By Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) – The coming together of Nepal’s two communist parties – Unified Marxist-Leninist and Maoist Centre – which are already in office as the Left Alliance is a landmark development signifying a decisive political turn in the Himalayan country. The unified Nepal Communist Party (NCP) is South Asia’s largest communist […]
SPECIAL REPORT: India-Nepal Ties on Uncharted Terrain
By Shastri Ramachandaran* NEW DELHI (IDN) – As Nepalese Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli embarks on a six-day visit to China on June 19, his effort to assign the northern neighbour a larger role in Nepal’s infrastructure development would be watched with immense interest in New Delhi and several world capitals. The visit, although […]
Karzai Blames U.S., Pakistan For Afghanistan Chaos
By Kalinga Seneviratne BONN (IDN) – Former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai has blamed the United States and Pakistan for the chaos created in his country over the past two decades. He firmly believes that the West, including Germany, should admit to their failures in his war-torn country. He followed up on this argument, initially advanced […]
UN Chief Lauds India for Deepening South-South Cooperation
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – UN Secretary‑General António Guterres has commended India’s “very important role in shaping the Sustainable Development Goals“. He was speaking at an event marking the first anniversary of the India‑United Nations Development Partnership Fund in New York. The Fund aims at supporting sustainable development for low-income nations with […]
Grassroots India Beginning To Beat Plastic Pollution
By Sudha Ramachandran BANGALORE (IDN) – A 32-year-old Rajeswari Singh launched on a six-week marathon mission on World Earth Day setting out to walk some 1,100 kilometres from Vadodara in western India to reach New Delhi on World Environment Day on June 5, spreading a simple message ‘Stop using plastic’, and accentuating it by forgoing […]
China Extending Capabilities In Reengineering Global Opinion
Viewpoint by Zi Yang* SINGAPORE (IDN) – On March 21, 2018, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) released its ‘Plan for Deepening Reform of Party and State Organs’. Among the 60 items added to China’s reform agenda, four were related to state media. That month, the CCP greatly increased the power of China’s so-called ‘Ministry of […]
China Is Making Friends With Five Mekong States
Viewpoint by Nguyen Khac Giang* HANOI (IDN) – Since Chinese President Xi Jinping took over power in 2012, Southeast Asia has become a focal point of China’s geopolitical ambitions. Instead of the clandestine and illegal tactics seen under Mao Zedong, the current strategy combines two major approaches: building Chinese-led institutional mechanisms and buying support with […]
Multilateralism in Action is Something We Need to See More Of
By Miroslav Lajčák Miroslav Lajčák is President of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly. Following are extensive excerpts from his Statement at 74th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) with focus on Inequality in the Era of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on 14 […]
Families in Asia-Pacific Could Benefit Much More from Growing Remittances
By Krishan Dutta KUALA LUMPUR (IDN) – Around US$6 trillion in remittances are expected to be sent to developing countries by 2030: over half of these flows will arrive in the Asia Pacific regions, very often in small towns and villages, says a new report. Remittances to the Asia-Pacific region amounted to US$ 256 billion […]
Inequality on the Rise in Asia-Pacific – UNESCAP Reports
By Rita Joshi BERLIN | BANGKOK (IDN-INPS) – The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, approved by the United Nations in September 2015, pledged to “leave no one behind”. But two years since the Agenda began to be implemented, inequality in Asia and the Pacific is on the rise. This is affirmed by a study launched […]