#india to provide wheat to afghanistan

[thxnews]

India's Wheat Aid Supports Millions in Afghanistan

India's Generous Contribution to Afghanistan

In a significant humanitarian gesture, the Government of India has donated a staggering 50,000 metric tons of wheat to Afghanistan over the past one and a half years. This contribution channeled through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), has been instrumental in supporting more than one million people this year and 4.7 million in 2022.  

Impact of the Wheat Aid

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, this aid is a response to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. The most recent shipment of 10,000 metric tons, routed through Shahid Behesti Terminal of Chabhar Port, is part of India's ongoing commitment to Afghan relief.   Milling and Distribution: A Localized Approach Initially, the wheat was shipped in five consignments and then locally milled and fortified by ten Afghan companies. Subsequently, this process yielded 41,500 metric tons of wheat flour, which the WFP distributed to Afghanistan's most vulnerable populations. Importantly, the local milling and fortifying of the wheat not only supported the Afghan economy but also significantly reduced the need for wheat flour imports and accelerated the distribution process to communities in dire need.  

Acknowledgment by WFP

Hsiao-Wei Lee, WFP Country Director in Afghanistan, expressed gratitude for India's support. "India has stood by the people of Afghanistan, enabling WFP to reach hungry families when needs were at record heights," she stated, acknowledging the crucial role of India's contributions in supporting vulnerable Afghans.   The Broader Food Security Context in Afghanistan Recent months have witnessed a slight improvement in Afghanistan's overall food security situation, largely attributed to sustained and significant humanitarian food aid. However, the situation remains critical, with a third of the Afghan population uncertain about their next meal. WFP has extended emergency food assistance to approximately 15.7 million food-insecure people, including 7.7 million women and girls, from January to the end of November 2023.  

To Sum Up

India's donation of wheat to Afghanistan, facilitated by the WFP, exemplifies the nation's commitment to international humanitarian efforts. This aid has not only provided immediate relief to millions in Afghanistan but also supported the local economy and reinforced the bond between India and Afghanistan. It stands as a testament to India's role in global humanitarian assistance and its impact on improving the lives of those in dire need.   Sources: THX News & World Food Programme. Read the full article

[nordnews]

Kabul May 31 (ANI): India is strengthening its soft power in Afghanistan by providing critical aid through Iran, sidelining a once-important Pakistan, Nikkei Asia reported. A ...

[tezlivenews]

तालिबानी मंत्रियों के साथ बैठक के बाद बदले इमरान के सुर, अफगानिस���तान को मिलने वाले भारतीय गेहूं को देंगे 'रास्ता'

तालिबानी मंत्रियों के साथ बैठक के बाद बदले इमरान के सुर, अफगानिस्तान को मिलने वाले भारतीय गेहूं को देंगे ‘रास्ता’

काबुलतालिबान सरकार में विदेश मंत्री आमिर खान म���त्तकी इस वक्त पाकिस्तान में हैं। शुक्रवार को उन्होंने पाकिस्तान के प्रधानमंत्री इमरान खान से मुलाकात की। मुत्तकी के साथ तालिबान के वित्त मंत्री और प्रतिनिधिमंडल के अन्य सदस्य शामिल रहे। सबसे अहम बात यह कि इस बैठक के बाद इमरान खान ने अफगानिस्तान को मिलने वाले भारतीय गेहूं के लिए पाकिस्तान का रास्ता खोल दिया है, जिसके लिए पहले वह इनकार कर रहे…

[breakinglivenewsheadlines]

Delhi Braces For Extreme Heat, May Touch 46 Degrees, Yellow Alert Issued

On the precipice of another punishing heatwave spell, Delhi is predicted to see a jump of two to three degrees Celsius in the maximum temperature today. The Safdarjung Observatory - Delhi's base weather station -  had recorded a maximum temperature of 40.8 degrees Celsius on Tuesday.

It is expected to breach the 42-degree mark today and soar to 44 degrees Celsius by Thursday, according to the India Meteorological Department  (IMD).

The maximum temperature may even leap to 46 degrees Celsius in parts of Delhi, a Met department official said.

Delhi had recorded a maximum temperature of 43.2 degrees Celsius on April 21, 2017. The all-time high maximum temperature for the month was 45.6 degrees Celsius on April 29, 1941.

Northwest India has been recording higher than normal temperatures since March last week, with weather experts attributing it to absence of active Western Disturbances over north India and any major system over south India.

The region had got some respite last week due to cloudy weather due to the influence of a Western Disturbance over Afghanistan. A yellow alert warning of a heatwave spell in the national capital starting April 28 has been issued.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) uses four colour codes for weather warnings - green (no action needed), yellow (watch and stay updated), orange (be prepared) and red (take action).

The IMD said the heatwave could lead to "moderate" health concerns for vulnerable people - infants, elderly, people with chronic diseases - in affected areas.

"Hence people of these regions should avoid heat exposure, wear lightweight, light-coloured, loose, cotton clothes and cover the head by use of cloth, hat or umbrella etc," it said.

Delhi has recorded eight heatwave days in April this year, the maximum since 11 such days witnessed in the month in 2010.

Delhi may see a partly cloudy sky, light rain, and a dust storm with winds up to 50 kmph on Friday, which may provide a temporary respite.

For the plains, a heatwave is declared when the maximum temperature is over 40 degrees Celsius and at least 4.5 notches above normal.

A severe heatwave is declared if the departure from normal temperature is more than 6.4 notches, according to the IMD.

The weather department had earlier said that northwest India and adjoining parts of central India are likely to see more intense and frequent heatwave conditions in April.

India recorded its warmest March in 122 years with a severe heatwave scorching large swathes of the country during the month. Parts of the country are also seeing wheat yields drop by up to 35 percent due to the unseasonal heat.

Source

[organic-planters]

What is Asafoetida and how is it used?

Asafoetida, a.k.a. Kayam, Perunkayam, Hing, Hingu, Ingu, is the dried latex or gum obtained from the tap root of a type of perennial, or year round, herb, that belongs to the celery (Mullangi) family of herbs.

It is a native to the mountains of Afghanistan and the deserts of Iran, where it is grown extensively. In India, it is grown in Kashmir and some parts of Punjab. Many believe it might be related to the Silphium, a plant of North Africa, now considered extinct. Silphium was, at one time, used extensively by both the Greeks and Romans. Now, with its extinction, asafoetida is used as a cheaper substitute.

Asafoetida is one of the spices that gives Indian food its distinctive flavour and aroma, and is popular among those following religious restrictions against consuming onion or garlic, like the Jain or Brahmin communities, as it adds a similar savouriness to the food.

Asafoetida is of two main varieties, Hing Kabuli Safaid (milky white) and Hing Lal (Red). The white or pale variety mixes with water, while the dark or red one mixes well with oil. 

Raw asafoetida has a very strong, and for many a disagreeable, smell. This is due to its very high sulphur content. It also has a very acrid and bitter taste.  Because of this, it is very often diluted with starch and gum and sold as small bricks, as a powder or in tablet form. It is often blended with rice or wheat flour in its powder form. 

Properly used, a pinch of asafoetida acts as a type of booster for every other ingredient used, and for many Indian cooks, it is what makes Indian food taste Indian. To tone down its strong taste, it is advisable to first cook it first, directly in oil or clarified butter (ghee), and then add the other ingredients. Because of its burnt-garlic-onion flavour, it is great in curries, stews and many vegetarian dishes.

Storing asafoetida is just as important, and always use airtight containers for best results. Else, the whole house starts smelling of it. Good asafoetida is that strong. The fresher it is, the stronger it smells.

The best quality asafoetida can be bought at The Organic Planters, a Kakkanad, Kochi, India, based provider of all kinds of organic products. Home delivery is available to Infopark, Edachira, Chittethukara, Vazhakkala,, Thrikkakara, CSEZ, Thuthiyoor, Echamukku and Kakkanad. New customers get a 10% discount and cash on delivery option is available. 

[aspirant-voice]

India and WFP to supply Wheat to Afghanistan

#India recently inked an #agreement with the #United_Nations #World_Food_Programme (#WFP) to provide 50,000 MT of wheat to #Afghanistan as part of a #humanitarian #aid effort. #UPSC

India recently inked an agreement with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to provide 50,000 MT of wheat to Afghanistan as part of a humanitarian aid effort. Context The Delhi Regional Security Dialogue on Afghanistan took place before. The summit asked for “immediate humanitarian aid” to the Afghan people and urged regional governments to work together and consult on the Afghan…

[eclecticsaladthingdragon]

To provide humanitarian assistance, India and Pakistan are holding discussion over modalities so that India can send 50,000 metric tonnes of wheat and medicines to Afghanistan through the Pakistani route. When is this humanitarian assistance expected to reach Afghanistan?

Talks regarding humanitarian assistance from India have been progressing satisfactorily. All paper work is almost complete. I hope that in the coming two weeks, all formalities will be completed. India has always provided assistance to Afghanistan. The Government of India and the people of India have extended their help in this troubling time. And this is a huge humanitarian assistance; it will take 20 to 30 days to reach Afghanistan. I wish by the first week of January, this food and medicine consignment reaches various parts of Afghanistan.

[estatelandnews]

Government departments are prohibited from purchasing land for housing projects. Cabinet abolishes quotas in public housing programs Minister asserts that food and fuel prices are the lowest in the region. Today, the Prime Minister will reveal a massive assistance package’ One-year extension granted to CEO of ‘non-operational’ PSM

Islamabad: The government prohibited all federal institutions from acquiring land for housing purposes on Tuesday, in addition to scrapping all quotas in government housing plans, except for those for its staff.

The decision was to proceed during a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan. It asserted that, despite extraordinary inflation, Pakistan’s costs for vital products remained lower than those throughout South Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India.

The cabinet was informed that PM would announce a “massive relief package” in his Wednesday (today) address to the nation, which would benefit over 53% of Pakistan’s inflation-affected population.

“The cabinet has determined that no federal government institution will acquire land from residents in Islamabad in the future,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry stated during a press briefing following the cabinet meeting.

Meanwhile, Asad Umar tweeted: “Today, the cabinet abolished a decades-old unjust system in which acquired land forcibly from Islamabad residents.” Imran Khan’s government can only make such a populist move.”

However, a senior govt official on condition of anonymity that the government had effectively phased out the Naya Pakistan Housing Program (NPHP) due to the authorities responsible for it, such as FGEHA and NPHA, would not be able to acquire land for providing affordable housing units to the poor.

He added that it would also be unjust for individuals who had already paid for their land through any land award (setting the government price for land). In contrast, others who had not collected it would receive market value for the land.

“Now there is a void: who will determine the market value of land — the seller or the purchaser,” he explained, adding that before this decision, the concerned deputy commissioners had declared the land’s award.

According to Fawad Chaudhry, the prime minister’s discretionary powers to allot plots have been revoked. “The prime minister has not yet exercised that discretionary authority,” he asserted.

The minister stated that the cabinet received a detailed briefing on commodity prices compared to other regional countries and was assured that Pakistan’s prices were the lowest in the region. “Pakistan’s fuel prices continue to be the lowest among non-oil producing countries,” he asserted.

According to the ministry, wheat flour costs Rs60.9 per kilogram in Pakistan, Rs83 in India and Bangladesh, and roughly Rs73 in Afghanistan.

[mensrightsff]

RT @NoraVerystrong: India has provided free wheat to Lebanon & Afghanistan. Now Those who tag India as an Islamophobic country come out talk about this too. DON'T BE A P*SY.

[lorajackson]

Russian Bounties for Killing Americans Go Back Five Years, Ex-Taliban Claims

Taliban veterans like to laugh about the first time, according to their lore, that the Russians dumped a lot of American dollars on them. During the Taliban campaign to take over all of Afghanistan in 1995, they actually had a few fighter planes, and they used one to force a Russian cargo plane—a huge Ilyushin Il-76TD flying for a company called Airstan—to land in Kandahar. The Taliban held the Russian crew members prisoner for a year until, one day, they supposedly “escaped” and managed to take the plane with them. How many millions of dollars that took to arrange, the Taliban have never said, but after the long, bloody decade of the 1980s throwing off Soviet occupation, squeezing the Russians for money like that remains a source of amusement. Mullah Manan Niazi, who was the spokesman for Taliban leader Mullah Omar in those days, brought up the incident when The Daily Beast asked him about reports that the Russians have offered—and perhaps paid—bounties to Taliban who kill American soldiers.“The Russians paying U.S. dollars—it’s not odd for the Taliban,” he said, his voice fraught with irony over the encrypted phone call as he recalled the Airstan incident. As for the current situation, “The Taliban have been paid by Russian intelligence for attacks on U.S. forces—and on ISIS forces—in Afghanistan from 2014 up to the present.”In the world of intelligence gathering, such a statement from such a figure would be worth noting, and just the kind of thing that could lead to what the Trump White House has called “inconclusive” reporting the Russian offer of bounties to kill Americans. Mullah Manan Niazi was a very senior figure in the Taliban when they were in power, and also when they were driven into exile and underground after 2001. But since the death of Mullah Omar was made public in 2015, he has been a dissident and liable to be killed by the current Taliban leadership if it catches up with him. They have accused him of collaborating with the CIA and the Afghan government’s intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS), which he denies.So, Niazi speaks as someone who knows the organization and its top people very well, but who also has an agenda very different from theirs, with his own reasons for confirming the bounty story, and he does not offer further specifics on that. But he does offer details about what he says are the longstanding ties between the Taliban and the Russians as well as the Iranians, and U.S. officials have been tracking those developments.A U.S. intelligence report about Russian assistance to the Taliban has circulated on Capitol Hill and throughout the national security apparatus over the last several days. According to three individuals who have read or who are familiar with the report, the assessment is long and covers the span of several years, focusing generally on how Russia provides support, including financial assistance, to the Taliban. The report also touches on the Russian bounties first reported by The New York Times, though those who read the report say that data point is circumstantial and that the investigation is ongoing. Two individuals who spoke to The Daily Beast, though, said it is clear from the report that there’s an increased risk for U.S. troops in Afghanistan because of Russia’s behavior.In important ways, this classified report mirrors an unclassified document produced last month by the Congressional Research Service which offered a crisp summation: “In the past two years, multiple U.S. commanders have warned of increased levels of assistance, and perhaps even material support for the Taliban from Russia and Iran, both of which cite IS [Islamic State, ISIS] presence in Afghanistan to justify their activities. Both nations were opposed to the Taliban government of the late 1990s, but reportedly see the Taliban as a useful point of leverage vis-a-vis the United States.”“We introduced two Taliban to the Russians under cover as businessmen,” said Niazai looking back on operations when he was still part of the Taliban insurgent leadership. “They went to Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. With Russian-supplied funds, we purchased oil, wheat and flour and imported it to Afghanistan and  then sold it there. That’s how we converted Russians funds to cash in Afghanistan.”Both men, contacted by The Daily Beast, vehemently denied such activity. “I don’t want to comment—I don’t even want to talk about Niazi,” said one of them who, as a matter of fact, pays frequent visits to Moscow. “Niazi is our enemy and playing into the hands of the NDS.”Other monies come through the hawala system, which originated in India and is used throughout South Asia and, now, in many other parts of the world. The U.S. treasury notes hawala is distinguished by “trust and the extensive use of connections such as family relationships or regional affiliations. Unlike traditional banking … hawala makes minimal (often no) use of any sort of negotiable instrument. Transfers of money take place based on communications between members of a network of hawaladars, or hawala dealers.”A senior Afghan security officer told The Daily Beast that he is “not aware of any Russians smuggling money,” but noted that the international Financial Action Task Force combating support for terrorism recently put pressure on the Afghan government to take “practical” action against suspect hawala dealers, “so the Afghan security forces raided some of the money changers.”Many sources, including Mullah Manan Niazi, note the Russian and Iranian role supporting the Taliban in the fight against the so-called Islamic State in Khorasan (a.k.a.  ISIS-K or ISIL-K). Early on in the Trump administration, Gen. John Nicholson—then the commander of NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan—warned Congress that Russia “has become more assertive over the past year” in Afghanistan and was “overtly lending legitimacy to the Taliban to undermine NATO efforts and bolster belligerents using the false narrative that only the Taliban are fighting ISIL-K.”Russia reportedly complemented its public rhetorical support for the Taliban with a covert supply program. The Washington Post reported that year that U.S. intelligence believed Russia had sent machine guns to the Taliban. An anonymous military source told the Post that the U.S. had found Russian-provided weapons areas where the group was waging war on coalition forces and ISIS’s Afghan affiliate had little presence. “We’ve had weapons brought to this headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders [who] said, ‘this was given by the Russians to the Taliban,’” Nicholson said in a 2018 BBC interview. “We know that the Russians are involved.”Indeed. Various Taliban have told The Daily Beast they were quite proud of the guns they were given as gifts or rewards—whether for specific acts or simply to cement relationships—is unclear. In 2018, Russia denied reports that it sent any arms but Russian special envoy Zamir Kabulov admitted that Moscow had established contacts with the Taliban because it was “seriously worried about possible terror threats for the Russian mission and Russian citizens in Afghanistan.“ But in September 2019, Russia elevated its talks with the insurgents to a formal visit by a Taliban delegation in September.According to a well-placed Taliban source, after some of the group’s representatives made a trip to Moscow they were given 30 state-of-the-art guns, apparently large caliber sniper rifles powerful enough to shoot through walls. “I personally saw three of them in Helmand,” said the source. “They were still full of grease,” which is to say brand new out of the box.As military scholar David Kilcullen points out in his recent book The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West, the U.S. obsession with its “global war on terror” after 9/11 created an opportunity for Russia and other hostile powers. They were “exploiting our exclusive focus on terrorism, seeking to fill the geopolitical, economic, and security vacuum we had left as we became bogged down in the wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan.”In the present day, it serves Russia’s interests to keep the United States bogged down there, despite official Russian statements to the contrary. Trump Officials Didn’t Want to Tell Him About the ‘Russian Bounties’GOP Deny, Downplay Questions About Russian Bounty Scandal What others call “hybrid warfare” Kilcullen defines somewhat differently as exploitation of situations in flux, which certainly is the case in Afghanistan with a U.S. president determined to declare he’s made a complete exit, even though there are only 8,600 U.S. troops left on the ground at the moment.“Things that are in limbo, transitioning, or on the periphery, that have ambiguous political, legal, and psychological status—or whose very existence is debated—are liminal,” write Kilcullen. “Liminal warfare exploits this character of ambiguity, operating in the blur, or as some Western military organizations put it, the ‘gray zone.’”That, precisely, is where the Russians have learned to thrive.—with additional reporting by Sam BrodeyRead more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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The post Russian Bounties for Killing Americans Go Back Five Years, Ex-Taliban Claims appeared first on Land of Fathers.

Russian Bounties for Killing Americans Go Back Five Years, Ex-Taliban Claims published first on http://landofourfathers.com/

[vsplusonline]

Tea, beer, garlic: How world copes with lockdown

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/tea-beer-garlic-how-world-copes-with-lockdown/

Tea, beer, garlic: How world copes with lockdown

In the US it was toilet paper, in Mexico it’s beer and in France, predictably, flour. The goods missing from stores reveal how the world is coping with coronavirus lockdowns.

The winner for most bizarre shortage of 2020 is Afghanistan, where a rumour about a mustachioed newborn advising the purchase of black tea sent people flocking to the shops.

“I will live for two hours and have come to tell you that black tea is the cure to this virus,” reads the quote accompanying a picture of the baby, purportedly from the eastern province of Nangarhar, widely shared on Facebook.

The run on the ubiquitous black tea briefly tripled prices before the rush calmed.

In Mexico, beer — along with tequila — is a drink of choice.

When the country went into its lockdown, the two national beer giants Heineken and Grupo Modelo – which makes the country’s beloved and now unfortunately-named Corona brand – announced they would stop producing.

That prompted a wave of panic purchases and a defiant Twitter campaign: #ConLaCervezaNo, or “Don’t mess with the beer.”

Sri Lanka tried to keep its population from engaging in such vices: it has enforced a total ban on alcohol and cigarettes since its lockdown began on March 20, leading to an explosion in home brewing, an excise official said.

The do-it-yourself distilling has caused a run on sugar, a key ingredient in producing the local moonshine known as kasippu.

There had even been suspected “staged” robberies of liquor stores as shop owners tried to sell the precious commodity under the radar.

– Sound mind, sound body –

In Iraq, staying at home means long afternoons watching television or chatting with relatives – and that requires salted sunflower seeds.

Supermarkets are running out of the popular snack faster than ever as parents and students wile away hours they would have normally spent at work or school.

For Libyans in the war-ravaged capital Tripoli, homeschooling has been particularly tough.

“We’ve run out of printer paper, so I’ve fished out all of my husband’s unused old office agendas for them to write down lessons and solve math exercises,” said Nadia al-Abed, a stay-at-home mother with three young children whose school has been shuttered.

“I’ve been begging them to write as small as they possibly can, bribing them with candy,” she added.

Schools, airports and non-essential businesses around the world have been shut down for weeks as countries try to curb the novel coronavirus’ lightning-fast spread.

Some are looking to protect themselves by naturally boosting their immunity.

The former Soviet countries of Central Asia have seen a boom in demand — and in prices — for wild rue.

The herb, also known as harmala, is traditionally burned in households to ward off illness and protect prosperity.

In Bulgaria, people scrambled to buy ginger and lemons as immunity strengtheners, while in Tunisia, citizens hunted down garlic – despite World Health Organization warnings that these home remedies do nothing against the novel coronavirus.

– Pastries and plants –

Far and away the most popular coping mechanism, however, has been baking.

Supermarkets across France, Spain, Greece and other parts of Europe have reported shortages in flour, chocolate and yeast as cooped-up citizens try their hand at elaborate cakes.

France’s entrepreneurial home bakers skip the overwhelmed grocery stores and buy the raw ingredients directly from their local bakeshop to use at home.

Romanians joke about “yeast dealers” making a fortune selling the now-rare leavening agent on the black market.

Fake real estate ads even offer to “swap a downtown flat for one pound of yeast”.

And with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starting, households are stocking up on ingredients for the large sunset meals that will break their daily fasts.

That has made semolina, a golden wheat flour used for bread and pastries, a precious commodity in Algeria.

“The small quantities that are delivered to me, I reserve them for my regular customers,” said a shop owner in El-Ashour, a district of Algiers.

In Argentina, it’s eggs: 30 of them once cost just 160 pesos, or $2.35, but now run at 240 pesos or $3.52.

If many countries emerge from their lockdowns with a new class of professional chefs, Australia will see home gardens blooming all over the country.

“We’ve seen an increase in popularity across all plant types over the past month,” said Alex Newman of the Bunnings Warehouse hardware store.

In a sign that Australians are bracing themselves for a longer lockdown, Bunnings’ most popular online guide includes tips on the fastest-growing plants to create a screen from neighbours — providing extra privacy for those staying at home.

ALSO READ | Coronavirus: What India achieved in last 30 days of lockdown

ALSO READ | Over 1,400 new coronavirus cases in 24 hours take India’s tally past 21,000

ALSO WATCH | Plasma therapy no vaccine but finally a cure for Covid-19?

Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from

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[whittlebaggett8]

How Trade Shapes Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Relations

With new initiatives and new infrastructure, trade plays a dominant job in bilateral relations among Tashkent and Kabul.

In Might 2019, Tashkent launched an Afghanistan-Uzbekistan trade zone that will operate inside of the Termez Cargo Heart terminal at the Afghan-Uzbekistan border. The trade zone promises expedited handling of paperwork for goods from and into Afghanistan. This unparalleled movement towards closer trade relations in between Tashkent and Kabul is having spot as Uzbekistan needs to perform a much larger purpose in the stabilization of Afghanistan. The start of the trade zone is just a single component of this movement. The trade zone and heart are also a sign toward other countries with interests in Afghanistan, mostly the United States, demonstrating Uzbekistan’s solve to assistance U.S. stabilization initiatives via trade activities.

The Termez Cargo Middle terminal, which residences the Afghanistan-Uzbekistan trade zone, was launched 3 decades ago and is a 40-hectare terminal able of storing from 2,000 to 3,000 containers. The terminal is able to get 300 frequent and refrigerated vans. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev praised the terminal on his to start with take a look at in 2016 and expressed the wish to fee identical terminals in other areas of Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan has no other facility with comparable ability to course of action large quantities of products and conduct import and export activities.

The trade zone and cargo terminal are a conduit to bigger trade cooperation. Trade relations have largely shaped Uzbekistan-Afghanistan relations since the transform of electric power in Uzbekistan in 2016. The new period of bilateral relations started off in earnest in 2017 when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani paid an official stop by to Tashkent. For the duration of that pay a visit to, 40 export contracts for a total quantity of $500 million ended up signed.

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According to Tashkent, transportation by way of Afghanistan will turn into the shortest route to the sea and hence has enormous significance for Uzbekistan. In 2018, Kabul and Tashkent held their first rounds of ministerial trade dialogue and Tashkent proposed a absolutely free trade regime with Afghanistan. Afghanistan is also bringing cash into Uzbekistan – in 2018, the Afghan facet invested close to $7 million and for 2019-2020, the sides are arranging to cooperate on 14 tasks for the amount of $30 million.

In 2018, the full worth of the exports from Uzbekistan attained 50 % a billion bucks and by significantly the greatest export commodity was electrical power, adopted by wheat flour, wheat, red beans, and iron rod. Exports from other Central Asian countries to Afghanistan are dominated by equivalent products. Tashkent, however, wishes to obstacle the position quo and enter the Afghanistan current market with bigger-worth goods, these kinds of as minimal-price appliances, automotive and chemical goods, and other solutions to contend with far more regular suppliers like China and India. The new trade zone could provide to additional this aim.

The start of the trade zone within just the unique cargo middle at the Afghanistan border is an significant milestone in the relations of the two nations around the world. This signifies that Uzbekistan is confident that Uzbekistan-Afghanistan trade will rise and diversify. The remaining question then results in being how and when the exploitation of the zone and terminal will reach its probable and how interesting it will turn out to be supplied Uzbekistan’s notoriously high transportation tariffs and weak regulatory and authorized frameworks.

The post How Trade Shapes Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Relations appeared first on Defence Online.

from WordPress https://defenceonline.com/2019/06/24/how-trade-shapes-afghanistan-uzbekistan-relations/

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

On Iranian Oil Import, A US Warning To India, China

http://tinyurl.com/y33puw57 Donald Trump final month refused to provide waivers to international locations like India from shopping for oil from Iran. Washington:  Any efforts to import Iranian crude oil past the accepted ranges negotiated from November to Might shall be sanctioned, the US has warned, amidst reviews that India and China have been searching for methods to purchase oil from Tehran. US President Donald Trump final month refused to provide waivers to international locations like India from shopping for oil from Iran, in an try to cut back Iran’s oil exports to zero. The US on Tuesday reiterated its place after the media reviews from New Delhi, quoting unnamed authorities officers, mentioned that India was taking a look at methods to renew oil imports from Iran regardless of the US sanctions. Final week, India”s Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla mentioned India had stopped shopping for oil from Iran after Might 2 when the US ended its waivers that allowed the highest patrons of Iranian oil, together with India, to proceed their imports for six months. “There shall be no extra oil waivers granted and the one oil that may have been permitted would have been below the cap that we negotiated. That cap was negotiated, it was to run for a interval from November of 2018 till Might of 2019,” Brian Hook, Particular Consultant for Iran and Senior Coverage Advisor to the Secretary of State, advised reporters throughout a convention name on Thursday. He mentioned as soon as the international locations have reached the cap of what was negotiated, that may be the restrict of the oil that US would allow to maneuver by means of and wouldn’t be sanctioned. “We’ll sanction any efforts to import Iranian crude oil past the bounds that have been negotiated within the interval that ran from November by means of Might,” Hook mentioned. Responding to the query that India and China have been importing somewhat little bit of Iranian oil, he mentioned: “The international locations that you just talked about I believe each nation is conscious of it. We now have near 30 international locations that used to import Iranian crude oil that at the moment are at zero. This accounts for 40 per cent of the regime’s income”. Iran earlier used to produce 10 per cent of India”s oil wants. After coming to energy, President Trump withdrew from the Iranian nuclear deal final 12 months and has imposed stringent sanctions towards what he describes because the “authoritarian” Iranian regime. “If we wish to get critical about denying Iran the cash it must destabilise the Center East, we’ve to implement oil sanctions. We predict all international locations on the earth share a want for a extra peaceable and secure Center East. For so long as Iran is ready to conduct its overseas coverage with impunity fuelled by oil income, it will be unstable,” Hook mentioned. That has been the message of the Trump Administration to all these international locations, he mentioned. “Nations know that if there are efforts to import Iranian crude oil past the accepted ranges that have been negotiated again from November by means of Might, they are going to be sanctioned,” he asserted. State Division Spokesperson Morgan Ortagus reiterated that it was the coverage of the Trump administration to take Iranian oil export to zero and there shall be no extensions on these waivers. “That is still our coverage,” she mentioned. Ortagus mentioned the US coverage on Iran was working. “We see the compliance with US sanctions relating to Iran writ giant to be one of the crucial profitable issues that this administration and that this State Division has finished,” she mentioned. Later, a Senior State Division official advised a bunch of reporters that India”s creating of the Chabahar port in Iran was exempted from the Iranian sanctions. “That exemption continues. It”s not being reviewed. The exemption permits for the event of the port, the event of the rail hyperlink to Afghanistan, the supply of crude oil and gasoline to Afghanistan and the supply of humanitarian provides as properly. That continues,” the official mentioned. The official mentioned the Trump administration welcomed India”s efforts to additional develop commerce with Afghanistan. India continued to play a number one function and is offering humanitarian help, together with wheat, which has gone by means of the Chabahar port. The US was having an ongoing dialog with India on Iran, the official mentioned, including that America welcomes the truth that India has decreased its crude oil imports from Iran. “I don”t see frankly a distinction in considerations over the prospect of a nuclear Iran. I don”t consider it”s in India”s curiosity and Indian officers are forthright in saying that they don’t wish to see a nuclear Iran,” the official mentioned. “I believe that there are shared considerations over Iran assist for terrorism, together with within the Gulf the place six million Indians work. So there”s rather a lot that unites the US and India on the subject of analysing and assessing Iranian exercise,” the official mentioned. The US is searching for to ramp up stress on Iran to counter what the White Home perceives to be a possible risk. Final month, the US designated Iran”s Revolutionary Guard a overseas terrorist organisation, the primary time the designation has been utilized to a authorities entity. (function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.5&appId=213741912058651";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[thetruthseekerway]

The Coming Water Crisis

New Post has been published on http://www.truth-seeker.info/jewels-of-islam/the-coming-water-crisis/

The Coming Water Crisis

By Habib Siddiqui

Nearly 71% of our earth is covered with water of which only 2.5% is fresh water, and the remainder 97.5% is salt water. Of this fresh water, nearly 70% (or 1.75% of total water) is frozen in the icecaps of Antarctica and Greenland. The remainder 0.75% of the total water is perhaps the world’s most important resource that is found in lakes, rivers, reservoirs, underground aquifers and other sources.

Water demand is increasing rapidly worldwide. Of the fresh water consumed by humans, nearly 70%is used to produce food. In Asia, e.g., 86% of total water withdrawal is in the agriculture sector. Freshwater is also consumed for household, municipal and industrial uses. As the world population rises, while water consumption per capita increases with urbanization and the rapid development of manufacturing industries, the freshwater supplies are increasingly becoming smaller with contaminated lakes, rivers, groundwater aquifers and reservoirs.

Large parts of the world are running out of water. A paper presented by the World Bank entitled “The Aftermath of Current Situation in the Absence of Work” concluded that Yemen will run out of water in the period between 2020 and 2050. Sana – the capital of Yemen – is likely to be the first capital city to completely run dry in a few years. In parts of Pakistan and India, groundwater levels are falling so rapidly that from 10% to 20% of agricultural production is under threat. Some 60% of China’s 669 cities are already short of water and the current record drought in several of China’s region is directly linked to their problems with water scarcity. In northern China, rivers now run dry in their lower reaches for much of the year. The Yellow River, the so-called birthplace of Chinese civilization, is so polluted it can no longer supply drinking water.

The division of the river basin water has created friction among the countries of South Asia and among their states and provinces. The Indus River Basin has been an area of conflict between India and Pakistan for about four decades. Spanning 1,800 miles, the river and its tributaries together make up one of the largest irrigation canals in the world. Dams and canals built in order to provide hydropower and irrigation have dried up stretches of the Indus River. India and Bangladesh have also dispute over the Ganges/Padma and Teesta Rivers water and India is resorting to water theft there as well. Nepal and Bangladesh are also victims of India’s water thievery. India had a dispute with Bangladesh over Farakka Barrage, with Nepal over Mahakali River and with Pakistan over 1960 Indus Water Treaty. As I have noted elsewhere, the damns and barrages built inside India on many of the common rivers have made navigation inside Bangladesh during the dry seasons almost impossible.

India is busy building dams on all rivers flowing into Pakistan from occupied Kashmir to regain control of water of western rivers in violation of Indus Water Treaty. This is being done to render Pakistan’s link-canal system redundant, destroy agriculture of Pakistan which is its mainstay, and turn Pakistan into a desert. India has plans to construct 62 dams/hydro-electric units on the Chenab and Jhelum Rivers, which would render these rivers dry by 2014. Using its clout in Afghanistan, India has succeeded in convincing Karzai regime to build a dam on River Kabul and set up Kama Hydroelectric Project She has offered technical assistance for the proposed project, which will have serious repercussions on the water flow in the Indus River.

China has built some 20 dams on the eight great Tibetan rivers while some 40 more are planned or proposed for construction in coming years. China also admitted that she is building a dam on the Yarlung Zangbo River, which will rise to 3,260 meters, thus making it the highest dam in the world. The river originates in Tibet but then flows into India and Bangladesh where it is called Brahmaputra and Jamuna, respectively, and is a major water source for millions of people. Recently, the Chinese government has taken on a grand, ambitious and $62 billion expensive project called the South-North Water Diversion Project to divert at least six trillion gallons of water each year hundreds of miles from the other great Chinese river, the Yangtze, to slake the thirst of the north China plain and its 440 million people.

Ethiopia is building three dams, two of them large and one controversial, for environmental reasons. Of these, the Great Millennium Dam, along the Nile River about 25 miles from the Sudan border, will cost nearly $5 billion. The dam will section off a larger portion of the Nile than is used now by Ethiopia and will have a devastating effect on Egypt. The new Egyptian government has instructed its military to prepare for any eventuality regarding a crucial water dispute with neighbouring Ethiopia.

Violent incidents over wells and springs take place periodically in Yemen, and the long-running civil war in Darfur owes partly to the chronic scarcity of water in western Sudan. The Six-day War in the Middle East in 1967 similarly was partly prompted by Jordan’s proposal to divert the Jordan River in response to Israel’s siphoning off of water from the Sea of Galilee all the way to the Negev Desert. And water remains a divisive issue between Israel and its neighbours to this day. Israel extracts about 65% of the upper Jordan, leaving the occupied West Bank dependent on a brackish trickle and a mountain aquifer, access to which Israel also controls. In 2004 the average Israeli had a daily allowance of 290 litres of domestic water, while the average Palestinian is less than 70.

International river basins extend across the borders of 145 countries, and some rivers flow through several countries. The Congo, Niger, Nile, Rhine and Zambezi are each shared among 9 to 11 countries, and 19 countries share the Danube basin. The 1569 mile long Ganges/Padma River is shared by both India and Bangladesh. The longer Brahmaputra River is shared between China, India and Bangladesh. Adding to the complications is the fact that some countries, especially in Africa and South Asia, rely on several rivers, e.g., 22 rise in Guinea. Some 280 aquifers also cross borders. Consider also the fact that many of Bangladesh’s 250 rivers originate from the Himalayas and run through India before flushing out to the Bay of Bengal in the Indian Ocean. Bangladeshi scientists estimated that even a 10 to 20% reduction in the water flow to the country could dry out great areas for much of the year.

As global food prices rise and exporters reduce shipments of commodities, countries that rely on imported grain are panicking. Countries like South Korea, China and India have descended on fertile plains across the African continent, acquiring huge tracts of land to produce wheat, rice and corn for consumption back home. These land grabs shrink the food supply in famine-prone African nations and anger local farmers, who see their governments selling their ancestral lands to foreigners. The land grabs to the south also pose a grave threat to Africa’s newest democracy, Egypt, in her ability to put bread on the table because all of her grain is either imported or produced with water from the Nile River, which flows north through Ethiopia and Sudan before reaching Egypt.

The Nile Waters Agreement, which Egypt and Sudan signed in 1959, gave Egypt 75% of the river’s flow, 25% to Sudan and none to Ethiopia. This situation is changing abruptly as wealthy foreign governments and international agri-businesses snatch up large swaths of arable land along the Upper Nile. While these deals are typically described as land acquisitions, they are also, in effect, water acquisitions.

Just as wars over oil played a major role in 20th-century history, there is growing evidence that many 21st century conflicts will be fought over water. In “Water: The Epic Struggle for Wealth, Power and Civilization,” journalist Steven Solomon argues that water is surpassing oil as the world’s scarcest critical resource.

From Turkey, the southern bastion of NATO, down to South Africa, and from China and Indonesia in the east to Mauritania in the west, most of the countries of Asia and Africa are worrying today about how they will satisfy the needs of their burgeoning industries, or find drinking water for the extra millions born each year, not to mention agriculture, the main cause of depleting water resources in the region. According to Solomon, our world is divided into water haves and have-nots. China, Egypt and Pakistan are just a few countries facing critical water issues in the 21st century.

Water is irreplaceable and its use in the past century grew twice as fast as world population. Solomon writes, “We’re going to have to find a way to use the existing water resources in a far, far more productive manner than we ever did before because there’s simply not enough.” That control and manipulation of water resources should be a pivotal axis of power and human achievement throughout history is hardly surprising. Water has always been man’s most indispensable natural resource, and one endowed with special, seemingly magical powers of physical transformation derived from its unique thermodynamic properties and extraordinary roles in earth’s geological and biological processes.

Through the centuries, societies have struggled politically, militarily, and economically to control the world’s water wealth: to erect cities around it, to transport goods upon it, to harness its latent energy in various forms, to utilize it as a vital input of agriculture and industry, and to extract political advantage from it. Solomon says: “Every era has been shaped by its response to the great water challenge of its time. And so it is unfolding on an epic scale today. An impending global crisis of freshwater scarcity is fast emerging as a defining fulcrum of world politics and human civilization. For the first time in history, modern society’s unquenchable thirst, industrial technological capabilities, and sheer population growth from 6 to 9 billion is significantly outstripping the sustainable supply of fresh, clean water available from nature using current practices and technologies.”

Freshwater is an Achilles’ heel of fast-growing giants China and India, which both face imminent tipping points from unsustainable water practices that will determine whether they lose their ability to feed themselves and cause their industrial expansions to prematurely sputter. “The lesson of history is that in the tumultuous adjustment that surely lies ahead, those societies that find the most innovative responses to the crisis are most likely to come out as winners, while the others will fall behind. Civilization will be shaped as well by water’s inextricable, deep interdependencies with energy, food, and climate change… By grasping the lessons of water’s pivotal role on our destiny, we will be better prepared to cope with the crisis about to engulf us all,” writes Solomon.

But has our generation grasped those lessons that are so critical for our survival? Basic human needs for water should be fully acknowledged as a top international priority. Basic ecosystem water needs should be identified and met. Our irrigation systems remain very inefficient, wasting as much as 60% of the total water pumped before it reaches the intended crop. If need be, we also have to alter our food habits into growing crops that require less water. Water conservation through better planning, management, and technologies offers great promise to minimizing water usage in household, agricultural and industrial sectors. As noted by Lester R. Brown, president of the Earth Policy Institute and the author of “World on the Edge: How to Prevent Environmental and Economic Collapse,” for the sake of peace and future development cooperation, the nations of the Nile River Basin should come together to ban land grabs by foreign governments and agri-business firms. Since there is no precedent for this, international help in negotiating such a ban would likely be necessary to make it a reality. Finally, serious water-related conflicts should be resolved through formal negotiations.

Sadly, few agreements have been reached about how the water should be shared; most of those agreements are seen as unjust: upstream countries believe that they should control the flow of the rivers, taking what they like, if they can get away with it. Thus, it is not too surprising to hear India’s whining about Chinese thievery of Brahmaputra water, while she herself is stealing water from Bangladesh on some other rivers that originate from India.

In his lecture at the Geneva conference on Environment and Quality of Life in June 1994, Adel Darwish said, “International law is not clear on the right of upstream countries to control either surface or groundwater.” It is also not clear on the shared watercourses, rivers or cross border aquifers. That situation, regrettably, has not improved an iota.

The non-clarity of international law remains a matter of grave concern. There are few, if any, precedents that the UN international law commission or the International court of justice could be cited to establish some rules to arbitrate on water sharing; but so far no country has volunteered to do so.

If we want to avoid wars of the future, culminating from water, international laws must be formulated that pledge survival of the lower riparian, downstream countries through an equitable share of the common water. Dams and barrages that can alter the vital ecosystem and take away the means of livelihood of the affected people should also be banned on common international rivers. No people should ever have to live with the curse of the dams and barrages like the Farakka (and the proposed Tipaimukh Dam) that kills people!

  ———-

Dr. Habib Siddiqui has authored nine books. His book: “Democracy, Politics and Terrorism – America’s Quest for Security in the Age of Insecurity” is available at Amazon.com.

[shakeel786blog]

India starts trade route to Afghanistan via Iran

A.P.

7:11 PM | October 29, 2017

India on Sunday shipped its first consignment of wheat to Afghanistan by sea through Iran’s strategic Chahbahar Port, launching a trade route bypassing longtime rival Pakistan.

The shipment, an Indian gift for Afghanistan, was sent from the western seaport of Kandla. It will be taken by trucks to Afghanistan from the Iranian port.

The new trade route follows an air freight corridor introduced between India and Afghanistan in June last year to provide greater access for Afghan goods to the Indian market.

In his new Afghanistan strategy unveiled in August, United States President Donald Trump asked India to do more to help Afghanistan’s development.

Pakistan currently does not allow India to transport through its territory to Afghanistan because of hostility in their ties.

Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Sunday that the shipment marked the convergence among India, Afghanistan, and Iran to spur an unhindered flow of commerce and trade throughout the region.

“I believe that this is the starting point of our journey to realize the full spectrum of connectivity from culture to commerce, from traditions to technology, from investments to Information Technology, from services to strategy and from people to politics,” Swaraj said.

India, Afghanistan, and Iran last year decided to jointly establish a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries. India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chahabar Port along with associated roads and rail lines.

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[wionews]

Opinion: With Chabahar India gains upper hand over Pakistan

On December 3, 2017, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani inaugurated the much-awaited Chabahar port. The inauguration follows the successful operationalisation of the port on October 29; which marked a major shift as to how Afghanistan trades with the world and vice versa. 

India dispatched first of the six consignments of wheat (India’s commitment to send 1.1 million tonnes of wheat) to Afghanistan via Chabahar, Iran bypassing Pakistan. Traditionally, Afghanistan due to its landlocked nature has been dependent upon Pakistan to receive international aid and conduct trade. With the opening of the route via Iran, Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan will reduce significantly and it will get access to the seaport, increasing trade volume considerably.

The Chabahar, which is in Iran, is connected to Afghanistan via 635 km road connecting Chabahar to Zahedan and improved the 206 km to Zaranj on its side of the Iran-Afghan border. India as part of its Afghanistan development assistance initiative has constructed 218 km long Zaranj-Delaram highway in western Afghanistan that runs to the Iran border, thus providing much-required sea access.

The passage of India's first consignment of wheat through Iran's Chabahar port to Afghanistan recently is significant for several reasons. First, it helps in boosting trade ties between Afghanistan and India which have suffered due to transit issues for Indian goods via Pakistan. Afghanistan has the potential to become a major transit hub for Central Asian goods reaching South Asia and beyond via this port facility. The port access is also expected to encourage domestic trading communities in Afghanistan to utilise this facility. 

Second, it alters regional geopolitical calibrations i.e. bringing Iran as a player in Afghanistan's reconstruction efforts as well as much needed developmental activity in the Sistan and Baluchistan province of southern Iran. 

Third, for Iran, the operationalisation comes at a time when the US has been changing its stance on the nuclear deal. The port is also key to INSTC (International North-South Transport Corridor) which provides trade connectivity from Russia to the Persian Gulf via different trades routes.

India, Iran and Afghanistan may have overcome many challenges to make trade and transit through Chabahar port a reality. But challenges remain. First, the location of the port itself i.e. the port is located just 72km away from the Gwadar port of Pakistan which is part of the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Second, the US policy with respect to Iran is changing again, the recent decision by the US to decertify Iran as per the Iran Nuclear Deal or JCPOA has renewed fear of economic sanctions on Iran. However, the US Secretary of State Tillerson on his recent visit to India has assured the Indian government that Chabahar port will be out of the purview of any such decision of the US government. 

But the impact of the sanctions on the associated economic activity will have an adverse impact on the economic viability of the port. Third, the port would need more than India-Afghan trade to stay afloat. Several countries, including Japan and South Korea, have expressed interest in the port facility and should be roped in. The materialisation of the INSTC will bring much-needed trade traffic to the port facility and provide access to the Central Asian, East European markets for East Asian economic powerhouses.

In addition, the poor security situation in the Sistan-Baluchistan province where Chabahar is located may raise some concerns as the province has the restive Sunni population in Shia-dominated Iran. The deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan, too, could undermine the region's capacity to tap Chabahar's full potential.

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

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