WORLD

During his recent three-nation India Ocean Region (IOR) visit closer to the Indian shores, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi claimed to have floated the idea of creating a new forum for Indian Ocean island-nations, whose development needs, he said, were similar. Needless to say, if such a group is put in place, it will have China’s blessings and funding, purportedly for development projects in member-nations. Yet, it can also be expected to act as a political ginger group against India and also the West, which has contested Beijing’s hegemonic approach on ‘freedom of navigation issues’, though now only in the South China and East China Seas.

During his five-nation New Year tour, which took him also to Eritrea and Kenya, Wang Yi visited Comoros, Maldives and Sri Lanka. According to a Chinese Foreign Ministry statement in Beijing, he had floated the idea of the islands-nation forum in talks with Sri Lankan counterpart GL Peiris. It is not known if he had flagged the proposal while in the Maldives and Comoros. If so, China cannot hide its hand any more, and also does not want to do so. If not, Wang Yi was also proposing to Sri Lanka to take the initiative and lead, to float such a forum.

As pressure mounts against UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson not only from the opposition, but also from own Conservative Party members over the ‘partygate’ saga, several local media reports have claimed that his Indian-origin Chancellor Rishi Sunak may likely replace him.

The 57-year-old embattled PM has been facing the wrath of the public ever since he acknowledged hosting and attending a ‘bring your booze’ party at 10 Downing Street when a lockdown was imposed across the UK in view of the Covid virus in 2020.

There have been growing calls for Johnson to resign immediately. Several Tory MPs have publicly expressed the inability of Johnson to handle the crisis and called for his resignation.

Chinese Embassy in Nepal on Thursday said that it considers Nepal as an important partner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and does not attach any political conditions to its aid to Nepal. This comes after protests erupted against the country’s growing influence in the Himalayan nation. 

Demonstrators carried placards with slogans such as “Down with China government”, “stop Chinese intervention”, “stop border encroachment”, “ensure safe passage to Nepali students studying in China”, among others.

Spokesperson of the embassy Wang Xiaoling issued a statement on recent protests against China’s increasing political, economic and cultural presence in Nepal. 

Britain and India began hammering out a post-Brexit trade deal on Thursday, with London seeking a cut in tariffs on Scotch whisky and greater access to the Asian giant's services and tech sectors.

India, which is notoriously reticent about lowering trade barriers and was dubbed the "tariff king" by former US president Donald Trump, wants in return to make it easier and cheaper for Indians to obtain British visas.

A joint statement after Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and British Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan formally launched the talks in Delhi reiterated a target of doubling bilateral trade volumes by 2030.

Universal Service Fund (USF), a subsidiary of Pakistan’s information technology ministry, has refused to launch telecom projects in Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK, maintaining that the regions are constitutionally not part of the country. The USF in a letter said that due to this reason, cellular mobile companies could object to the utilisation of the amount generated in Pakistan there.

The situation comes as a massive embarrassment for Pakistan. India maintains that Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK have been illegally occupied by Pakistan despite huge resentment among the residents of these areas.