WASHINGTON, 27 July 2021, (TON): President Biden and Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi announced that the U.S. military’s combat mission in Iraq will formally conclude by the end of the year.

The announcement will come in a joint communique issued after the two leaders meet in the White House, a senior administration official told reporters in a background call about the meeting.

The official said “we’re talking about shifting to a new phase in the campaign in which we very much complete the combat mission against ISIS and shift to an advisory and training mission by the end of the year.”

The official added “as this evolution continues, and as we formally end the combat mission and make clear that there are no American forces with a combat role in the country, Iraq has requested, and we very much agree, that they need continued training, support with logistics, intelligence, advisory capacity building, all of which will continue.”

But while the announcement will mark a symbolic end to the combat mission, U.S. military operations in Iraq are expected to remain largely unchanged, as U.S. troops there have been in a mostly training and advisory role for years. Additionally, the distinction between “combat” and “noncombat” troops is not clear.

“All of our troops are capable of doing multiple things. And certainly, we task our combat troops, our troops that are capable of conducting combat operations, with training, advising and assisting,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters.

KATHMANDU, 27 July 2021, (TON): The Hong Kong Nepalese Federation has urged Consul General Udaya Bahadur Rana and Consul Kiran Kumar Gurung of Nepal at Hong Kong Consulate General to help include Nepali domestic help in Hong Kong.

According to Tanka Rana, the president of the Hong Kong Nepalese Federation, “a delegation of the organization called on Rana and Gurung at their office to make the request.”

Rana said “the federation, an umbrella organization of Nepalese expats in Hong Kong, had got positive feedback from Consul General Rana. 'Nepalese in Hong Kong has won hearts and minds of Hong Kong people and the government, therefore I am hopeful that this will materialize in the days ahead.”

Rana said “according to statistics maintained by Hong Kong Nepalese Federation, around 40,000 Nepalese have been residing in Hong Kong with official IDs since 1997. Nepalese offspring born in Hong Kong without ID has been bereft of domestic help visa.”

He added, 'wWe request Nepal government also for diplomatic dialogue to arrange such visa in talks between two governments.''

KATHMANDU, 27 July 2021, (TON): The government has decided to accept $60 million in loan assistance through the International Development Association of the World Bank Group.

Sharing the decisions taken by the meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers at Singha Durbar, government Spokesperson and Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Gyanendra Bahadur Karki, said.

Similarly, the government decided to approve National Debt (Fifth Amendment) Regulations-2078 BS and Bond Priorities and Secondary Market (Third Amendment) Regulation-2078.

Likewise, the decision has been made to accept the tender bidding on the basis of application of the consultants, service providers, construction entrepreneurs and suppliers in case the assigned tasks were not completed in the given deadline after the order of prohibitory order issued from the Chief District Officers in different districts.

Minister Karki further said that the government decided to approve the temporary positions for 35 gazetted employees at the central office and 21 at provincial offices of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and 23 for the Commission for Investigation on Enforced Disappeared Persons for the fiscal year 2078/79, which would be automatically scrapped with the termination of the Commission.

BEIRUT, 27 July 2021, (TON): Lebanon’s president is expected to appoint Monday a billionaire businessman and former prime minister as the next premier-designate, after Saad Hariri earlier this month gave up attempts to form a Cabinet amid an unprecedented financial meltdown roiling the country.

Najib Mikati’s appointment is likely to come later in the day, following binding consultations between President Michel Aoun and Lebanese lawmakers.

One of the richest men in Lebanon, Mikati became a favorite for the post after he was endorsed by most of Lebanon’s political parties and also the powerful, Hezbollah group. Mikati was also endorsed by Hariri, who abandoned efforts to form a government after failing to agree with Aoun on the Cabinet’s makeup.

The political deadlock, driven by a power struggle between Aoun and Hariri over constitutional rights, has worsened a crippling economic and financial crisis.

COLOMBO, 27 July 2021, (TON): Rear Admiral Sanjeewa Dias assumed duties as Commander Eastern Naval Area at the Command Headquarters.

Rear Admiral Dias held office as Commander North Central Naval Area prior taking over the command of Eastern Naval Area.

The incoming Area Commander was received to the Eastern Naval Command according him a Guard of Honour in compliance with naval traditions.

Subsequently, the former Area Commander and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Navy, Rear Admiral YN Jayarathne officially handed over the duties and responsibilities to his successor at the Command Headquarters.

Rear Admiral YN Jayarathne was also accorded a Guard of Honour in precision with naval customs, before he bade adieu to the Eastern Naval Command.

COLOMBO, 27 July 2021, (TON): Ambassador Majintha Jayesinghe presented the Letters of Credence to the President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava, accrediting as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sri Lanka to Slovakia.

The credential ceremony entailed a Guard of Honour by the Slovakian Armed Forces and presentation of the Letters of Credence to the President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová.

The Slovakian President was assisted by senior officials. Six Ambassadors of Bangladesh, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, South Africa, and Uruguay presented Letters of Credence to the President of Slovakia on the same day.

The Ambassador was accompanied by Counsellor and Head of Chancery of the Embassy Charitha Weerasinghe and Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka in Slovakia Peter Gabalec.

Ambassador Majintha Jayesinghe conveyed greetings from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and the People of Sri Lanka to the President of the Slovak Republic and the People of Slovakia.

TUNIS, 27 July 2021, (TON): Tunisia faced its biggest crisis in a decade of democracy after President Kais Saied ousted the government and froze the activities of parliament, a move his foes labelled a coup that should be opposed on the street.

In a statement, Saied invoked the constitution to dismiss Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and decree a freeze of the parliament for a period of 30 days, saying he would govern alongside a new premier.

The move came after a day of protests against the government and the biggest party in parliament, the moderate Islamist Ennahda.

It poses the greatest challenge yet to Tunisia after its 2011 revolution that triggered the “Arab spring” and ousted an autocracy in favour of democratic rule, but which failed to deliver sound governance or prosperity.

In the hours after Saied’s announcement, huge crowds gathered in his support in Tunis and other cities, cheering, dancing and ululating while the military blocked off the parliament and state television station.

Parliament Speaker Rached Ghannouchi, the head of Ennahda, which has played a role in successive coalition governments, decried the moves as a coup and an assault on democracy.

In the early hours of Monday, Ghannouchi arrived at the parliament where he said he would call a session in defiance of Saied, but the army stationed outside the building stopped the 80-year-old former political exile from entering.

“I am against gathering all powers in the hands of one person,” he said outside the parliament building.

NAYPYITAW, 27 July 2021, (TON): Local sources said that soldiers who went on a rampage in northern Chin State’s Falam Township last week have forced around 800 civilians from four villages to flee their homes.

The military raided the four villages after fighting broke out between junta troops and the Chin National Defence Force (CNDF).

The raids targeted the villages of Taal, Tlangzawl, Thlanrawn and Zomual, which are all located about 12 miles from the town of Falam.

According to one resident “half of the homes in Taal, a village of 40 households, were destroyed.”

The man, who asked not to be named, told media “the military just started shooting at everything in sight. We had to flee in a panic. We can’t go home even now.”

He said “they even cut open sacks of rice and stepped on the rice with their boots. They took all of our oil, too. They even took all the decent blankets that we had.”

He added that besides taking around 30 blankets, the soldiers confiscated three mobile phones from two young men who returned to the village to charge them and get supplies.

The displaced villagers were said to be in desperate need of food, shelter and blankets.

The day before the fighting started, the CNDF issued a warning to local residents about travelling in the area.

DHAKA, 27 July 2021, (TON): Amnesty International has urged the authorities in Bangladesh to end the crackdown on people’s right to freedom of expression online and repeal the Digital Security Act (DSA), unless it is amended in compliance with international human rights law and standards.

The UK-based rights body voiced its demands in a briefing released on Monday.

The briefing, “No space for dissent”, examines cases under the DSA against 10 individuals who have been subjected to a wide range of human rights violations, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention and torture, simply for criticizing powerful people on social media.

Amnesty International said that Bangladesh has at least 433 people imprisoned under the DSA as of July 2021, most of whom are held on allegations of publishing false and offensive information online.

It added “those targeted include journalists, cartoonists, musicians, activists, entrepreneurs, students and even a farmer who cannot read or write.”

It said “in one case, writer Mushtaq Ahmed died in prison after languishing there for 10 months without trial on accusations under the DSA. One inmate alleged that he was subjected to torture.”

The actions taken by the authorities under the purview of the DSA demonstrate just how dangerous it has become to speak out and voice dissenting views in Bangladesh at present.

By TON Research Section

When India announced its new political map in 2019, after the revocation of Article 370, it included territories claimed by Nepal. However, at that time the government in Kathmandu took it up officially and publically. Subsequently, after the publication of map by India, youths and students of the ruling Nepal Communist Party and the opposition Nepali Congress came on the streets. The Nepal government described India’s decision as “unilateral” and claimed that it will “defend its international border”.

 In line with democratization and competitive nationalism, Nepal parliament unanimously passed a bill and redraw the country’s map in 2020, including the demarcation of Lipulekh mountain pass, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura the areas of Nepal which illegally occupied by India. India objected to Nepal’s move to the inclusion of Lipulekh mountain pass, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura in its territory and warned the Nepal for doing so. The Nepalese government claimed that India has made intrusions into the disputed region by building the Darchula-Lipulekh link road despite repeated objections and India media always showed the distorted facts in this regard.

India inaugurated a new 80 km-long road in the Himalayas, connecting to the border with China, at the Lipulekh pass. The Nepali government protested immediately, contending that the road crosses in its territory that it claims and accused India of changing the status quo unilaterally.  Since then, Nepal deployed police forces to the region, summoned the Indian ambassador in Kathmandu, and made constitutional amendment to formalize and extend its territorial claims over 372 sq. km.

Over the time, the bilateral crisis seems to be stalemate, a worrisome trend in otherwise friendly India-Nepal relations, the crisis, the factors that escalated the dispute, the geostrategic context, and ways to de-escalate grim issue. Nepal has one of the world’s youngest populations and, especially after India’s implicit support for the 2015 blockade on the landlocked country, anti-Indian sentiments have been running high.

This is one of the reasons that why Nepal chose not to attend a multilateral BIMSTEC counter-terrorism exercise hosted by India, in 2018. Delhi had then expressed its disappointment, especially about the Nepali government caving in to popular reservations about BIMSTEC as an anti-China military alliance driven by India.

Nepal’s foreign policy establishment has embraced an ambitious and forward-looking agenda of external balancing and diversification in recent years, especially under the leadership of its Foreign Minister participation in the Fourth Indian Ocean Conference, held in the Maldives in 2019, reflects Kathmandu’s widening geostrategic horizons, seeking to place Nepal as a critical connectivity hub between China, South Asia and the Indian Ocean region. The border dispute between India and Nepal was brewing for years, so it is unreasonable to blame China for creating the crisis.

India alleged that Nepal may be bringing up the issue “at the behest” of a third party, referring to China.  All this does not mean that Beijing has not supported or further instigated Kathmandu to take on a more assertive position, especially against the backdrop of the China-India military standoff in Ladakh. This could have contributed to the severity of the India-Nepal crisis.

Nepal and several other Indian neighbors are young democracies, developing new institutions in a political transition that can be instable, as Indian interference is growing and may hinder further democratization, undermining the rule of law, or curtail critical media and academic independence.

As China’s political influence grows in Nepal and playing the China balancing card as a last resort, Nepali leaders hope to get Delhi to pay attention to festering problems that Indian diplomacy neglects or forgets about in the past. This is a risky game because it raises alarm bells in Delhi, especially in the security and strategic establishments, which are quick resort to coercive tools that can further, escalate the dispute. It is also risky because it assumes China is willing to extend indefinite support to Nepal at the cost of its relations with India.

The dispute has roots going back to the 1950s and there is also a second dispute with India in the Susta river border region. Moreover, there is also a possible issue at the Indian state of Sikkim. Nepal alleges that it tried twice to convene such talks since then, and received no positive response from Delhi and India is brushing the issue under the carpet.

On the one hand, in Nepal’s maximalist perspective cover all territories it claims, now also including Limpyadhura. The thinking in Kathmandu goes that if India conveys its own territorial claims in official maps, does it have any legitimacy to pressure Nepal not to come up with its own? On the other hand, in India’s minimalist perspective reflecting why it delayed dialogue. The current crisis has exposed the real facets of Indian largest democracy.  

 Currently, India can no longer afford to continue its past Cold War policies of right of first refusal. As Nepal is no longer an Indian sphere of influence. Nepal has been embracing a policy of strategic diversification to decrease its dependence on India and enhance its non-aligned self-sufficiency.

The influence of China has grown then before across the Himalayas, especially after the BRI project Nepal which win the hearts of young Nepalese. India still look at twenty-first century Nepal through a nineteenth century colonial prism as a buffer state with limited sovereignty, where India’s resources should be focused on political engineering and cultivate assets to topple the Nepalese governments at its whims and wishes. So both the governments are at loggerheads due to these territorial problems which have no solution at the sight. By stifling and not sparing even its tiny and small neighbor like Nepal, it is simplistic to assume that this crisis reflects a failure of India’s regional strategy and approach as a whole.