The Indian media has applauded Bangladesh's currency swap with Sri Lanka this past week, claiming that Dhaka has started to showcase its economic rise and forge deeper ties with its neighbours. The $200 million currency swap is part of a larger scheme of foreign exchange swaps amounting to $500 million. In this context, a currency swap is effectively a loan Bangladesh is
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin’s government is keeping workers on the job, letting the virus spread unchecked while protecting the wealth of the region’s billionaires.
A range of states across India have declared the outbreak of a rare black fungus an official epidemic, as the total number of cases has hit more than 12,000.
The first-ever EU-India Leaders’ Meeting, held virtually on 8 May, produced the sides’ only negotiations on trade and investment protection since 2013. Their renewed willingness to discuss these issues – which they had no coherent economic reason to drop – reflects their strategic concerns about the emergence of a Chinese-dominated economic bloc in Asia through the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). With both the European Union and India outside RCEP, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the leaders of the 27 EU member states also concluded a connectivity partnership – which is designed to have mutual benefits on connectivity in areas such as digital connectivity, transport, and energy, as well as scientific mobility.
Islamabad, Pakistan – India and Pakistan should “refrain” from taking steps that would alter the status of the disputed territory of Kashmir, the president of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has said, as the two countries once again traded accusations over the Himalayan region this week.
UNGA president Volkan Bozkir was speaking at a joint news conference with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Thursday, as he completed a three-day visit to the Muslim-majority nation.
“Both parties, all parties, must refrain from taking steps that could affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir,” said Bozkir, a former Turkish diplomat and politician who assumed office in September.