Author: Arif ArifArman

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Australia is preparing itself for a possible military attack from China in the wake of growing hostilities over the Taiwan Strait conflict and Chinese military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region. It is strengthening its military capabilities and forging alliances with major powers as well as small nations to thwart Chinese belligerence. It can be reflected in the expedition of the process to procure nuclear-powered submarines from the US and UK. Australia is also building ties with China’s traditional enemies, like India and Japan. Australia felt the brunt of rising Chinese aggressiveness that seeks to have economic and military…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday urged the children to grow as smart citizens following the ideals of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. “The Father of the Nation Bangabandu sheikh Mujib is no longer with us, but he left his ideals for us to follow,” she told a National Children’s Day programme here. The premier said the country’s children must grow up with human virtues and groom themselves smartly through sports and physical exercises. “Every child will have to engage in sports and physical exercises, remain neat and clean, obey teachers and guardians, follow these rules, and must have…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India on Thursday welcomed the US Senate’s much-delayed confirmation of the appointment of Eric Garcetti as ambassador, saying the government is looking forward to working with him. The confirmation finally came ahead of a state visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US, likely starting June 21, and also the G20 summit in September that will see President Joe Biden travelling to India. “We welcome the confirmation of Eric Garcetti as US Ambassador to India. We look forward to working with him to take forward our multi-faceted bilateral relations,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India, under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy, has always come forward to help debt-ridden Sri Lanka, and in the latest instance, New Delhi distributed the ration in Kalmunai, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said. Taking to Twitter, the High Commission of India in Colombo said, “Support by @IndiainSL to needy sections continues!! Glimpses of ration distribution in Kalmunai.” The island nation plunged into a financial crisis after the Covid-19 pandemic affected tourism, which is considered the country’s economic backbone, and remittances from citizens working abroad fell. The war in Ukraine escalated the crisis as prices for imports, particularly…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The W20 delegation of India joined the Permanent Mission of India in New York, Ruchira Kamboj for a special event on Thursday and discussed the path of empowerment through technology. The discussion took place on the sidelines of the CSW67 (Commission on the Status of Women)’s sixty-seventh session. The sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW67) took place from March 6-17. It took place at the United Nations Headquarters (UN HQ) in New York. The event was a dynamic and interactive experience, the official Twitter handle of India at the UN wrote on Twitter.…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Days after rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran signed a China-brokered agreement to revive diplomatic ties, India on Thursday welcomed the pact saying it has always advocated dialogue and diplomacy to resolve differences. The two countries announced the full-fledged restoration of their diplomatic relations, seven years after severing them following a bitter row. “We have seen the reports in this regard. India has good relations with various countries in West Asia. We have deep abiding interests in that region,” External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said. He was asked to comment on the pact. “India has always advocated dialogue…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: China’s post-Covid rebound got off to an unbalanced start, with the retail sales growth in the first two months of 2023 only matching the expected percentage and real estate investment falling further, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement. Industrial output was less impressive in the January-February period – expanding a slower-than-expected 2.4 per cent year on year. The retail sales rose in line with expectations at 3.5 per cent, on par with the same period last year. According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in the first two months, the investment in fixed…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: By Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has rejected the demand of the civil society of Pakistan occupied and Kashmir (PoK) to register their data as citizens of PoK. The census being conducted right now is adding the data of PoK citizens as Pakistanis. This is not only a serious breach of the United Resolutions that have classified PoK as the disputed territory between India and Pakistan, but by denying the people of PoK to be identified according to their ethnicity and linguistic identity, Pakistan is blatantly committing a crime against the people of PoK. The…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Two pilots were killed after an Indian Army Aviation Cheetah helicopter crashed near the Mandala hills area in Arunachal Pradesh on Thursday, officials said. A search operation was carried out by the Indian Army, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and police after the crash. “Both the pilots involved in the crash have lost their lives,” said Army officials. Earlier, Public Relations Officer (PRO), Defence Guwahati Lt Col Mahendra Rawat had said Army’s Cheetah helicopter, on an operational sortie, was reported to have lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller at around 9:15 am on Thursday. It was reported to…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Chair India sent an invitation to SCO nations including Pakistan for the SCO meeting to be held in New Delhi in April this year. However, the Ministry of External Affairs has received no confirmation on the subject, said MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday. The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Defence Minister meet is going to be held in the Indian Capital, New Delhi in April. Defence Minister of all SCO states, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are sent invitations for the Defence Ministers’ meeting including Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Since it became publicly accessible in November last year, ChatGPT – an AI chatbot created by OpenAI Company – has dominated the discourse on the internet and social media. Based on the Generative Pre-Trained Transformer 3 or GPT-3 language paradigm, ChatGPT is capable of carrying on a conversation, responding to inquiries, producing stories, poems, and comics, as well as resolving challenging programming issues. ChatGPT has also participated in and even passed numerous challenging examinations across the globe including the Wharton MBA Exam, the American Medical Licensing Exam, and the Law School Exam, as part of esperiment. Although the…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: President M Abdul Hamid today urges all concerned, including scout leaders, to turn the next generation into skilled manpower through scouting to lead the ongoing progress of Bangladesh. “You will reflect the Scout ideals in your personal, family and social lives… And dedicate yourself to the country’s development,” he told the scouts at their 51st ‘Annual General Meeting of National Council of Bangladesh Scouts’ at Osmani Smrity Auditorium here this afternoon. The President, also the chief scout, called upon the scouts to play a strong role to free Bangladesh from illiteracy, poverty and hunger. “Scouts will devote himself…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: A recent United Nation report about the oppression of Tibetans practised by the Communist Party of China (CCP) has shown support from the international organisation and also gave hope to the Tibet people, Tibet Press reported. Recently, the UN Convention on the Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights published their final findings. The report gave a picture of a large number of violations of China’s responsibilities. The relocation of nomadic herdsmen, particularly Tibetan ones, “is carried out in the state party without sufficient consultation and, in most cases, without…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India’s relations with Southeast Asian states have come a long way from estrangement in the 1990s to contemporary strategic engagement since 2014. As a firm acknowledgement of the mutual desire of both sides to expand and deepen their ties, India and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) elevated their relations further to a comprehensive strategic partnership in November 2022, Bernama News reported. However, while India Southeast Asian relations have exponentially improved over the past two decades, the need for New Delhi to pay more attention to the security concerns of Southeast Asian states and consistently operationalize robust…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: The Philippine coast guard has finally decided to take a stand against China’s aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea. By publicizing these incidents, Manila’s coast guard hopes to counter China’s propaganda and shine a light on Beijing’s repeated violations of international law. This move has garnered international condemnation and put China under the spotlight. The Philippine coast guard has stepped up its patrols in the contested waters and has made an effort to document and publicize China’s assertive behavior in the strategic waterway. One such incident occurred on February 6 when a Chinese coast guard ship…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Veteran leader of the Nepali Congress party Ram Chandra Paudel has been elected the new president of Nepal. Paudel had a convincing victory securing 33,802 votes against his rival Subash Chandra Nembang from the Communist Party of Nepal – Unified Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) who could manage only 15, 518 votes. It is the third presidential election in the Himalayan Country of Nepal since the country became a republic in 2008. The president of Nepal is elected by an Electoral College comprising two houses of federal parliament and seven provincial legislators. Mr. Shaligram, the spokesperson of the Election Commission…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: The Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh to India Andalib Elias on Wednesday inaugurated a visa information and application centre at Kolkata Railway Station to facilitate overseas passengers availing visa services for Bangladesh-bound trains. Speaking to ANI, Bangladesh’s Deputy High Commissioner to India Andalib Elias said, “It will be easy for people to go to station and get any information about Visas. We are planning to provide tourism information to whoever wants to visit Bangladesh as a tourist.” The project was conceptualized under the scheme of New-innovative ideas. The visa information centre is another amenity exclusively for passengers availing…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Britain on Thursday became the latest Western country to prohibit the use of TikTok on “government devices,” citing security fears linked to the video-sharing app’s ownership by a Chinese company. Speaking in Parliament, Oliver Dowden, a senior cabinet minister, announced the ban with immediate effect, describing it as “precautionary,” even though the United States, the European Union’s executive arm, Canada and India had already taken similar steps. New Zealand did so on Friday. Social media apps collect and store “huge amounts of user data including contacts, user content and geolocation data on government devices that data can be…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India-based defence company BrahMos Aerospace expects to close a deal this year to sell Indonesia supersonic cruise missiles worth at least US$200 million, as it looks to expand its presence in Southeast Asia, its chief executive said on Wednesday. BrahMos, a joint venture between India and Russia, clinched its first foreign deal last year with a US$375 million sale of shore-based anti-ship missiles to the Philippines – part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious push to triple defence exports. The company has been in protracted negotiations with Indonesia and details about the size and timeline of a…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India on Thursday asserted that there has been no change in its position on not recognising the Taliban regime in Kabul, in comments that came amid reports of an Afghan foreign policy body asking officials to attend an online programme under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) initiative. The Institute of Diplomacy under the Afghan Foreign Ministry reportedly conveyed to officials in Kabul to register for the ITEC course which was to be hosted by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode. At a media briefing, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi also said that the Indian…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj on Thursday said as the prime minister said India chairing G20 is a reflection of the strength of 140 crore Indians, “we are making it a People’s G20.” “As the honourable Prime Minister of India has said that the chairing by India of the G20 presidency is a reflection of the strength of 140 crore Indians. We are taking the G20 to the people of our country, we are making it a People’s G20,” Kamboj said while addressing the UN Informal briefing on the ‘G20 Finance Ministers and Central…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: At least 29 people, including three monks, were killed at a monastery in Myanmar’s Southern Shan State on Saturday as local insurgent groups and the military-backed junta accused each other of carrying out a massacre, reported Myanmar Now. Photographs posted online on Sunday showed several blood-soaked bodies near the entrance to the village monastery, including three belonging to Buddhist monks. The front of the monastery was also heavily pockmarked with bullet holes. The latest incident, which comes just weeks after junta troops allegedly murdered 17 villagers in Sagaing Region’s Myinmu Township earlier this month, occurred on Saturday in…

INTERNATIONAL DESK: United States Senators Bill Hagerty and Jeff Merkley have introduced a bipartisan Senate resolution reaffirming the United States’ recognition of Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India and condemned China’s military aggression to change the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). “At a time when China continues to pose grave and gathering threats to the free and open Indo-Pacific, it’s critical for the United States to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our strategic partners in the region–especially India,” said Senator Hagerty in the press release. “This bipartisan resolution expresses the Senate’s support for unequivocally recognizing the…

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: A Myanmar delegation is visiting Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh this week to verify a few hundred potential returnees for a pilot repatriation project, though a Bangladeshi official said it was unclear when they would be going home. Nearly one million Rohingya Muslim refugees are living in camps in the border district of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, most having fled a military-led crackdown in Myanmar in 2017. Bangladesh’s Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner in Cox’s Bazar, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, told Reuters there was a list of 1,140 Rohingya who are to be repatriated through the pilot project, of…