Significantly, in a recent interview to WION TV, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that Beijing hadn't responded to Colombo's request for the debt restructuring.
The Himalayas Need a Common Language of Warning: Emergency Cooperation Must be Institutionalised Into Durable Regional Architecture
A genuinely regional approach could eventually include - besides Nepal, China and India - Bhutan and, where relevant, downstream institutions in Bangladesh. Organisations with established Himalayan expertise, particularly the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development in Kathmandu, could offer scientific and institutional support.
The Himalayas are Sending a Warning: Need for Timely Trans-Border Sharing of Environmental Information
The Himalayas are not collapsing because humanity exists, but humanity is creating a warmer world in which the Himalayas are becoming less predictable. The real question is no longer whether climate change will alter the mountains. It already is.
When an Entire Village and Bazaar in Nepal Disappeared in an Instant
My eldest aunt was swept away. So was her son, my dai Madhu, and his wife. My other aunt — gone too, they told me. Her grandson Sijan and his wife, caught in the same water. His own son and daughter-in-law, unreachable, unaccounted for. My maternal uncle had gone out that morning to cut grass for the cattle. He never came back.
When the Mountain Moved: Nepal's Bhote Koshi Disaster and the Case for AI-Driven Early Warning
No technology can stop an avalanche. But the tragedy of events like Wednesday's is that the fatal interval between the trigger high in the mountains and the flood wave reaching villages downstream is often 20 minutes to a few hours. That window is exactly where artificial intelligence, coupled with sensors and satellites, earns its keep.
More on Climate, Sustainability and Energy
Guterres appoints ex Indian diplomat as tech envoy; important appointments for Pakistani and Bangladeshi diplomats as well
Dujarric said that Gill “ helped secure high-impact international consensus recommendations on regulating artificial intelligence (Al) in lethal autonomous weapon systems in 2017 and 2018, the draft Al ethics recommendation of UNESCO in 2020, and a new international platform on digital health and Al”.
Warning of threat to ‘social cohesion’, UN launches $47.2 mn appeal for Sri Lanka
Asked about the causes of the crises, Singer-Hamdy said that while the Ukraine conflict had a ripple effect, there were other factors like the Covid pandemic, the tax cuts that cut the government revenue, the foreign exchange shortage, the currency devaluation and the ban on chemical fertilisers which cut agricultural production by 50 per cent.
UN appoints Rabab Fatima of Bangladesh as High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States
Fatima joined her country’s diplomatic service in 1989 and served in various capacities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Bangladesh Missions in New York, Kolkata, Geneva and Beijing.
UN to organize worldwide appeal for international assistance to Sri Lanka
After taking power, the new government of Ranil Wickremesinghe has been reaching out to the international community. The relative political stability that his government has brought following the resignation of the previous government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has also boosted the confidence of the international community.
India regrets state sponsors of cross-border terrorism go ‘scot-free’
Singh said, “The tools to address the serious violations of international law need to be used judiciously, without any selectivity, in line with principles of the UN Charter”. He stressed that countries should primarily be responsible for prosecuting serious violations of international law.
India reminds Pakistan of its ‘shameful history' of genocide in Bangladesh
During the debate, Pakistan’s Acting Permanent Representative Aamir Khan had accused India of “grave breaches of international criminal law” in Kashmir and of trying to change its demographics from Muslim majority to Hindu majority by cancelling its special constitutional status.
India, Nepal spotlight risk of terrorists using bioweapons and WMDs; Pakistan seeks democratisation of export-control regimes
“The growing capabilities of terrorist and other non-State groups to access delivery systems like missiles and unmanned/uncrewed aerial systems [drones] have compounded the risks of terrorism using WMDs”, the Indian representative said.
TTP is a persistent threat to Pakistan's security, warns UN report, as TTP makes impossible demands on Islamabad
The report comes amid ongoing peace talks between the TTP and the Pakistan government as the violence has increased since August last year. Earlier attempts of peace talks, mediated by the Afghan Taliban, had failed to produce any significant result. This year alone, the TTP carried out 46 attacks, mostly targeting security forces, and killed 79 people, according to the Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies data.
India votes for US-sponsored UNSC resolution to raise North Korea sanctions; China, Russia veto it
Without naming the two countries, India’s Permanent Representative T. S. Tirumurti told the Council on March 25, “India also believes that there is a pressing need to address the proliferation of nuclear and missile technologies related to DPRK (North Korea) in our region. These linkages have an adverse impact on peace and security in the region, including on India”.
Taliban must reverse restrictions on women in Afghanistan, respect human rights, urges UN special envoy
At a press conference in Kabul on Thursday, the UN envoy said that the advancing erasure of women from public life was especially concerning and urged the authorities to immediately reverse policies and directives that negatively impact women and girls.
Bangladesh’s explanation in enforced disappearance cases ‘insufficient’, says UN working group
Bangladesh’s move to respond to the UN group’s queries came almost two months after the US State Department sanctioned seven top serving and retired RAB officials in December last year, citing human rights violations and other abuses by it, a move that was viewed very disapprovingly by Dhaka as an unfriendly act.
UN refugee chief visits Bangladesh, seeks continued international support for Rohingyas
For Bangladesh, the challenges of hosting the Rohingyas are only growing amid the resource crunch, a growing rate of crimes, and drug smuggling in the refugee camps.
UN to honor four Nepali peacekeepers posthumously
Nepal is the second largest contributor of uniformed officers to UN Peacekeeping, as over 5,700 of its military and police personnel are deployed to the UN operations in different conflict zones, according to the United Nations.
UNSC expresses ‘deep concern’ over the erosion of rights and freedom in Afghanistan
Recent reports showed how inspectors from the Taliban’s moral policing ministry had now intensified patrolling around public spaces like malls, bazaars, and other places, enforcing their socially conservative codes.
