SCA MORNING PRESS CLIPS
Prepared for the U.S. Department of State
Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs
TO: | SCA & Staff |
DATE: | Friday, May 23, 2025 6:30 AM ET |
Afghanistan
Taliban in talks with Russia, China for trade transactions in local currencies (Reuters)
Reuters [5/23/2025 4:13 AM, Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield, 5.2M]
The Taliban administration is in advanced talks with Russia for banks from both sanctions-hit economies to settle trade transactions worth hundreds of millions of dollars in their local currencies, Afghanistan’s acting commerce minister said.
The Afghan government has made similar proposals to China, the minister, Haji Nooruddin Azizi, told Reuters on Thursday. Some discussions have been held with the Chinese embassy in Kabul, he said.
The proposal with Russia, Azizi said, was being worked on by technical teams from the two countries. The move comes as Moscow focuses on using national currencies to shift reliance away from the dollar and as Afghanistan faces a stark drop in the U.S. currency entering the country due to aid cuts.
"We are currently engaged in specialised discussions on this matter, considering the regional and global economic perspectives, sanctions, and the challenges Afghanistan is currently facing, as well as those Russia is dealing with. Technical discussions are underway," Azizi said in an interview at his office in Kabul.
The Chinese foreign ministry and the Russian central bank did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Azizi added that annual bilateral trade between Russia and Afghanistan was currently around $300 million and that was likely to grow substantially as the two sides boost investment. His administration expected Afghanistan to buy more petroleum products and plastics from Russia, he said."I am confident that this is a very good option...we can use this option for benefit and interests of our people and our country,’ Azizi said.
"We want to take steps in this area with China as well," he said, adding Afghanistan had around $1 billion in trade with China each year. "A working team composed of members from the (Afghan) Ministry of Commerce and the Chinese embassy which is an authorized body representing China in economic programmes has been formed, and talks are ongoing."
Afghanistan’s financial sector has been largely cut off from the global banking system due to sanctions placed on some leaders of the ruling Taliban, which took over the country in 2021 as foreign forces withdrew.
Rivalry with China and fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine have put the dollar’s status as the world’s dominant currency under fresh scrutiny in recent years.
In December, Russian President Vladimir Putin questioned the need to hold state reserves in foreign currencies since they could easily be confiscated for political reasons, saying that domestic investment of such reserves was more attractive.
The dollar has had a lock on commodity trading, allowing Washington to hinder market access for producer nations from Russia to Venezuela and Iran.
Afghanistan since 2022 has imported gas, oil and wheat from Russia, the first major economic deal after the Taliban returned to power facing international isolation following 20 years of war against U.S.-led forces.
Billions of dollars in cuts to aid to Afghanistan, accelerated this year by the United States, have meant far fewer dollars, which are flown in cash for humanitarian operations, are entering the country.
Development agencies and economists say the Afghani currency has so far remained relatively stable but may face challenges in future.
Azizi said that the stability of the currency and his administration’s efforts to boost international investment including with the Afghan diaspora, would prevent a shortage of U.S. dollars in the country. Guess who India, Pakistan and Iran are all wooing? The Taliban (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/23/2025 12:00 AM, Usaid SiddiquiUsaid Siddiqui, 17M]
For a country whose government is not recognised by any nation, Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi has had an unusually busy calendar in recent weeks.
He has hosted his counterpart from Pakistan, spoken on the phone with India’s foreign minister, and jetted to Iran and China. In Beijing, he also met the Pakistani foreign minister again. On Wednesday, he joined trilateral talks with delegations from Pakistan and China.
This, even though the ruling Taliban have historically had tense relations with most of these countries, and currently have taut ties with Pakistan, a one-time ally with whom trust is at an all-time low.
While neither the United Nations nor any of its member states formally recognise the Taliban, analysts say that this diplomatic overdrive suggests that the movement is far from a pariah on the global stage.
So why are multiple countries in Afghanistan’s neighbourhood queueing up to engage diplomatically with the Taliban, while avoiding formal recognition?
We unpack the Taliban’s latest high-level regional engagements and look at why India, Pakistan and Iran are all trying to befriend Afghanistan’s rulers, four years after they marched on Kabul and grabbed power.
Who did Muttaqi meet or speak to in recent weeks?
A timeline of Afghanistan’s recent diplomatic engagements:
April 19: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar travels with a high-level delegation to Kabul to meet Muttaqi and other Afghan officials. The two sides discussed an ongoing spat over Pakistan’s repatriation of Afghan refugees, bilateral trade and economic cooperation, the Afghanistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
May 6: Dar and Muttaqi spoke again on what turned out to be the eve of India’s attack on Pakistan, leading to four days of missile and drone attacks between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The exchange of fire took place after India accused Pakistan of being involved in the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 26 people dead.
May 15: India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar holds a phone conversation with Muttaqi to express his gratitude for the Taliban’s condemnation of the Pahalgam attacks.
May 17: Muttaqi arrives in the Iranian capital Tehran to attend the Tehran Dialogue Forum, where he also holds meetings with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Massoud Pazeshkian.
May 21: Muttaqi visits Beijing. Trilateral talks between Afghanistan, Pakistan and China take place aimed at boosting trade and security between the three countries.
Head of the Taliban’s political office in Doha, Qatar, Suhail Shaheen said the group is a “reality of today’s Afghanistan” as it “controls all territory and borders of the country”.“The regional countries know this fact and, as such, they engage with the Islamic Emirate at various levels, which is a pragmatic and rational approach in my view,” he told Al Jazeera, referring to the name by which the Taliban refers to the current Afghan state.“We believe it is through engagement that we can find solutions to issues,” he added, arguing that formal recognition of the Taliban government “not be delayed furthermore”.“Our region has its own interests and goals that we should adhere to.”Why is India warming up to the Taliban?
It’s an unlikely partnership. During the Taliban’s initial rule between 1996 and 2001, the Indian government refused to engage with the Afghan group and did not recognise their rule, which at the time was only recognised by Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
India, which had supported the earlier Soviet-backed government of Mohammad Najibullah, shut down its embassy in Kabul once the Taliban came to power: It viewed the Taliban as a proxy of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies, which had supported the mujahideen against Moscow.
Instead, New Delhi supported the anti-Taliban opposition group, the Northern Alliance.
Following the United States-led ousting of the Taliban in 2001, India reopened its Kabul embassy and became a significant development partner for Afghanistan, investing more than $3bn in infrastructure, health, education and water projects, according to its Ministry of External Affairs.
But its embassy and consulates came under repeated, deadly attacks from the Taliban and its allies, including the Haqqani group.
After the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, New Delhi evacuated its embassy and once again refused to recognise the group. However, unlike during the Taliban’s first stint in power, India built diplomatic contacts with the group – first behind closed doors, then, increasingly, publicly.
The logic was simple, say analysts: India realised that by refusing to engage with the Taliban earlier, it had ceded influence in Afghanistan to Pakistan, its regional rival.
In June 2022, less than a year after the Taliban’s return to power, India reopened its embassy in Kabul by deploying a team of “technical experts” to run it. In November 2024, the Taliban appointed an acting consul at the Afghan consulate in Mumbai.
Then, last January, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Muttaqi both flew to Dubai for a meeting – the highest-level face-to-face interaction between New Delhi and the Taliban to date.
Kabir Taneja, a deputy director at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, says not dealing with “whatever political reality sets in in Kabul was never an option” for India.“No one is pleased per se that the reality is the Taliban,” Taneja told Al Jazeera. However, while India’s “decades-long” efforts to foster goodwill with the Afghan people have faced challenges since the Taliban takeover, they have not been entirely undone.“Even the Taliban’s ideological stronghold, the Darul Uloom Deoband seminary, is in India,” he added. “These are ties with the country and its actors that cannot be vanquished, and have to be dealt with realistically and practically,” he added.
What is Pakistan’s calculus?One of the Taliban’s foremost backers between 1996 and 2021, Pakistan has seen its relationship with the group plummet in recent years.
Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, Pakistan has seen a surge in violent attacks, which Islamabad attributes to armed groups, such as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Pakistan insists that the TTP operates from Afghan territory and blames the ruling Taliban for allowing them sanctuary – a claim the Taliban government denies.
Emerging in 2007 amid the US-led so-called “war on terror”, the Pakistan Taliban has long challenged Islamabad’s authority through a violent rebellion. Though distinct from the Afghan Taliban, the two are seen as ideologically aligned.
Dar’s visit to Kabul and subsequent communication with Muttaqi represent a “tactical, ad hoc thaw” rather than a substantial shift in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, says Rabia Akhtar, director at the Centre for Security, Strategy and Policy Research at the University of Lahore.
During the recent India-Pakistan crisis, Islamabad grew increasingly concerned about the possibility of Afghanistan allowing its territory to be used by New Delhi against Pakistan, she suggested. “This has increased Islamabad’s urgency to secure its western border,” Akhtar told Al Jazeera.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s decision earlier this year to expel Afghan refugees – including many who have spent most of their lives in Pakistan – and frequent border closures disrupting trade are also sources of tension in the relationship.
The refugees question, in particular, could prove to be a key factor that will shape future relations between the two countries, Akhtar said.“While Pakistan has pushed for repatriation of undocumented Afghans, Kabul views such deportations as punitive,” she said. “If this dialogue is an indication of a recognition on both sides that confrontation is unsustainable, especially amidst shifting regional alignments and economic pressures, then that’s a good sign.”
The Taliban’s Shaheen said while Kabul wanted good relations with Islamabad, they should be “reciprocated” and that a “blame game” is not in anyone’s interest.“We have taken practical steps as far as it concerns us,” he said, noting that Afghanistan had started building checkpoints “along the line adjacent to Pakistan in order to prevent any one from crossing”.“However, their internal security is the responsibility of their security forces not ours.”
China, at the trilateral talks in Beijing on Wednesday, said Kabul and Islamabad had agreed in principle to upgrade diplomatic ties and would send their respective ambassadors at the earliest.
Nevertheless, Akhtar does not expect the “core mistrust” between the two neighbours, particularly over alleged TTP sanctuaries, to “go away any time soon”.“We should look at this shift as part of Pakistan’s broader crisis management post-India-Pak crisis rather than structural reconciliation,” Akhtar asserted.
What does Iran want from its ties with the Taliban?
Like India, Tehran refused to recognise the Taliban when it was first in power, while backing the Northern Alliance, especially after the 1998 killing of Iranian diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif by Taliban fighters.
Iran amassed thousands of troops on its eastern border, nearly going to war with the Taliban over the incident.
Concerned about the extensive US military footprint in the region post-9/11, Iran was said to be quietly engaging with the Taliban, offering limited support in an effort to counter American influence and protect its own strategic interests.
Since the Taliban took back reins of the country nearly four years ago, Iran again showed willingness to build ties with rulers in Kabul on a number of security, humanitarian and trade-related matters, analysts say.
Shaheen, head of the Taliban’s office in Doha, said that both Iran and India previously thought the group was “under the influence of Pakistan”.“Now they know it is not the reality. In view of this ground reality, they have adopted a new realistic and pragmatic approach, which is good for everyone,” he said.
Ibraheem Bahiss, analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the meeting between Muttaqi and Iranian President Pezeshkian doesn’t signal an “impending official recognition”. However, he said, “pragmatic considerations” have driven Iran to engage the Taliban, given its “key interests” in Afghanistan.“Security-wise, Tehran wants allies in containing the ISIS [ISIL] local chapter. Tehran has also been seeking to expand its trade relations with Afghanistan, now being one of its major trading partners,” he told Al Jazeera.
In January 2024, twin suicide bombings in Kerman marked one of Iran’s deadliest attacks in decades, killing at least 94 people. The Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), an Afghanistan-based offshoot of ISIL, claimed responsibility.
In recent years, ISKP has also emerged as a significant challenge to the Taliban’s rule, having carried out multiple high-profile attacks across Afghanistan.
Bahiss added that Tehran also needed a “willing partner” in addressing the issue of some 780,000 Afghan refugees in Iran, as well as the “transboundary water flowing from Helmand River “.
In May 2023, tensions between the two neighbours flared, leading to border clashes in which two Iranian border guards and one Taliban fighter were killed.
The violence came after former and now deceased Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Taliban not to violate a 1973 treaty by restricting the flow of water from the Helmand River to Iran’s eastern regions. Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers denied the accusation. Nearly 2,000 Afghan children living in hotels, military bases and other temporary accommodation in UK (The Independent)
The Independent [5/22/2025 7:52 AM, Holly Bancroft, 121822K]
Nearly 2,000 children of Afghan families brought to the UK because of their support of the British are living in hotels, military bases and other temporary accommodation, new data has revealed.
There are 3,880 people, brought to the UK under the Afghan Resettlement Programme, who are living in transitional accommodation while waiting for a more permanent home, government data released on Thursday showed.
The government has said that "around half" of these 3,880 were children as of the end of March 2025. The families are being housed in military bases around the UK, as well as Home Office hotels and other temporary accommodation.
The resettlement scheme is designed to help those Afghans who worked for or closely with British troops, or who supported British government objectives during the war - many of whom face persecution under the Taliban regime.
The number of people being brought to the UK under the Afghan schemes is on the rise. Data shows that there were 7,736 people resettled in the year ending March 2025, a 17 per cent increase on the previous year.
Military bases being used have included sites in Leicestershire, Wiltshire, South Wales, Inverness and Dorset. The Afghan families are living at the bases on a transitional basis before they are moved to homes on other barracks, council properties, or more permanent homes ring-fenced for those in the forces.
The MoD has run out of more permanent homes for these Afghan allies and some hotels have now been opened to house Afghan families while they wait.
The MoD and the Home Office are also liaising with local councils to find extra housing for them.
The number of Afghans living in this transitional accommodation in the UK has increased, with 3,035 people recorded as living in this temporary housing at the end of September 2024.
Data obtained by The Independent earlier this year showed that 1,015 service family accommodation homes were being used for Afghan allies as of 1 January 2025. These homes are available to families for up to three years.
The MoD is currently undertaking a review of some 2,000 resettlement applications from Afghans with credible links to two special forces units CF333 and ATF444, who served closely with UK special forces soldiers during the war in Afghanistan.
The review was prompted after failures were identified in how their applications for sanctuary were refused. Pakistan
Pakistan to offer US firms concessions on mining investment in tariff talks, says minister (Reuters)
Reuters [5/23/2025 5:49 AM, Ariba Shahid, 121822K]
Pakistan plans to offer concessions to U.S. companies to invest in its mining sector as part of negotiations with Washington over tariffs, its commerce minister told Reuters, as Islamabad seeks to capitalize on the Trump administration’s interest in boosting trade with South Asia.Pakistan faces a potential 29% tariff on exports to the United States due to a $3 billion trade surplus with the world’s biggest economy, under tariffs announced by Washington last month on countries around the world. Tariffs were subsequently suspended for 90 days so negotiations could take place.Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Jam Kamal said that Islamabad will offer U.S. businesses opportunities to invest in mining projects primarily in Pakistan’s Balochistan province through joint ventures with local companies, providing concessions like lease grants.The minister said that would be in addition to efforts to increase imports from the United States, particularly cotton and edible oils, which are currently in short supply in Pakistan.Pakistan would put its offer of concessions for mining investment to U.S. officials during talks over tariffs in the coming weeks.Kamal did not give further information on the bidding process of these mines or other details."There is untapped potential for U.S. companies in Pakistan, from mining machinery to hydrocarbon ventures," he said in an interview with Reuters conducted on Thursday.Pakistan’s Reko Diq copper and gold mining project in Balochistan seeks up to $2 billion in financing, including $500 million to $1 billion from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, with term sheets expected by early in the third quarter of this year, its project director told Reuters last month.The mine could generate $70 billion in free cash flow and $90 billion in operating cash flow over its lifespan.U.S. President Donald Trump has said that he’s working on "big deals" with both India and Pakistan, following Washington’s key role in brokering a ceasefire between Pakistan and India earlier this month following the worst fighting in decades between the nuclear-armed neighbours."The previous U.S. administration focused more on India, but Pakistan is now being recognised as a serious trade partner," Kamal said.Pakistan will gradually lower tariffs in its upcoming federal budget, Kamal said.He said that the United States has not specified trade barriers or priority sectors. The U.S. Embassy in Islamabad did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Pakistan recommits to China bond amid Trump shadow over India ceasefire (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera [5/22/2025 6:49 AM, Abid Hussain, 47007K]
As Pakistan sought to defend itself against Indian missiles and drones launched at its military bases and cities in early May, it relied on an unlikely combination of assets: Chinese missiles and air defence; Chinese and United States fighter jets; and US diplomacy.
The missiles, air defence and jets helped Pakistan thwart any devastating hits on its airbases and claim it had brought down multiple Indian fighter planes – an assertion that India has neither confirmed nor denied.
The diplomacy sealed a ceasefire that Pakistan has publicly welcomed and thanked the Donald Trump administration for.
Yet, as the US has in recent years increasingly picked India over Pakistan as its principal South Asian partner, Pakistan this week worked to reassure China that Beijing remained its most coveted ally.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who also serves as foreign minister, visited Beijing earlier this week, meeting his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on May 20 in the first high-profile overseas visit by a Pakistani leader since the ceasefire.
According to a statement from the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the two sides discussed the fallout of the brief but intense conflict with India, the ceasefire, and Islamabad’s criticism of New Delhi’s actions.
During the meeting with Wang, Dar highlighted India’s "unilateral and illegal decision" to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), a six-decade water-sharing agreement. India halted the accord following the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, which left 26 people dead. Delhi blamed the attack on Pakistan-based armed groups, an allegation Islamabad denies.
Wang, meanwhile, welcomed the ceasefire, describing it as serving the "fundamental and long-term interests of both sides [India and Pakistan]" while promoting regional peace.
Getting Wang on board was critical for Pakistan, say analysts.‘Power struggle in South Asia’
With South Asia sitting on a tinderbox during the recent Pakistan-India standoff, a larger geopolitical contest loomed in the background.
Pakistan, once a key US ally, has shifted decisively into China’s orbit, relying on its northwestern neighbour heavily for economic and military support.
Meanwhile, India, long known for its non-alignment policy, has leaned closer to the US in recent years as part of a strategy to counter China’s rising influence.
Shahid Ali, an assistant professor of international relations at Lahore College for Women University, who specialises in Pakistan-China relations, said the timing and optics of Dar’s visit were significant.
"While Pakistan hoped to get China’s full diplomatic support for its conflict with India, especially regarding the suspension of the IWT, the visit also provided Dar a good opportunity to apprise China about US-led ceasefire dynamics, also reassuring them of Pakistan’s longstanding all-weather strategic partnership," Ali told Al Jazeera.
Erum Ashraf, a UK-based scholar focused on Pakistan-China ties and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) – a $62bn mega project launched a decade ago – echoed this view.
She said the meeting allowed China to better understand what promises Pakistan may have made to the US and President Trump, who helped mediate the ceasefire.
"The Chinese must be concerned how Pakistan managed to gain President Trump’s support to talk of ceasefire and to even offer to resolve the matter of Kashmir between both countries. The Chinese worry how US influence in their back yard could impact their interest in the region," she told Al Jazeera.
CPEC remains a cornerstone
Pakistan’s former ambassador to China, Masood Khalid, called Beijing a "logical" first stop for Islamabad’s efforts to use diplomacy to push its narrative about the crisis with India in the aftermath of the ceasefire.
He noted that beyond the recent India-Pakistan military confrontation, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor remained a key pillar of bilateral cooperation.
"The foreign minister may apprise the Chinese side of the security steps which Pakistan has taken for Chinese nationals’ protection," Khalid told Al Jazeera.
Indeed, according to the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Wang prodded both countries to work together to create an "upgraded version of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.".
CPEC, launched in 2015 under then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the elder brother of current Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, has been hailed as a "game-changer" for Pakistan.
It is a key component of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a huge network of roads, bridges and ports spread across nearly 100 countries that Beijing hopes will recreate the ancient Silk Road trade routes linking Europe and Asia.
However, CPEC has faced repeated delays, especially in Balochistan, where its crown jewel, the Gwadar Port, is located.
Separatist groups in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but poorest province, have long waged an armed rebellion against the state and have repeatedly hit Chinese personnel and installations, accusing them of benefitting from the province’s vast natural resources.
According to Pakistani government figures, nearly 20,000 Chinese nationals live in the country. At least 20 have been killed since 2021 in various attacks in different parts of Pakistan.
While Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry did not mention it explicitly, the Chinese statement quoted Dar as saying his country would make every effort to "ensure the safety of Chinese personnel, projects and institutions in Pakistan".
Muhammad Faisal, a South Asia security researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, said the safety of Chinese nationals remains Beijing’s "topmost concern".
"Even as the crisis with India heightened, the presence of a large number of Chinese nationals in Pakistan, in some ways, compelled Beijing to seek swift crisis de-escalation," he told Al Jazeera.‘China’s high-wire act’
Between April 22, when the Pahalgam attack occurred, and May 7, when India struck targets inside Pakistani territory, a global diplomatic effort was quietly under way to de-escalate tensions between the two nuclear-armed nations.
During this period, the US initially showed little interest in direct involvement while China, initially, also was slow to get involved.
China, which has a historically tense relationship with Delhi that suffered further after their troops clashed in the Galwan Valley of Ladakh in 2020, eventually urged restraint from both sides.
However, many observers felt China’s position was seen as lacking neutrality due to its closeness with Pakistan.
Faisal said China is likely to maintain its current "high-wire act", acknowledging Pakistan’s security concerns while continuing to call for calm on both sides.
He added that while the US was the lead mediator for the ceasefire, Beijing double-tapped Washington by calling both Islamabad and New Delhi to dial down tensions.
"A lesson Beijing learned is that its current restrained public posturing opened up diplomatic space to engage with interlocutors in both Islamabad and New Delhi, despite the fact that the latter views its role with scepticism," he said.
Ashraf, the UK-based academic, said India did not view China as a "neutral umpire" in its disputes with Pakistan – even though New Delhi and Beijing have in recent months tried to reset their ties, pulling troops back from contested border points and ramping up diplomatic efforts to calm tensions.
"India and China have only recently achieved a breakthrough in their strained border relations, which perhaps helps to explain China’s initial ‘hands off’ behaviour with Pakistan after Pahalgam," she said.
But ultimately, she said, China needs to "balance a tightrope": It doesn’t want to "upset relations with India", but it also needs to help Pakistan enough that it doesn’t "collapse in the face of India’s attacks".
That’s a balance China managed to strike successfully in early May. With Dar’s visit to Beijing, say analysts, Pakistan – which also benefitted from US diplomatic intervention – tried to repay the favour. 3 girls and 2 soldiers killed in Pakistan school bus bombing are buried (AP)
AP [5/22/2025 4:47 AM, Staff, 31733K]
Hundreds of mourners in Pakistan on Thursday attended the funerals of three schoolgirls and two soldiers killed in a suicide bombing that targeted a school bus.
The girls, aged 10 to 16, were students at the Army Public School in Khuzdar, a city in Balochistan, local authorities said. Another 53 people were wounded, including 39 children, on Wednesday when the bomber drove a car into the school bus in Khuzdar.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, one of the deadliest targeting schoolchildren in recent years. The separatist Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, has claimed most of the previous attacks in the southwestern province.
Both the BLA and the Pakistani Taliban typically refrain from taking responsibility for attacks that result in civilian or child casualties.
The BLA has led a long-running separatist insurgency in Balochistan. The U.S. designated the group a terrorist organization in 2019.
Pakistan’s military and government blamed rival India for the attack without offering any evidence. India has not commented. India and Pakistan this month fought a four-day conflict before agreeing to a ceasefire. India
India Says US Trade Talks Were ‘Constructive’ on Bilateral Deal (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/22/2025 11:54 PM, Ruchi Bhatia, 5.5M]
India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said that he had a “constructive meeting” with his counterpart Howard Lutnick for a mutually beneficial trade agreement between the two countries.Both sides remain “committed to enhancing opportunities for our businesses and people,” Goyal said in a post on X on Friday.
Indian officials, including chief negotiator Rajesh Agrawal, are meeting Trump administration officials in Washington this week to advance the first tranche of the trade agreement.
The South Asian nation is discussing a US trade deal structured in three tranches, and expects to reach an interim agreement before July, when President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are set to kick in, Bloomberg had reported earlier.
India was one of the first countries to begin trade negotiations with the US following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the White House in February. Both nations agreed to boost trade and work toward concluding the first tranche of the bilateral deal by fall of this year. Since then, New Delhi has also signaled the possibility of “early mutual wins” before the deadline. India Ready to Raise US Oil Imports in Boost for Trump (Newsweek)
Newsweek [5/23/2025 3:00 AM, Danish Manzoor Bhat, 54.8M]
India is ready to increase energy imports from the United States as it seeks supplies from whichever source is most suitable to power the expansion of the world’s most populous country, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri told Newsweek.
India has increased energy imports from Russia in recent years, but Puri said it was pricing and availability and not ideology that would decide its energy choices.
"A few years ago, we didn’t import any energy from the United States. Now we’re importing about 15-20 billion dollars from the United States. It’s entirely conceivable that we’ll import more from the United States. There is more and more oil coming onto the international market, particularly from countries in the Western Hemisphere," he told Newsweek’s Opportunity India podcast.
Fastest Growing Major Economy
India has the world’s fastest growing major economy, which drives its increasing energy needs — currently at some $150 billion a year, according to Puri. President Donald Trump’s administration is also keen to increase energy exports to India to address a U.S. trade deficit of well over $45 billion in 2024.
India has been a major importer of oil from Russia, whose energy exports have been targeted by Western countries over the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, forcing it to look for markets elsewhere. India and Russia have had longstanding trade and diplomatic ties, strengthened by being members of the BRICS countries bloc.
"There are many myths going around. First of all, sanctions. There are no sanctions on Russian oil per se," he said.
Russian Supplies
Puri noted that while Russian oil imports had hit over 40 percent in May 2024, they were now much less, but had been only 0.2 percent some three years ago.
"Imports by a large consumer, a large refiner, are essentially dependent on availability at a reasonable price. So India used to import from 27 countries. We are now importing from 40 countries," he said.
"It is entirely conceivable that the traditional matrix, which was we consumed 5 million barrels in a day, we used to import about 800,000 barrels a day each from the Saudis, the Emiratis, Kuwaitis, Iraqis, another 800,000 from everyone else. That began to change when Russian oil was available on the market.
India would determine its own sources of imports, Puri said, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s policies, which reflect Indian independence.
"I think India under Modi has shown that whilst we are polite people, we don’t mind listening to opinions occasionally, but we are not going to have our energy policy dictated by anyone," he said.
"Because the Prime Minister’s fundamental commitment, it’s like a moral duty, is to the Indian consumer. Therefore, India is one of the few countries in the world where in the last three years, prices of energy, petrol, diesel, at the retail point, have actually come down."
India And Climate Change
Puri said that as India grows, it remains committed to policies to help in addressing climate change.
"Out of all the G20 countries, and there are a lot of them, India is the only one which has met its Paris commitments," he said.
"We are simultaneously accelerating the transition to biofuels. We were at 1.4 percent in 2014. We are at 20 percent now. We were supposed to do 20 percent biofuels blending by 2026. We’ve done it six years in advance. We are stepping on the gas, literally, pun intended, on CBG (compressed biogas), etc. We are moving at breakneck speed on green hydrogen."
Energy Exploration
Nonetheless, India was also exploring for fossil energy sources domestically and taking steps to free up their production, Puri said, pointing to what he called a "lost decade" between 2006 and 2016. India was now offering some 200,000 square kilometers for licensing, he said, pointing to optimism for the Andaman Sea in particular.
"Now, if you have the known reserves of both crude oil and gas, and you’re not allowing people to get to it, then there’s something wrong," he said.
"I’m very encouraged by some of the new collaboration agreements our companies are entering into with the oil majors there’s a lot of buzz and activity now, and it will pay off." India may let US, foreign firms bid for government contracts, sources say (Reuters)
Reuters [5/23/2025 3:20 AM, Manoj Kumar, 5.2M]
India is opening up a chunk of its protected government procurement market to foreign firms, including the U.S, two government sources said, in a shift that could extend to other trading partners after it was offered to the UK under a trade deal this month.
The government is likely to allow U.S. firms to bid for contracts worth over $50 billion, mainly from federal entities, as it negotiates a trade deal with Washington, the sources said.
Total public procurement - including by federal, state and local governments and state-run firms - is worth an estimated $700 billion-$750 billion per year, according to government estimates. Most is reserved for domestic firms, with 25% set aside for small businesses, although sectors like railways and defence can buy from foreign suppliers when domestic options are unavailable.
Earlier this month, India and the UK agreed on a free trade pact that gives British firms access to federal government contracts in select sectors - covering goods, services and construction - on a reciprocal basis.
"In a policy shift, India has agreed to open its public procurement contracts gradually to trading partners including the U.S. in a phased manner and reciprocal manner," said one of the officials, with the knowledge of the matter.
Only a portion of the government’s procurement contracts - mainly linked to federal projects worth around $50-$60 billion - will be opened to foreign firms, while state and local government purchases will be excluded, the official said.
"Following the UK pact, India is ready to open a part of its public procurement market to the U.S. as well," said a second official.
Both sources requested anonymity, as details of the ongoing talks have not been made public.
The commerce ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the U.S. proposal or extending the plan to other nations.
India has long resisted joining the World Trade Organisation’s Government Procurement Agreement, citing the need to protect small businesses.
In its March report on foreign trade barriers, the U.S. Trade Representative said India’s restrictive procurement policies pose challenges for U.S. firms due to "changing rules and limited opportunities."
Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal visited Washington this week to advance trade talks, with both sides aiming to sign an interim agreement by early July, officials said.
New Delhi is pushing to clinch a trade deal with the U.S. within the 90-day pause on tariff hikes announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 9 for major trading partners, which includes a 26% tariff on imports from India.The commerce ministry said in a text message that UK firms would only be allowed limited access to bid for contracts of non-sensitive federal entities, excluding state and local government procurement.
UK-based suppliers can bid for Indian tenders above 2 billion rupees ($23.26 million) while the UK will offer non-discriminatory access to Indian suppliers under its public procurement system, the ministry said.
The government has assured small industry that a quarter of the orders will be reserved for them, said Anil Bhardwaj, secretary general of the Federation of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (FISME), a leading industry body.
"Opening procurement to foreign firms on a reciprocal basis offers an opportunity for Indian businesses in overseas markets as well," he said. Modi Rules Out Talks With Pakistan a Month After Kashmir Attacks (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/22/2025 6:09 AM, Swati Gupta, 19320K]
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi ruled out any talks with Islamabad, and vowed to make Pakistan’s economy and army pay for any aggression on Indian soil, as tensions between the South Asian neighbors remain high a month after deadly Kashmir attacks.“There will be no trade or talks with Pakistan,” Modi said at an event in Rajasthan on Thursday. “For every terrorist attack, Pakistan will have to pay a high cost. And this cost will be paid by the country’s army and their economy.”The nuclear-armed nations came close to an all-out war earlier this month, engaging in back-and-forth military strikes, before an uneasy truce was established. Trade remains suspended, and diplomatic ties are badly strained.The conflict was sparked after gunmen opened fire on tourists in Kashmir on April 22, killing as many as 26 people in one of the worst attacks on civilians in the disputed region. New Delhi called the massacre an act of terrorism orchestrated by Pakistan. Leaders in Islamabad have denied involvement.India has also suspended a crucial water-sharing treaty between the two. “Pakistan will not be given the water which is rightfully India’s,” said Modi.Both nations are also trying to win over global opinion by dispatching separate delegations around the world to present their respective positions. Modi says Pakistan will not get water from Indian-controlled rivers (Reuters)
Reuters [5/22/2025 12:55 PM, Saeed Shah, Ariba Shahid and Sakshi Dayal, 51390K]
Pakistan will not get water from rivers over which India has rights, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday, upping the rhetoric in a standoff over water access triggered by a deadly attack in Indian Kashmir.Pakistan’s chief legal officer, in an interview with Reuters, responded that Islamabad remained willing to discuss water sharing between the neighbours but said India must stick to a decades-old treaty.India said last month it was suspending the Indus Waters Treaty in a slew of measures after the April 22 attack in Indian Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad - a charge Pakistan dismisses.Any move to stop Pakistan accessing the water would have a devastating impact. The Indus treaty, negotiated by the World Bank in 1960, guarantees water for 80% of Pakistan’s farms from three rivers that flow from India.The nuclear-armed neighbours have already clashed in their worst military fighting in nearly three decades before agreeing to a ceasefire on May 10."Pakistan will have to pay a heavy price for every terrorist attack ... Pakistan’s army will pay it. Pakistan’s economy will pay it," Modi said at a public event in the northwestern state of Rajasthan, which borders Pakistan."Pakistan is willing to talk about or to address anything, any concerns they may have," Pakistan’s Attorney General, Mansoor Usman Awan, told Reuters.He said India had written to Pakistan in recent weeks, citing population growth and clean energy needs as reasons to modify the treaty. But he said any discussions would have to take part under the terms of the treaty.Islamabad maintains the treaty is legally binding and no party can unilaterally suspend it, Awan said."As far as Pakistan is concerned, the treaty is very much operational, functional, and anything which India does, it does at its own cost and peril as far as the building of any hydroelectric power projects are concerned," he added.The ceasefire between the countries has largely held. Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said there were no current exchanges of fire and "there has been some repositioning of forces accordingly"."The (military) operation continues because there is a clear message ... that if there are acts of the kind we saw on April 22, there will be a response. We will hit the terrorists," Jaishankar told Dutch news outlet NOS."If the terrorists are in Pakistan, we will hit them where they are," he added.India and Pakistan have shared a troubled relationship since they were carved out of British India in 1947, and have fought three wars, two of them over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.India accuses Pakistan of backing Islamist separatists in Kashmir, a claim Islamabad denies.Five people, including three children were killed in a suicide bomb blast on an army school bus in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Wednesday. Pakistan’s prime minister and military accused "Indian terror proxies" of involvement, which India rejected.Both nations have retaliated since the April attack by halting trade, closing borders and suspending most visas. India Rapidly Condemns Antisemitic D.C. Slaughter as Relationship with Israel Grows Closer (Breitbart)
Breitbart [5/22/2025 7:05 PM, John Hayward, 3077K]
Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday condemned the murder of two young Israeli diplomats in Washington, DC, "in the strongest terms" and said that "the perpetrators must be brought to justice.".
"Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues," Jaishankar said.
"Thank you, dear friend!" Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar replied via social media.
The Indian and Israeli foreign ministers were discussing Wednesday night’s killing of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, reportedly by a 30-year-old left-wing pro-Hamas activist named Elias Rodriguez.
Lischinsky and Milgrim, a couple on the verge of becoming engaged, were both employed by the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Lischinsky, a Christian with dual Israeli and German citizenship, had been working as a research assistant at the embassy for several years. Milgrim was Jewish. She grew up in Kansas and joined the Israeli Embassy in D.C. in November 2023.
A man identified as Rodriguez, a resident of Chicago, was spotted lurking outside the Capital Jewish Museum before opening fire on a small group of people who emerged from a reception for young diplomats held inside. Lischinsky and Milgrim were hit by the volley of bullets at close range and killed.
Rodriguez reportedly entered the Capital Jewish Museum to be taken into custody, chanting "Free, free Palestine" and dropping a keffiyeh, the scarf that has come to be associated with Palestinian terrorism. The FBI is investigating his ties with far-left and pro-Palestinian groups. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Thursday.
Israel and India have been developing a close friendship in recent years, including a military partnership. When India responded to a horrific attack by Pakistan-based terrorists this month, Israeli-made Harop "kamikaze drones" were prominent among the weapons they used. India is also a devoted customer for Israeli radar systems and precision-guided weapons.
The perpetrators of the attack, identified by India as an Islamist gang called Lashkar-e-Taiba, reportedly quizzed their victims by asking them questions about Muslim religious writings, and shot them dead when they could not answer correctly. One Muslim civilian was killed in the attack, a heroic pony-ride operator who attempted to subdue one of the heavily armed terrorists.
Israel strongly supported India’s response to the Kashmir atrocity. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was "deeply saddened" by the "barbaric terrorist attack" on the Kashmir tourist haven of Pahalgam, and supported India’s right to respond.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Israel stands with India in its fight against terrorism," Netanyahu said.
Pakistani officials were enraged by the alliance between Israel and India, denouncing their friendship as an "axis of occupation" and comparing India’s presence in the disputed Kashmir province to Israel’s "occupation" of the Palestinians.
Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday called the Washington, DC, terror attack "deeply shocking.".
"Those responsible for this heinous act must be brought to justice. Safety and security of diplomatic staff is paramount," he said.
The Hindustan Times reported India is planning to ask U.S. officials for more security for its diplomats and embassy in Washington. A high-level Indian delegation is scheduled to visit Washington in June, and the Indian Foreign Ministry is said to be concerned about threats to their safety by Khalistani separatists.
"The security of our diplomats is a sensitive matter. We are having a close look at the issue after what happened to the two Israeli embassy officials," said one of the Hindustan Times’ sources. India’s Central Bank Cautiously Upbeat on Economy Despite Trade Risks (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal [5/22/2025 7:00 AM, Kimberley Kao, 121822K]
India’s economy seems to be in shape to withstand the headwinds posed by trade policy shifts, the central bank said in a report.“The Indian economy is exhibiting resilience despite the high trade and tariff-related uncertainty,” the Reserve Bank of India said in its latest assessment.India, the world’s fourth-largest economy, faces tariff risks from the U.S. under sweeping trade policy announced by the Trump administration in April. It is also exposed to separate U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum.While that could well dent growth this year, analysts say India has an advantage in the sheer size of its domestic economy and see good odds of a trade deal with the U.S. New Delhi and Washington have already agreed on a broad framework for negotiations.India’s Minister of Commerce & Industry, Piyush Goyal, said this week in a post on X that discussions were moving “towards expediting the first tranche of [a] India-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement.”The temporary deal reached between China and the U.S. has provided a reprieve in tensions, but the global outlook remains fragile, the RBI said.Still, India’s economy looks supported by stabilizing domestic financial and political conditions, the RBI said. Its geopolitical position as a trade intermediary also means it can benefit from realignments in supply chains, the central bank said.“India is increasingly positioned to function as a ‘connector country,’” it said.RBI Gov. Sanjay Malhotra said India’s lower reliance on exports and strong domestic demand will help cushion against “external spillovers”, helping the country position itself as a “natural choice for investors seeking long-term value and opportunity” compared to other advanced economies.The cautious optimism comes ahead of economic growth data for the fiscal year ended in March, which will show if momentum continued moderating and offer insights into how well prepared the economy is for a trade shock.Early indicators suggest that economic activity in India has remained resilient this month.The flash HSBC composite purchasing managers index compiled by S&P Global signaled a rise in private-sector activity in May. The index, which captures output across India’s manufacturing and service sectors, showed a strong influx of new business from both domestic and global markets.“India’s flash PMI indicate another month of strong economic performance,” in May, said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC. Top Maoist leader killed as India cracks down on rebels (BBC)
BBC [5/22/2025 8:13 AM, Kathryn Armstrong, 47007K]
A top Maoist leader has been killed fighting with Indian security forces in the central state of Chhattisgarh.
Nambala Keshava Rao, who is also known by several alias, including Basavaraju, was among 27 rebels killed on Wednesday, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said. One police officer was also reported to have died in the fighting.
According to Shah, it is the first time in three decades that a Maoist of Rao’s seniority had been killed by government forces.
Parts of Chhattisgarh have seen a long-running insurgency by the rebels, who say they have been neglected by governments for decades. The Indian government has vowed to end their insurgency by the end of March 2026.
Rao, an engineer by training, was the general secretary of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) group. He was on the most wanted list of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) - India’s counter-terrorism law enforcement body.
Vivekanand Sinha, a senior police official in Chhattisgarh, said the gunfight in which Rao and the others died, broke out in the Narayanpur district following an intelligence tip-off that senior Maoist leaders were in the area.Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote on X that he was "proud of our forces for this remarkable success".
The Communist Party of India, meanwhile, has condemned the killings and called for an independent inquiry.
Last month, the Indian government launched a massive military operation - known as Black Forest - targeting the group.
Shah said on Wednesday that 54 rebels had been arrested so far, and 84 had surrendered in the states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Maharashtra, as a result.
The operation was launched after the Maoists said they were ready for talks with the government if it halted its offensive and withdrew its troops. Chhattisgarh officials said any dialogue must be unconditional.
The Maoists are inspired by the Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong. Their insurgency began in West Bengal state in the late 1960s and has since spread to more than a third of India’s 600 districts.
The rebels control large areas of several states in a "red corridor" stretching from north-east to central India.
Major military and police offensives in recent years have pushed the rebels back to their forest strongholds and levels of violence have fallen.
But clashes between security forces and rebels are still common, killing scores of people every year.
A crackdown by security forces killed around 287 rebels last year - the vast majority in Chhattisgarh - according to government data. More than 10,000 people are believed to have died since the 1960s. India corners Maoist rebels after decades-long struggle (Financial Times)
Financial Times [5/23/2025 12:14 AM, John Reed and Jyotsna Singh, 16.3M]
Indian communist rebel Nambala Keshava Rao was one of the country’s most wanted men, but few images of him are publicly available.
A photograph from his college days, before he went underground in the 1970s to join what is known as the Naxalite movement, shows an intense, bearded young man in a striped shirt.
This week, Indian authorities released a new image, showing the 69-year-old Rao, with grey stubble, lying on a forest floor and apparently dead.
The revolutionary’s death marked a moment of triumph for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, which has prioritised national security and only this month fought a short but sharp military conflict with neighbouring Pakistan.The Naxalite insurgency, one of the world’s longest running, has claimed the lives of thousands of security personnel, rebels and civilians across central, southern and eastern India over more than five decades. But analysts said it was now entering its endgame, and Modi’s government has vowed to wipe it out in less than a year.
Amit Shah, the home affairs minister and Modi’s top deputy, announced on Wednesday that paramilitary police had killed 27 rebels, including Rao, who he described as the “topmost” leader of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), a leading Naxalite armed group.“What you are seeing is the pincer movement closing in on the surviving top leadership,” said Ajai Sahni, a counterterrorism expert. “This is the end game for the Maoists — and as far as the movement is concerned, it can be declared a failure.”
At its peak in 2008-2009, Naxalite rebels were active in 223 districts in 20 Indian states, Sahni said. Now, they have been cornered by authorities into scattered pockets in just five states.
Rao and the other insurgents were killed in what police called an “encounter” in the remote Abujhmarh forest, a tract of hilly woods and scrubland mostly in the southern part of India’s central Chhattisgarh state that is one of the Naxalites’ last redoubts.
Similar “encounters”, mostly in secluded areas, have resulted in the deaths of dozens of rebels, and human rights defenders have questioned whether authorities could have tried to capture more of them alive.
The theatre of fighting has centred mostly on India’s tribal belt, where some of the country’s poorest indigenous groups have been caught in the middle.“For every claim that the police makes which it calls an ‘encounter’, it could very well be a fake encounter or a partial truth,” says Bela Bhatia, a human rights lawyer and writer based in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division, near the forest where Rao was killed. “There is kind of a police raj [rule] in these parts.”
Naxalism emerged in the heyday of Maoist-inspired movements in 1967, taking its name from the village of Naxalbari in West Bengal, where communists revolutionaries launched a violent peasant uprising against landlords.
Its first leaders were readers of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong and Che Guevara, with aspirations of global revolution and an agenda of overthrowing the state.
According to a biography shared by Indian intelligence officials this week, Rao was born in a village in southern Andhra Pradesh and became involved in leftist politics through the communist-affiliated Radical Students Union.
The movement was crushed, but resurfaced in other rural rebellions, mainly among agricultural workers demanding land redistribution.
In the 1990s, rebels fled an expanding security crackdown into the tribal belt, whose rugged terrain and thick forests were easier to defend in guerrilla warfare than the flat plains.
The region has been a rich source of resources, including timber and more recently minerals, with a mining boom taking off in the years after India opened its economy to the world from 1991. Adani Group and Jindal Steel are among the companies with coal, iron ore and other operations in Chhattisgarh.“Businesses needed access to land, and these areas became militarised,” says Alpa Shah, an Oxford anthropologist and author of a book about the Naxalites, who lived in the tribal belt for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “Hundreds of thousands of troops were sent in to clear the land.”
The state launched a counter-insurgency to root out the Maoists in Chhattisgarh in 2005, but alleged human rights abuses alienated communities and the Supreme Court declared the operations illegal six years later.
According to Indian intelligence, Rao received guerrilla warfare and explosives training from former members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Sri Lanka-based militant group blamed for the 1991 assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
He rose to become military head of the CPI (Maoist), then in 2018 the group’s general secretary. Indian authorities said he masterminded several attacks, including a 2019 ambush in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, in which 15 police were killed.
But forest clearing and technological advances — including the use of drones and security cameras — have allowed security forces to push further into the rebels’ territory.
Last year, Modi’s government announced that by March 2026, India will have wiped out Naxalism, and the home ministry launched Operation Kagar, a major crackdown that analysts said had sapped the militants’ recruitment and morale. Sahni, the counterinsurgency expert, said the movement was in its “terminal stage”.
But Oxford’s Shah cautioned against writing the group off as a spent force “We have heard this claim many times by Indian leaders that this is the last battle, we have got rid of this movement.”
She added: “We have also seen that when it seems nothing is going on, a new movement in the name of Naxalbari is born again.” A family in Indian-administered Kashmir fears being split apart after militant attack (NPR)
NPR [5/22/2025 10:31 AM, Bilal Kuchay and Omkar Khandekar, 38M]
In her dim living room, Zahida lies on the floor, under a blanket. She’s often tired, she says, a consequence of the breast cancer she’s getting treatment for.
"I’m not worried about my disease," she says. "The thought of going back to Pakistan is killing me."
She and her husband Bashir asked NPR not to use their family name for fear of retribution from the Indian government. Returning to Pakistan — the country where Zahida, 30, was born but hasn’t lived for 14 years — wasn’t even on her radar until India blamed Pakistan for a militant attack in late April in which gunmen killed 26 people, leading India to order Pakistanis out of the country. The attack took place in Indian-administered Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan territory divided between India and Pakistan, and claimed by both in its entirety.
India argued the group that initially claimed responsibility for the April 22 attack — the Resistance Front — was an indirect proxy for the Pakistani military. Indian police also said two of the gunmen were Pakistani nationals. Pakistan has denied any connection with the attack.
It was the worst attack against civilians in India in more than a decade. Eyewitnesses said that some of the gunmen deliberately targeted Hindu men. The victims, many of whom were visiting the area as tourists, came from across the country.
Shortly after the attack, the Indian government announced a series of punitive measures, including canceling visas of most Pakistani nationals in the country. Pakistan announced countermeasures, including expulsion of Indian nationals.
By the end of April — the deadline for Pakistanis to depart India — local media reported that more than 780 Pakistani nationals had left. The Indian government hasn’t officially released numbers, but community leaders and Kashmiri politicians tell NPR a significant number of those deported from Kashmir were Pakistani wives of Indian nationals.
"They have been married for decades. Some of them are even grandmothers," says Mehbooba Mufti, who had served as chief minister of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, before the Indian government revoked the territory’s autonomy in 2019. "Many think of themselves as Indian citizens. Where will they go now?"
Journalists recorded videos of weeping women leaving their adopted villages and towns, sometimes accompanied by dozens of relatives and neighbors seeing them off.
But Zahida didn’t leave. She says she couldn’t bring herself to tear her family apart.
"I cry all the time when I think about all this. My children cry too," Zahida says. "We are not at peace."
Zahida’s marriage and move to India reflect something of the arc of Kashmir’s own troubles.
Her husband Bashir is from Indian-administered Kashmir. He says he crossed into Pakistani-administered Kashmir more than two decades ago to receive training on weapons after an armed conflict broke out in the Himalayan valley against Indian rule in 1989.
But Bashir says he didn’t end up doing any fighting. Soon after he crossed into Pakistan, he began working as a carpenter in a town in Pakistani-administered Kashmir called Athmuqam. His neighbors set him up with Zahida.
Zahida was among hundreds of Pakistani women who married Kashmiri militants, who later gave up their arms. Kashmiris across the Pakistan-India divide share cultural and family ties that have persisted despite seven decades of rivalry between the two nuclear-armed countries.
Zahida gave birth to the couple’s first two daughters in Athmuqam. Then, in 2010, the government of India-administered Kashmir offered militants amnesty if they abandoned their weapons and returned home. Hundreds, including Bashir, took up the offer, and they returned with their Pakistani wives and children.
He went back to his hometown of Bandipora with Zahida and their two daughters. Zahida had another son in Bandipora, who acquired Indian nationality at birth.
Once in India, Zahida obtained an Indian national identity card. But like other spouses and children born in Pakistan, she says that her and her daughters’ applications for Indian citizenship were never approved. Zahida says she let the matter go — she had no plans of leaving her husband’s village, or his country.
Now that India has ordered Pakistanis out, Bashir says he goes to work every day, his mind buzzing with anxiety. "I think of my wife and daughters. I think of my young son, and who will take care of him if my wife and daughters are [forced to go] to Pakistan," he says.
When Indian authorities offered him amnesty more than a decade ago and allowed his Pakistani wife and daughters to settle in India, he says he thought it was a genuine offer. "Why are they backtracking on their own policy now?" he asks. "This is not right. This is an injustice to us."
India’s Ministry of Home Affairs and Kashmir police did not immediately respond to NPR’s requests for comment.
It’s been around three weeks since the deadline for returning to Pakistan lapsed. Both countries conducted airstrikes in the days that followed that deadline. Bashir says his family hasn’t received any calls or summons from immigration authorities. But he says when he thinks of the moment his wife and daughters may have to leave, he can no longer see a future. "Without them, my life will have no purpose," he says. "Whether I’m alive or dead, it’s one and the same thing." India says it has powers to suspend Celebi’s clearance without warning (Reuters)
Reuters [5/22/2025 9:33 AM, Arpan Chaturvedi, 51390K]
India’s government told a court on Thursday it was well within New Delhi’s legal powers to revoke Turkey-based Celebi’s clearance to provide aviation ground services without giving it advance warning, given the matter concerned national security.
Celebi’s clearance was cancelled by India last week amid growing public anger after Turkey supported Pakistan in the recent India-Pakistan conflict. Indians have also been boycotting everything from Turkish coffee, jams and chocolates to Turkey holidays.
Celebi (CLEBI.IS) asked the Delhi High Court this week to quash the cancellation by arguing it was issued without any warning and based on "vague" and unexplained "national security" concerns, but Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said on Thursday it did not need to share details of its reasons with the company.
Indian courts have previously held that in some cases national security concerns can outweigh the requirement of fairness and in this case, there was no need to comply with principles of natural justice, he said.
"In some situations, it is not possible to give reasons of action and neither giving a hearing is possible," Mehta said in the court in Indian government’s first detailed remarks on Celebi’s challenge.
The Indian government handed some details to Justice Sachin Datta in a sealed envelope. The case will next be heard on Friday.
Earlier in the day, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for India’s foreign ministry, said the Celebi matter had been discussed with the Turkish embassy in New Delhi.
Celebi argued in its court filing that the decision impacts 3,791 jobs and investor confidence. It added that it provided ground handling services at airports in New Delhi, Kerala, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Goa.
In defending Celebi’s cancellation, Mehta also argued on Thursday that airport ground operators have detailed access to the physical infrastructure as well as passenger details including VIP movements. NSB
Bangladesh Leader Threatens To Resign Amid Political Turmoil (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/22/2025 2:25 PM, Sheikh Sabiha Alam, 121822K]
Bangladesh’s interim leader, who took over after a mass uprising last year, has threatened to resign if parties do not give him their backing, a political ally and sources in his office said Thursday.The South Asian nation of some 170 million people has been in political turmoil since a student-led revolt forced then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee in August 2024.But this week has seen an escalation in political crisis with rival parties protesting on the streets of the capital Dhaka with a string of competing demands.Muhammad Yunus, the 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner who leads the caretaker government as its chief advisor until elections, told his cabinet he wanted to quit if political parties did not give him their full support, a source inside his office said."He wanted to tender his resignation, but his cabinet members persuaded him not to", the source told AFP.Nahid Islam, leader of the National Citizen Party -- made up of many of the students who spearheaded the uprising against Hasina -- met with Yunus on Thursday evening, another top NCP leader Ariful Islam Adeeb said."They spoke about the current political situation", Adeeb told AFP."The chief adviser said he is reconsidering whether he can continue his duties under the current circumstances".But Nahid Islam -- who had initially been part of Yunus’s cabinet before resigning to form a political party -- "urged him to remain in office", Adeeb said.Shafiqur Rahman, the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist party, has urged Yunus to call an all-party meeting to address the crisis, a party official said.Yunus’s reported threat to stand down comes a day after thousands of supporters of the powerful Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) rallied in Dhaka, holding large-scale protests against the interim government for the first time.Yunus has promised polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest, but supporters of the BNP -- seen as the frontrunners in highly anticipated elections that will be the first since Hasina was overthrown -- demanded he fix a date."If the government fails to meet public expectations, it will be difficult for the BNP to continue extending its support," senior BNP leader Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain told reporters Thursday."The highest priority should be placed on announcing a clear roadmap for the election".The BNP also demanded Yunus sack two members of this cabinet, accusing them of being close to the NCP, as well as well as the national security advisor."Their presence in the council of advisers raises questions about the nonpartisan and impartial nature of the government," Hossain said."It seems the government is pushing forward the agenda of a particular group."Yunus’s relationship with the military has also reportedly deteriorated.On Wednesday, it was reported that powerful army chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman said elections should be held by December."Bangladesh is passing through a chaotic phase," Waker-Uz-Zaman was quoted by newspapers as saying."The situation is worsening by the day. The structure of the civil administration and law enforcement agencies has collapsed and failed to reconstitute." Bangladesh’s Interim Government ‘Undermining’ Freedoms: Rights Group (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/22/2025 8:42 AM, Staff, 121822K]
Human Rights Watch strongly criticised Bangladesh’s interim government on Thursday, warning that it risked "undermining fundamental freedoms" through measures including its ban on the former ruling party.The South Asian nation of around 170 million people has been in political turmoil since the student-led revolt that ousted then-prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, with parties protesting on the streets over a string of demands.The interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, has promised democratic reforms and vowed polls will be held by June 2026 at the latest.However, New York-based HRW said Yunus risked following the example of Hasina in clamping down on opponents."Instead of pursuing its pledge to reform the criminal justice system and bring accountability for serious abuses, the government... is attempting to suppress the rights of supporters of the deposed leader," the rights group said in a statement.HRW said the government had used "newly introduced powers under a draconian amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act" to suppress Hasina’s party.Hasina’s government was blamed for extensive human rights abuses and protesters demanded that Yunus take action.The government banned Hasina’s Awami League party on May 12 after days of protests outside Yunus’s house, pending the trial of Hasina and other key leaders.Hasina, 77, fled to India and has defied an arrest warrant from Dhaka over charges of crimes against humanity."Imposing a ban on any speech or activity deemed supportive of a political party is an excessive restriction on fundamental freedoms that mirrors the previous government’s abusive clampdown on political opponents," HRW said."Hasina’s government abused legal powers to silence political opponents, but using similar methods against the supporters of her Awami League party would also violate those same fundamental freedoms," said HRW’s Meenakshi Ganguly. Sri Lanka Cuts Lending Rate As Economy Slowly Recovers (Agence France-Presse)
Agence France-Presse [5/22/2025 9:04 AM, Staff, 121822K]
Sri Lanka’s central bank cut its benchmark interest rate on Thursday, the first reduction in six months, with signs that the crisis-hit nation was emerging from its worst economic downturn.The single policy rate was reduced by 25 basis points to 7.75 percent, the Central Bank of Sri Lanka said in a statement, following a review by its Monetary Board."This measured easing of the monetary policy stance will support steering inflation towards the target of 5.0 percent, amidst global uncertainties and current subdued inflationary pressures," the statement said."Recent leading economic indicators reflect sustained progress in domestic economic activity," it said.The South Asian country, which declared a sovereign default on its $46 billion external debt in April 2022, has restructured its bilateral loans and international bonds, giving it more time to repay.Inflation, which peaked at nearly 70 percent in September 2023, has dropped sharply and the country has been experiencing deflation since September last year.The International Monetary Fund, which granted a $2.9 billion bailout loan in early 2023, says Sri Lanka is slowly emerging from its crisis and that the economy has turned around, although risks remain. Central Asia
Kazakhstan sees oil output surpassing plans this year, TASS reports (Reuters)
Reuters [5/23/2025 4:56 AM, Vladimir Soldatkin, 5.2M]
Kazakhstan will likely exceed its original oil output plans for 2025 of 96.2 million tons due to expansion at the Chevron-led (CVX.N) Tengiz field, Energy Minister Erlan Akkenzhenov was quoted as saying, defying pressure from OPEC+.
Kazakhstan has cited rising output at the Tengiz field as the reason why it has persistently exceeded quotas set by OPEC+, which consists of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies including Kazakhstan and Russia.
Akkenzhenov was quoted by Russian state news agency TASS as telling a podcast late on Thursday that the expansion at Tengiz had been brought forward ahead of schedule this year, raising output there by 25%.
Therefore, he said, "we will probably finish the year higher" than the planned production level of 96.2 million tons, which is equivalent to around 2 million barrels per day (bpd).
The Kazakh energy ministry did not immediately reply to a request for comment. The country’s energy ministry has repeatedly said it is committed to the OPEC+ agreement.
Under the latest OPEC+ agreement, Kazakhstan’s OPEC+ quota for May rose to 1.486 million bpd from 1.473 million bpd in April.
Western oil majors, including Shell (SHEL.L), TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), and Eni (ENI.MI), as well as ExxonMobil (XOM.N), and Chevron, are active in oil projects in Kazakhstan. Indo-Pacific
How China Factors Into the Conflict Between India and Pakistan (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/23/2025 12:52 AM, Josh Xiao and Dan Strumpf, 5.5M]
The most recent conflict in the longstanding tensions between India and Pakistan may not have directly involved its neighbor, China. Nonetheless, Beijing’s influence looms large.
On April 22, gunmen in the disputed region of Kashmir killed 26 people, mostly Indian tourists, sparking a four-day clash that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of a full-blown war before a ceasefire was negotiated.
China maintains a close relationship with Pakistan that includes military ties. A research group under India’s Ministry of Defense says that during this latest conflict Beijing helped Pakistan to reorganize its radar and air defense systems as well as its satellite coverage to better detect Indian weapons. These reports are unverified. At the same time, China, whose tense relations with India have been improving, called on both of the nuclear-armed neighbors to de-escalate.
Experts often refer to the “strategic triangle” of China, India and Pakistan to explain the geopolitical dynamics of the region.
The triangle is complicated. China shares a border with both countries and has an interest in maintaining a strategic balance at its doorstep. It has an “ironclad” friendship with longtime partner Pakistan and a long-standing territorial dispute with India.
India, meanwhile, views China’s close relationship with Pakistan as a concerted effort to counter its regional influence. It has sought to counter China’s rising clout by building stronger security ties with the US, while also reaching out to the Taliban in Afghanistan. But, more recently, a thaw in China-India ties has been driven by robust trade and progress in border dispute negotiations.
Here’s what you need to know.
What was China’s role in the recent India-Pakistan conflict?
China positioned itself as a peace maker between the two sides. The Foreign Ministry in Beijing said it was deeply concerned about the escalating clash between China and India and urged the two sides to return to pursuing a political settlement by peaceful means. It also offered to play a constructive role in maintaining regional peace and stability. At the same time, China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, in a phone call with his Pakistani counterpart, reaffirmed China’s “ironclad friendship” with Pakistan. Wang said China “fully understands Pakistan’s legitimate security concerns and supports Pakistan in safeguarding its sovereignty and security interests.”
In unverified claims, the New Delhi-based Center For Joint Warfare Studies suggests, however, that China was more than just a bystander during the conflict. The research group, which is part of India’s Ministry of Defense, says China helped Pakistan before and during the clashes to reorganize its radar and air defense systems to more effectively detect India’s deployments of troops and weaponry. It also claims that China helped Pakistan adjust its satellite coverage over India in the lead-up to direct hostilities between the two countries. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hasn’t directly addressed the allegation and Pakistani government agencies haven’t responded to requests for comment.
What are the military ties between China and Pakistan?
Pakistan buys most of its weapons from China. That includes the Chinese J-10C fighter jets Pakistan said it used to shoot down multiple Indian aircraft, including its French-made Rafale jets. If this is confirmed, it would be the J-10C’s first known use in combat.
India hasn’t commented on the purported downing of its aircraft, while Chinese officials have taken a cautious tone. Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said he was “not aware” of reports that Chinese fighter jets were involved in the clash. But on May 17, China’s state broadcaster declared on social media that J-10C jets had recently “achieved combat results for the first time,” with the post including a hashtag related to the India-Pakistan conflict. While they haven’t commented on the fighter jets, the Center For Joint Warfare Studies said the performance of the Chinese defense systems was below average and “failed miserably” in some instances.
Pakistan is also thought to have used Chinese PL-15 air-to-air missiles, which were found in India after the reported shoot-downs.
While Pakistan’s use of Chinese weapons doesn’t come as a surprise, experts say that if Chinese fighter jets were in fact involved in shooting down Indian aircraft it would mark a significant win for Pakistan’s – and China’s – air combat capabilities.
What’s behind China’s “ironclad” friendship with Pakistan?
China’s friendship with Pakistan goes back decades. Just a year after the end of the Chinese Civil War, in 1950, Pakistan, seeing China as a potential ally, became one the first countries to formally recognize the new People’s Republic of China and in doing so, no longer recognized the Republic of China, whose government had retreated to Taiwan.
When neighborly relations between China and the Soviet Union deteriorated in the 1960s, China, fearing Soviet encirclement with India’s help, fostered its alliance with Pakistan. In 1963, the two countries signed a border agreement that resolved their territorial disputes.
After a border war with India in 1965, Pakistan needed to rebuild its depleted armed forces and in 1966 it struck a major arms deal with China. A “top secret” CIA memorandum from that same year said that China saw military aid as “the price they must pay to keep alive a marriage of convenience based largely on a common antipathy to India.”
Since then, China has become Pakistan’s biggest supplier of weapons. Pakistan is also China’s main customer. In the past five years, Pakistan accounted for 63% of China’s arms exports, followed by Serbia at 6.8% and Thailand at 4.6%, according to data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
Ties have also blossomed under Chinese President Xi Jinping’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative, which has plowed billions of dollars of infrastructure funding into Pakistan. Part of this is to build the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor – which includes a highway and railway network – starting in China’s west and down through Pakistan to its deep-sea Gwadar Port in the Arabian Sea. This would give China much quicker and more direct access to oil imports from the Middle East.
But sporadic terrorist attacks have exposed cracks in the relationship. The Balochistan Liberation Army, a militant organization in the restive province of Balochistan in western Pakistan, has targeted and killed Chinese nationals in recent years. It claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that targeted a convoy with Chinese nationals outside the Karachi airport in October 2024, killing two workers from China and wounding eight people.
What is China’s relationship with India?
China and India share economic interests, but they are also engaged in a strategic competition — and share a longstanding rivalry.
In 1962, the two sides fought a short war over two disputed border sections — one in India’s north, near Kashmir, and another in the east, along what is today the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. China made meaningful territorial gains, but the border between the two countries remain in dispute and the war drew a wedge between them that remains to this day.
Tensions have boiled over on and off over the years. In 2020, skirmishes led to the first deadly clashes in four decades, in which 20 Indian soldiers and an unknown number of Chinese troops died.
Following the 2020 clash, India blocked hundreds of Chinese mobile applications and services, including TikTok and WeChat. It cut back on visas for business travel and mandated extra checks for investments from China.
New Delhi also imposed curbs on imports of electronic devices such as laptops and tablets that likely hit China harder than any other country. A $1 billion proposal from Chinese carmaker BYD Co. to build an electric vehicle plant was in 2023 rejected by Indian officials on grounds of security concerns.
China is also wary of India’s security ties with the US. The Quad — a security framework India shares with the US, Japan and Australia — was revived in 2021 due to concerns over China’s increased assertiveness in the region. Bloomberg has previously reported that India’s military has also studied options for how it could assist the US in case of war over Taiwan, which China’s government says is part of its territory.
But there have been signs of a thaw. Beijing appointed a new ambassador to India in May 2024, signaling an intent to normalize relations. In July, the foreign ministers of the two countries said the border conflict wasn’t in either side’s interest and agreed to hold more talks.
Earlier this year, Beijing and New Delhi agreed to resume direct flights and facilitate visa processes, and the annual Indian pilgrimage to Tibet’s sacred mountains and lakes will also resume soon after being suspended for five years.
Why is China and India’s relationship improving?
Both have an interest in improved relations: China is one of India’s largest trading partners, with the volume of trade between the two closing in on $140 billion last year. Bilateral trade grew an average of 9.5% per year between 2016 and 2023. India relies on China for a large range of manufactured goods as well as components and raw materials for its own factories, including those making smartphones, automobiles, consumer goods and other electronics.Its trade deficit with China topped more than $103 billion, making it the largest bilateral trade deficit of all its trading partners. China has long sought greater market access for its goods in India, though New Delhi has longstanding restrictions on some Chinese technology, including apps like TikTok.
India has been seeking to benefit from the migration of global manufacturers away from China, with Apple’s recent moves to expand iPhone production in India marking an early win for New Delhi. However, it’s still unclear just how much India stands to benefit, and the Trump administration recently admonished Apple for choosing India as the site to raise production.
China wants more cordial relations with other countries to be able to focus on growing its economy.
Both countries are also members of BRICS — an informal group of 10 emerging powers — and are in competition for leadership of what’s often referred to as the Global South — a group of postcolonial and developing countries largely in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
While India and China have recently seen an easing of tensions over trade and a border dispute, relations remain strained. The India-Pakistan Conflict Is Testing the Threshold for Nuclear War (Bloomberg)
Bloomberg [5/22/2025 10:09 PM, Daniel Ten Kate, 5.5M]
For several hours on Saturday, May 10, it looked like the India-Pakistan conflict risked spiraling into nuclear war.
Pakistani security sources leaked to a range of media organizations that the country’s innocuously named National Command Authority, which is responsible for handling nuclear weapons, would hold an urgent meeting. Although the government denied the reports a few hours later, the implicit threat had its intended effect: The US and other nations raced to calm things down, eventually producing a ceasefire that is still holding roughly two weeks later.“We stopped the nuclear conflict,” US President Donald Trump said on May 12. “It could have been a bad nuclear war. Millions of people could have been killed, so I’m very proud of that.”
While on its face the episode showed that nuclear deterrence worked as intended, it may have only set the stage for a more dangerous conflict down the road. Indian authorities, angered by how Trump’s intervention led to celebrations in Pakistan, have warned that going forward the entire country would be fair game for retaliation in the event of another terrorist attack on Indian soil. That’s likely a question of when, rather than if.
The four days of fighting provided further evidence that the space between conventional and nuclear war is narrowing. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent nuclear threats, unleashed a new era in which powers are testing the limits of what would trigger the use of atomic weapons.
That debate has been around ever since Robert Oppenheimer oversaw the creation of the first nuclear bombs, which the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 in a bid to end World War II — killing at least 150,000 people in what remains the only use of atomic weapons. Yet today a confluence of factors is ramping up pressure on geopolitical fault lines that have seemingly been frozen in time, from Israel to Korea, Taiwan and Kashmir.
The economic rise of China and India, combined with renewed isolationism in the US, isn’t just spurring an arms race for conventional weapons. It’s also prompting nuclear powers to explore the space below the threshold for full-scale atomic war, a dynamic known as the Stability-Instability Paradox. The theory, credited to international relations professor Glenn Snyder in 1965, says that while the threat of mutually assured destruction reduces the likelihood of nuclear powers clashing head-on, it makes it more likely they’ll engage in peripheral conventional wars or proxy fights.
In Asia, the increasing heft of China and India in particular makes it more likely they will seek to push their conventional military might over weaker nations if threatened, just as Israel — which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons — is now seeking to do with Iran and groups such as Hamas. Those probabilities will in turn spur the likes of Pakistan, North Korea and even US allies in the region to ensure they have a credible nuclear threat as deterrence.
Of course, no conflict since World War II has yet escalated to the point where a nation actually used an atomic weapon. But the renewed efforts to find out how far that line can be pushed set up a dangerous, high-stakes game of chicken that at the very least promises greater instability in the years ahead.
On a snowy New York day in January 1954, the US foreign policy elite trudged through the streets of the Upper East Side to hear then-Secretary of State John Foster Dulles deliver a speech that would end up demonstrating the Stability-Instability Paradox.
Roughly six months after the end of the Korean War, Dulles told the Council on Foreign Relations that it was unsustainable for the US to overextend itself fighting land wars in Asia. What was needed, he argued, was “a maximum deterrent at a bearable cost,” in which local defenses are “reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power.”
This policy, known as “massive retaliation,” sought to deter Communist states by warning of a nuclear war in response to any aggression, no matter how small. President Dwight Eisenhower, a fiscal conservative, saw it as a cost-effective way to deter the Soviet Union and China without pouring money into tanks, fighter jets and naval vessels. But the idea immediately raised a question: Would the US really start a nuclear war over a small-scale conflict? It didn’t take long before adversaries sought to find out.In Asia, the increasing heft of China and India in particular makes it more likely they will seek to push their conventional military might over weaker nations if threatened, just as Israel — which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear weapons — is now seeking to do with Iran and groups such as Hamas. Those probabilities will in turn spur the likes of Pakistan, North Korea and even US allies in the region to ensure they have a credible nuclear threat as deterrence.
Of course, no conflict since World War II has yet escalated to the point where a nation actually used an atomic weapon. But the renewed efforts to find out how far that line can be pushed set up a dangerous, high-stakes game of chicken that at the very least promises greater instability in the years ahead.Even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Chinese leader Mao Zedong questioned the credibility of US threats to use nuclear weapons against his country and stared down President Harry Truman’s warnings about deploying them during the Korean War.
Seven months after Dulles’ speech, Mao started shelling islands off China’s coastline held by Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist forces in Taiwan, which the US had vowed to defend. Eventually China’s bombardment forced Chiang to abandon some territory — the Dachen Islands — prompting the US military to help evacuate more than 20,000 Nationalist troops and civilians in Operation King Kong.
At that point, the US took a stand. In March 1955, Dulles publicly floated the possibility that the US might use smaller tactical nuclear weapons against China if it invaded more islands held by Taiwan. Asked about Dulles’ remarks, Eisenhower said that he saw “no reason why they shouldn’t be used just exactly as you would use a bullet or anything else.”
The crisis ended soon afterward when China stopped shelling the Taiwanese islands and began holding talks with the US in Geneva. Some historians credited the US nuclear threats with deterring China. But by allowing China to seize the Dachen Islands from Taiwan, the US exposed the limits of its massive retaliation strategy.
The incident also illustrated the Stability-Instability Paradox. Although China wouldn’t get its own atomic weapon for another decade, its military alliance with the Soviet Union raised enough worries about nuclear war to create strategic stability. That in turn gave Mao confidence to proceed in the face of US nuclear threats.
Under President John F. Kennedy, the US shifted to a new policy called “Flexible Response,” which effectively sought to mitigate the risks associated with the Stability-Instability Paradox. It involved using a range of proportional responses below the nuclear threshold, including diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions and conventional war.
An early and dramatic test came during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, perhaps the closest the world has ever come to nuclear war, which ended with a diplomatic resolution. Since then, plenty of proxy fights between nuclear powers have taken place, including Vietnam, Afghanistan, Congo, Nicaragua and most recently Ukraine.
The world today has about 12,300 nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists, enough to kill all of humanity either directly or through an ensuing nuclear winter. About 90% of them are held by the US and Russia, each of which has more than 5,000. China is next with 600, followed by France, the UK, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea.
Another 36 countries, mostly in NATO, fall under the US policy of “extended deterrence,” more commonly called the “nuclear umbrella,” meaning they don’t have nuclear weapons of their own but do have assurances that the US will come to their aid — including potentially with atomic bombs — if they’re attacked.
Two in particular — Japan and South Korea — are faced with constant threats from North Korea. Trump’s moves to hit military allies with higher tariffs and demand more cash for hosting US troops have led to more discussions in both places about the need to strengthen their nuclear deterrent.
Kurt Campbell, Biden’s deputy secretary of state, told Foreign Affairs last month that it would be a setback for the US if Japan or South Korea obtained nuclear weapons. “It would most likely trigger a kind of nuclear reconsideration throughout Asia that would likely be destabilizing and not in our strategic interests,” Campbell said. “One of the great successes of American foreign policy is the fact that there are dozens of countries in the Indo-Pacific that could have built nuclear weapons that have chosen not to.”
One notable exception is China, which has long rejected US talks on reducing nuclear stockpiles and is on pace to have as many as 1,500 warheads by 2035, according to the US Department of Defense. Zhou Bo, a former People’s Liberation Army senior colonel who often attends international defense forums, says that Beijing needs to increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons so the US doesn’t dare to think about using its own arsenal against China.
China’s concerns stem from the likes of Elbridge Colby, US undersecretary of defense for policy, who has argued that the US should deploy tactical nuclear weapons to counter China’s increasing conventional military power in the Taiwan Strait. Beijing has similarly criticized Trump’s plan for a “Golden Dome” missile defense shield, saying it will spur an arms race.
Taiwan remains the biggest flashpoint that could trigger a war between the US and China, and set off the next major nuclear risk. That’s part of why many in China are thinking about how to take control of the island peacefully, as Mao did with Beijing in 1948-1949. He cut off roads and railways and captured surrounding areas, forcing Chiang’s Nationalists to surrender without a fight.
Chinese officials have cited the Beijing siege to journalists as one possible template for a bloodless takeover of Taiwan. They compared the strategy to a dumpling, where layers are added to completely surround whatever is inside.
Already, China has spent the past decade conducting more frequent fighter jet drills and military exercises, demonstrating an ability to encircle Taiwan, either for an invasion or a possible blockade.
Taiwan itself can’t stop China with nuclear weapons, despite decades of trying to obtain them through a covert program the US forced it to shut down in 1988. It’s now ramping up defenses through domestic production of drones and other weapons, while also awaiting $20 billion worth of arms from the US, including F-16 fighter jets, a missile defense system, tanks and artillery.
The discussion in Taipei is increasingly about how to thwart a blockade, particularly when it comes to the need to import energy supplies. Taiwan is now considering a reversal of a decades-long effort to phase out nuclear energy, which accounted for about 20% of its energy mix in the early 2000s. Last week, just days before Taiwan’s last operating reactor was shut down, lawmakers opened the door to restarting the island’s atomic plants.
Still, amid broader doubts about Trump’s reliability as a military ally, some in Taiwan are wondering if they should enter into peace talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, something critics would see as similar to the surrender of Chiang’s forces in Beijing. In an April New York Times op-ed, Yingtai Lung — a former Taiwanese minister affiliated with the opposition Kuomintang — said it was time to start a “serious national conversation about how to secure peace with China on terms that are acceptable to us, rather than letting bigger powers decide our future.”
Ever since May 1998, when both India and Pakistan declared themselves as nuclear powers, they have been a case study in the Stability-Instability Paradox. Just one year after that declaration, Pakistan initiated a low-level conflict by infiltrating Indian-controlled areas of Kashmir. India responded with a military operation to push Pakistan back, using conventional tactics that didn’t escalate the situation into an all-out war.
But officials in New Delhi are increasingly frustrated. In their eyes, Pakistan is using militant groups to attack India and then relying on its nuclear deterrent to limit the scale of any retaliation. India sees itself as a bigger power, with superior conventional forces, a surging economy and a growing role on the world stage. Prior to the latest clash, one Indian official told me that even spending an hour a week on Pakistan issues was a waste of time.
So when 26 civilians were killed in a brutal attack in Kashmir last month — India called it the worst terrorist violence in nearly two decades — Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government hit back hard. It didn’t limit strikes to Kashmir, but fired missiles deep into Pakistan, the furthest breach of territory since a 1971 war fought before either side had nuclear weapons.
During the four days of fighting, India struck Pakistani airbases, including one near the office of army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, among the nation’s most powerful people. Pakistan then launched a counter-strike, targeting Indian military sites.
After the ceasefire, Modi said India’s operation marked a “new normal” in how it would respond to Pakistan, which denied any involvement in the April 22 massacre in Kashmir. Any terrorist attack from now on would be considered an act of war.“India will not tolerate any nuclear blackmail,” Modi said. “India will strike precisely and decisively at the terrorist hideouts developing under the cover of nuclear blackmail.” He reiterated that view this week, saying India would not engage in trade or talks with Pakistan. “For every terrorist attack, Pakistan will have to pay a high cost,” Modi said at an event in Rajasthan. “And this cost will be paid by the country’s army and their economy.”
This new stance is testing the limits of the Stability-Instability Paradox. Modi is essentially calling Pakistan’s bluff, betting that it won’t actually use atomic weapons. That in turn will incentivize Pakistan to show that its nuclear threats are serious.
Trump’s intervention, ironically, may make things worse the next time. After feeling like the US president handed Pakistan a win with far-fetched claims of averting a nuclear war, India may be less likely to accept future American attempts to find an off ramp.
This sort of brinkmanship poses a great danger, not least because of the risk of accidents and miscalculation. During the Cold War, several close calls almost prompted the Soviet Union to unleash nuclear-armed missiles at the US. Even in peace time, mistakes happen. When a B-52 flying over North Carolina broke up in 1961, two hydrogen bombs were released to the earth. One of them nearly detonated with a payload that was much more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb — enough to devastate a large chunk of the East Coast.
So far, the Stability-Instability Paradox has shown that cooler heads will eventually prevail. But if one day they don’t, the world will need a new theory — assuming anyone is still around to think it up. India-Pakistan ceasefire relief gives way to doubts over future ‘red lines’ (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia [5/22/2025 5:00 PM, Kiran Sharma, Adnan Aamir, and Yuji Kuronuma, 1083K]
After more than three days of high tension, residents of Pakistan and India woke up to relative calm on May 11. Cross-border drone, missile and jet attacks had given way to a ceasefire -- first signaled by none other than U.S. President Donald Trump, claiming credit for the truce.Trump’s exact part in the truce remains unclear: His claim was quickly rejected by New Delhi, while Islamabad welcomed his "constructive role." Whatever happened behind the scenes, relief was palpable on both sides of the border as citizens began to resume going about their regular daily routines, be it making plans to watch cricket matches in Rawalpindi or organizing holiday arrangements in India.The two countries have a long history of hostilities centered on the contested region of Kashmir. But in the latest violent flare-up -- after an armed group killed 26 civilians in India-administered Kashmir -- India attacked Pakistani cities well beyond, while Pakistan launched 300 to 400 drones toward 36 sites in India. The cross-border fighting left 51 dead on the Pakistani side and at least 16 killed on the Indian side.Still, border tensions linger after the most inflamed military conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations in decades, with both sides claiming a win.With the end of cross-border attacks, though, came the start of a new era of doubt, observers say: If the exchange of hostilities beyond the contested Kashmir province means previous "red lines" no longer apply and nuclear weaponry provided no deterrence from conventional attacks, what exactly prevented a full-scale war, and what guardrails could prevent it in future?Even though New Delhi was quick to dismiss U.S. claims that Trump brokered the ceasefire deal, with warnings about how war would impact the two countries’ prospects for trade with the world’s biggest economy, Trump’s role must be considered important, said Amit Ranjan, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies."It’s hard to believe that India and Pakistan talked [directly]," Ranjan told Nikkei Asia."In this situation, whatever anyone may say, the U.S. role cannot be downplayed ... but the only thing is that we don’t know conditions [involving this ceasefire], what terms they agreed to, and how the U.S. used its leverage on India and Pakistan."Multiple sources in New Delhi told Nikkei Asia the ceasefire was "worked out directly" between India and Pakistan.Still, on May 12 Trump not only again claimed credit for the ceasefire but also for averting a "nuclear conflict." Speaking at the White House, the U.S. president told media, "I said, ‘Come on, we’re going to do a lot of trade with you guys [India and Pakistan]. Let’s stop it... If you stop it, we’re doing trade. If you don’t stop it, we’re not going to do any trade’ ... And we stopped the nuclear conflict."Under Trump’s sweeping plan to impose tariffs on imports into the U.S., India faces a 26% levy on its exports, suspended until July 9, unless the two countries strike a trade deal in the meantime. Similarly, Pakistan is in line to be hit with a 29% tariff, barring any deal before July 9.Research fellow Ranjan said it would take time for India-Pakistan tensions to ease even though they may not escalate to a warlike situation in the near future. "But you never know as [in the case of] India and Pakistan you cannot make any guess... All those measures that they have taken [including suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and Simla peace pact] have increased the distance between New Delhi and Islamabad [even more]."As to whether the ceasefire will hold, recent precedent suggests a lack of certainty. Christopher Clary, an associate professor at the University at Albany, New York, noted in a 2024 paper that "senior leader buy-in in both capitals" was one of the essential conditions to make a truce successful. In the past four decades, there were ceasefire attempts along the Line of Control, the de facto border between the two countries, from 2000 to 2001, in 2003, 2013, 2018, and 2021. Clary wrote that "only the 2003 and 2021 ceasefires can be considered successful."The scale of the latest clashes left observers like Derek Grossman, a defense analyst at the think tank RAND Corp., fearful that the two countries have moved beyond an era of previously limited hostilities."In my view, it has shattered any previously held notions of red lines or guardrails as the border conflicts and crises between 1971 and today were fairly circumscribed and localized," Grossman told Nikkei Asia."New Delhi and Islamabad never agreed, at least in public, to limit operations against each other were conflict to reignite," Grossman said, "though in private they may have come to such an agreement." Still, such lines had come to be accepted among observers through the track record of the rivals’ Kashmir-centered conflicts in the past half a century.The crossing of previously perceived limits in the world’s first drone conflict between nuclear-armed countries also left scholars pondering the relevance of the two countries’ nuclear arsenals. Most of the drones fired from Pakistan were Songar military drones made by Turkish manufacturer Asisguard, according to the Indian Defence Ministry, while Indian armed forces deployed a number of Israeli-made drones, according to observers, and domestic drone makers saw their share prices surge amid anticipation for increased business.India and Pakistan have been competing for decades to expand their military capabilities: According to a Federation of American Scientists report in March 2025, Pakistan has 170 nuclear warheads, compared with India’s 180. Neither country has joined the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty regime."India’s attack and Pakistan’s retaliation were not limited to any one area. They crossed that threshold," Tahir Naeem Malik, a professor at the National University of Modern Languages in Islamabad, told Nikkei Asia."So, this puts the entire nuclear deterrence framework into question," he said.For some observes, the economic implications of launching a full-scale war may offer a plausible explanation for the willingness to agree a ceasefire, even if the ultimate deterrent may not be the possibility of incurring the wrath of President Trump.Pakistan’s economic woes in recent years have seen it strike a bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund. Meanwhile continuous rollovers of debt to China are keeping Pakistan’s economy afloat as Islamabad’s debt service to Beijing is expected to hit a record this year.Economic motives also meant India did not want a full-scale war, according to Harsh V. Pant, vice president of studies and foreign policy at the Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation think tank."Because India had no real incentive to end up like Russians in Ukraine or Israelis with Hamas, because that takes away from India’s core interest of focusing on economic development," Pant told Nikkei Asia. US farm agency cancels food aid for children in poor countries (Reuters)
Reuters [5/22/2025 3:27 PM, Leah Douglas, 51390K]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has terminated 17 projects under a foreign aid program that funds school meals for children in low-income countries, according to an email sent from USDA to congressional staff.
The cuts to the McGovern-Dole Food for Education program are in addition to 27 projects canceled last week under USDA’s Food for Progress aid program, which sends U.S. commodities abroad for economic development. Those cuts were previously reported by Reuters.
The terminations are another blow to U.S. foreign aid initiatives as President Donald Trump slashes government spending, leaving food intended for aid programs to rot in warehouses. The moves have raised concerns about increased hunger abroad.
In all, 44 projects have been canceled in countries including Honduras, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone and Nepal. The projects are "not in alignment with the foreign assistance objectives of the Trump Administration," said the email sent to congressional staff, which was seen by Reuters.
A USDA spokesperson said the programs were canceled in accordance with a January 20 executive order on aligning foreign aid with U.S. interests.
Earlier, the White House and the Department of Government Efficiency had pressured the USDA to reduce spending on overseas programs, according to a source familiar with the situation. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Twelve of the canceled McGovern-Dole projects are administered by the Catholic Relief Services, according to the email.
Haydee Diaz, CRS’s country representative in Honduras, said the group’s program there serves 97,000 children across more than 1,700 schools in rural municipalities where malnutrition and stunting - a condition where children’s growth is hindered due to a lack of adequate food - are serious issues.
The program uses corn, rice, beans and a fortified soy blend from U.S. farmers for school meals that are prepared by 10,000 volunteers, Diaz said.
The aid can help reduce migration to the U.S. because it provides parents the assurance their children will at least have one healthy meal per day in their home community, Diaz said.
"What we’ll see is more desperation, and more migration," Diaz said.
U.S. farmers have received payment for the donated commodities and grantees must deliver commodities to their final destinations, said the email to Congress.
Grantees were told by the USDA to dispose of their commodities within 30 days, according to another source familiar with the situation. That could mean giving the food away, or destroying it, the source said.
Diaz said her program aims to distribute as much of the aid as it can in the short window.
Despite the cuts, the USDA is still administering 14 remaining Food for Progress projects in 17 countries and 30 McGovern-Dole projects in 22 countries, the email said.
The agency has also published a funding notice for next year’s McGovern-Dole program and is finalizing the funding notice for Food for Progress, the email said.
McGovern-Dole fed 2.5 million food-insecure children in 2023, according to a program report to Congress. McGovern-Dole awards totaled $248 million and sent more than 37,000 metric tonnes of U.S. commodities abroad. Twitter
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Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[5/22/2025 4:35 PM, 33.5K followers, 9 retweets, 43 likes]
Yesterday, @SecRubio committed to @RepDinaTitus that he would appoint a Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, in compliance with the law. Today, the @statedept shut down the regular reporting of metrics due to "changing environment and priorities." These don’t match up.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver@shawnjvandiver
[5/22/2025 4:42 PM, 33.5K followers, 5 retweets, 14 likes] Journalists — if you want these reports, I’m happy to share. Or you can FOIA Operation Allies Welcome and Enduring Welcome reports. I would ask for them beginning in 2022.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[5/22/2025 10:45 AM, 33.5K followers, 19 retweets, 135 likes]
I met with @RepTroyDowning yesterday and we had a great discussion about our allies. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and I think we can count him among the champions for our allies in this congress.
Shawn VanDiver@shawnjvandiver
[5/22/2025 9:58 AM, 33.5K followers, 27 retweets, 111 likes]
I’m tired of hearing how much Members of Congress “care” behind closed doors. If you’re not speaking up in public about the Afghan allies we left behind, then you’re part of the problem. This week, a few stood up. Most stayed silent. Enough is enough. Take a stand.
Beth W. Bailey@BWBailey85
[5/22/2025 8:09 AM, 8.5K followers, 11 retweets, 35 likes]
If you want to know what life is truly like for Afghan women, read @ZanTimes - not Cheryl Benard. Here’s Zan Times’ Kreshma Fakhri talking about life for Afghan women before and after the de facto government took control of her country: https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=URJSR6CUy3ahA3AY&v=Qv_zVzKn7OE&feature=youtu.be
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[5/23/2025 1:26 AM, 5.8K followers, 7 retweets, 11 likes]
Another danger: After silencing and arresting journalists, banning women from health jobs, and suppressing human rights activists, the Taliban are now targeting religious scholars. Mawlawi Qader Qanit, a Kabul imam, was abducted for defending girls’ right to education and work.
Jahanzeb Wesa@Jahanzeb_Wesa
[5/22/2025 6:49 PM, 5.8K followers, 2 retweets, 9 likes]
Over $100M in maternal & reproductive health aid for Afghanistan has been suspended due to U.S. cuts, says UNFPA. Afghanistan, with one of the highest maternal mortality rates, is hit hardest. “These aren’t just numbers—they’re lives,” warns Andrew Saberton. Pakistan
Shehbaz Sharif@CMShehbaz
[5/22/2025 11:08 PM, 6.8M followers, 355 retweets, 1.7K likes]
Deeply saddened by the tragic loss of lives due to landslides in Guizhou, China. I extend my heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and government of China during this difficult time and pray for the safe recovery of the missing.Michael Kugelman@MichaelKugelman
[5/22/2025 11:41 AM, 225.8K followers, 15 retweets, 76 likes]
Yesterday Karan Thapar interviewed me about the role of the US during the recent India-Pakistan conflict, what to make of President Trump’s comments about the ceasefire and mediation, and if hyphenation has returned to US policy (I argued it has not). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCYT394OSTg Mariam Solaimankhil@Mariamistan
[5/22/2025 3:54 PM, 101.3K followers, 10 retweets, 41 likes]
Hafiz Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and Pakistan’s DG ISPR Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry say the exact same line: “If India stops our water, we’ll stop their breath.” One is a terrorist. The other is a general. But please, tell us again how Pakistan is a responsible nuclear state and a victim of terrorism. The world’s favorite ally in the war on terror, right?
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[5/22/2025 5:39 PM, 625.1K followers, 26 retweets, 98 likes]
HOW? Out of 33 MAF water from 3 eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, &Sutlej) only 2 MAF flows to Pakistan when Indian dams reach their limits in rainy season. Out of 133 MAF water from 3 western rivers (Jhelum, Chenab & Indus), Indian dams can store 3 MAF only as per Indus Treaty.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[5/22/2025 2:42 PM, 625.1K followers, 859 retweets, 2.3K likes]
This photo shows who is the real boss in Pakistan! Pakistan’s President and Prime Minister are standing like subordinates in front of army chief Asim Munir, who has declared himself, the Field Marshal after an air war.
Ashok Swain@ashoswai
[5/22/2025 6:46 AM, 625.1K followers, 973 retweets, 3.1K likes]
If Pakistan truly ‘won the war’ by allegedly shooting down some Indian fighter jets, as it claims, then why was Air Chief Marshal Zaheer Babar not promoted—while Army Chief Asim Munir was elevated to be the Field Marshal? Did the army shoot down Indian jets using guns and tanks? India
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/23/2025 2:16 AM, 108.7M followers, 1.1K retweets, 4.7K likes]
Addressing the North East Rising Summit in Delhi. The region is witnessing unprecedented progress. We are determined to accelerate its growth story.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi[5/22/2025 11:25 AM, 108.7M followers, 5.8K retweets, 37K likes]
Attended the Defence Investiture Ceremony-2025 (Phase-1), where Gallantry Awards were presented. India will always be grateful to our armed forces for their valour and commitment to safeguarding our nation.
Narendra Modi@narendramodi
[5/22/2025 11:24 AM, 108.7M followers, 4.8K retweets, 33K likes]
At 10:30 AM tomorrow, 23rd May, will take part in the Rising Northeast Investors Summit. This platform brings together key stakeholders from the world of business with the aim of boosting investments across the North East. Over the last decade, this region has scaled new heights of progress and emerged as an attractive investment destination. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetail.aspx?PRID=2130507 Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[5/22/2025 10:15 AM, 3.8M followers, 636 retweets, 3.8K likes]
Chaired the regional conference of our Ambassadors in Europe today in Berlin. We discussed #OpSindoor and our message of zero tolerance for terrorism. Also deliberated on various aspects of more deeply engaging Europe at a time of change.
Dr. S. Jaishankar@DrSJaishankar
[5/22/2025 5:01 AM, 3.8M followers, 10K retweets, 47K likes]
Condemn in the strongest term the killing of Israeli diplomats in Washington DC. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and colleagues. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. @gidonsaarMariam Solaimankhil@Mariamistan
[5/23/2025 2:56 AM, 101.3K followers, 10 retweets, 46 likes]
India isn’t cutting off peace. It’s cutting off the way Pakistan survives- water. You can’t breed terrorists, launch attacks, and then cry victim when India stops playing caretaker. Modi’s message is clear: cross the line, pay the price.Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[5/22/2025 12:18 PM, 293.3K followers, 525 retweets, 1.2K likes]
Four days after the terrorist attack that sparked the recent India-Pakistan military hostilities, Donald Trump’s family-linked crypto firm struck a deal with Pakistan. In a striking reversal from his first-term rhetoric — when he accused Pakistan of giving the U.S. “nothing but lies and deceit” — Trump is now lavishing praise on the country. The company, World Liberty Financial (WLF), was launched by Trump and his sons and offers its own digital currency. On April 26, Pakistan signed a partnership with WLF, with the firm’s delegation receiving red-carpet treatment from the Pakistani prime minister and army chief. Trump’s crypto venture has reportedly added billions to his family’s wealth in just a matter of months.
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[5/22/2025 8:18 AM, 293.3K followers, 430 retweets, 1.2K likes]
The Indian foreign minister’s comments to a Dutch interviewer only confirm a third-party role in the ceasefire. Jaishankar said that India had made clear to foreign interlocutors that the Pakistan military must approach India for a ceasefire. In his words, “their general has to call our general.” So, who persuaded the Pakistan military to seek a ceasefire? A third party obviously. And Jaishankar himself alludes to the third party by saying U.S. officials were talking to Pakistan. NSB
Brahma Chellaney@Chellaney
[5/22/2025 11:30 AM, 293.3K followers, 107 retweets, 382 likes]
To curry favor with the Trump White House, Muhammad Yunus personally invited Musk to bring Starlink to Bangladesh. Now, Starlink has been launched — offering speeds of just up to 300 Mbps at a price not many Bangladeshis can afford. There’s also a one-time setup fee of USD 390.
Aditya Raj Kaul@AdityaRajKaul
[5/22/2025 11:16 PM, 673.2K followers, 108 retweets, 684 likes]
Frustrated, Yunus hints at quitting’. Will incompetent puppet Muhammed Yunus of Bangladesh resign from Chief Advisor post?
The President’s Office, Maldives@presidencymv
[5/22/2025 12:09 PM, 113.3K followers, 120 retweets, 118 likes]
President Dr @MMuizzu graces the Maldives Expo 2025 Award Ceremony held at the Maldives Centre for Social Education (MCSE) tonight. Awards were presented to top scorers across 500+ exhibits, recognising excellence in individuals, island & city communities, businesses, SMEs, SOEs, NGOs & people with disabilities. The @mv_expo is being held from May 23-31, 2025, at Central Park, Hulhumalé. #CreativeMaldives #MaldivesExpo2025
Namal Rajapaksa@RajapaksaNamal
[5/22/2025 4:01 AM, 435.1K followers, 6 retweets, 42 likes]
The closure of an international apparel factory in the BOI, causing thousands of job losses, is another example of the government’s inability to maintain a conducive business environment. High taxes, rising energy costs, the removal of SVAT (which once enabled faster VAT refunds for exporters), policy instability, and trade union disruptions have created a negative sentiment among the investor community. Despite the NPP’s pledges to boost investments, the government has not only failed to attract new investors but has also struggled to retain long-standing ones. The government must act swiftly to address the concerns of investors already operating in the country before more exits follow.
M U M Ali Sabry@alisabrypc
[5/22/2025 9:14 PM, 8.2K followers, 10 retweets, 66 likes]
Two young Sri Lankans. One proud nation. Our reigning Miss Sri Lanka, dazzling on the global stage of Miss World, and our own Yevan, tearing through the international Formula racing circuits, both have taken the world by storm, putting Sri Lanka back in the spotlight for all the right reasons. They carry our flag with pride and purpose, inspired by the richness of our culture, the strength of our heritage, and the unity of our people. They are unapologetically Sri Lankan bold, talented, and passionate, showing the world what this little island is capable of. At a time when some seek to gain relevance by putting our country down, these two young stars choose instead to lift it up. With grace and grit, they remind us that love for your country isn’t blind, it is courageous. “My country - right or wrong. If right, to be kept right; if wrong, to be set right.” Let us cheer them on, support them, and thank them for reminding us of the power of belief, beauty, and sheer determination. Wishing both of them the very best in their journeys. You’ve already made us proud. Central Asia
UNODC in Central Asia@UNODC_ROCA
[5/22/2025 9:16 AM, 2.5K followers, 3 retweets, 2 likes]
H.E. Mr. Berik Asylov, Prosecutor General of 🇰🇿, awarded UNODC a Memorial Sign marking the 10th Anniversary of the Law Enforcement Academy - recognizing our contribution to training Kazakhstan’s law enforcement. Grateful to @GenProkRK for the partnership! #Kazakhstan
UNODC in Central Asia@UNODC_ROCA
[5/22/2025 8:39 AM, 2.5K followers, 2 retweets, 2 likes]
Side-event spotlight: ARIN-WCA strengthens regional cooperation in asset recovery! At GlobE Plenary in Baku, the Network adopted its 2025-27 Strategic Plan & handed over the presidency from Turkmenistan to Tajikistan. The event fostered synergies, capacity-building & joint action. #AssetRecovery
Bakhtiyor Saidov@FM_Saidov
[5/22/2025 2:52 PM, 11.4K followers, 3 retweets, 8 likes]
Today’s historic visit to the city of Ljubljana marks the beginning of a new era in the friendship and cooperation between Uzbekistan and Slovenia. @President_Uz H.E. Shavkat Mirziyoyev held productive talks with H.E. @NMusar, President of #Slovenia, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia H.E. Robert Golob, Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia H.E. Urška Klakočar Zupančič, as well as other government representatives. The discussions focused on strengthening bilateral ties in political, economic, cultural-humanitarian, and other spheres. In addition, the business forum held jointly with heads of leading companies and financial institutions laid the groundwork for exchanging ideas on mutually beneficial projects in various areas of economic partnership between #Uzbekistan and #Slovenia. We are ready to support all foreign investors willing to explore new opportunities in our country. Special thanks are extended to FM H.E. @TFajon and her team @MZEZ_RS for their exceptional efforts in facilitating this productive visit and for their role in preparing documents that will enhance our bilateral relations. This visit marks the beginning of a new and dynamic phase in bilateral relations — one based on trust, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to a stable and prosperous future.{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.