Asia

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India had always stood for the prosperity of Bangladesh and committed $500 million credit for the country’s defence. India has always stood for the prosperity of Bangladesh and its people. We are a long-standing and trusted development partner for Bangladesh. India and Bangladesh are also determined that the fruits of our cooperation must reach our people, Modi said in a joint address to the media with visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Modi said India wanted to build cooperation in new areas with Bangladesh especially in some high-technology sectors which would include working in the fields of electronics, IT, cyber security, space explorations and civil nuclear energy’, reports IANS. He announced a new concessi...

    The US strike in Syria could have repercussions far beyond the Middle East. By authorising military action, Donald Trump is differentiating himself from his predecessor - showing that he is prepared to act, that crossing a red line will have consequences - and that is a message designed to be heard by the leaders of China and North Korea as well. The timing could not underline the President's point more powerfully - hosting Xi Jinping for dinner at the time as he was, ahead of their first serious meeting on Friday, at which Kim Jong-Un's nuclear programme is expected to top the agenda. Now Mr Trump doesn't need to just tell the Chinese president he is serious - he can point to the satellite imagery. But Syria is not North Korea. Ordering what looks like a limited strike on...

    Breaking the protocol, Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi on Friday noon received his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina when she arrived here on a four-day official visit that will see her signing a host of bilateral deals between Bangladesh and India. A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, carrying the Prime Minister and her entourage, arrived at Air Force Station, Palam, New Delhi at 12:05 pm (local time). On her arrival, the Indian Prime Minister along with Indian State Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Babul Supriyo and High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India Syed Moazzem Ali welcomed the Prime Minister there. Modi welcomed Hasina with a bouquet. Earlier, Modi made the personal gesture beyond protocol for a few world leaders, including then ...

    Donald Trump, US president, is to meet Xi Jinping, his Chinese counterpart, at Mar-a-Lago in Florida this week. Discussions of economics seem likely to focus on China’s trade and exchange rate policies. This would be a mistake even if the US president’s views of trade were not mistakenly fixated on bilateral imbalances. Far more challenging and important is integrating China into the financial system. US policymakers should worry about China’s capital account, not its current account. That is where danger now lies. Why does the capital account matter more? The answer is that this is where two interrelated aspects of an economy interact with the world economy: macroeconomic balances between savings and investment; and the financial system. In both respects, the Chinese econ...

    A Malaysian MP said girls as young as nine were physically and spiritually ready for marriage, as the Muslim-majority Southeast Asian country passed a law on sexual offences against children without criminalising child marriage. Shabudin Yahaya, a member of the Barisan Nasional coalition, made the comments in response to a proposal by an opposition member of parliament to amend the Sexual Offences Against Children bill to include a ban on child marriages. The proposal was voted down by the majority of parliament. They reach puberty at the age of nine or 12. And at that time, their body is already akin to them being 18 years old. So physically and spiritually, it is not a barrier for the girl to marry,’ Shabudin said on Tuesday during a debate on the bill. He also said ther...

    Pakistan on Monday ordered the border with Afghanistan to be reopened ‘immediately’, a month after it was closed amid soaring tensions as Islamabad and Kabul accused one another of providing safe haven for militants. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif ordered the two main crossings on the long, porous border be reopened as a gesture of ‘goodwill’, a statement from his office said. The crossings — Torkham at the famed Khyber Pass, and Chaman in Balochistan province — were closed last month after a wave of militant violence killed 130 people across Pakistan. The attacks, most of which were claimed by the Islamic State group or the Pakistani Taliban, dented optimism after the country appeared to be making strong gains in its decade-and-a-half long war on militancy. Pakistan’s powerf...

    Saudi Arabia's King Salman oversaw the signing of deals worth as much as $65 billion on the first day of a visit to Beijing on Thursday, as the world's largest oil exporter looks to cement ties with the world's second-largest economy. The deals included a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between giant state oil firm SaudiAramco and China North Industries Group Corp (Norinco), to look into building refining and chemical plants in China. Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) and Sinopec, which already jointly run a chemical complex in Tinajin, also agreed to develop petrochemical projects in both China and Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's octogenarian monarch, who has overseen the launch of an ambitious economic reform plan since his accession two years ago, is on a month-long As...

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un North Korea warned the United States on Tuesday of merciless attacks if an aircraft carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson, which is joining South Korean forces for exercises, infringes on its sovereignty or dignity. North Korea, which has alarmed its neighbours with two nuclear tests and a string of missile launches since last year, said the arrival of the U.S. strike group was part of a reckless scheme to attack it. If they infringe on the DPRK's sovereignty and dignity even a bit, its army will launch merciless ultra-precision strikes from ground, air, sea and underwater, the North's state KCNA news agency said. North Korea's official name is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). On March 11 alone, many enemy carrier-...

    What do the UP election results mean for the Modi government's Pakistan policy? There has been some speculation that the government had been waiting for the UP elections+ to be over to pick up the threads of engagement with Pakistan, which have gone into deep freeze since the Uri attack, reports Times of India. After a massive electoral endorsement in crucial state elections, Modi now appears politically unassailable. This has implications for his foreign policy, because winning elections halfway through a government's term is tricky everywhere, but he seems to have cracked the code. And that will make him a global leader to reckon with, particularly if established democratic leaders are seen to be floundering in elections across the world this year. Within India's immedia...

    Malaysia said it would release and deport a North Korean man arrested in connection with the death of Kim Jong Un’s half-brother due to a lack of evidence, and announced it would scrap visa-free travel for citizens of the reclusive state. Ri Jong Chol was arrested four days after Kim John Nam died after an apparent poisoning at the Kuala Lumpur airport on Feb. 13. Malaysian Attorney General Mohamad Apandi Ali said he will be deported because he does not have valid travel documents. He will not be charged here as there is insufficient evidence against him, Apandi told Malaysia’s Star Online. The Star Online reported that Ri, a chemistry expert, was suspected of having driven one of four North Korean men thought to have masterminded the assassination. The four are thought to...