South East Asia

The US military in Afghanistan has halted most face-to-face contacts with the Afghan security forces and has temporarily withdrawn troops from Afghan security facilities after recent “insider” shootings, US media reported on Thursday.

The ‘conditional ceasefire’ starts on Monday and will be in place for around three months, ‘provided the Taliban reciprocate’, said President Ashraf Ghani. Afghanistan on Sunday declared a “conditional” ceasefire with Taliban militants ahead of the Eid-al-Adha festival this week. The ceasefire starts on Monday and will be in place …

Pakistan has unveiled Rs5.66 trillion federal budget that set 6.2 per cent gross domestic target for 2018-19 with primary focus on economic stability, infrastructure development and social sector uplift.

The United States government on Monday released $100 million in budget assistance to Afghanistan. The agreement was signed between Afghan Finance Minister Iklil Hakimi and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass in Kabul.

At least 54 rebels were killed and several others sustained injuries during clashes with Afghan security forces in the past 24-hours across Afghanistan, said Ministry of Defense on Friday. The casualties inflicted on the insurgents in Nangarhar, Ghazni, Paktia, Kandahar, Zabul, Farah, Balkh, Jawzjan, Faryab, Kunduz, Baghlan, and Helmand provinces …

NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan Cornelius Zimmermann has stressed timely holding of upcoming election, saying, “With transparent polls, people’s trust in the democratic process increases.” Zimmermann made the remarks during a meeting with a number of Afghan journalists at his office. He said the new US strategy on Afghanistan …

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at the end of a four-day NATO parliamentary assembly in Bucharest, Romania, on Monday that “if NATO leaves too soon, we risk Afghanistan returning to a state of chaos – a safe haven for international terrorism”. “The situation in Afghanistan is challenging. We all understand …

US President Donald Trump’s administration has demanded that Egypt cut all ties with North Korea or face further punitive action, diplomatic sources have said. Washington has warned Cairo over its military relations with the pariah Asian state. The Trump administration has urgently demanded that Egypt close military attache offices and …

India and European Union will seek to step up anti-radicalisation and counter-terrorism cooperation when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds summit talks with the leaders of the bloc on Friday. Modi will host the presidents of the European Council and European Commission, Donald Franciszek Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, in New …

The US Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker said on Sunday that American troops will remain in Afghanistan for at least another decade. “But are we likely to have troops in Afghanistan for the next decade? Sure,” Corker said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” …