Neighborhood News Digest – 23 March 2023

Afghanistan

US review of Afghanistan withdrawal to be released in April – Devdiscourse

In the aftermath, President Joe Biden directed that a broad review examine every aspect of this from top to bottom. It was originally set to be released at the one-year anniversary of the withdrawal but was delayed while agencies continued their work. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Wednesday that the work was nearly complete and that the administration was readying the release next month. We expect to be able to share those takeaways with the public by mid-April, Kirby said. Click here to read... [2]

Earthquake in Afghanistan kills at least 13, nine of them in Pakistan – Reuters

At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 injured in Pakistan and Afghanistan after a magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck late on Tuesday, government officials said. At least nine people were killed and 44 injured in northwest Pakistan, a Pakistani government official said, and hospitals in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province were put into a state of emergency overnight. At least four people were killed and 50 injured in Afghanistan, a health ministry official there said. Click here to read... [3]

Afghanistan: Taliban Raid in Kabul Kills 3 Islamic State Members – News18

An overnight raid by Taliban forces in Afghanistan’s capital killed three members of the extremist Islamic State group, a Taliban spokesman said on Wednesday. The regional affiliate of the Islamic State group — known as the Islamic State in Khorasan Province — has been the key rival of the Taliban since their takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021. The militant group has increased its attacks, targeting both Taliban patrols and members of Afghanistan’s Shiite minority. Click here to read... [4]

Afghanistan schools reopen, pressure builds on Taliban to allow all girls to attend – India Today

Afghanistan's schools reopened on Tuesday for the new academic year, but no classes were held as students were unaware of the development. Hundreds of thousands of teenage girls remain barred from attending class even as the UN children’s agency renewed calls for teenage girls to be able to rejoin the classroom, reported Reuters. Click here to read... [5]

Bangladesh

Bangladesh ‘very careful’ about loans from China: Sheikh Hasina – Tribune India

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Tuesday that her government was “very much careful” about issues of development partnership with China and Dhaka was not dependent on any particular country for overseas assistance, amid global concerns over mounting debt to Beijing by smaller countries. The 99-year lease of Hambantota port to China by Sri Lanka has raised red flags about the downside of China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative and Beijing’s push for major infrastructure projects costing billions of dollars in small countries. Click here to read... [6]

Bangladesh to raise 'shortcomings' of US human rights report to Washington – Global China Daily

The United States 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Bangladesh contains some "fundamental shortcomings and mistakes" and Dhaka will raise those to Washington, Bangladeshi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said on Tuesday. "We will raise these shortcomings with the US side so that such things do not exist in the next year's report," he was quoted as saying by Bangladesh's official news agency BSS. Click here to read... [7]

Myanmar team returns after interviewing 480 Rohingyas – New Age

Officials from Myanmar’s immigration and population ministries left Bangladesh on Wednesday after interviewing around 480 Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar as part of a plan for possible repatriation to their country. The 17-member Myanmar delegation, led by Aung Myo, the social welfare minister for Rakhine State, started interviewing Rohingyas, who are currently living in Cox’s Bazar camps, on March 15. Click here to read... [8]

Bhutan

Bangladesh, Bhutan sign transit deal – The Daily Star

Bangladesh yesterday signed a transit agreement with Bhutan allowing the landlocked South Asian nation to transport its imported and export-oriented goods by using ports, mainly the Mongla seaport. Under the "Agreement on the Movement of Traffic-in-Transit and Protocol", Bhutan would also be able to use Bangladesh's land, waterways, railways and airways to move goods to and from third countries. Click here to read... [9]

India-Bhutan Commemorate Festival Of Friendship – The Sentinel

The Gorsam Chorten Stupa in Zemithang, Arunachal Pradesh, hosted the Gorsam Kora event, which is frequently referred to as a celebration of friendship between India and Bhutan. The final administrative region of India on the Tibetan border is the village of Zemithang, which is located in the Tawang district. Bhutan and India border each other in the west. Click here to read... [10]

How India’s renewable energy ambitions have wedded Bhutan to hydropower – Scroll

Fifteen years ago, Bhutan announced that by 2020 it would be able to produce an additional 10,000 megawatts of electricity from hydropower. So far, the country is able to generate less than a quarter of this target: total installed capacity is 2,326 megawatts, up from 1,480 megawatts in 2008. Of the four hydropower plants under the 10,000 megawatt scheme, only one, Mangdechhu, has been completed and is operational. Click here to read... [11]

Maldives

Saudi Arabia donates 50 tons of dates to the Maldives - Avas

The dates were donated in a ceremony held at the Islamic Ministry on Tuesday after a delegation from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid, and Relief Center arrived in the Maldives to hand over the donation officially. The donation was handed over to Islamic Minister Dr. Ahmed Zahir Ali by the Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the Maldives, Matrek Abdullah Al-Ajalin Aldosari. Click here to read... [12]

President ratifies the first amendment to the Maldives Police Service Act - Raajje

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has ratified the first amendment to the Maldives Police Service Act. President Solih ratified the act on Wednesday. Parliament passed the bill on Tuesday, March 20, 2023, at the 19th sitting of its first session this year. The bill revises Sections 17 and 100(g) of the law. Click here to read... [13]

Myanmar

India: Will there be a roll back of Myanmar's refugees -DW

As the violence in Myanmar shows no signs of abating, an influx of refugees is being witnessed in north-eastern India. The arrivals, mostly from Chin state, continue to take refuge in Mizoram following a military coup in the neighboring country in February 2021. Click here to read... [14]

US to announce more sanctions against Myanmar junta - State Department official - Reuters

The United States will announce further sanctions against entities inside Myanmar in the coming days, a senior State Department official said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in Jakarta, U.S. State Department Counselor Derek Chollet said the sanctions will make it more difficult for Myanmar's junta to generate revenue to buy weapons. Click here to read... [15]

China under radar for ‘aiding military junta’ in Myanmar; urge for accountability made at UNHRC - Times of India

Amid a worsening situation in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup, European Foundation of South Asian Studies research analyst Michela Mutovciev on March 20 in Switzerland’s Geneva chastised China for ‘supporting and arming’ the military junta in Myanmar for the sake of its own ‘geopolitical games’. She further blamed China’s aid of ‘provoking greater violence’ in Myanmar which is ultimately ‘pushing peaceful solution out of reach’. “Particularly concerning, however, is the response of some of Myanmar’s powerful neighbors who seem all too willing to sacrifice the survival of Myanmar as a society for the sake of their own geopolitical games,” Mutovciev said. Click here to read... [16]

Nepal

Nepal’s growth trajectory - Kathmandu Post

The economic growth rate is a basic indicator of a country’s prosperity and well-being. It shows how income or the gross domestic product (GDP) expands over time. While this provides investors, businessmen and policymakers the simplest way to make their decisions, political parties often aim at high or sustained growth as an economic agenda to attract voters. But for the common man, economic growth is a puzzling concept. Normally, what is of greater concern to the general public in underdeveloped countries like Nepal is people's wellbeing. So, does growth really matter? Click here to read... [17]

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”EU will stand by Nepal in hard times” - Nepal Times

The 71st birthday of the European Union is a special day. Every year on 9 May we celebrate what started as a peace project in 1950, and is now an alliance for our joint future. The 27 member states and their 450 million citizens build our Union every day with their actions and their commitment, making it stronger through challenging times such as the Covid -19 pandemic. Click here to read... [18]

State of the Nation: Nepal’s youth-filled population embracing entrepreneurial spirit - The Drum

In the latest post for The State of the Nation series, Outreach Nepal's founder & managing director Ujaya Shakya provides insights into the country's youthful population and its mindset post-earthquake and post-pandemic as it builds and creates an entrepreneurial and proud nation. Click here to read... [19]

Pakistan

Election Commission of Pakistan postpones Punjab by-elections till Oct 8 – Business Standard

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday postponed the Punjab by-elections till October 8. The elections were earlier scheduled to be held on April 30, Pakistan-based ARY News reported. According to details, the ECP withdrew the Punjab Election Program notification issued on March 8 and decided to postpone the Punjab election and announced October 8 as the new date for elections in Punjab, as per ARY News. Click here to read... [20]

Pakistan Court Rejects Plea to Cancel Imran Khan's Bail in Prohibited Funding Case – News18

A Pakistani court on Wednesday rejected the country’s top investigating agency’s plea to cancel former prime minister Imran Khan’s bail in the prohibited funding case, a media report said. Khan, the chief of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf: party was granted bail by an Islamabad-based banking court in a prohibited funding case. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in October last year filed a case in the banking court against Khan, 70, and other members of his party for allegedly receiving prohibited funding. Click here to read... [21]

India Plans To Open Corridor To Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir For Pilgrimage – NDTV

The government will make efforts to open a corridor in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) for Sharda Peeth pilgrimage on the lines of the Kartarpur corridor in Punjab.
The move will necessitate engagement with Pakistan and reopening of the Line of Control (LoC) at Teetwal in Jammu and Kashmir's Kupwara, which has been closed indefinitely after special status to Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped in August 2019. Click here to read... [22]

Pakistan drops out of SCO meet after India red-flags its inaccurate map – Deccan Herald

India on Tuesday foiled Pakistan’s bid to subtly assert its claim on Jammu and Kashmir at a meeting held within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Islamabad’s delegation attending a SCO meeting hosted by the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), a think tank based in New Delhi wanted to display a map that showed Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) of India as part of the territory of Pakistan. Click here to read... [23]

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka receives first tranche of IMF bailout, says president – Al Jazeera

The first tranche of $330m comes after the IMF on Monday approved a $3bn rescue package for the crisis-stricken island nation. Wickremesinghe said his government officials will kick off the next round of talks with bondholders and bilateral creditors in the third week of April. “This will create opportunities for low-interest credit, restore foreign investors’ confidence and lay the foundation for a strong new economy,” he said. The IMF bailout is expected to catalyse additional support to the tune of $3.75bn from the likes of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and other lenders. It clears the way for Sri Lanka to rework a substantial part of its $84bn worth of public debt. Click here to read... [24]

Moragoda, Indian Finance Minister discuss economic cooperation – Daily News

Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to India Milinda Moragoda met with the Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of India Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi on March 22, 2023.This was the latest of a series of meetings High Commissioner Moragoda has had with Minister Sitharaman since November 2021 on Indian economic cooperation and assistance to Sri Lanka in the context of the present economic crisis. At the outset, High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Sitharaman for the leadership that the Government of India took towards the realization of the International Monetary Fund’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Arrangement for Sri Lanka. Click here to read... [25]

India has much to gain from helping Sri Lanka – Mint

A vigorous trade partnership would help India reduce China’s influence over the island nation and give New Delhi more room to manoeuvre on other vital issues such as terrorism and the treatment of Sri Lankan Tamils. Click here to read... [26]