The 12th Meeting of the Malaysia-India Defence Cooperation Committee (MIDCOM) was held in New Delhi on 19 September. The meeting was co-chaired by Indian Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane and Malaysian Deputy Secretary General (Policy) Mohd Yani bin Daud. During the meeting, the two sides assessed the existing defence cooperation and reaffirmed their commitment to the Enhanced Strategic Partnership. They also discussed co-design, co-production, and co-development possibilities in the defence industry.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj, said India acknowledges its pivotal role in the AI revolution as the world’s fastest-growing economy. Speaking at the UN General Assembly side event on “AI for Accelerating Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals: Addressing Society’s Greatest Challenge,” Kamboj said AI has the potential to contribute an astounding one trillion dollars to India’s economy by 2035.
Indian Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal tabled the women’s reservation bill titled ‘Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam’ in the Special Session of Parliament. The bill aims to reserve 33% of seats in the Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament) and state legislative assemblies for women. Waiting for approval for the past 27 years, the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Eighth Amendment) Bill, 2023, was finally listed for introduction in the Lower House through a supplementary list of business.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing next month, Russia said on Tuesday. This will mark Putin’s first known trip abroad since an ICC arrest warrant was issued against him over the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida proposed restarting discussions on the 1993 Fissile Materials Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) in an effort to bring the struggling global nuclear disarmament effort back on track. The FMCT has never entered negotiations at the UN.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Paraguayan President Santiago Pena said that his government “expresses its support for the Republic of China - Taiwan to be an integral part of the United Nations system.” Taiwan has been excluded from the international body due to a 1971 UN resolution recognising mainland China as the sole legitimate UN representative.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters on Tuesday that Ukraine urgently requires air defences, including ammunition, spare parts, and maintenance for existing systems. Stoltenberg asserted that “air defence is saving lives every day in Ukraine and we need to sustain the air defence systems of Ukraine.”
The Armenian government requested action against Azerbaijan in the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday after the launch of an Azeri attack in Nagorno-Karabakh. Armenia appealed the court, invoking Rule 39, an intermediate response applied when there is an “imminent risk of irreparable harm,” and demanded that Azerbaijan stop attacking people and civilian infrastructure.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday welcomed the “positive results” of talks with Yemen’s Houthi rebels after they visited the Kingdom for peace talks. Reports suggest that the five days of talks, the highest-level public negotiations with the Houthis in the Kingdom, came as Saudi Arabia seeks again to end the years-long coalition war it started in Yemen.