'US Army Will Begin...': Trump Makes Bombshell Announcement During West Point Address
India's Stern Message To Pak Ally Erdogan Amid 'Boycott Turkey' Chorus: Expect | Watch
India on Thursday called out Turkey over its continued support to Pakistan. Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India expects Turkey to "urge Pakistan to end its support to cross-border terrorism and take credible and verifiable actions against the terror ecosystem it has harboured for decades". India's message to Ankara comes amid widespread 'Boycott Turkey' campaign across the country. People from all walks of life, including fruit vendors, marble traders and even institutions have broken ties with Turkey over its continued support to Pakistan. Watch
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India Today
12 minutes ago
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So much for being Mr Nice Guy: Trump slams China for 'violating' trade deal with US
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Indian Express
33 minutes ago
- Indian Express
BRI's debt trap and China's expanding footprint
When Beijing's flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) marked its decadal milestone in October 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping said, 'Viewing others' development as a threat or taking economic interdependence as a risk will not make one's own life better or speed up one's development.' However, instead of mutually-beneficial interdependence, China today has managed to make 140 countries highly asymmetrically dependent on it for economic investment and trade. Many of these dependencies are a result of the over $1.175 trillion worth of construction contracts and non-financial investments Beijing has undertaken under the BRI. Now, analysts suggest that loans to the tune of a whopping $35 billion may be up for repayment in 2025, and most countries affected are financially vulnerable, developing economies. When compared with the first few years of its launch, the BRI today has changed gears from being a money-pumping endeavour to one focused on 'small but smart and beautiful' projects. This is because, as Xi highlighted in so many words in 2023, the BRI has faced multiple challenges vis-à-vis increasing international hostility, inadequate completion of projects and repayment of loans. If one looks at Pakistan, it owes most of its external debt (~22 per cent of total debt; nearly $29 billion) to China. As part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a crown jewel initiative of the BRI in Asia, China promised an investment of $62 billion to Pakistan, of which approximately $26.6 billion has already been infused. The major projects the money has gone to include Special Economic Zones built in Karachi, Sialkot, Risalpur and other key Pakistani cities, the development of the Gwadar Port, and various infrastructure projects including construction of various energy power plants and a Pak-China Technical and Vocational Institute. However, the CPEC has not yielded the growth it was supposed to. This is primarily because of the internal dynamics of Pakistan. For example, even though Rawalpindi has created a Special Security Division to protect CPEC projects and personnel, insurgency by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and militancy in Karachi have continued to plague projects. Similarly, frequent electricity cuts and supply shortages have made project completion difficult and energy initiatives untenable. A Chinese government article from 2018 itself argues that Pakistan has problems of corruption and is facing a sharp fall in its foreign exchange reserves. As a result, it has repeatedly sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Another major BRI-indebted economy, and India's neighbour, is Sri Lanka. The Hambantota port, which is owned and operated by Chinese firm CMPort and enables Beijing's strategic foothold in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), faces its own hurdles. The key project, an oil refinery on the port, was initiated in 2019, but has yielded no results so far. 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Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Turkey's Erdogan repeats opposition to interest rates, but says economic programme to continue
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Friday vowed to continue his opposition to interest rates, while saying Ankara was determined to press on with its current economic programme until all of its goals are achieved. Speaking at a Global Islamic Economy Summit in Istanbul, Erdogan said work must be done to change and find alternatives to the interest rates-based economic system, adding that such a system cannot be viewed as legitimate. Turkey had launched the programme to reverse the effects of Erdogan's unorthodox views that interest rates cause inflation. Erdogan, a self-proclaimed 'enemy' of interest rates, said that the programme was yielding positive results and that its end-goal was single-digit inflation.
