India hosted the 18th session of the India-Iraq Joint Commission Meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday. Indian Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Iraqi Oil Minister Hayan Abdul Ghani attended the meeting, calling for stronger relations between the two sides, including the oil and gas sector, capacity building and diversification of trade baskets. At the meeting, Ghani also invited Indian companies to invest in rehabilitation projects in his country. The two countries further agreed to move from a buyer-seller relationship to an energy partnership.
The second India-France-Australia trilateral dialogue was held on Tuesday, in which the countries agreed to resume cooperation on Maritime Security and Safety, including high-availability disaster recovery (HADR); Marine Global Commons and Environment; and Multilateral Engagement, the three established pillars of the mechanism. The participants also explored the possibility of their respective foreign ministers meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk on Tuesday said he plans to bring the electric car manufacturer to India “as soon as humanly possible,” following his conversation with Indian PM Narendra Modi in New York, which he said was “very good.”
Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Hamas attacked a gas station in the West Bank, killing four Israelis and injuring four more, on Tuesday. This incident occurred one day after Israeli forces conducted an operation in Jenin, also in the West Bank, resulting in the deaths of six Palestinians and nearly 100 others being wounded.
China signed a $4.8 billion agreement with cash-strapped Pakistan on Tuesday, to build the 1,200-megawatt Chashma-V nuclear power plant in the Punjab district of Mianwali, as part of the two all-weather allies’ increasing strategic cooperation. In his speech, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif hailed the signing of the nuclear power plant deal as a symbol of expanding economic cooperation between Pakistan and China and pledged to complete the project without delay.
China and Cuba are negotiating to establish a new joint military training facility on the island country, raising concerns in the US that this may lead to the stationing of Chinese troops and other security activities just 100 miles off the coast of Florida, according to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday. The plan for a military training centre in Cuba is part of China’s “Project 141,” a strategy by the People’s Liberation Army to develop its worldwide military base and logistical support network.
According to court documents filed on Tuesday, Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, has reportedly entered into a preliminary arrangement with federal prosecutors. Under this agreement, the President’s son would plead guilty to two minor tax offences and acknowledge the details of a gun-related accusation, potentially resulting in his avoidance of incarceration, resulting in a two-year probation period instead.
On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden made a statement referring to Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping as a dictator, following a recent visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Beijing aimed at stabilising the bilateral relations, which China claims are currently at their lowest point since formal ties were established. Biden went on to say that Xi was “embarrassed” by the spy balloon incident earlier this year, as he was unaware of the balloon being “blown off course,” and that China was also facing “real economic difficulties.”