Even as the Government of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has been busy unveiling the India-gifted COVID-19 vaccine in the Maldives, the Opposition PPM-PNC combine too has knocked at New Delhi’s doors to ensure freedom for former President Abdulla Yameen, who is currently serving a jail term for money laundering. His release alone, under the law, can facilitate his contesting the next presidential polls, due in 2023.
The two, near-simultaneous, episodes come ahead of the nation-wide local council elections (LCE) scheduled for 10 April, which have been postponed by a year due to the pandemic. Apart from the immediacy of the election battle, which is the touchstone of the decade-old democracy in the country, the vaccine itself will further unfetter the nation’s mainstay tourism economy in the coming weeks and months.
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Modi may visit Bangabandhu s birthplace during Bangladesh tour
By
Sumi Khan ( IANS) |
Published on
Thu, Feb 4 2021 0:21 IST |
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Image Source: IANS News
Dhaka, Feb 4 : Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his wish to visit Tungipara in Bangladesh the birthplace of the Father of the Nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, popularly known as Bangabandhu, the country s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said.
Speaking to IANS on Wednesday, Momen said Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is likely to visit Bangladesh before Modi s scheduled tour in March.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her Indian counterpart Modi are scheduled to hold summit-level talks in Dhaka on March 27, taking forward the relations between the two countries keeping the celebratory year in focus.
UAE a special friend, says Indian minister
ANI/Dubai
Twitter photo
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar shares message through Twitter.
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said that sending the consignment of Indian-made Covid-19 vaccines to the UAE denotes a ‘special friend and a special relationship’ between the two nations.
The information was shared by the Jaishankar through his Twitter post, “Made in India vaccines reach Dubai. A special friend, a special relationship.”
As a part of its vaccine diplomacy, New Delhi is providing Indian-made Covishield vaccines to other nations through the Vaccine Maitri initiative.
As per the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), India has gifted over 5.5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to neighbouring countries so far under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy.
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Toward the end of last week, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar delivered two characteristically frank and direct speeches that taken together, provide us with significant additional understanding of how India sees its relations with great powers evolving – and the assumptions driving them.
On January 27, virtually delivering a keynote address at an annual conference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) in Israel, Jaishankar dwelt at length on the United States and the direction the new occupants of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue are likely to take when it comes to both foreign and domestic policy. “Because globalization has impacted its economy so deeply, this is equally a foreign policy issue. Therefore, we have already heard President Biden stressing the necessity of formulating policies addressing the well-being of the American middle class” Jaishankar said, adding, “Similarly, his closest advisors have spoken of a new U.S.