Author: AsiaOne

On Saturday, Felix Tshisekedi was sworn in as the president of the second-largest country in Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The 80,000-seat Martyrs sports stadium in Kinshasa was chosen by the leader known as “Fatshi” for the inauguration event.

Despite the political unrest in the country, he will take on the position for a second five-year term. 

He won reelection with more than 70% of the votes, but the opposition parties refused to acknowledge his win due to several election irregularities in December. However, the authorities swiftly refuted the allegations of fraudulent votes. According to the election commission, nearly 18 million votes were cast, representing a 40% voter turnout.

Multiple polling locations commenced operations belatedly, while others remained closed entirely and were short on supplies. The election monitoring organisation CENCO characterised the legislative and presidential elections as an electoral catastrophe.

The 60-year-old was sworn in against Joseph Kabila for the first time in January 2019. During his first tenure, he pledged to end the 25-year conflict in the East and improve living conditions in the DRC but failed to do so. He seeks to provide free primary medications once more for the current term and has requested an additional mandate to “consolidate” the gains.

On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar visited Kampala, Uganda, for a two-day summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). His visit is part of a two-nation tour of Uganda and Nigeria.

Dr. S. Jaishankar will lead the Indian delegations to the 19th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on January 19–20. It is expected that he will meet with Ugandan leaders and counterparts from several other NAM members. Later, Minister of State for External Affairs V Miraleedharan will represent India at the G-77 Third South Summit on January 21 and 22.

On his arrival today, Dr S Jaishankar shared a post on X along with some photographs. He tweeted that it was an honour to represent India at the summit and thanked the host government for the warm welcome. He also thanked the African Union for hosting the summit.

To support Uganda in hosting the NAM and G77 grouping summits, India has donated 10 buses, 5 ambulances, 10 tractors, and a few flag poles.

The NAM Summit is held under Uganada’s leadership and will bring together 120 developing nations. The summit’s theme is “Deepening Cooperation for Shared Global Affluence.” The summit will hold official discussions between ministerial and senior officials.

Bangladesh’s newly appointed Foreign Minister, Hasan Mahmud, is scheduled for a three-day visit to New Delhi on February 7. It will be Mahmud’s first bilateral visit to India after his appointment.

On Monday, the Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, Pranay Verma, extended the invitation on behalf of the Indian External Affairs Minister, and in return, Memon accepted the invitation. His first diplomatic meeting was with the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka. After the meeting with the new FM, the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka said that India is very hopeful and confident to achieve greater momentum in the India-Bangladesh partnership after the new term of Bangladesh.

Mahmud stated in an interview that he expected New Delhi to be his first stop on a bilateral visit at a mutually convenient time. He was later asked if he would meet the Indian Prime Minister during his visit, to which he replied that the planning is still at an early stage and nothing has been finalised yet.

On Sunday, Dr Jaishankar took to his official X account and congratulated Hasan Mahmud on his appointment as the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh. He looks forward to working together with his counterpart to strengthen the India-Bangladesh friendship.