Diplomat [3/6/2025 8:49 AM, Fizza Abbas, 777K]
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Pakistan to strengthen bilateral cooperation. During the 7th session of the Pakistan-Turkiye High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council, both countries signed 24 agreements and memoranda of understanding (MOUs). Overall, the visit continued existing trends of strengthening cooperation between the two countries, especially in the areas of trade, investment, and defense.
Boosting Trade: Mission Possible?
One major takeaway from Erdogan’s visit was a new goal to boost annual trade to $5 billion – an ambitious leap from the $1.4 billion recorded in 2024.
Trade between Pakistan and Turkiye has been growing, but not at such a dramatic pace. Back in 2018, Pakistan’s exports to Turkiye were around $349 million. By 2023, that number had climbed to $457 million, with Turkiye’s exports adding another $466 million. That sounds like progress – but at an annual growth rate of about 5.5 percent, it’s nowhere near the level needed to hit $5 billion anytime soon.
Pakistan and Turkiye signed a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) in 2022. Under this, Turkiye eased tariffs on 261 Pakistani products, including agricultural and industrial goods, while Pakistan did the same for 130 Turkish products. The idea is to make trade smoother and more beneficial for both sides.
Another big piece of the puzzle is Special Economic Zones (SEZs) – designated areas where businesses get incentives like tax breaks and simplified regulations. Turkiye has a strong track record in construction, mining, and industrial development, so there’s hope that Turkish companies will invest in these SEZs and help expand Pakistan’s industrial and infrastructure capacity.
But reaching the $5 billion goal won’t be easy. Pakistan’s exports to Turkiye have always been on the lower side, and concentrated in a few key sectors. In 2023, Pakistan sold about $457 million worth of goods to Turkiye, with textiles accounting for over half that total ($254 million). To grow trade significantly, Pakistan will need to expand into new areas. Turkiye’s exports to Pakistan are generally both larger in value and more diversified, spanning combustion engines and other machine parts, textile raw materials, chemical products like rubber and plastic, and agricultural goods.
Pakistani exporters face hurdles like high tariffs (8 percent on average on raw materials and 12 percent on high-value textile products in 2022, escalating to 166.7 percent for textile goods in 2023) and strict regulations in Turkiye. For example, Pakistani denim products have faced anti-dumping duties in the past, which made them less competitive in the Turkish market.Since the 1950s, Pakistan and Türkiye have entered into numerous agreements, including a 1965 Trade Agreement, the 1976 Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (which led to the establishment of the Turkiye-Pakistan Joint Economic Commission), the 1988 Double Taxation Prevention Agreement, and the 1997 Mutual Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement. However, while these agreements showcased strong political will to improve economic ties, their implementation lagged due to factors like bureaucratic inertia, lack of follow-through, and shifting economic priorities.
The recent signing of 24 agreements between Pakistan and Türkiye marks a renewed commitment to deepening ties. The activation of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) to oversee the agreements, along with new collaborations in defense, energy, and technology, could strengthen both economies over time.
The Potential for Turkish Investment: Defense Is Key.
Turkish investment could benefit several sectors in Pakistan, including key sectors such as construction and infrastructure, energy, manufacturing, and the automotive industry. Turkiye is a powerhouse in these areas and its companies could help build up Pakistan’s SEZs, improving industrial capacity and connectivity.
With Turkiye’s expertise in renewable energy and power generation, joint projects could help Pakistan tackle its long-standing energy crisis. Similarly, Turkiye and Pakistan can set up assembly plants and joint ventures in this sector could bring tech advancements and job opportunities.
The two countries have also been strengthening their defense and military collaboration, aiming to enhance strategic ties and bolster Pakistan’s defense capabilities. According to Trading Economics, in 2023, Turkiye exported approximately $20.95 million worth of arms and ammunition to Pakistan. This figure reflects a broader trend, with Turkiye’s arms exports increasing by 69 percent between 2018 and 2022, raising its share of global arms exports from 0.5 percent to 1.1 percent, as per a report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
This partnership also encompasses joint military production, which could make significant contributions to Pakistan’s military modernization, particularly in the naval and aerospace sectors. One notable example is the establishment of a joint factory to produce the KAAN fighter jet, formerly known as the TF-X. The two countries have also discussed potential acquisitions of platforms like the T129 ATAK helicopters, though some deals have faced challenges due to external factors.
Turkiye has also played a pivotal role in modernizing Pakistan’s naval forces. A significant project involves the construction of four Babur-class corvettes for the Pakistan Navy, based on Turkiye’s MILGEM design. These advanced warships are being built collaboratively, with two under construction in Turkiye and two in Pakistan, enhancing Pakistan’s maritime defense capabilities.
Additionally, Turkiye has assisted in upgrading Pakistan’s submarine fleet. The Turkish defense company STM undertook the modernization of Pakistan’s Agosta 90B-class submarines, integrating modern systems to extend their operational life and effectiveness.
Pakistan’s defense strategy involves maintaining diverse partnerships to meet its security needs. While China remains a primary defense partner, supplying a significant portion of Pakistan’s military equipment, collaborations with Turkiye offer an avenue for diversification.
The recent agreements between Pakistan and Turkiye have the potential to reshape Pakistan’s geopolitical landscape, influencing its relationships with Gulf nations, China, the West, and neighboring India.
This collaboration is not only bilateral but also extends to regional dynamics. Turkiye’s efforts to mend and enhance relations with Gulf countries, particularly through initiatives like the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), create potential for Pakistan to benefit from a trilateral relationship.
Turkiye also has active engagement in infrastructure projects through its Middle Corridor Initiative, which complements China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). This synergy offers Pakistan an opportunity to serve as a pivotal junction connecting East and West.
Additionally, Turkiye’s strategic position as a bridge between Asia and Europe, coupled with its NATO membership, provides Pakistan with a conduit to engage more effectively with Western nations.
However, Turkiye’s strong support for Pakistan on issues like Kashmir has often strained its ties with India. Erdogan’s criticism of India’s Kashmir policies has led to diplomatic tensions. So as Pakistan and Turkiye deepen their defense and strategic ties, India may see this as a challenge to its regional influence, which could potentially lead to more friction and shifts in its foreign policy. India
Trump Slams ‘Very High’ India Tariffs as Modi Seeks Reprieve (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/7/2025 3:01 AM, Dan Strumpf, 5.5M]
US President Donald Trump repeated his criticism of India’s high tariffs, indicating the country remains a target of reciprocal duties set to take effect April 2.“India’s a very high tariff nation,” Trump said Thursday during an Oval Office event, calling the upcoming reciprocal tariffs “the big one” among the many new duties he has pledged. India is expected to be hit hard by the like-for-like duties given the high tariffs it charges when compared with the US.
Trump’s remarks are the US president’s latest attack on India’s trade barriers, which he has said unfairly penalize American businesses. The remarks come as Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal visits the US this week to meet with Trump administration officials to discuss trade policy between the two countries.
At a White House meeting in February, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Trump agreed to boost their bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and negotiate a trade deal by the fall of this year. Indian officials are hoping that ongoing discussions toward such a deal will give the country a reprieve from the April 2 duties.
Trump’s criticism on Thursday wasn’t confined to India. He also singled out China, and went on to call Canada a “high-tariff nation,” saying its duties are too high on milk and lumber.
Trump hasn’t indicated whether any countries will be exempted from reciprocal tariffs. However, the US president on Thursday offered major reprieves to Mexico and Canada, the US’s two largest trading partners, by exempting goods from those nations that are covered by the North American trade agreement known as USMCA from his 25% tariffs.
Modi’s government has made numerous concessions to the Trump administration in recent weeks in a bid to smooth over relations. Among the efforts was a wide-ranging reduction in tariffs on products including high-end motorcycles and whiskey, and pledges to buy more US energy and weapons.
New Delhi has signaled that it remains open to deeper tariff cuts. Indian officials have discussed reducing duties on cars, some agricultural products, chemicals, critical pharmaceuticals, as well as certain medical devices and electronics, Bloomberg News reported last week.
Preserving India’s access to the US market is a major priority for Modi’s government. Trade between the two countries grew to $127 billion in 2023, making the US India’s largest trading partner and putting pressure on New Delhi to strike a deal soon. By contrast, India is only the ninth-largest trading partner for the US. USAID freeze endangers India’s diversity programs (Deutsche Welle)
Deutsche Welle [3/6/2025 4:14 PM, Midhat Fatimah, 13.3M]
Donald Trump’s USAID crackdown has led to the shutdown of crucial programs for vulnerable communities in India, resulting in significant job losses and reduced access to essential health care services.
India’s first three clinics serving transgender people closed last month after US President Donald Trump ordered a 90-day suspension of aid from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which funded them.
Rachana Mudraboyina, a trans woman, had been working for four years as a health consultant at one of the facilities, the Mitr (Friend) Clinic in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, when she received an unexpected call in February telling her that, due to the near-total freeze on foreign aid, she no longer had a job.
The other two Mitr clinics, in the western cities of Thane and Pune, which also relied on the USAID funding, were shut down as well.
Serving a vulnerable community
The Mitr facilities provided advice, legal aid, medication and counseling related to hormone therapy, mental health issues, as well as HIV and other STIs, to more than 5,000 patients.
More than 2,000 people were registered at the Hyderabad facility, India’s first clinic for transgender people, said Mudraboyina.
"We have been receiving calls from the patients who are desperate since there is no other facility to help the community around here," she told DW, adding that most of the center’s running costs were funded through USAID.
Mudraboyina and her patients have also been grappling with the fallout from several other Trump executive orders, which terminated diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) programs.
According to the White House, DEI "demonstrated immense public waste and shameful discrimination," claiming it promoted "dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences."
NGOs hope to secure funding
Before the freeze, USAID was the world’s largest single donor. In 2023, the US disbursed $71.9 billion (€69.24 billion) in aid funding maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS treatments, environmental protection, and clean water access, among other projects. In 2024, it accounted for 42% of all humanitarian aid, according to figures from the United Nations.
Mudraboyina sees the USAID funding freeze as an attack on not just her personally, but all transgender people.
"I am 40 years old, I cannot beg or become a sex worker," Mudraboyina told DW.
"Trump’s policy is not just anti-trans people but also anti-gender," she said, adding that, "it is disappointing to see an already troubled community being treated like this."
Multiple sources confirmed to DW that, in response to Trump’s anti-DEI stance, NGOs working on USAID projects in India have started adjusting their communications in hopes of securing funding following the 90-day pause.
"My organization works on disability, LGBTQ issues, and everything that goes against Trump’s policy," a communications professional at a nonprofit told DW, speaking on condition of anonymity. "I have to scan every document and remove words like ‘interracial,’ ‘gender,’ ‘disability,’ and ‘diverse’ — basically anything that reflects the core of our work."
History of USAID in India
US assistance to India began in 1951, primarily managed by USAID. According to a recent report by India’s Ministry of Finance, USAID has provided more than $17 billion (around €16 billion) in development assistance across 555 projects in India since its inception.
The report states that USAID had seven active projects in partnership with the Indian government, with a total budget of $750 million.Its biggest efforts have centered on health, energy, and support for vulnerable communities. An end to US funding would put many aid jobs in India at risk.
"The US fund cuts could likely reduce the effectiveness of US policy in the developing world," said Meera Shankar, a former Indian ambassador to the US.
Up to 10,000 jobs on the line in India
The long-term impact of January’s stop-work order for India remains unclear, as NGOs remain tight-lipped for fear of financial fallout. However, multiple sources told DW that NGOs have halted their USAID-funded projects.
An official communication from USAID to a partner NGO, seen by DW, stated: "All USAID direct-hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally, except for those handling mission-critical functions, core leadership, and specially designated programs."
Sources in India said that many working on USAID projects have already lost their jobs, while others remain anxious about their future. Some have been reassigned to other projects.
DW reached out to USAID for comment, but has not received a response.
"There are no official figures for India, but we estimate that 6,000 to 10,000 jobs have been lost in the development sector," said M.S. Mahala, co-founder of Ground Zero, a nonprofit job consulting firm.
USAID’s flagship health project, NISHTHA, implemented by the India chapter of the international nonprofit Jhpiego and employing hundreds across India, has been terminated, said an insider, who asked not to be named. The project, which aimed to transform, redesign and re-engineer primary health care in India, reached 78 million people and trained more than 54,000 health care workers.
DW sought official confirmation from Jhpiego but received no response. Other key USAID partners in India, including PATH and JSI India, were also contacted. PATH declined to comment, while JSI India also did not respond to DW’s request.
Sources who spoke to DW on condition of anonymity said the silence stems from fear, as NGOs carefully tweak their language to avoid aggravating US authorities and secure funding to continue their projects following the 90-day review period. Massive Clean Up After India’s Hindu Mega-festival Ends (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [3/7/2025 5:13 AM, Staff, 356K]
Thousands of sanitation workers were toiling on Friday to clean up 20,000 tonnes of waste left behind by hundreds of millions of Hindu devotees after India’s Kumbh Mela mega-festival.
The massive sanitation drive has been underway since the six-week gala drew to a close last week in the northern city of Prayagraj.
Hundreds of millions of people visited the city during the festival according to government figures, with mounds of discarded clothing, plastic bottles and other waste now littering the grounds.
"We have deployed 15,000 workers to clear up some 20,000 tonnes of waste generated from the festival," Prayagraj municipal commissioner Chandra Mohan Garg told AFP.
The Kumbh Mela is the single biggest milestone on the Hindu religious calendar, staged every 12 years at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers.
It is rooted in Hindu mythology, a battle between deities and demons for control of a pitcher containing the nectar of immortality.
Workers were also busy dismantling a temporary infrastructure, that includes 150,000 portable toilets.
In several places, open areas were used as makeshift toilets, posing a challenge to the army of sanitary staff.
"The dedication towards cleanliness... will continue to inspire efforts to keep Prayagraj, and its sacred rivers, clean for generations to come," the government said in a statement this week.
The Kumbh Mela was also a testament to the "collective spirit of maintaining a cleaner and more sustainable environment", it added. A Fruitful Partnership: Mangoes, U.S.-India Trade And Trump (Forbes)
Forbes [3/6/2025 10:12 PM, Ronak D. Desai, 91738K]
In February, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was among the first foreign leaders to meet Donald Trump in Washington as he began his second term. A joint statement issued by the two leaders reflected the depth and breadth of the U.S.-India strategic partnership, highlighting cooperation in trade, energy, education and defense.
Buried in the sweeping rhetoric of economic ambition and strategic cooperation was an unexpected detail: a reference to Indian mangoes. On the surface, this seemed to be an oddity.
But the story of Indian mangoes in the U.S.-India relationship underscores how regulatory barriers, cultural diplomacy and strategic priorities intersect in bilateral ties.
Perhaps more importantly, it represents an instructive case study of the reciprocity the White House demands in its trade relations, and what the world can come to expect in Trump’s second term.
Indian Mango Diplomacy
Revered as the King of Fruits in India, New Delhi has long deployed its famed mango as a tool of diplomacy. The tradition dates back to the 1950s, when India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, used choice mangoes to charm visiting dignitaries. One account recalls Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai’s stern demeanor softening in 1955 after he tasted a mango from Nehru. "His beetling brow relaxed, his lips rippled into a smile," a contemporary report noted. "Thereafter, he ate out of Mr. Nehru’s hand.".
Indian officials still engage in mango diplomacy. In Washington D.C., receptions featuring mango delicacies have become an annual affair at the Indian Embassy. But turning mango goodwill into actual market access has been a rockier endeavor, entangled in a long history of regulatory and legal hurdles.
Historic Market Exclusion
The Indian mango has faced a cold reality in U.S. markets for a long time: an outright import ban. From 1989 until the mid-2000s, Indian mangoes were officially barred from the United States due to American officials’ concerns that pests like fruit flies could threaten U.S. agriculture.
Home to over 1,000 varieties of mangoes, India chafed at being excluded from the lucrative U.S. fruit market by what it regarded as unfair discrimination. American officials insisted the exclusions were justified to protect U.S. crops.
The tension reflects broader trade policy frictions. Developing nations frequently argue that strict food safety regulations in developed markets are disguised forms of protectionism, while developed nations defend them as necessary, science-based protections.
The ‘Nuclear Mango’ Deal
President George W. Bush helped break the impasse with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In March 2006, during a visit to New Delhi focused on a landmark civil nuclear cooperation pact, Bush had a simpler personal request: to taste India’s famed Alphonso mango. He did, and reportedly pronounced it a "hell of a fruit.".
Soon after, Bush and Singh reached what commentators dubbed a "nuclear mango deal," finally granting American market access to India’s mangoes.
Trump’s Negotiations
A decade later, U.S.-India trade relations hit turbulence under the "America First" trade policy of Trump’s first term. Trump’s approach to trade diplomacy was blunt: deploy tariffs to correct what he viewed as unfair trade balances.
India was no exception. Trump complained about India’s steep duties and derisively crowned it the world’s "Tariff King.".
In 2019, the Trump administration withdrew India’s benefits under the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), a move that raised tariffs on a range of Indian exports as leverage to force market openings.
Trade tensions have persisted into Trump’s second term. In advance of Modi’s 2025 meeting with Trump, India preemptively cut more tariffs as a signal of goodwill before high-level meetings. The early concessions were part of India’s approach to managing Trump’s hard-bargaining style.
Against this backdrop, the mango re-emerged as a surprisingly prominent issue in talks, low-hanging fruit at last.
2025 Summit’s Implications
When Trump and Modi met in Washington in February, the two leaders faced the challenge of rebooting dialogue on a U.S.-India trade deal. Their joint statement addressed the big picture, announcing an intent to double bilateral trade to $500 billion by 2030 and to work toward the comprehensive trade agreement that has eluded conclusion for years.
The reference to mangoes in the joint statement was revealing. The U.S. publicly "welcomed" India’s moves to cut tariffs on American goods like bourbon and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, while India "expressed appreciation" for U.S. measures to enhance exports of Indian mangoes and pomegranates. It marked perhaps the first time Indian mangoes featured in a bilateral leaders’ statement, underscoring how symbolic yet salient this fruit had become in trade diplomacy.
Its inclusion carries with it several important implications.
First and most importantly, the mango reference underscores the reciprocity principle governing Trump’s trade negotiations. It was paired with India’s concessions on U.S. products like motorcycles and alcohol, reinforcing that each side gave something to the other. This tit-for-tat is crucial for both sides’ political narratives. Trump can point to India lowering barriers—a validation of his tough tactics—and Modi can point to Washington allowing a long-sought Indian export. The mango thus became a barometer of fairness in the deal: a sweetener, literally and figuratively, ensuring that outcomes were not one-sided.
Second, it signals that no issue is too small to hold political significance. By elevating mango market access to the highest level, Washington acknowledged a key Indian concern—a gesture aimed at further building trust. Allowing more Indian mangoes into the U.S. costs little economically. American consumers will hardly notice beyond niche ethnic markets. But it pays dividends in goodwill with New Delhi.
Finally, including mangoes on the U.S.-India agenda reflects just how far and fast the two countries have traveled in a relatively short time. During the Cold War and its aftermath, minor trade issues like produce imports were lost in the larger indifference or mistrust that characterized U.S.-India ties. In 2025, by contrast, the two nations are strategic partners keen to deepen ties across defense, technology and commerce.
Publicly hailing progress over a small irritant such as mangos illustrates the evolving maturity in the relationship, one that will continue to grow in a second Trump term. Could Elon Musk’s newfound political influence help him finally crack India? (The Guardian)
The Guardian [3/7/2025 5:16 AM, Hannah Ellis-Petersen, 78.9M]
It is easy to believe that Elon Musk’s reach knows no limits. But while the world’s richest man may control a space satellite empire, own one of the largest social media platforms, produce the world’s bestselling electric car, and have been given carte blanche by Donald Trump to gut the US government, there is one market that Musk has yet to properly crack: India.
Now, with his newfound influence over the Trump administration and global geopolitics, it appears likely that Musk’s entrance into the Indian market, both with his Tesla electric cars and his Starlink satellite internet, may come smoother and faster than expected.
When the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, travelled to Washington to meet Trump earlier this month, he also sat down privately with Musk, where according to the Indian government, the pair “discussed strengthening collaboration between Indian and US entities in innovation, space exploration, artificial intelligence, and sustainable development”.
Trump put it more bluntly: “I assume he [Musk] wants to do business in India.”
Up till now, India’s 110% tariffs on imported electric vehicles have prevented Tesla from entering the fast-growing Indian market. However, Musk vowed last year that Tesla would be in India “as soon as humanly possible” – and after his recent encounter with Modi, it seems he is keen to make that a reality.
Tesla has already begun advertising for jobs in Mumbai and Delhi, and has signed a lease to open its first showroom in Mumbai. Tesla could also take advantage of a new Indian government scheme which lowers import tariffs on electric vehicles to just 15% if they commit to investing $500m within three years in a factory that will manufacture the cars. However, the tax break only applies to the first 8,000 vehicles, a limit Tesla is likely to push back on.
A Tesla factory would be a boon for India, a country that is desperate for foreign investment and job creation, particularly in manufacturing. Nonetheless, Musk has a chequered record for his commitments to investing in India. Last year, he left the Modi government reeling after he made high-profile plans to travel to India, and had dangled the possibility of a $3bn investment to build a Tesla factory in the country, only to cancel the trip last minute. Instead, he travelled to rival China – another huge market that Musk has been equally keen to capitalise on – to cut a major deal.
Tesla also faces stiff competition from Indian manufacturers, who are already making and selling popular electric SUVs for about a quarter of the £35,000 starting price that a Tesla costs, which would be far above the budget of most Indian families. (Sales of Tesla cars are also plummeting globally, with a 45% decline in Europe in January.)
Trump too has appeared less enthusiastic about Musk’s ambitions to start making Teslas in India. “Now, if he built the factory in India, that’s OK, but that’s unfair to us. It’s very unfair,” Trump told Fox News.
Another possibly more lucrative finger in India’s pie for Musk could be Starlink, the satellite internet technology operated by his SpaceX company. Globally, Musk already has a dominant lead on satellite internet, with more than half of all satellites in the skies.
Since 2021, he has been fixated on getting Starlink into India. While the current appetite for satellite internet in India is tiny, it is expected to grow to a $1.9bn (£1.5bn) market by 2030 according to Deloitte and is seen as a crucial entry point into India’s flourishing telecomms industry.
Speaking to reporters earlier this year, after Trump’s inauguration, at which Musk was highly prominent, India’s communications minister confirmed that Starlink was in the process of seeking necessary security permissions to operate in India.
Jyotiraditya Scindia said: “When you check all the boxes, you get the licence. If they [Starlink] do that, we will be very happy.”
Yet in India, telecoms, including satellite internet, are among the most strictly regulated and controlled industries in India, placing vast obstacles in the way of foreign companies such as Musk’s being granted security permissions to operate.
In particular, Musk’s close connections and business interests in China and the use of Starlink in the Ukraine war were seen as possibly insurmountable cybersecurity issues, as well as the ability of SpaceX to be able to control access to Starlink’s satellite internet from outside the country. The Indian governmentunder Modi has routinely ordered internet providers to block critical online content and used internet blackouts as a means of information control.
These fears could be heightened after sources in the Indian state of Manipur, which borders Myanmar, told the Guardian earlier this year that Starlink was already being used by militant groups in the state to circumvent regular internet shutdowns being imposed after outbreaks of ethnic violence.
A recent Indian thinktank report warned that Starlink was a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”, citing its use by US intelligence agencies and military, and warned of its potential to be used to undermine Indian security.
Yet, after the election of Trump, some believe that the Indian government may be more willing to side-step those concerns. “I think before the US election results came through, India would have had their doubts about giving Musk’s Starlink security clearance,” said Nikhil Pahwa, the founder of MediaNama, an Indian tech news platform.“One of the things that India relies on is control over internet access and control over its operators. But now that Musk is a part of the US government, his leverage in India has certainly increased and his chances of Starlink clearing security approvals have probably improved dramatically – or at least will happen much faster.”
Pahwa said the decision on Starlink by the Indian government was now “as much of a political decision as a security decision”.
What’s been called “Starlink diplomacy” – opening up the country to Musk’s satellites in an apparent attempt to gratify the Trump administration – has already been evident in neighbouring Bangladesh, where this week the country’s interim leader, Muhammad Yunus, suddenly extended an invitation for Musk to launch Starlink in the country within 90 days.Even prior to the re-election of Trump, the Indian government had already made manoeuvres favourable to Starlink’s ambitions. In October, the government announced that satellite spectrum for broadband would be allocated administratively rather than through auction, something that Musk had lobbied hard for. “We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink,” said Musk on X in response.
The decision means that Starlink has a far better opportunity to compete against Indian telecoms companies in the battle for control over the country’s satellite internet market. It was met with anger by some of the country’s biggest operators such as Jio, who also have vast ambitions in the satellite internet space, and have since been lobbying the government to reverse its decision on the auction.
One of the main benefits of satellite internet is that it can offer internet access even in the most remote areas. However, in India, most people living in rural areas are unlikely to be able to afford it, unless at heavily subsidised prices.
Prasanto K Roy, a technology analyst, said it could set off a pricing war with India’s biggest telecom operators if Starlink repeated what it has done in Africa with heavily reduced pricing, where Starlink costs about $10 compared with $120 in the US. Jio, whose success in mobile internet came from undercutting every competitor, making India’s mobile internet some of the cheapest in the world, is likely to follow suit.“Starlink won’t find it as easy in India as it has in other markets, there is very strong competition here so it will be hard for it to gain a monopoly, even with low prices,” said Roy.
He added: “Those using Starlink are obviously going to be a very tiny niche at the top of the socioeconomic pyramid. But once he’s got a hold, it is something Musk could really leverage in India.” India’s Top Banker Must Ease Credit, But Not Too Much (Bloomberg – opinion)
Bloomberg [3/6/2025 4:00 PM, Andy Mukherjee, 5.5M]
Sanjay Malhotra, the new Reserve Bank of India governor, is right to unwind some of his predecessor’s hawkish controls on a runaway consumer-credit boom. There was a time to throw sand in the wheels of commerce. Right now, though, a sputtering growth engine needs lubrication.
Still, Malhotra must be cautious. There is a crack in the structure of the world’s fastest-growing major economy. Speeding up subprime loans could be risky down the road.
Effective April 1, banks will set aside less capital on loans to better-rated nonbanking financial companies. The monetary authority has also lowered the risk weights on microfinance loans for consumer credit to 100%, restoring them to their pre-November-2023 levels. Back then, Shaktikanta Das, the former RBI chief, had raised the weights to 125%.
The capital thus freed up could fuel banks’ own lending. The sharp downtrend in their advances to shadow lenders — who ultimately serve less creditworthy borrowers — should also reverse.
Both of those outcomes will be timely. Gross domestic product may have grown 6.5% in the year that ends March 31, according to the government’s estimates, slowing from 9.2% in the previous 12 months. The next year’s forecast doesn’t herald much of a pickup, either.
And those official statistics may not be capturing the full extent of the funk in consumer demand in urban areas where wages are stagnant, and jobs are under threat from artificial intelligence. Amid a $900 billion rout in the stock market, and with US President Donald Trump’s trade war creating uncertainty for output, prices and interest rates globally, it’s understandable that policymakers want credit to flow more easily.
Yet Malhotra must know that his recent move is just a temporary solution. The 8% GDP growth that authorities say they want to sustain — to propel a lower-middle-income economy to a developed one — will need a more concrete foundation than a hole filled with consumer credit.
Eight years ago, banks and finance companies gave out 2.5 million advances of less than 100,000 rupees ($1,150). Last year, there were 122 million of such small-ticket loans, accounting for 88% of all personal credit origination, according to Blume Ventures, a Mumbai-based early stage venture-capital investor that releases a popular annual report. Thanks to rapid digitization, which has quickened credit checks and approvals, finance companies and banks were able to push out $100 billion in new personal loans out the door in 2024, a six-fold jump from 2017.
That’s a big addition to household liabilities in a short time. Where’s the appetite for this borrowing coming from?
The Blume report offers clues. The richest 30 million households in the most-populous nation have an aggregate purchasing power similar to Mexico’s. Their consumption is powering the economy. The next 70 million, earning about $3,000 per capita annually, are on their way to rivaling Indonesia’s living standards. They are trying to mimic the spending choices of the top earners who are five times richer, on average.
The remaining 200 million families — 1 billion people — are India’s equivalent of sub-Saharan Africa, dipping into savings to survive. They have no money for discretionary expenditure.
The research doesn’t say it, but my guess is that “India 1,” as the authors term the top consuming class, is financing both the aspirations of “India 2,” and the desperation of “India 3.” The interest payments on the borrowings by the latter two groups is flowing to the first, making it wealthier still. And therein lies the structural flaw in the economy.
A 2021 paper by economists at Princeton, Harvard and the University of Chicago argues that instead of productive investment, the “saving glut of the rich” Americans — accumulating over four decades — drove “dissaving by the non-rich and dissaving by the government.”
It’s possible that something similar is afoot half a world away. Income and wealth distribution in the fifth-largest economy is now more unequal than it was a hundred years ago under the British Raj. That would explain the surge in small-ticket personal loans. It would also explain why a middle class stuck in a cycle of mediocre work, poor pay and heavy indirect taxes lost billions of dollars trading options, enriching the likes of Jane Street Group. The derivatives market witnessed a 40-fold jump since 2019 before regulators stepped in to stop the madness.New Delhi, too, has become dependent — not only on the savings glut of the local wealthy, but of rich investors globally. Without the $12 billion it earned from a long-term capital gains tax that even foreigners have to pay, the government’s effective revenue deficit would have been 13% higher in 2022-23. But when that fickle source of tax income comes up short, the axe of deficit reduction may fall on welfare programs. Which would leave poor households more reliant on small-ticket loans that groups of women borrowers can obtain from microfinance firms.
That’s the business model of microfinance in India, and it has a crisis once every few years. A recently released report by a government think tank shows a 42%, one-year jump in the number of women borrowers actively monitoring their credit. Much of it may be anxiety about default, passing off as empowerment. While lowering the risk weight on consumer credit via microfinance, the Reserve Bank will hopefully remain alive to the risk.
While he can’t do much about jobs or wages, Malhotra could tell his bosses in New Delhi to stop dreaming about a developed society until they have fixed the corrosive inequality hollowing out the economy’s foundation. The rest is up to them. NSB
Bangladesh election this year may be difficult due to unrest, says head of youth-led party (Reuters)
Reuters [3/6/2025 4:59 AM, Sam Jahan, 5.2M]
Bangladesh’s interim government has been unable to fully ensure public safety and holding a general election this year will be difficult, the head of a newly launched political party told Reuters.
Former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted last August in the wake of mass, sometimes violent, student-led protests. The interim government, headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, said this month that elections could be held by the end of 2025 although unrest has continued.
"In the past seven months, we all expected the policing system, law and order to be restored through short-term reforms. It has happened to an extent, but not up to our expectations," said Nahid Islam, the head of Jatiya Nagorik Party or National Citizens’ Party (NCP) and former student leader.
"In the current law and order situation and policing system, I don’t think it is possible to hold a national election," the 26-year-old said in his first interview as NCP head at his government-provided villa in Dhaka.
Islam, who was until recently an adviser in the interim government, is the first politician of significance to cast doubt on Yunus’ timeframe for an election.
Political analysts believe his youth-led party could significantly reshape national politics, dominated for decades by Hasina’s Awami League party and her rival, former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party.Those parties have demanded early elections, arguing that power should be returned to a democratically elected government.
Incidents of unrest include attacks on symbols of Hasina’s government and clashes between student groups. There have also been reports of attacks on homes, businesses and temples of Hindus and other minorities in the Muslim-majority nation, though the interim government says those reports are exaggerated.
Islam said the NCP, which was formed just last week, would be ready for the polls whenever they are held.
However, he added that before elections can be held, it would be crucial to reach a consensus on the so-called ‘Proclamation of the July Revolution’ - a charter that the interim government plans to prepare in consultations with political parties and student activists.
The document is intended to reflect the aspirations of the Bangladeshi people and honour the 1,000 people who died in last year’s violence. Student protestors dropped calls for changes to the constitution after the interim government said it would prepare the proclamation.
"If we can reach that consensus within a month, we can call for elections immediately. But if it takes more time, the election should be deferred," he added.
Many affluent people across Bangladesh are helping finance the party, said Islam, adding that it will soon look to crowdfunding for a new office and creating a fund for the election. World Food Programme halves food rations for Rohingya in Bangladesh (The Guardian)
The Guardian [3/6/2025 1:52 PM, Kaamil Ahmed and Shaikh Azizur Rahman, 78938K]
Food rations for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been slashed in half by the World Food Programme, days after refugees in Kenya protested against a reduction to their rations.
The WFP, which is funded entirely by voluntary contributions and provides assistance to more than 150 million people, said it did not have enough funds to continue to provide the full ration so would be reducing the food voucher to 726 Bangladeshi taka (£4.60) per person, from 1,515 taka.
The agency told refugee authorities in Bangladesh the decision had been made after attempts to raise more funds had been unsuccessful and because cost-saving measures could not cover the funding shortfall.
Daniel Sullivan, the director for Africa, Asia, and the Middle East at Refugees International, said the cut to aid for Rohingya refugees was a result of "indefensible harm" caused by aid cuts by the US, UK and others.
While aid budgets had already been stretched, further strain was added in January by Donald Trump’s freeze on US aid spending and then the UK’s decision in February to cut aid spending from 0.5% of GDP to 0.3%.
Sullivan said: "This sudden and drastic reduction of vital daily food will be devastating for over a million refugees. The decision will also result in huge knock-on effects for the health and safety of the largest refugee settlement in the world.".
He said that when food rations were previously cut in 2023, until the US filled a funding shortfall, there was an increase in malnutrition and gender-based violence.
Sullivan said: "With USAid decimated, and other donors following suit with their own reductions, the outlook for restored food aid is dismal and will lead to the loss of life.".
The monthly food voucher is provided on a card issued to the refugees, which they must spend at WFP outlets in the camps. Refugees said that at current costs the voucher would amount to enough to buy 10kg of rice, 1.5kg of lentils and 500g of salt.
Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, the refugee relief and repatriation commissioner of Bangladesh, said Rohingya refugees had already been "barely surviving" with the existing monthly food ration.
He said: "Cutting the ration over half will have a horrible impact on refugee health and nutrition. Children and women will bear the brunt of this cut, as they make up about 78% of the refugee population here.
"In fact, this cut could also lead to crime in the community as refugees struggle to make ends meet. Maintaining law and order in and around the camps will be extra challenging for the government now.".
More than 1.3 million Rohingya refugees live in the camps of Cox’s Bazar. Nur Qadr, a Rohingya teacher who lives in the Jamtoli refugee camp, said: "It feels like the world wants to starve us to death.
"We are human beings, just like the people in [western] nations. We are already barely making it through.".
Jafor Alom, a Rohingya refugee in Balukhali camp, said that the prices of food and other basic necessities had more than doubled in Bangladesh over the past four years.
He said: "To cope with the situation, we had actually been praying for an increase in the $12.50 [£9.70] food ration. But now, they are cutting down the ration even further. We all have to starve now.".
Last week, the WFP informed refugees in Kenya that it would be reducing their food rations to 3kg of cereals a month and would no longer provide beans or oil – which would amount to 40% of the full ration.
The move prompted protests in the Kakuma refugee camp, which hosts 300,000 people, and four refugees were injured in clashes with Kenyan police.
The WFP also said this week that a million people in Somalia could fall into crisis levels of hunger because of conflict, drought and inflation but that it would have to reduce the support it provided because it was $300m short of funding for the next six months.
In a statement on the situation in Somalia, it said: "As humanitarian needs grow, limited funding is resulting in life-saving programmes being reduced or cut altogether. From April, WFP will support 820,000 vulnerable people per month with food and cash assistance – down from a peak of 2.2 million reached monthly in 2024.". Women spearhead maternal health revolution in Bangladesh (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [3/7/2025 5:04 AM, Staff, 356K]
Young Bangladeshi mother Mafia Akhter’s decision to give birth at home and without a doctor left her grieving over her firstborn’s lifeless body and vowing never to repeat the ordeal.
"My first baby died," the 25-year-old told AFP. "I told myself that if I didn’t go to the clinic it could happen again, and that I wouldn’t be able to bear it."
She gave birth again last month at a medical centre in a village hemmed in by rice paddy and rivers, far from the nearest hospital and without the oversight of an obstetrician.
But this time her child survived -- something she credits to Nargis Akhter, one of the thousands of Bangladeshi women working as "skilled birth attendants" to help mothers through delivery.
"Giving birth is the most important and critical moment for a woman," Nargis -- no relation to her patient -- told AFP.
"I am lucky and proud to be able to be with them at that moment."
Nargis was speaking to AFP after her routine post-natal consultation with Mafia, who was cradling her young daughter during her return to the spartan village health centre where she gave birth.
Skilled birth attendants have been a fixture of Bangladesh’s maternal health policy for two decades and are an important pillar of the South Asian nation’s underfunded health system.
More than 30 percent of Bangladeshi women nationally give birth without the assistance of a doctor, nurse or midwife, according to government data from 2022 Demographic and Health Survey.
Birth attendants like Nargis, 25, are given several months training and put to work plugging this gap by serving in a jack-of-all-trades role akin to a cross between a nurse and a doula.
The use of skilled birth attendants has coincided with dramatic improvements to maternal health outcomes in Bangladesh.
Over the past 20 years, the mortality rate for pregnant women has fallen by 72 percent, to 123 deaths per 100,000 births and babies by 69 percent to 20 deaths per 100,000 births, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
"Many women do not have access to quality care, so I feel useful by helping them," said Nargis, who in her five years as a birth attendant has overseen more than 400 deliveries.
"Almost no women die in childbirth here anymore," she added.
"For me, that’s the most important thing."‘It takes time’
Besides helping with deliveries, birth attendants will screen pregnant women weeks ahead of their due date to refer high-risk pregnancies to hospitals further afield.
For women in Biswambharpur, the remote district that Mafia and Nargis call home, complicated cases will wind up in a district hospital struggling with inadequate resources.
"We never leave a patient without care, but they sometimes have to wait a long time for treatment," said Abdullahel Maruf, the hospital’s chief doctor.
"Plus, we can’t change the geography. In an emergency, it takes time to get to us."
Biswambharpur is lashed by monsoon rains for months each year that make travel difficult, and a lack of paved roads mean that many of its villages are inaccesible by the district’s only ambulance, even during the drier months.
Maruf’s hospital sees up to 500 patients each day and still has around eight women die in labour each year -- fatalities he says are avoidable, given that his emergency department lacks an obstetrician and backup surgeon.
"We could easily reduce this figure if we had all the required staff," he said.
Maruf said that mortality rates had nonetheless improved by an awareness campaign encouraging women to give birth at local health clinics rather than at home.
"This is our greatest victory," he said.
Bangladesh spends only 0.8 percent of its GDP on public health, a figure that Maya Vandenent of the UN children’s agency said risked stalling the country’s improvements to maternal health.
"Huge progress has been made," she told AFP. "But the movement is slowing down."
Sayedur Rahman, a physician overseeing Bangladesh’s health ministry, freely concedes that more health funding is far from the top of the agenda of the government he serves.
The country is still reeling from the dramatic ouster of autocratic ex-premier Sheikh Hasina last August during a student-led national uprising.
Rahman is part of an interim administration tasked with steering democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections, and he laments that these priorities will leave others in the health sector unaddressed.
"We need resources to create a national ambulance network, recruit more anesthesiologists, open operating rooms," Rahman told AFP.
"Our financial constraints will directly impact maternal and neonatal mortality rates." Sri Lanka clinches deal with Japan to restructure $2.5 billion in debt (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 3:54 AM, Uditha Jayasinghe, 5.2M]
Sri Lanka and Japan signed agreements on Friday to restructure $2.5 billion worth of debt, completing two years of talks that will assist the island nation in getting back on its feet after a severe financial crisis.
The agreements will allow the two countries to restart projects, including an expansion of Sri Lanka’s main airport, which were suspended after the island nation announced in April 2022 that it was defaulting on its foreign debt.
The crisis left Sri Lanka struggling to pay for fuel, medicine and cooking gas. But it has made a faster-than-expected recovery, aided by a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which approved the fourth tranche of its program last week.
"Sri Lanka’s journey to full economic recovery is far from over. We must continue on the reform path and within the parameters of the IMF program to ensure that Sri Lanka does not fall back into a crisis," Mahinda Siriwardena, Sri Lanka’s finance ministry secretary, told reporters at the signing ceremony.
Sri Lanka entered into a preliminary deal with key lenders to restructure bilateral debt last June. It still needs to sign similar agreements with China for about $4.75 billion in debt and with India for $1.4 billion in debt to continue the IMF program.
China and Sri Lanka agreed on more investment and economic cooperation when Chinese President Xi Jinping met recently elected Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Beijing in January.
Colombo has also secured a deal to restructure $12.5 billion of its debt with international bondholders in December. Sri Lanka Signs $2.5b Debt Deal With Japan (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [3/7/2025 5:38 AM, Staff, 356K]
Sri Lanka signed a deal with Japan Friday to restructure $2.5 billion in loans, marking the first agreement with bilateral creditors who had pledged debt relief to the cash-strapped nation last year.Japan said it was granting concessions on a 369.45 billion yen ($2.5 billion) loan under a comprehensive debt treatment plan, which the International Monetary Fund considers essential for Sri Lanka’s economic recovery."The development of Sri Lanka, which is located at a strategic point in the Indian Ocean, is essential for the stability and prosperity of the entire Indo-Pacific region," the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement."Japan intends to further contribute to the sustainable development of Sri Lanka."Colombo’s finance ministry said Tokyo had played a "pivotal role" in helping Sri Lanka restructure its debt."Its leadership, commitment, and constructive engagement have been instrumental in helping Sri Lanka navigate the challenges of economic recovery," the ministry said in a statement.Sri Lanka announced last June that it had reached an understanding with all its bilateral lenders to delay repayments until 2028.Formal agreements were delayed due to protracted negotiations, making Friday’s deal with Japan the first with an official creditor of the South Asian nation.China remains Sri Lanka’s largest bilateral lender, accounting for $4.66 billion of the $10.58 billion borrowed from other nations. Japan is the second-largest lender, with just over $2.5 billion in loans.The government of leftist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, which came to power in September, had hoped to finalise debt deals before the end of last year.The island nation defaulted on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022 after running out of foreign exchange to finance even the most essential imports, such as food and fuel.Its economy has since recovered following an IMF rescue package and the implementation of austerity measures aimed at repairing the government’s ruined finances.In November, Dissanayake announced that Sri Lanka would honour a deal secured by his predecessor to restructure $12.55 billion in international sovereign bonds, a key condition for maintaining the $2.9 billion, four-year IMF bailout loan.A majority of private creditors to the South Asian nation agreed in September to a 27 percent haircut on their loans.As part of the agreement reached in September and ratified by the new administration, bondholders will also take an 11 percent haircut on overdue interest payments.Sri Lanka secured its IMF bailout in 2023 after doubling taxes, withdrawing energy subsidies, and raising the prices of essential goods to shore up state revenue.The new government has vowed to keep up the reforms in line with the IMF bailout. Central Asia
Kazakhstan Hikes Key Rate to 16.5% as Inflation Surges (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/7/2025 2:49 AM, Nariman Gizitdinov, 5.5M]
Kazakhstan’s central bank unexpectedly hiked its key interest rate to help tame accelerating inflation that’s running at almost double the target.
The National Bank of Kazakhstan raised the benchmark to 16.5% on Friday. Seven out of eight economists surveyed by Bloomberg forecast no change from 15.25%, while one analyst expected a 50 basis point increase.“Pressure on prices from the external sector has increased due to further acceleration of inflation in Russia,” the country’s second-largest trading partner, the central bank said in a statement.
The bank also increased its forecast for price growth in 2025 to 10%-12%, citing external factors, higher fuel prices and value-added tax rates. The previous outlook saw 6.5%-8.5% inflation this year.
Consumer-price growth quickened for a third month to reach 9.4% in February from a year earlier, far outstripping the central bank’s 5% target. The government highlighted a “negative” trend in inflation this week, forecasting that it would reach about 10% by the end of the year, according to the Kazinform news service.
The outlook for central Asia’s largest oil producer is clouded by plans to raise value-added tax next year, with ministers estimating a “short-term” addition to inflation of about 3 percentage points. Kazakhstan is also seeking to boost government spending, including 1 trillion tenge ($2 billion) on state sponsored lending to add at least 2 percentage points to economic growth this year.
The Kazakh central bank cut its forecast for economic growth in 2025 to 4.2%-5.2% from 4.5%-5.5%, citing a reduction in the government’s outlook for oil production.
A weakening tenge led to the first increase in the key rate since 2022 in November after the central bank spent $1 billion on interventions.
The central bank said in its statement that Friday’s decision to increase rates was taken with the aim of avoiding a larger, future increase.
The national currency fell to a record low in January, but has appreciated about 7% since the last rate decision on Jan. 17. It’s been helped by a government order for state-run companies to sell half of their foreign currency revenue and a central bank decision to sell dollars to mirror domestic purchases of gold.
The central bank, whose next policy meeting is scheduled for April 11, set its rates corridor — formed from the overnight deposit and lending rates — at plus-or-minus one percentage point around the benchmark. Oil Majors Got Favorable Arbitration Rulings in Kashagan Dispute (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [3/7/2025 4:51 AM, Nariman Gizitdinov, 5.5M]
Oil majors operating the giant Kashagan oil field received a pair of favorable arbitration rulings in multibillion-dollar disputes with Kazakhstan’s government over environmental fine and tax claims, according to people familiar with the matter.Neither of the rulings settle the ongoing arbitration process, but the decisions put the companies in a slightly stronger position in their broader disputes with the Kazakh government, the people said.The court of arbitration granted a request by oil majors including Eni SpA, Shell Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp. and TotalEnergies SE that Kazakhstan should not collect the $5 billion fine, which is related to sulfur storage at the field, until it has considered the matter, the people said, asking not to be named as the information is not public. The panel didn’t challenge the imposition of the fine, they said.In a separate arbitration process, the Kashagan partners were granted a request that Kazakhstan’s tax authorities must not audit the country’s oil-profit share, the people said. The companies argued that commercial arrangements related to the field can only be audited by the counterparty in the contract, which is the Energy Ministry’s representation office, they said.Kazakhstan’s Energy Ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment. NCOC, which operates the field, declined to comment. Shell, Eni and TotalEnergies declined to comment. Exxon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Inpex Corp. and China National Petroleum Corp., which also hold minority stakes in Kashagan, didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.In the two years since Central Asia’s largest oil producer accused the Kashagan partners of breaching environmental regulations, there have been repeated attempts to settle the issue, which are ongoing, the people said. Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s overall claims, including lost revenue and disputed cost deductions at the field, have ballooned to more than $160 billion.In addition to the arbitration process, the Kashagan partners have appealed to Kazakhstan’s Supreme Court, seeking to overturn an earlier appellate court decision that supported the government’s claim that too much sulfur was being stored at the facility, as well as other alleged violations related to water treatment and emissions. The field operator, which has denied any wrongdoing, initially won a challenge to the environmental rulings in a lower court earlier.The $55 billion Kashagan development in the Caspian Sea was plagued by delays and cost overruns. Kazakh authorities have being pushing for higher revenue from the country’s oil fields and sued the joint venture partners in international arbitration for damages, mostly for lost revenue but also issues related to allegations of environmental violations or corruption. Kazakhstan says it has tasked oil majors to cut output to meet OPEC+ quotas (Reuters)
Reuters [3/7/2025 5:46 AM, Mariya Gordeyeva, 5.2M]
Kazakhstan is producing oil above its OPEC+ quotas and has tasked oil majors to cut production, Energy Minister Almassadam Satkaliyev said on Friday.Kazakhstan is currently producing at a record high, and well above its target.OPEC+ - consisting of OPEC countries and allies including Russia and Kazakhstan - decided on Monday to increase output for the first time since 2022. It said its decision took into account healthy market fundamentals and a positive market outlook, without mentioning Kazakhstan. Indo-Pacific
Trump Administration Prepares to Revive and Expand Travel Bans (New York Times)
New York Times [3/6/2025 4:14 PM, Charlie Savage and Edward Wong, 831K]
The Trump administration is finalizing a new ban on travel to the United States for citizens of certain countries that would be broader than the versions President Trump issued in his first term, according to two officials familiar with the matter.
A draft recommendation circulating inside the executive branch proposes a “red” list of countries whose citizens Mr. Trump could bar from entering the United States, said the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations.
One of the officials said the proposed red list currently consists mainly of countries whose nationals were restricted under versions of Mr. Trump’s previous travel ban. Last time, those countries included Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
The draft tentatively proposes adding Afghanistan to the group whose citizens would be categorically barred from entering the United States, according to one of the officials.
Shawn VanDiver, the head of a nonprofit group that helps resettle Afghans who worked with U.S. forces during the war, said he learned from officials that Afghan citizens would be subject to a complete travel ban.
On Wednesday morning, the group put out an emergency statement titled “Afghan Travel Ban coming” that urged Afghans with valid visas who are currently outside the United States to come back immediately. Later on Wednesday, Reuters also reported that Afghanistan would be recommended for a complete travel ban.
The recommendations also have an “orange” group of countries whose access would be curtailed but not completely barred. For example, only certain types of visas might be issued — like for relatively affluent people traveling for business, but not immigrants or tourists — and the length of visas could be shortened. Applicants would be required to have in-person interviews.
Countries in a third or “yellow” category would be given 60 days to change some perceived deficiencies or they would be added to one of the two other lists, the officials said.
Those issues could include failing to share with the United States information about incoming travelers, purportedly inadequate security practices for issuing passports, or the selling of citizenship to people from banned countries, as a loophole around the restrictions.
It is not clear whether people with existing visas would be exempted from the ban, or if those visas would be canceled. Many Afghans have been approved for resettlement in the United States as refugees or under special visas granted to people who assisted the United States during the war. It is also not clear whether green card holders, who are approved for permanent residency, would be affected.
About 200,000 Afghans in their native country and 51,000 outside, half in Pakistan, are in the official pipeline to come to the United States, with tens of thousands ready to travel and with housing in the works or already arranged, said Mr. VanDiver, a Navy veteran who is president of AfghanEvac, the nonprofit group.“This is the most vetted population that there has ever been,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “It is crazy how much these people go through.”
He added that many veterans of the war in Afghanistan who had voted for Mr. Trump now felt fury as word of a possible travel ban has spread. “They’re saying, ‘This isn’t what I voted for,’” he said. “The deal was you need to bring our wartime allies home. And they’re just betraying these folks.”
In one of the many executive orders he issued on Inauguration Day, Mr. Trump ordered the State Department to start identifying countries “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.”
Mr. Trump gave the State Department 60 days to finish a report for the White House with such a list — meaning it is due in about two weeks. He directed the Justice and Homeland Security Departments and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to work with the State Department on the project.
The State Department press office said in a statement that it was following Mr. Trump’s executive order and was “committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” but it also declined to specifically comment on internal deliberations.
The State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs was assigned to take the lead in coming up with a first draft, according to the people familiar with the matter, but the lists for each of the three categories are still in flux.
In addition to security specialists at the other departments and intelligence agencies, regional bureaus at the State Department and U.S. embassies around the world are reviewing the draft. They are providing comment about whether deficiencies identified in particular countries are accurate or whether there is a policy argument — like not risking disruption to cooperation on some other priority — to reconsider including some.
Mr. Trump’s policy of categorically barring entry to citizens of certain countries traces back to his campaign call, in December 2015, for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
After he took office in January 2017, Mr. Trump issued what became the first of an iterative series of bans. They initially focused on a set of Muslim-majority countries but later also encompassed other low-income and nonwhite countries, including in Africa.
The first travel ban caused chaos, in part because Mr. Trump issued it without warning. Some people learned that they had been barred from entry only after they arrived in the United States. Major protests were held at airports against the new administration.
Courts blocked the government from enforcing the first two versions, but the Supreme Court eventually permitted a rewritten ban to take effect.
When Joseph R. Biden Jr. became president in January 2021, he rescinded Mr. Trump’s travel bans as one of his first acts and returned to a system of individualized vetting for people from those countries.
Mr. Biden’s proclamation labeled the travel bans “just plain wrong,” calling them “a stain on our national conscience” and “inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.” The actions, Mr. Biden said, also “undermined our national security” by jeopardizing “our global network of alliances and partnerships.”
In his executive order in January setting in motion the restoration and expansion of travel bans, Mr. Trump said he was acting to protect American citizens “from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.” State Dept. Plans to Close Diplomatic Missions and Fire Employees Overseas (New York Times)
New York Times [3/6/2025 4:14 PM, Edward Wong and Mark Mazzetti, 831K]
Senior State Department officials have drawn up plans to close a dozen consulates overseas by this summer and are considering shutting down many more missions, in what could be a blow to the U.S. government’s efforts to build partnerships and gather intelligence, American officials say.
The department also plans to lay off many local citizens who work for its hundreds of missions. Those workers make up two-thirds of the agency’s work force, and in many countries they form the foundation of U.S. diplomats’ knowledge of their environments.
The shrinking is part of both President Trump’s larger slashing of the federal government and his “America First” foreign policy, in which the United States ends or curtails once-important ways of exercising global influence, including through democracy, human rights and aid work.
The moves come at a time when China, the main rival of America, has overtaken the United States in number of global diplomatic posts. China has forged strong ties across nations, especially in Asia and Africa, and exerts greater power in international organizations.
Any broad shutdowns of missions, especially entire embassies, would hinder the work of large parts of the federal government and potentially compromise U.S. national security.
Embassies house officers from the military, intelligence, law enforcement, health, commerce, trade, treasury and other agencies, all of whom monitor developments in the host nation and work with local officials to counter everything from terrorism to infectious disease to collapsing currencies.
The prospect of wide cuts has already generated some anxiety within the Central Intelligence Agency. The vast majority of undercover American intelligence officers work out of embassies and consulates, posing as diplomats, and the closure of diplomatic posts would reduce the C.I.A.’s options for where to position its spies.
The cuts come as the State Department is hemorrhaging senior staff members via voluntary resignations, and a hiring freeze means the work force is shrinking through attrition. A current five-week course mainly for senior career diplomats, including ambassadors, choosing to retire has about 160 people in it, one of the largest cohorts of retiring officers in recent memory, one American official said.
About 700 employees — 450 of them career diplomats — have handed in resignation papers in the first two months of this year, the official said. That is an astonishing rate: Before 2025, about 800 people had resigned over an entire year.
The efforts to cut diplomatic posts and overseas staffing are part of an internal campaign to reduce the State Department’s operations budget, perhaps by as much as 20 percent, according to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the evolving discussions. Like others who spoke for this article, they discussed the sensitive plans on the condition of anonymity.
The possible cuts and related proposals could evolve as internal debate continues.
The process has been accelerated by a team led by Elon Musk, which has embedded itself in government agencies in the hunt for what it calls government waste. One member of the team, Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old who publicly goes by “Big Balls,” is in the State Department helping to direct the budget cuts at the agency. The department’s budget and employee numbers are tiny compared with those of the Pentagon.
A memo circulating within the department proposes closing a dozen consulates, mainly in Western Europe, according to three U.S. officials who have seen or been briefed on the memo. That action is occurring as Mr. Trump distances the United States from its democratic allies in Europe in favor of strengthening relations with Russia.
The United States’ 271 global diplomatic posts lag behind China’s 274, but the United States currently has an edge in Europe, according to a study by the Lowy Institute.
The State Department notified two congressional committees last month of the closures. And on Monday, department officials told the committees that they also planned to close a consulate in Gaziantep, Turkey, which has been a hub for U.S. officials to work with refugees from neighboring Syria and humanitarian aid groups there.
Those consulates are small operations, usually with one or two American diplomats and a staff of local citizens. But they help collect and disseminate information in places away from capitals, and issue visas.
In mid-February, Secretary of State Marco Rubio sent a memo to chiefs of mission, who are usually ambassadors, telling them to ensure that staffing at overseas posts was “kept to the minimum necessary to implement the president’s foreign policy priorities.” He also said any positions left vacant for two years should be abolished, said a U.S. official who has seen the memo.
A cable sent from Washington on Wednesday to global missions tells all employees to look for “waste, fraud and abuse,” the phrase that Mr. Musk uses to justify his deep cuts across the government. Officials are told to help with Mr. Musk’s mission by reviewing all contracts that cost $10,000 to $250,000, said the U.S. official, who has seen the cable.
That could contribute to a proposed slashing of up to 20 percent of the State Department’s operating budget. The U.S. official said the phrase “across the board” cuts has been used, but it is unclear what that means. Under one proposal, the work of shuttered embassies could be absorbed by another embassy in the same region, or by a regional mission hub.
The plan to close a dozen consulates mainly in Western Europe is more concrete. State Department officials have shared a list with Congress, though it could still change. The list includes consulates in Florence, Italy; Strasbourg, France; Hamburg, Germany; and Ponta Delgada, Portugal. It also includes a consulate in Brazil, according to a U.S. official who has seen the list. Some details of the planned closures were reported earlier by Politico.“The State Department continues to assess our global posture to ensure we are best positioned to address modern challenges on behalf of the American people,” the agency said in a statement on Thursday when asked about the various proposed changes.
In his remarks to employees on his first day at the department, Mr. Rubio said that he valued the diplomatic corps, but that “there will be changes.”“The changes are not meant to be destructive; they’re not meant to be punitive,” he said. “The changes will be because we need to be a 21st-century agency that can move, by a cliché that’s used by many, at the speed of relevance.”
Since then, Mr. Rubio has overseen drastic foreign aid cuts and allowed Mr. Musk and Pete Marocco, a divisive political appointee, to fire or place on leave thousands of employees at the United States Agency for International Development, a sister agency to the State Department. That has raised doubts among diplomats over Mr. Rubio’s commitment.
The unease among diplomats is further fueled by the fact that they have seen no sign that Mr. Rubio has tried to push back against Mr. Trump’s efforts to weaken democratic Ukraine and embrace Russia, which could signal a broader acquiescence to White House directives. Diplomats have noted a viral photo of Mr. Rubio slouched stone-faced on a couch in the Oval Office last Friday as Mr. Trump shouted at Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.
Employees in the State Department’s Foreign and Civil Services are bracing for rounds of layoffs. The department has about 80,000 employees, with 50,000 of those local citizens abroad. Of the rest, about 14,000 are trained diplomats who rotate overseas, called Foreign Service officers and specialists, and 13,000 are members of the Civil Service and work mostly out of Washington.
The chiefs of mission were asked by senior department officials to submit a list by mid-February of the bare minimum number of local citizens they would need to maintain mission operations, a U.S. official said.
Diplomats and civil servants could be pushed out through reduction-in-force orders, a mechanism that government agencies can use to lay off workers. Another U.S. official said those kinds of orders are supposed to take into account seniority and job performance.
In recent weeks, a list of 700 Civil Service workers who potentially could be fired circulated within the department, but so far only 18 who were on probationary status have been let go, a U.S. official said.
One attempt to cut workers has been rolled back for now. In early February, the department issued orders to contracting companies to end the work of 60 contractors in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. The companies put the workers, who include tech and area specialists, on unpaid leave. But after internal discussions, the bureau asked most or all of them to return this week.
Top officials are discussing consolidating parts of the department. One proposal would downgrade, through a merger, the democracy and human rights bureau as well as bureaus working on counternarcotics and refugee and migration issues. The department’s office of foreign aid and the tiny remnants of U.S.A.I.D. would be put under the same umbrella.
Officials have also proposed merging some of the department’s regional bureaus. Those are run by assistant secretaries in Washington and oversee policy and operations across large swaths of the globe. The bureaus are central to American diplomacy. Twitter
Afghanistan
Mohammed Haneef Atmar@MHaneefAtmar
[3/6/2025 4:22 PM, 730.9K followers, 5 retweets, 22 likes]
We all seek justice for both the Afghan and American victims of that heinous act of terror. The Afghan people will especially welcome any measures that bring all terrorists to justice without distinction, along with those who nurtured and enabled them for their own security and economic interests.
Regardless of the true identity of the suspect, Mohammad Sharifullah, and his role in that brutal act of savagery, and the timing of the operation and the announcement, significant questions must be addressed amid the ongoing euphoria in certain circles in both Washington and Islamabad.
Firstly, the suspect was reportedly arrested in Pakistan, not Afghanistan, as the Pakistani intelligence agency likely did not have cooperation from the Taliban for this. It’s important to understand the narrative from the Pakistani establishment regarding why leaders and operatives of such terrorist networks, including Osama bin Laden, have managed to find sanctuary in Pakistan—sometimes even in cities and close to military bases. Is this due to the failure of the Pakistani army, actions by the so-called "rogue elements," or the pursuit of a deliberate state policy?
Secondly, there is consensus among UN monitors and the foreign intelligence and diplomatic community that the Taliban have allowed their foreign allies, from the region and beyond, to find sanctuaries in Afghanistan. However, these bodies also report, sometimes with admiration, on the Taliban’s ongoing campaign against ISIS-K. In this context, the Taliban have recently started accusing Pakistan of allowing ISIS-K to use sanctuaries and military training facilities within Pakistan—which the Taliban know very well from experience—to launch attacks inside Afghanistan. Are we witnessing a new chapter in the use of violent proxies in the region, i.e., Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) against Pakistan and ISIS-K against Afghanistan?
Finally, the Trump administration has acknowledged Pakistan’s role in arresting the suspect and supporting U.S. counter-terrorism efforts in the region. Additionally, Pakistan has encouraged the U.S. to reclaim its weapons from the Taliban.
However, there are individuals within the Trump administration, including senior figures like U.S. National Security Advisor @michaelgwaltz, who have served and gained extensive experience in Afghanistan over the past two decades. Is there anyone among them who truly believes that the Taliban could have survived and come to power after two decades of joint U.S.-NATO and Afghan counter-terrorism efforts without their sanctuaries and support bases in Pakistan? Is there any one in Pakistan willing to take any responsibility for the training, weapons and sanctuary that the Taliban received over these years in and from Pakistan? Will there ever be accountability for these actions?
It is perplexing to observe that such knowledge and experience seem absent from the current U.S. policy assertions, and that the Pakistani army can continue with the duplicity of employing terrorism while simultaneously assisting with “counter-terrorism”.
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[3/6/2025 7:15 PM, 5.5K followers, 39 retweets, 70 likes]
On International Women’s Day, Afghan women held symbolic protests against the Taliban. An Afghan woman appeared in chains to show how the Taliban’s policies have shackled women and girls, stealing their freedom and basic rights. This is the reality of life under Taliban rule.
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[3/6/2025 12:16 PM, 5.5K followers, 22 retweets, 45 likes]
Message of Afghan women and girls from Kabul, Afghanistan: March 8, #InternationalWomensDay, is a reminder of our endless fight for freedom, equality, and justice. Under Taliban rule, we stand strong. We won’t give up until every woman lives with dignity and freedom. https://x.com/i/status/1897697734859407443 Pakistan
Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan@PakPMO
[3/6/2025 4:12 AM, 3.7M followers, 13 retweets, 56 likes]
Mr. Huzaifa Rehman SAPM called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad. March 6, 2025.
Prime Minister’s Office, Pakistan@PakPMO
[3/6/2025 4:10 AM, 3.7M followers, 5 retweets, 31 likes]
Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Amir Muqam called on Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad. March 6, 2025.
Government of Pakistan@GovtofPakistan
[3/6/2025 12:42 PM, 3.1M followers, 6 retweets, 8 likes]
Within one year under PM Shahbaz Sharif’s leadership, Pakistan has seen a drastic reduction in inflation rate from 28.8% to 2.4%. This is all supported by disciplined fiscal policies, a 30% increase in tax revenue, and a rising stock market which climbed to a historic 118,000 points. With world’s top agencies like Moody’s and Fitch boosting Pakistan’s ratings, the country is on a path to exciting economic growth.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[3/6/2025 2:17 PM, 218.8K followers, 34 retweets, 183 likes]
Some strange explanations and conspiracy theories are floating around on the US-Pak efforts to apprehend Sharifullah. To me, it seems quite straightforward: From the very start, the Trump admin has signaled its concerns about terrorists, esp those that target/threaten Americans.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[3/6/2025 2:17 PM, 218.8K followers, 2 retweets, 21 likes]
The admin. had info on Sharifullah’s location. It went to Pakistan for help, as the US has often done when there’s something it wants. Trump once went to Khan (and by extension the military) to get help bringing the Taliban to the table for the talks that led to the Doha deal.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[3/6/2025 2:17 PM, 218.8K followers, 3 retweets, 24 likes]
Pakistan agreed to help the US track down Sharifullah because this served Pakistan’s interests. IS-K targets Pakistan. Also, Pak hopes to expand CT partnership w/the US (a hard sell) and wants to show a transactional administration that it can deliver in ways that help the US.
Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[3/6/2025 2:17 PM, 218.8K followers, 6 retweets, 32 likes]
Sharifullah may not have been the core mastermind of the Abbey Gate attack, but as the affidavit makes clear, he did play a key enabling role in it (and in several other recent attacks, including the Moscow nightclub attack). The guy has blood on his hands.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[3/6/2025 4:48 PM, 621.7K followers, 801 retweets, 1.6K likes]
In the Global Terrorism Index, 2025, Pakistan is No.2 worse than Syria, Mali, Niger and Afghanistan. Asim Munir’s hunger of power and proxy-regime’s lack of legitimacy is pushing the country to a dark hole.
Jalil Abbas Jilani@JalilJilani
[3/6/2025 7:54 AM, 26.8K followers, 4 retweets, 12 likes]
Pakistan and the US has an excellent cooperative relationship including on counterterrorism. The arrest and extradition of a high profile ISIS terrorist involved in the killing of US soldiers and innocent Afghan nationals is one such manifestation of this cooperation. India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/7/2025 1:14 AM, 105.7M followers, 311 retweets, 1.3K likes]
Over the next two days, will be attending programmes in the UT of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, and Gujarat. These programmes cover diverse sectors including healthcare, women empowerment and rural development. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2108964®=3&lang=1
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/7/2025 1:14 AM, 105.7M followers, 103 retweets, 225 likes]
In Silvassa this afternoon, will be inaugurating the NAMO Hospital (Phase 1) and attending a programme where works worth over Rs. 2500 crore will be inaugurated. Later in the day, will be in Surat to launch the Surat Food Security Saturation Campaign Programme.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[3/6/2025 6:52 AM, 105.7M followers, 6.3K retweets, 41K likes]
Highlights from the programme in Uttarakhand, which will encourage winter tourism and boost the local economy. https://x.com/i/status/1897616211212653036
Rahul Gandhi@RahulGandhi
[3/6/2025 8:49 AM, 27.6M followers, 3.4K retweets, 11K likes]
Sudheer Rajbhar of Chamar Studio encapsulates the life and journey of lakhs of Dalit youth in India. Extremely talented, brimming with ideas and hungry to succeed but lacking the access and opportunity to connect with the elite in his field. However, unlike many others from his community, he got the opportunity to build his own network. He understood the latent skill of the artisans of Dharavi and he created a brand that is recognised in the most esteemed corridors of fashion globally. Chamar Studio’s success highlights how traditional artisanship and modern entrepreneurship can work together so that skilled artisans get a piece of the success they build with their own hands. While working with Sudheer and his team in Dharavi today, I underscored the importance of inclusive production networks that uplift skilled workers across various sectors. I felt it was equally important for Sudheer to share his knowledge and experience with others so we brought our friend Ramchet mochi from Sultanpur to meet him and understand how design and innovation can transform his business. I spoke in the Lok Sabha about how a prosperous India can only be built through “production and participation”. Chamar Studio’s success shows this model works - and I hope we can replicate such a model all over India.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[3/7/2025 1:00 AM, 270.7K followers, 42 retweets, 121 likes]
The US Supreme Court has cleared the way for Tahawwur Rana’s extradition to India to stand trial for the 2008 horrific Mumbai terrorist massacre. But the US has yet to act on India’s request to extradite a more-important plotter of the attack, David Coleman Headley, who in 2013 was sentenced by a US court to 35 years in prison for his role in the Pakistan-scripted Mumbai massacre.
Derek J. Grossman@DerekJGrossman
[3/7/2025 1:33 AM, 96.3K followers, 7 retweets, 22 likes]
India would very likely welcome closer US-Russia relations. It would be quite suspicious of closer US-China relations. In the end, New Delhi might get both. My latest via @ForeignPolicy explains. https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/03/06/trump-indo-pacific-china-india-southeast-asia-geopolitics-world-order/ NSB
Chief Adviser of the Government of Bangladesh@ChiefAdviserGoB
[3/6/2025 5:58 AM, 120K followers, 112 retweets, 916 likes]
Ambassador William B Milam and former American diplomat Jon Danilowicz, the president and executive director of a US-based non profit human rights group, Right to Freedom, paid a courtesy call on Bangladesh Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at the State Guest House Jamuna.
Jon Danilowicz@JonFDanilowicz
[3/6/2025 8:32 PM, 14K followers, 7 retweets, 61 likes]
At the half way point of our visit to Bangladesh, a couple things have come into clear focus. First, nobody in Bangladesh subscribes to the narrative that the supporters of the fallen dictator are trying to portray. Of course there are problems, and these are discussed openly. But the narrative about chaos, breakdown in law and order, unchecked extremism, and terror in the minority community is clearly a construct of those whose regime ended in August and their external backers.
Second, the broad outlines of the path forward are clear: there will be a consensus reached on reforms and elections will be held within the time frame agreed upon by the interim government and the political parties. Not surprisingly, what people say in private is often different from their public utterances. The next election campaign is already underway, well before the specific date is fixed. Public statements are intended to position individuals and parties prior to that date.
Finally, while the initial euphoria of early August has understandably passed, Bangladesh is fundamentally changed from the pre-July period. Nobody wants to go back and there is no nostalgia for Hasina’s regime. Slowly, the outlines of Bangladesh 2.0 are emerging and citizens across the political spectrum are finding their voice and exercising their freedoms--as messy and chaotic as that may appear to outside observers. I look forward to further engagements across the coming days.
Jon Danilowicz@JonFDanilowicz
[3/6/2025 11:16 AM, 14K followers, 31 retweets, 269 likes]
Despite having had the honor of meeting him on multiple occasions over the years, meeting with Professor Yunus never disappoints. His commitment to ensuring that a consensus on reforms in Bangladesh is reached and implemented has been unwavering. When his government hands over power to a democratically elected successor, this and future generations will owe him a great debt for answering the call to once again serve the nation. Ambassador Milam and I welcomed the opportunity to update Professor Yunus on the work that @rtoforg has done and plans to do to advance freedom and liberty. We look forward to joining hands with those working to build a new Bangladesh worthy of the sacrifices of this and previous generations who fought for their rights against those who would oppress them. Freedom is not given, it is taken.
Derek J. Grossman@DerekJGrossman
[3/6/2025 6:31 PM, 96.3K followers, 1 retweet, 10 likes]
Beijing is really trying to capitalize on the Bangladeshi interim govt’s open-mindedness on China. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202503/1329568.shtml
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[3/6/2025 4:58 AM, 112.3K followers, 163 retweets, 157 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu visits Rasfannu to assess ongoing efforts to restore harmony and renovate the premises to their former glory. The President was accompanied by prominent Government figures, Members of Parliament, and senior representatives from relevant authorities overseeing the efforts.
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[3/6/2025 3:29 AM, 262.2K followers, 3 retweets, 15 likes]
H.E. Ms. Cui Li, Vice President,GNFCC of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Former Vice Minister of the National Health Commission of China called on Hon. Foreign Minister Dr. Arzu Rana Deuba today. @Arzuranadeuba @amritrai555 @krishnadhakal07
MOFA of Nepal@MofaNepal
[3/6/2025 3:29 AM, 262.2K followers, 1 retweet]
During the call on, views were exchanged on pertinent matters of regional cooperation within SCO as well as various aspects of Nepal-China relations and cooperation.
Vijay Thottathil@vijaythottathil
[3/7/2025 1:57 AM, 35.7K followers, 56 retweets, 101 likes]
Nepal sends chartered flight to bring back illegal immigrants, that too without hand cuffs and shackles!! We too have Viswaguru, can’t even uphold the dignity of Indians!
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/7/2025 2:35 AM, 146.1K followers, 3 retweets, 25 likes]
Yesterday (06), I participated in a crucial discussion at the Presidential Secretariat about enhancing our country’s irrigation system. I stressed the importance of utilizing this year’s allocated funds effectively over the next eight months to support our farmers and promote sustainable water solutions. Together, we can achieve our economic growth targets!
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/7/2025 2:33 AM, 146.1K followers, 1 retweet, 15 likes]
Yesterday (06), I participated in a crucial discussion at the Presidential Secretariat with officials from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Lands and Irrigation. I instructed them to expedite the compensation process for crop damages caused by heavy rains. We reviewed budget allocations for 2025 and emphasized the importance of accurate agricultural data to avoid decision-making errors. Ensuring fair market prices for our farmers and promoting the livestock sector were key points of our discussion.
Anura Kumara Dissanayake@anuradisanayake
[3/6/2025 7:15 AM, 146.1K followers, 3 retweets, 95 likes]
I had a productive discussion today (06) with Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya and officials from the Ministry of Education on budget allocations for education in 2025. We also addressed key challenges and reforms needed to strengthen school, higher and vocational education in Sri Lanka.
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[3/6/2025 12:17 PM, 7.9K followers, 68 retweets, 298 likes]
A Premeditated Attack Disguised as Journalism
I’ve watched Mehdi Hasan before, he’s always aggressive and combative. But even by his usual standards, his interview with Ranil Wickremesinghe was deeply premeditated. This wasn’t about getting answers. It wasn’t about journalism. It was about pushing an agenda, an outright interrogation where the objective was to attack, not engage. There’s a way to ask tough questions while still being fair. Instead, Mehdi shouted over responses, cut off explanations, and twisted words to fit his own narrative. If the answer didn’t suit him, he simply refused to listen. I’ve seen how he operates, but I wonder does he apply the same treatment to leaders from powerful nations? Does he aggressively grill them on their failures, their war crimes, their human rights abuses with this same level of hostility? Or is this reserved for leaders from smaller nations like ours?No one is saying Sri Lanka is without flaws. We have work to do. We need reforms. We need accountability. But that’s our fight. Sri Lankans will decide the future of Sri Lanka, not a journalist with an agenda, not an international media outlet with selective scrutiny.
Public service is often a thankless job. But distorting facts, rewriting history, and weaponizing interviews to undermine a country’s progress is shameful. You may love him or hate him, but you can’t deny the facts, when Sri Lanka hit rock bottom, RW stepped in and pulled the country out of an economic recession and quagmire. Not once, but twice, first in 2001 and again in 2022. No one else had the courage to take responsibility when it mattered most. At the very least, we must show some gratitude.
And let’s not get carried away celebrating this so-called “takedown.” No contemporary politician in Sri Lanka could have stood up to that level of bullying and hostility. RW, once again, proved why he stands apart. Sri Lanka will move forward, not on the terms of an international journalist with an agenda, but on our own.
Agnes Callamard@AgnesCallamard
[3/5/2025 3:14 AM, 90.2K followers, 8 retweets, 27 likes]
Just finished a short visit to #SriLanka where I had many conversations and exchanges on the changes that are expected from this newly elected government. There are huge expectations that this government will resolutely drive the country on the path towards justice, accountability and reconciliation. Time is of the essence. Trust is fragile and needs to be handled with utmost care. We got the clear message that people need to see meaningful demonstration that this government means business when it declares it will bring about “systems change”. This could mean ensuring emblematic cases are brought to a successful closure; making public the lists of names of people who surrendered to the authorities at the end of the war; repealing the draconian anti-terror legislation (the PTA); reforming the OMP so that it can be a trusted and effective mechanism. It also means turning the pages on years of government rejection and suspicion of international human rights mechanisms. "System change" should further involve righting the wrongs for one of the most neglected communities of Sri Lanka, the Malaiyaha Tamils, who for decades have endured the worst possible working and living conditions. It means strengthening labour rights to empower communities like the workers in the garment industry to organise and collectively bargain for their rights. Amnesty International will be following up on this mission with a range of recommendations to the authorities, to promote better human rights standards. I wish to thank the government officials I met as well as the many activists, CSOs representatives, lawyers, unionists that keep fighting and rising up. And many, many thanks to my wonderful colleagues. Central Asia
UNODC in Central Asia@UNODC_ROCA
[3/6/2025 8:24 AM, 2.5K followers, 1 retweet]
Today, @oliverstolpe met with Mr. Salimjon Khusanov, Deputy Chairperson of State Security Service, Commander of the Border Troops of Uzbekistan. Key topics of discussion: enhancing cooperation in countering drugs, regional cooperation, and cross-border information exchange.
MFA Kazakhstan@MFA_KZ[3/6/2025 9:06 AM, 57K followers, 6 retweets, 14 likes]
Gratitude to Head of OSCE Programme Office for Work in Kazakhstan https://gov.kz/memleket/entities/mfa/press/news/details/952664?lang=kk
Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s Press-service@president_uz
[3/6/2025 1:57 PM, 213.1K followers, 1 retweet, 17 likes]
President Shavkat #Mirziyoyev received the credentials of newly appointed Ambassadors from #Egypt, #Italy #Kyrgyzstan, #Belarus, #Georgia, and #Türkiye. He wished them success in their roles, encouraged to strengthen partnerships and urged active cooperation with regions and private businesses. The ambassadors expressed their commitment to leveraging their experience to promote multifaceted cooperation with #Uzbekistan.
Asel Doolotkeldieva@ADoolotkeldieva
[3/7/2025 2:27 AM, 13.9K followers, 1 retweet, 3 likes]
Head of Russia-led CSTO, Tasmagambetov told that the organization might consider assistance to Russia in case of European troops in Ukraine. Did CSTO consult with the Kazakhs, Kyrgyz & Tajiks? Doubtful they would want to send their troops despite alliance https://rus.azattyk.org/a/tasmagambetov-zayavil-o-gotovnosti-odkb-vyyti-s-predlozheniyami-k-rossii-v-sluchae-otpravki-evropeyskih-voysk-v-ukrainu/33339361.html{End of Report} To subscribe to the SCA Morning Press Clips, please email SCA-PressOfficers@state.gov. Please do not reply directly to this email.