Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel speaks at the committee’s winter meeting in Dana Point, Calif., Friday, Jan. 27, 2023. | Jae C. Hong/AP Photo
Any candidate who wants to take part in the GOP’s first primary debate in Milwaukee later this year will have to sign a pledge promising to support whoever wins the nomination, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel said Sunday.
“We’re saying you’re not going to get on the debate stage unless you make this pledge,” McDaniel said during an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” McDaniel, who recently won her fourth term as RNC chair after a contentious battle against Harmeet Dhillon, said that Republican voters are tired of “infighting” within the party, and “want to see us come together.”
So far, three prominent candidates have entered the GOP presidential primary — former President Donald Trump, former Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley and conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. More are expected to join the race, potentially including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Kathmandu: Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra and his Nepali counterpart Bharat Raj Paudyal during a bilateral meeting here on Monday reviewed various aspects of Nepal-India relations and expressed commitment to allow the export of power from Nepal to India on a long-term basis.
Kwatra arrived here on a two-day official visit to hold talks with the country’s top leaders on the entire range of multifaceted cooperation between the two neighbouring countries, including connectivity, trade and transit, power sector cooperation, agriculture, education, culture, health sector, and people to people relations, among others.
Soon after his arrival here, Kwatra met his Nepalese counterpart Paudyal and “the two sides reviewed with satisfaction the progress made in the connectivity projects such as railways, transmissions lines, bridges, and the ICPs”, said a statement issued by the Nepalese Foreign Ministry.
“The two sides also expressed commitment to allow the export of power from Nepal to India on a long-term basis utilising all products of the exchange market. They also discussed technical upgrading of cross-border transmission lines and early approval of the four proposed transmission line projects under the LOC-IV,” the statement said.
“The two sides discussed the early conclusion of the renewed transit treaty, review of the trade treaty, and convening of the inter-governmental committee on trade (IGC) at an early date.”
Foreign Secretary Paudyal reiterated the request to the Indian government for additional air-entry routes as well as early concurrence of the near border flight operation of the Gautam Buddha International Airport in Bhairahawa, according to the statement.
“The two foreign secretaries also discussed the boundary matters. In this regard, they exchanged views on completing the boundary works in the remaining segments through the established bilateral mechanisms.”
They also agreed to finalise the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the foreign service academies of the two countries.
The meeting was held in a friendly and cordial atmosphere reflecting the close and multifaceted relations between the two neighbours, said the statement. Paudyal later hosted a lunch in the honour of the visiting Indian foreign secretary and the members of his delegation.
In the afternoon, Kwatra also called on President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda’, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Bimala Rai Paudyal.
Kwatra paid a courtesy call to Bhandari at the Sheetal Niwas here and conveyed the greetings on behalf of the President of India Droupadi Murmu.
Kathmandu: Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra with President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari during a meeting, at Sheetal Niwas in Kathmandu, Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (PTI Photo)
“Matters of mutual interests were discussed during the calls on,” the statement said.
The Foreign Secretary of India arrived in Kathmandu on Monday morning on a two-day visit to the Himalayan nation.
During his visit, Kwatra, who was earlier India’s ambassador here, is expected to discuss with his Nepalese interlocutors the possibility of a visit to India by Prime Minister Prachanda.
Prachanda has said that he will travel to India on his first foreign visit. Seven members each from Nepal and India took part in the Foreign Secretary-level bilateral meeting.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal Naveen Srivastava was among the members of the Indian delegation while Joint Secretary and spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry Sewa Lamsal was among the members of the Nepalese delegation.
This is the first high-level visit from India after Prime Minister Prachanda assumed office for the third time in December.
Kwatra is also expected to meet Nepal’s top political leaders, including Nepali Congress president Sher Bahadur Deuba and CPN-UML chairman KP Sharma Oli on Tuesday.
“The visit is in keeping with the tradition of regular high-level exchanges between the two countries and the priority India attaches to its relations with Nepal under its ‘Neighbourhood First’ policy,” the Ministry of External Affairs has said.
India’s Neighbourhood First’ policy is an integral component of Indian foreign policy.
The policy seeks to build cordial and synergetic relations with India’s South Asian neighbours in various areas such as economy, science and technology, research, and education, among others.
Nepal is important for India in the context of its overall strategic interests in the region, and the leaders of the two countries have often noted the age-old “Roti Beti” relationship.
Nepal shares a border of more than 1,850 km with five Indian states – Sikkim, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.
Land-locked Nepal relies heavily on India for the transportation of goods and services.
As part of the agreement, the U.S. has allocated $82 million toward infrastructure improvements at five current EDCA sites, and expand its military presence to four new sites in “strategic areas of the country,” according to the statement.
Austin arrived in the Philippines on Tuesday from South Korea, where he said the U.S. would increase its deployment of advanced weapons such as fighter jets and bombers to the Korean Peninsula to bolster joint training with South Korean forces in response to North Korea’s growing nuclear threat.
In the Philippines, Washington’s oldest treaty ally in Asia and a key front in the U.S. battle against terrorism, Austin visited southern Zamboanga city and met Filipino generals and a small contingent of U.S. counterterrorism forces based in a local military camp, regional Philippine military commander Lt. Gen. Roy Galido said. The more than 100 U.S. military personnel have provided intelligence and combat advice for years to Filipino troops battling a decades-long Muslim insurgency, which has considerably eased but remains a key threat.
More recently, U.S. forces have intensified and broadened joint training focusing on combat readiness and disaster response with Filipino troops on the nation’s western coast, which faces the South China Sea, and in its northern Luzon region across the sea from the Taiwan Strait.
American forces were granted access to five Philippine military camps, where they could rotate indefinitely under the 2014 EDCA defense pact.
In October, the U.S. sought access for a larger number of its forces and weapons in an additional five military camps, mostly in the north. That request would be high on the agenda in Austin’s meetings, according to Philippine officials.
“The visit of Secretary Austin definitely, obviously will have to do with many of the ongoing discussions on the EDCA sites,” Philippine Ambassador to Washington Jose Romualdez said at a news briefing.
Austin was scheduled to hold talks Thursday with his Philippine counterpart, Carlito Galvez Jr., and National Security Adviser Eduardo Ano, Romualdez said. Austin will separately call on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who took office in June and has since taken steps to boost relations with Washington.
The U.S. defense chief is the latest senior official to visit the Philippines after Vice President Kamala Harris in November in a sign of warming ties after a strained period under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.
Duterte had nurtured cozy ties with China and Russia and at one point threatened to sever ties with Washington, kick visiting American forces out and abrogate a major defense pact.
Romualdez said the Philippines needed to cooperate with Washington to deter any escalation of tensions between China and self-ruled Taiwan — not only because of the treaty alliance but to help prevent a major conflict.
“We’re in a Catch-22 situation. If China makes a move on Taiwan militarily, we’ll be affected — and all ASEAN region, but mostly us, Japan and South Korea,” Romualdez told The Associated Press, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the 10-nation regional bloc that includes the Philippines.
The Philippines and ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam, along with Taiwan, have been locked in increasingly tense territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea. The U.S. has been regarded as a crucial counterweight to China in the region and has pledged to come to the defense of the Philippines if Filipino forces, ships or aircraft come under attack in the contested waters.
The Philippines used to host two of the largest U.S. Navy and Air Force bases outside the American mainland. The bases were shut down in the early 1990s after the Philippine Senate rejected an extension, but American forces returned for large-scale combat exercises with Filipino troops under a 1999 Visiting Forces Agreement.
The Philippine Constitution prohibits the permanent basing of foreign troops and their involvement in local combat.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Baghdad: Iraq and France have inked a strategic partnership agreement to enhance bilateral cooperation in various areas including energy and security, according to Iraqi officials.
The agreement was signed during Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani’s one-day visit to Paris, after he met with French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and talked with President Emmanuel Macron, al-Sudani’s media office tweeted, Xinhua News Agency reported.
During talks with Macron, the two leaders discussed bilateral ties, regional and international issues of common concern, and joint cooperation in vital sectors, said the media office’s press release.
The agreement covers cooperation in such areas as combating terrorism and extremism, cultural exchange, crisis management, combating economic and organised crime, protecting the environment and promoting human rights, which, al-Sudani tweeted on Thursday, “lays down a road map for expanding our two countries’ cooperation in various fields.”
The past years have witnessed deepened bilateral exchanges. Macron has visited Iraq twice, one in 2020 and another in 2021. France-headquartered oil producer TotalEnergies signed a deal with the Iraqi government in 2021, agreeing to invest in oil, gas and renewables projects in southern Iraq over 25 years.
