South Asia
On Wednesday, United Nations representatives commenced their three-day visit to Bhasan Char island, where over 13,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees are being housed despite concerns of repeated flooding. They will assess the “current situation and facilities” on the island to ensure that the needs of the refugees are met. [Al Jazeera]
The annual report by IQAir, a Swiss organisation, concluded that 22 out of the world’s 30 most polluted cities are in India. While it said that the air quality in New Delhi had improved by 15% between 2019 and 2020, it continues to be the most polluted city in the world. [Bloomberg Quint]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kyrgyz counterpart, Sadyr Japarov, officially launched the Jerooy gold refining plant on Wednesday, which is the Central Asian nation’s second-largest gold deposit. The mine is operated by Russia’s Alliance Group and it is estimated that the mine has nearly 90 tons of gold and 25 tons of silver. [RFE/RL]
Uzbekistan and India’s joint military exercise which began on March 10, will be coming to an end tomorrow, March 19. The exercise aimed to enhance their counter-terrorism capabilities in urban and jungle warfare. [The Print]
East and Southeast Asia
In a historic ruling by a district court in Japan, the failure to recognise same-sex marriage has been ruled as “unconstitutional”. This is a symbolic win for LGBTQ activists in a country where marriage is described as an institution where there is “mutual consent between both sexes”. [BBC]
On Wednesday, European Union (EU) ambassadors agreed to impose a new set of sanctions on four Chinese individuals and one entity over human rights violations against the Uighur Muslim minority community in Xinjiang. The sanctions include asset freezing and travel bans. [Politico]
Europe
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey inked an agreement relating to the construction of a highway connecting Sarajevo to Belgrade, which authorities say is the “largest integrated infrastructure project in Bosnia.” Though it isn’t clear who will fund the Bosnian stretch of the highway yet—which is estimated to cost around €3 billion—the deal offers the possibility of financing through Turkish banks or international credit institutions. Turkey has also promised Bosnia 30,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. [Balkan Insight, EURACTIV]
Russian lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill banning insults against World War II veterans, saying that doing so would be “equated with the rehabilitation of Nazism.” If convicted, offenders could face prison sentences of up to five years. [The Moscow Times]
Despite his limited campaigning owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte attained an “overwhelming” victory in the country’s national election and secured a fourth term in office. His victory is seen as indicative of public opinion on the government’s performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. [The Guardian]
Latin America and the Caribbean
Following last week’s arrest of former interim Bolivian president Jeanine Áñez for her role in the coup to overthrow former President Evo Morales in 2019, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Efraín Guadarrama said, “The Organisation of American States (OAS) should attend to the collegial condition of its mandate and refrain from confrontation with a democratically elected government such as the Bolivian one.” He added, “We make a reminder to OAS Secretary-General to conduct itself according to its powers, fostering dialogue, consensus...and not polarizing the already divided organization.” This comes after OAS Secretary-General Luis Almagro called for the release of Áñez and former Cabinet ministers who were arrested alongside her. [Telesur]|
Despite already having vaccinated over 25% of its 19 million population, Chile continues to come to battle a rising number of coronavirus cases. In fact, over the past seven days, the country has registered a daily average of over 5,000 new cases. Chile has thus far recorded 900,000 cases and 21,000 deaths from the virus. [Al Jazeera]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his anger at Saudi Arabia for conducting joint military exercises with Greece while simultaneously asking Turkey to sell it armed drones. Erdoğan was also angered by Saudi Arabia’s decision to participate in the “Friendship Forum” with Egypt, France, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Greece in Athens last month. Ties between Ankara and Riyadh have been strained since the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. [Middle East Monitor]
Tunisian President Kais Saied visited Libya on Wednesday to meet with the newly-formed United Nations-backed unity government, which is led by interim Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah. Saied’s office said that the visit, which marked the first trip by a Tunisian president to Libya since 2012, demonstrated “Tunisia’s support for the democratic process in Libya” and for “stability and prosperity” in the country. [The New Arab]
North America
The US on Wednesday sanctioned 24 Chinese and Hong Kong officials over their crackdown on dissent in the semi-autonomous territory, just one day before the Biden administration’s first face-to-face talks with Chinese diplomats in Alaska. The punitive measures were introduced under the Hong Kong Autonomy Act (HKAA) and the targeted individuals include “14 vice-chairs of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and officials in the Hong Kong Police Force’s National Security Division, the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, and the Office for Safeguarding National Security.” [US Department of State]
Former US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that although “every poll” shows that people want him to run for office again, he would make a final decision on the matter after mid-term elections in November 2022. “I think we have a very, very good chance of taking back the House,” Trump told Fox News. “You have a good chance to take back the Senate and frankly, we’ll make our decision after that.” [Reuters]
A newly declassified report from the US intelligence community states that Russia undertook extensive efforts to hurt President Joe Biden’s campaign, including a massive disinformation push that was aimed at (and welcomed by) former President Donald Trump’s allies. The document suggests, however, that apart from election interference, Moscow also sought to undermine “public confidence in the electoral process and exacerbate socio-political divisions in the US.” The Russian government has dismissed the allegations as “baseless.” [CNN, Al Jazeera]
Oceania
The Director-General of Security at the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), Mike Burgess, said that the organisation will no longer use terms such as “Islamic extremism” and “right-wing extremism”, but instead shift towards saying “religiously motivated violent extremism” and “ideologically motivated violent extremism”. He said, “We don’t investigate people because of their religious views—it’s violence that is relevant to our powers—but that’s not always clear when we use the term ‘Islamic extremism’.” On the decision to stop using the term ‘right-wing extremism’, Burgess said, “We are seeing a growing number of individuals and groups that don’t fit on the left-right spectrum at all,” adding, “Instead, they’re motivated by a fear of societal collapse or a specific social or economic grievance or conspiracy.” [ABC News]
The Australian Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security (PJCIS) has initiated a review into whether or not to re-list Pakistan-based Sunni Islamist extremist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammad as a terrorist organisation under the country’s Criminal Code. [Parliament of Australia]
Sub-Saharan Africa
On Tuesday, at the African Union (AU) Commission in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe signed a treaty that calls for the establishment of an African Medicines Agency (AMA). The AMA would facilitate greater coordination between African countries’ respective pharmaceutical industries, pave the way for greater production, and implement more robust mechanisms to deal with counterfeit medicines. Zimbabwe is the 19th AU member-state to sign the treaty. [African Eye Report]
The United Nations Security Council extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) until March 15, 2022, after members unanimously voted to adopt resolution 2567 (2021). The Council released a statement saying that this forms part of the UN’s “three-year strategic vision to prevent a return to civil war”. It said that UNMISS personnel would continue to “deter violence against civilians, especially through proactive deployment and active patrolling, with particular attention to internally displaced persons and refugees in UNMISS protection sites”. UNMISS is made up of 17,000 troops and 2,101 police. [The East African]
World News Monitor: 18 March, 2021
A quick look at events from around the globe.
March 18, 2021
Turkish Preisdent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan SOURCE: WORLD OIL