Author: Leo Luther Alvarez

Feridun Sinirlioğlu, a senior Turkish diplomat who previously served as Türkiye’s permanent representative at the U.N., has now been appointed as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s special coordinator for Afghanistan. According to a release by the U.N., Guterres announced the appointment of Sinirlioğlu as the Special Coordinator, Independent Assessment Mandated by Security Council Resolution 2679 (2023).“The secretary-general has asked Mr. Sinirlioğlu to lead the independent assessment with a view to providing recommendations for an integrated and coherent approach to address the current challenges faced by Afghanistan,” read the statement. “Mr. Sinirlioğlu brings over four decades of experience in international affairs and diplomacy,”…

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is among the 20 countries which are at risk of excessive rainfall as the El Nino oceanographic phenomenon forecast returns in June following three years of La Nina, according to a report prepared by the Global Information and Early Warning System (GIEWS) of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations. While 20 countries are at risk of excessive rainfall, 42 countries are also at risk of the effects of El Nino with the risk of dry conditions, the report says. The countries at risk of excessive rainfall are: Afghanistan, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bhu­tan, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kenya,…

Hungary advocating for the ceasefire in Ukraine does not mean accepting that Russia would keep the territories it currently occupies, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in an interview with Associated Press published on March 26. According to Szijjártó, “stopping the war and sitting around the table does not mean that you accept the status quo.” “When the war stops and the peace talks start, it’s not necessary that the borders would be where the front lines are. We know this from our own history as well… Ceasefire has to come now.” Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, Hungary has…

So, why did Mountbatten, who bulldozed his way with other princes, including the chancellor of the Chamber,  the nawab of Bhopal, vacillate on Kashmir? Here was a state whose future was more likely than any other state to be contentious, since it was wedged between India and  Pakistan, and equally Tibet, China, Afghanistan and Russia.  Geopolitically, a decision on Kashmir was paramount, and how could Mountbatten miss the primacy of such a decision?  More so, Mountbatten, a soldier himself, understood the import of India holding on to Kashmir, since its frontiers had been breached repeatedly in the past by invaders.…