KARACHI: The idea of setting up a ‘global plastic fund’ for a marketplace to buy and sell plastic credits, floated by Dr Musadik Malik, the federal minister for climate change and environmental coordination, at the fifth session of the plastic pollution treaty negotiations taking place in Geneva, has received quite a few nods and thumbs up from delegates.
“Once we have enough countries agreeing to this, the [UN Environment Programme] secretariat will be forced to put it on the agenda,” said the climate minister.
Going through the treaty’s text with a fine-tooth comb, he found it confounding that there was no mechanism to show how the polluters would pay to countries that were getting polluted, he said, giving the example of small island nations which generate less plastic waste, but get ashore anyway from the rest of the world.
He also asked developed nations to stop exporting their plastic waste to “countries like Pakistan” and using them as “junkyards”.
Interestingly, in his address at the informal ministerial dialogue on investment opportunities for a plastic circular economy, he said, “When I look at the green financing, I find that the same countries that are consuming plastics are the countries that are getting green financing,”, putting the blame squarely on countries with a bigger plastic footprint.
Musadik Malik says he is ‘extremely disappointed’ at UN system, as plastic talks remain stalled
Talking to a packed hall, he warned, “Injustice is unsustainable and if we do injustice to nature; it is not going to care… it will retaliate, and we shall all suffer.”
Giving the example of coal, he added, “We are all interwoven as one global village, or so I believed, up until the geopolitical tectonic plates moved. And when they moved and some countries started to use coal once again, other countries were forbidden from using it. I find that perplexing… how can coal in one country be black and another country be orange with yellow polka dots. So sometimes, naive as I am, I don’t get the geopolitics of the world. The plastics [pollution] is, frankly, no different.”
“I told them to listen to us; we’re not voiceless and don’t ramrod us,” he told Dawn over the phone from Geneva.
‘Race to the bottom’
Billed as the most important environmental deal since the 2015 Paris climate accord, the 10-day summit with delegates from 184 countries has yet to agree on a definition of “plastic pollution” itself.
“They’re just squabbling over where the semi-colon is going to be placed; the number of brackets in the text continues to grow; no wonder nothing gets done,” said Dr Malik.
He was not the only one. European Union environment chief Jessika Roswall found there to be “more square brackets in the text than plastic in the sea”.
Dr Malik said he was extremely disappointed with the way the UN system works. “Is this how you deal with matters that affect the lives and livelihood of people?”
From Geneva, Rachel Radvany, environmental health campaigner at the Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL), told Dawn: “What was meant to be a global effort to solve the plastics crisis has stalled.”
She further said, “As in the climate space, it’s the countries least responsible for the problem that are fighting the hardest for an ambitious treaty… while producers are in a race to the bottom, with some even questioning whether the treaty is about plastic.”
“The written jargon-infested statements were benign to say the least; everyone agreeing and endorsing each other that the world needs to do something about the plastic waste, yet offering not a single solution,” said Dr Malik, adding that it had been exhausting.
ATHENS, Greece — Wildfires intensified across southern Europe on Wednesday with a round-the-clock battle to protect the perimeter of Greece’s third-largest city and at least three deaths reported in Spain, Turkey and Albania.
Outside the Greek port city of Patras, firefighters struggled to protect homes and agricultural facilities as flames tore through pine forests and olive groves. Tall columns of flames rose behind apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city, while dozens of vehicles were torched as flames swept through a nearby impound lot.
“Today is another very difficult day with the level of fire risk remaining very high across many parts of the country,” Fire Service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis said. At least 15 firefighters were hospitalized or received medical attention for burns, smoke inhalation or exhaustion, he added.
As water-dropping planes and helicopters swooped overhead, residents joined the effort, beating back flames with cut branches or dousing them with buckets of water.
After heatwaves, resources stretched thin
Firefighting resources were stretched thin in many affected countries as they battled multiple outbreaks following weeks of heat waves and temperature spikes across the Mediterranean region. On the Greek island of Chios, exhausted firefighters slept on the roadside following a night-long shift.
Aircraft rotated between blazes on the western Greek mainland, the Patras area and the island of Zakynthos. Athens also sent assistance to neighboring Albania, joining an international effort to combat dozens of wildfires. An 80-year-old man died in one blaze south of the capital, Tirana, officials said Wednesday.
Residents of four villages were evacuated in central Albania near a former army ammunition depot. In the southern Korca district, near the Greek border, explosions were reported from buried World War II-era artillery shells. Authorities said dozens of homes were gutted in a central region of the country.
Deaths in Spain and Turkey
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez expressed condolences after the death of a firefighting volunteer in the hard-hit Castile and León region north of the capital, Madrid, where thousands have been displaced by evacuations.
“The wildfire situation remains serious, and taking extra precautions is essential,” Sánchez wrote in an online post. “Thank you, once again, to all those working tirelessly to fight the flames.”
Evacuation centers were filled to capacity in parts of central Spain, with some spending the night outdoors on folding beds. The most severe fires pushed northward into more rural areas, where some residents hosed the walls of their homes to try and protect them from fire.
Services along a high-speed rail link between Madrid and the northwestern Galicia region were suspended after fires got close to some sections of the tracks, state rail company Renfe said.
In Turkey, a forestry worker was killed Wednesday while responding to a wildfire in a southern region, officials said. The Forestry Ministry said the worker died in an accident involving a fire truck that left four others injured.
Turkey has been battling severe wildfires since late June. A total of 18 people have been killed, including 10 rescue volunteers and forestry workers who died in July.
In France, which is recovering from massive recent fires in the southern regions, temperatures of up to 42 degrees Celsius (108 Fahrenheit) were expected for the third consecutive day. Officials issued weather alerts giving local authorities discretion to cancel public events and cordon off areas with high fire risks.
Lightning storms and farming practices cited as possible causes
Authorities across European countries have cited multiple causes for the massive fires, including careless farming practices, improperly maintained power cables and summer lightning storms.
Law enforcement officials in North Macedonia also cited indications of arson, motivated by rogue developers. Firefighters struggled to contain a blaze at a nature reserve outside the capital, Skopje, on Wednesday.
The European Union has rushed aid to fire-hit countries, including non-member states, with ground crews and water-dropping aircraft. Much of the recent effort was concentrated on Montenegro, where major wildfires continued to burn in rugged areas near the capital, Podgorica.
“Natural disasters know no borders,” Ljuban Tmusic, head of Montenegro’s civil protection agency said. “In Montenegro, the resources we have … are clearly not enough.”
ROME: At least 26 migrants died on Wednesday when two boats sank off the coast of Italy’s Lampedusa island, with around 10 others still missing, the coastguard and UN officials said.
Around 60 people were rescued after the sinkings in the central Mediterranean, a stretch between North Africa and Italy described by the UN as the world’s most dangerous sea crossing for migrants. The two boats had left Tripoli, Libya, earlier in the day, according to the Italian coastguard.
It said one of the boats started taking on water, causing people to climb onto the other boat, which itself then capsized. “Currently 60 people have been rescued and disembarked in Lampedusa, and (there are) at least 26 victims. The toll is still provisional and being updated,” the coastguard said in a statement.
Italy’s Red Cross, which manages Lampedusa’s migrant reception centre, said the survivors included 56 men and four women, updating a previous toll of 22 dead.
BEIRUT: No group in Lebanon is permitted to bear arms or rely on foreign backing, its president told a visiting senior Iranian official on Wednesday after the cabinet approved the goals of a US-backed roadmap to disarm the Iran-aligned Hezbollah group.
During a meeting in Beirut with Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s top security body, Joseph Aoun warned against foreign interference in Lebanon’s internal affairs, saying the country was open to cooperation with Iran but only within the bounds of national sovereignty and mutual respect.
Larijani said the Islamic Republic supports Lebanon’s sovereignty and does not interfere in its decision-making.
“Any decision taken by the Lebanese government in consultation with the resistance is respected by us,” he said after separate talks with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, whose Amal movement is an ally of Hezbollah.
By “resistance”, Larijani was alluding to Hezbollah, which was founded in 1982, grew into a “state-within-a-state” force better armed than the Lebanese army and has repeatedly fought Israel over the decades.
“Iran didn’t bring any plan to Lebanon, the US did. Those intervening in Lebanese affairs are those dictating plans and deadlines”, said Larijani. He said Lebanon should not “mix its enemies with its friends — your enemy is Israel, your friend is the resistance”. “I recommend to Lebanon to always appreciate the value of resistance.”
The US submitted a plan through President Donald Trump’s envoy to the region, Tom Barrack, setting out the most detailed steps yet for disarming Hezbollah, which has rejected mounting calls to disarm since its devastating war with Israel last year.
Hezbollah has rejected repeated calls to relinquish its weaponry although it was seriously weakened in the war, with Israel killing most of its leadership in airstrikes and bombings.
PATRAS: Wildfires caused by arsonists or thunderstorms and fanned by a heatwave and strong winds wreaked destruction across southern Europe on Wednesday, burning homes and forcing thousands of residents and tourists to flee.
Fire has affected nearly 440,000 hectares (1,700 square miles) in the eurozone so far in 2025, double the average for the same period of the year since 2006, according to the EU Science Hub’s Joint Research Centre.
Flames and dark smoke billowed over a cement factory that was set alight by a wildfire that swept through olive groves and forests and disrupted rail traffic on the outskirts of the Greek city of Patras, west of Athens.
“What does it look like? It looks like doomsday. May God help us and help the people here, said Giorgos Karvanis, a volunteer who had come from Athens to Patras to help.
Authorities ordered residents of a town of about 7,700 people near Patras to evacuate on Tuesday and issued new alerts on Wednesday, advising residents of two nearby villages to leave.
On the Greek islands of Chios, in the east, and Cephalonia, in the west, both popular with tourists, authorities told people to move to safety as fires spread.
In Spain, a volunteer firefighter died from severe burns and several people were hospitalised as state weather agency AEMET warned that almost all of the country was at extreme or very high risk of fire.The 35-year-old man had been attempting to create firebreaks near the town of Nogarejas, in the central Castile and Leon region, when he was trapped in the blaze, regional officials said.
He was the sixth person to die this year in wildfires in Spain. Others include two firefighters in Tarragona and Avila, according to emergency services. Working in unprepared landscapes puts firefighters’ lives at risk, said Alexander Held, a senior expert in fire management at the European Forest Institute, adding authorities should prepare by creating buffer zones and clearing combustible vegetation.
A man reacts as medics transport casualties of Israeli strikes on members of aid security committees in Jabalia.—AFP
CAIRO: Over 120 people were killed as Israel’s military pounded Gaza City on Wednesday prior to a planned takeover, while Hamas held further talks with Egyptian mediators.
The death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from the nearly two-year conflict that has shattered the enclave housing more than two million Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea — also enthusiastically floated by US President Donald Trump — that Palestinians should simply leave.
“They’re not being pushed out, they’ll be allowed to exit,” he told Israeli television channel i24NEWS. “All those who are concerned for the Palestinians and say they want to help the Palestinians should open their gates and stop lecturing us.”
Netanyahu restates idea that Palestinians should leave enclave
Arabs and many world leaders are aghast at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another “Nakba” (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out in 1948.
Israel’s planned re-seizure of Gaza City, which it took in October 2023 before withdrawing weeks later, is probably weeks away, officials say. That means a ceasefire is still possible, though talks have been floundering and conflict still rages.
Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods. Al Ahli hospital said 12 people were killed in an air strike on a home in Zeitoun.
Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Yunis in south Gaza too.
Starvation and malnutrition
Eight more people, including three children, died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza over the past two days, the territory’s health ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the conflict began.
Israel disputes those malnutrition and hunger figures reported by the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave.
Hamas chief negotiator Khalil Al Hayya’s meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo on Wednesday were to focus on stopping the bombardment, delivering aid and “ending the suffering of our people in Gaza”, Hamas official Taher al Nono said in a statement.
Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and submit its weapons.
A Hamas official said the group was open to all ideas if Israel ends the bombing and pulls out. However, “laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible”, the official said.
Global outcry
The Israeli prime minister’s plan to expand military control over Gaza, which Israeli sources said could be launched in October, has heightened global outcry over the widespread devastation, displacement and hunger in the enclave.
Twenty-four nations this week decried the “unimaginable levels” of suffering and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid.
The Israeli military said nearly 320 trucks entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom and Zikim crossings on Wednesday and that a further 320 trucks were collected and distributed by the UN and international organisations along with three tankers of fuel and 97 pallets of air-dropped aid.
But the UN and Palestinians say aid remains far from sufficient.
Arab states and much of the international community want Gaza to be governed by the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited governance in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The authority’s foreign minister, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, told reporters it was ready to assume full responsibility in Gaza. Hamas would have no role and be required to hand over arms, she added, calling for an international peacekeeping force and withdrawal by Israel.
Israel says it does not trust the PA to rule Gaza.
DUBAI: Sudan is now ground zero for the world’s largest — and most overlooked — humanitarian catastrophe.
Since fighting broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, more than 12 million people have been forcibly displaced, including 4 million forced to flee across borders, according to Refugees International.
The vast majority are women and children, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, arriving at informal settlements with nothing but the clothes on their backs — and receiving little to no aid or protection.
“This is the largest displacement and humanitarian crisis in the world,” Daniel P. Sullivan, director for Africa, Asia, and the Middle East at Refugees International, told Arab News.
“More than half the population is facing severe food insecurity, with several areas already experiencing famine.”
Amid this deepening humanitarian disaster, Sudan is also edging toward political fragmentation. The paramilitary RSF has declared a rival administration called the “Government of Peace and Unity” across Darfur and parts of Kordofan.
Meanwhile, the SAF has retaken Khartoum and retains control over the eastern and central regions.
Daniel P. Sullivan believes that failure to act now could result in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. (AFP)
Experts warn that this emerging divide could either lead to a protracted power struggle similar to Libya’s fragmentation or result in a formal split, echoing South Sudan’s independence.
Inside Sudan, the situation is rapidly deteriorating. The country’s health system has collapsed, water sources are polluted and aid access is severely restricted. Cholera is spreading and children are dying of hunger in besieged areas.
Aid groups have accused the RSF and SAF of weaponizing food and medicine, with both sides reportedly obstructing relief efforts and manipulating access to humanitarian corridors.
In East Darfur’s Lagawa camp, at least 13 children have died due to complications associated with malnutrition.
The site is home to more than 7,000 displaced people, the majority of them women and children, who are grappling with acute food insecurity.
The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, reported a 46 percent increase in cases of severe child malnutrition across Darfur between January and May, with more than 40,000 children receiving treatment in North Darfur alone.
Several areas, including parts of Darfur and Kordofan, are now officially experiencing famine.
The RSF has routinely denied targeting civilians and accused its rivals of orchestrating a media campaign, using actors and staged scenes, to falsely incriminate it. (AFP)
With ethnic tensions fueling a separate but parallel conflict, allegations of genocide are mounting once more in Darfur.
“Sudanese in Darfur face genocide,” said Sullivan. “And those in other parts of the country face other atrocity crimes including targeting of civilians and widespread sexual violence.”
Elena Habersky, a researcher and consultant working with Sudanese refugee-led organizations in Egypt, told Arab News the violence is not just wide-reaching but also intimate in its brutality.
“There is widespread cholera and famine within Sudan and the threat of the RSF burning villages, sexually abusing and raping civilians, and killing people by shooting them, burning them or burying them alive, is very much a reality,” she said.
The RSF has routinely denied targeting civilians and accused its rivals of orchestrating a media campaign, using actors and staged scenes, to falsely incriminate it.
Those who flee across borders face a new set of challenges. Sudanese refugees in Egypt often struggle to obtain residency, work permits or access to health care and education.
In Chad and South Sudan, refugee camps are severely overcrowded, and food shortages are worsening due to global funding cuts. In Libya and the Central African Republic, they are at the mercy of smuggling networks and armed groups.
“Sudanese in Egypt face discrimination and the risk of forced repatriation,” said Sullivan. “Others in Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan face their own risks of abuse and lack of support.”
All the while, international attention is limited. The few headlines that break through are usually buried beneath coverage of other global crises.
Despite the scale of the catastrophe, donor fatigue, budget cuts and political disinterest have left Sudanese aid groups carrying the bulk of the humanitarian response.
“It truly feels like the international community is basically non-existent or only existent in words,” said Habersky.
The country’s health system has collapsed, water sources are polluted and aid access is severely restricted. (Reuters)
“Most of the work I see being done is by refugee-led organizations, grassroots efforts by the diaspora, and community aid kitchens inside Sudan,” she said.
Groups such as the Emergency Response Rooms — local networks of doctors, teachers and volunteers — have been on the front lines. But they lack consistent funding and are increasingly targeted by both warring factions.
“Local Sudanese groups have become targets of abuse,” said Sullivan. “The most critical funding gap is in the amount of support going directly to them.”
Aid efforts are not only underfunded, but actively blocked. In areas such as Khartoum, humanitarian deliveries are hampered by bureaucratic hurdles and security threats.
“Even if aid enters Khartoum, it then faces other blocks to go to Darfur,” said Habersky. “There’s destruction of infrastructure, political infighting and looting.”
INNUMBERS
• 12m People forcibly displaced by the conflict in Sudan since April 15, 2023.
• 4m Forced to flee across borders to states such as Egypt, Chad and South Sudan.
Source: Refugees International
In February, UN officials launched a $6 billion funding appeal for Sudan — a more than 40 percent increase from the previous year — citing what they described as the world’s worst hunger crisis and displacement emergency.
The call for aid comes as global humanitarian budgets are under immense pressure, further strained by a recent US funding freeze that has disrupted life-saving programs worldwide.
Earlier this year, Tom Fletcher, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, urged donors to answer the appeal on behalf of nearly 21 million Sudanese in need, while describing Sudan as “a humanitarian emergency of shocking proportions.”
Amid this deepening humanitarian disaster, Sudan is also edging toward political fragmentation. (AFP)
“We are witnessing famine, sexual violence and the collapse of basic services on a massive scale — and we need urgent, coordinated action to stop it.”
While some aid agencies say they have received waivers from Washington to continue operations in Sudan, uncertainty remains around how far those exemptions extend — particularly when it comes to famine relief.
The UN’s 2025 humanitarian response plan is the largest and most ambitious proposed this year. Of the $6 billion requested, $4.2 billion is allocated for in-country operations, with the rest earmarked for those displaced across borders.
However, the window for action is closing, with the rainy season underway and famine spreading.
Experts warn that unless humanitarian access is restored and the conflict de-escalates, Sudan could spiral into a catastrophe on a par with — or worse than — Rwanda, Syria or Yemen.
“There needs to be a surge in humanitarian assistance to areas of greatest need,” said Sullivan. “Diplomatic pressure must also be mobilized to urge external actors to stop enabling atrocities and to press for humanitarian access.”
The UN’s 2025 humanitarian response plan is the largest and most ambitious proposed this year. (AFP)
Sullivan believes that failure to act now could result in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths.
Meanwhile, Habersky stressed the urgency of the situation, adding that “non-earmarked funding must be given to all organizations working to better the situation within Sudan and the region.”
“Refugee rights in host countries must be protected — we are seeing too many cases of abuse and neglect,” she added.
The stark reality is that while global attention drifts elsewhere, Sudan continues to collapse in real time. Behind the statistics are millions of lives — waiting for aid that has yet to arrive.
NEW YORK – United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed 14 young climate leaders as the third cohort of his Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change.
Coinciding with the UN’s celebration of International Youth Day, observed annually on 12th August, the group will provide the Secretary-General with practical, results-oriented advice, diverse youth perspectives, and concrete recommendations to support the UN’s work in accelerating global action to address the climate crisis.
A statement issued by the Secretary-General’s office described the appointments as coming at a pivotal moment for climate action, noting that this year marks the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement and is also the year in which all countries are required to prepare and submit their new nationally determined climate plans, aligned with the 1.5 °C target.
The statement added that, recognising the critical importance of youth voices in climate action and building on the contributions of previous Youth Advisory Group members, the Secretary-General has expanded the group from seven to 14 members. This expansion comes in response to the worrying global trend of shrinking civic space and funding constraints, which put young activists at risk and hinder their effective participation in climate efforts.
In a separate statement, the UN said that the celebration of the occasion aims to highlight the energy, ideas, and contributions of young people, particularly in advancing global progress. It reiterated its commitment to fostering an environment in which everyone’s voice is heard, supported, and empowered to succeed.
PARIS: The United Nations urged countries Thursday to maintain diplomatic pressure on the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, saying their ban on girls’ education has left millions shut out of classrooms since the group retook power four years ago.
“At a time when some are seeking to normalise relations with the Taliban, I urge the international community to remain more mobilised than ever for the full and unconditional restoration of Afghan women’s right to education,” said Audrey Azoulay, chief of the UN’s cultural and educational agency UNESCO.
Around 2.2 million girls are barred from schooling beyond the primary level, according to UNESCO.
Taliban reject criticism over women at UN general assembly
“Afghanistan sadly stands out as the only country in the world where secondary and higher education is strictly prohibited for girls and women,” Azoulay said.
“An entire generation of Afghan women is being sacrificed,” she said, calling on the international community to “maintain diplomatic pressure”.
The Taliban, who promised a softer rule after retaking power in August 2021, have imposed sweeping restrictions on women, banning them from universities, public parks, gyms and beauty salons – measures the UN has labelled “gender apartheid”.
Russia – not named in the statement – is the only country to have recognised the Taliban government since it seized power in 2021 following the withdrawal of foreign troops.
New Delhi | Mumbai: India and China may commence discussions shortly on a trade package covering supplies of critical rare earth magnets, fertilisers and pharmaceuticals, said people with knowledge of the matter. This would signal a thaw in relations with the neighbour amid heightening tensions with the US and the clamour from Indian industry to expedite imports of essential inputs from China.
Consultations between representatives of the two countries are likely to take place later this month, around the time of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, scheduled to be held in Tianjin from August 31 to September 1, the people said. “The top three items on the agenda for discussion are rare earth magnets, fertilisers and pharmaceuticals,” a senior official told ET.
While outreach has begun, supplies of rare earth magnets and all fertilisers are yet to resume from China. India mandates government approval for investment by countries that have a border with it, a measure specifically aimed at its northern neighbour. That’s against the backdrop of an escalation in tensions over the past five years, including border skirmishes and China’s support for Pakistan.
China announced export controls on medium and heavy rare earth-related items on April 4, with a view to “safeguarding national security” in response to US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, citing end-use norms. Possible talks with Beijing assume significance in light of the 50% tariff that Trump has imposed on Indian exports.
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The US has deferred tariffs on China by 90 days. Rare earth magnets are essential for a wide range of products, but especially for electric vehicles. While China has resumed shipments of rare earth magnets to companies in the US, Europe and Southeast Asia, export licences are yet to be issued to vendors supplying to India. “Individual clearances for importing these items have not come so far,” said one of the persons. “Negotiations will now start between the two countries for a trade package.” Beijing had also halted shipments of urea and some other fertilisers to India in the last three months. It has begun the process of easing restrictions on supplies of just urea to the country. “Tenders for import of urea from China have been floated,” said a top executive of a fertiliser company. This indicates China is agreeable to sending some amount of the fertiliser to India.
State trading enterprises, which import urea from China on behalf of the Indian government, have started floating tenders for the import of a limited quantity of the crop nutrient. While there is no talk about specialty fertilisers, discussions are likely going ahead, people aware of developments said.
China had also stopped shipments of specialty fertilisers such as calcium nitrate and mono ammonium phosphate. India imports about 80% of these chemicals from China.
A global supplier of agricultural inputs, Beijing has, however, been exporting them to other countries.
LOOKING AHEAD Meanwhile, both India and China are concerned about the looming trade imbalance in pharmaceuticals.
Trump’s proposed tariff on finished drugs — 250% over the next one and a half years — stands to disrupt the industry in both countries.
The commerce ministry has called for a meeting ahead of the SCO summit with top representatives from the pharmaceutical industry to discuss, among other issues, ways to collaborate and strengthen ties with China as part of broader cooperation.
Industry watchers told ET the contours of the discussions have not been disclosed yet, but these may include mitigation plans against the backdrop of US tariffs.
“While pharmaceutical exports from India have been thus far exempt from the 50% US tariffs, future risks cannot be ruled out,” an industry expert told ET.
