South Asia
Syrian Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad will today complete his five-day visit to India, his first trip to the country. During his trip, he has met with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankar. India has pledged to extend humanitarian and development assistance, greater collaboration in the agriculture, pharmaceutical, and IT sectors, and offered a $280 million line of credit to construct a power plant and a steel plant in Syria. [Indian Ministry of External Affairs]
Hundreds of transgender activists held a protest in Karachi on Sunday to call for equal rights and express concern over discrimination. The organiser of the Sindh Moorat March described it as “Pakistan’s first trans rights march.” Demonstrators have 12 critical demands, including the criminalisation of transphobic hate speech, the removal of the family pardon law for the murder of transgender individuals, the right to one’s “self-perceived” gender identity, and a 0.2% quota in the job sector and educational institutions. [Dawn]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Azerbaijan’s parliament on Friday voted to open an embassy in Tel Aviv, making it the first Shia-majority Muslim country to open an embassy in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said the move “is the result of the Israeli government’s efforts to build strong diplomatic bridges with the Muslim world.” “I want to thank [Azerbaijani] President Ilham Aliyev and congratulate the Azeri people who will now be represented for the first time in the State of Israel,” Lapid noted. [Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
According to an exit poll, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, in power since 2019, has secured a landslide victory in Sunday’s snap presidential election after securing 82.45% of the votes. With the win, Tokayev will extend his rule by seven years. The preliminary results will be announced later today. [RFE/RL]
East and Southeast Asia
United States Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Manila on Sunday to attend a series of meetings aimed at improving economic and security ties. She will meet with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte today. She will also make a trip to Palawan to meet with civil society organisations. [Inquirer]
Japanese Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications Minoru Terada, a key ally of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, resigned on Sunday, marking the third cabinet resignation in the last month. Terada was embroiled in a controversy about his political funding. Terada’s exit will likely cause a further drop in Kishida’s public approval ratings.[The Japan Times]
Europe
On Sunday, Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets denied Russia’s allegations of killing ten Russian prisoners of war, saying that “excerpts” of a video circulating on social media showed that Russians were “using a staged capture... committed a war crime by opening fire on the Ukrainian Armed Forces.” He argued that they “cannot be considered prisoners of war,” adding, “Those who want to use the protection of international law to kill must be punished.” [The Moscow Times]
In an interview on Friday, Dutch Foreign Trade Minister Liesje Schreinemacher asserted that “The Netherlands will not copy the American measures one-to-one” with respect to Chinese export restrictions, and “will look at semiconductors and the chip market with a more critical eye.” Her remarks come against the backdrop of the United States pushing its allies to adopt restrictions against China to keep advanced chip technologies away from the country. [Bloomberg]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Cuban President Díaz-Canel met with Cuban workers in Moscow and said he is looking at scholarship agreements with Russia. The president began his multi-nation tour in Algeria next week and will also visit Turkey and China. [Prensa Latina]
Canada on Sunday sanctioned former Haitian President Michel Martelly and former prime ministers Laurent Lamothe and Jean-Henry Céant in a continued effort to combat gang violence and punish those propagating and profiting off it. Haitian Foreign Minister Jean Victor Généus said while meeting his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the asset freezes will have a “dissuasive impact.” [Associated Press]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Saudi Arabia has executed 12 people in ten days for drug-related offences, bringing the total number of executions in the monarchy in 2022 to 132, higher than those of 2020 and 2021. Riyadh could be on track to execute a record number of people this year, despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s promise to reduce executions. In 2019, 187 people were put to death in the Kingdom, the highest since 1995, when 195 people were executed. [The Telegraph, The Guardian]
On Sunday, Turkish airstrikes in northeast Syria and Iraqi Kurdistan destroyed 89 Kurdish militant targets, including shelters and ammunition depots, the Defence Ministry announced. The strikes were aimed at Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and People Defence Units (YPG) bases in Iraq and Syria respectively. Ankara has blamed the PKK and YPG for last week’s bomb attack in Istanbul that killed at least six people. [Associated Press]
North America
Days after former United States (US) President Donald Trump announced his presidential bid for the 2024 elections, Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday appointed a special counsel, veteran prosecutor Jack Smith, to supervise the Department of Justice’s investigations concerning the classified documents found at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in August and his role in the January 6 Capitol insurrection. Trump called it an “appalling” announcement, a “horrendous abuse of power,” and “the latest in a long series of witch hunts,” while continuing to insist that he had “done nothing wrong.” [Associated Press]
During a meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Saturday, United States (US) Vice President Kamala Harris and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau discussed the progress of the Roadmap for a Renewed US-Canada Partnership, the evolving situation in Haiti, continued support for Ukraine, and how to “help address the conflict’s severe impacts on food and energy security.” [Prime Minister of Canada]
Oceania
After his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali last week, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed optimism that China will lift $20 billion in trade restrictions on Australia. However, Albanese warned that the removal will not occur immediately. “It will take a while to see improvement in concrete terms going forward,” Albanese told reporters. [SBS News]
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that she spoke about “trade, agriculture, climate change and the environment” during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Bangkok, Thailand. Ardern added that the duo also discussed North Korea’s recent missile launch. “We’re obviously at an inflection point in the region,” she said. “It’s in no one’s interest for us to see a loss of peace and stability in the region, and I’d say that’s a shared view. That is where there is consensus,” Ardern told the media. [The Guardian]
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ghanaian Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta on Friday said he is “truly sorry” for the country's economic situation, with inflation crossing 40% last month and the cedi currency depreciating by over 40% this year. The government is in talks wiTh the International Monetary Fund for a $3 billion assistance package. [Africanews]
Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, 80, on Sunday contested an election for a sixth consecutive term in office. The election is considered somewhat of a farce and a forgone conclusion, given that Obiang has only ever won elections with over 90% of the votes. The 80-year-old leader rose to power via a coup to oust his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in 1979 and is the world’s longest-ruling head of state with the exclusion of monarchs. He could gain complete control of the country’s political system with this election, given that his Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea currently holds 99 of the 100 seats in the lower house of parliament and every one of the Senate seats. [Reuters]