The Biden administration appears disposed to reactivate the existing alliance arrangements as well as to cultivate new allies in the Indo-Pacific. The administration following the American withdrawal from Afghanistan seems poised to divert more resources towards the Indo-Pacific theatre while imposing an unstable border on Beijing to remain embroiled in the Afghan trap. It sought to strengthen Washington’s network of […]

Introduction As the momentum of global economic gravity continues to shift towards East Asia, the contours of a new economic and political geography within South Asia are also becoming visible with enhanced connectivity among western China, Pakistan and Central Asia. Led by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this transition is already influencing the thinking patterns of politics, culture and […]

“Are we going to surrender [to TTP] once again?” — Justice Qazi Mohammad Amin Ahmed, Judge, Supreme Court of Pakistan Islamabad has always alleged that Indian consulates in Afghanistan were being used as covert bases by its spy agency Research and Analysis Wing [RAW] for orchestrating subversive activities inside Pakistan. It also maintained that the Ashraf Ghani government and Afghanistan’s […]

The Taliban has expanded its shadowy war against the Islamic State branch in Afghanistan, deploying hundreds more fighters to this eastern province in an increasingly violent fight and critical test of the group’s counterterrorism abilities after the U.S. troop withdrawal. More than 1,300 additional Taliban fighters have been deployed to Nangahar province in the past month with orders to increase […]

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on three leaders of Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch and another man it accused of acting as a financial facilitator for the group, in a move that follows a series of attacks in Kabul claimed by the militant group. The State Department on Monday named the group’s emir, Sanaullah Ghafari, spokesperson Sultan Aziz Azam […]

The news was almost universally hailed as a plus, a diplomatic achievement. The U.S. Department of State trumpeted that Qatar had agreed to serve as the “protecting power” overseeing U.S. interests in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, through Doha’s embassy in the Afghan capital.[1] The arrangement is actually an odd one. The tradition often is that a neutral, Western power would play that […]

The United Nations on Monday pushed for urgent action to prop up Afghanistan’s banks, warning that a spike in people unable to repay loans, lower deposits and a cash liquidity crunch could cause the financial system to collapse within months. In a three-page report on Afghanistan’s banking and financial system seen by Reuters, the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) said the […]

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi called for the release of the country’s frozen assets on Sunday saying it belongs to all Afghans and a humanitarian catastrophe will be prevented by freeing up the foreign reserves. “We have told the US that we (United States and IEA) are no longer in conflict. We (IEA) have not […]

Association for Human Rights in Central Asia (AHRCA) and International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR) are concerned that authorities of Uzbekistan harassed and intimidated Khidirnazar Allakulov (Truth and Progress party / Haqiqat va Taraqqiyot), Mahmud Davronov (Free Motherland party / Ozod Vatan) and Jahongir Otajonov (Erk) and other outspoken opposition activists in the run-up of Presidential elections in October 2021 […]

The presidents of Iran and Russia weighed plans to finalize a comprehensive agreement on long-term cooperation and broaden the regional and international collaboration between the two countries. In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin highlighted the common stances of Tehran and Moscow on bilateral, regional and international issues, stressing the need […]