#Foreign relations of Pakistan

[discoursets]

“Kasuri also gives us a rare insight into the minds of the Pakistan Army, the contribution of the Foreign Office and his warm but complex relationship with President Musharraf. Blending analysis with choice anecdote, Neither a Hawk nor a Dove gives us a comprehensive and revealing account of Pakistan’s politics and the political compulsions of those at the helm.�� 🌱

[weepingfireflies]

People & countries mentioned in the thread:

DR Congo - M23, Cobalt

Darfur, Sudan - International Criminal Court, CNN, BBC (Overview); Twitter Explanation on Sudan

Tigray - Human Rights Watch (Ethnic Cleansing Report)

the Sámi people - IWGIA, Euronews

Hawai'i - IWGIA

Syria - Amnesty International

Kashmir- Amnesty Summary (PDF), Wikipedia (Jammu and Kashmir), Human Rights Watch (2022)

Iran - Human Rights Watch, Morality Police (Mahsa/Jina Amini - Al Jazeera, Wikipedia)

Uyghurs - Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) Q&A, Wikipedia, Al Jazeera, UN Report

Tibetans - SaveTibet.org, United Nations

Yazidi people - Wikipedia, United Nations

West Papua - Free West Papua, Genocide Watch

Yemen - Human Rights Watch (Saudi border guards kill migrants), Carrd

Sri Lanka (Tamils) - Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch

Afghans in Pakistan - Al Jazeera, NPR

Ongoing Edits: more from the notes / me

Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh/Azerbaijan (Artsakh) - Global Conflict Tracker ("Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict"), Council on Foreign Relations, Human Rights Watch (Azerbaijan overview), Armenian Food Bank

Baháʼís in Iran - Bahá'í International Community, Amnesty, Wikipedia, Minority Rights Group International

Kafala System in the Middle East - Council on Foreign Relations, Migrant Rights

Rohingya - Human Rights Watch, UNHCR, Al Jazeera, UNICEF

Montagnards (Vietnam Highlands) - World Without Genocide, Montagnard Human Rights Organization (MHRO), VOA News

Ukraine - Human Rights Watch (April 2022), Support Ukraine Now (SUN), Ukraine Website, Schools & Education (HRW), Dnieper River advancement (Nov. 15, 2023 - Ap News)

Reblogs with Links / From Others

Indigenous Ppl of Canada, Cambodia, Mexico, Colombia

Libya

Armenia Reblog 1, Armenia Reblog 2

Armenia, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Indigenous Americans, Black ppl (US)

Rohingya (Myanmar)

More Hawai'i Links from @sageisnazty - Ka Lahui Hawaii, Nation of Hawai'i on Soverignty, Rejected Apology Resolution

From @rodeodeparis: Assyrian Policy Institute, Free Yezidi

From @is-this-a-cool-url: North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA)

From @dougielombax & compiled by @azhdakha: Assyrians & Yazidis

West Sahara conflict

Last Updated: Feb. 19th, 2024 (If I missed smth before this, feel free to @ me to add it)

[justnownews]

Indian FM Declares End of "Uninterrupted Dialogue" Era with Pakistan

India’s External Affairs Minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, declared on Friday that the era of “uninterrupted dialogue” with Pakistan has ended, signaling a firm stance in New Delhi’s approach to its western neighbor. Speaking at a private event, Jaishankar emphasized that India will respond to developments “whether positive or negative,” underscoring the country’s proactive posture.“So far as…

[kesarijournal]

Unraveling India’s BRICS and BRI Conundrum

In a world where geopolitics often resembles a complex game of 3D chess, India finds itself pondering its next move on a board set by two ambitious projects – the expansion of BRICS and China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Imagine a chessboard, not with mere black and white squares, but a vibrant mosaic of global interests, strategic rivalries, and the occasional pawn aspiring to be a queen.…

[iamadarshbadri]

The Cost of Peace in India-Pakistan Relations

Since their independence in 1947, India-Pakistan relations have sustained mutual animosity towards each other. The bloody partition that caused the death of over a million and displaced over 15 million Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs across borders has left a lasting imprint on the two countries. India and Pakistan fought three major wars in 1947, 1965, and 1971, and the 1999 Kargil conflict. Since…

[zvaigzdelasas]

????? Is this the shortest abrogation of diplomatic ties in history? [19 Jan 24]

[milfstalin]

[...]

Ultimately, this story about Pakistan is more properly understood as one about the contest between China and the U.S. that pits the rest of the world in the middle. Chinese officials, we learned, regularly told their Pakistani counterparts that Beijing doesn’t see the contest as zero sum, that it’s okay to be friendly with both major powers. The U.S. does not quite see it that way, and Pakistan knows it. The result is the story below. If you’re at all interested in foreign affairs, we think you’ll find this one enlightening.

[...]

In October of 2022, a pivotal year for Pakistan, military chief Qamar Javed Bajwa finally won what he had long been striving for: an official state trip to the United States. His mission was explicit; a document prepared for Bajwa ahead of the visit is titled, “U.S. Re-Engagement with Pakistan: Ideas for Reviving an Important Relationship.”

[...]

From New York, Munir Akram, Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations, began reporting back cables highlighting “sarcastic” comments from his Chinese counterpart, who openly tweaked Akram about Pakistan’s sudden swing toward Washington. In private conversations with their Pakistani counterparts over the past year, as reported by Pakistani diplomats, Chinese officials have expressed displeasure with Islamabad for “switching camps”—rather than merely seeking open relations with both countries.

Now, with their U.S. gamble failing to pay off, Pakistani officials have become increasingly frantic in their efforts to repair relations with China, including, asthe documents reveal, by granting China approval for a military base at the port of Gwadar—a major and longstanding strategic demand of Beijing—and authorizing joint military operations inside Pakistan.

[...]

Internal reports emphasize Pakistan’s wish that its relations with the U.S. and China not be “zero-sum.” “What the Pakistani military prefers is to be able to maintain a balance between their Chinese and U.S. military relationships,” said Adam Weinstein, deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute and an analyst on Pakistan. “They believe that if things are balanced, both sides will have an incentive to keep relations strong.”

Despite this preference, a classified internal Pakistani intelligence assessment judges China to be a more “natural strategic ally” than the U.S., with whom Pakistan is deemed to share “limited” strategic interests.

Facing such loss of trust from a key ally, the documents also show that Pakistan’s military-backed government privately promised Beijing a long-coveted concession: a Chinese military base in the key port city of Gwadar. Gwadar is a key node in China’s Belt-and-Road Initiative—the last stop in a land corridor through Pakistan that would connect China’s economy westward, and make it less reliant on shipping transit in the South China Sea. 

In return, Pakistan asked for a major upgrade in economic and military assistance from Beijing in order to insulate Islamabad from the fierce reaction from the U.S. such a deal is expected to provoke.

[...]

This August, Pakistani government sources vented frustration to the media over their failed reconciliation with the U.S., lamenting the meager benefits that mending ties had brought. Government sources told the Express Tribune that “Pakistan’s reliance on the United States to secure the IMF package was not yielding the results.” This week, the IMF announced a decision to consider Pakistan’s loan request at an upcoming meeting slated for September 25, raising hopes that a deal may still be secured.

Pakistan’s private concessions to China come as the U.S. State Department has continued to publicly defend the military regime from criticism over its role in rigging elections this February, gross human rights abuses inside the country targeting the press and civil society, and an ongoing crackdown on supporters of now-imprisoned former Prime Minister Khan. That crackdown now includes credible threats to Khan’s life, as he continues to be held in government custody despite repeated rejection by the courts of the charges against him.

“We believe good governance, long-term capacity building, and sustainable market-based approaches that let the private sector flourish are the best paths to sustained growth and development,” the State Department told Drop Site News in its post-publication statement. “Our partnership with Pakistan spans the full range of regional and bilateral issues, including increasing trade and investment, strengthening security cooperation, promoting regional security and stability, building climate resilience, supporting democracy and human rights, and expanding people-to-people ties.”

The rigging of elections this February was met with general indifference in Washington, as has the ongoing suppression of press and political activism in the country.  On the economic front, Pakistan’s imploding economy has consumed Western aid with nothing to show for it but soaring inflation, blackouts, an internet slowed to a crawl, and joblessness. 

18 Sept 2024

[metamatar]

On March 2, just days before the meeting, Lu had been questioned at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing over the neutrality of India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in the Ukraine conflict. [...]

The day before the meeting, Khan addressed a rally and responded directly to European calls that Pakistan rally behind Ukraine. “Are we your slaves?” Khan thundered to the crowd. “What do you think of us? That we are your slaves and that we will do whatever you ask of us?” he asked. “We are friends of Russia, and we are also friends of the United States. We are friends of China and Europe. We are not part of any alliance.” [...] The day after the meeting, on March 8, Khan’s opponents in Parliament moved forward with a key procedural step toward the no-confidence vote.

[...] In recent months, the military-led government cracked down not just on dissidents but also on suspected leakers inside its own institutions, passing a law last week that authorizes warrantless searches and lengthy jail terms for whistleblowers. Shaken by the public display of support for Khan — expressed in a series of mass protests and riots this May — the military has also enshrined authoritarian powers for itself that drastically reduce civil liberties, criminalize criticism of the military, expand the institution’s already expansive role in the country’s economy, and give military leaders a permanent veto over political and civil affairs.

[...] On balance, the text of the cypher strongly suggests that the U.S. encouraged Khan’s removal. According to the cable, while Lu did not directly order Khan to be taken out of office, he said that Pakistan would suffer severe consequences, including international isolation, if Khan were to stay on as prime minister, while simultaneously hinting at rewards for his removal. The remarks appear to have been taken as a signal for the Pakistani military to act.

[mariacallous]

Afghan refugees who fled their country to escape from decades of war and terrorism have become the unwitting pawns in a cruel and crude political tussle between Pakistan’s government and the extremist Taliban as their once-close relationship disintegrates amid mutual recrimination.

On Oct. 3, Pakistan’s government announced that mass deportations of illegal immigrants, mostly Afghans, would start on Nov. 1. So far, at least 300,000 Afghans have already been ejected, and more than a million others face the same fate as the expulsions continue.

The bilateral fight appears to center on Kabul’s support for extremists who have wreaked havoc and killed hundreds in Pakistan over the last two years—or at least that is how Islamabad sees it, arguing that it is simply applying its own laws. The Taliban deny accusations that they are behind the uptick of terrorism in Pakistan by affiliates that they protect, train, arm, and direct.

Mass deportations are a sign that Pakistan is “putting its house in order,” said Pakistan’s caretaker minister of interior, Sarfraz Bugti. “Pakistan is the only country hosting four million refugees for the last 40 years and still hosting them,” he said via text. “Whoever wanted to stay in our country must stay legally.” Of the 300,000 Afghans already ejected, none have faced any problems upon returning, he told Foreign Policy. As the Taliban are claiming that Afghanistan is now peaceful, he said, “they should help their countrymen to settle themselves.”

“We are not a cruel state,” he said, adding: “Pakistanis are more important.”

The Taliban—who, since returning to power in August 2021, have been responsible for U.N.-documented arbitrary detentions and killings, as well forcing women and girls out of work and education—have called Pakistan’s deportations “inhumane” and “rushed.” Taliban figures have said that the billions of dollars of international aid they still receive are insufficient to deal with the country’s prior economic and humanitarian crises, let alone a mass influx of penniless refugees.

The expulsions come after earlier efforts by Pakistan, such as trade restrictions, to exert pressure on Kabul to rein in the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Pakistani Taliban, whose attacks on military and police present a severe security challenge to the Pakistani state. Acting Prime Minister Anwar ul-Haq Kakar said earlier this month that TTP attacks have risen by 60 percent since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, with 2,267 people killed.

The irony is that Pakistan bankrolled the Taliban throughout their 20-year insurgency following their ouster from power during the U.S.-led invasion in 2001. Taliban leaders found sanctuary and funding from Pakistan’s military and intelligence services. When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan in 2021, then-Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan congratulated them, as did groups such as al Qaeda and Hamas. But rather than continuing as Islamabad’s proxy, the Taliban have reversed roles, providing safe haven for terrorist and jihadi groups, including the TTP.

“While it’s still too early to draw any conclusions on policy shifts in Islamabad, it appears that the initial excitement about the Taliban’s return to power has now turned into frustration,” said Abdullah Khenjani, a former deputy minister of peace in the previous Afghan government. “Consequently, these traditional [Pakistani state] allies of the Taliban are systematically reassessing their leverage to be prepared for potentially worse scenarios.”

Since the Taliban’s return, around 600,000 Afghans made their way into Pakistan, swelling the number of Afghan refugees in the country to an estimated 3.7 million, with 1.32 million registered with the U.N. High Commission on Refugees. Many face destitution, unable to find work or even send their children to local schools. The situation may be even worse after the deportations: Pakistan is reportedly confiscating most of the refugees’ money on the way out, leaving them in a precarious situation in a country already struggling to create jobs for its people or deal with its own humanitarian crises.

Border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been clogged in recent weeks, as many Afghan refugees preempted the police round-up and began making their way back. Media have reported that some of the undocumented Afghans were born in Pakistan, their parents having fled the uninterrupted conflict at home since the former Soviet Union invaded in 1979. Many of the births were not registered.

Meanwhile, some groups among those being expelled are especially vulnerable. Hundreds of Afghans could face retribution from the Taliban they left the country to escape. Journalists, women, civil and human rights activists, LGBTQ+ advocates, judges, police, former military and government personnel, and Shiite Hazaras have all been targeted by the Taliban, and many escaped to Pakistan, with and without official documents.

Some efforts have been made to help Afghans regarded as vulnerable to Taliban excess if they are returned. Qamar Yousafzai set up the Pakistan-Afghanistan International Federation of Journalists at the National Press Club of Pakistan, in Islamabad, to verify the identities of hundreds of Afghan journalists, issue them with ID cards, and help with housing and health care. He has also interceded for journalists detained by police for a lack of papers. Yet that might not be enough to prevent their deportation.

Amnesty International called for a “halt [to] the continued detentions, deportations, and widespread harassment of Afghan refugees.” If not, it said, “it will be denying thousands of at-risk Afghans, especially women and girls, access to safety, education and livelihood.” The UNHCR and International Organization for Migration, the U.N.’s migration agency, said the forced repatriations had “the potential to result in severe human rights violations, including the separation of families and deportation of minors.”

Once back in Afghanistan, returnees have found the going tough, arriving in a country they hardly know, without resources to restart their lives, many facing a harsh Himalayan winter in camps set up by a Taliban administration ill-equipped to provide for them.

Fariba Faizi, 29, is from the southwestern Afghanistan city of Farah, where she was a journalist with a private radio station. Her mother, Shirin, was a prosecutor for the Farah provincial attorney general’s office, specializing in domestic violence cases. Once the Taliban returned to power, they were both out of their jobs, since women are not permitted to work in the new Afghanistan. They also faced the possibility of detention, beating, rape, and killing.

Along with her family of 10 (parents, siblings, husband, and toddler), Faizi, now eight months pregnant with her second child, moved to Islamabad in April 2022, hoping they’d be safe enough. Once the government announced the deportations, landlords who had been renting to Afghans began to evict them; Faizi’s landlord said he wanted the house back for himself. Her family is now living with friends of Yousafzai, who also arranged charitable support to cover their living costs for six months, she said.

With no work in either Pakistan or Afghanistan, Faizi said, they faced a similar economic situation on either side of the border. In Pakistan, however, the women in the family could at least look for work, she said; their preference would be to stay in Pakistan. As it is, they remain in hiding, afraid of being detained by police and forced over the border once their visas expire.

[molkolsdal]

These are pictures taken at the Kalash spring festival. At this time of year huge numbers of tourists, mostly from other parts of Pakistan but also foreign, come to Kalash and compromise important aspects of Kalash culture.

‘We face some problems like some people come directly to our houses without asking ourselves…they take pictures whenever they see us take selfies and disturb us… foreigners take permission before taking pictures and if you are not willing they don’t take pictures...’

‘We have freedom in our religion but it doesn’t mean that we are free for everyone,’

For many Pakistani tourists, drinking is haram, as is taking pictures or dancing with women. Some of the Kalash people are wine makers. It felt that many viewed entering this valley as a third space in which they were free to break taboos. These stumbling men would insert themselves into the dances as protagonists in the festival.

‘These dances are not for you these are for us’’

‘’they start to dance or follow us they don’t understand that we are performing a religious ritual”.

How disrespectful to an inherently sacred space, for a culture with an animist religion where place is bound to ancestral spirits and animated nature. Kalash culture has a lot of focus on purity and impurity, which when not upheld manifests in natural disasters.

It is a worry that some men can feel comfortable suspending their sense of morality temporarily. Many know that prostitution is available in Kalash, related in this context to poverty and being perceived inferior minority. How dangerous can that be, for men to engage with sex work from a position of internalised power, perhaps seeing Kalash as ‘Kafir’, non-religious, very much inferior.

These pictures are shot in this way as a reaction to my unease, feeling I had to detach from the material reality of the moment and revert to something abstract and feeling. Maybe this has the opposite effect, depersonalising people and making individuals less individual? Maybe I fell into the same trap, where I should have been focusing my camera towards the audience.

‘We Kalash acts as asset for the country…'

Matty Feurtado

[ceiling-karasu]

Other Countries in the Squirrel and Hedgehog AUs, Part One, Plus OCs

Chaand Hadia (Moon Gift, Urdu)

For my AUs, I will have Flower Hill (North Korea) be very close to the country of Chaand Hadia (Moon Gift), located the left of the country. I'm ignoring the distance in between them for now, because this is fiction and I have decided it.

Location and Geography: Shares a border with Flower Hill. Plains, plateaus, mountains, rivers, fertile valleys, and ocean make for varied regions.

The Farmhouse Villa for Lily Bell in the Thorn Thicket most likely takes place a few hours from the border between Flower Hill and Chaand Hadia.

Government: democratic parliamentary federal republic but local cultural rules specific regions.

Economy: The economy is largely based off of herbs, medicines, and dyes, with large exports of textiles. Essential medical compounds are grown in villages around the country or on mountaintops. Herbalists are seen as an essential job, and doctors that travel between small villages and neighboring countries are commonplace.

Flower Hill provides a lot of silk to Chaand Hadia, and receives essential medicines, dyes, and weapon components (in secret) that they may not have been able to grow or find themselves.

Demographics: hog deer, goats, sheep, boars, mongoose, Indian pangolin, striped hyenas, black and brown bears

Culture: Each province has it’s own rules and specific clothing styles based on the standard. Important families carry a detailed pocket compass to identify themselves, although the meanings can vary, and the presence of one can be a coded message.

Foreign Relations: Balanced and outwardly neutral, although getting more and more friendly with Flower Hill. Very friendly with Chambelli Koh.

Relation to Flower Hill: Alongside regular trade, secretly smuggles extra weapons and medicines into Flower Hill, possibly even up to weapons of mass destruction. After all, if Flower Hill falls the the Weasel Unit, their own coastlines will be next. Will not do anything overtly to support their neighbor, though, unless pushed.

Traditional Clothing Style (Not military attire): Shalwar kameez, hijab, Niqab. Clothing used to be more plain until they began acquiring large amounts of silk from Flower Hill.

OC Character: Soor-Hiran (May appear Briefly)

Rei-Does-Stuff mentioned the idea of a goat that could smuggle weapons and such into Flower Hill, and to Geumsaegi. I made a joke about the deer I had made in Lily Bell in the Thorn Thicket, who does kind of do that. They responded with the concept of the Pakistani hog-deer, with absolutely no hesitation. Later, they discussed how Pakistan was such a close ally of North Korea, to the point that they smuggled nuclear weapons into the country. Well, that was also a background plot (not a spoiler), and the deer smuggling weapons and poisons may be a larger plot-line in the current AU. So, we got to talking.

As such, I would like to formally dedicate my Hog-Deer Smuggler, Soor-Hiran, to @Rei-Does-Stuff.

Gender: Ambiguous.

Country: Chaand Hadia (Moon gift, Urdu)

Alliance: Chaand Hadia

Attire: Hijab, loose trousers and shirts (Shalwar kameez), but province styles are blended together.

Skills: Herbs, medicine, espionage, deceit, eavesdropping, eidetic memory of mountain paths and plants, and schematics.

Weapon: Poison needles.

Day job: traveling herbalist, doctor. Is allowed to travel between Chaand Hadia and Flower Hill, and works with the commanders in Cherry Valley, as permitted by their own government. Alongside medicines, they bring materials for weapons, schematics, and messages pertaining to Weasel Unit movements and acquisitions. Their village is next to the border of Flower Hill, so it is easy to travel in between.

Works with: markhor goat group of apprentice herbalists and couriers. But they may be more than they seem to be...

Secret Job and backstory: While they will happily accept requests from Flower Hill, Soor-Hiran's group secretly works as a black market smuggler. Other weapons, foods, stolen items, jewels, and information are sold to those willing to pay the price. So far, the Weasel Unit has been unable to afford their cost, but how desperate will they get until they are willing to pay?

Likes: Silk, moths, flowers

Dislikes: being belittled for their culture

Personal Item: Beloved family antique pocket compass/sundial. This specific heirloom allows them free entry into Flower Hill.

OC Character: Pangulggot

Gender: Male

Country and Alliance: Chaand Hadia

Attire: loose trousers and shirts (Shalwar kameez)

Skills: medicine, ignoring things that don't apply to him.

Weapon: nothing other than his scales and claws. Is far too mild mannered to fight back if attacked for the most part. His scales prevent him from being harmed.

Day Job: traveling herbalist and medicine worker, bringing important medicinal components to Flower Hill

Works with: markhor goat group of apprentice herbalists, guards, and couriers

Likes: his job, Lily of the Valley flowers

Dislikes: People trying to eat Lily of the Valley Flowers. They are poisonous, but yet...

Backstory: They do very much love their name. However:

Pangulggot is aware that authorities act strangely when they say their name, and tries to hide it, since there is something going on that they probably should not know. Possibly a dangerous individual with the same name, or a military code word…?

Whatever it is, they sure notice that it gets them pulled into empty rooms while going through customs and checkpoints as ‘randomly selected,’ for extra questioning that sure sounds like they contain specific phrases for a specific person he is not.

[somerabbitholes]

Hey, Hi

Can you name some interesting Geo-political reads? Indian as well as that of world??

Thanks.

Hi! I'm not sure what exactly you're looking for, so these are just ones I like:

The Revenge of Geography by Robert Kaplan: argues that geography and geographical circumstance has a sizeable part to play in shaping foreign policy and strategic engagements of various countries. Also see his Monsoon.

Chip War by Chris Miller: a history of semiconductors, simultaneously also about globalisation and how economics intentionally or unintentionally drive geopolitics and vice versa

Fateful Triangle by Tanvi Madan: about the China factor in US-India relations, especially during the Cold War

How India Sees the World by Shyam Saran: a historical look at India's global engagements and outlook (or lack thereof); he used to be the foreign secretary so it's quite firsthand. Also see his How China Sees India and the World

Magnificent Delusions by Hussain Haqqani: about the US-Pakistan relationship since the 1950s; how either country has a history of misunderstanding the other

The Blood Telegram by Gary J. Bass: about the American consul in Dhaka and through his eyes, a picture of the genocide in then-East Pakistan and the (geo)political and military fight that the struggle for Bangladesh became

The Afghanistan Papers by Craig Whitlock: a look at how the US and US army became so embroiled in Afghanistan and how it was always an unwinnable gamble; argues that the conflict continued in spite of this knowledge

The Prize by Daniel Yergin: a history of the oil industry and the geopolitics of oil as it played out in the Middle East.

Happy reading!

[world-of-wales]

Wait, what? Could you explain the M and India UK thing?

It all dials back to the Commonwealth and uk- india ties in terms of it. So, a little background - commonwealth was the second international organization/group joined by India after the UN. But the commonwealth was the first it joined as an independent sovereign state. Now at that time india was one of the first countries who put forth the demand that republics should also be able to join the CW and countries like them should not be expected to keep the monarch as the head of the state to be a condition for joining what is being called a voluntary organization. Because if they keep the monarch as the head of state, then the whole idea of independence from colonization loses its meaning. So the Indian leaders at that time put forth the demand that republics should be allowed in too, and these countries will be a part of the CW but no authority of the UK or the head of atate/monarch will extend to them. That was accepted because it was a fair demand and made sense. Hence, india joined the CW.

Even back then i.e post indepence in 1947 till the time of the london declaration in 1949, there was a lot of debate and controversy over the whole joining buisness and even then a large section of politicians and leaders were like this is stupid, why are we going back under their influence after having a 100 year long struggle to get out of it. But the then government including Jawaharlal Nehru (my fav Indian pm) who was his own foreign minister, were like India will need to have some sort of connection and some sort of ties with other nations internationally to make sure it can work in the global world. And even today, the Commonwealth forms the bedrock of india's contemporary relations with a number of African states and its dealings with canada, australia, etc.

JLN and his interim government agreed with the influence argument so they put forth the demand for the joining of republics with their own heads of states. It was agreed upon by the UK. But even after that, since india's independence a large section has been against the Commonwealth with the same arguments and people,intellectuals, politicians like shashi tharoor, the southern state CMs, some North Indian parties feel that India should leave the CW.

Now flash forward to the wedding in 2018, meghan came out wearing a veil embroidered with the national flowers of all the CW states, including guess which ones? The republics which are sovereign!!! Including - india (lotus), Pakistan (jasmine) and Bangladesh (water lily)

This thing was picked up by journalists and they ran with it on social media and in newspapers that the royals still think we are theirs. The whole of South Asian twitter was a mess, everyone was criticizing the UK, asking for the high commission to be summoned in front of parliamentary committes to see why they thought it was okay. In india politicians from both sides - the ruling bjp and the opposition parties jumped in. It basically became a f*ck CW, f*ck UK narrative. Now add to this the whole history of colonization and that makes it even worse.

The whole problem that people had with it was that, despite nearly 75 years of independence, UK still thinks we are theirs so why don't we kick them to the curb, we don't need the CW to have trade and other diplomatic ties with other states anymore. Pakistan, Bangladesh etc also had the same issues but it was the most amplified in india.

So in the official circles, for the first time, formal demands were being made that India should leave CW in 2018 because of that Givenchy wedding outfit and the attitude which it must have accompanied. It was always a thing in india, on the fringes of politics, to leave the CW as an agenda for some sections, but nobody ever took any initiative for it except making statements. The government didn't do it formally because let's be honest, 2018 was just a year off the next national elections and they had bigger fish to fry back then but I know it was pretty much a done deal as per the news coming out from 'sources' close to the cabinet, plans were being made. But it was sorted out later, a lot of it because bjp shares common ties with the Tories in the UK so they could smooth it over.

[apenitentialprayer]

[W]hen the public are involved in the government, and when the public are benefiting from a government in terms of jobs and schools and drinking water, the public want to save their own community. But when there is a government that is non-representative, the public become alienated and the public are against the government. and it really doesn't make that much of a difference to the public whether [the leading force is] the militants or whether it's the military [...] So, in some ways, a democratic government is stronger, because it can reach the people[.]

Benazir Bhutto, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, in a press conference with the Council on Foreign Relations, given August 15th, 2007.

[dzthenerd490]

News Post

Palestine

Hamas and Fatah sign unity deal in Beijing aimed at Gaza governance | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Sinan Antoon on Palestine activism, literature and perseverance (newarab.com)

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters arrested on Capitol Hill ahead of Netanyahu visit (nbcnews.com)

Ex-Biden Staffer Who Quit over Gaza Says Kamala Harris Must “Chart a New Path” on Israel-Palestine | Democracy Now!

Ukraine

Russia outguns Ukraine but suffers 3 times higher losses, Syrskyi says (kyivindependent.com)

Ukraine war: Russia is offering Moscow residents a record $22,000 to join the military | CNN

Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 880 | Russia-Ukraine war News | Al Jazeera

Sudan

https://sudantribune.com/article288577/

Sudan paramilitary leader plans to attend cease-fire talks in Switzerland hosted by US, Saudi Arabia - ABC News (go.com)

Bringing More Attention to Sudan’s Crisis | Council on Foreign Relations (cfr.org)

Iran, Sudan exchange ambassadors after eight years | News | Al Jazeera

Other

Egypt showing flexibility on IDF staying along its Gaza border to block arms smuggling | The Times of Israel

Could the Nile dam dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia escalate? (newarab.com)

Huge rise in Mpox cases in DR Congo: govt (medicalxpress.com)

Pakistan Reopens Key Border Point With Afghanistan After Months Of Closure (rferl.org)

Violence spirals with Afghan community in Tehran following death of Iranian | Iran International (iranintl.com)

At least 229 people killed in Ethiopia landslides | Weather News | Al Jazeera

Myanmar junta leader assumes presidential powers as president takes ‘sick leave,’ state media reports | CNN

What’s behind the creation of the Alliance of Sahel States? | Politics News | Al Jazeera