Tag Archives: democracy

Neighborhood News Digest – 09 February 2023

Afghanistan
Regional Security Officials Meet in Moscow, Discuss Afghanistan – Tolo News

The fifth multilateral meeting of security envoys was held on Wednesday in Moscow, during which they discussed the situation in Afghanistan and in the region. The Russian News Agency TASS reported that the Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said that Washington intends to continue its geopolitical experiments, including in Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. Click here to read…

India to always stand by Afghans, says Ajit Doval at Moscow meeting – The Tribune

“India is and will remain an important stakeholder in Afghanistan. We have always stood by people of Afghanistan and will always support collective efforts to help Afghan people build a prosperous and vibrant nation once again,” said Doval while participating in the 5th Multilateral Meeting of Secretaries of Security Councils/ National Security Advisers on Afghanistan in Moscow on Wednesday. Click here to read…

Afghanistan: Taliban ‘desperate’ for resumption of flights to India – Firstpost

With the global community yet to recognise the current regime in Kabul, the Afghan Taliban is reportedly desperate for flights to resume between India and Afghanistan. According to a Hindustan Times report, the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan are optimistic that India will agree to resume direct flights between New Delhi and Kandahar. Click here to read…

Taliban Tighten Currency Controls After Dollar Smuggling Report – Bloomberg

The Taliban imposed fresh restrictions on people carrying foreign currency out of Afghanistan via a rare directive from the prime minister’s office after a report that millions of dollars were being smuggled in each day from Pakistan, shoring up its battered economy. Click here to read…

Bangladesh
Awami League wants to see no unopposed MPs in next parliament – Dhaka Tribune

Awami League President and Prime Minister President Sheikh Hasina has called upon party lawmakers to take massive preparations for a participatory and representative election, regardless of whether the opposition BNP and its allies participate in it. Click here to read…

Fakhrul, Abbas get permanent bail – Daily Star

The High Court yesterday granted permanent bail to BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and standing committee member Mirza Abbas in a case filed over last year’s December 7 clash between police and BNP men in Nayapaltan. The HC bench of Justice Md Salim and Justice Md Riaz Uddin Khan delivered the verdict holding the final hearing on a bail petition filed by them. Click here to read…

IMF Loans and the Post-Truth Politics in Bangladesh – Geopolitics

Finally, on Jan 30, 2023, Bangladesh successfully secured loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). For the last seven months since July 2022, intense negotiations took place which also became a political scoop for Bangladesh’s political parties. Oppositions and pressure groups resorted to mass persuasion using rhetoric and ‘charlatan’ predictions and analysis to decrease citizens’ confidence in the incumbent government. For a while, they were successful in creating skepticism about whether Bangladesh would get the loans or not. Such skepticism also induced unnecessary alarm, stress, confusion, and uncertainty, and created friction in the country. Looking back at that rhetoric, and half-cooked predictions, it seems there is a ‘post-truth’ politics at play in Bangladesh regarding the IMF loan. Click here to read…

Who killed democracy in Bangladesh? – Daily Star

The minister (Obaidul Quader) has cited the “peaceful atmosphere” that prevailed during the polling on February 1. Indeed, it was very peaceful. When fewer than 20 percent of voters turn up to vote, it is bound to be peaceful. When the opposition voters are told not to bother to come to the polling stations, it is bound to be “peaceful.” When an opposition candidate goes into hiding, unable to withstand the pressure on him, peace is bound to follow. The recent by-polls represent the state of democracy in our country fairly accurately. The near-empty polling booths, if nothing, displays a lack of trust; in fact, it demonstrates people’s apathy towards elections and voting. Most voters feel it is an exercise in futility under the present circumstances, the results a forgone conclusion. Click here to read…

Bhutan
Agriculture sector contributes the least to the economy – Kuensel

Agriculture sector employs nearly half of the country’s workforce. However, it is the least productive sector in the country. According to the Royal Monetary Authority’s (RMA) recent annual report, the agriculture sector employed 158,511 persons, equivalent to 49.2 percent of the total labour force in 2021. Click here to read…

India: EAM S. Jaishankar meets National Assembly Speaker of Bhutan Wangchuk Namgyel – Georgia Online

The External Affairs Minister of India, S Jaishankar, met with the Bhutanese National Assembly Speaker, Wangchuk Namgyel, in Delhi. The officials, at the meeting, discussed ways to strengthen the economic cooperation and concerns of the youth of both nations. The Indian official met with the 13-member delegation of Namgyel while praising the kind of relations the two nations bear with each other. Click here to read…

Five from Bhutan among IRS officers training in Bengaluru – Times of India

The 74th IRS batch has 43 officers in addition to five Bhutan-origin civil servants who shared their experience of learning in India. They said the IRS syllabus offered them a chance at knowledge enhancement. They got to learn about land, sea and air trade, unlike in their land-locked country. Click here to read…

3.5 million tourists will be welcomed annually by 2028 – Pres. Solih – Raajje

The President made the statement in his Presidential Address on Monday. In his address, President Solih described the past three years as the most challenging years the Maldivian economy has faced. As such, he noted that the Covid-19 pandemic brought a complete halt to the Maldivian economy. The President stated that the administration can show results based on mathematical results on the work done and what remains to be done. He said that data demonstrate how well the Maldivian economy is doing. Click here to read…

Myanmar
Manipur governor calls for combating anti-social activities from Myanmar – North East Now

Inspecting the Indo-Myanmar border at Kasom Khullen sub-divisional headquarters in Kamjong district of Manipur, governor La Ganesan, on Wednesday, called for combating the issues of illegal migration, smuggling of drugs, weapons, sneaking insurgents, etc that are being perpetrated from neighboring countries into Indian territory. Click here to read…

Chevron exits Myanmar upstream sector – Upstream Online

US supermajor Chevron has agreed to sell its significant stake in the producing Yadana gas field offshore Myanmar to Canada’s MTI Energy, prompting Justice for Myanmar to call for Canadian and UK sanctions on state-owned Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE). Chevon confirmed to Upstream it has agreed to sell its 41.1% stake in the Yadana gas project to Et Martem Holdings, a subsidiary of MTI Energy. Click here to read…

Anti-junta forces retreat after holding strategic river village for several days – Myanmar Now

Resistance forces in northern Sagaing Region’s Homalin Township withdrew on Saturday from a strategically important village that they captured and held for several days last week, according to sources. Shwe Pyi Aye Myothit, located on the eastern bank of the Chindwin River some 30km southwest of the town of Homalin, fell to an alliance of anti-junta groups on February 1. It remained under their control for the next three days, despite multiple counterattacks from the military and its militia allies. Click here to read…

Nepal
How Nepal Regenerated Its Forests – Earth Observatory

Today, community forests occupy nearly 2.3 million hectares—about a third of Nepal’s forest cover—and are managed by over 22,000 community forest groups comprising 3 million households. A 2016 United Nations report on the state of forests around the world found that three countries with the most annual gain in tree cover between 2010 and 2015 were the Philippines (with an annual growth rate of 3.3 percent), Chile (1.8 percent), and Lao PDR (0.9 percent). Within community forests of Kābhrepalāñchok and Sindhupālchok, forest growth between 2010 and 2015 was 1.84 percent. Click here to read…

Nepal opens high-level dialogue with defence minister’s visit to India – India Narrative

In a bid to further deepen bilateral defense cooperation between the two countries, Nepal’s Defence Minister Hari Prasad Upreti will be paying an official visit to India next week, officials said here on Tuesday. Upreti is visiting New Delhi from February 13 to 17 at the official invitation of his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh. This is the maiden foreign visit of the defence minister after he assumed the office on January 17. Upreti’s visit will mark the first high-level exchange between Nepal and India after the Prachanda government took office following elections. Click here to read…

Key Ally Quits Government in Nepal – The Diplomat

On February 6, the Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP) decided to quit the coalition government led by Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist Center (CPN-MC) supremo Pushpa Kamal Dahal. The party lasted barely a month in the government. Click here to read…

Pakistan
Pakistan Navy invites 110 countries for ‘Exercise Aman’; only 7 bother to send ships – Times Now

Exercise Aman, for the Pakistan Navy, is a prestigious moment. It is its biggest exercise and though it’s to begin on February 10, of the 110 countries invited, only seven have bothered to send ships or submarines. The four-day biannual exercise appears to be another sign of Pakistan’s increasing isolation and participation appears to be going down. This year only seven countries have sent ships– the United States of America, China, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia, Italy, and Japan. Click here to read…

Turkey insults Pakistan, refuses to host PM Shehbaz Sharif – Firstpost

Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif announced his visit to Ankara to show solidarity with Turkey. He did not think that the country which is currently facing a natural disaster, resources should not be spent on VIP visits. In such a situation, Turkey itself refused to host Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif. Click here to read…

12 TTP militants killed in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – The Hindu

Pakistan’s security forces gunned down 12 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants on February 8 in the country’s restive northwest, police said, as the government stepped up its offensive against outlawed groups following a spike in terror attacks. Click here to read…

Pakistan at beginning of worst economic crisis since country’s formation: Report – Economic Times

Pakistan is currently at the beginning of the worst economic crisis since the country’s formation in 1947, Geo-politik reported. According to Geo-politik, Pakistan has taken fourteen loans from the IMF thus far, but ironically none of them has ever been completed. This, therefore, raises serious questions about the capacity and capability of the Pakistan state to get out of this dead-end. Click here to read…

Sri Lanka
“I will respect the country” – Daily News

President Ranil Wickremesinghe delivering the Government’s Policy Statement yesterday requested everyone not to be prisoners of the past, but think about the future. “Let’s unite consensually and move forward democratically to support the recovery of the nation from the current crisisClick here to read…

Swiss government provides funds through UNICEF to support services for children In Sri Lanka – Colombo Page

The Government of Switzerland has contributed Swiss Francs (CHF) 500,000 (approximately Rs. 199 million) through UNICEF to meet the urgent needs of children impacted by the economic crisis in Sri Lanka. With this funding, UNICEF will procure essential medical supplies, including medicines for treatment of illnesses and complications among children and women. In education, the funds will help children in disadvantaged schools continue learning and support catch-up classes to recover learning loss, including by providing transport allowance to teachers and daily snacks to students. Click here to read…

Japanese State Minister of Foreign affairs visits Port of Colombo – Daily News

Japanese State Minister of Foreign Affairs TAKEI Shunsuke visited the Port of Colombo learn about the ongoing developments in the Port of Colombo. During the visit the Japanese State Minister of Foreign Affairs also met the Chairman of Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) – Keith D. Bernard and other higher officials at the main control tower of the Port. The Chairman of SLPA explained to the Japanese State Minister of Foreign Affairs of the progress of the developments of the East Container Terminal (ECT), the West Container Terminal and the North Port Development Project. Click here to read…

China: Daily Scan, December 6, 2021

Xi stresses developing religions in Chinese context: Xinhuanet
December 4, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping has stressed upholding the principle of developing religions in the Chinese context, and providing active guidance for the adaptation of religions to socialist society. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks while addressing a national conference on work related to religious affairs, held from Friday to Saturday in Beijing. Click here to read…

China makes key move to tackle Evergrande default: Xinhuanet
December 5, 2021

A crucial step has been taken in addressing the recent default of property developer China Evergrande Group after Guangdong provincial government held a regulatory talk with its chairman and agreed to send a working group to the company. Click here to read…

China to boost support for development of small, medium airports: Xinhuanet
December 3, 2021

China will introduce policies to support and give subsidies to ensure sustainable development of small and medium airports nationwide, according to civil aviation authorities. This is aimed at ensuring the sustainable, safe and smooth operation of such airports, especially amid the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Click here to read…

Chinese scientists generate stable pig stem cells for gene-editing: Xinhuanet
December 3, 2021

Chinese scientists have generated stable pig stem cell lines that allow multiple gene-editing. The breakthrough brightens prospects for organ transplant and livestock breeding.

Researchers from China Agricultural University, Sichuan Agricultural University, Northeast Agricultural University and Beijing Institute of Genomics cultivated stem cell lines that can “give birth to” healthy off-spring over more than 200 generations, according to a recent study published online in the journal Cell ResearchClick here to read…

Chinese researchers use salt-tolerant plant to treat saline soil: Xinhuanet
December 5, 2021

Chinese researchers have selected a saline-resistant plant variety in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that can absorb and process hundreds of tonnes of salt annually in each square kilometer of land. The area of saline land in Xinjiang spans up to 110,000 square kilometers, accounting for one-third of the country’s total, which has severely restricted the sustainable development of agriculture in the region. Click here to read…

China issues white paper on its democracy: Quishi
December 6, 2021

China’s State Council Information Office on Saturday released a white paper titled “China: Democracy That Works.” Democracy is a common value of humanity and an ideal that has always been cherished by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people, said the white paper. Click here to read…

China issues 5-year plan to boost green development of industrial sectors: People’s Daily
December 4, 2021

China on Friday released a plan for the green development of its industrial sectors during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), a step forward in the country’s pursuit of low-carbon growth. By 2025, significant progress will have been made in the green and low-carbon transformation of China’s industrial structure and production, with technologies and equipment for green development widely applied, according to the plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Click here to read…

Xi pledges unswerving determination to support multilateralism: China Military
December 5, 2021

China’s determination to support multilateralism will not change, Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Sunday while delivering a speech via video at the opening ceremony of the 2021 Imperial Springs International Forum. “Multilateralism is essentially about having international affairs managed by all parties through consultation and the future of the world decided by all countries working together,” he said. Click here to read…

China launches five-year plan to further improve rural living conditions: Global Times
December 5, 2021

The State Council, China’s cabinet, launched a five-year action plan, from 2021 to 2025, to further improve the living conditions of the rural population, Xinhua News Agency reported on Sunday. The action plan proposes that rural living conditions should be significantly improved by 2025 and the ecological construction of China’s rural areas needs to make new progress, while placing great emphasis on steadily increasing the penetration rate of sanitary facilities in rural areas with effective control of sewage and human waste. Click here to read…

PLA’s new-type bomber practices island bombing, mine-laying in S.China Sea: Global Times
December 5, 2021

The H-6J, the latest type of bomber to enter service with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy, recently participated in a live-fire exercise in the South China Sea, practicing bomb dropping on islands and sea mine-laying, which analysts said on Sunday displayed the aircraft’s traditional bombing capability in addition to its standoff strike competence.Click here to read…

China to establish new rare-earth mammoth through merger: Global Times
December 5, 2021

China is set to establish a global rare-earth giant based on the merger of rare-earth assets from several state-owned enterprises, in a move that analysts say will effectively enhance the development and concentration of the domestic rare-earth industry. “There are certain discussions on the merger, and the plan is beginning to take shape,” a manager at a state-owned rare-earth enterprise based in Ganzhou, East China’s Jiangxi Province, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Global Times on Sunday. Click here to read…

China tightens control of religion, with emphasis on national security: South China Morning Post
December 6, 2021

Chinese President Xi Jinping has flagged a further tightening of control on religion, in a speech at a national religious work conference held in Beijing late last week.
Xi said China will further promote “sinicisation of religion”, with a focus on strengthening control of online religious affairs. He emphasised that religious activities must be conducted within the boundary of the law, according to official Xinhua news agency.
“Religious activities should be carried out within the scope stipulated by laws and regulations … and should not interfere with educational, judicial and administrative affairs as well as social life,” Xi said. Click here to read…

How Peng Shuai is fanning the embers of China’s #MeToo movement: South China Morning Post
December 5, 2021

It was a click that was heard around the world. Early last month, the send button was pressed on a post on Chinese tennis pro Peng Shuai’s Twitter-like Weibo account. The post alleged sexual assault against a former senior Chinese politician, a claim that was equally sudden and explosive, coming out of nowhere and rippling around the country before censors stamped out mainstream discussion online. Nevertheless the post continued to be relayed as screenshots, graphics, links and even on blockchain, encouraging members of China’s embattled #MeToo movement. Click here to read…

Laos-China railway launched amid concern about debt owed to China: Kyodo
December 3, 2021

A railway connecting Laos and the Chinese border was launched Friday amid concerns that the large amount of debt the Southeast Asian country owes China for the project could force it to give up concessions. Laos is banking on the economic benefits its first long-distance railway will bring through greater trade, while China hopes its marquee infrastructure project under its Belt and Road Initiative will eventually extend to Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, and create a land-based route to the Indo-Pacific. Click here to read…