Category: 2. World

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi on Friday highlighted the SCO’s growing significance as a leading regional organisation built on mutual trust, equality, dialogue, and shared development embodied in the ‘Shanghai Spirit.

Speaking at a seminar, he noted that under President Xi Jinping’s leadership, the SCO had gained fresh momentum with an enhanced focus on cooperation, connectivity, digital transformation and green development.

Ambassador Hashmi emphasized Pakistan’s strong commitment to the SCO as a vital platform for countering terrorism and extremism, ensuring peace and security, and advancing sustainable development.

He underlined the centrality of CPEC as not only a bilateral undertaking but also a bridge for wider SCO regional integration.

Reaffirming the ‘iron brotherhood’ between Pakistan and China as the cornerstone of Pakistan’s foreign policy, he expressed confidence that the upcoming Tianjin Summit would renew collective commitments to regional peace, prosperity, and the ‘Shanghai Spirit’.

The China-Pakistan Study Centre (CPSC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) hosted a seminar on Friday titled “SCO’s ‘China Year 2025’: Upholding the ‘Shanghai Spirit’.

Ambassador Farhat Ayesha, Pakistan’s National Coordinator for SCO, delivered the keynote address, while Ambassador Khalil Hashmi was the Guest of Honour.

Other speakers included Ambassador Babar Amin, Pakistan’s former National Coordinator for SCO, Dr. MA Bin from Fudan University China, Dr Ma Zheng from Sun Yat-sen University China, and Dr. Hassan Daud Butt from Bahria University.

In her keynote address, Ambassador Farhat Ayesha noted that SCO’s “China Year 2025” marked a defining moment in the organization’s trajectory. She praised China’s far-sighted approach and active role in constructive engagement, dialogue, and cooperation within the SCO framework.

She stressed that China’s leadership has strengthened the SCO’s standing as a vital multilateral platform and expanded its scope towards new areas such as poverty reduction, climate resilience, digital economy, and connectivity.

She underlined Pakistan’s strong commitment to the SCO since becoming a full member in 2017 and highlighted the deep alignment between Pakistan’s foreign policy objectives and the principles enshrined in the UN Charter, the SCO Charter, and international law.

In his welcome remarks, Ambassador Sohail Mahmood, Director General ISSI, underscored the SCO’s remarkable evolution into one of the world’s most comprehensive and dynamic multilateral platforms, calling it a compelling example of multilateralism in action.

He emphasised that in an era of intensifying geopolitical tensions, the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ offers an alternative vision of cooperation — dialogue rather than dominance, consensus rather than confrontation, and collective prosperity rather than unilateral gains.

He noted that with nearly half the world’s population and a quarter of global GDP, the SCO’s global salience is firmly established. Highlighting China’s Presidency in 2024-25, he pointed to Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s five-point roadmap as a forward-looking plan rooted in the Shanghai Spirit, encompassing solidarity, collective security, win-win economic cooperation, and equitable global governance.

Hailing China’s proactive and innovative approach, Ambassador Sohail Mahmood expressed the confidence that the upcoming 25th SCO Summit in Tianjin, China, on August 31-September 1 would adopt a long-term development strategy and other documents, charting the SCO’s course for the next decade and reinforcing its role in promoting peace, stability, and prosperity across Eurasia.

Ambassador Babar Amin highlighted China’s instrumental role in facilitating Pakistan’s integration into the SCO and noted the upcoming Tianjin Summit as the largest-ever gathering of SCO members.

He appreciated China’s efforts in advancing cooperation aligned with President Xi Jinping’s Global Development Initiative, covering poverty alleviation, food security, health, climate change, industrialization, digital economy, and connectivity.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025

KYIV: The Donbas, a large area of eastern Ukraine bordering Russia, is at the centre of US-mediated peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

Moscow has demanded that Kyiv concede the whole area, which is made up of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, even though Russian forces still do not fully control the territory.

Ukraine has ruled out giving it up, pointing out that Russia has been unable to capture the Donbas completely, despite years of trying.

Here’s what one needs to know about the important strategic stronghold:

What is the Donbas?

The Donbas, named after the Donets River and its coal basin, covers an area larger than Switzerland and represents about nine per cent of Ukraine’s whole territory.

The region has been at war since the start of a Moscow-backed separatist insurgency in 2014.

It is hard to assess how many people live there now, but according to the last census from 2001, the population stood at six million in the two regions. The Donbas is a traditionally majority Russian-speaking area, though many Ukrainian speakers live there as well.

According to the US-based Institute for the Study of War, Russia holds 79 per cent of the Donetsk region and almost all of the Lugansk region. Ukraine has said Russia controls 67-69pc of the Donetsk region, which has emerged as the focal point for peace talks.

The fortress belt

The Russian advance is threatening Ukrainian fortifications in the Donetsk region that Kyiv has been consistently building up since 2014.

The ISW said Ukraine has built a “fortress belt” stretching from the towns of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, in the north, down to Kostyantynivka and Druzhkivka, in the south.

“Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt,” ISW said.

It added that “Russian forces currently have no means of rapidly enveloping or penetrating” the chain of fortifications and it would likely take them years to do so.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, Moscow has managed to conquer about one-third of the Donetsk region. The Donbas also has a special meaning for President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose grandfather fought in the Soviet army in the area against the Nazis in 1943, as did many other Ukrainians.The Donetsk region has also seen some of the war’s bloodiest battles against Russia, such as in Mariupol, Bakhmut and Avdiivka.

Resources

Historically, the Donbas has been known for coal mining and industry, but another type of resource there is gaining attention.

The region is rich in raw minerals, such as lithium, uranium, titanium and rare earths, but many of them remain untapped in the occupied or embattled territories.

In May, Washington and Kyiv signed a minerals deal that allows the United States to exploit Ukraine’s rare earth and other deposits.

What’s next?

Giving up Donbas could have devastating consequences for Ukraine’s future security.

It “would open the gate to a future deeper invasion of Ukraine”, said Andreas Umland, a Kyiv-based analyst from the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan police arrested former president Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday, making him the most senior opposition figure to be detained under an anti-corruption crackdown by the new leftist government.

He was remanded in custody soon after being arrested. “The suspect (Wickremesinghe) will be held in custody till Tuesday, but considering his medical condition he could be admitted to the prison hospital or another hospital,” Magistrate Nilupuli Lankapura said while ordering his remand.

Wickremesinghe, whose lawyers said was suffering from heart disease and diabetes, was charged under the Public Property Act and two counts of the penal code — “dishonest misappropriation of property” and “criminal breach of trust”.

The offences carry a maximum punishment of 20 years in jail and a fine not exceeding three times the value of misappropriated funds.

Sri Lanka’s anti-graft units have led the crackdown since President Anura Kumara Dissanayake came to power in September on a promise to fight corruption.

Wickremesinghe, 76, who lost the last election to Dissanayake, was taken into custody after being questioned about a September 2023 visit to London to attend a ceremony for his wife at a British university, a police detective told AFP.

Wickremesinghe had stopped in London in 2023 on his way back from Havana, where he attended a G77 summit.

His office had previously denied that he abused his position to visit London.

Three of his then senior aides were questioned this month by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

He and his wife, Maithree, attended a University of Wolverhampton ceremony where she was conferred an honorary professorship.

Wickremesinghe had maintained that his wife’s travel expenses were met by her and that no state funds were used.

However, the CID alleged that Wickremesinghe used government money for his travel on a private visit and that his bodyguards were also paid by the state.

Wickremesinghe became president in July 2022 for the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s term after Rajapaksa stepped down following months of street protests over alleged corruption and mismanagement.

IMF bailout

Wickremesinghe secured a $2.9 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in early 2023 and was credited with stabilising the economy after the country’s worst-ever financial meltdown in 2022. He doubled taxes and removed energy subsidies as part of tough austerity measures to raise state revenue. He lost his re-election bid in September but remained a key opposition figure despite his coalition holding only two seats in the 225-member parliament.

Key opposition politicians, including two former senior ministers, have been jailed for up to 25 years for corruption since the new leftist government took office.

Several members of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa’s family have also been charged with misusing state funds and are being prosecuted. Many of them are currently on bail pending court hearings.

Dissanayake’s government earlier this month impeached the police chief after accusing him of running a criminal network that supported politicians.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025

• France says ‘time running out’ for Tehran nuclear talks
• Iranian FM Araghchi warns of snapback ‘consequences’

TEHRAN: Iran will meet next week with Britain, France and Germany on its nuclear programme, the parties said on Friday, as the European powers warned Tehran to engage swiftly to avoid snapback sanctions.

The Islamic republic suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency in July in the wake of its 12-day war with Israel, citing the UN nuclear watchdog’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities.

The European trio — parties to the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear deal — have threatened to trigger a “snapback mechanism” by the end of August.

The move would reimpose sweeping UN sanctions lifted under the 2015 agreement unless Iran agrees to curb its uranium enrichment and restore cooperation with IAEA inspectors.

“It was agreed that Iran’s talks with the three European countries and the European Union would continue next Tuesday at the level of deputy foreign ministers,” Iran’s foreign ministry said after a phone call between Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and senior European diplomats.

France confirmed the talks and cautioned that Iran faced a narrowing window of time. “We have just made an important call to our Iranian counterpart regarding the nuclear programme and the sanctions against Iran that we are preparing to reimpose,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on X, noting he was joined on the call by his British and German counterparts and the EU’s top diplomat.

“Time is running out. A new meeting will take place next week on this issue,” he added.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on X that his country remained “committed to diplomacy but time is very short”.

“Iran needs to engage substantively in order to avoid the activation of snapback,” he said. “We have been clear that we will not let the snapback of sanctions expire unless there is a verifiable and durable deal.”

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, made a similar statement. “With the deadline for the snapback mechanism fast approaching, Iran’s readiness to engage with the US is crucial. Iran must also fully cooperate” with the IAEA, she said.

It was not immediately clear where the talks, the second since the Iran-Israel war, would take place.

Snapback ‘consequences’

Iran and the European trio — known as the E3 — held talks in late July at the Iranian consulate in Istanbul, which Tehran described as “frank”.

Iran’s 12-day war with Israel derailed its nuclear negotiations with the United States and saw it suspend cooperation with the IAEA.

The 2015 nuclear deal was aimed preventing Iran from developing an atomic bomb — an ambition it has consistently denied.

The deal was torpedoed in 2018 when Donald Trump, during his first term as US president, unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement and slapped crippling sanctions on its economy.

Iran has ever since criticised Europe over failing to meet its commitments under the deal.

Araghchi reiterated on Friday the “lack of legal and moral competence of these countries to resort to the said mechanism” while warning about “the consequences of such an action”.

Iran has previously said it would leave the non-proliferation treaty — or NPT — if the mechanism, envisaged in the nuclear deal, is activated by the European parties.

The deadline for activating the mechanism ends in October, though Europeans have set an internal target of the end of August to trigger it if diplomacy fails. They have also offered an extension to buy time for talks.

Araghchi said that “this is a decision that must essentially be taken by the United Nations Security Council; and while the Islamic Republic of Iran has its own principled positions and views in this regard, it is not involved in this process.”

The foreign minister said earlier this month that Iran was working with China and Russia to prevent the snapback of sanctions.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025

• UN announcement is only the fifth-ever official declaration of famine, and the first outside Africa
• Hunger monitor says similar conditions expected in Deir el-Balah and Khan Yunis by next month
• Hamas demands opening of Gaza crossings after UN, IPC declaration
• Israel cries foul as world holds it responsible for ‘man-made’ calamity

ROME: The United Nations on Friday officially declared a famine in Gaza City, the first time it has done so in the Middle East, with exp­­e­rts warning that over half a million people faced catastrophic hunger.

“It is a famine: the Gaza famine,” said Tom Fletcher, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) panel found famine was now present in and around Gaza City.

He blamed Israel, accusing it of “systematic obstruction” of aid deliveries to the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the UN-backed report as “an outright lie”, while the foreign ministry insisted: “There is no famine in Gaza.”

The IPC defines famine as occurring when 20 per cent of households have an extreme lack of food; 30pc of children under five are acutely malnourished; and at least two in every 10,000 people die daily from outright starvation or from malnutrition and disease.

UN agencies have long been war­n­ing of the deteriorating huma­nita­rian situation in Gaza, particularly as Israel steps up its offensive in the besieged and war-torn enclave.

The Rome-based IPC said that “as of 15 August 2025, famine (IPC Phase 5) — with reasonable evidence — is confirmed in Gaza governorate”.

The UN estimates that nearly one million people currently live in the Gaza governorate.

It was the first time the IPC has recorded famine outside of Africa, and the global group predicted that famine conditions would spread to the central and southern areas of Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis by the end of next month.

The IPC previously concluded that there was famine in areas of Somalia in 2011, South Sudan in 2017 and 2020, and Sudan in 2024.

A famine was projected in Yemen in 2018, but never officially confirmed, des­pite the humanitarian crisis in the country.

‘Man-made’

According to figures from Gaza’s Health Ministry, verified by the World Health Organisation, deaths from malnutrition and starvation are spiking.

In the first seven months of the year, 89 fatalities were attributed to malnutrition or starvation, mostly children and teens. Just in August, there have been at least 138 deaths, including 25 minors, the ministry said on Friday.

The IPC said the famine in Gaza was “entirely man-made”, driven by a sharp escalation of the conflict in July, massive displacement of people since mid-March and restricted access to food.

In early March, Israel completely banned aid supplies from Gaza, before allowing very limited quantities to enter at the end of May, leading to severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.

Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Fletcher said the famine should “haunt us all”.

“It is a famine that we could have prevented if we had been allowed. Yet food stacks up at borders because of systematic obstruction by Israel,” he said.

UN rights chief Volker Turk said “it is a war crime to use starvation as a method of warfare”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres renewed calls for an immediate ceasefire and full humanitarian access to Gaza, adding: “We cannot allow this situation to continue with impunity.”

The International Red Cross described the declaration of famine as “devastating and entirely foreseeable”.

“Under international humanitarian law, Israel, as the occupying power, must ensure that the basic needs of the civilian population in Gaza are met,” it said in a statement.

Outrage

Hamas called on Friday for an immediate end to the war in Gaza and the lifting of the Israeli siege on the territory.

In a statement published online, the group called for “immediate action by the UN and the security council to stop the war and lift the siege” and demanded that crossings be opened “without restrictions to allow the urgent and continuous entry of food, medicine, water and fuel”.

It said the declaration by the UN confirmed the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza — but lamented that it came far too late.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday condemned the famine in Gaza as a “moral outrage” and a “man-made catastrophe”.

Calling it “utterly horrifying and wholly preventable”, he called on Israel to take urgent action to remedy the situation.

“We are seeing the worst possible humanitarian catastrophe that we can even measure,” said Jeanette Bailey, a child nutrition lead at the International Rescue Committee, a New York-based aid organisation.

‘Too weak to cry’

In July alone, more than 12,000 children were identified as acutely malnourished – a six-fold increase since January, according to UN agencies.

“The signs were unmistakable: children with wasted bodies, too weak to cry or eat, babies dying from hunger and preventable disease,” said Unicef Executive Director Catherine Russell.

The local food system has collapsed, with an estimated 98pc of cropland in the Gaza Strip either damaged, inaccessible or both, the IPC said.

Meanwhile, livestock is decimated and fishing is banned.

The IPC said conditions in the North Gaza Governorate, north of Gaza City, may well be worse, but said it did not have enough data.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2025