Indian PM Narendra Modi will visit Jakarta from 6-7 September at the invitation of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, the MEA announced Saturday. Modi will attend the 20th ASEAN-India Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit during his trip.
Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said on Sunday that his country’s sole dependence on Russia as a security guarantor is a “strategic mistake.” “Armenia’s security architecture was 99.999% linked to Russia, including when it came to the procurement of arms and ammunition,” Pashinyan noted. His statement came amid growing anger in Armenia over Russia’s inability to help the country defend against Azerbaijan, which continues to block the Lachin corridor, a situation that the EU says is bound to exacerbate the humanitarian crisis faced by Armenians living in the region.
According to a national citizens’ survey led by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Sri Lanka’s economic crisis has left more than half of the country’s population “multidimensionally vulnerable.” The survey showed that 12.34 million people out of Sri Lanka’s 22.16 million population remain vulnerable. The study covered 25,000 Sri Lankan households and found 55.7 % of the population vulnerable across three dimensions — education, health and disaster, and living standards — and 12 indicators.
Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not travel to Sri Lanka on a two-day visit from 2 to 3 September. The visit was cancelled due to “unavoidable circumstances.” Singh was scheduled to visit Sri Lanka starting Saturday, during which he would have held talks with Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe and PM Dinesh Gunawardena.
The Nobel Foundation in Sweden has cancelled its invitation for representatives from Russia, Belarus, and Iran to attend the 2023 Nobel Prize award ceremonies. A day earlier, the foundation had changed its position from the previous year when it left out the ambassadors of Russia and its ally Belarus because of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. The invitations to the three countries had “provoked strong reactions,” following which they were withdrawn.
On Sunday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared that an independent investigation found no evidence that a Russian ship had collected weapons from the nation before the end of last year. Ramaphosa said, while addressing the nation, that the allegations had a negative impact on South Africa’s economy and international standing. US allegations on South Africa raised questions about its stance on non-alignment and the country’s neutrality in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
US President Joe Biden’s Senior Advisor, Brett McGurk, is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia this week to meet with senior Palestinian officials and discuss a potential Palestinian component of a possible mega-deal between the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel, as reported by sources.
According to a document seen by Reuters, the US government is planning to send armour-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine. The munitions are part of the new military aid package for Ukraine, which is expected to be delivered in the coming weeks and could help destroy Russian tanks. The munitions can reportedly be fired from US Abrams tanks.