By Sugeeswara Senadhira The author is Director (Research & International Media), Presidential Secretariat in Colombo. This article first appeared in Ceylon Today on September 3, and is being reproduced with the author’s permission. – The Editor COLOMBO (IDN-INPS) – Sri Lanka, as the new Chair of the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and […]
Conference Comes to the Aid of Drought-Stricken, Boko Haram Terrorised Lake Chad Region
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN (IDN) – Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Europe’s powerhouse Germany, which joins the UN Security Council next January as a non-permanent member for 2019-2020, has pledged 100 million Euros (116 million USD) in emergency aid until 2020 to lessen the sufferings of over 10 million people in Africa’s crisis-ridden Lake Chad […]
UN Chief Urges Greater Investment in Diplomacy for Peace
By António Guterres Inclusive mediation requires paying greater attention to the gender dimensions of conflict, including conflict-related sexual violence and the gendered impact of decisions around post-war reconstruction, says UN Secretary-General António Guterres. Following are his remarks, as delivered to the Security Council, to the open debate on the maintenance of international peace and security: […]
Uncertainty About Whether the U.S. and Russia Can Avert a New Arms Race
By Daryl G. Kimball The United States and Russia are rushing forward with costly, ambitious plans to upgrade their Cold War nuclear arsenals and develop new types of destabilizing nuclear weapon, writes Daryl G. Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association in the September issue of Arms Control Today. The editorial appeared with the […]
Out of Africa into Asian Games Arena – ‘Shameful’, Critics Say
By Kalinga Seneviratne NEW DELHI (IDN) – It has been simmering since the Doha Asian Games of 2006, which is now perhaps coming to a boil, about whether Arab Gulf States flushed with petrodollars should be allowed to import athletes from Africa merely to win medals at Asian Games. There is a lot of resentment […]
EU Slates U.S. for Slashing Aid Funding to Palestinian Refugees, UN Urges Increased Assistance
By J Nastranis NEW YORK (IDN) – Nearly three months after the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in its 2017 Annual Report warned about the deteriorating state of health across the agency’s five areas of operation – Jordan, Lebanon, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, Gaza, and […]
Kazakhstan Persistently Pursuing Peace and Security Agenda
By Santo D. Banerjee NEW YORK (IDN) – Four months before Kazakhstan’s eventful two-year non-permanent membership of the Security Council comes to an end, the Central Asian Republic continues to make its presence felt in an organ of the United Nations, which has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. 2018 began […]
Calls for Making Global Nuclear Test Ban Legally Binding
By Ramesh Jaura BERLIN | VIENNA | ASTANA (IDN) – The Kazakh Minister of Foreign Affairs Kairat Abdrakhmanov and CTBTO Executive Secretary Dr Lassina Zerbo have called on all States Signatories “to spare no effort to ensure that the nuclear test ban becomes legally binding by achieving the entry into force” of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban […]
California Leads the Way in Support of Nuclear Disarmament
By J C Suresh TORONTO (IDN) – The State Senate of California, the most populous state in the United States, has adopted Assembly Joint Resolution 33 (AJR 33), which calls upon the federal government to embrace the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, make nuclear disarmament the centerpiece of national security policy, and spearhead […]
Guterres Urges Security Council to Work with Myanmar, Says Rohingya Refugees Lack Life-Saving Assistance
By António Guterres A report released on August 27 by UN investigators accused Myanmar’s military of carrying out mass killings and gang rapes of the Rohingya with “genocidal intent” and called for prosecution of the country’s commander-in-chief, senior General Ming Aung Hlaing, and five generals. On August 28, UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke “with a […]