Iran has signed a Memorandum of Obligations to become a permanent member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday, as Tehran seeks to overcome economic isolation amid U.S. sanctions. “By signing the document for full membership of the SCO, now Iran has entered a new stage of various economic, commercial, transit and energy cooperation,” Hossein […]

The US State Department has officially announced the establishment of the international financing mechanism which will see $3.5 billion worth of Afghanistan’s frozen assets being used for the benefit of the people. In a press briefing on Wednesday night, State Department spokesman Ned Price said: “Today, the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury, in coordination with international […]

The Minister of Interior Sirajuddin Haqqani called on Afghans who have left the country to return home and support the current system. In a voice message published on social media on Wednesday night, Haqqani said Afghans outside the country should see former politicians, including former president Hamid Karzai, as an example and trust their judgment. “Those who left the country, […]

Afghanistan’s central bank, Da Afghanistan Bank (DAB), has slammed Washington’s decision to create a new international financing mechanism to distribute $3.5 billion worth of Afghanistan’s frozen assets, claiming the move was “unacceptable”. On Wednesday, the US State Department announced that Washington, in coordination with international partners including the Government of Switzerland and Afghan economic experts, has established the Afghan Fund, […]

Notably, these data show less of a gap between the United States and China or the European Union, and greater representation of the European Union overall. Part of this gap originates from the narrower timeframe of the bug-bounty platform data. The datasets gathered by this paper from vendors show, consistently, US dominance of contributions in earlier years, followed by increasing […]

Afghanistan U.S. killed al-Qaeda chief in first high-profile strike since Aug 2021 withdrawal, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) targeted Taliban and religious minorities, and Taliban clashed with Pakistani forces. U.S. President Biden 1 Aug confirmed U.S. had killed al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al Zawahiri, in drone strike in capital Kabul on 31 July; Washington accused Taliban authorities of violating Feb 2020 […]

The rise of China triggered a regional power shift that has been felt across East Asia and into the Himalayas. As China changes the status quo of the Indo-Pacific, it talks of promoting a multipolar world. But in practice it has a problem with multipolar Asia and is unwilling to accommodate India’s interests. In response to this, India is aligning […]

Perceptionaly, China is in an impassive ‘spectator mode’ as Pakistan flounders on the edge of an abyss in its ongoing existential crisis mainly engineered by former PM Imran Khan politically displaced in a Constitutional coup. When Pakistan is in a state of acute economic meltdown and reeling under widespread devastation of floods, does it behove former PM Imran Khan to […]

Cambodia’s foreign policy is largely shaped by the worldview of Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has more than four decades of practical experience in diplomacy and foreign affairs. Understanding Cambodian foreign policy, including its decision to co-sponsor the UN resolution to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, means grasping the pragmatism that informs Hun Sen’s decision-making. Hun Sen does not buy […]

Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited India from 5 to 8 September 2022. During the visit, Dhaka and New Delhi signed seven memorandums of understanding (MoUs) and agreed on certain issues of bilateral importance. One of the MoUs is on the water withdrawal by India and Bangladesh from the common border river, Kushiyara, a distributary of the Barak River. The […]