According to reports, India is expected to be invited to the trilateral Israel, Greece, and Cyprus summit next year. The 9th Trilateral Summit was held in Nicosia on Monday. It saw the participation of Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis, and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. At the summit, the leaders reaffirmed their strong commitment to the 3+1 format with the US and talked about expanding the format beyond the US to include other countries, specifically India. All three leaders expressed their support for inviting India to the upcoming summit.
The Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) police have warned the BBC of legal action for its report titled ‘Any story could be your last’ – India’s crackdown on Kashmir press.’ The report claims there is a “sinister and systematic campaign to intimidate and silence the press” in the valley. The J&K police said that the report “unfairly castigates law and order efforts” as “biased against journalists” and accused BBC of misreporting facts in a sub judice case.
On Monday, Japan’s Supreme Court dismissed Okinawa’s previous rejection of a central government plan to build US Marine Corps runways on the island. It ordered the prefecture to approve the decision despite protests by locals, who oppose the American troops’ presence in the region.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin told his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a phone conversation on Monday that efforts are being made to transfer Iran’s frozen funds, after the latter reached a deal with the US to release American citizens in return for freeing Iranian assets.
Iran continues to violate the restrictions set on its nuclear programme under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as stated by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in a report. The IAEA also claims that negotiations with Iran on sensitive matters, such as reinstalling surveillance cameras and explaining uranium traces at undeclared locations, are at an impasse.
This week, the US, the UK, and the EU officials are planning to push the UAE to halt shipments that might aid Russia in its war against Ukraine, as the Wall Street Journal reported. Officials from the US and Europe visited the UAE on Monday as part of the global effort to keep computer chips, electrical components, and other so-called dual-use items that have “both civilian and military applications, out of Russian hands.”