India will be hosting the 23rd Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) leaders’ summit virtually on 4 July. Invitations have been extended to all SCO leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif, and leaders of Central Asian states. Indian PM Narendra Modi will be chairing the summit via videoconference.
In a development welcomed by the country’s LGBTQIA+ community, a Japanese court ruled that not-allowing same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. Japan is the only G7 country without legal protection for same-sex unions. About 300 Japanese municipalities currently allow partnership agreements for same-sex couples, but they are limited in scope.
NATO countries are participating in Arctic military manoeuvres and have vowed to defend Finland, which became the alliance’s 31st member in April. Finland is currently hosting its first NATO exercise, which is seeing the participation of 1,000 troops from allies, including the US, the UK, and Norway. 6,500 Finnish and 1,000 Swedish troops are also participating in the joint drills.
Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will begin his official visit to South Africa and Namibia on 1 June. He will participate in the BRICS meeting in Capetown until 3 June, following which, he will meet top ministers and officials in Namibia until 6 June.
India and Austria conducted the 7th round of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) in New Delhi on Tuesday. The FOC was co-chaired by Secretary (West) of the Ministry of External Affairs Sanjay Verma and Political Director of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs Gregor Koessler. The two sides reviewed bilateral engagements and discussed global and regional issues of mutual interest. Some of the important issues were related to the EU, Ukraine conflict, and India’s G20 Presidency. The meeting also discussed measures to improve relations in education, trade, investments, and defence sectors. Previously, the two countries had signed the Comprehensive Migration and Mobility Agreement (CMMPA).
Indian PM Narendra Modi called on the King of Cambodia, His Majesty Norodom Sihamoni, who is on his maiden state visit to India from 29-31 May, yesterday at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Both leaders recalled the cultural and civilisational links between the two countries. They also spoke about improving the “people-to-people connect” between both countries. Modi and Sihamoni resolved to strengthen the bilateral relationship across various sectors. His Majesty thanked India for its initiatives in developmental cooperation and expressed his best wishes with regard to India’s G20 Presidency.
Amnesty International said on Tuesday that Abuduwaili Abudureheman, an Uyghur student who the group said was missing after travelling to Hong Kong from South Korea to visit a friend on 10 May, did not travel to the city. The group had previously reported that Abudureheman had not been heard from since he texted his friend about being questioned at the financial hub’s airport.
The US Indo-Pacific Command said that a Chinese military plane performed an “unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre” near its surveillance aircraft operating over the South China Sea last week. The Chinese aircraft “flew directly in front of and within 400 feet of the nose of the RC-135, forcing the US aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence,” it said on Tuesday.
Russian PM Mikhail Mishustin confirmed on Tuesday that Russia has granted passports to nearly 1.5 million people who reside in the annexed regions of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson. Mishustin disclosed in a government meeting that “since last October, almost 1.5 million people from the new regions have received a Russian passport.” The four territories were referred to as “the new regions” by Russian officials. Mishustin added that around 1.6 million people in the region receive pensions and another 1.5 million benefit from social assistance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the drone strike on Moscow on Tuesday, blaming it on Ukraine and warning Kyiv with “mirror actions.” The Russian Defence Ministry reported that eight drones targeted Moscow in the early hours of Monday. According to the ministry, five were shot down, while three were disabled by electronic warfare, leading them to deviate from their intended targets. Putin claimed the drone attack as “Kyiv’s response” to an alleged Russian strike on Ukraine’s military intelligence headquarters.