Other news of the day: India will buy man-portable defense missiles to deploy against China. Beijing has stopped reporting the number of cases of the pandemic. An airstrike by the Burmese coup junta has invaded India. After years of being stateless, a young Syrian has obtained Canadian citizenship. Turkmenistan signed a partnership agreement with Chinese media.
AFGHANISTAN
A suicide bombing in front of the Foreign Ministry in Kabul left at least 20 dead yesterday, according to estimates by a Taliban official. The attack was claimed by IS-K, the local group affiliated with the Islamic State. The attacker had tried to enter the building, but was stopped.
INDIA
India will buy man-portable anti-aircraft defense missiles to deploy them along the border with China. The Defense Acquisition Council, headed by Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, has authorized the purchase of short-range missiles that can be carried by troops, such as those sent to Ukraine by the United States. The militarization of the region continues after the June 2020 clashes in which nearly 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese were killed.
CHINA
China has stopped updating its daily reports on the number of Covid-19 cases for three days, creating a new information vacuum on the evolution of the pandemic. Yesterday the World Health Organization stressed the need to share information not so much on the number of cases but on the strains in circulation.
MYANMAR
A Burmese junta airstrike killed five ethnic Chin resistance fighters, including two women. Military planes dropped five bombs on Mount Victoria, the headquarters of the Chin National Army, the armed wing of the Chin National Front (CNF), the first ethnic armed organization to join the Government of National Unity. One of the bombs fell on the Indian state of Mizoram, which borders Chin state.
SYRIA – CANADA
In 2018 Hassan al-Kontar found himself stuck for months without a passport in Malaysia, at the Kuala Lumpur airport. Of Syrian origin, he worked in the United Arab Emirates and in 2011, when his work visa expired, he did not want to return to his country because the war had just broken out. For years he remained stateless, but a few days ago obtained Canadian citizenship.
TURKMENISTAN – CHINA
Turkmen President Berdymukhamedov paid an official visit to China. He met with Xi Jinping and signed several memoranda, including the media cooperation agreement between Turkmenistan’s state news agency and China’s “Xinhua” agency, as well as various Beijing publications and television channels.
GEORGIA
Georgia has reintroduced conscription, which was removed at the end of the Soviet era. The Defense Ministry will start implementing it from 2025 to “form a strong war reserve, in light of recent events and Russia’s war in Ukraine,” Prime Minister Garibashvili said.
