ISLAMABAD, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab arrived in Pakistan for a two-day visit during which he will discuss the situation in Afghanistan and bilateral relations with senior officials.

Raab was welcomed by foreign ministry and British High Commission officials after he landed at Nur Khan Airbase.

In a statement “the Foreign Office said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would hold official talks with the visiting British dignitary, who is also scheduled to meet other leaders. The statement did not mention the leaders Raab would meet.”

Pakistan and the United Kingdom have been closely engaged on the latest developments in Afghanistan, the FO said, noting that the leaders of the two countries had discussed the situation in the war-torn country several times in the last month.

Last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan had received a telephone call from his British counterpart Boris Johnson in which they exchanged views on Afghanistan. Johnson had agreed to remain in touch with Imran.

Raab's tour is the latest visit by a foreign official to Pakistan, following the Taliban's lightning-fast takeover of Kabul.

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MINSK, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): The head of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry Vladimir Makei said that against the background of US sanctions , Belarus does not see any reason to send its ambassador to this country, although the appropriate candidacy has been determined.

“Relations with the United States, like with any other state, are always relevant for us. We were once engaged in the selection of a candidate for the ambassador to the United States of America.

Makei told reporters “moreover, I want to say that we have this candidacy. But in the current conditions, of course , it makes no sense to send our ambassador to the United States in connection with the sanctions actions that were taken by this country in relation to Belarus.”

WASHINGTON, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): The United States is providing more than $45 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the people of Ukraine, bringing our total humanitarian assistance since FY 2014 to more than $351 million.

This assistance from the United States enables our international humanitarian partners to further support many of the estimated 3.4 million people in need in Ukraine, including those displaced by the Russia-led conflict in eastern Ukraine. 

This assistance will help provide lifesaving food, shelter, home heating materials, essential health care, including mental health and psychosocial support, and safe drinking water. 

Our funding will also help our partners maintain contact between family members who have been separated due to the conflict, including reunification in some cases.

WARSAW, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): , Spokesman Blazej Spychalski said that the President of Poland Andrzej Duda approved the government’s decision to impose a state of emergency at the border with Belarus.

He said “the president has just made a decision to order the imposition of the state of emergency.”

The state of emergency will be introduced at a section of the Polish-Belarusian border at a distance of three kilometers from it. It will cover 115 settlements in the Podlaskie Voivodeship (province) and 68 – in the Lublin Voivodeship in east Poland. In particular, it would involve a ban on all mass events and festivals, plus an increase in police patrols and document checks.

The decree enters into effect immediately after its official publication and will stay in effect for 30 days.

The imposition of the state of emergency must also be reviewed by the Sejm (the lower chamber of the parliament). The meeting on this issue is expected to take place on Monday.

According to the Polish Ministry of the Interior “over 3,000 attempts to illegally cross the border from the territory of Belarus have been registered since early August, compared to only 120 in 2020.”

The Polish Ministry of Defense announced the construction of a 2.5 meter-high barbed wire fence at the border.

The Army has dispatched 2,000 soldiers to assist in border control. The fence is planned to cover about 180-190 kilometers. The total length of the Polish-Belarusian border is 418 kilometers.

KATHMANDU, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): The government has formed a committee to study the border issues with China in the northern part of the country.

A cabinet meeting held at Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's official residence in Baluwatar on Wednesday decided to form the committee.

Government spokesperson Gyanendra Bahadur Karki said that the committee would study the problems related to the Nepal-China border from Limi Lapcha to Hilsa in Namkha village of Humla district. China had allegedly encroached on Nepali land and built nine buildings in Humla.

The new committee will have officials from the Survey Department, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and Border Experts.

COLOMBO, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): A Sri Lankan delegation, led by Defence Secretary Gen. (Rtd.) Kamal Gunaratne, visited Moscow last week to attend the International military-technical Forum “Army-2021” and International Army Games-2021. Three Sri Lankan teams took part in the event.

The Sri Lankan embassy in Moscow said that the Forum Army-2021 is a platform for displaying the state-of-the-art Russian weapons and technologies, and gathers all major designers and manufacturers of the Defence industry of Russia and other countries, including Belarus, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, and India.

The Forum and the Games were inaugurated by the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin on 23 August 2021.

Defence Secretary, Gunaratne and his team studied the Russian military equipment and armaments, attended several presentations and several meetings with representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defence, Russian manufacturers, including the world-famed Kalashnikov.

TEL AVIV, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): Diplomat Eitan Na’eh is nominated to be Israel’s first ambassador to Bahrain.

Na’eh was the Jewish state’s first diplomat to take up office in the United Arab Emirates following its normalization deal with Israel, serving as chargé d’affairs of the Israeli Embassy in Abu Dhabi.

Na’eh served as envoy to Turkey from 2016 to 2018, until he was expelled by Ankara in protest of the deaths of dozens of Palesti-nians.

LONDON, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): Great Britain is negotiating with representatives of the Taliban movement on ens-uring the unhindered exit of all comers from Afgha-nistan, but is not going to recognize the Taliban as the new power in the country in the near future. This was announced on Thursday by the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

“We cooperate with the Taliban, but we are not going to recognize them in the foreseeable future. We will judge them by their actions, not their words. The first test for them was the evacuation.

Now we are discussing the issues of ensuring a safe exit from Afghanistan [for those who did not have time to leave country by August 31], “Raab said, speaking at a joint press conference with Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammad bin Abdel Rahman Al Thani during his visit to Doha.

The head of the British Foreign Office stressed that London hopes for the Taliban to comply with their obligations, in particular to fight terrorism and create an inclusive government. At the same time, Raab added that the United Kingdom is ready to cooperate with the Taliban to avoid a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. In this regard, he called for the formation of a contact group on Afghanistan with the participation of major world powers and regional countries.

He said “I think that first of all we need to create an association that can have a pacifying effect on the Taliban.”

NAYPYITAW, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): The German food wholesale company Metro has said that it will shutter its operations in Myanmar by the end of October, making it the latest multinational firm to flee the country since February’s coup.

The company said in an announcement “the economic framework and prospects for Metro’s professional customers have been hampered by the Covid-19 restrictions and have further deteriorated since early 2021.”

“This means that the conditions for a growing and profitable food wholesale business in the country are severely compromised.”

The exit means 131 employees will lose their jobs.  Metro said “it would assist these staff members in a responsible manner.”

Metro launched in Myanmar in 2019 and serves 7,500 business customers, from hotels and restaurants to catering services and shops. It operates a 5,900 square meter warehouse in the Thilawa industrial zone near Yangon.

The company’s Myanmar subsidiary, a joint venture with Yoma Strategic Holdings, received a $20m loan from the International Finance Corporation in 2019 to help it source produce from local farmers.

MALE, 03 Septermber 2021, (TON): The Maldivian couple and their four children who were incarcerated in a prison in Afghanistan after getting convicted on terror charges have been freed, reports the family.

A family member told media that they were freed after a Taliban court overturned their sentences.

The family member said “we have submitted a letter to the government in an effort to bring them back to Maldives.”

The family said “they are facing difficulties in bringing them back to Maldives due to the volatile situation in Afghanistan.”

Ali Shafiu, 32, H. Moonlight Valley, K. Male’ and his wife Shahudha Hameed, 33, Maalilyge, GDh. Gadhdhoo, travelled with their four children to Afghanistan in 2018. They took a flight to Sri Lanka on June 23, 2018. They left Sri Lanka for Pakistan, and made their way across the border to Afghanistan in October 2018.

Maldivian police were informed by the Interpol that the family was arrested from Afghan's Nangarhar province on November 11, 2018. A team of Maldivian police officers travelled to Afghanistan to visit the family in collaboration with Afghan authorities in February 2019.