On September 13, China’s newly appointed ambassador to Afghanistan, Zhao Xing, arrived at the presidential palace in Kabul to present his credentials to the acting prime minister of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Mohammad Hassan Akhund. Uniformed Taliban members welcomed him to the palace in a grand theatrical ceremony. While the Chinese foreign ministry deemed the appointment a ‘normal rotation’, […]

The embassy of Afghanistan in India’s capital New Delhi will cease operations from Oct. 1, due to a lack of support from India and a reduction in personnel and resources, the embassy said in a statement on social media platform X. The embassy also said a failure to meet expectations in serving Afghanistan’s interests is another key factor in shutting […]

The sombre mood at the Council on Foreign Affairs in New York during External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s talk on Tuesday was only to be expected against the backdrop of the India-Canada diplomatic spat over the killing of a Sikh secessionist in Vancouver in June, which, reportedly, was “coordinated” on the Canadian side with Washington based on intelligence inputs from […]

It was the promise of creating a ‘Naya [new] Pakistan’ on the lines of ‘Riyasat-e-Madina’ [a model Islamic welfare state] plus a discreet ‘push’ from Pakistan’s powerful army that saw Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf [PTI] chief Imran Khan becoming the ‘selected’ prime minister of Pakistan in August 2018. Unfortunately, despite Khan’s grandiose assurance of ushering-in winds of change by bringing about all-around […]

On September 24, 2023, a woman Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre, Hire Sapna, who was injured in the encounter on September 20 (below), and subsequently arrested by the Security Forces (SFs), in Dantewada District of Chhattisgarh, succumbed to her injuries. Sapna was a member of the CPI-Maoist’s ‘Keralapal Area Committee’. On September 20, 2023, two women Maoists, Kumari Lakkhe […]