BRUSSELS, 06 April 2022, (TON): NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels this week (6-7 April 2022) will address President Putin’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Allies are stepping up their support for Ukraine’s right to defend itself, including with anti-tank weapons, air-defence systems and other equipment, as well as increased humanitarian assistance and financial aid.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said “Moscow is not giving up its ambitions in Ukraine. We now see a significant movement of troops away from Kyiv, to regroup, rearm and resupply, and they shift their focus to the east۔"

Targeting and murdering civilians is a war crime. All the facts must be established and all those responsible for these atrocities must be brought to justice.”

NATO Foreign Ministers will be joined by their counterparts from Ukraine, Finland, Sweden, Georgia, and the European Union, and by NATO’s Asia-Pacific partners  Australia, Japan, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea.

WASHINGTON, 06 April 2022, (TON): America and its NATO allies will hold a foreign ministers’ meeting this week in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine, Julianne Smith, the US permanent representative to the alliance.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will attend the meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, with the discussions focusing on providing more military and economic aid to Ukraine.

Smith said، “وe will use this moment to bring ministers together to think about what more the alliance individually, collectively can be doing to support the people of Ukraine.”

The meeting will also work on the agenda of the Madrid Summit, which is scheduled to take place in late June.

The summit will draft NATO’s Strategic Concept, a key document updated every decade that reaffirms the alliance’s objectives and provides a collective assessment of the current security environment and future threats.

BERLIN, 06 April 2022, (TON): In 2022, the German authorities approved the supply of arms and military goods to Ukraine in the amount of more than €186 million.

This is stated in the report on the export of military products for the first quarter, which was distributed by the press service of the Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection of Germany.

“According to preliminary data, in the first quarter of 2022 issued individual licenses for the export of weapons in the amount of €2.88 billion (respectively, €2.17 billion for military weapons and €713 million for other weapons.”

For the same period the previous year, 2021, this figure amounted to €981 million۔

This increase in the number of licenses issued is largely attributable to a large-scale procurement project in the Netherlands that spans several years.

In addition, the report indicates that support provided directly to Kiev in connection with Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine is reflected in quarterly figures، “permits worth about €186 million were issued for Ukraine’s self-defense.”

MOSCOW, 06 April 2022, (TON): Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that the government closely monitor the situation with fertilizers, as the needs of domestic farmers should remain a priority.

The head of state said “the system task is a reliable supply of our agricultural producers with fertilizers. Here, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the entire government should watch this situation very carefully.”

He said “the needs of our farmers should be a priority, in the first place.”

The President of Russia also stressed that now fertilizers are in short supply, so they will be taken abroad anyway.

The head of state said “we have no desire to harm anyone, by no means. We just need to carefully deal with everything: both with logistics and with insurers. This is in short supply today, the deficit will be taken. They will. No one wants to die of hunger.”

Putin stressed “we need to take a close look at all these problems and solve them, primarily based on our own interests.”

BEIRUT, 06 April 2022, (TON): Pope Francis will visit Lebanon in June in a long-awaited trip that comes amid a spiraling financial and political crisis.

The pope, who has received Lebanon’s president and prime minister at the Vatican in the past few months, had promised to visit the country and repeatedly expressed concern over its economic meltdown.

President Michel Aoun’s spokesman said “the Lebanese people have been waiting for this visit for some time to express gratitude to his holiness for his support.”

Francis’s visit to Lebanon will be the third by an incumbent pope since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. Visiting in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI appealed for peace, months after the start of the civil war in Syria. Pope John Paul II visited in 1997, and drew one of the largest crowds Lebanon had ever seen.

One social media user drew a parallel between that visit and the forthcoming one.

He wrote “Just as Pope John Paul II was a hope for Lebanon, Pope Francis too will definitely be a new hope.”

The pope’s visit will follow Lebanese parliamentary elections on May 15, campaigning for which began in earnest on Tuesday after the publication of the final list of candidates.

CAIRO, 06 April 2022, (TON): The Russia-Ukraine conflict has had many negative effects on Arab countries, especially in terms of grain imports, said “Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit.”

At a press conference with the Russian and Egyptian foreign ministers in Moscow, Aboul Gheit added that many Arab countries import wheat, cereals and grains in very large quantities from Russia.

An Arab delegation comprising Aboul Gheit and the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Algeria and Sudan held talks in Moscow with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov before heading to Warsaw for talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba.

Aboul Gheit said “conflict has caused a steep rise in fuel and oil prices that has hindered development efforts and economic planning in many Arab countries.”

He added “prices are rising in many parts in the Arab region, in a way that affects the welfare of the Arab citizen, and the matter leads to more negative effects.”

“We do not look at the matter only from the perspective of the Arabs, there is a sense of the need to defend peace and stability in the world and restore international conditions to their normal form.”

NEW YORK, 06 April 2022, (TON): He said that it should be dissolved “Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded that Russia be expelled from the UN Security Council. If the body fails to do this.”

Had the council taken action to deliver effective responses to the conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen.

He added “tyranny would have ceased to exist and peace would have prevailed.”

Zelensky told council members via video link “it is time to transform the UN system.”

He called for those who committed the acts, and those who gave the orders, to stand trial at a war crimes tribunal similar to the one that took place at Nuremberg after the Second World War.

Zelensky said “referring to the power of veto that Russia wields as one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and has used to block resolutions on the conflict in Ukraine.”

Zelensky said “civilians had been shot in the back of the head, blown up by grenades in their homes and crushed by tanks while sitting in their cars in the middle of the road.”

KABUL, 06 April 2022, (TON): The United Nations Development Program in Afghanistan has expressed concern over the poor economic situation of the Afghan people, saying that millions of people in the country are facing economic challenges.

The head of the UNDP in Afghanistan said “he does not consider humanitarian aid to Afghanistan sufficient and emphasizes that without economic development, Afghanistan will not be stable.”

Abdallah Al Dardari, UNDP resident representative in Afghanistan said “humanitarian operations, although very important, are not sufficient and we need to focus on people’s livelihoods, and the reason why we need to focus on people’s livelihoods is, simply, we have millions of people today who are on the verge of economic collapse in addition to the millions of who are already suffering from the humanitarian situation and challenges..”

The head of the UNDP in Afghanistan said that the organization is working to meet the living needs of the people.

World Food Program announced the continuation of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.

KABUL, 06 April 2022, (TON): The Organization for Islamic Cooperation, Iran and US Charge d’Affairs Ian McCarry recently welcomed the Islamic Emirate’s ban on poppy cultivation across Afghanistan.

OIC Secretary-General H.E. Hissein Brahim Taha praised the Islamic Emirate’s decision to ban poppy cultivation and said “the cultivation of alternative crops, and rehabilitation programs for drug addicts, should be a part of the international community's assistance to Afghanistan.”

McCarry said “outlawing the production of narcotics in Afghanistan is a positive step but enforcement will be key.”

McCarry added “having a healthy and licit agricultural sector will help Afghanistan’s economy and ultimately the Afghan people.”

In the meantime, Iranian officials said that Iran welcomes any reduction in the cultivation of poppies and the production of narcotics in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials said the government will make efforts to provide an alternative harvest for farmers and as well as new jobs for the people.

DHAKA, 06 April 2022, (TON): Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has proposed formulating a roadmap with USAID to take mega projects maintaining labour compliances in the Bangladesh's development sectors.

He told media after holding a meeting with USAID Administrator Samantha Power in Washington DC "we are implementing roadmaps with ILO and European Union and we would like to implement such roadmap with USAID.”

During the meeting, he said USAID Administrator should resolve outstanding labour issues to become eligible for the development finance from the DFC.

The Bangladesh foreign minister informed “in last few years Bangladesh made miracle in improving labour issues by increasing workers security while world's out of 10 eco-friendly factories, seven are now in Bangladesh.”

Dr Momen thanked the USAID Administrator for agreeing to his request to assist in the project of strengthening the coastal embankments in Bangladesh as a joint feasibility study would commence soon in this regard.