GENEVA, 23 May 2022, (TON): The Ukraine war looms large as the World Health Organization opens its main annual assembly, threatening to overshadow efforts on other health crises and a reform push aimed at preventing future pandemics.

The UN health agency will kick off its 75th World Health Assembly Sunday afternoon, convening its 194 member states for their first largely in-person gathering since Covid-19 surfaced in late 2019.

The agenda will remain focused on the continuing coronavirus crisis and efforts to avert future pandemics.

But the war raging in Ukraine and rebukes of Russia for its invasion are expected to take centre stage.

Kyiv and its allies will present a resolution during the assembly harshly condemning Russia’s invasion, and especially its more than 200 attacks on healthcare, including hospitals and ambulances, in Ukraine.

It is also to voice alarm at the health emergency in Ukraine, and highlight the dire impacts beyond its borders, including how disrupted grain exports are deepening a global food security crisis.

A European diplomat said “the Ukraine war is having a systemic impact on international organisations.”

SHANGHAI, 23 May 2022, (TON): Shanghai partially restarted public transport and set out new classifications for pandemic risk areas, signaling a gradual reopening after nearly two months sealed off from the outside world.

China’s largest city has been almost entirely locked down since April, when it became the epicenter of the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.

Unlike other major economies, Beijing has dug in its heels on a strict zero pandemic approach that relies on stamping out clusters as they emerge, though this has become increasingly difficult with the infectious omicron variant.

But as new infections have slowed, Shanghai has cautiously eased restrictions, with some factories resuming operations and residents in lower-risk areas allowed to venture outdoors.

SYDNEY, 23 May 2022, (TON): Australia’s Labour Party leader Anthony Albanese was sworn in as the country’s 31st prime minister, promising a journey of change as he vowed to tackle climate change, rising living costs and inequality.

Labor returns to power after nine years in opposition as a wave of unprecedented support for the Greens and climate-focussed independents, mostly women, helped end nearly a decade of rule by the conservative coalition in Saturday’s general election.

While votes are still being counted and the makeup of government has yet to be finalized, Albanese was sworn in so he could attend a key meeting of the “Quad” security grouping in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Albanese, raised in public housing by a single mother on a disability pension, was sworn in by Governor-General David Hurley at a ceremony in the national capital, Canberra.

Albanese told “it’s a big day in my life but a big day for the country, when we change the government.”

“I want to channel the opportunity that we have to shape change so that we bring people with us on the journey of change. I want to bring the country together.”

RIYADH, 23 May 2022, (TON): Saudi nationals are to be trained to work in the military and defense industries sector following an announcement from the General Authority for Military Industries to establish a new academy.

GAMI Gov. Ahmed Al-Ohali said “it was an extension of the military industry sector’s strategy that was approved by the Cabinet in April last year.”

He added “the National Academy of Military Industries would be the largest supporter of the sector’s strategy of backing the country’s human resources.”

The launch ceremony was held at the academy’s headquarters in Riyadh and attended by more than 35 local and international companies and government institutions.

The academy's board of directors was formed at the event and the establishment license was handed over to the academy's chairman Walid Abu Khalid and other founding partners.

Al-Ohali said “the authority was committed to supporting national personnel and that the Kingdom's military industries sector had witnessed qualitative leaps during the past five years.”

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 unstable, 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.

By TON Bangladesh

Bangladesh has always been a friendly nation within the Indian Sub-continent. Since the influx of the Rohingyas, the Bangladeshi Government, along with UNICEF, WHO, and UNHCR, have been working hand in hand to ensure basic needs and human rights for these people. Here below, we have described how Bangladesh has been a peaceful home for the Rohingyas:

Bangladeshi is supporting education of the Rohingya children. In this following are the salients:-

• Nearly half a million Rohingya children in refugee camps in Bangladesh have been lobbying for their right to an excellent education.

• “The Bangladeshi Government has made an essential and good commitment by allowing students to go to school and pursue their ambitions for the future. A South Asia Campaigner at Amnesty International, Saad Hammadi, said, “They have already lost two academic years and cannot afford to lose any more time outside of the classroom.”
• As a result of their tremendous impact on their communities and the wider community, the benefits of educating children cannot be overstated. These people can speak up for themselves, assert their rights, and help themselves and others to get out of a sticky situation by speaking up for themselves. A child’s vulnerability to poverty and exploitation might be exacerbated if they are denied education. In light of these developments, we encourage the administration to follow through on its promises.
• Amnesty International sponsored an art camp at Cox’s Bazar refugee camps for children on World Refugee Day this past year. In collaboration with Bangladeshi artists, kids spent two days sketching out their future dreams, including teachers, doctors, pilots, and nurses.
• “Informal education program” (LCFA/GIEP) is taught in “learning centers” rather than in schools, by “facilitators” rather than teachers. UNICEF submitted the first two levels of the informal education program to the Government for approval in March 2020, and the second two levels in July 2021.
• Education in the camps is being provided by humanitarian organizations, which began slowly rolling out the first level in January of this year. The Government approved the first two levels in May 2019. Senior humanitarian official: “The education ministry has done a terrific job, but political obstructions are preventing us from making progress.”
• As a result of the informal education program, learning-center instructors now have lesson plans, and students now have textbooks. There will be a total of five levels to the informal program when it’s completed, which will be equivalent to nine years of school.

Bangladesh is ensuring that Rohingya have access to primary health care:

• Doctors Worldwide have been responding to the Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh since November 2020, in conjunction with the UN-IOM.
• COVID-19 has been circulating for a year now, and it’s more crucial than ever to assist frontline healthcare professionals. In refugee camps, healthcare personnel needs specialized training and mentorship, especially in Bangladesh, where emergency treatment is still underdeveloped.
• Doctors Worldwide will provide three significant events/programs in Cox’s Bazar between March and December 2021 as a result of this and months of planning to facilitate additional training opportunities for medical staff and promote their professional development. The Bangladeshi doctors and health care workers have been helping the ailing mothers, children, and people in the refugee camps as much as possible with the help of UNHCR.
• 11 Rohingya refugees were killed, and 10,100 households were left without shelter when three refugee camps in Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar, caught fire on March 22, 2021. Refugees’ shelters and personal items were soon consumed, as were critical institutions like hospitals, primary health care facilities, learning centers, and women-friendly areas.
• To help those who lost their homes and possessions, charity organizations and the Bangladeshi Government teamed up immediately after the fire broke out.
• Over 800,000 cooked meals were provided to affected households by March 31, 300 emergency latrines had been erected, and emergency shelter kits were distributed to all families that had been impacted by the fire. Over 300 people were dispatched to the camps to give mental health and psychosocial treatment to the Rohingya refugees and frontline workers who had been traumatized by the violence.
• COVID-19 vaccines were given to nearly 4,000 Rohingya refugees yesterday as part of a countrywide vaccination push to stop the deadly virus’s spread. 48,000 Rohingya refugees over the age of 55 are eligible for immunization in the first cohort. There is a deadline of August 17 for the push to conclude.
• Bangladeshi authorities have begun vaccinating Rohingya refugees, which UNHCR applauds. A fair distribution of immunizations to Rohingya refugees is crucial to halting the spread of the continuing pandemic.

• According to COVID-19 in the camps, the Rohingya refugee and host community volunteers play a vital role, according to UNHCR’s Bangladesh Representative Johannes Van Der Klau. But the first step in fully protecting a community is immunization. Thank you, Bangladeshi Government, for include Rohingya refugees in this immunization campaign.”

In the fight against the pandemic, thousands of refugee and host community volunteers have been working since 2020 to educate refugees about health and cleanliness, monitor any signs of disease, and connect the refugee population with essential health services. They have helped prevent and contain epidemics of COVID-19 and saved lives.

The Bangladeshi Government has been working relentlessly to establish peace among the refugees across several refugee camps spreading in the Chittagong area. They are friendly to these neighbors and seek help from world organizations to help them ensure this peace and rights for the refugees together.

In a nut shell, Bangladesh is helping Rohingya refugees in every field and its is now the second home for them.

DHAKA, 23 May 2022, (TON): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina extended her heartiest congratulations to Australian Labor Party leader Anthony Norman Albanese on his party's triumph in the federal elections.

She said "I, on behalf of the Government and the people of Bangladesh, and on my own behalf extended heartiest congratulations to Leader of the A”ustralian Labor Party Anthony Norman Albanese, on his Party's victory in the Federal elections."

An official release of Prime Minister's Office Press Wing , said “the prime minister expressed her deep trust mentioning that the victory manifested the Australian people's confidence in the party under Anthony Norman Albanese's stewardship to lead the country towards inclusiveness, peace, and prosperity.”

Sheikh Hasina reiterated "our relations have deepened, and the ties have become more robust with time through increasing cooperation in diverse areas of trade, economy, culture, and education.”

She said “we have immense potential for cooperation in clean energy, maritime security, ocean governance, and blue economy."

KABUL, 23 May 2022, (TON): Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has met the new leader of the United Arab Emirates.

A statement from the deputy premier’s office said “Baradar was visiting the UAE to attend Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s funeral.”

He met Mohammad bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to express his condolences on the demise of Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

In talks with other officials of the UAE, Mullah Baradar discussed ways of strengthening bilateral trade relations.

NEW DELHI, 23 May 2022, (TON): The fourth edition of bilateral Coordinated Patrol exercises between Bangladesh and Indian Navy began in the Northern Bay of Bengal.

During the exercise, units of the Bangladesh Navy and Indian Navy will undertake joint patrolling along the International Maritime Boundary Line, the Indian Defence Ministry said in a statement, reports Hindustan Times.

The naval exercises will take place till Monday.

DHAKA, 23 May 2022, (TON): Experts told “Bangladesh will have to remain incessantly engaged bilaterally, regionally and globally to resolve the complex and protracted Rohingya crisis despite the lack of progress over the past few years.”

Failure to resolve the crisis quickly will have consequences of multiple dimensions, including radicalism.

They said “this will affect not only Bangladesh, but also the region and will have global implications.”

The speakers also said that Dhaka should revisit its foreign and defence policies backed by credible military deterrence in dealing with the Myanmar regime.

They also placed great emphasis on convincing the world actors, especially the United States, to get more involved in finding a peaceful solution to the crisis through the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas.