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Photo: Xi chairs leaders' roundtable of Belt and Road forum in in April 2019 in Beijing. Source: Xinhua News Agency

China's OBOR Promises a World Sans Hegemony

Viewpoint by Chandra Muzaffar

The writer, Dr Chandra Muzaffar, is the President of the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

KUALA LUMPUR (IDN) – The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) also known as the One Belt One Road ( OBOR) project could well emerge as the obor ( the flame in Indonesian or Malay) that will blaze the trail in the evolution of a new epoch in history.

Chinese President Xi Jinping must have sensed its historical significance when he announced OBOR in 2013. Essentially an infrastructure development endeavor, it seeks to initiate and support the construction of roads, railways, ports and bridges in at least 65 other countries spanning four continents. With a commitment of over 900 billion U.S. dollars, OBOR is the biggest infrastructure development project ever undertaken in the history of our planet.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; OPINION; 25 May 2019

Photo: The Kalyan minaret is one of the most prominent landmarks in the city of Buhara. The minaret was built by the Qarakhanid ruler Mohammad Arslan Khan in 1127 to summon Muslims to prayer five times a day. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

Ancient Silk Route Hub Gets Ready for Modern Tourism

By Kalinga Seneviratne

BUKHARA, Uzbekistan (IDN) – The city of Bukhara was a major trading hub of the ancient Silk Routes that connected Asia to the Arab world and Europe. With the Uzbekistan government’s lifting of restrictions on foreign tourists in 2016 and global interests on the ancient Silk Routes gathering momentum, this 2000-year-old city is poised to become a major tourist hub of Central Asia.

The city grew up nourished by the merchants that arrived from Persia, India, China and Russia and it was a popular and important resting point in the development of these routes between the 10th and 17th centuries.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; CENTRAL ASIA; 25 May 2019

Photo: Congress president Rahul Gandhi with his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Credit: Outlook

Congress Should Dump Gandhi Family, Reinvent itself for Survival

Viewpoint by Shastri Ramachandaran

The Congress party has to reshape and sharpen itself for re-emerging as an instrument of public usefulness, writes in the Outlook Shastri Ramachandaran, a political and foreign affairs commentator, also for IDN-INPS. Views expressed are his own.

NEW DELHI (IDN-INPS) – Congress president Rahul Gandhi and, perhaps, his sister and party’s general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have good reasons to step down from their official position in the party. It is irrelevant whether the Congress party failed Rahul, or the helmsman sunk the boat. In its present, vastly emaciated state what is relevant is creating conditions for the party’s revival.

: Shastri Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 24 May 2019

Photo: Shaheen II, surface-to-surface ballistic missile, according to Pakistan capable of delivering conventional and nuclear weapons at a range of up to 1,500 kilometers, during a training launch in this photo released by Inter Services Public Relations, May 23, 2019.

Pakistan Tests Nuclear-Capable Ballistic Missile, Affirms Willingness for Dialogue with India

By Ayaz Gul

This article first appeared on Voice of America on May 23, 2019.

ISLAMABAD (IDN-INPS) – Pakistan says it has successfully conducted a “training launch” of a ballistic missile capable of carrying both nuclear and conventional warheads up to 1,500 kilometers.

The move came amid Pakistan’s heightened military tensions with neighboring rival India, and it is seen by observers as part of the efforts Islamabad is making to keep pace with New Delhi’s massive investments in military hardware and advancements.

: IDN-INPS Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 24 May 2019

Photo: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Credit: Kremlin.ru

Uncertainty over U.S.-Russian Arms Control Talks

By Kingston Reif and Shervin Taheran

While Kingston Reif is Director for Disarmament and Threat Reduction Policy, Shervin Taheran is Research Assistant at the Arms Control Association, which carried this report on May 24, 2019.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – Following a May 14 meeting in Sochi, Russia, with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters that the two countries “agreed that … we will gather together teams that will begin to work not only on [the 2010 New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty] New START and its potential extension but on a broader range of arms control issues that each of our two nations have.”

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 24 May 2019

Photo: ACP Secretary General Dr. Patrick Gomes (left) and Tjekero Tweya Minister of Industrialisation, Trade and SME Development of the Republic of Namibia and President of the ACP Council of Ministers) (right). Credit: ACP

79-Nation Group’s Head Explains Vital Tasks Ahead Until ACP-EU Accord Expires

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – As talks progress on future relations between 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union in the aftermath of historic Cotonou Agreement due to expire in February 2020, Secretary-General Dr. Patrick Ignatius Gomes has spelt out vital tasks ahead.

The significance of milestones marking the coming six to nine months is underlined by the fact that the future ACP-EU partnership will span more than half of United Nations member countries and over 1.5 billion people, serving to further cement the close political ties between the two groups of countries on the world stage.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 23 May 2019

Child Hunger Threatens Africa’s Social and Economic Future

By Ronald Joshua

ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – Africa’s future economic and social progress is under threat from alarmingly high levels of child hunger, and the severity and scale of the problem is such that it requires nothing short of a radical and transformative political and economic agenda, according to a new study released at the Eighth International Policy Conference on the African Child.

The report pleads among others for: (i) political commitment at the highest political level; (ii) a constitutional or legal commitment to ensure that no child goes hungry and to make it obligatory for governments to provide universal access to a minimum acceptable amount of food for all children; and (iii) provision of targeted social safety nets and school-feeding programmes across regions and communities.

: Ronald Joshua; THE WORLD; Africa; 23 May 2019

Photo: (from left to right) Haymadoyal Dillum, Ambassador of Mauritius to Brussels; Nandcoomar Bodha, Minister of Public Infrastructure and Transport and Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade; Viwanou Gnassounou, Assistant Secretary General of the ACP Group, Department of Sustainable Economic Development and Trade and Michal Golabek, Chargé d'affaires, European Union Delegation in Mauritius and Seychelles.

ACP Initiates Private Sector Development Information

By Reinhard Jacobsen

BRUSSELS (ACP-IDN) – The Secretariat of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, has launched a series of regional meetings aimed at boosting ACP private sector information, developing knowledge sharing and networking.

As an integral activity of the Joint ACP-EU Private Sector Development Framework, these events are being organised with technical support from Business ACP – the ACP Private Sector Development Platform in close concertation with the European Commission.

: Reinhard Jacobsen; GLOBAL GOVERNANCE; ACP Group of States; 23 May 2019

Photo released by the official North Korean Central News Agency showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. overseeing weapons tests at an undisclosed location in May. KCNA/EPA

Door to North Korea Remains Open Despite Missile Tests

By Alicia Sanders-Zakre and Kelsey Davenport

While Alicia Sanders-Zakre is research assistant, Kelsey Davenport, is director for nonproliferation policy at the Arms Control Association, which carried this report on May 21, 2019.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN-INPS) – The next steps for U.S. diplomacy with North Korea remain unclear after Pyongyang tested several short-range ballistic missiles in early May. Despite the missile tests, South Korea and the United States urged a resumption of dialogue. North Korea, however, has said little about returning to talks since Chairman Kim Jong Un declared in April that he would give the Trump administration until the end of the year to change its approach to negotiations or face a "bleak and very dangerous" situation.

: J C Suresh; ARMAMENTS; Nuclear Weapons; 22 May 2019

Photo: The UN Secretary-General António Guterres saw the frontline of “the battle against climate change” for himself on May 16 by taking to the tropical waters of the South Pacific off the coast of Fiji, on a solar-powered boat. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten.

Stop Tuvalu and the World from Sinking

By Sean Buchanan

NEW YORK (IDN) – Like many of the world’s low-lying islands, Tuvalu, the South Pacific island whose highest point is less than five metres above the waves, faces the threat of being submerged under rising seas.

“We must stop Tuvalu from sinking and the world from sinking with Tuvalu,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a tweet posted during a recent trip to the South Pacific.

Pointing out that Tuvalu is “on the extreme frontlines of the global climate emergency,” he noted that “rising seas threaten to drown this island nation – a sign of what’s in store for us all.”