Category: Politics

The United States Vice President Kamala Harris is on a Singapore visit as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to counter Chinese influence there. On Monday, The White House had announced a series of new agreements with Singapore at combating cyberthreats, tackling climate change and issues related to coronavirus, and alleviating supply chain issues.

The Treasury and Defence Department, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have linked a memorandum of understanding on cybersecurity. They had talks with Singapore counterparts regarding the expansion of information sharing and training to combat cyber threats. A new effort between the Departments of Commerce, Energy, Transportation, and Treasury, the two nations are launching the U.S. Singapore Climate Partnership on Climate.

The Southeast Asian trip of the Vice President brings her to Singapore and then later to Vietnam this week which aims at broadening cooperation with both the nations to offer a counterweight to China’s growing influence in the region. The meeting will center on the White House’s commitment to bolstering regional security along with international rules and norms including in the South China Sea. The official noted the administration’s “vision” for “free and open” Indo-Pacific.

Poland plans to build a fence alongside Belarus who shares the borders with the nation. They also plan to deploy more soldiers to stop migrants seeking to enter the European Nation.

The Poland government has offered to send humanitarian aid to a migrant group stuck at the border for more than two weeks. Along with Poland- Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia are the three Baltic state which accuses Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of sending migrants across their borders. They form a part of the EU’s eastern border in what they call a “hybrid war”.

These four countries believe that the surge in migrants is Minsk’s revenge for the EU’s sanctions against the autocratic regime in Belarus. In a joint statement from the four-nation, they said that using immigrants to destabilize neighboring countries constitutes a clear breach of the international law and that qualifies as a hybrid attack against Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and thus against the entire European Union.

Political tension is growing inside the nation over 30 migrants who became stuck on the border with Belarus. A refugee rights group said that the group included people from Afghanistan and need some medical attention. Poland says that they are on Belarusian territory and are facing criticism for not allowing migrants to apply for asylum.

The United States of America aims to complete the evacuation process by the deadline. They plan to evacuate from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan by August 31.

The Pentagon said that it was not yet the point to seek a change. However, the UK, France, and Germany will step up the pressure at a virtual G7 summit. Meanwhile, the Taliban said any extension would violate an agreed deal.

United States President Joe Biden has taken 24 hours to decide whether to extend the timeline for withdrawal or not. Biden’s decision will provide time for the Pentagon to prepare. Thousands of people have been evacuated from the nation yet many others who seek to flee remain crammed in or near Kabul airport. As per the White House records, on Monday, around 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul between their local time 11:30 and 23:30. Since 14 August, the airlift has started, the US has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of around 48,000 people.

The sole area where the evacuation is not carried out is the Panjshir region which is northeast of Kabul. Panjshir is a stronghold of anti-Taliban opponents that said that thousands of people are ready to carry on the fight against militants.

Greece has installed a 40 kilometer (25 miles) fence and surveillance system on its border. The fence is on the border with Turkey amid the concerns over a surge of migrants from Afghanistan.

Greece’s Citizens Protection Minister Michalis Chrisochoidis said that they can not wait passively for the possible impact. On Friday, Chrisochoidis was on a visit to the region of Evros. He said his borders will remain inviolable. The statement from the mister came after Turkey called on European countries to take responsibility for Afghan migrants.

A telephonic conversation was carried out between the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan said that the sharp increase in people leaving Afghanistan can pose “a serious challenge for everyone. He believes necessary measures are not taken in Afghanistan and in Iran which will have a new wave of migration that will be inevitable.

The takeover of the Taliban over Afghanistan has created new “possibilities for migrant flows” into Europe. In 2015, Greece was on the front line of the migrant crisis where more than a million people fled war and poverty in the Middle East crossed from Turkey into the EU.

Greece said it may send back any Afghan that arrives illegally through the country.

The US President Joe Biden is scheduled for a virtual meeting with other leaders of the G-7 countries to discuss close coordination on Afghanistan policy. The meeting will be conducted on August 24 according to the statement released by the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday.

Jen Psaki said that the meeting will be scheduled virtually to meet other leaders of the G-7 countries to discuss continuing their close coordination on Afghanistan policy and evacuating their citizens, the brave Afghan who stood with the US over the last two decades and other vulnerable Afghans. The leaders are also to discuss the plans to provide humanitarian assistance and support for Afghan refugees.

G-7 leaders will include United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, France President Emmanuel Macron, and Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Leaders from the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan are set to be included.

Biden has had personal calls over the last few days with some of the leaders including Borris Johnson, Angela Markel, and Mario Draghi. The withdrawal of the American troops from Afghanistan came with a cost with legions of Afghans seeking refuge outside the country.

On Monday, United States Vice President Kamala Harris visited Singapore to deepen the ties between the two nations. Harris met with the top leaders in Singapore on the first working day of her trip to Southeast Asia.

Biden’s administration’s top priorities will be discussed by Harris regarding a partnership to tackle cyber threats, supply disruptions, and the COVID-19 pandemic in Southeast Asia. She met with Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and President Halimah Yacob during the trip. The meeting was amid bolstering ties with the partners in the region as part of Washington’s efforts to counter China’s growing economic and security influence.

US and Singapore have reagreed the security agreements that reaffirm America’s presence in the region. The presence through “rotational deployments of US P-8 aircraft and littoral combat ships to Singapore will be discussed. The factsheet of the same was shared by the White House. Harris will also have to convince leaders in Singapore and Vietnam that Washington’s commitment to Southeast Asia is firm and not a parallel as it was with Afghanistan.

Other initiatives include dialogue on both the nations of building supply chains with Harris holding more supply chain meetings on Tuesday.

The United States plans to use commercial aircraft to transport the people after they have evacuated Afghanistan. According to the statement released by the Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, 18 aircraft will not fly into Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport. The aircraft’s list includes United States, Delta, and Hawaiian airlines.

The focus is on military aircraft to allow them to operate in and out of Kabul. Kirby said they will use “onward movement of passengers from a temporary safe haven and interim staging bases”. This will be the third time ever where the Civil Reserve Air Fleet has been activated. From August 1990 to May 1991 was the first time when the support of Operation Desert Shield/Storm was used during the Gulf war. The second time was for Operation Iraqi Freedom from February 2002 to June 2002 in the invasion of Iraq.

This program was established in the year 1951 to voluntarily participate in carriers that give preference in carrying commercial peacetime cargo and passenger traffic for the Defence Department.

The increasing concern over the security in the Afghan capital which is protected by the 5,800 US troops made the Pentagon release the statement.

The United Kingdom plans to push world leaders to consider new sanctions on the Taliban. British Prime minister Borris Johnson is currently leading the group that includes the United States, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, and Canada. They believe that G-7 should consider the economic sanctions and withhold aid if the Taliban commits human rights abuses and allow its territory to be used as a haven for militants.

According to US President Joe Biden, the Taliban had not taken any action against US forces that are controlling Kabul airport. Biden agrees to Britain’s push for sanctions if the Taliban commits any abuses and said that his answer is yes that depends on the conduct. The sanction is unlikely to be adopted immediately as per one Western diplomat.

The possibility of sanction to pressure the Taliban was first raised by the British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in the last week. Johnson plans to push the extent of the deadline for withdrawing US forces from Afghanistan so that more people can be evacuated.

On Sunday, the US military was discussing potentially extending the deadline but hoped that would not be necessary. Biden said they can consider if the G-7 allies ask for it but was working closely with those countries and others to help evacuate their citizens.

The British government has announced plans to take in 5,000 Afghan refugees this year. After a heated emergency debate in the parliament packed with lawmakers, on the UK’s response to the Taliban’s Seizure of power in Afghanistan, Boris Johson said refugees will primarily be women and children.

For the chaotic turn of events in Afghanistan, Prime Minister Boris Johnson came under fire. He said a new “generous” refugee settlement program will allow 20,000 vulnerable Afghanistan refugees to seek shelter in the UK in the coming years. The UK is trying to evacuate more than 5,000 Afghan allies from Kabul international airport.

The prime minister further added that they are working hard to unite the international community behind a “clear plan for dealing with the Taliban”. Borris Johnson is the current president of the Group of Seven leading nations and has said that he is looking to convene a meeting of leaders in the coming days.

Johnson is also facing criticism from veterans and the families of the 457 British troops who died in Afghanistan. They martyr while fighting as part of the US-led NATO military operation.

On Wednesday, a briefing cum conversation was held between Indian and the US along with some other countries with US Deputy Secretary Wendy Sherman. They have agreed, keeping in mind the interest of women, minorities, and the safety and security of diplomatic personnel that it was important to work for as representative and as inclusive a government as possible in Afghanistan.

Another general sentiment to emerge was participation by foreign secretary Harsh Shringla, which was that no part of Afghanistan should turn into a terror safe heaven and that the terrorism was being exported to Afghanistan from outside. Shringla thanked the United States for the smooth evacuation of Indian Diplomats. He even said it is India’s main priority to urgently evacuate around 400 Indian nationals along with the Afghan nationals with ties to India. They wanted a commercial flight operation to restart in Kabul as soon as possible. They even want to access the airport to evacuate its nationals.

However, despite repeated advisory by the embassy in the past couple of months about the looming security threat, the Indian nationals who are still in Afghanistan chose to stay back.