Month: September 2020

A week before an India-Japan summit, Japan’s ministry of economy, trade and industry (METI) announced it would add India and Bangladesh to a list of Asean countries to qualify for subsidies for Japanese manufacturers moving out of China. The METI announcement comes days after India, Japan and Australia decided to advance cooperation on building trusted, resilient supply chains.

The situation on the LAC between India and China was “unprecedented” and it could not be “business as usual”, foreign secretary Harsh Shringla said while addressing a webinar at the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA). Shringla said India continued to “remain engaged” militarily and diplomatically.

Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, who tested positive for Covid-19 this week, has an early-stage lung infection but was breathing on his own after being hospitalized in Milan and hasn’t been intubated, his personal physician said Friday.

It was carrying 270,000 metric tonnes of crude oil from Kuwait to India. “We are receiving support from India and thankful to them,” Sri Lanka’s Army chief Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva told reporters. He said a joint Navy, Air Force and Indian coast guard and naval support operation was underway.

Taiwan on Friday dismissed reports that a Chinese Su-35 fighter jet has been shot down by its air defence systems and termed it fake news.

The publication’s move sparked condemnation from Pakistan’s foreign ministry along with calls from Islamists to hold protests following Friday prayers, spurring thousands to mass in cities where they called for boycotts and the French ambassador’s expulsion.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized Friday what he called “Islamic separatism” in his country and those who seek French citizenship without accepting France’s “right to commit blasphemy.” Freedom in France, Macron said, includes “the freedom to believe or not to believe. But this is inseparable from the freedom of expression up to the right to blasphemy.”