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Saudi Arabia, India eye new cooperation areas as FMs meet in Delhi

Special Saudi Arabia, India eye new cooperation areas as FMs meet in Delhi
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Indian counterpart, S. Jaishankar, pose for a photo during their meeting in New Delhi on Nov. 13, 2024. (Saudi Foreign Ministry)
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Updated 13 November 2024
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Saudi Arabia, India eye new cooperation areas as FMs meet in Delhi

Saudi Arabia, India eye new cooperation areas as FMs meet in Delhi
  • Last September, about 50 agreements were signed under Saudi-India Strategic Partnership Council
  • Saudi Vision 2030, India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 are complementary for new partnerships, Jaishankar says
Updated 13 November 2024
Sanjay Kumar
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NEW DELHI: Saudi Arabia and India held talks on Wednesday in New Delhi, led by their foreign ministers, aimed at identifying new partnerships.

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan and India’s S. Jaishankar co-chaired the second meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Political, Security, Cultural and Social Affairs, which falls under the Saudi-India Strategic Partnership Council.

Their talks follow the council’s first leaders’ meeting last September, during which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the signing of about 50 initial pacts.

They had also agreed to form a joint task force to enable a $100 billion Saudi investment in India.

In a livestreamed video of his opening remarks, Prince Faisal said: “The inaugural meeting of the Saudi-India Strategic Partnership Council … has set the stage for a new era of cooperation across various fields and we look forward to further enhancing the council’s capabilities and efficiency in achieving our shared objectives.”

He added: “We are confident that advancing cooperation serves our mutual interests as well as benefits the region more broadly, and I look forward to exploring the diverse aspects of our cooperation.”

Saudi Arabia is home to about 2.6 million Indian nationals, making it the third-largest host country for the diaspora, after the UAE and the US.

The Kingdom is also India’s fifth-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade between the two countries at around $43 billion in 2023-2024.

Trade and investments are “important pillars” in Saudi-India relations, Jaishankar said during the meeting as he highlighted recent efforts to boost cooperation, including in technology and renewable energy.

“Saudi’s Vision 2030 and Viksit Bharat 2047 hold complementarities for our industries to build new partnerships. I am glad to note that our businesses are collaborating intensively,” he said, referring to the Kingdom’s transformation plan and India’s goal to become a developed nation.

“While we may be time-tested friends, but our partnership is premised on progress and focused on the future.”

 

Topics: Saudi Arabia India

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Five dead, seven missing in Indonesia floods, landslides

Updated 8 sec ago
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Five dead, seven missing in Indonesia floods, landslides

Five dead, seven missing in Indonesia floods, landslides
Updated 8 sec ago
Intense rains triggered flash floods and landslides in the Sukabumi district
BNPB chief Suharyanto instructed rescuers to optimize the search operation for those missing

JAKARTA: Flash floods and landslides struck Indonesia’s main Java island earlier this week, killing at least five people, the national disaster agency said Friday, as rescuers race to find seven others still missing.
Intense rains triggered flash floods and landslides in the Sukabumi district in West Java province on Tuesday, destroying at least 10 bridges and damaging hundreds of houses.
“As of Friday at 09:00 (0200 GMT), it was reported that the number of fatalities had increased to five people in total,” Abdul Muhari, the spokesman for the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), said in a statement Friday.
“Aside from that, seven people remained missing.”
He added that efforts to build a temporary bridge to open access to affected areas are ongoing.
BNPB chief Suharyanto — who goes by one name — instructed rescuers to optimize the search operation for those missing, noting that rescuers have a seven-day “golden time” to find them.
“If necessary to use heavy equipment, please do so,” urged Suharyanto in a statement.
Indonesia has suffered from a string of recent extreme weather events, which experts say are made more likely by climate change.
Last month, heavy downpour triggered landslides and flash floods in Sumatra Island, killing at leaast 27 people.
In May, at least 67 people died after a mixture of ash, sand and pebbles carried down from the eruption of Mount Marapi in West Sumatra washed into residential areas, causing flash floods.

Macron, defying calls to resign, struggles on in search for stable French government

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the nation during a televised broadcast from the Elysee Palace. (AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the nation during a televised broadcast from the Elysee Palace. (AFP)
Updated 06 December 2024
Reuters
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Macron, defying calls to resign, struggles on in search for stable French government

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the nation during a televised broadcast from the Elysee Palace. (AFP)
  • Macron will name a new prime minister within days following downfall of Michel Barnier
  • President laid blame at the door of far right opponents for bringing down government
Updated 06 December 2024
Reuters

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron on Friday began his latest search for a new prime minister to lead France’s unruly parliament, after rejecting demands he quit to end a crisis he said was driven by the far right and extreme left’s “anti-republican front.”

In a prime time address on Thursday, Macron said he would announce a new prime minister in the coming days to replace Michel Barnier, who was ousted in a no-confidence vote by lawmakers angered by his belt-tightening 2025 budget bill.

But it remains to be seen how Macron can cobble together enough support in parliament to pass a 2025 budget bill, or install a prime minister with any sort of longevity. Macron’s best hopes appear to lie with the Socialist Party, a moderate leftist grouping with 66 seats in the National Assembly.

The Socialists voted to topple Barnier this week, but have since signaled they might be willing to support another government. If Macron can win their backing, a new prime minister would likely have the numbers to stave off no-confidence motions from Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed.

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said he would meet with Macron on Friday, with his primary demand being a leftist prime minister. He also said he would be willing to make concessions on a previous demand for Macron’s pension reform to be scrapped.

The Socialist Party is, just behind France Unbowed, the second-largest member of the New Popular Front, a broad left-wing electoral alliance that won the most seats, 193, during this summer’s snap legislative elections. “We cannot, if we are responsible, say that we are simply for the repeal (of the pension reform), without saying how we are financing it,” Faure said. “We’re going to discuss with the head of state because the situation in the country deserves it ... that doesn’t mean I’ve become a Macronist.”

Faure later said that Macron should also seek to bring in the Greens and Communists.

MACRON REJECTS BLAME

Macron, who sparked France’s festering political crisis in June by calling a snap election that delivered a hung parliament, was defiant in his address to nation.

“I’m well aware that some want to pin the blame on me for this situation, it’s much more comfortable,” he said.

But he said he will “never bear the responsibilities” of lawmakers who decided to bring down the government just days before Christmas.

He said Barnier was toppled by the far-right and hard left in an “anti-republican front” that sought to create chaos. Their sole motivation, he added, was the 2027 presidential election, “to prepare for it and to precipitate it.”

Despite pressure for him to resign before 2027, Macron said he wasn’t going anywhere.

“The mandate you gave me democratically is a five-year mandate, and I will exercise it fully until its end,” he said, adding he would name a new prime minister in the coming days and push for a special budgetary bill that rolls over the 2024 legislation for next year.

The next government would pursue a 2025 budget bill early in the new year, he said, so that “the French people don’t pay the bill for this no-confidence motion.”

Topics: Emmanuel Macron France

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Indian police fire tear gas to halt farmers’ protest march

Indian police fire tear gas to halt farmers’ protest march
Updated 54 min 41 sec ago
AFP
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Indian police fire tear gas to halt farmers’ protest march

Indian police fire tear gas to halt farmers’ protest march
  • Indian farmers march for longstanding demand for minimum prices of crops
  • Farmers in South Asian country have political influence due to sheer numbers
Updated 54 min 41 sec ago
AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian police fired tear gas on Friday at protesting farmers attempting to march to the capital New Delhi to push for their longstanding demand of guaranteed minimum prices for their crops.

Farmers this week revived their dormant “March to Delhi” campaign seeking to channel the spirit of a dramatic protest in 2021, when they stormed the capital on tractors.

To stop the farmers at Shambhu, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) north of the capital, police set up heavy barricades of concrete blocks and lines of razor wire in advance of the march.

Authorities also suspended mobile Internet services along the route of the procession to prevent communication among the protesters.

Waving blue and yellow flags, the farmers broke through part of the blockade before they were halted by police.

“In February, we held four rounds of talks with the government but since then there have been no further discussions on our demands,” farmer leader Sarwan Singh Pandher told reporters.

“We want the government to let us exercise our democratic right to protest.”

In addition to price guarantees for their harvest, farmers are demanding a grab-bag of other concessions, including loan waivers and increased compensation for land acquired by the government several years ago.

Farmers in India have political influence due to their sheer numbers, and the renewed protests come as the national parliament is in session.

Two-thirds of India’s 1.4 billion people draw their livelihood from agriculture, accounting for nearly a fifth of the country’s GDP, according to government figures.

Protests in November 2020 against agricultural reform bills lasted for more than a year, a major challenge to efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to reform the sector.

A year later, their campaign prompted Modi to repeal three contentious laws that farmers claimed would let private companies control the country’s agriculture sector.

Topics: Indian farmers Indian farmers protest

London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report

London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report
Updated 06 December 2024
Arab News
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London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report

London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report
  • Sadiq Khan, 54, has been a prominent face in UK politics for 20 years
  • New Year Honours List not yet given final approval by king, PM: Financial Times
Updated 06 December 2024
Arab News

LONDON: London Mayor Sadiq Khan is reportedly set to receive a knighthood in the New Year Honours List to be announced by King Charles.

Khan, the first Muslim mayor of the UK capital, is believed to have made the annual list of those recognized by the monarch for public service, alongside other prominent current and former British politicians.

Sources close to the mayor did not deny he was in line for the knighthood when approached by the Financial Times.

Khan, 54, has been a prominent face in UK politics for two decades, having been elected to Parliament in 2005 to represent his home borough of Tooting in London.

He served as a government minister under Gordon Brown, became mayor of London in 2016, and won a historic third term in May this year.

The FT said the draft of the list has yet to receive final approval by King Charles or Prime Minister Keir Starmer. A government spokesman said: “We do not comment on speculation on honours.”

Topics: UK Sadiq Khan

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Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices

Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices
Updated 06 December 2024
Reuters
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Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices

Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices
  • Farmers break through one layer of police barricades only to find security forces waiting behind iron crowd control barriers
  • The farmers are demanding legal guarantees of more state support for crops and a debt waiver
Updated 06 December 2024
Reuters

SHAMBHU, India: Indian police used tear gas and pepper spray against dozens of farmers who began marching from Punjab state along a key highway to Delhi on Friday to demand better prices for their crops.
The confrontation took place just over 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital as about 100 farmers, most from the northern breadbasket state, attempted to resume their ‘Delhi Chalo’ (Let’s go to Delhi) march, blocked since February.
Farmers broke through one layer of police barricades only to find security forces waiting behind iron crowd control barriers. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Farmers’ leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said before the march got under way that it would go as far as security forces allowed.
“We will be only around 100 people so it is not like we can break police barricades,” Pandher said.
The farmers are demanding legal guarantees of more state support for crops and a debt waiver, and say the government must honor a promise to double their incomes.
They have been camped at Shambhu on Punjab’s border with neighboring Haryana state since February, when police halted their march.
The Haryana government on Friday suspended mobile Internet and bulk text message services in some places until Dec. 9 to “stop the spread of misinformation and rumors,” and police said “sufficient force” had been deployed to maintain law and order.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government did not comment on Friday’s protests, but Haryana senior minister Anil Vij, who is from Modi’s party, said the farmers would need to secure permission if they wanted to proceed to Delhi.
Modi’s government was forced to repeal some farm laws in 2021 after a year-long protest by farmers when they camped outside Delhi for months.
A spokesperson for India’s main opposition Congress party said it “fully supports” the farmers’ demands.

Topics: Agriculture India

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