DHAKA, 01 August 2022, (TON): The 1320MW Maitree Super Thermal Power Station is expected to be inaugurated during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s three-day visit to India in the first week of September.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina together with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi will jointly inaugurate the power plant.

While Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to visit India any time between September 5 and 7 and stay for two to three days, the visit has been accorded utmost importance by the Modi government as Dhaka happens to be one of India’s closest allies.

Considered to be Bangladesh’s largest power plant, the coal-fired station is being set up by Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company Limited, a 50:50 joint venture between India’s NTPC and Bangladesh Power Development Board. The project is worth $1.5 billion.

By TON Nepal

On Thursday for two-day visit the US assistant state secretary for South and Central Asia Affairs has arrived to Kathmandu. Five weeks after Nepal’s decision that it won’t be part of the United States’ State Partnership Program (SPP).

This instant visit to Nepal since November previous year and first since Nepal’s Parliament approved the US$500 million Millennium Challenge Corporation compact (MCC) after months of disagreement. According to the Ministry of Nepalese Foreign Affairs, the US assistant state secretary is ready to hold meetings with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister on Friday.

Though the US assistant state secretary visit is said to be for handing out an award stated by the US embassy in Kathmandu. However, actually he aims to moderate anxieties surrounding the State Partnership Program (SPP) which has become a political controversy matter in Nepal.

After disagreement over Nepal’s contribution in the SPP, the government on June 21 decided that it won’t contribute in the system, which has security and military mechanisms and contribution in it could put American boots on the Nepali ground. It was the US embassy which made it public that Nepal was accepted in the SPP in 2019 after two appeals in 2015 and 2017.

In 2015, the State Partnership Program (SPP) was not chosen in the Indo-Pacific Strategy and only dedicated to disaster risk reduction, salvage operation, and calamity preparation. Later in 2019, a US Defense Department’s reported that Nepal as a country newly inducted to the SPP.

The SPP epic rose in Kathmandu after the visit of Commanding General of United States Army Pacific in the second week of June this year. As soon as Gen enfolded up his Nepal visit on June 12, a six-page draft on the SPP was dripped to some sections of the media. The US embassy sharply reacted, calling it false. Nonetheless the controversy did not die down.

The International Relations Committee of Parliament called Nepalese Foreign Minister and Chief of the Army Staff General to make Nepal’s position clear on the SPP. Both foreign minister and PM expressed the House committee that Nepal has not made any appeal to the US to become a partner in the SPP and as per Nepal’s stated foreign policy, Nepal will not be part of any military pact.

Nonetheless a Nepal Army dispatch dated October 27, 2015 to then US ambassador, which was leaked to the media, presented Nepal had wished for contribution in the SPP. Under pressure now the incumbent prime minster government in a sensitive attitude decided not to be part of the SPP.

The US embassy maintains that participating in the SPP is any country’s sovereign decision and a country can simply write to the US government if it wishes to terminate the partnership. The Foreign Ministry, however, is yet to write to the US even more than a month since the government decision on the SPP.

On Wednesday, the International Relations Committee of the Parliament decided to ask the government why it did not write a letter to the US government regarding its decision on the SPP despite repeated calls from party leaders.

The chair of the House committee said that why has the letter not been sent to the US despite the government's decision that Nepal will not be part of the SPP. We have not received any documents related to the SPP. Now, amid highly charged debates over the SPP the trip of US assistant state secretary to Nepal has irritated curiosity in Kathmandu. Nepali ambassador to the United States, however, says the trip is the continuation of high-level exchanges from both sides and US officials are trying to assure the prominence of Nepal in South Asia.

Conversely, it is widely believed that the ongoing controversy over the SPP in Nepal is being seen from a geopolitical angle’ as the issue has been blown out of proportion in Nepal. The US assistant state secretary made headlines in Nepal in February after he held separate telephone talks with Prime Minister, CPN (Maoist Centre) chair and CPN-UML chair with regard to the MCC compact.

According to officials and politicians familiar with the conversations, the message from Washington was it would be forced to review its Nepal policy should the MCC compact fail parliamentary ratification. Nepal ratified the compact on February 27 after attaching an interpretative declaration. It was described that some sections in Nepal are trying to make the SPP an agenda for upcoming elections, which is natural.

Ever since the passage of the MCC compact, there has been a flurry of visits from the US, but there has been a lack of correspondence from the Nepali side. The controversy over the SPP arose weeks before Prime Minister proposed visit to the US.

The PM was originally supposed to travel to Washington in mid-July in the first official visit by a sitting prime minister in two decades. However, the visit became uncertain after the SPP ruckus. Earlier this month, the Foreign Ministry said the prime minister’s visit “is expected” but last week it said the visit is yet to be confirmed.

On Friday, a former foreign minister and chair of the Janata Samajbadi Party, an alliance partner of the incumbent government, said that the coalition partners advised the prime minister visit to the US should be on hold in view of various reasons including internal situation of the country.

It is not that the prime minister’s visit will not take place or that he will not go, but we have put this visit on hold for now because of internal reasons. The US assistant state secretary is arriving in Nepal weeks after Nepal Army Chief Sharma visited the US where he held talks with top American military officials.

US assistant state secretary visit, especially after the MCC compact’s passage is being considered vital, as the US’ renewed interest in Nepal given its geopolitical location, with a view to expanding its partnership with a country with which it shares more than 7 decades of diplomatic ties.

China, Nepal’s northern neighbor, didn’t hide its displeasure when the US was pressing for the MCC compact’s passage, and in the aftermath, at least two high-level visits have taken place from Beijing one in March by Chinese Foreign Minister and another head of the International Liaison Department of the Chinese Communist Party, formerly this month.

US officials are looking for more and direct engagements with Nepal following the ratification of the MCC. The interfering has started after the MCC compact’s ratification in Nepal, the Americans seem to be feeling uncomfortable. The visit may focus on this issue as well and the US top official aims to assuage concerns surrounding it.

WASHINGTON, 31 July 2022, (TON): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “he has held a telephone conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.”

He pressed the Kremlin to accept the ‘substantial proposal’ that Washington has put forward to secure the release of two Americans detained in Russia.

In their first such conversation since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the two top diplomats looked to stick to their existing positions, according to the readout of the call from Blinken and the Russian foreign ministry.

He said “we had a frank and direct conversation.”

Blinken told a news conference at the State Department “I pressed the Kremlin to accept the substantial proposal that we put forth on the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner.”

BEIJING, 31 July 2022, (TON): China said “it was conducting military exercises Saturday off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the US House of Representatives to scrap possible plans to visit the island democracy, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.”

The official Xinhua News Agency said “the ruling Communist Party’s military wing, the People’s Liberation Army, was conducting “live-fire exercises” near the Pingtan islands off Fujian province from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.”

The Maritime Safety Administration warned ships to avoid the area.

Such exercises usually involve artillery. The one-sentence announcement gave no indication whether Saturday’s exercise also might include missiles, fighter planes or other weapons.

RIYADH, 31 July 2022, (TON): Saudi Press Agency reported “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Director-General Audrey Azoulay met in Paris.”

The pair discussed the Kingdom’s cultural initiatives and ways to enhance bilateral cooperation.

Saudi Culture Minister Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan and Princess Haifa bint Abdulaziz Al-Mogrin, the Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UNESCO, attended the meeting.

Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Paris and was welcomed by French President Emmanuel Macron.

TEHRAN, 31 July 2022, (TON): Iran’s intelligence ministry said on Saturday that it had arrested a Swedish citizen on espionage charges, without naming the detained person.

State News Agency quoted “the intelligence ministry announced that a citizen of the Kingdom of Sweden was arrested on espionage charges.”

Sweden’s Foreign Ministry said it was aware of the case.

A spokeswoman said “this is a known and ongoing case which the Foreign Ministry has been working on for a while.”

It was not immediately clear if the individual arrested is the Swedish man that the foreign ministry said in May had been detained in Iran. Iran did not report that arrest.

BEIRUT, 31 July 2022, (TON): Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri said “he would not call for a session to elect a new president until the legislature passes reforms that are preconditions for an International Monetary Fund bailout.”

An IMF deal is seen as the only way for Lebanon to recover from a financial meltdown that has plunged the country into its most destabilising crisis since the 1975-90 civil war.

President Michel Aoun’s six-year term ends on Oct. 31, and top politicians have voiced concern about no successor being found warning of even greater institutional deadlock given that Lebanon has also been without a fully functioning government since May.

Berri said during a meeting with journalists “I will not call for a presidential election session until after the reform laws required by the IMF have been adopted.”

ODESA, 31 July 2022, (TON): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited a Black Sea port as crews prepared terminals to export grain trapped by Russia’s five-month-old war.

Work has been inching forward a week after a deal was struck to allow critical food supplies to flow to millions of impoverished people facing hunger worldwide.

Zelensky said at a port in the Odesa region “the first vessel, the first ship is being loaded since the beginning of the war.”

He said “however, that the departure of wheat and other grain will begin with several ships that were already loaded but could not leave Ukrainian ports after Russia invaded in late February.”

Ukraine is a key global exporter of wheat, barley, corn and sunflower oil, and the loss of those supplies has raised global food prices, threatened political insecurity and helped push more people into poverty and hunger in already vulnerable countries.

RIYADH, 31 July 2022, (TON): Saudi Press Agency reported “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman sent a cable of gratitude to French president Emmanuel Macron, following his official visit to Paris.”

He said “as I leave your friendly country, it gives me great pleasure to express to Your Excellency my deepest gratitude and appreciation for the warm reception and hospitality accorded to me and the accompanying delegation.”

The discussions that we had with your Excellency confirmed our common desire to strengthen the strategic partnership between our two friendly countries in all fields, and to work on continuing the coordination and consultation on issues of common interest.

Prince Mohammed said that bilateral discussions have stressed the mutual desire to enhance strategic partnership between the two countries.

WASHINGTON, 31 July 2022, (TON): Washington announced “a new round of sanctions on Russians involved in propaganda and disinformation campaigns seeking to disrupt US elections.”

In a statement, the Treasury Department said “the individuals and organizations raised funds and spread misinformation to disrupt the American electoral process, and were leveraged by Russian intelligence to create or heighten divisions within the country.”

One of those named, who also faces criminal charges, is connected to an organization already targeted by sanctions for efforts to influence the 2016 president election that brought Donald Trump to the White House.

Brian E. Nelson, Treasury’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence said “the Kremlin has repeatedly sought to threaten and undermine our democratic processes and institutions.”

“The United States will continue our extensive work to counter these efforts and safeguard our democracy from Russia’s interference.”