NEW DELHI: India and Israel commemorate 25 years of diplomatic relations with a five-day visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu starting Sunday.
He will visit New Delhi, Mumbai and Gujarat, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s home state.
Besides engaging political leaders in the national capital, Netanyahu will also meet with business leaders in the financial capital.
At an event during his Mumbai trip, he is due to invite the Bollywood film industry to explore Israel for film shoots.
“The visit will focus on the progress made between India and Israel since… Modi’s visit to Israel last summer, and on shaping the next 25 years of relationship between our countries and our people,” Daniel Carmon, Israeli ambassador to India, said in a statement.
India has termed the visit “very significant,” and the bonding between the two nations “special.”
India canceled a $500-million defense deal with Israel just days ahead of Netanyahu’s visit, but may be considering reviving the purchase of Spike anti-tank missiles, the Times of Israel quoted the Press Trust of India as reporting.
Dr. Zakir Hussain, a research fellow at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a New Delhi-based think tank, told Arab News: “For Israel, India is a natural partner in the 21st century.”
He added: “For Tel Aviv, New Delhi is a big market, and it won’t allow India’s position on Palestine to come in the way of expanding its outreach to this growing economy.”
Harsh V. Pant, head of the Strategic Studies program at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF), told Arab News: “There’s a paradigm shift in the relationship between Israel and India.”
He said: “The relationship used to be shrouded in secrecy. Now there’s open acceptance of Israel at the political level, which is reciprocated on the ground level.”
Pant added: “The idea is to take the relationship to a level where it becomes more organic and broad-based, not confined to defense and technology transfers, but also tourism and cultural exchanges.”
Suman Sharma, a journalist covering Indian foreign policy, said: “There will be more people-to-people contact and greater engagement at the level of civil society.”
But the growing ties are being criticized by Indians who sympathize with the Palestinian cause.
India recently joined 127 other countries to vote in favor of a UN General Assembly resolution opposing US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“India has a commitment toward the Palestinian issue, and it cannot move away from its core values of supporting the oppressed,” said Naved Hamid, president of the All India Majlis-e-Mushawarat, a federation of Muslim organizations in India.
Indian Foreign Ministry official Bala Bhaskar said: “Our Palestinian policy is not influenced by others, it is independent.”
Political commentator Dr. Waiel Awwad told Arab News: “It’s a negative narrative that India is shifting its stand toward Palestine.”
He added: “In time, New Delhi’s relationship with the Arab world will be strengthened to reflect its historical, economic and geographical ties.”
Pant said: “The Modi government wants to de-hyphenate the relationship with Israel and Palestine. That’s why when Modi visited Israel last summer, he didn’t visit Palestine, a traditional stopover for Indian leadership.”
Pant added: “By voting against Israel on the Jerusalem issue, India wanted to send the message that it values its relationship with Israel, but it also values its bond with the Arab world and the Palestinian issue.”
Israeli PM visits India to mark 25 years of relations
Israeli PM visits India to mark 25 years of relations
France arrests 26 as South Asian migrant trafficking ring smashed
Authorities estimate the network generated several million euros in illegal profits
PARIS: French authorities arrested 26 people and seized 11 million euros ($12 million) as they smashed a migrant trafficking ring suspected of bringing several thousand people from South Asia into France, border police told AFP on Thursday.
Charging between 15,000 and 26,000 euros per person, the traffickers are suspected of having smuggled several thousand people from India, Sri Lanka and Nepal into France since September 2021, the force said.
Authorities estimate the network generated several million euros in illegal profits, which were laundered through construction companies, gold trafficking and informal transfers of money back to South Asia.
The arrests took place between March and November 2024, said Julien Gentile, director of the French border force at Paris Charles De Gaulle airport.
“The smugglers facilitated migrants’ travel to the European Union via Dubai or African states, while providing them with illegally obtained tourist, work or medical visas,” said Gentile.
The head of the network is still at large, with France’s request for his extradition from Dubai yet to be agreed, according to the border force.
Of the 26 men arrested, 15 were placed in pre-trial detention with seven under judicial supervision.
The remaining four, who were recently arrested, were to be presented on Thursday to the investigating judge.
The 11 million euros’ worth of assets included properties, luxury cars, jewelry and gold.
Cellphone outage in Denmark causes widespread disruption and hits emergency services
- The network provider, TDC Net, said in a press release Thursday afternoon that the problems were likely due to an update carried out in the past 24 hours
- They had no reason to believe that disruptions could be due to cyberattacks
COPENHAGEN: One of Denmark’s largest cellphone networks suffered severe outages Thursday that prevented people from contacting emergency services, forced at least one hospital to reduce non-critical medical care, and prompted security services in some regions to patrol the streets in search of people in need of help.
The network provider, TDC Net, said in a press release Thursday afternoon that the problems were likely due to an update carried out in the past 24 hours and they had no reason to believe that disruptions could be due to cyberattacks.
TDC said later on Thursday that its operations had returned to normal and it was now investigating the cause of the outage.
Trains and buses in parts of the country also suffered delays due to signaling issues, with chaos in stations and people stuck on trains, Danish media reported.
The Center for Cyber Security, Denmark’s national IT security authority, and a branch of the Danish Defense Intelligence Service could not confirm if the two incidents were related.
TDC Net said Thursday evening it had implemented a fix that allowed customers to make calls, although with a reduced sound quality. The company urged customers needing to call 112, Europe’s emergency number, to remove the SIM card from their phone before placing the call.
Russia jails lawyer for 7 years for criticizing Ukraine campaign
- Dmitry Talantov, 63, was arrested in July 2022 after describing the acts of the Russian army in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Bucha as being reminiscent of “Nazi practices“
- Safronov is now serving a 22-year sentence on treason charges
MOSCOW: Russia on Thursday sentenced a senior lawyer who had defended a jailed journalist in a high-profile case to seven years in prison for denouncing Moscow’s Ukraine offensive on social media.
Dmitry Talantov, 63, was arrested in July 2022 after describing the acts of the Russian army in the Ukrainian cities of Mariupol and Bucha as being reminiscent of “Nazi practices.”
Talantov was for many years president of the Udmurtia lawyer association and in 2021 was the defense lawyer for Ivan Safronov, a journalist covering military affairs whose arrest shook Russia’s media community.
Safronov is now serving a 22-year sentence on treason charges.
A court in the Udmurt Republic found Talantov guilty of actions aimed at spreading hatred and of knowingly distributing “fake” information on the Russian army — charges made possible with a censorship law adopted shortly after Moscow sent troops to Ukraine.
In an emotional speech in court, Talantov said he feared he would not survive the prison term, but also stood by his convictions.
“I am 64 and it is hard for me to imagine that I will come out of prison alive,” Talantov said, according to an audio of the speech published by rights group Perviy Otdel.
Talantov has been in pre-trial detention for two and a half years and has spent two years in an isolation cell, saying the Russian national anthem blasts out there in the evening and at dawn, before a staunchly pro-Kremlin radio show is played.
“I am waiting for words of peace. They do not come,” he said.
He described his conditions as a “Middle-Ages cell with only a (toilet) hole and a tap,” saying “time kills a person” in isolation.
His voice breaking, he addressed his wife saying: “Olga, forgive me, I love you.”
According to a letter he sent to Perviy Otdel, Talantov was arrested while at his summer home in the summer of 2022.
More than 300 lawyers had signed a petition calling for his release at the time.
Germany offers re-deployment of Patriot air defense units to Poland
- The units could be deployed for up to six months, the ministry said
- From January to November 2022, Germany had already deployed 300 troops
BERLIN: Germany has offered to re-deploy Patriot air defense systems to NATO ally Poland at the start of the new year, the German defense ministry said on Thursday.
The units could be deployed for up to six months, the ministry said in a statement.
“With this we will protect a logistical hub in Poland which is of central importance for the delivery of materials to Ukraine,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.
From January to November 2022, Germany had already deployed 300 troops together with three Patriot units to Poland.
They were based in the town Zamosc, about 50 km (31 miles) from the Ukrainian border, to protect the southern town and its crucial railway link to Ukraine.
The deployment was triggered by a stray Ukrainian missile that struck the Polish village of Przewodow in November 2022, in an incident that raised fears of the war in Ukraine spilling over the border.
Putin says Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv gets nuclear weapons
Putin says Russia would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if Kyiv gets nuclear weapons
- Putin said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon
ASTANA: President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would head off any attempt by Ukraine to acquire nuclear weapons and would use all weapons at its disposal against Ukraine if such a scenario unfolded.
The New York Times reported last week that some unidentified Western officials had suggested US President Joe Biden could give Ukraine nuclear weapons before he leaves office.
Putin, speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan, said it was practically impossible for Ukraine to produce a nuclear weapon, but that it might be able to make some kind of “dirty bomb.”
