VIF Neighbourhood News Digest: 25th February, 2019

PAKISTAN

'Give peace a chance': Prime Minister Khan responds to Modi: Dawn

February 25, 2019

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday responded to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comments given a day earlier and assured him that he stands by his words that if India provides Pakistan with "actionable intelligence" regarding the February 14 attack in occupied Kashmir's Pulwama, "we will immediately act”. On Saturday, Modi had asked Prime Minister Khan to keep his word as a Pathan and fight poverty and illiteracy together with India instead of fighting each other.Click here to read... [2]

AFGHANISTAN

Abdullah Criticizes Taliban For Not Talking To Afghan Govt: Tolo News

February 25, 2019

As Taliban members are about to start talks with US negotiators in Qatar for the fifth time in less than four months, Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who is part of the National Unity Government with President Ashraf Ghani, said Taliban has not shown willingness for direct talks with the Afghan government, adding that it is a key hurdle to the peace process. “So far, the Taliban has not been ready to talk with the government of Afghanistan. We also have the responsibility to remove the hurdles from way of peace talks, in areas which are relent to us. Still, lack of Taliban’s honest preparation for direct talks [with the Afghan government] is a key barrier [to the peace process],” Abdullah said as he addressed the weekly meeting of the Council of Minister.Click here to read... [3]

NEPAL

Five members of disbanded merger task force submit report to Oli: Kathmandu Post

February 25, 2019

Disgruntled by the decision of the Nepal Communist Party’s Secretariat to dissolve the task force formed to complete the remainder work of the unification process, five of the nine members of the task force presented a separate report to NCP Co-chairman and Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on Sunday night. “The report includes the recommendations to resolve the outstanding issues concerning the unification process,” Beduram Bhusal, a member of the task force, told the Post on Sunday. The nine-member task force, led by Ram Bahadur Thapa, was formed after the previous three panels failed to deliver the mandate: completing the remaining tasks of the unification process between the erstwhile CPN-UML and CPN (Maoist Centre). Although the two communist forces formally united in May 2018 to form the NCP, the party has yet to finalise the merger of the committees at local and provincial levels.Click here to read... [4]

CHINA

Commentary: Xi-Trump consensus loadstar for China, U.S. win-win trade agreement: Xinhuanet

25 February 2019

China and the United States are inching ever closer to reaching a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement with substantial progress achieved on specific issues in their latest round of high-level economic and trade talks ending on Sunday in Washington.Click here to read... [5]