By Rejaul Karim Byron in The Daily Star, Oct 5, 2017 Dhaka and New Delhi have signed a $4.5 billion credit agreement with a provision for spending nearly one fourth of the amount on Bangladesh’s first nuclear power plant at Rooppur. Through this deal, India becomes a party to the civil nuclear programme to be implemented by Russia. At the signing ceremony of the third Line of Credit (LoC) at the finance ministry yesterday, visiting…
Posts published in October 2017
Report in Dhaka Tribune, Oct 4, 2017 at 6.06pm Bangladesh’s military procurement agency, the Directorate General Defence Purchases (DGPD), has issued a notice to foreign vendors to submit bids, in support of a programme to procure howitzers for the Bangladesh Army, reports IHS Jane. The notice was issued in late September, which outlines a requirement to obtain 155mm light-weight towed howitzers. One of the requirements includes transporting the howitzers via fixed-wing aircraft. In order to…
Reuters report in The News, Oct 4, 2017 WASHINGTON: In a Senate hearing on Tuesday, the top US military officer said he believed Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, had ties to militant groups. “It is clear to me that the ISI has connections with terrorist groups,” Marine Corps General Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), told the Senate Armed Services Committee. The Pakistan Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to…
PTI report in Hindustan Times online,Oct 04, 2017 The Donald Trump administration threw its weight behind India’s opposition to the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), saying it passes through a disputed territory and no country should put itself into a position of dictating the Belt and Road initiative. India skipped the Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in May this year due to its sovereignty concerns over the nearly $60 billion CPEC, a flagship project of…
by Jun Mai in South China Morning Post, Oct 4, 2017 The future of Chinese anti-graft tsar Wang Qishan has become one of the hottest conversation topics in Beijing ahead of the Communist Party’s national congress this month. Wang – party chief Xi Jinping’s right-hand man in an ongoing anti-corruption campaign that has claimed the scalps of many senior officials – has managed to maintain a relatively low profile in the past five years despite…
By Mimi Lau in South China Morning Post, Oct 4, 2017 Authorities in the restive Chinese region of Xinjiang have abruptly cancelled the week-long National Day holiday “to prepare” for the Communist Party congress later this month, residents say. The last-minute blanket order affects civil servants, employees of state enterprises and government- affiliated units as well as teachers and some students in the far west region. Locals complained that they had to cancel travel plans…
Report in The daily star, Oct 4, 2017 The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) yesterday alleged that Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha was forced to take a month’s leave, a claim both the law minister and the attorney general termed baseless. They said the CJ took the leave due to illness. Mahbubey Alam, the AG, also dismissed as “not true” journalists’ suggestions that Justice Sinha was put under house arrest. According to him, the SCBA…
by Ibrahim Hossain Ovi in Dhaka Tribune, Oct 3, 2017 at 11.55pm Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed has urged the Indian government to remove non-tariff barriers including countervailing duty – a type of import tax – to boost the bilateral trade between Bangladesh and India. Speaking at a bilateral meeting held by the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) in Dhaka on Tuesday, the minister said: “India has given us duty-free and quota-free…
Report in Dhaka Tribune, Oct 4, 2017 Myanmar will take back Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh after verification in accordance with the 1992 Joint Statement, an agreement signed between Dhaka and Naypyidaw. Myanmar’s State Counsellor Office said this in a statement on Tuesday, after the country’s State Counsellor’s Office Minister Kyaw Tint Swe held a meeting with Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali on repatriation of the Rohingya at Padma State Guest House in Dhaka on…
By Minnie Chan in South China Morning Post, Oct 3, 2017 China’s ongoing military leadership reshuffle, which has seen two heavyweights in the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC) lose their commands in the past month, will help President Xi Jinping shake up the body, which controls the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), and increase his dominance of it, analysts said. The ousting of General Fang Fenghui, former head of the CMC’s Joint Staff Department, and General…
Report in Dhaka Tribune, Oct 3, 2017 Bangladesh has sought details from India regarding British Bangladesh national Samiun Rahman, who was arrested in Delhi last month. Bangladesh wrote a letter to National Investigation Agency (NIA) seeking Saimun’s details. On September 17, Samiun was arrested from Vikas Marg in east Delhi for allegedly trying to recruit Rohingya on behalf of the terrorist outfit Al-Qaeda. Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and NIA regularly exchange inputs on cases of…