AP, Washington
President Barack Obama welcomed Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the White House Thursday with fresh promises to strengthen a relationship with an ally viewed as the best hope – and sometime hindrance – to brokering peace in Afghanistan.
The leaders emerged from an Oval Office meeting announcing no timeline for stalled peace talks, nor any major breakthroughs on other items that topped the agenda, including concerns over the growth of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
Instead, statements released by the leaders touted new initiatives on trade, clean energy and education for women.
Naval ties with US ‘best in
history’: China
Reuters, Beijing
Relations between the Chinese and US navies are their “best in history” and exchanges between the two will become more systematic in the future, China’s military on Friday cited the country’s naval chief as telling visiting US officers.
The comments by navy chief Wu Shengli come as Washington considers conducting freedom-of-navigation operations within 12 nautical miles of artificial islands China has built in the disputed South China Sea, without saying when it would do so. Such a move would likely infuriate Beijing.
Modi calls for world-class city in southern India
AFP, New Delhi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged authorities on Thursday to build a modern, tech-savvy city, as he laid the foundation stone for the new capital of a state in southern India.
Hundreds of thousands of locals and dignitaries attended the elaborate ceremony to kickstart the building of Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh, on former farmland on the banks of a river.
Israel quiet over ‘hotline’ with Russia on Syria
Reuters, Jerusalem
It speaks volumes that Russia, rather than Israel, has been going public with details of a “hotline” and joint air exercises they have launched to avoid an accidental clash in the skies over Syria.
Israel is unusually tight-lipped about the military coordination, a reticence that officials and experts say stems in part from reluctance to signal any significant strategic shift away from the United States, its key ally but one that has reduced Middle East engagements as Russia steps up its own.
Clashes erupted in Myanmar’s ethnic areas
Reuters, Yangon
Fighting has flared in areas of Myanmar controlled by ethnic rebels who refused to sign a ceasefire, raising fears the army is pressuring groups that did not join in what was supposed to be a crowning achievement of President Thein Sein’s five-year term.
The United Nations and the United States have called on the military to de-escalate the tension, stressing that the groups, such as the Kachin Independence Organization operating on Myanmar’s northern border, should not be pressured but seen as partners essential to achieving a lasting peace.
