FlashbackOn June 13, 2019, government of Pakistan issued a notification approving the creation of National Development Council [NDC] comprising 13 members under the then Prime Minister Imran Khan, which included the serving army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa. The ‘terms of reference’ assigned to this newly created body were, “set …

It’s a given among most academics today that Britain’s empire and economic success was the result of the depredation of native cultures and gross exploitation. But what if it’s not true? There is a comedy sketch from British television, now made immortal by the internet, in which a Nazi soldier, …

Turkey is a country that has faced many economic challenges in recent years such as high inflation, currency depreciation, low growth and external imbalances. The COVID-19 pandemic has also added to the difficulties of the Turkish economy which contracted by 3% in 2020. In this context, the new Turkish government, …

Russian officials said Thursday that overnight airstrikes by Ukrainian forces damaged a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula to the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. The Chongar bridge is one of the few routes Russian forces use to move between Crimea and other parts of Ukraine under Russian control. Russia has …

UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Thursday met with Iran’s foreign affairs minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who is on the second leg of his tour of Gulf countries. The two officials discussed bilateral relations and ways to enhance cooperation, state news agency WAM reported, and also “exchanged views on …

Friday marks the end of a remarkable two weeks in the context of Saudi-French relations. Ties between the two nations have been reignited and rejuvenated and are now well on the way to reaching their full potential. Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir aptly described what happened …

America Is Not In March, at the end of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin stood at the door of the Kremlin to bid his friend farewell. Xi told his Russian counterpart, “Right now, there are changes—the likes of which we haven’t seen for 100 …

Ukraine’s Future and Putin’s Fate “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” U.S. President Joe Biden said of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, a month after Russia launched a brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Biden’s off-the-cuff remark, which his administration swiftly sought to walk back, did …

Egypt is planning to drop the US dollar in bilateral trade with several member states of the BRICS group of emerging economies, Egyptian Supply Minister Ali Moselhy revealed on 12 June. Cairo is specifically looking to use local currencies to pay for imports from India, China, and Russia – three …

The payment in non-US dollar denominated currency helps alleviate Pakistan’s balance of payments crisis and furthers the broader trend of de-dollarization in developing nations Pakistan paid for its first imports of discounted Russian crude oil in Chinese currency, Reuters reported on 13 June, marking a significant shift in the south …