NAYPYIDAW The EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini on Monday hailed “extremely encouraging” talks with Aung San Suu Kyi on the Rohingya crisis, welcoming steps towards the repatriation of Muslims driven from Myanmar into Bangladesh. But her optimistic tone appeared sharply at odds with the realities on the ground in a crisis that has seen…
Read moreANIL GIRI As the decade-long third country resettlement programme of the Bhutanese refugees living in eastern Nepal draws to a close, the fate of the those still in the camps hangs in the balance. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) and the UN refugee agency in Kathmandu confirmed that the third country resettlement scheme is…
Read moreLOOKEAST REPORT China’s foreign minister said that the international community must help fight poverty and promote development in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, which has seen hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims flee amid a military crackdown. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comments after meeting in Myanmar’s capital, Naypyitaw, with the country’s leader, Aung San Suu…
Read moreSUBIR BHAUMIK The Memory Film Festival, whose fifth edition just concluded in Yangon, is ‘about opening up minds”, says Séverine Wemaere, co-founder of MEMORY! Festival with Gilles Duval. In an interview to Subir Bhaumik, Séverine said the festival that started in 2014 in Myanmar, has been designed not merely to bring great films from the…
Read moreKATHMANDU Nepal has scrapped a $2.5 billion deal with China Gezhouba Group Corporation to build the country’s biggest hydropower plant, citing lapses in the award process, the energy minister said. “The Cabinet has cancelled the irregular agreement with Gezhouba Group to build the Budhi Gandaki hydroelectric project,” Energy Minister Kamal Thapa, who is also the…
Read moreSUBIR BHAUMIK Just weeks after accusing the Myanmar military of perpetrating a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” on the country’s Muslims, the United Nations Security Council has dropped plans to adopt a legally binding resolution calling for an end to violence in Rakhine state. The toning down of UN condemnation over an ongoing humanitarian crisis which…
Read moreLOOKEAST REPORT A 19-point Yangon declaration was adopted by delegates from India and Myanmar to promote bilateral relations between the two neighbours, with the spotlight firmly focussed on boosting cooperation between security forces. Myanmar leaders like Yangon chief minister U Phyo Min Thein and experts like economist Aung Tun Thet called for more Indian investments…
Read moreLOOKEAST REPORT Indian Buddhism scholar Suchandra Ghosh said on Friday the flow of populations between India and Myanmar are linked to the shared Buddhist culture prevalent in its border regions. Speaking at the conference on ‘India-Myanmar relations: Way Forward, Prof Ghosh said, “The study of Buddhism in this region is not just a look back…
Read moreBhutan did not ratify a regional motor vehicle agreement involving Bangladesh, India and Nepal because of concern over its impact on environment and culture, a senior Royal Bhutan Consulate General official said in an event in Kolkata. But the country would join the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal Motor Vehicles Agreement (BBIN MVA) after addressing these…
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