Bangladesh starts its most severe lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic Thursday with people allowed to leave their homes only in emergencies and soldiers set to patrol the streets to enforce it, as the nation faces a deadly resurgence of COVID-19 infections.The government announced the new measures as the coronavirus surged in recent days, particularly in border areas. Health officials say the national COVID-19 positivity rate is now over 20%. Sunday saw a record number of deaths, with 119, followed by a record number of new cases — 8,364 — set Monday.Along with home confinement, the restrictions include the closure of public transport networks, sending thousands rushing to ferry and bus stations over the last two days to make it home before Thursday.  The Guardian newspaper reports Cabinet secretary Khandker Anwarul Islam told reporters troops would be deployed after the lockdown takes effect. He said, “If anyone ignores their orders, legal action will be [taken against] them.”Bangladesh closed its borders when the pandemic hit last year. But many people travelled to and from India illegally anyway, bringing with them new infections. And while India’s situation has stabilized, in Bangladesh, it has escalated.Health officials are concerned the Eid al-adha Muslim holiday at the end of July will only exacerbate the situation. Bangladesh Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research official Dr. ASM Alamgir said that if the Delta variant of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is not already in Bangladesh, it will be by then.  He said that while new infections are currently concentrated around border areas, during Eid millions of people go from the capital, Dhaka, where infections are also on the rise, to village areas.Officials expect Thursday’s lockdown to last at least a week.  Some information in this report is from The Associated Press.
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Germany and Italy have removed their last remaining soldiers from Afghanistan, ending almost two decades of deployment to the war-torn country alongside U.S. and other coalition troops. The United States and NATO plan to fully withdraw their militaries from the South Asian nation by September 11 in line with orders by U.S. President Joe Biden. The drawdown process formally started on May 1.Germany announced its military withdrawal without much fanfare shortly after the last 250 German soldiers were airlifted Tuesday night out of their base in northern Afghanistan.“After nearly 20 years of deployment, the last soldiers of our Bundeswehr have left Afghanistan this evening,” German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said in a statement she tweeted.“They are on their way home. A historic chapter comes to an end, an intensive deployment that challenged and shaped the Bundeswehr, in which the Bundeswehr proved itself in combat,” she wrote.The minister thanked the 150,000 German men and women who had been part of the mission in Afghanistan since 2001, saying they could be proud of their achievements.Germany has lost 59 troops, 39 of them in battles or insurgent attacks, during the course of their service, according to the German army. “You will not be forgotten,” said the German defense minister while paying tribute to those killed and wounded in service in Afghanistan.Germany still had about 1,100 soldiers in the country when Biden announced his withdrawal plans in mid-April. They were part of a non-combatant NATO-led military mission tasked to train, advise and assist Afghan soldiers battling the Taliban insurgency.A spokesman for Afghanistan’s National Security Council said while NATO countries are winding down their military missions, that does not mean bilateral state-to-state ties are also ending.An Afghan National Army soldier walks inside the Italian Camp Arena military base after Italian forces left the camp in Guzara district of Herat province, June 30, 2021.“Afghanistan maintains close ties and cooperation with Germany. They have conducted extensive training of our police forces and that collaboration will continue,” said Rahmatullah Andar in a video statement.Italy said Wednesday its military mission to Afghanistan also had ended after dozens of the last remaining Italian soldiers were flowing out of the country.Defense Minister Lorenzo Guerini made the announcement after Italian troops landed at Pisa’s international airport from the western Afghan city of Herat next to the Iranian border.Officials said that 50,000 Italian soldiers served in Afghanistan over the past 20 years, and 53 of them died during the course of service while 723 others sustained injuries. NATO’s senior civilian representative in Afghanistan, Stefano Pontecorvo, reassured Afghans of the alliance’s continued engagement as it completes the withdrawal of the military forces. “This is not the end of our partnership. Together, we are entering a new phase in our relationship,” Pontecorvo said in a vide message his official released. “The military may be leaving but my civilian office and myself will be staying and we are committed to supporting the Afghan security forces through financial assistance and through training.” Fighting has surged across Afghanistan since U.S.-led international forces began leaving. Taliban insurgents claim to have captured more than 100 of the country’s 419 districts within the past two months.Afghan commando forces are seen at the site of a battlefield where they clashed with Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, June 22, 2021.A spokesman for NATO’s Resolute Support mission told AFP the withdrawal of their forces is proceeding in an “orderly and coordinated manner.”The Taliban advances have raised fears they aim to regain control of Afghanistan by force once all international forces exit the country.The U.S.-led international coalition invaded Afghanistan in October 2001, just days after the terror strikes on American cities that killed nearly 3,000 people.The military invasion ousted the Islamist Taliban from power for sheltering al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and his aides, whom the United States says plotted the carnage. The Taliban later launched a deadly insurgency against Afghan and foreign troops. Now, they currently control or hotly contest nearly half of Afghan territory.Armed men who are against Taliban uprising guard their check post, at the Ghorband District, Parwan Province, Afghanistan, June 29, 2021.The foreign military drawdown stems from a February 2020 deal Washington negotiated with the Taliban to end what has been the longest war in U.S. history. In return, the insurgents stopped attacks on international forces and pledged to prevent terrorists from using Afghan soil for foreign attacks. The Taliban also opened peace talks in Qatar last September with representatives of the U.S.-backed Afghan government. But the dialogue has since stalled without making any significant progress, nor has the process eased hostilities between the two Afghan rivals.The U.S. commander of foreign troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday he was deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation.Gen. Austin Scott Miller, who is overseeing the troop exit, told reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, that the overall security situation “is not good,” saying recent insurgent territorial gains were concerning.Brown University’s Costs of War Project estimated in April this year that the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan had killed 241,000 people, including more than 2,400 American soldiers, and cost the United States $2.26 trillion to date. Some Information from Agence France-Presse was used in this report. 
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The U.S. will leave a number of troops that is much larger than a typical security detail to guard its embassy in Kabul, along with American forces at the Kabul airport to help protect the vital facility for a time, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday. “Afghanistan is not going to be treated like any other nation where we have a Marine security guard. I mean, it’s Afghanistan, and we understand the dynamic nature of the security threat there,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters during a briefing Tuesday. FILE – Pentagon spokesman John Kirby speaks during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, April 19, 2021.Kirby added that the U.S. was “still working out some of the details of what the security situation is going to look like at the airport.”  “As you and I speak, there are U.S. troops at the airport. What the future of that looks like, we just don’t know right now,” he said.  The Pentagon would not confirm reports about the specific numbers of troops that will stay after the withdrawal is complete. The Associated Press reported last week that roughly 650 U.S. troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats after the withdrawal, which is set to be largely completed in a couple of weeks. FILE – Afghan commando forces are seen at the site of a battlefield where they clashed with Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, June 22, 2021.Since May 1, when the withdrawal began, the Taliban have doubled the number of districts they control, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal. The Taliban have grabbed hold of more than 80 districts in the past two months, for a total of 157 Taliban-controlled districts. In an interview with VOA earlier this month, General Frank McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command, said the U.S. is not planning to support Afghan forces with airstrikes after the U.S. troops withdrawal is complete. He added that counterterrorism strikes in Afghanistan will be limited to instances when attack plans have been discovered to strike the U.S. or allied countries, according to the top U.S. commander in the Middle East.  “That would be the reason for any strikes that we do in Afghanistan after we leave. (It) would have to be that we’ve uncovered someone who wants to attack the homeland of the United States, one of our allies and partners,” McKenzie told VOA.  VOA Exclusive: CENTCOM Head Says US Will Not Support Afghan Forces with Airstrikes After Troop WithdrawalThe general’s comments appear to refute a report by the New York Times Asked Tuesday whether the U.S. was reconsidering its post-withdrawal strategy to include defensive strikes against the Taliban, Kirby declined to “hypothesize” but stressed “the violence remains too high.”  “What we’d like to see is the Taliban returned to the peace process in a credible way. And as we see the events on the ground unfolding, it certainly calls into question the sincerity of their efforts to be a legitimate credible participant in the peace process,” he said. Kirby added Tuesday that the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan will not necessarily mean the end of NATO’s train, advise and assist mission, but deferred to NATO for more details. “It is my understanding that with the completion of the retrograde of U.S. forces, retrograde/withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, excepting, of course, whatever is left behind to protect our diplomatic presence, that that does not necessarily mean the end of Resolute Support,” Kirby said.  The U.S. has vowed to continue financially aiding the Afghan military, along with providing “over-the-horizon” advising and aircraft maintenance support. NATO has said it will continue training Afghan forces in a location outside of Afghanistan. 
 
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The commander of American troops in Afghanistan said Tuesday he was deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation in the country, as U.S. and NATO militaries plan to fully withdraw by September 11.Gen. Austin Scott Miller, who is overseeing the troop exit, made the remarks as battlefield hostilities between Taliban insurgents and U.S.-supported Afghan government forces have escalated across the conflict-torn nation.Speaking to reporters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, the general described the security situation as “not good right now.” He said recent insurgent territorial gains were concerning and cautioned the Taliban against attempting to take control of the country by force.“A military takeover is not in the interest of anyone, certainly not for the people of Afghanistan,” said Miller.The Taliban claim to have captured more than 100 of the country’s 419 districts since May 1, when the last remaining U.S. and allied soldiers formally began leaving Afghanistan after almost two decades.In this photo taken on June 6, 2019, commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan General Austin Scott Miller, right, walks with Afghanistan’s acting Defense Minister Asadullah Khalid, center.Afghan officials said security forces have retaken some of the districts in recent days and vowed to evict insurgents from others.Miller acknowledged that any loss of territory impacts overall security in the country.”Because districts start representing key terrain as it relates to security of the people, of the provincial capitals and certainly security of the capital,” said the U.S. general.He also cautioned that pro-government militias being deployed around the country to help the beleaguered Afghan security forces in containing Taliban advances could plunge the country into civil war.But despite the violence, Miller stressed, the troop withdrawal process remains on track in line with orders U.S. President Joe Biden issued in mid-April.“I don’t anticipate a change in my orders that we received in April. We are executing those orders,” Miller told reporters.End to air support is nearAfghan forces have for years heavily relied on close U.S. air power in battles against the insurgents. But the withdrawal of American military has ended that cover, though not until all U.S. soldiers are out of the country, Miller insisted.“I still have the authority to support and defend the Afghan security forces and certainly defend ourselves as well,” he said.The military drawdown stems from a February 2020 agreement Washington negotiated with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, to close what has been the longest war in U.S. history.The deal bars U.S. airstrikes on insurgent positions in return for a Taliban ceasefire with foreign troops and counterterrorism assurances. But the Taliban in recent days have accused Washington of launching airstrikes against their fighters in violation of the deal even as U.S. troops withdraw.“I have actually told the Taliban that just stop the offensive operations and airstrikes go to zero as we go forward,” said Miller.The insurgents recently also captured a key border crossing with Tajikistan in northeastern Afghanistan and they have encircled almost all major cities.Miller emphasized the need for Afghan government and Taliban negotiators to return to the negotiating table in Doha to seek a political settlement to hostilities.Talks with Taliban have stalledThe two negotiating teams have been holding talks in the Qatari capital since last September but the process has not met with any success and has stalled for months, with each side blaming the other for the deadlock.“The way it must end for the Afghan people is something that revolves around a political solution,” said Miller. “I have also said that if you don´t reduce the violence, that political solution becomes more and more difficult.”Miller refused to say where the U.S. and its NATO allies were in the withdrawal process. The U.S. military announced a week ago that more than 50% of the retrograde process had been completed.Private militia forces usedGen. Ajmal Omar Shinwari, spokesman for the Afghan security sector, defended the deployment of private militia forces, saying they were all citizens of the country who had come out in support of their national security forces against the Taliban.Shinwari told reporters, however, the private forces were working under the command of the Afghan army and were not allowed to take any action independently.The spokesman also revealed that a new “rapid reaction force” comprising 4,000 retired army officers had also been created to fight alongside the regular army.Meanwhile, the Taliban renewed their pledge Tuesday that insurgents were determined to ensure security of diplomats, embassies, foreign non-military and civilian nationals as well as humanitarian groups working in Afghanistan.“They may continue their diplomatic work and humanitarian activities per normal routine,” the statement said. The insurgent group issued a similar statement earlier this month.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA that envoys of a number of foreign countries recently held meetings with insurgent leaders in Doha to express concerns about safety of their citizens” in the wake of increased violence in Afghanistan.Some information is from The Associated Press and AFP.
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At least seven people died and dozens were injured in an explosion Sunday in Bangladesh’s capital.
But authorities could not determine the nature of the explosion that damaged vehicles and surrounding buildings, the police and fire department said.
The explosion took place in the evening at a building in Dhaka’s Moghbazar area, and rescuers reached the scene, said Faisalur Rahman, a fire control room official.
At least seven buildings were damaged because of the force of the explosion, Rahman said.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner Shafiqul Islam told reporters at least seven people died. The injured were taken to hospitals, he said.
“Certainly, this is a big explosion. Fire service and bomb disposal unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Unit have arrived at the scene. Their experts are working together. They are investigating the origin of the blast and the subsequent damages,” said Sajjad Hossain, a deputy police commissioner in Dhaka.
Witnesses said it was a scene of destruction with glass shards and broken concrete on streets. Two passenger buses were heavily damaged outside the building where the explosion took place, witnesses said.
“A fireball went over my head. Everything became dark and smoky with the sound. Pieces of glass started to shower from above. If I didn’t use this (a folder bag) as a cover, I would’ve been under the glass pieces. Allah saved me from them,” said Omar Sani, who was at the scene during the explosion.
Dhaka-based Ekattor TV stations said the condition of 10 of the injured was critical, among about 50 taken to hospitals.
It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, but the main building where the explosion took place had a fast-food shop. Reports said a faulty gas line or gas cylinders used by the food shop could be the reason behind the blast.
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Pakistan’s interior minister said Sunday that the families of Afghanistan’s Taliban reside in his country, including in areas around the capital, Islamabad, and the insurgent group’s members receive some medical treatment in local hospitals.
 
The admission by Sheikh Rashid Ahmed came during an interview aired by a privately-owned Pakistani television channel, the Geo News.  
 
It is a significant departure from Islamabad’s consistent rejection of allegations leveled by Afghan leaders that the Taliban use Pakistani soil to direct and sustain insurgent activities in Afghanistan.
 
“Taliban families live here, in Pakistan, in Rawat, Loi Ber, Bara Kahuh and Tarnol,” Rashid told the Urdu-language network citing the names of Islamabad suburbs. “Sometimes their dead bodies arrive and sometimes they come here in hospitals to get medical treatment,” he said.    
 
Pakistan has long blamed its nearly 2,600-kilometer open border with Afghanistan for facilitating militant and other illegal movements between the two countries.
 
Additionally, Pakistani officials say about three million Afghan refugees reside in the country, which sometimes serves as a hiding place for Taliban insurgents. Many of the displaced Afghan families have fled years of war and turmoil in their poverty-stricken country.
 
Separately, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi told reporters Sunday that violence and chaos could grip Afghanistan after the United States and NATO allies withdraw all their troops from the country by a September 11 deadline.
 
“Violence is increasing there (in Afghanistan) and obviously Pakistan is worried about it,” Qureshi said in Multan, his native city, which is in eastern Pakistan.   
 
He warned that if the Afghan security situation worsens and turns into a civil war, it would be detrimental for Afghanistan, but it could also undermine Pakistani gains against terrorism as well as trigger another exodus of Afghan refugees into Pakistan.  
 
“We are already hosting and looking after almost three million Afghan refugees and we can’t take more because are we not in a position (economically) to shoulder the burden,” Qureshi said.  
 
The Taliban has intensified attacks against Afghan government forces since May 1 when the U.S.-led international forces formally began their withdrawal from the country.
The United Nations estimates the insurgents have since overrun more than 50 districts, raising fears the Islamist Taliban could regain power in Afghanistan.  
 
Afghanistan’s news network, TOLOnews, reported Sunday that “108 districts have fallen to the Taliban in the last two months, but security forces have retaken 10 of the districts during this period.”
 
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Driven by national security concerns and the emergence of China as a significant threat, India is looking to expand its military capabilities in space, according to analysts.“Geopolitics is the primary driver for India to focus on the military aspects of its space program,” said Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan, director of the Center for Security, Strategy and Technology at the Observer Research Institute in New Delhi.“It has to respond to the growing capabilities in space of China, with which time and again border disputes have flared. India has recognized that if it does not step up, it will lose out on using space assets for military purposes,” he told VOA.An Indian anti-satellite weapon test conducted two years ago to demonstrate that it could shoot down satellites in space was the country’s first significant step to give a military profile to its space program. With that test, India became the fourth country, after China, Russia, and the United States, to demonstrate anti-satellite capability.India’s anti-satellite test came 12 years after China conducted one in 2007. While for years India’s space program focused on civilian space applications and space exploration, China’s demonstration of its capacity to bring down satellites became a “wake-up” call for the country about the kind of space security threats that it will need to address, say analysts.“It was essentially a deterrence mechanism, a message to the adversary that we have developed counter space capabilities,” said Ajay Lele, senior fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. “India is in a peculiar situation. Two adversaries on its border are nuclear weapon states. And as one of them, China, has developed significant counter space capabilities, so India too wants to be prepared in the event there is weaponization of space in future.”In 2019, India established the Space Defense Agency to develop the country’s space strategy.  According to domestic media reports, India is developing sensors and satellites along with ground stations to aid defense forces with space assets.“This is being done because 24 by seven if you have to monitor an area to analyze developments more closely, you need many more satellites,” according to Lele.The current key focus, analysts said, is on enhancing surveillance capabilities of sensitive areas from space assets from a military perspective.India’s concerns center both on its Himalayan borders with China, where disputed borders between the two have sparked military tensions, and on the Indian Ocean region, where China has been increasing its influence.FILE – This photograph provided by the Indian Army, shows Chinese troops dismantling their bunkers in the Pangong Tso region, in Ladakh along the India-China border, Feb.15, 2021.Last year, New Delhi and Beijing were involved in a months-long military standoff sparked by Indian accusations that Chinese troops had encroached into its territory in a remote mountain area of Ladakh in the western Himalayas during the winter, when the ice-covered area is largely inaccessible. New Delhi analysts had questioned why India could not detect the alleged Chinese incursions earlier through satellite imagery.It is only in recent years that India got communication and reconnaissance satellites dedicated to the armed forces – the first one went to the navy which has to guard a long coastline.“Demand is only growing,” Pillai said, “But India’s space agency’s ability to keep up with this demand is an issue.”There are demands to enhance space assets for the military, particularly as China develops more sophisticated counter space technologies such as cyber warfare.“India has a very basic satellite program. Also, in terms of numbers, it has very few satellites compared to countries like China and the United States,” according to Manoj Joshi, a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation.“So in an environment where satellites can be disabled or neutralized, the military would want to have the ability to rapidly replace them,” he said.  However, India’s defense-related space capabilities are still nascent because of budget limitations.“India is constrained for resources. Its defense budget has been declining compared to gross domestic product in recent years,” Joshi said.“So India is a tiny player compared to countries like China, the United States and Russia,” he said.The hit to the economy from the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to make it harder to allocate more resources. 
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“The threat of COVID-19 remains,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his monthly broadcast Sunday, “and we have to focus on vaccination, as well as follow COVID-19 protocols.”Modi encouraged Indians to get vaccinated and give up any vaccine hesitancy. He urged them to trust science and scientists in the battle against the coronavirus that has overwhelmed India.On Sunday, India’s health ministry reported more than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases and more than 1,200 deaths.According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, India is second only to the U.S. in the number of coronavirus cases, but health officials have warned that India’s case numbers are likely significantly undercounted.Johns Hopkins said Sunday that the U.S. has 33.6 million infections, while India has 30.2 million. Brazil follows with 18.3 million cases. The global count for cases is 180.8 million.The delta variant of the coronavirus is sending Australia, New Zealand and Bangladesh into some form of lockdown, along with parts of Portugal. Even Israel, where more than half of the population is vaccinated, is reimposing a mask mandate in enclosed public places.The variant, which was first discovered in India, has been identified in at least 85 countries and “is the most transmissible of the variants identified so far … and is spreading rapidly among unvaccinated populations,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday.Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, on Saturday began a two-week lockdown because of the growing number of cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.The delta variant is to blame for the first lockdown in Sydney since December. Stay-at-home orders will also apply to other areas in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state.New Zealand, because of the Australian outbreaks, is suspending quarantine-free travel between the two neighbors for three days. On Monday, Bangladesh will enter a national lockdown for a week, with people allowed to leave their homes only for medical reasons.The delta variant is also behind a surge in cases in Russia. On Saturday, St. Petersburg, which will host the quarter-final of the Euro 2020 matches Friday, announced 107 COVID-19 deaths, a daily record for the city since the pandemic began.The variant is also prompting alarm across Africa, where cases rose 25% in a week.”We are in the exponential phase of the pandemic with the numbers just growing very, very, extremely fast,” virologist Tulio de Oliveira said, according to Reuters.Meanwhile, health officials say the delta variant of the coronavirus has its own variant, called delta plus. It has emerged in almost a dozen countries, including India, the United States, and the U.K. Authorities fear delta plus may be more contagious than the delta variant. Scientists are just beginning to study the new strain.Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.   
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Authorities in Afghanistan confirmed Saturday the delta coronavirus variant, first identified in India, has been mainly responsible for the recent surge in cases and deaths in the war-torn country.
 
Minister for Public Health Wahid Majrooh told reporters in Kabul that out of 19 samples examined in national laboratories a day earlier, nearly 60% tested positive for the delta variant and the rest for a British variant.
 
“It shows the delta variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading in Afghanistan, and this is the main reason for the rise and criticality of the cases,” Majrooh warned in his nationally televised news conference.WHO Chief: Corona Delta Variant ‘Spreading Rapidly’A new strain of the delta variant has emerged 
The minister stressed the crisis required the Afghan nation to strictly observe safety guidelines to help contain the spread of the delta variant, which is more infectious and more resistant to existing vaccines.
 
The coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 disease, hit Afghanistan early last year, infecting 114,000 people and killing 4,600 to date.
 
Afghan officials have documented an average of more than 80 deaths a day, however, from COVID-19 over the past week or so. The data accounts only for a fraction of cases, though, because of capacity issues and a lack of access to areas controlled by the Taliban insurgency.
 
The pandemic has led to a shortage of medical oxygen, with hospitals throughout Afghanistan refusing to accept new coronavirus patients, citing a lack of beds and other shortages.
 
The outbreak forced the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to lock down much of the diplomatic mission after dozens of its staff contracted the coronavirus.
 
The pandemic has gripped Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO allies are withdrawing their troops from the country after nearly 20 years of presence. The retrograde process is due to be complete by September 11.   
 
Meanwhile, the Taliban has intensified battlefield attacks against government forces, capturing more territory. The deteriorating security has added to the challenges facing Afghan health authorities in battling the COVID-19 outbreak.  
 
Afghan authorities are said to have administered 766,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine in a country with an estimated population of more than 35 million people, with less than a half percent fully vaccinated so far.
 
The conflict and suspicions about vaccines are blamed for the slow-moving national inoculation campaign. Kabul has received donations of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India and the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
 
The United States has pledged to deliver 3 million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine as early as next week to help the Afghan government combat what is being termed the deadliest wave of the pandemic.
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“Afghans are going to have to decide their future,” U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday in his first face-to-face meeting with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani.The two met in the White House Oval Office as U.S. forces continued their withdrawal from the nation in south-central Asia.Biden insisted that Washington’s support was not ending. The United States will maintain support for Afghanistan’s military from abroad as well as continue to provide economic and political support, the president said.”We’re going to stick with you,” Biden said.’A choice of values’Ghani, sitting alongside Biden, said Afghanistan was grateful for the blood and treasure America had spilled during the past two decades to defend his country, which now finds itself facing direct battle against the Taliban.Ghani compared his position at this juncture to that of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1861, at the start of the war between the Northern states and the rebellious Southern states.”It’s a choice of values, the values of an exclusionary system or inclusionary system. We’re determined to have unity, coherence, national sense of sacrifice, and we’ll not spare anything,” the Afghan president said, adding that on Friday, his government’s forces had “retaken six districts, both in the south and the north,” from the Taliban.Ghani added, “We will overcome all odds.”Those odds may be long.Abdullah Abdullah, who leads the High Council for National Reconciliation in Afghanistan, left, and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani meet with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon in Washington, June 25, 2021.Earlier in the day, during a meeting at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the Afghan president smiled when asked by a reporter about a reported U.S. intelligence analysis concluding his government might fall within six months of the American military withdrawal.”There have been many such predictions and they have all proven — turned out false,” Ghani replied.”We will remain partners with the Afghan government and the Afghan military. And we will continue to work toward our common goal in a new and different way,” Austin said.After meeting Thursday with Ghani and the country’s unity government Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Senator Mitch McConnell said Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces “leaves our Afghan partners alone to confront threats that his own top advisers acknowledge are grave and growing worse. The Taliban, emboldened by our retreat, is rolling back years of progress, especially for the rights of Afghan women, on its way to taking Kabul.”Asked on Friday by VOA to respond to the Senate minority leader’s concerns, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden “had made a decision, which is consistent with his view that this was not a winnable war, to bring the U.S. troops home — after 20 years of fighting this war.”FILE – Former White House national security adviser John Bolton talks to VOA, June 24, 2020.Ghani’s visit to the White House was “absolutely critical for the future of Afghanistan,” according to former national security adviser John Bolton, who termed it possibly the last opportunity “to try to persuade President Biden, if not to reverse his decision to withdraw all American forces, at least to provide more time to provide some other indication of continuing American support that will give the people of Afghanistan confidence that we’re not abandoning the country.”Bolton, who served in the administration of former President Donald Trump, told VOA’s Afghan Service, “We need to look for additional ways to show that the United States is not leaving entirely, that this is not going to be a Vietnam situation.”The chaotic 1975 withdrawal of U.S. forces from South Vietnam followed the signing of a peace accord that effectively handed the country to the communists in Hanoi.Target date: September 11Biden has said the American military presence in Afghanistan will end by September 11 of this year — the 20th anniversary of the coordinated suicide attacks against the United States by al-Qaida, which was based in Afghanistan under the protection of the then-governing Taliban.The drawdown of U.S. and NATO forces, which formally began May 1, has led to an unprecedented escalation in fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents, dealing fresh blows to slow-moving U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between the Afghan adversaries.FILE – Afghan commando forces are seen at the site of a battlefield where they clashed with Taliban insurgents in Kunduz province, Afghanistan June 22, 2021.The insurgents have in recent weeks captured dozens of new districts, and both sides are said to have suffered heavy casualties, with Afghan civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the country’s long war.This has led to a sense of urgency concerning the Afghans — interpreters, translators, drivers and other support civilian personnel — who worked for the U.S. military over the past two decades.Those who have already applied for special immigrant visas “will be relocated to a location outside of Afghanistan before we complete our military drawdown by September, in order to complete the visa application process,” Psaki told reporters Friday.U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that about 650 U.S. troops were likely to remain in Afghanistan as a security detail for diplomats.Troops at Kabul airportThe officials also told AP that several hundred additional U.S. forces would remain at the Kabul airport, possibly until September. The troops’ role, the officials told AP, would be to aid Turkish troops who are providing security there. It would be a temporary move until a more formal Turkey-led security operation was in place, the officials said, according to the AP.The Afghan government and the Taliban have been holding peace negotiations in Doha, Qatar, since last September, with the host government, among others, playing the role of facilitator. But the process has made no significant headway, with each negotiating team blaming the other for the deadlock.Carla Babb at the Pentagon, Ayaz Gul in Islamabad and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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China is likely to help Southeast Asia recover from the economic shocks of COVID-19 because of its outsized growth and pivotal role in cross-border development, experts said following a regional summit.China, which had a $15.4 trillion economy last year, is expected to sell more vaccines, restart infrastructure projects and open manufacturing supply chains for the region, according to economists.The moves are liable to bolster China’s drive to enhance its economic and diplomatic influence across the region through efforts such as its Belt and Road Initiative and so-called “vaccine diplomacy,” making COVID vaccines available to developing countries.China Bids for Friends in Southeast Asia as US Influence GrowsForeign ministers from Beijing and 10 Southeast Asian nations agreed to seek a resumption of talks about South China SeaAs Western countries begin to recover from the financial effects of the pandemic, many of the 660 million people in Southeast Asia are still grappling with COVID-19 outbreaks and the effects of economic inactivity.Help is coming, a Chinese spokesman suggested Monday ahead of the East Asia Summit meeting of senior officials, which convened by video conference Thursday in part to discuss post-pandemic recovery.“Amid profound changes in regional and international landscapes, China hopes that through these senior officials’ meetings, we will work with all parties to … advance post-epidemic sustainable development,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijun told a news briefing.The Chinese economy grew 2.3% last year, after strict lockdowns contained most of its coronavirus spread, even as other countries worldwide reported economic contractions. China reported the world’s first virus cases.Officials in Beijing will probably invest abroad in energy transitions for steel, petrochemicals and other industries that aim to cut emissions, said Rajiv Biswas, Asia-Pacific chief economist at IHS Markit. The 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations has set a target of using renewable energy for 23% of consumption by 2025.Projects started in Southeast Asia under China’s $1 trillion-plus Belt and Road Initiative should power back up as pandemic containment measures ease, he added. Some 15 Belt and Road projects worth a combined $2.4 billion were delayed or hit by financing glitches last year, the London-based Overseas Development Institute think tank said in February.Around Southeast Asia, COVID-racked Malaysia has allowed Chinese companies to invest in real estate, ports and entertainment. Indonesia, which faces its own pandemic battles, has gotten help with a dam and a railway line.“Probably for China, the main focus will be on restarting a lot of those, because some of those projects during the pandemic were put on hold because it was very difficult for people to move around so they couldn’t send their experts and so on,” said Biswas.China may offer separate aid or investment packages country by country, he added.In the Philippines, which has battled COVID-19 steadily for more than a year, China would at least consider “fast tracking” donations of its domestically produced vaccines, said Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist with Banco de Oro UniBank in Metro Manila.Vaccine Seen as Potentially Shoring Up China’s Image in Indonesia, the PhilippinesChina says it believes in spreading its anti-COVID vaccine beyond the world’s wealthiest countries; its image is at stake in some of those places“What will really reset the Philippines is more immunizations, so we can further open the economy,” he said. “The government has procured various vaccines and the first ones that eventually arrived were from China. Maybe they could offer more vaccines and probably some funding for some [infrastructure] projects.”Benefits for ChinaBeijing’s economic aid helps it ease a decades-old dispute over sovereignty in the South China Sea, analysts said after a world arbitration court ruled in 2016 against the Chinese maritime claims. China has a military and technological lead in the resource-rich sea, chafing against rival claimants Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.China May Offer Aid, Investment, in Talks on South China Sea

        Countries in Southeast Asia are talking one-on-one with China about shared rights to fish and fossil fuels in the contested South China Sea, but nationalism or lack of political trust may snarl any agreements and shift focus to informal economic deals.Senior leaders from China and Vietnam met last month to talk about maritime cooperation that could include a joint search for undersea oil or gas. 

Meanwhile Chinese COVID-19 vaccines have been shipped to more than 80 countries, some for emergency use, in an effort that some Chinese analysts have contrasted to “the ‘me-first’ policies of the United States and the European Union.The Belt and Road Initiative is also seen in Western countries as an effort to supplant the United States as the dominant power in the Indo-Pacific region. U.S. President Joe Biden and other G-7 leaders countered  this month by announcing a Build Back Better World Partnership to address infrastructure needs in low- and middle-income countries.Can Biden’s ‘Build Back Better World Partnership’ Really Challenge China? Experts say the devil is in the details as US aims to compete with Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative Belt-and-Road projects give brisk business to major Chinese contractors while smoothing trade. China depends too on manufactured goods from Vietnam, a Southeast Asian manufacturing powerhouse that has weathered the pandemic without nationwide lockdowns.“Vietnam produces inputs for Chinese, which assembles and sends off,” said Adam McCarty, chief economist with Mekong Economics in Hanoi. “They have to get the supply chain up and running again as quickly as possible without the supply bottlenecks.”The senior officials exchanged views at the East Asia Summit event on regional and international developments including COVID-19 and the post-pandemic recovery. China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will hold another online forum for officials on June 29. 
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Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi Thursday offered the possibility of elections in Indian Kashmir, nearly two years after scrapping the region’s semi-autonomous status.The actual prospect of elections came after a meeting between Modi and pro-India Kashmiri political leaders.  Modi said his government was committed to local elections there.The meeting was the first outreach by New Delhi to Indian Kashmir since the restive Himalayan region was split into two federal territories. The controversial move had been deeply unpopular and deepened alienation in India’s only majority Muslim region, which has been under federal rule for about three years.This photograph provided by the Prime Minister’s Office shows Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, right, greeting members of various political parties before the start of their meeting in New Delhi, June 24, 2021.Modi said in a tweet after the meeting that, “Our priority is to strengthen grassroots democracy in J&K,” referring to Jammu and Kashmir, one of the two regions.“Delimitation,” he said, referring to redrawing parliamentary and assembly constituencies so the number of voters in each constituency are roughly the same, must “happen at a quick pace so that polls can happen and J&K gets an elected Government that gives strength to J&K’s development trajectory.”Delimitation would be a first step toward eventually holding local polls.Calling the meeting “an important step in the ongoing efforts towards a developed and progressive J&K,” Modi tweeted that he had told the leaders of Jammu and Kashmir “that it is the people, specially the youth who have to provide political leadership to J&K, and ensure their aspirations are duly fulfilled.”Among the 14 Kashmiri politicians present at Thursday’s meeting were leaders from local parties who have ruled the territory for decades. Many of them had spent months in detention after the abrupt move to scrap the territory’s special status.FILE – Kashmiris shout freedom slogans during a protest against New Delhi’s tightened grip on the disputed region, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir, Aug. 23, 2019.But there has been mounting criticism that New Delhi’s dramatic move has not brought any real political change in the region. On the other hand, there is growing resentment at new laws often drafted by government officials who now administer the region, which is under direct federal rule.In Kashmir, political analysts welcomed the outreach by New Delhi to local politicians but cautioned that “we will have to wait and watch” and pointed out that the “trust deficit” between ordinary Kashmiris had deepened since the revocation of its special status.“The start of a process of dialogue is a good first step because it marks a change from the negative and intolerant rhetoric that was heard from New Delhi since Kashmir’s status was changed,” according to Noor Ahmad Baba, former political science professor at Kashmir University in Srinagar.  “It is always helpful to change the atmosphere but the process must move forward and not stop there.”However, he said there is a lot of skepticism among ordinary people who fear that the identity of Kashmiris is under threat from a slew of new laws that remove decadeslong protections for the local population on land ownership and jobs.Indian Kashmir has been wracked with a violent conflict led by Islamic separatist groups since 1989. India controls roughly two-thirds of Kashmir and Pakistan the rest. Both claim the entire region.
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About 150 death-row inmates in Sri Lanka began a hunger strike to demand their sentences be commuted, prison officials said, after the nation’s president pardoned a former lawmaker who had been condemned for an election-related killing.The lawmaker’s surprise release Thursday after he was pardoned by President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa has drawn widespread criticism, including from the U.N. human rights office and the U.S. ambassador in Sri Lanka.Duminda Silva is widely seen as a favorite of Sri Lanka’s ruling Rajapaksa family and had been serving a death sentence over the killing of a rival lawmaker from his own party in an election-related attack about 10 years ago.About 150 inmates sentenced to death were striking, demanding their sentences be commuted to life terms, prison spokesman Chandana Ekanayake said Friday.He said prison officials were discussing with the Justice Ministry and other government officials to resolve the issue but declined to give further details.Sri Lankan prisons are highly congested with more than 26,000 inmates crowded in facilities with the capacity of 10,000.Unrest related to COVID-19 erupted in one prison last year, and at least eleven inmates were killed and more than 100 wounded when guards opened fire to control the unrest.Silva’s surprise release appeared to have set off the hunger strike.The United Nation’s Human Rights Office said Silva’s case “is another example of selective, arbitrary granting of pardons that weakens rule of law and undermines accountability.”U.S. Ambassador Alaina B. Teplitz in a tweet on Thursday said the pardon of Silva “undermines rule of law.”Sri Lanka has not hanged a prisoner since 1976 even though courts routinely pass death sentences. Rajapaksa’s predecessor, Maithripala Sirisena, had vowed to end the moratorium on capital punishment and to use it against those convicted of drug crimes.Prison officials hired two executioners to carry out the hangings, but none took place during Sirisena’s tenure.  
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U.S. President Joe Biden will meet with Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and chief peacemaker Abdullah Abdullah at the White House on Friday.The first face-to-face interaction between Biden and Afghan officials comes ahead of the withdrawal of the remaining U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, in line with Biden’s direction to close what he has described as the “forever war.”White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week that Biden “looks forward to welcoming” the Afghan leaders and will reassure them of U.S. diplomatic, economic and humanitarian support for the turmoil-hit country as the drawdown continues.Ghani and Abdullah arrived in Washington Thursday and met with Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell.“The visit by President Ghani and Dr. Abdullah will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues,” Psaki said.Ghani’s aides said he would raise the issue of future ties between the two countries and continued assistance for Afghan security forces.The foreign military drawdown, which formally started on May 1, has led to an unprecedented escalation in fighting between Afghan security forces and Taliban insurgents, dealing fresh blows to slow-moving U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between the Afghan adversaries.The insurgents have in recent weeks captured dozens of new districts and both sides are said to have suffered heavy casualties, with Afghan civilians continuing to bear the brunt of the country’s long war.Late Thursday, U.S. officials told The Associated Press that about 650 U.S. troops were likely to remain in Afghanistan as a security detail for diplomats.The officials also told AP that several hundred additional U.S. forces would remain at the Kabul airport, possibly until September. The troops’ role, the officials told AP, would be to aid Turkish troops who are providing security there. It would be a temporary move until a more formal Turkey-led security operation is in place, the officials said, according to the AP.Also Thursday, Qatar said it had formally proposed to the warring sides in Afghanistan to agree to a third-party mediation for moving their stalled peace negotiations forward and reaching a power-sharing arrangement before U.S.-led foreign troops complete their exit from the country by a Sept. 11 deadline.Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani, the special Qatari envoy for counterterrorism and mediation of conflict resolution, said his government shared the mediation proposal last week with representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency. He made the remarks during an international seminar this week in Qatar’s capital, Doha.The two Afghan adversaries have been holding peace negotiations in Doha since last September with the host government, among others, playing the role of a facilitator. But the process has made no significant headway, with each negotiating team blaming the other for the deadlock.“We do not think facilitation is enough. [Afghan negotiators] need a formal mediation,” Qahtani said earlier this week.The seminar’s organizer, the independent Doha-based Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, released video of his speech Thursday.“The [two Afghan] parties have not yet finalized their agreement with respect to the mediation. One party needs two mediators while the other party needs one mediator,” the Qatari envoy said, without elaborating. “We expect the parties to come to us very, very soon about their final position. They are almost there.”Ayaz Gul in Islamabad and The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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Roughly 650 U.S. troops are expected to remain in Afghanistan to provide security for diplomats after the main American military force completes its withdrawal, which is set to be largely done in the next two weeks, U.S. officials told The Associated Press on Thursday.In addition, several hundred additional U.S. forces will remain at the Kabul airport, potentially until September, to assist Turkish troops providing security, as a temporary move until a more formal Turkey-led security operation is in place, the officials said.Overall, officials said the U.S. expects to have American and coalition military command, its leadership and most troops out by July 4th, or shortly after that, meeting an aspirational deadline that commanders developed months ago.The officials were not authorized to discuss details of the withdrawal and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room in the White House on Wednesday, April 14, 2021, about the withdrawal of the remainder of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.The departure of the bulk of the more than 4,000 troops that have been in the country in recent months is unfolding well before President Joe Biden’s Sept. 11 deadline for withdrawal. And it comes amid accelerating Taliban battlefield gains, fueling fears that the Afghan government and its military could collapse in a matter of months.Officials have repeatedly stressed that security at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul is a critical requirement to keeping any U.S. diplomatic staff in Afghanistan.Still, the decision to keep additional troops there for several more months makes it more complicated for the Biden administration to declare a true end to America’s longest war until later this fall. And it keeps the embattled country near the forefront of U.S. national security challenges, even as the White House tries to put the 20-year-old war behind it and focus more on threats from China and Russia.On Friday, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah, chair of the High Council for National Reconciliation, are meeting with Biden at the White House. The two Afghan leaders also are scheduled to meet at the Pentagon with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and possibly other administration officials, the Pentagon announced.Getting most troops out by early July had been in doubt because of complications including an outbreak of COVID-19 at the U.S. Embassy and the push to get Afghan interpreters and others who helped the U.S. out of the country. Officials said U.S. commanders and NATO allies in Afghanistan have been able to overcome logistical hurdles that might have prolonged the withdrawal process. But they also warned that plans in place for the final stages of the U.S. military withdrawal could change if airport security agreements fall through or there are other major, unforeseen developments.FILE – A NATO helicopter flies over the city of Kabul, Afghanistan.As recently as last week, there was discussion of possibly extending the U.S. troop presence at Bagram Airfield, north of Kabul, but officials said the U.S. presence at the base is expected to end in the next several days.The roughly 650 U.S. troops that are planned to be a more permanent force presence in Afghanistan will provide security for the U.S. Embassy and some ongoing support at the airport. Officials said the U.S. has agreed to leave a C-RAM — or Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar system — at the airport, as well as troops to operate it, as part of an agreement with Turkey. The U.S. also plans to leave aircrew for helicopter support at the airport.According to the officials, Turkey has largely agreed to provide security at the airport as long as it receives support from American forces. U.S. and Turkish military officials are meeting in Ankara this week to finalize arrangements.
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Qatar says it has formally proposed to warring sides in Afghanistan to agree to a third-party mediation for moving their stalled peace negotiations forward and reaching a power-sharing arrangement before U.S.-led foreign troops complete their exit from the country by a September 11 deadline.The proposal comes ahead of Friday’s crucial meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his chief peacemaker, Abdullah Abdullah, at the White House. Biden is expected to encourage all Afghan parties to “meaningfully” negotiate an end to their country’s long conflict.Mutlaq bin Majed Al Qahtani, the special Qatari envoy for counterterrorism and mediation of conflict resolution, said his government shared the mediation proposal last week with representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban insurgency. He made the remarks during an international seminar this week in Qatar’s capital, Doha.The two Afghan adversaries have been holding peace negotiations in Doha since last September with the host government, among others, playing the role of a facilitator. But the process has made no significant headway, with each negotiating team blaming the other for the deadlock.“We do not think facilitation is enough. [Afghan negotiators] need a formal mediation,” Qahtani said on Monday.The seminar’s organizer, the independent Doha-based Center for Conflict and Humanitarian Studies, released video of his speech Thursday.“The [two Afghan] parties have not yet finalized their agreement with respect to the mediation. One party needs two mediators while the other party needs one mediator,” the Qatari envoy said, without elaborating. “We expect the parties to come to us very, very soon about their final position. They are almost there.”Qahtani said the mediator’s opinions, decisions and proposals would not be binding on the Afghan parties, but he did not say who would conduct the proposed mediation.The Qatari official stressed, however, it should be an “impartial mediator that understands the cultural sensitivity of the conflict” to help the Afghan parties reach a peace settlement “in full conformity of the international law.”Doha, which houses the Afghan Taliban’s political office, served as the venue for Washington’s negotiations with the insurgents that produced the February 2020 landmark troop withdrawal agreement and set the stage for the U.S. to close its nearly two decades of military engagement in Afghanistan.The peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government stemmed from the U.S.-Taliban deal. The pact also binds the insurgent group not to allow terrorist groups to use Afghan soil for attacks against the United States and its allies.Deadlocked  intra-Afghan talksQahtani explained the deadlock in intra-Afghan talks primarily stems from major disagreements on how Afghanistan would be governed following the withdrawal of foreign troops.“Any kind of system you want to call it. any kind of name you want to put forward, I think it’s up to them. What’s more important is about the power, it’s about the system, it is about the future government,” he said.FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.The Taliban reject Ghani’s government as an illegal entity and a product of U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, demanding a new “Islamic system” of governance in Kabul. The Afghan government maintains the country is being run under an Islamic constitution and any transition would have to be in line with the existing laws.“I confirm that we received a proposal from the Qatar Foreign Ministry about Qatar’s role as mediator,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told VOA. “This is now under discussion in our negotiations team and we will  send them our response soon after our deliberations,” said Suhail, who is based in Doha and is also a member of the Taliban negotiating team.VOA could not immediately get a confirmation from the Afghan government about whether it had received Qatar’s proposals and what its response might be.Taliban territorial controlThe Taliban have dramatically expanded their area of control since the foreign military pullout formally began on May 1, seizing dozens of districts. The United Nations estimated on Tuesday that more than 50 Afghan districts had fallen to the insurgents since the beginning of May.Afghan Commando forces are seen at the site of a battle field where they clash with the Taliban insurgent in Kunduz province, June 22, 2021.Afghan security forces have also escalated counteroffensives and the ensuing fighting has killed hundreds of combatants on both sides.The violence has fueled fears the withdrawal of international forces without a peace deal could plunge Afghanistan into another round of bloody civil war and chaos.The top U.S. military commander on Wednesday, however, downplayed recent insurgent gains, saying that most of the district centers controlled by the Taliban were seized before American troops began withdrawing from Afghanistan.Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, while testifying before the House Armed Services Committee this week, acknowledged the Taliban were “sniping at and picking off outposts” and they have also seized some district centers.“There’s 81 district centers that are currently, we think, underneath Taliban control. That’s out of 419 district centers. There is no provincial capital that is underneath Taliban control, and there’s 34 of those,” said Milley.“Sixty percent of the 81 were seized last year and the others since the last two months or so. So, yes, we are concerned, we are watching it, but there is a 300,000-plus or -minus military force, Afghanistan army and police force, and it is their job to defend their country,” he added.Armed men attend a gathering to announce their support for Afghan security forces and that they are ready to fight against the Taliban, on the outskirts of Kabul, June 23, 2021.Washington, Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors and regional countries, including Qatar, have urged the Taliban to reduce violence and seek a political settlement to the war. They have warned that attempts by the insurgents to seize power militarily would be unacceptable for the global community.A White House statement said earlier this week that Friday’s Washington visit by Afghan leaders “will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan.”But the Taliban have criticized Friday’s White House meeting between Biden and Ghani.“It seems his visit is more for prolongation of his power rather than peaceful solution of the Afghan issue,” said Taliban spokesman Suhail. “It is in the interest of the U.S. to focus on a peaceful settlement of the issue instead of bolstering a moribund regime.”
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Australia is being urged to agree to an immediate emergency evacuation of Afghans who worked for its military during the long conflict in Afghanistan.Campaigners this week released a list of the names of nine Afghans who worked for Australia during the conflict in Afghanistan and were allegedly murdered as “traitors” by the Taliban in reprisal attacks. This is despite a recent announcement the Taliban made pledging they would not retaliate against Afghans who worked with foreign groups.Islamic militants are attempting to retake control of Afghanistan as foreign forces leave.Interpreters played a key role during the conflict. Campaigners have said about 1,000 Afghans are still going through Australia’s visa process, but they say it is taking too long.Stuart McCarthy, an ex-Australian soldier who was deployed to Afghanistan twice, has been an advocate for former Afghan interpreters and other staff. He said he believes the closure last month of the Australian Embassy in Kabul has made it much harder for the interpreters to leave Afghanistan safely.He has submitted an emergency evacuation plan to the Australian government.McCarthy told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. the rescue mission should be undertaken without delay.“It could still be conducted very rapidly, very effectively and in my view, it would be a very good way for us to end our 20-year-long military commitment to Afghanistan, and in my view now if we are not making these sorts of decisions today or tomorrow essentially what we will be doing is allowing these civilians to be slaughtered by the Taliban,” he said. “And our own government, including our prime minister, would have blood on their hands.”Senior foreign affairs officials in Canberra have conceded that locals who worked with the Australian military in Afghanistan are in danger.Australia’s Immigration Minister Alex Hawke has tried to assure Afghan interpreters waiting for a protection visa they were being given “the highest priority in the humanitarian program.”Hawke said 180 visas had been issued since April, but he would not reveal how many applications were still being assessed because of “operational and security reasons.”Independent Senator Jacqui Lambie told the Federal Senate that it was “absolutely shameful” to leave the interpreters without protection.“The world,” she said, “is watching how we treat our mates.” 
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India’s prime minister was scheduled to hold a crucial meeting with pro-India politicians from disputed Kashmir on Thursday for the first time since New Delhi stripped the region’s semi-autonomy while jailing many of them in a crackdown.Experts say the meeting is meant to ward off mounting criticism at home and abroad after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in August 2019 downgraded the region’s status, split it into two federal territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — and removed inherited protections on land and jobs for the local population.Since then, Indian authorities have imposed a slew of administrative changes through new laws, often drafted by bureaucrats, that triggered resentment and anger as many likened the moves to the beginning of settler colonialism. Modi has repeatedly called the changes overdue and necessary to foster economic development and fully integrate Kashmir with India.Muslim-majority Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim it in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting against Indian rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebel goal that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.Modi was chairing the meeting in New Delhi later Thursday that is likely to be attended by the Himalayan region’s 14 political leaders, including Modi’s own party members.Among those invited are Kashmir’s former three top elected officials — Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, who was a regional coalition partner of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for nearly two years after the 2016 state elections.The three and few other invited leaders were among thousands arrested and held for months in 2019. They have criticized India’s policies in Kashmir and formed an alliance with four other parties to fight them, calling them “spitefully shortsighted and unconstitutional.”The meeting was happening in the backdrop of the reaffirmation of a 2003 cease-fire accord between India and Pakistan in February as part of a peace deal brokered by the United Arab Emirates.Sushant Singh, a senior fellow at the Center for Policy Research, a public policy think tank in India, in a tweet said Tuesday that the UAE-brokered backchannel talks led to “certain commitments from the Modi government on Kashmir.”
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In the chaotic, final hours of the Vietnam War, the U.S. evacuated thousands of South Vietnamese who supported the American mission and were at risk under the communist government.As U.S. and NATO forces prepare to depart Afghanistan by September 11, many are recalling that desperate, hasty exodus as they urge the Biden administration to evacuate thousands of Afghans who worked as interpreters or otherwise helped U.S. military operations there in the past two decades.Despite unusual bipartisan support in Congress, the administration hasn’t agreed to such a move, declining to publicly support something that could undermine security in the country as it unwinds a war that started after the 9/11 attacks.FILE – Peter Meijer, then a Michigan congressional candidate, speaks at a campaign rally, Oct. 14, 2020, in Grand Rapids, Mich.”We have a moral obligation to protect our brave allies who put their lives on the line for us, and we’ve been working for months to engage the administration and make sure there’s a plan, with few concrete results,” Republican Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan said during a House hearing last week.Lawmakers have urged the administration to consider temporarily relocating Afghans who worked for American or NATO forces to a safe overseas location while their U.S. visas are processed. Some have suggested Guam, a U.S. territory that served a similar purpose after the Vietnam War. Kurdish refugees also were flown to the Pacific island in 1996 after the Gulf War.Ready to helpGuam’s governor recently wrote to President Joe Biden to say the territory was ready to help if needed.The Biden administration for now is focusing on accelerating a special visa program for Afghans who helped U.S. operations and pouring resources into relieving the backlog.”We are processing and getting people out at a record pace,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday. “We are working with Congress right now to streamline some of the requirements that slow this process down, and we’re doing the kind of extensive planning for potential evacuation, should that become necessary.”Zalmay Khalilzad, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan reconstruction, warned lawmakers in May that “the departure of all educated Afghans” would “signal panic” and hurt the morale of the country’s security forces.”This is a delicate, complicated balance that we have to keep,” Khalilzad said.FILE – U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo., speaks during a news conference in Denver, Aug. 18, 2020.Democratic Representative Jason Crow of Colorado recently introduced legislation that would nearly double the number of visas available this year, to 8,000, and ease eligibility requirements.But he said congressional action would not be quick enough or sufficient.Tens of thousandsEven if the legislation passed immediately, the number of visas would fall far short of the estimated 18,000 Afghans waiting to be processed. That figure does not include their spouses and children, who would bring the total to about 70,000 people.And the average wait is more than three years. The process has been also hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, which led the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan to suspend visa interviews.Crow, a former Army Ranger who served in Afghanistan, said he would prefer that the government “evacuate our Afghan partners to a temporary evacuation site where we can safely conduct robust visa processing without threat to applicants’ safety by the Taliban.”In a statement this month, the Taliban vowed not to attack those who worked for Western interests, urging Afghans to remain at home and warning their ranks against revenge killings.Still, many Afghans are desperate for visas, fearing violence not only from the Taliban but also from heavily armed warlords allied with the U.S., and seeing now as their last chance to leave Afghanistan.The American withdrawal began May 1, when the number of U.S. troops was between 2,500 and 3,500, and it could be completed by July 4. Some 7,000 NATO forces are set to leave by September 11.FILE – Sen. Angus King speaks at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing in Washington, April 11, 2019.Independent Senator Angus King of Maine said the government needed to find a “creative” approach to helping Afghans who worked with the U.S. military. That could include sending more people from the State Department or the military to process visas in Afghanistan or evacuating people to a safe place to be vetted.Security issue”It’s not only a moral issue, it’s a national security issue,” said King, who sits on both the Intelligence and Armed Services committees, adding that “we also have a practical responsibility, in terms of do we want people to help us in the future.”More than 300 interpreters have been killed in Afghanistan since 2016, according to No One Left Behind, an organization that advocates on their behalf.Former Army Major Matt Zeller said a military evacuation was the only viable option for thousands of Afghans facing threats who have been protected by the presence of U.S. troops.”I’m only alive because my Afghan Muslim translator saved my life by killing two Taliban fighters who were about to kill me in a battle,” said Zeller, whose interpreter waited three years for a visa.FILE – The helicopter zone at the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam, showing the last-minute evacuation of authorized personnel and civilians, April 29, 1975.The U.S. government should have learned from what happened in Vietnam, said Jim Jones, a Vietnam veteran and former Idaho Supreme Court chief justice.Initially fearing a mass evacuation would undermine the South Vietnamese military, the U.S. — as the North Vietnamese army overtook South Vietnam —watched for weeks before starting to fly out Americans and allies. The effort ended with the largest helicopter evacuation in history in the final hours of the war.In less than 24 hours, Marine helicopters airlifted about 7,000 U.S. military personnel, South Vietnamese who supported the American mission and their dependents.Many South Vietnamese soldiers and government officials left behind were killed or held in “reeducation” camps. They included troops who had helped Jones stay alive as an Army artillery officer.”We had a moral obligation to extract as many as possible but, instead, we abandoned them to a horrific fate,” Jones wrote in the Military Times. “We simply cannot allow that kind of tragedy to happen again with the Afghans. I pray that this great nation does not again turn its back on beleaguered people who placed their trust in us.”Pentagon leaders said they were ready to help in any way they could and downplayed concerns that history would repeat itself.”I don’t see Saigon 1975 in Afghanistan,” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently told lawmakers.
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India’s technology driven vaccination initiative has raised concerns the country’s huge digital divide is making it difficult for many people to get inoculated, particularly in the nation’s vast countryside. While tech savvy, digitally aware city dwellers have managed to get shots, millions in rural areas are left behind because of a technology barrier. Anjana Pasricha has a report. Camera: Rakesh Kumar    
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At least three people have been killed and more than ten others injured in an explosion in Lahore, Pakistan, outside the house of Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, a man linked to the 2008 attacks in the Indian city Mumbai that killed more than 170 people. 
Saeed is the leader of Jamaat-ud-Dawa, or JuD, an Islamist militant group operating in South Asia. It was not immediately clear if Saeed was among the casualties.   The explosion was powerful enough to damage nearby houses and several vehicles standing in nearby streets, witnesses said.   According to VOA’s Urdu language service, police, members of a paramilitary force called the Rangers, the counterterrorism force, as well as Saeed’s personal security guards surrounded the house soon after the explosion.   FILE – Members of the Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) survey the site after a deadly blast in residential area in Lahore, Pakistan, June 23, 2021.Eyewitnesses and journalists were told to move away and cell phone signals were jammed in the surroundings.  Ghulam Mehmood Dogar, the head of police in Lahore said so far nothing could be said about the nature of the blast.   “It could be a gas blast, it could be something else, but somebody has to make a final determination as an expert,” he said.   Saeed is on both the United States and the United Nations lists of sanctioned individuals. He has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. Justice Department.   “Hafiz Muhammad Saeed is the leader and chief of Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT),” the FILE – In this Nov. 29, 2008 file picture, smoke billows from the landmark Taj Mahal hotel in Mumbai, India after an attack by gunmen.LeT is the group blamed for the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan’s neighbor India has long sought action against Saeed for his involvement in the attacks, but Pakistani courts have often given him relief citing lack of evidence.   Last year, Pakistani courts convicted Saeed in several cases linked to terrorism financing. He was serving a sentence of five and a half years.   The U.S. has offered a bounty of $10 million to anyone providing information that leads to Saeed’s conviction in the Mumbai attacks case. 
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The U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is more than halfway finished, yet the country is plagued with violence as the Taliban extend their reach. This, as the Afghan president meets with U.S. President Joe Biden later this week. VOA’s Carolyn Presutti reports from the White House.
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The U.N.’s top official in Afghanistan warned Tuesday that time is running out to prevent a “worst-case scenario” and urged the warring parties to abandon violence and make peace.  “There is only one acceptable direction for Afghanistan – one acceptable direction – away from the battlefield and back to the negotiating table,” Deborah Lyons told a high-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council.She appealed to the council, as well as regional countries, to push the Taliban and Afghan government negotiators to resume U.S.-brokered peace talks in Doha, Qatar, which began in September, but then stalled.Turkey, Qatar and the United Nations had planned to host a conference in Istanbul in April in order to get those negotiations restarted, but the Taliban ignored the invitation.Instead, Taliban-driven attacks and violence has surged. The U.N. says civilian casualties are up by nearly 30% in the first three months of 2021 over the same period last year, and there have been multiple attacks on schools, aid workers and minority communities.Surge in fightingLyons said that more than 50 of Afghanistan’s 370 districts have fallen to the Taliban since early May.“Most districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn,” she said.The United States announced in mid-April that it plans to withdraw its remaining troops by mid-September. The drawdown began on May 1 and is likely to end ahead of schedule, in July. NATO forces are also leaving Afghanistan. Since the withdrawals have begun, fighting has intensified between Afghan security forces and the Taliban.FILE – Men pray near the graves of relatives killed in May bombings, at a cemetery on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghanistan, June 2, 2021.Lyons said the announcement of the departure of international troops “sent a seismic tremor” through the Afghan political system and society. She said that while the decision to leave was expected, its speed was not.“All actors have had to adjust to this new reality that is unfolding,” she said.  Lyons warned that if the Taliban continue their military campaign it would lead to increased and prolonged suffering and violence, and risk gains.“It should be emphatically clear that any efforts to install a militarily imposed government in Kabul would go against the will of the Afghan people, and against the stated positions of the regional countries and the broader international community,” she said.US pledges continued supportThe U.S. ambassador said that Washington’s commitment to Afghanistan’s safety and security would continue.  “We will use our full diplomatic, economic, and assistance tool kit to support the peaceful, stable future the Afghan people want and deserve,” Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told council members. “And we will continue to support the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces in securing their country.”Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister said his government was not a party to the agreement signed by the United States and the Taliban in Doha in February 2020, but has engaged in good faith, while the Taliban have not.Minister Mohammad Haneef Atmar said the group has not cut ties with international terrorism or reduced violence, and has not pursued any serious engagement with the government.“This situation calls for a serious review and assessment as to where we, as the international community, are with the peace process,” he told the council.Council members expressed support for a continued U.N. role in Afghanistan after the foreign forces leave. They will consider the U.N. Assistance Mission’s (UNAMA) mandate in September. 
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Fierce fighting continues to rage across Afghanistan, where officials reported Tuesday security forces had reversed some of the recent advances by the Taliban, as U.S. and NATO allies wind up two decades of military presence in the country.Taliban insurgents have dramatically expanded their area of control since the foreign troop pullout process formally started on May 1, overrunning about 60 districts and inflicting heavy casualties on U.S.-trained Afghan security forces.“Most districts that have been taken surround provincial capitals, suggesting that the Taliban are positioning themselves to try and take these capitals once foreign forces are fully withdrawn,” according to Deborah Lyons, special representative and head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).“We must accept the reality — increased conflict in Afghanistan means increased insecurity for many other countries, near and far,” Lyons told a U.N. Security Council meeting Tuesday in New York.The insurgent gains have fueled fears that a Taliban return to power is inevitable after all international soldiers leave Afghanistan by a September 11 deadline.Washington reaffirmed Monday, however, that the U.S. troop drawdown was still on pace to conclude in line with President Joe Biden’s orders.“We will complete the withdrawal of all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan with the exception of those that will be left to protect the diplomatic presence, and that it will be done before early September,” Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters.“Those two things are constant and would not change,” he said.The U.S. military said last week the withdrawal is more than halfway done.FILE – U.S. troops patrol at an Afghan National Army base in Logar province, Afghanistan, Aug. 7, 2018.Kirby also said, though, that American military leaders are closely studying and looking at the emerging Afghan situation in case it requires “changes made to the pace or to the scope and scale of the retrograde” process.“We are looking at a range of options. I am not at liberty to confirm any specific one right now. But, again, our support for the Afghan forces once the retrograde is complete will be largely financial,” Kirby stressed.Afghan authorities said Tuesday government security forces evicted the Taliban from several districts in northern and northeastern provinces of Balkh, Baghlan and Kunduz during overnight fighting, killing dozens of insurgents.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected official claims as propaganda. He wrote on Twitter that his group retained control of all the recently captured districts.It was not possible to seek independent verification of either of the statements, and both sides often issue inflated claims about their battlefield activities.Residents in embattled Kunduz Tuesday told VOA the Taliban seized control of the Sher Khan dry port located at the country’s border with Tajikistan that serves as a major trade route.Ajmal Omar Shinwari, a newly appointed spokesman for the Afghan security sector, told a news conference in Kabul the government was determined to retake all lost districts.Shinwari said a comprehensive plan had been worked out to manage the security across Afghanistan, noting the government would require more than a week to implement the plan.More than half of 407 Afghan districts across the country’s 34 provinces are controlled or threatened by the Taliban.The surge in Taliban attacks has prompted Afghan officials to call on civilians and former anti-Taliban militias to pick arms in support of government forces to help evict the insurgents from their areas. This, in turn, is raising fears of another round of civil war that gripped Afghanistan in the 1990s and enabled the Islamist Taliban to seize power in Kabul.Afghan forces for years relied on close U.S. air support to contain insurgent advances but that cover is no longer available to them.Jonathan Schroden, a military operations analyst with the U.S.-based research and analysis organization the Center for Naval Analyses, said the Taliban’s military push is not surprising.“It makes sense for them strategically to test the Afghan security forces to see how they perform in the absence of U.S. support,” he told VOA.“Their success in overrunning rural districts has exceeded most people’s predictions and their presence at the gates of some provincial capitals is concerning.”Jonathan noted, though, the Taliban likely will find attacking, seizing, and holding provincial capitals to be significantly more difficult than overrunning lightly defended rural terrain. “And that’s where the Afghan security forces are going to have to dig in and make their stand.”Meanwhile, President Ashraf Ghani and the chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, along with other senior officials, will travel to Washington this week for a crucial meeting Friday with President Biden at the White House.Ghani’s aides said that during his first face-to-face meeting with Biden, the Afghan leader will discuss, among other issues, continued assistance for Afghan forces.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the chairman of Afghanistan’s High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah will travel to Washington for a crucial meeting with President Joe Biden on June 25, 2021.The White House said Sunday Biden “looks forward to welcoming” the Afghan leaders and will reassure them of U.S. diplomatic, economic and humanitarian support for the turmoil-hit country as the drawdown continues.“The visit by President Ghani and Dr. Abdullah will highlight the enduring partnership between the United States and Afghanistan as the military drawdown continues,” it said.The U.S.-led military drawdown is a product of a February 2020 deal Washington negotiated with the Taliban to end what has been the longest war in U.S. history, costing more than $2 trillion and the lives of more than 2,400 American soldiers.The agreement also encouraged the Taliban to start direct talks with Afghan government representatives last September in Doha, the capital of Qatar, to arrange a peace deal to end the war between the Afghan adversaries. But those negotiations have had little success nor have they eased the violence in Afghanistan.The Taliban currently control 124 Afghan districts, while 186 are contested, according to the Long War Journal’s ongoing study of the security situation in Afghanistan. The project is part of Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.Ghani warned Tuesday the Taliban were making a “strategic mistake” in increasing the violence rather than seeking a political settlement to through the Doha dialogue process.”If Afghanistan is to be engulfed in the intensified conflict, no one in the region will be spared,” Ghani told an international conference via a video link. “The consequences will be spread, and we need to understand that type of threat to our well being, and our collective interest very clearly.”The Afghan president reiterated he was not interested in power and willing to hold early elections to ensure “orderly succession” in a bid to promote a political reconciliation with the Taliban.“I once again call on Taliban to accept the will of the people as a magnetization of the injections of Almighty God that we must make decisions collectively and move together,” Ghani said.The Islamist insurgent group previously has also rejected such offers by Ghani, denouncing him and his administration as an outcome of the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan. 
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