South Asia
The Bangladeshi Taka depreciated for the 13th time this year on Monday, with its value against the US Dollar going from 92 to 92.50. During a meeting with Central Bank Governor Fazle Kabir, several bankers’ associations called for an increase in the supply of dollars to counter the foreign currency crisis. [Dhaka Tribune]
The Israeli Economy Ministry said it has resumed talks with the Indian government on a free trade agreement, which they aim to sign within the next few months. The deal would also allow them to counter the common challenges they face in homeland security, fintech, and agriculture. [Reuters]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
The Azerbaijani Mine Action Agency reported on Monday that it defused around 792 mines and unexploded ordnances from Nagorno-Karabakh over the past week, including in Shusha. Azerbaijan has blamed Armenia for mining the territories during the 44-day war in 2020, and claimed the mines have killed dozens of civilians and hundreds of injuries. Hence, Baku has said that Yerevan is in violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which protects civilians during wartime. [Azer News]
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan met with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Doha on Monday to discuss “multifaceted cooperation” in various fields. The meeting focused on strengthening economic ties, and agreements were signed in the fields of information technology, agriculture, transport, trade, tourism, and healthcare. [Public Radio of Armenia]
East and Southeast Asia
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Monday called on India to “appropriately resolve” civil unrest in the nation in the aftermath of violent protests following comments on Prophet Muhammad by media officials from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He said, “China always believes that different civilizations and religions should respect each other and live together as equals. It is always important to discard pride and prejudice, better understand the differences between one’s own civilization and other civilizations, and promote exchanges, dialogue and harmonious coexistence between civilizations.” [Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his United States (US) counterpart Antony Blinken said in a joint press conference in Washington yesterday that “any North Korean provocations, including a nuclear test, will be met with a united and firm response from our alliance and the international community.” [The Korea Herald]
Europe
The European Commission will “shortly” release funds dedicated to assist Palestinian families by providing allowances and funding for hospitals in East Jerusalem. The aid will be released after much delay caused by the bloc’s earlier insistence on Palestine removing anti-Semitic references in its educational textbooks, which it earlier said would be a precondition to the release of the funds. These preconditions have now been dropped due to widespread opposition from European Union members. [Euronews]
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged the British government to approach negotiations with the European Union in “good faith” and seek to reach a solution that does not violate the Good Friday Agreement. The remark comes as British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss introduced a bill in the House of Commons that would unilaterally change parts of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which was a critical part of the United Kingdom’s Brexit deal with the bloc. [Politico]
Following a meeting with European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson on Monday, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda asserted that becoming independent from Russian energy should become the European Union’s (EU) “strategic goal.” “Connecting as quickly as possible to the European power networks would increase the energy security of the Baltic states and the EU as a whole,” he added. According to Nauseda, Lithuania aims to complete its synchronisation process with the European power networks by 2024 with the help of the European Commission. [The Baltic Times]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Following his visits to Turkey, Algeria, and Iran, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro began his first ever official visit to Kuwait on Monday. He aims to “expand bilateral relations at all levels, under the principles of mutual respect and self-determination of peoples, with a view to defending multilateralism.” The last time a Venezuelan delegation arrived in Kuwait was in October 2021, when then-Foreign Minister Félix Plasencia met with the Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled. [Venezuelan Ministry of External Relations]
United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Monday that the US would sanction 93 Nicaraguan officials—including judges, interior ministry personnel, and national assembly members—who have allegedly been accomplices in President Daniel Ortega’s “unjust detentions of political prisoners” and “abuses against members of civil society.” Blinken expressed grave concerns over the Ortega regime’s “authoritarian grip over Nicaraguan citizens and institutions.” US President Joe Biden had earlier called his Nicaraguan counterpart’s electoral victory a sham and excluded the country from the 9th Americas Summit for undermining democracy and indulging in human rights abuses. [Reuters]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Another member of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party, Nir Orbach, exited the fragile ruling coalition on Monday, reducing the coalition seats to 59 and increasing the chances of collapse. The move came more than a month after Yamina lawmaker Idit Silman quit the coalition. After Orbach’s resignation, Bennett acknowledged that the government could collapse within one or two weeks. [Times of Israel]
Tribal clashes in Sudan’s volatile Darfur region since last week resulted in the deaths of around 100 people and displaced at least 5,000 families, the United Nations Human Rights Council said on Monday. In April, more than 200 people were killed in the region after clashes erupted between Arab and non-Arab villagers. [Africanews]
North America
On Monday, Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mélanie Joly said Deputy Chief of Protocol Yasemin Heinbecker’s attendance at a Russia Day event at the Russian embassy in Ottawa last Friday was “unacceptable.” “No Canadian representative should have attended the event hosted at the Russian embassy and no Canadian representative will attend this kind of event again,” she added. In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said that no Russian official will be invited to Canada Day ceremonies. [CTV News]
During Monday’s hearing of the January 6 Capitol Hill riots, former United States Attorney General William Barr told the Special House Committee that former President Donald Trump appeared to have become “detached from reality” after losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, saying he refused to listen about there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud. “There was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were,” he added in video testimony. [Huffington Post]
Oceania
New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta held a virtual meeting with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi yesterday in which she conceded that China has “been present in the Pacific for a long time” but stressed that all engagement should “advance Pacific priorities.” She also discussed the Ardern administration’s concerns about “human rights issues in Xinjiang, the erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, and the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” Furthermore, she called on China to “use its access and influence with Russia to promote a return to diplomacy.” [New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade]
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been invited to a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid at the end of this month to represent the Asia-Pacific region's support for the alliance. He is expected to visit Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron around the same time in order to mend ties following the AUKUS fallout. [The Sydney Morning Herald]
Sub-Saharan Africa
On Monday, the M23 rebel group’s spokesperson, Willy Ngoma, announced the capture of the town of Bunagana, which lies at the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)’s border with Uganda. He said that the rebels had successfully pushed back the Congolese army and demanded that the government abide by the existing peace agreement and promise protection to minorities from targeted attacks. He added that the M23 wants talks with the DRC government to address their grievances, claiming that the group’s “objective is not to wage war.” The DRC has accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 movement in its territory, a claim that has been dismissed by both the Rwandan government and Ngoma. [KT Press]
On Monday, more than 30 students in Ghana’s Ashanti region were rushed to hospital after they were left severely wounded as the Ghanian police used tear gas shells and fired shots during a protest at the Islamic Senior High School. The students were demonstrating against the rising number of road accidents in the area and had staged a blockade in front of the school, wherein the police were deployed to disperse the crowd. The Ghana Police Service has initiated a probe into the incident, confirming that several officers have also been injured. [Africa Feeds]