VIF Information Alerts - 9 Mar 2018

Details of Top Secret India-Seychelles Military Agreement Leaked Online
Published: The Wire
08 Mar 2018

In an unprecedented security breach, the classified agreement signed by India to develop military facilities and station Indian military personnel at Seychelles’s Assumption Island has been leaked online, raising questions about whether the project’s details will need to be reworked. On Tuesday, the Seychelles president inaugurated a session of the Indian Ocean nation’s parliament with an address in which he called on legislators to ratify the agreement signed by the two countries at the end of January 2018

However, a day before, on March 6, a user named ‘Partu Kote’ uploaded a 9 minute, 20 second video on to YouTube, along with URLs to three Google Drive folders containing the entire text of the 2018 final agreement, the 2015 version and a “secret side letter” provided by Seychelles to India in 2015 outlining the conditions under which Indian military personnel would operate on the island. Click here to read... [1]

Thousands of Pakistanis detained and sentenced to death in Saudi denied rights: Report
Published: The Economic Times
08 Mar 2018

Thousands of Pakistanis imprisoned in Saudi Arabia and dozens sentenced to death in the ultra-conservative kingdom have been denied their legal rights to a defence, a report in Islamabad has warned.

Saudi Arabia executes more Pakistanis than any other foreign nationality annually, nearly all for heroin smuggling, according to the study by Justice Project Pakistan and Human Rights Watch (HRW). Click here to read... [2]

A $7.5-billion pipeline has surprise patrons: Taliban militants
Published: The Economic Times
09 Mar 2018

After decades of talks, Afghanistan finally broke ground last month on a $7.5 billion gas pipeline that will run through areas controlled by the Taliban. Even more surprising: The militant group is backing the project.

The Taliban “deems it its responsibility to revive foundational economic and reconstruction work in the country and asks international construction companies to help the Afghans in this regard,” Zabihullah Mujahed, a spokesman, said in a statement last month, noting that talks on the pipeline dated back to when the Taliban governed the nation. Click here to read... [3]

Modi-Macron moment: The real Belt and Road Initiative
Published: The Economic Times
08 Mar 2018

Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the world's fastest-growing economy, and Emmanuel Macron, President of the world's most aggressive climate change saviour, have a rendezvous starting from March 9 in New Delhi.

They truly represent the strongest redeemers of the world's most formidable challenges of today — climate change, terrorism and inequality. And no one knows more than these two leaders that combating these three enemies would require tremendous political will and resources. That is because confronting them is not an exercise of three separate encounters on three fronts. They are interlinked and complex clusters. Climate change is aggravating inequality that drives terrorism — creating a vicious spiral of storms. Click here to read... [4]

Chinese Foreign Minister dismisses Quad, calls for India, China 'to not fight but dance'
Published: India Today
08 Mar 2018

China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday dismissed the revival of the India, Australia, United States and Japan 'quadrilateral' dialogue as a "headline-grabbing" strategic idea that would "soon dissipate", even as he called for "the Dragon and Elephant to not fight but dance". Wang said there was "no shortage of headline grabbing ideas" but they were "like the foam on the sea", that "gets attention but will soon dissipate". Click here to read... [5]

General says China needs to arm South China Sea islands
Published: The Asahi Shimbun
09 Mar 2018

China needs to build defensive structures on islands in the South China Sea to display its claim to sovereignty over virtually the entire crucial waterway, a leading Chinese general said Thursday.

However, the vice president of China's Academy of Military Sciences, Lt. Gen. He Lei, declined to comment on aircraft deployments on artificial islands Chinese has built in the area, saying those were entirely China's domestic affair. Click here to read... [6]

Africa should avoid forfeiting sovereignty to China over loans: Tillerson
Published: Reuters
08 Mar 2018

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Thursday that African countries should be careful not to forfeit their sovereignty when they accept loans from China, the continent’s biggest trading partner. Tillerson is using his first diplomatic trip to the continent to bolster security alliances on a continent increasingly turning to Beijing for aid and trade. Click here to read... [7]

IMF Staff Completes 2018 Article IV Visit to Bangladesh
Published: IMF Press Release
07 Mar 2018

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) staff team, led by Mr. Daisaku Kihara, visited Dhaka from February 25-March 8 to hold discussions on the 2018 Article IV Consultation with Bangladesh. At the conclusion of the visit, Mr. Kihara made the following statement: Click here to read... [8]

CRPF sets up permanent camps in Abhujhmadh
Published: The Economic Times
08 Mar 2018

The CRPF has for the first time set up three permanent camps in the Maoist hotbed of Abujhmadh forests in Chhattisgarh to launch "surgical" operations against the ultras, a year after it lost 37 personnel in two ambushes.

The paramilitary force, along with contingents of the state police, has set up three bases in the dense and remote jungles of the 4,000 sq km region which essentially means "unknown hill" ("abujh" means unknown, "madh" means hill). Click here to read... [9]

Few gelatin sticks send forces into a tizzy
Published: Greater Kashmir
09 Mar 2018

Security and vigil on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway has been intensified after recovery of a few ‘gelatin sticks’ near Pantha Chowk point on the highway here, by the paramilitary CRPF men during a regular patrol.

The force has already sounded “gelatin pilferage alarm” to ensure that the militant shouldn’t be able to lay their hands on this explosive material. The gelatin in Kashmir is generally used for quarry blasting. Click here to read... [10]