South Asia
Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Tuesday condemned the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation chief Hissein Brahim Taha’s visit to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir earlier this week. Bagchi said the visit was a “completely unacceptable” interference into India’s “internal affairs.” [Indian External Affairs Ministry]
Former Pakistani Finance Minister Miftah Ismail warned that the country still faces the threat of default, as foreign reserves have plummeted to a four-year low of $6.7 billion. He said the risk would stay until the International Monetary Fund returns to the negotiating table for a bailout package. [Geo TV]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Kazakh news website Vlast.kz on Tuesday declined a request by Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor to delete two reports about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow urged Vlast.kz to remove stories on the Russian military’s shelling of the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsya and Russia’s siege of Mariupol. It vowed to cover Russia’s actions in Ukraine, saying Russian laws do not regulate its operations. [RFE/RL]
A group of bipartisan American congressmen on Tuesday condemned Azerbaijan’s “coordinated” blockade of the Lachin Corridor, the only road connecting Armenia to Artsakh. They said Azerbaijan is “manufacturing a humanitarian crisis” by blocking the corridor, which will cut food, medical, and other essential supplies to Artsakh, where hundreds of thousands of Armenians live. Azerbaijani protesters have blocked the Lachin corridor for days, accusing Armenian and Russian soldiers of stealing the region’s natural resources. [Public Radio of Armenia]
East and Southeast Asia
In its new National Security Strategy document, Japan is set to upgrade China’s status to the level of a “threat.” This is a significant escalation from its current designation of the country’s actions “an issue of concern to the international community,” a description that has been in place since 2013. [South China Morning Post]
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the United States (US) and China must seriously work towards implementing “the important consensus” reached by their heads of state at the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last month and use it as “the main guideline for stabilising and developing bilateral relations in the next stage.” [Xinhua News]
Europe
On Monday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a new policy to fight illegal immigration and stop “criminal gangs” from exploiting the United Kingdom (UK) by trading in “human misery.” His five-point plan will bar those who illegally enter the UK from remaining in the country; asylum-seekers will be sent back to their country or another safe country while authorities assess their applications. [UK Government]
Belgian authorities have recovered over $1.7 million during raids conducted over the past week relating to corruption scandals in the European Parliament. The Parliament recently suspended one of its vice presidents, Eva Kaili, after she was arrested for allegedly receiving gifts from Qatar. [Politico]
During a government session in Pristina on Tuesday, Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that Kosovo will apply for European Union membership this week. “The European Union is a place of peace, security, equality and prosperity and that’s why the Republic of Kosovo’s place is in this joint house as a country that loves peace,” he asserted. Kosovo’s accession process will depend on its normalisation of ties with Serbia; Pristina gained independence from Belgrade in 2008 but the latter does not recognise it. [Reuters]
Latin America and the Caribbean
On Tuesday, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador threw his weight behind recently-impeached Peruvian President Pedro Castillo, saying his left-wing ally had been subjected to “undemocratic harassment.” He asserted that Castillo was democratically elected and, therefore, “cannot be removed from office.” As a result, he said Mexico-Peru ties have been put “on hold.” [MercoPress]
The World Health Organization and Haitian health officials have revealed that the embattled Caribbean island nation is set to launch a cholera immunisation campaign this week after it received 1.17 million vaccines from the Pan American Health Organization, the WHO's regional branch. The local health ministry reported just over 280 deaths and more than 13,600 cases between 2 October and 6 December; however, the true figures are considered to be much higher. [Al Jazeera]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Sudan on Wednesday signed a $6 billion deal with two firms from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to develop, manage, and operate the Abu Amama port in the Red Sea. The firms will also construct a special economic zone, an airport, and a road connecting the port with the Abu Hamad agricultural zone in the Nile River state. [Sudan News Agency]
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and his British counterpart Ben Wallace on Tuesday signed a ‘defence cooperation plan’ in London. Through the plan, the United Kingdom will help “develop the capabilities” of the Saudi Defence Ministry and military industries. The UK said the deal wOULD address London and Riyadh’s “shared security challenges, including through regular dialogue and consultation, education and training, and capability-building.” [Saudi Press Agency, UK Government]
North America
On Tuesday, the United States (US) Department of Energy (DOE) and DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced that achieved fusion ignition. “The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting our world-class scientists—like the team at National Ignition Facility (NIF)—whose work will help us solve humanity’s most complex and pressing problems, like providing clean power to combat climate change and maintaining a nuclear deterrent without nuclear testing,” remarked Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm. She described the development, which could herald the production of limitless green energy, as a “major scientific breakthrough decades in the making.” [US Department of Energy]
During her testimony before the Commons Procedure and Affairs Committee on Tuesday, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly revealed that she had “no information” regarding the 11 Members of Parliament (MPs) who were allegedly targeted by China in the 2019 federal election. Committee member and Conservative MP Michael Cooper called her statement “simply not credible,” saying, “How can the minister claim that she doesn’t know, that she has no knowledge” referring to a foreign intelligence briefing in February 2020 that revealed an “active foreign interference network” run by Beijing during the October 2019 election. [The National Post]
Oceania
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced an additional $1.94 million in humanitarian aid for Ukraine. Ardern said the Ukraine war “must not become a gateway to a more polarized and dangerous world for generations to come” and added that it was “not a forgotten war.” [Nikkei]
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to two Queensland police officers and a civilian whose lives were “cruelly cut short” after they were shot in an ambush in Brisbane. The officers were responding to a missing person complaint at a remote property, when they were “ambushed” by three shooters. Six people were killed in the ensuing firefight, including two police officers and a neighbour. The offenders are yet to be apprehended. “Today and every day I pay tribute to each and every one of the police officers who serve their local communities and who serve their nation. This is not a price that anyone who puts on the uniform should ever pay,” Albanese said. [Prime Minister of Australia; CNN]
Sub-Saharan Africa
South African lawmakers on Tuesday voted against impeaching President Cyril Ramaphosa over the Phala Phala farm scandal, days after an independent panel found that he had likely violated anti-corruption laws and abused his power by concealing the theft of over $4 million in cash from his farmhouse in 2020. He has also secured the support of his party, the African National Congress, ahead of its leadership election next year and the country’s presidential election in 2024. [africanews]
Statements from the mayors of Kinshasa’s 24 zones suggest that the death toll from heavy flooding in the Congolese capital on Tuesday killed at least 100 people. [The East African]