„Warm congratulations to H.E. Mr. Vladimir Putin on his re-election as the President of the Russian Federation.
Look forward to working together to further strengthen the time-tested Special & Privileged Strategic Partnership between India and Russia in the years to come,“ the Prime Minister wrote.
Israel believes the drone fired at a tanker off the coast of India a short while ago was launched directly from Iran, Channel 12 reports, although this remains unconfirmed.
A chemical tanker operating in the Indian Ocean was struck by an Iranian attack drone Saturday, a US Department of Defense official said, the seventh Iranian attack on commercial shipping since 2021.
“The motor vessel CHEM PLUTO, a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned, and Netherlands-operated chemical tanker was struck at approximately 10 a.m. local time (6 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time) today in the Indian Ocean, 200 nautical miles from the coast of India, by a one-way attack drone fired from Iran,” the official said in a statement.
(November 20, 2023)
„Make Argentina great again!“ Trump posted on his platform Truth Social on Sunday reacting over Milei‘s win. „I am very proud of you,“ he added.
Outside of his controversial plan for dollarization, Milei‘s political program includes slashing regulations on gun control and transferring authority over the penitentiary system from civilians to the military; both measures are part of a tough-on-crime approach.
Generally, there are preambles to the constitution and this preamble has been called by our Supreme Court the “conscience of the constitution”. Preamble’s Part 3 Fundamental Rights, Part 4 Directive Principles of State Policy, which are not enforceable by the court but are nonetheless binding, they are all part of the conscience of the constitution (…)
You believe that there is the duty to interpret the constitution in the context of the time and in the context of the issues of the day.
Oh absolutely, absolutely! There has to be! (…)
In fact, interpretations keep changing, people keep adding to existing questions and revising new meanings.
Absolutely! Courts as you know go by precedent, so what five judges say today, seven judges can say tomorrow or have nine judges say the contrary to that, two years later.
This is what makes the constitution a living, dynamic object.
Absolutely!
In a massive breakthrough, the G20 member states on Saturday adopted a 100 percent consensus to the New Delhi Leaders‘ Summit Declaration, announced Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Calling it “historic and pathbreaking”, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said India‘s G20 Presidency “delivered phenomenal action on high ambitions for the world.”
“In line with the UN Charter, all states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state. The use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible.”
The declaration was adopted after prolonged negotiations on the outcome document that had been held up over a reference to Ukraine.
President Joe Biden arrived in New Delhi on Friday for a global summit where he will present the United States as an economic and strategic counterweight to China and Russia, taking advantage of the absence of leaders from those two countries, who are skipping the gathering.
India, which currently holds the rotating presidency of the G20, had proposed including the African Union as a full member. “No plan for the future of the planet can be successful without the representation and recognition of all voices,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on the subject.
We shared our views to enhance coordination with all countries in this region, along with our Quad partners. India and America stand shoulder-to-shoulder in the fight against terrorism and fundamentalism. We’re in agreement that concrete actions are needed in order to end cross-border terrorism.
The COVID pandemic and the Ukraine conflict have afflicted the countries of the Global South in particular. We believe that in order to resolve these problems, it is absolutely imperative for all countries to unite.
This included marching bands, a lavish vegetarian dinner and a 21-gun salute on the South Lawn of the White House.
Mr Modi, who is on a state visit, also addressed the US Congress, where he received a standing ovation.
Significantly, Kishida had last week welcomed the arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court, which is not recognised by India. Despite their common interests in the Indo-Pacific, India’s position on Ukraine remains markedly different from Japan and other Quad members as it refuses to categorically condemn Russia’s military actions. Diplomatic sources said Japan wants India to be more forthcoming on the Ukraine issue and that the two sides agreed to remain in touch on developments related to the conflict.
In his video message at the G20 foreign ministers‘ meeting, Modi also invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha to urge the delegates to draw inspiration from India‘s civilisational ethos and „focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us.“
On being asked if India faces a moral conflict due to import from Russia amid the latter‘s conflict with Ukraine, he had stated: „Absolutely none. There is no moral conflict. We don‘t buy from X or Y. We buy whatever is available. Government does not buy, it‘s the oil companies which do the buying.“
(October 11, 2022)
This decision stands in stark contrast to the careful, muted responses of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian President Narendra Modi to Putin’s accelerating aggression in Eastern Europe and mounting threats to unleash nuclear war on the continent. Apart from buying Russian oil (at major discounts, most recently about $25 below Brent prices), neither the Chinese nor the Indians have offered Putin much in the way of diplomatic cover, military materiel or other direct substantive support since the earliest weeks of the illegal Russian invasion.
State-run oil refiners are now looking at privately negotiated deals instead of buying through public tenders in order to get better prices, according to Indian refinery officials and traders. The South Asian nation has purchased everything from flagship Urals that ships from ports in the west, to a rare cargo of ESPO from the Far East, typically favored by China.
„Prime Minister [Modi] reiterated his long-standing conviction that the differences between Russia and the NATO group can only be resolved through honest and sincere dialogue,“ the statement said.
It said that during the phone call, PM Modi appealed for an immediate cessation of violence, and called for concerted efforts from all sides to return to the path of diplomatic negotiations and dialogue.
Delhi has deep concerns about Chinese actions and intentions in the region. The ongoing border crisis and fatal military clash last year brought Sino-Indian relations to their worst point in decades. Given these circumstances, Delhi watches the U.S. and other countries’ stance on China very closely. And, notwithstanding the emphasis on competition with China from two consecutive U.S. administrations and the hardening of the U.S.’s attitudes on China, Delhi worries about the possibility of American commitment to the region waning or a reversion to a more accommodating position on China.
President Biden hosted the first face to face summit with leaders of Japan, Australia and India. The four countries are known as the Quad and see themselves as a democratic bulwark against China.
“The EU and India are opening a new important chapter in our relationship. We are the world’s two largest democracies. We are natural partners,” European Council chief Charles Michel said.
UK prime minister Boris Johnson has sent an envoy to India to secure millions of doses of the AstraZeneca (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine.
Lord Eddie Lister, the PM‘s Conservative peer, and international adviser David Quarrey, met with India‘s foreign secretary Harsh Shringla in New Delhi on Monday.
– Matt Hancock under fire for raising hopes of huge ramp up in vaccines only for supplies setback to emerge
– Serum Institute of India has been told it must hand jabs to its own citizens before exporting vaccine stocks
– One batch of five million doses of the AstraZeneca jab bound for the UK has been delayed by a month
. Confusingly Boris Johnson insisted Indian government has not blocked any exports, as he prepares to visit
(21.01.2021)
Brazil is set to collect two million doses of Serum Institute’s (SII) Covishield vaccine, two weeks after Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their “urgent” clearance, sources confirmed to The Hindu.
Farmers from Punjab and Haryana, next to New Delhi, have been leading the mobilization since November, setting up protest camps in and around the capital.
The proposed legislation will enable transnational agri-food corporations like Cargill and Walmart and home-grown billionaire capitalists like Gautam Adani and his agribusiness conglomerate and Mukesh Ambini and his Reliance retail chain to decide on what is to be cultivated, how much of it is to be cultivated within India and how it is to be produced and processed. From seed to field to plate, the corporate take-over of the food and agriculture chain will be complete.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Modi’s proactive diplomacy with the countries in the Arab world has led to the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) shedding its anti-India rhetoric. A virtual split seems imminent in the OIC between the Arab and non-Arab countries. The Arab world is led by Saudi Arabia, while Turkey and Pakistan are playing an active role in mobilising non-Arab Muslim states.
China‘s foreign ministry said on Friday the two countries were holding talks to reduce tensions.
Spokesman Zhao Lijian, responding to a question about Modi‘s visit to the border region, said both sides were in communications through diplomatic and military channels to ease the situation.
According to a statement released by the Indian government, Israel will supply the Indian military with 16,479 Negev light machine guns, despite growing concerns over the health emergency facing the country of 1.3 billion people.
Trump will visit India on February 24th and 25th. He will also visit Ahmedabad. The Ahmedabad Municipal corporation is building a wall so that the slums along the road from where Donald Trump will be passing, can be hidden.
News reports said the wall was originally planned to be 6-7 feet (1.8-2.1 meters) high but was reduced to 4 feet (1.2 meters) after it received widespread publicity.
Senior government official Bijal Patel said the wall was built “for security reasons” and not to conceal the slum.
“Apart from security reasons, the wall is also part of a beautification and cleanliness drive,” she said.
This is bad news for everyone, but minorities are particularly at risk as these demagogues claim that “their” rights must be sacrificed for the national good. Bolsonaro and Modi have already taken several significant strides down this dangerous path.
While protest reverberates on the streets of Chile, Catalonia, Britain, France, Iraq, Lebanon, and Hong Kong, and a new generation rages against what has been done to their planet, I hope you will forgive me for speaking about a place where the street has been taken over by something quite different. There was a time when dissent was India’s best export. But now, even as protest swells in the West, our great anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist movements for social and environmental justice—the marches against big dams, against the privatization and plunder of our rivers and forests, against mass displacement and the alienation of indigenous peoples’ homelands—have largely fallen silent.
As Xi lands in the coastal city of Chennai Friday for a two-day visit to India, it‘s the Kashmir Valley at the northwestern tip of the mountain range that‘s poised to spoil efforts to improve Sino-Indian ties.
(23.09.2019)
Trump met separately this week with both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who are both due to address the UN General Assembly on Friday.
As The Post’s Niha Masih reported from Srinagar, streets are no longer crowded with civilians but awash with India’s armed soldiers, and “instead of traffic jams at intersections, there are spools of concertina wire. People remain inside their homes with no telephone, Internet or cable TV service. No one has seen or heard from local political leaders, hundreds of whom are in detention. Of the more than 200 newspapers in the region, only five are publishing physical copies. Their websites are stuck at Aug. 5.”
(10.08.2019)
NEW DELHI: Russia has endorsed India‘s move of abrogating Article 370 and bifurcating the state of Jammu & Kashmir, saying the exercise was „carried out within the framework of the Constitution of the Republic of India.“
In response to questions from the media, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday said: „Moscow expects that India and Pakistan will not allow aggravation of the situation in the region due to the change by Delhi in the status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Members of student, faculty and alumni of the prestigious Harvard University have written a letter to the Government of India, asking it to reconsider the detention of Shah Faesal on Wednesday in Srinagar.
Shah Faesal was sent back from Delhi airport on Tuesday to Srinagar and he was later detained under the Public Safety Act.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov clearly told Qureshi during their telephone call on Wednesday that it does not favour open UNSC session on Kashmir and the Russian mission in New York went along with closed session contrary to some reports that Moscow supported Beijing and asked for an open session, informed sources told ET. These reports are not incorrect, sources stressed.
“Public message of Russia was consistent from beginning. Also Russia supported no statement on the Kashmir issue at the UN,” sources said.
For India, the fact that no country agreed to the ChinaPakistan effort to force a formal meeting, the fact that the informal meeting had no minutes, no votes or show of hands, no resolution, no statements, and no outcome, showed the duo was isolated and was cause for satisfaction. Diplomats pointed out that barring China, not one among the 14 other UNSC members came out to speak on the matter.
A 90-minute private debate among Security Council members on Kashmir is notable. Asked whether the Council had left the Kashmir issue alone for too long, Russia‘s deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy, told CNN, „Well I was born in 1971.“
„Sometimes it‘s best to not touch on every issue,“ he added.
(11.08.2019)
Kashmiris have not yet forgotten that in August – November, 1947, RSS colluded with the Hindu Maharajah of Kashmir to perpetrate the horrific genocide and exodus of Jammu, whereby hundreds of thousands of Muslims were massacred and an estimated half a million forcibly displaced. This reduced the region’s Muslim majority to a minority. This time, RSS is working through BJP, its political wing, to complete its original mission of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Muslims. The genocide is being substituted by settler colonialism, but the objectives remain the same.
More than four million people in India, mostly Muslims, are at risk of being declared foreign migrants as the government pushes a hard-line Hindu nationalist agenda that has challenged the country’s pluralist traditions and aims to redefine what it means to be Indian.
Having listened to the debates on Kashmir in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister’s address to the nation, and having watched subsequent developments in Kashmir, we as citizens of India inspired by the life and work of Mahatma Gandhi feel compelled to state that the government has pushed the country into a blind alley. The gun that was used to silence Kashmir is now being used as a telescope through which to see Kashmir. This is shameful, unfortunate and ominous for India.
A whole state has vanished from the map in broad daylight. The Indian Union had 28 states, now it has 27. This is not a magic show, where a magician shows us, we know, something unreal and illusory. Here we are witnessing something cruel, ugly, undemocratic and seemingly irreversible. It reveals the poverty of our democratic politics.
According to a government official, at least 500 local leaders and activists have been arrested or detained across Kashmir since the beginning of last week.