South Asia
Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa vowed to complete his term in office declaring that he would not “go as a failed president.” He also said that after completing his five-year mandate in 2024, he would not contest for the position again. [News First]
The head of the Kabul municipality, Sayed Mahmood Hashemi, was targeted in a magnetic bomb attack in Kabul on Monday. While Hashemi was unharmed, several civilians were injured, though the Taliban is yet to provide an exact number. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. [Khaama News Agency]
Central Asia and the Caucasus
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with his Azerbaijani counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov in Ankara on Monday to discuss political, economic, and cultural ties on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties. Çavuşoğlu also announced that Turkey will hold trilateral meetings with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan in the coming days in an effort to improve energy and logistic ties. [TRT World]
Azerbaijan has banned Russian state-owned news outlet RIA Novosti over the “dissemination […] of information which contradicts the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.” The move was made after the agency conducted an interview with a Karabakh separatist and referred to Nagorno-Karabakh as an independent republic. [Azer News]
East and Southeast Asia
Following his ten-day visit to the Pacific Island region, Wang Yi held a phone call with Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah during his stopover in the country. Wang stressed that China will continue to develop its Belt and Road Initiative in the Pacific island region, while Saifuddin said countries across the region depend on China’s “leadership in enhancing South-South cooperation.” The pair also talked about the “spillover effect” of the Ukraine war and spoke of the need for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to prevent the region from falling prey to the “Cold War mentality.” [Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs]
Malaysian King Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah pressed for the swift resolution of all “political issues” in order to avoid a “confidence deficit that could affect the country’s image and future.” He remarked that stable economic growth requires a “stable and sustainable political landscape.” His comments come as Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob is pushed by members within his own Barisan Nasional coalition to call for early elections. [CNA]
Europe
The Independent Monitoring Authority has launched an inquiry into the United Kingdom’s (UK) failure to provide citizens from European Union states with expedited paperwork to access jobs and other essential services. According to the London-based watchdog, this is a violation of the UK’s obligations under its Brexit Agreement with the bloc. [Politico]
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for saying that Russia should not be humiliated so that “diplomatic channels” would remain open at the end of the war. Macron has been pushing for dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has even spoken about France’s prospective role as a mediator. [Euronews]
Greek sources said on Monday that Albania wants to renew its 1996 Friendship, Cooperation, Good Neighborliness and Security Agreement with Greece for another five years in a bid to improve bilateral relations. Under the treaty, Tirana and Athens declared the inviolability of borders, respect for sovereignty, individual rights, minorities and immigrants, while underlining the European perspective of both countries. [Ekathimerini]
Latin America and the Caribbean
On Monday, the Dominican Republic’s Environment Minister, Orlando Jorge-Mera, was assassinated in his office. The attacker allegedly fired six shots and fled the crime scene, with the Ministry stating that so far it has “no details of what happened.” Jorge-Mera was the son of former President Salvador Jorge-Blanco and a Cabinet Minister in President Luis Abinader's administration since August 2020. [Telesur]
Brazilian Navy spokesperson Cibelly Lopes said on Monday that a crew of 10 people had been deployed to rescue British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous expert Bruno Pereira, who have been missing since Sunday morning in the Amazon rainforest near Tabatinga. The duo were on a reporting trip in the Javari Valley. Two search teams of the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA) are also looking for the men. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said their disappearance is “extremely concerning” and called on the Brazilian authorities to “locate” the pair “immediately,” while reaffirming that “journalists reporting on indigenous issues are doing critical work, and must be able to do so without fearing for their safety.” [Al Jazeera]
Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Six members of the Islamic State (ISIS) were arrested in a joint operation by Iraqi and Kurdish security forces in Iraq’s Kurdistan region on Monday. The raid is part of a massive security operation aimed at cracking down on ISIS militants in the region. [Rudaw]
Consecutive droughts, acute food scarcity, rising prices, and a poor humanitarian response have resulted in a 160% increase in people facing “catastrophic levels of food insecurity, starvation and disease in Somalia,” a report released by the World Food Programme (WFP), and the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said. “An urgent increase in support from the international community is essential to avert famine,” the report noted. [ReliefWeb]
North America
On Monday, marking the 78th anniversary of the D-Day invasion, United States (US) chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley said the US and its allies will continue to supply “significant” support to Ukraine to ward off Russia’s military aggression. [The Associated Press]
On Monday, Canada and Chile signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. “Both countries are intent on supporting each other’s goals to remove socio-economic, cultural and institutional barriers that prevent women from participating in the economy and public life,” Canadian Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth Marci Ien said in a statement. [Government of Canada]
Oceania
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was hosted by Indonesian President Joko Widodo in Bogor on Monday. The pair: agreed to deepen the countries’ comprehensive strategic partnership and two-way trade under their Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement; reaffirmed the centrality of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN); called on the Myanmar junta to “engage in dialogue and release those arbitrarily detained;” and expressed concern about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. [Prime Minister of Australia]
New Zealand (NZ) Defence Minister Peeni Henare will embark on a trip to Singapore tomorrow to participate in the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on regional defence and security issues. He will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Australia, Singapore, Canada, and South Korea on the sidelines of the conference. Following his trip to Singapore, he will fly to South Korea for a three-day visit, where he will meet with NZ Defence Force personnel stationed there as part of the United Nations Military Armistice Commission. [New Zealand Government]
Sub-Saharan Africa
In a statement released on Monday, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres condemned Sunday’s attack on churchgoers in the southwestern Nigerian town of Owo, when at least 70 people were killed. Guterres expressed his condolences to the victims’ families and urged the Nigerian government to “fish out the perpetrators.” [Vanguard]
Japan on Monday donated $33 million worth of ground support equipment to aid the operations and expansion of the Kamuzu International Airport in Malawi. Speaking at the official handover, Malawi’s Minister of Transport and Public Works, Jacob Hara, appreciated the support—which comprises a passenger aid lift, an air start unit, a towing tractor, a tow bar, a boom lift, and a cargo high loader— as “critical facets for airport operations” and said the new “equipment will put Malawi on international standards.” [Nyasa Times]