Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, met with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Mariano Grossi on Wednesday to discuss nuclear technology. Zardari stressed the importance of using nuclear power for “public interest” issues such as health, energy, industry, and agriculture.
During a meeting with Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday, Indian Foreign Ministry Secretary Vinay Kwatra stressed Dhaka’s importance in New Delhi’s “Neighbourhood First Policy” and “Act East Policy.” The pair also discussed controversial issues such as water-sharing in the Teesta River and cooperation on the Rohingya refugee crisis.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report and video on Wednesday detailing how the governments of the US and the UK had forcibly displaced tens of thousands of Chagossian people in the 1960s and 70s. The report documents how Chagossians were displaced from their homes in the Chagos Islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory to make way for a US Navy base. HRW has called on both the US and the UK’s governments to correct this colonial blunder and facilitate the return of Chagossians to their homeland.
The Philippines and the US will hold their biggest joint military drills since 2015 as tensions with China in the South China Sea continue to grow. The annual ‘Balikatan’ exercises will include more than last year’s 8,900 troops, army chief Romeo Brawner told reporters on Wednesday.
North Korea may have set up a special military unit to operate new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). State media video footage from last week’s nighttime parade showed a previously unknown flag attached to the new ICBM launcher, indicating its set-up.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Michael “Erik” Kurilla said on Wednesday that Iran has been shipping weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels, thus undermining peace efforts. “Iran remains the most destabilising actor in the Middle East,” he emphasised. Kurilla made the comments following evidence presented to the UN Security Council by the UK regarding Iranian weapons transfers, including surface-to-air and cruise missiles seized by the Royal Navy last year
Israel exported crude oil for the first time, with a shipment headed for Europe, Greek energy company Energean announced on Wednesday. Energean, in charge of production at the Karish natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea, said that the move “creates a significant differentiated income stream” for Israel, which has now entered the “oil exporters club.”
Montenegrin boxers of the country’s Budva club revealed on Wednesday that they were banned from participating in a tournament in Moldova over allegations that Russia aims to use saboteurs from Montenegro, Belarus, and Serbia to topple the Sandu government and derail Moldova’s EU accession process. The boxers said the Moldovan police stopped them at the Chișinău airport on late Tuesday night, asking them to leave by the first flight available on Wednesday.
US House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Wednesday issued subpoeanas to Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Amazon’s Andy Jassy to “understand how and to what extent the Executive Branch coerced and colluded with companies and their intermediaries to censor speech,” especially in relation to COVID-19. The committee asked the tech CEOs to present documentation of any communication between them and the government’s executive branch connected to content moderation, deletion, suppression or reduced circulation by 23 March.