Indian Prime Minister Modi makes first visit to ally Russia since the start of its war on Ukraine

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in person in September 2022 in Uzbekistan, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization bloc. (File/AP)
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Updated 08 July 2024
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Indian Prime Minister Modi makes first visit to ally Russia since the start of its war on Ukraine

  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit will include a meeting with President Vladimir Putin
  • India has avoided condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine while emphasizing the need for a peaceful settlement

MOSCOW: India’s prime minister begins a two-day visit to Russia on Monday, his first since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, a war that has complicated the relationship between the longtime allies and pushed Russia closer to India’s rival China.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit will include a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, whom he last saw in Russia in 2019, in the far eastern port of Vladivostok. The two leaders also met in person in September 2022 in Uzbekistan, at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization bloc.
Russia has had strong ties with India since the Cold War, and New Delhi’s importance as a key trading partner for Moscow has grown since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China and India have become key buyers of Russian oil following sanctions imposed by the United States and its allies that shut most Western markets off to Russian exports.
Under Modi’s leadership, India has avoided condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine while emphasizing the need for a peaceful settlement.
The partnership between Moscow and New Delhi has become fraught, however, since Russia started developing closer ties with India’s main rival, China, because of the hostilities in Ukraine.
Modi notably stayed away last week from the most recent summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, in Kazakhstan.
Chietigj Bajpaee, senior South Asia research fellow at the UK-based Chatham House, said India is becoming increasingly estranged from forums in which Russia and China play a prominent role.
“This is evident in India’s relatively low key presidency of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization last year, and now the decision by Modi not to attend this year’s summit,” Bajpaee said.
A confrontation in June 2020 along the disputed China-India border dramatically altered their already touchy relationship as the rival troops fought with rocks, clubs and fists. At least 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers were killed. Tensions have since persisted despite talks.
Those tensions have seeped into how New Delhi looks at Moscow.
“Russia’s relations with China have been a matter of some concern for India in the context of Chinese increased assertiveness in the region,” D. Bala Venkatesh Verma, a former Indian ambassador to Russia, told The Associated Press.
But Modi also will seek to continue close relations with Russia, an important trading partner and major defense supplier for India.
Since Western sanctions blocked Russian oil exports after the start of the Ukraine war, India has become a key buyer of Russian oil. It now gets more than 40 percent of its oil imports from Russia, according to analysts.
India is also strongly dependent on Russia for military supplies, but with Moscow’s supply line hit by the fighting in Ukraine, India has been diversifying its defense procurements, buying more from the US, Israel, France and Italy.
“Defense cooperation will clearly be a priority area,” Bajpaee said, adding that 60 percent of India’s military equipment and systems is “still of Russian origin.”
“We’ve seen some delay in the deliveries of spare parts ... following the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” he said. “I believe both countries are due to conclude a military logistics agreement, which would pave the way for more defense exchanges.”
India has adopted a neutral stance, neither condemning nor condoning Russia’s war on Ukraine, and has called for negotiations to end the fighting. That in turn has bolstered Putin’s efforts to counter what he calls the West’s domination of global affairs.
Facing an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for actions over the war in Ukraine, Putin’s foreign travel has been relatively sparse in recent years, so Modi’s trip could help the Russian leader boost his image.
“We kind of see Putin going on a nostalgia trip — you know, he was in Vietnam, he was in North Korea,” said Theresa Fallon, an analyst at the Center for Russia, Europe, Asia Studies. “In my view, he’s trying to demonstrate that he’s not a vassal to China, that he has options, that Russia is still a great power.”
Alexander Gabuev, head of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said that Putin’s interactions on the world stage show he “is far from isolated” and that Russia is not a country to be discounted.
Trade development also will figure strongly in the talks, particularly intentions to develop a maritime corridor between India’s major port of Chennai and Vladivostok, the gateway to Russia’s Far East.
India-Russia trade has seen a sharp increase, touching close to $65 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, due to strong energy cooperation, Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra told reporters Friday.
Imports from Russia touched $60 billion and exports from India $4 billion in the 2023-24 financial year, Kwatra said. India’s financial year runs from April to March.
He said India was trying to correct the trade imbalance with Russia by increasing its exports. India’s top exports to Russia include drugs and pharmaceutical products, telecom instruments, iron and steel, marine products and machinery.
Its top imports from Russia include crude oil and petroleum products, coal and coke, pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, fertilizer, vegetable oil, gold and silver.


Trump signs ‘big, beautiful’ bill on US Independence Day

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Trump signs ‘big, beautiful’ bill on US Independence Day

  • The passage of the unpopular bill caps two weeks of significant wins for Trump

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed his flagship tax and spending bill into law Friday, capping a pomp-laden White House Independence Day ceremony featuring a stealth bomber fly-by.
“America is winning, winning, winning like never before,” Trump said at the event where he signed the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill” flanked by Republican lawmakers.
The party fell into line and pushed the bill through a reluctant Congress on Thursday, in time for Trump to sign the bill as he had hoped on the Fourth of July holiday marking America’s 249th birthday.
Two B-2 bombers of the type that recently struck Iranian nuclear sites roared over the White House at the start of the ceremony, accompanied by fighter jets on their wingtips.
Pilots who carried out the bombing on Iran were among those invited to the White House event.
The passage of the unpopular bill caps two weeks of significant wins for Trump, including an Iran-Israel ceasefire that was sealed after what he called the “flawless” US air strikes on Iran.
Ever the showman, Trump melded his various victory laps into one piece of political theater at the ceremony marking 249 years of independence from Britain.
The sprawling mega-bill honors many of Trump’s campaign promises: extending tax cuts from his first term, boosting military spending and providing massive new funding for Trump’s migrant deportation drive.
Trump glossed over deep concerns from his own party and voters that it will balloon the national debt, while simultaneously gutting health and welfare support.
“The largest spending cut,” Trump said with First Lady Melania Trump at his side, “and yet you won’t even notice it.”
Trump forced through the “big beautiful bill” despite deep misgivings in the Republican Party — and the vocal opposition of his billionaire former ally, Elon Musk.
It squeezed past a final vote in the House of Representatives 218-214 after Republican Speaker Mike Johnson worked through the night to corral the final group of dissenters.
Trump thanked Johnson at the White House event.
The legislation is the latest in a series of big wins for Trump that also included a Supreme Court ruling last week that curbed lone federal judges from blocking his policies, and a NATO deal to increase spending.
But the bill is expected to pile an extra $3.4 trillion over a decade onto the US deficit.
At the same time it will shrink the federal food assistance program and force through the largest cuts to the Medicaid health insurance scheme for low-income Americans since its 1960s launch.
Up to 17 million people could lose their insurance coverage under the bill, according to some estimates. Scores of rural hospitals are expected to close as a result.
Democrats hope public opposition to the bill will help them flip the House in the 2026 midterm election, pointing to data showing that it represents a huge redistribution of wealth from the poorest Americans to the richest.


US judge briefly pauses deportation of 8 migrants to South Sudan

Updated 04 July 2025
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US judge briefly pauses deportation of 8 migrants to South Sudan

  • US District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington made the ruling at an emergency hearing on July 4
  • The administration has detained the men for six weeks on a military base in Djibouti

WASHINGTON: A federal judge briefly halted the Trump administration on Friday from placing eight migrants on a plane destined for conflict-ridden South Sudan, to give lawyers for the men time to make their argument to a court in Massachusetts.

US District Judge Randolph Moss in Washington made the ruling at an emergency hearing on July 4, when courts are otherwise closed for the Independence Day holiday.

The group of migrants had filed new claims on Thursday after the Supreme Court clarified that a federal judge in Boston could no longer require US Department of Homeland Security to hold them.

The administration has detained the men for six weeks on a military base in Djibouti rather than bring back to the United States.

The order stops the US government from moving the men until 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. They were scheduled to be removed to South Sudan on a 7 p.m. flight.

The case is the latest development over the legality of the Trump administration’s campaign to deter immigration by shipping migrants to locations other than their countries of origin pursuant to deals with other countries.

A lawyer for the US said during the hearing that court orders halting agreed-upon deportations pose a serious problem for US diplomatic relations and would make foreign countries less likely to accept transfers of migrants in the future. The group of men have been convicted of various crimes, with four of them convicted of murder, the US Department of Homeland Security has said.

South Sudan has long been dangerous even for locals. The US State Department advises citizens not to travel there due to violent crime and armed conflict. The United Nations has said the African country’s political crisis could reignite a brutal civil war that ended in 2018. The eight men, who their lawyers said are from Cuba, Laos, Mexico, Burma, Sudan and Vietnam, argue their deportations to South Sudan would violate the US constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual” punishment.

Moss said that he would transfer the case to Massachusetts rather than hear it himself, but remarked that if they proved their allegations about the motives of US authorities, they would likely have a valid claim.

“It seems to me almost self-evident that the United States government cannot take human beings and send them to circumstances in which their physical well-being is at risk simply either to punish them or send a signal to others,” Moss said during the hearing.


Malaysia arrests 36 Bangladeshis over IS support

Updated 04 July 2025
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Malaysia arrests 36 Bangladeshis over IS support

  • “The group attempted to recruit members to fight in Syria or for Daesh,” Khalid said
  • Of those detained by Malaysian authorities, five suspects were subsequently charged for participating in terrorist organizations

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police said Friday they have arrested 36 Bangladeshi migrant workers suspected of supporting the Daesh group by promoting its ideology and raising funds through social media.

Police inspector-general Mohd Khalid Ismail said the Bangladesh nationals, who had arrived in Malaysia to work in factories, construction sites and petrol stations, were arrested in coordinated operations since April.

“The group attempted to recruit members to fight in Syria or for Daesh,” Khalid said in a televised news conference on Friday.

“They raised funds to be sent to Syria, and also to Bangladesh,” he said, adding that collections were transmitted through e-wallets and international funds transfer services.

Once in control of large swathes of Syria and Iraq, Daesh was territorially defeated in Syria in 2019 largely due to the efforts of Kurdish-led forces supported by an international coalition. It has maintained a presence mainly in the country’s vast desert.

Of those detained by Malaysian authorities, five suspects were subsequently charged for participating in terrorist organizations, spreading extremist ideologies and raising funds for terrorist activities.

Another 16 are still being probed for their support of the militant movement, while 15 more have been issued deportation orders.

“We believe they have between 100 to 150 members in their WhatsApp group,” Khalid said, adding investigations were ongoing.

“They collected an annual membership fee of about $118 (500 Malaysian ringgit) while further donations were made at their own discretion,” the police chief said.

Asked if the militant group had links to Daesh cells in other countries, Khalid said the police were still working with “our counterparts in other countries as well as Interpol... to uncover their terror network.”

Malaysia depends significantly on foreign workers to meet labor demands in the nation’s key manufacturing and agriculture sectors, with tens of thousands of Bangladeshi nationals arriving each year to fill these roles.


Cameroon’s 92-year-old president faces emerging rivals

Updated 04 July 2025
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Cameroon’s 92-year-old president faces emerging rivals

  • The government released a terse statement announcing Tchiroma had been replaced, without mentioning he had resigned

YAOUNDE, Cameroon: At 92, the world’s oldest head of state, Cameroonian President Paul Biya, faces defections by allies-turned-rivals jockeying to replace him in elections that could end his four-plus decades in power.
Biya, who has led Cameroon with an iron fist since 1982, has had two key allies defect back-to-back as the African country heads for elections in October.
First was Employment Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary, who stepped down and announced on June 26 he was running for president for his party, the Cameroon National Salvation Front.
Two days later, Mnister of State Bello Bouba Maigari, a former prime minister, also jumped in in the presidential race.
Neither defection appears to have fazed the veteran leader.
The government released a terse statement announcing Tchiroma had been replaced, without mentioning he had resigned.
Biya’s camp also downplayed the challenge from Maigari, who leads the government-allied National Union for Democracy and Progress and has been close to the president for nearly three decades.
“Nothing new here,” Fame Ndongo, communications chief for the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement wrote in a front-page column Monday in the state newspaper, the Cameroon Tribune.
Biya had “long ago decoded the premonitory signs of these departures, which are part of the classic political game in an advanced liberal democracy,” Ndongo said.
By statute, Biya is automatically the ruling party’s presidential candidate, though he has not yet confirmed he will run.
The nonagenarian’s public appearances have grown rare and rumors of poor health are swirling.
Tchiroma and Maigari have challenged Biya before.
Both ran against him in the 1992 election.
Tchiroma had just been released from prison, and Maigari was just returning from exile at the time.
But both men, powerful figures from the country’s politically important, traditionally pro-government north, soon fell in line with Biya.
That has drawn criticism from some.
Northern Cameroon’s people “are rotting in poverty,” said Severin Tchokonte, a professor at the region’s University of Garoua.
“Supporting the regime all this time amounts to betraying those people, who have no water, no electricity, no infrastructure to ensure their minimal well-being,” he said.
Tchiroma has sought to distance himself from Biya’s tainted legacy, drawing a line between “yesterday” and “today.”
“Admittedly, we didn’t manage to lift you from poverty yesterday, but today, if we come together... we can do it,” he told a rally in Garoua in June.
Cameroon’s last presidential election, in 2018, was marred by violence.
Only around 53 percent of registered voters took part.
The ruling CPDM has long relied on alliances with potential rivals to keep it in power.
But Cameroon is in dire economic straits, and there are mounting calls for change, especially on social media.
With many of the country’s 28 million people mired in poverty, there could be a mass protest vote at the polls.
That may not benefit Tchiroma and Maigari, however.
Both face accusations of acting as Biya puppets to divert votes from more hard-line opponents such as Maurice Kamto of the Cameroon Renaissance Movement (CRM) — a charge both men deny.
“Bello and Tchiroma have been with the CPDM a long time. They could be looking to fracture and weaken the opposition to contain the surge of Maurice Kamto and the CRM,” said Tchokonte.
“If the CRM gets votes in the north, that could tip the balance.”
There is a “large, cross-regional” demand for change in Cameroon, said Anicet Ekane, the veteran leader of opposition party Manidem.
“It will be increasingly difficult for (Biya) to count on elites to tell people how to vote and avoid a national movement against the government,” he said.
Biya urged Cameroonians in February to ignore “the sirens of chaos” being sounded by “certain irresponsible individuals.”
“I can assure you my determination to serve you remains intact,” he said last year.

 


Power outage hits the Czech Republic and disrupts Prague public transport

Updated 04 July 2025
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Power outage hits the Czech Republic and disrupts Prague public transport

  • Prague’s entire subway network was inoperative starting at noon
  • “We are facing an extraordinary and unpleasant situation,” Fiala said

PRAGUE: A temporary power outage hit parts of the Czech Republic’s capital and other areas of the country Friday, bringing public transport and trains to a standstill, officials said.

Prague’s entire subway network was inoperative starting at noon, the capital city’s transport authority said, though subway service was restored within half an hour.

Prime Minister Petr Fiala said in a post on X that the outage hit other parts of the country and authorities were dealing with the problem.

“We are facing an extraordinary and unpleasant situation,” Fiala said, adding it was a priority to renew power supplies.

The CEPS power grid operator acknowledged problems in parts of four regions in northern and eastern Czech Republic. It said a fallen electricity line in the northwestern part of the country was identified as a possible cause for the outage.

Officials have ruled out a cyber or terror attack.

Of the eight substations in the grid that were affected, including a major one in Prague, five renewed operations in less than two hours, CEPS said.

Industry and Trade Minister Lukas Vlcek said the cause was likely a “mechanical malfunction.”

Most trams on the right bank of the Vltava River in Prague were halted, while the left bank was not affected. Some trains near Prague and other regions could not operate, causing delays but the situation was gradually getting back to normal.

There were no immediate reports that Václav Havel Airport Prague, the city’s international airport, was hit by the power outage.

In downtown Prague, stores and restaurant that remained open accepted only payments in cash.