News in Brief

Date: 28 June 2021 - 22:18

News ID: ۹۱۸۲۶

NEW DELHI (Bloomberg) -- India has redirected at least 50,000 additional troops to its border with China in a historic shift toward an offensive military posture against the world’s second-biggest economy. Although the two countries battled in the Himalayas in 1962, India’s strategic focus has primarily been Pakistan since the British left the subcontinent, with the long-time rivals fighting three wars over the disputed region of Kashmir. Yet since the deadliest India-China fighting in decades last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has sought to ease tensions with Islamabad and concentrate primarily on countering Beijing. Over the past few months, India has moved troops and fighter jet squadrons to three distinct areas along its border with China, according to four people familiar with the matter. All in all, India now has roughly 200,000 troops focused on the border, two of them said, which is an increase of more than 40% from last year.

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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -- Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said on Monday he was resigning, handing the speaker of parliament the job of finding a new premier after the Social Democrat leader lost a vote of no-confidence last week. Lofven had been given a deadline of midnight on Monday to either step down or call a snap election after losing the June 21 confidence vote when the Left Party withdrew its support. He had hoped to find fresh backing in parliament to secure his reappointment. Speaker Andreas Norlen will now have up to four attempts to find a new prime minister with enough backing from lawmakers. If he fails, a snap election must be called, little more than a year ahead of scheduled polls in September 2022. Those must go ahead anyway, meaning any new administration would be a short one.

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BERLIN (Reuters) -- European Union talks with Russia would be useful on a number of issues, not least to tell Russian President Vladimir Putin directly that cyber attacks are no basis for a productive relationship, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday. “Here, I think it is better not only to talk among ourselves but also to confront the Russian president with these things and to say ‘on such a basis a fruitful cooperation cannot take place’,” Merkel told German and French lawmakers. European Union leaders on Friday rejected a Franco-German proposal to hold a summit with Russia after Poland and Baltic countries said it would send the wrong message as East-West ties deteriorate. “The relationship between Russia and the European Union is really not good at the moment, but even during the Cold War, people talked to each other, so I think silence is not conducive to solving the problems,” Merkel said.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) -- Turkey and Azerbaijan began joint military drills in Baku on Monday, deploying tanks, helicopters and drones in an effort to improve the two countries’ combat interoperability, Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said in a statement. The two countries earlier this month agreed to increase cooperation in the military sphere. Photographs released by the Azeri defense ministry showed a column of armored personnel carriers and tanks from the two countries advancing on flat arid terrain. “The main purpose of the exercises...is to improve interaction between the two countries’ army units during combat operations, to develop the commanders’ military decision-making skills and their ability to manage military units,” the Azeri defense ministry said.The drills, named “Mustafa Kemal Ataturk - 2021”, will last until Wednesday, involving up to 600 personnel, around 40 tanks and armored vehicles, and seven helicopters.

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SEOUL (Reuters) -- South Korea approved plans on Monday to pursue a $2.6-billion artillery interception system, similar to Israel’s “Iron Dome”, purportedly designed to protect against North Korea’s arsenal of long-range guns and rockets, the defense acquisition agency said. Late last year the government’s defense blueprint called for the development of a “Korean-style Iron Dome” that can defend Seoul and key facilities. On Monday a committee presided over by Defense Minister Suh Wook approved the project, expected to be completed around 2035 at a cost of 2.89 trillion won ($2.6 billion), the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said in a statement. The Ministry of National Defense has said while existing weapons such as the Patriot and THAAD missile defense systems are designed to target the North’s increasingly capable short-range ballistic missiles, the new system aims to protect against long-range artillery and multiple rocket launchers.

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DHAKA (Reuters) -- At least seven people were killed and more than 50 people were injured in an explosion in the Bangladeshi capital late on Sunday, police said. The cause of the blast, which occurred on the ground floor of a three-story building on a busy street in Dhaka’a Moghbazar area, was not immediately known. “We have information so far that seven people died in the incident and 50 others have been admitted to hospitals,” Shafiqul Islam, Dhaka city police commissioner, told reporters after visiting the scene. Seven other nearby buildings and three buses were damaged in the explosion, he said. Television footage showed mangled pillars, broken concrete and glass shards strewn across the street.