DHAKA, 20 June 2022, (TON): India offered Bangladesh to extend support for flood management and conducting relief efforts in mitigating the sufferings of the affected people.

Indian External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said "I would like to take the opportunity to convey that if in any concrete way, we can assist you in management of flood and relief activities.”

Making opening remarks at the Bangladesh-India Joint Consultative Commission meeting, he said India would be very glad to be supportive as it would be in keeping with the relationship between the two countries.

“Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. A.K. Abdul Momen co-chaired the 7th round of JCC meeting held at city's Hyderabad House” according to the sources various bilateral issues ranging from security, trade, business and investment and cooperation in various sectors were discussed prominently.

Jaishankar said "we would also like to convey our support and solidarity at the unprecedented flooding that we have had in Northern Bangladesh."

DHAKA, 20 June 2022, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inspect the overall flood situations of Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrakona districts.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told "the Prime Minister will inspect flood situations of Sylhet on Tuesday.”

She will also inspect overall flood situations of Sunamganj and Netrakona districts.

State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Dr Md Enamur Rahman and Secretary Md Kamrul Hasan are scheduled to visit Sylhet.

Flood situation continued worsening in northeastern and northern region of the country as water levels of all major rivers are gradually rising.

A Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre spokesman Md Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan said "water now continued to flow much above the danger lines in two of the country's four major river basins the situation is worst since the 2004 flooding.”

By TON Nepal Desk

The Nepal government’s budget program for the current fiscal year wishes to decrease food imports by increasing the production of rice, maize, vegetables, and fruits by about 30 percent. The program also emphasizes improving the state of agriculture through mechanization and promoting a climate-adapted agriculture system.

The current finance minister, said the agrarian authorities to make a strategy to deliver better-quality seeds to agriculturalists this year which would help upsurge indigenous production manifold. These are sound ideas since the goal of the agriculture program must improve food production and reduce imports.

An important task Nepal face is the scarcity of fertilizer. While Nepal requires about 1.2 million tons of fertilizer annually, the government is not able to bring even half of that. Fertilizer scarcity has been a tenacious difficulty, and perhaps the most discussed subject within agriculture management.

Agriculture science clearly states that for all crops, there are specific fertilizer usage windows for prime results. Under the given environments, farmers are hardly able to use these windows. Food production cannot flourish without adequate, timely fertilizer application.

Labor deficiency is another challenge in Nepal. As managing labor is a hard job for farmer families, which has discouraged many from continuing farming since hiring labor is costly; reasonably, farmers choose out of agriculture to follow other work, making it easy for them to buy food from the import-based market instead of producing their own.

Therefore, the majority of the Nepal population is engaged in farming" needs change to establish the actual number of full-time farmers. While the mechanization of agriculture can help solve this problem to an extent.

Nepalese agriculture is faced with another mushrooming problem, the climate crisis. It’s already begun to impact agriculture in several ways from augmented deficiencies and recurrent overflows to insect/pests and sicknesses. These impacts are growing in number, and they’re beginning to increase with overwhelming effects on food production. Without addressing them, achieving sustained higher food production is not possible in Nepal.

The fossil fuel industry remains hell-bent on prioritizing its profit margins, sending the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere soaring with no real fear of consequences as the addiction to fossil fuel is killing the Nepalese environment.

What’s important for Nepal to understand is that climate impacts caused by rising temperatures affected Nepal as one of the most vulnerable countries. The richness of Nepal’s biodiversity is its natural highest miscellaneous and multifaceted climatic conditions, creating varied climate impacts of different scales.

Though, the new policy has especially emphasized becoming carbon neutral to address climate change, it won’t be effective enough to reduce rising temperatures. In contrast, the impacts will affect the Nepalese more and more. The knowledge regarding climate impacts generated within the country so far has been broad and operational, aimed to raise awareness about the issue; however, it remains pretty inadequate to pinpoint any improvements needed at the local level, which is as diverse as our landscape.

The recently conducted local elections presented an opportunity to reflect on how candidates viewed the climate impacts affecting their constituencies. Their manifestos focused chiefly on traditional sectors such as health, water supply, sewage management, education, and infrastructure.

Climate impacts were noticeably absent from their campaign pledges. The candidates knew that the food travels hundreds of kilometers before reaching the customers. Imported foods have penetrated even rural areas, yet only a few candidates considered domestic food production an issue.

Unhappily, most of the policy-makers of Nepal has gravely misunderstood the climate crisis. Environment issues are always local and can be managed comparatively quickly. However, climate impacts are primarily regional and often encircling. A deeper understanding and greater, sustained efforts are required to solve them.

At the moment, Nepal cannot afford to import expensive food. However, Nepal will have no choice if it persistently fail to recognize agriculture’s climate crisis. The new policy of Producing Indigenous Food in Nepal if implemented can raise the indigenous food. Therefore, the challenges in sustaining and improving, agriculture needs more efforts than just only enhanced seeds and mechanization.

WASHINGTON, 19 June 2022, (TON): US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya has said “Washington is looking forward to a close partnership with Pakistan on human rights and support for Afghan relocation efforts and refugees.”

At a State Department news briefing, spokesperson Ned Price expanded the horizon of this partnership, adding “Washington was looking to advance that partnership in a manner that serves our interest and our mutual interests as well.”

Ms Zeya, who looks after civilian security, democracy, and human rights at the State Department, expressed these views at a meeting with Pakistan’s Ambassador Masood Khan.

She said in a tweet “she had constructive conversation with Ambassador Khan to discuss human rights and Pakistan’s critical support for Afghan relocation efforts and refugees.”

BRUSSELS, 19 June 2022, (TON): EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said “Russia is putting the world at risk of famine through its blockade of Ukraine’s shipments of grains and restrictions on its own exports.”

The threat to food security and a battle of narrative with Russia on Western-imposed sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine will dominate European Union foreign ministers’ talks in Luxembourg.

Borrell said “we are ready to work with the UN and our partners to prevent any unwanted impact on global food security.”

Borrell said “Russia’s conscious political choice is to ‘weaponize’ grain exports and use them as a tool for blackmail against anyone that opposes its aggression in Ukraine.”

He added “Russia turned the Black Sea into a war zone, blocking shipments of grain and fertilizer from Ukraine but also affecting Russian merchant shipping. Russia is also applying quotas and taxes on its grain exports.”

CAIRO, 19 June 2022, (TON): Egyptian Minister of Trade and Industry Nevin Gamea said “Egyptian-Russian economic relations are witnessing a tangible development in terms of trade exchange and joint projects, especially the project to establish the Russian industrial zone in Egypt, as well as the existing cooperation in the energy and transportation sectors.”

The talks were held with Denis Manturov, the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, on the sidelines of Gamea’s participation in the St. Petersburg International Forum.

Gamea said “the meeting discussed the importance of developing the trade exchange movement between the two countries during the current period, especially since the Russian market represents one of the most important global markets receiving Egyptian exports at rates exceeding $500 million annually.”

She said “the meeting touched on the latest developments in the establishment of the Russian industrial zone in Egypt, which will contribute to achieving a major shift in the levels of commercial and industrial cooperation between the two countries through the settlement of a number of Russian industries in Egypt and the access of their products to a large number of international markets.”

SANAA, 19 June 2022, (TON): Yemen’s Defense Ministry said “four Yemeni army soldiers were killed and 17 more wounded in the latest wave of Houthi attacks in three days.”

He added “a further blow to the UN-brokered truce.”

The ministry said that the Houthis violated the truce 288 times, Wednesday and Thursday in former flaring battlefields across the country.

It added “Yemeni forces pushed back many attempts by the Houthis to seize control of new areas and came under drone and missile attacks by the Houthis in the provinces of Hodeidah, Taiz, Marib, Hajjah, Jouf and Dhale.”

Most of the Houthi attacks 80 violations occurred in the contested Hays district in Hodeidah province followed by 65 violations in Taiz where the Houthis attacked government troops with explosives-rigged drones and medium and heavy machine guns, killing four soldiers and wounding 17.

KYIV, 19 June 2022, (TON): Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the war-damaged southern city of Mykolaiv for the first time since the Russian invasion in a rare trip outside Kyiv.

Zelensky’s office published a video of him looking at a badly damaged high-rise residential building in the city and holding a meeting with local officials.

His visit comes a day after a Russian strike killed two people and injured 20 in the city.

Mykolaiv has been targeted by Russian forces since the start of their invasion on February 24.

In the video Zelensky was shown damage to a residential building by local governor Vitaliy Kim.

The tall building had a gaping hole, with the inside of apartments visible.

CAIRO, 19 June 2022, (TON): Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has praised Egypt-Russia relations during a speech at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

He said “Russia is an important partner for Egypt in various fields, and relations between the two countries are distinguished.”

El-Sisi added “Egypt and Russia are implementing large and ambitious projects that serve the interests of both countries,” noting “the El Dabaa nuclear plant project is one of the important projects for cooperation with Russia.”

The Egyptian president said “this comes in the context of the Egyptian state’s strategy to expand national projects to use new and renewable energy sources, as well as the project to establish the Russian industrial zone in the Suez Canal Economic Zone, to be an important platform for the advancement of industry in Africa.”

LONDON, 19 June 2022, (TON): Egyptian Presidency said in a statement “Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa on Saturday in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh.”

The statement added “the pair discussed bilateral ties and regional and international developments.”

During the meeting, which also discussed joint cooperation particularly in the fields of investment and economy, El-Sisi expressed Egypt’s keenness to strengthen cooperation and coordination to help the region confront current challenges.

King Hamad praised Egypt's role in ensuring security and stability in the region and highlighted the historic ties his country has with Egypt, while noting the improvement of ties between Manama and Cairo in various economic, political and developmental fields

Added “Bahrain is keen on strengthening these relations.”