India for the first time on Wednesday voted against Russia during a "procedural vote" at the United Nations Security Council on Ukraine, as the 15-member powerful UN body invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address a meeting through a video tele-conference.
China appears determined to upgrade Pakistan's military capabilities, sufficient to ensure local parity with India, alerts former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.
The National Democratic Alliance was set to sweep the Bihar assembly polls, surging ahead in over 200 of 243 seats on Friday with the Bharatiya Janata Party emerging as single largest party with about 90 per cent strike rate, reaffirming the popularity and campaign clout of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was the face of the ruling alliance through the poll battle in the highly sensitive political state.
Security experts have warned that using Signal for discussions of this nature violates every established protocol for handling classified information.
New Delhi would be keenly watching this week's visit by China's President Hu Jintao to the United States. For, previous such visits and their joint communiqus and projects have impacted, mostly in a constricting manner, on India, writes Srikanth Kondapalli.
India voted in favor of a United Nations General Assembly resolution that called for the withdrawal of Israel from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, and reiterated the call for achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in West Asia. The resolution, tabled by Senegal, was adopted with 157 nations voting in favor, while eight nations voted against it and seven abstained.
The government will send seven all-party delegations to key partner countries, including members of the United Nations Security Council, later this month to convey India's message of zero tolerance against terrorism following the Pahalgam terror attack and Operation Sindoor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for enhancing trade and investment ties between their countries and committed to further deepening their engagement in the Indo-Pacific. They discussed a full spectrum of bilateral relations, including key global and regional issues, and stressed the urgent need for reform in the United Nations Security Council. The leaders also underscored their commitment to ensuring the global AI sector can drive positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes.
Shringla said India will continue to work towards the reformed United Nations during its stint as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Once identified, these individuals are drawn into private groups where they are exposed to manipulative content, including fabricated videos depicting atrocities allegedly committed by security forces, the officials said.
They are the first to be declared terrorists under the new anti-law, a home ministry official said.
Talking tough on terror in the backdrop of tension on the Indo-Pak border, India told United Nations Security Council that nations using terror as an "instrument of state policy" are "short-sighted" and have invariably themselves suffered immensely from the "Frankenstein monster."
Leaders of Pakistan, Turkey and Azerbaijan agreed to strengthen their ties for the mutual benefit of their peoples, as well as for regional peace and prosperity. The understanding was reached at the Pakistan-Turkey-Azerbaijan trilateral summit in Lachin, Azerbaijan, attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif alongside presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev. Azerbaijan announced a USD 2 billion investment in Pakistan's economy. Turkey expressed support for the ceasefire between Pakistan and India and hopes that it evolves into permanent peace.
India abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution regarding Afghanistan, citing the need for a balanced approach that combines incentives and disincentives, and calling for new initiatives to address the humanitarian crisis.
China on Friday said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit to be held in Tianjin later this month will be the largest in the bloc's history, with 20 world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, attending it.
Rauf Azhar, born in 1974 in Pakistan, had been sanctioned by the United States in December 2010.
The United Nations Security Council has called for urgent humanitarian pauses and corridors throughout Gaza to allow unhindered humanitarian access in the strip, finally overcoming deadlock and adopting a resolution in the month-long Israel-Hamas conflict.
PM Modi went to New York this time not to engage in polemics, but to find solutions to global problems. He made some progress on several matters, even on reform of the UN Security Council, when the US made a major concession for the first time that six permanent members without veto, including India, could be considered
India hit back at Pakistan in the UN Security Council after Islamabad raised the Kashmir issue at the 15-nation Council.
"The fight against impunity is critical to the larger pursuit of securing peace and justice. The Security Council must send an unambiguous and unequivocal message on this count," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told the 15-nation UN Security Council briefing on Ukraine 'Fight against impunity'.
The United Nations Security Council has asked nations not to pay ransom to terrorists in incidents of kidnapping, saying such funds are used by terror groups to support recruitment efforts and carry out attacks.
The 15-nation United Nations Security Council held an emergency meeting on Ukraine late Wednesday night, the second meeting this week and the fourth since January 31 as tensions escalated between Russia and Ukraine.
India has been at the forefront of the years-long efforts to reform the security council, saying it rightly deserved a place as a permanent member.
China on Wednesday hit back at United States President Donald Trump's tariffs on Chinese exports with 84 per cent levies on its imports from America, intensifying the trade war between the top two economies of the world.
R Ravindra, India's Deputy Permanent Representative (DPR) to the United Nations, on Wednesday, underlined New Delhi's efforts to send humanitarian assistance to civilians in the Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, saying that it has sent 38 tonnes of food and critical medical equipment to the region.
Times have changed, situations have changed, but the basic nature of superpower geo-politics remains the same and so also India's diplomacy -- call it non-alignment, strategic autonomy or neutrality; it all depends on the time scale, notes Rup Narayan Das.
India will sit in the 15-nation United Nations Security Council (UNSC) for the 2021-22 term as a non-permanent member - the eighth time that the country has had a seat on the powerful horseshoe table.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna was caught in a public gaffe when he inadvertently read out the speech of the Portuguese minister at a United Nations Security Council meeting at the United Nations, but rectified the error after an Indian official drew his attention to the mistake. Speaking at the United Nations Security Council at a debate on security and development on Friday, Krishna read out the wrong speech for nearly three minutes before being corrected.
He added that there was a proposal from France and UK some time ago for some restrictions in the use of the right of veto.
This came after Pakistan People's Party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday stated that Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had tasked him to lead a delegation to present Pakistan's case on the recent escalations of tensions between the two nations.
The era where nations thrived through rigid alignments is giving way to an age where the connective State defines power. For India, that era has arrived, points out Dr Nishakant Ojha.
'No respite from economic pain is worth the loss of dignity and self-respect,' asserts former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'The president and this administration have been working very, very hard to make sure we're doing everything we can to work with state and local authorities to try to thwart and disrupt those kinds of attacks and make it clear to anybody who might consider them that they'll be held properly accountable'
India abstained on two UN General Assembly resolutions calling for a de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and a peaceful resolution of the war against Ukraine. The resolutions were adopted on the third anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, with the UN Secretary General stressing that the war in Ukraine stands as a grave threat to the peace and security of Europe and the core principles of the United Nations.
India has voted in favour of a draft resolution in the United Nations General Assembly that expressed deep concern over Israel not withdrawing from the Syrian Golan.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's comment to the Security Council that attacks by Hamas 'did not happen in a vacuum' angered Israel, which called for the UN chief's resignation and apology.
'Trump has personally weighed in to overcome doubts and reservations about Pakistan among his top advisors.'
"The responsibilities of member states must be assumed by member states and let's not make the UN the scapegoat of the failures or of the negative actions that are committed by member states," he said.
'The current strain in the relationship is serious and likely to be long lasting.' 'Even if Trump suddenly changes his attitude toward India -- which he is entirely capable of doing -- it is unlikely that New Delhi will be able to pick up the pieces and respond as if nothing has happened.'
India and Britain have also agreed that the World Bank should be reformed to give it an environmental focus. They further agreed on improving the working of the International Monetary Fund and on giving the United Nations a greater role in its stability and reconstruction activities.
