Indian President Droupadi Murmu will visit Arunachal Pradesh on 20-21 February, where she will attend the 37th Statehood Day celebrations. The President will also address the special session of the state’s legislative assembly at Itaganar.
Li Xiaodong, the head of Shanghai’s Taiwan Affairs Office, arrived in Taiwan on Saturday for a three-day visit. Li was met with dozens of protesters at Sunshan Airport, who chanted calls denouncing China’s efforts to undermine Taiwan’s security and democracy.
On Saturday, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said in Sialkot that Islamabad had already defaulted on its payments to foreign and domestic lenders and is a “bankrupt country.” He blamed the country’s officials and bureaucracy for the economic “meltdown.”
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baebock announced on Sunday that Berlin would provide Syria with $23.5 million to help recover from the recent earthquake. She said that despite the challenges posed by the Assad regime, Germany did not want to abandon Syrians, who lacked essential supplies.
Israeli airstrikes in Damascus, Syria, reportedly killed five people and injured fifteen on Saturday. The strike targeted Iranian installations in the Kafar Sousah neighbourhood in the Syrian capital. The bombing was “strongly condemned” by Russia’s Foreign Ministry. “We strongly urge Israel to halt armed provocations,” against Syria and “refrain from actions that could have far-reaching ramifications for the whole region,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.
The African Union (AU) removed a senior Israeli diplomat from its annual summit in Ethiopia on Saturday amid a row over Israel’s observer status in the bloc. Israel blamed South Africa and Algeria for orchestrating the move and said it would summon the South African envoy to Tel Aviv for a formal complaint. In July 2021, the AU reinstated Israel as an observer, almost two decades after ejecting it over the Palestinian conflict.
During the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, US Vice President Kamala Harris formally stated that Russia has committed “crimes against humanity” in Ukraine, adding, “all those who have perpetrated these crimes, and to their superiors who are complicit in these crimes, you will be held to account.” The US Agency for International Development-supported groups have reported over 30,000 war crimes since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Serra on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky opined that any dialogue with Russia would be “useless,” and that his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron is “wasting his time” in trying to “change the Russian attitude.” Zelensky further noted that nobody can do anything if Russia has “decided to isolate themselves in the dream of rebuilding the old Soviet empire.”
Burkina Faso’s armed forces and France’s Sabre special forces participated in a “solemn flag lowering ceremony” on Saturday to mark the end of French anti-insurgency operations on Burkinabe soil. In January, Burkina Faso asked France to recall its ambassador and gave it one month to withdraw all its troops. The deterioration in Burkinabe-French relations has occurred against the backdrop of increased sympathy for a partnership with Russia among the Burkinabe people and the military junta.