NEW DELHI, 15 September 2021, (TON): Qatar has been playing a crucial role in Afghanistan following last month's withdrawal of US forces, helping evacuate thousands of foreigners and Afghans, engaging the new Taliban rulers and supporting operations at Kabul airport.

Indian ambassador to Qatar Dr Deepak Mittal met Qatar's foreign minister Lolwah Alkhater and thanked her for the support to people being evacuated from Afghanistan. Dr Mittal also met the evacuees from Afghanistan and interacted with them in Qatar.

Indian embassy in Qatar said on Twitter "Ambassador met H. E. Assistant Foreign Minister Lolwah_AlKhater expressed deep appreciation for her personal efforts to support Afghan evacuees.He thanked Qatar for continuing efforts to facilitate safe passage to foreign nationals including Indians from Afgh."

KATHMANDU, 15 September 2021, (TON): The meeting of the House of Representatives has been adjourned for a week, until September 20, after discussions on the replacement bill on the budget, amid sloganeering by CPN-UML lawmakers.

Speaker Agni Sapkota allowed Finance Minister Janardan Sharma to present the bill using marshals to contain the obstruction from the main opposition. No lawmaker except Prem Suwal, a member of the lower house from Nepal Majdoor Kisan Party, participated in the discussion.

Sharma had presented the replacement bill amid obstructions from the UML, which has vowed not to let the House function accusing Speaker Sapkota of not acknowledging the party’s August 17 decision to expel 14 lawmakers, including Madhav Kumar Nepal.

Nepal split from the UML and formed his party, CPN (Unified Socialist), on August 26.

The UML has alleged that Speaker Sapkota played a complicit role in splitting the UML.

As the ordinance on the national budget issued by the erstwhile KP Sharma Oli government gets invalidated from Wednesday night, the government will not be able to spend from the state coffers until the replacement budget gets endorsed from the house.

WASHINGTON, 15 September 2021, (TON): The United States will be looking at its relationship with Pakistan in the coming weeks, US State Secretary Antony Blinken said, to formulate what role Washington would want it play in the future of Afghanistan.

Testifying before Congress on the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, Blinken heard from lawmakers across party lines who pushed for a harder line on Pakistan.

Blinken told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee that Pakistan has a “multiplicity of interests, [with] some that are in conflict with ours.”

Blinken said “it is one that is involved hedging its bets constantly about the future of Afghanistan, it's one that's involved harbouring members of the Taliban [...] It is one that's also involved in different points of cooperation with us on counterterrorism.”

Asked by lawmakers if it is time for Washington to reassess its relationship with Pakistan, Blinken said the administration would soon be doing that.

He said “this is one of the things we're going to be looking at in the days, and weeks ahead, the role that Pakistan has played over the last 20 years but also the role we would want to see it play in the coming years and what it will take for it to do that.”

Blinken also called on Pakistan to deny legitimacy to the Afghan Taliban unless they meet international demands.

Blinken said “what we have to look at is an insistence that every country, to include Pakistan, make good on the expectations that the international community has of what is required of a Taliban-led government if it's to receive any legitimacy of any kind or any support.”

He said that the priorities included ensuring the Taliban let out people who want to leave Afghanistan and respect the rights of women, girls and minorities, as well as adhere to promises that the country not again become “a haven for outward-directed terror."

DUBAI, 15 September 2021, (TON): The UAE economy minister said “the United Arab Emirates aims to raise the value of economic activity with Israel to more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years, hoping to work together on everything from healthcare to climate change and energy.”

The Gulf Arab state has signed dozens of memorandums of understanding with its new ally in the year since it became the first Arab state to normalise ties with Israel this century.

It was not immediately clear how the two countries expect to reach $1tr in economic activity in the next decade. Each country has a gross domestic product of roughly $400 billion.

He said “the UAE and Israel have between $600 million and $700m in bilateral trade, the minister, Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, told a virtual conference on Monday. Reaching that level in one year was “an achievement by itself.”

He said “we are looking to create over $1tr dollars of economic activity over the next decade.”

He added “they are moving into so many areas of economic opportunities.”

Israel says it expects $1bn in trade with the UAE by end-2021 and $3bn in three years, far below the UAE's $24bn of exports in 2019 to its top destination, Saudi Arabia.

DHAKA, 15 September 2021, (TON): Both Bangladesh and Nepal have been exploring the potential for investment by Bangladeshi companies’ in hydropower in Nepal.

Bangladesh is set to take its decision on the selection of hydropower projects for investment in Nepal on completion of the ongoing survey by the Himalayan nation.

There are five potential projects, identified by the Nepalese government for investment by Bangladesh where the survey is ongoing, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources.

The statement came following the third meeting of the Bangladesh-Nepal Joint Steering Committee on Cooperation in the Power Sector, held virtually.

Bangladesh power secretary Habibur Raman and his Nepalese counterpart Devendra Karki led the delegations of their respective sites at the meeting.

NAYPYITAW, 15 September 2021, (TON): Junta soldiers once again stormed the village of Hnan Khar and set fire to more homes, with local resistance fighters unable to hold them off because they are reportedly short of weapons and ammunition.

A 12-wheeled troop carrier and two light trucks full of soldiers arrived at Hnan Khar and torched 14 homes, bringing the total number of houses destroyed by recent junta-led arson in the village to roughly 50.

"They set fire to houses, fired their guns and left immediately,” said a resident of the village, which is in Magway Region’s Gangaw Township. “The arson was intentional, they were trying to scare us.”

He added local youths worked together to put out the blaze.

The raid came after People’s Defence Force (PDF) fighters in the village killed 15 junta soldiers on Friday while suffering no fatalities themselves. Junta troops responded by burning down 36 houses.

At least 18 locals, including unarmed civilians, killed in Magway Region

By Monday, the PDF forces were unable to resist the soldiers, the local man said. "The forces were unequal. We had no ammunition, so we could do nothing but watch. It would be better if the NUG could provide us with weapons.”

NAYPYITAW, 15 September 2021, (TON): Two brothers were shot and killed and four other men were arrested in a Myanmar army raid on a village in Magway Region’s Taungdwingyi Township.

Eyewitnesses said that the plainclothes troops arrived in Taung Lyaung village at 1pm, hours after a Mytel telecoms tower, a company partially owned by the military was blown up seven miles away in another Taungdwingyi Township village, Koke Ko Kone.

One of the witnesses told media “they came because of reports from informants from the village. They did not use military cars.”

“Young people were gathered in a yard. They surrounded them. They shot one of the young people twice, tied him up with a rope, and assaulted him.”

The two men who were killed were 36-year-old Myat Soe Lwin and his younger brother, Pyae Gyi, 20. The four others who were arrested were in the yard at the time of the raid, the eyewitnesses said. It is not known where they were taken.

DHAKA, 15 September 2021, (TON): Bangladesh has been unanimously elected the vice-chair of the commission for South Asia of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) for a two-year term (2021-2023).

A press release said “Bangladesh became the vice-chair at a virtual conference jointly organized by the Commission for Asia Pacific and the Commission for South Asia with the participation of its member countries.”

Secretary-General of the UNWTO Zurab Pololikashvili presided over the conference.

Besides Bangladesh, Iran has been elected vice-chair of the Commission for South Asia (CSA).

MALE, 15 September 2021, (TON): Ambassador of Russia to the Maldives Yury Materiy has stated that the current status of the close bilateral ties maintained between Russia and the Maldives serves as an indicator that it would continue to flourish.

Ambassador Materiy said “this in a statement made on the occasion of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Russia and the Maldives.”

He had said “the time-tested nature of the close Russian–Maldivian relations and their current status serves as an indicator that the bilateral political ties, the mutually beneficial cooperation in the trade, economic, educational and tourist spheres, as well as people-to-people contacts will continue expanding and developing.”

Diplomatic ties were established between Russia and the Maldives on September 14, 1966, during a ceremony held at Colombo, Sri Lanka. The Joint Communique establishing diplomatic ties between the countries was signed by the ambassadors of Russia and the Maldives to Sri Lanka.

In Ambassador Materiy’s statement, he noted that the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties are being celebrated today, as relations continue further solidify through fruitful and extensive exchanges in different spheres.

MALE, 15 September 2021, (TON): Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid takes office as the President of the United Nation's General Assembly's (UNGA) 76th session.

in the ceremony held in New York City's UN Headquarters, Minister Shahid took the oath. He was elected as the President on July 7 this year.

Shahid said as he took his oath "as President of the General Assembly of the United Nations, in all loyalty, discretion, and conscious, and that I shall discharge these functions, and regulate my conduct in the interest of the United Nations."

He made the oath to work in accordance to with the code of ethics expected of the President of the UNGA and to work without any external influence.

In a statement he shortly later made in Dhivehi, he thanked everyone for entrusting him with such a responsibility.