24/04/2020
- The new bridge, which can bear 40 tons of weight, was built in Arunachal Pradesh in India’s remote northeast, a region claimed by China
- Relations are already strained after China accused India of blocking its companies by tightening laws for foreign investment
An Indian girl poses for photographs with an Indian flag at the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh. Photo: AP
has opened a new all-weather access point in a disputed part of its border with China to enable faster movement of troops and artillery, another potential irritant in
.
The new bridge, which can bear 40 tons of weight, was built in Arunachal Pradesh in India’s remote northeast, a region claimed by China that is near the scene of previous clashes. Border intrusions have risen 50 per cent in 2019 compared to the previous year, people with knowledge of the matter said.
“That part of the border has always had a tendency to friction point between India and China. Lack of reliable and all weather connectivity was vulnerability,” said Nitin Gokhale, a New Delhi-based strategic affairs expert. “The new bridge and improved road overcomes that and ensures uninterrupted supply to troops.”
A Chinese soldier stands guard while Indian soldiers work near their shared border. Photo: AP
The new access along the border with China comes amid heightened tensions between the two nations after Beijing accused India of blocking its companies in the South Asian nation after New Delhi tightened laws for foreign investment. The bridge is located in a region that witnessed a months-long military stand-off in 2017 over the Doklam plateau, claimed by China and Bhutan, India’s ally. It was one of the most serious flare-ups since China won a border war with India in 1962.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a message requesting comment.
India claims the Chinese army violated the 3,488km-long undemarcated border, parts of which are disputed, more than 600 times, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is not public.
“India and China have different perceptions of the border,” Indian Army spokesman Aman Anand said on Thursday. “Perceived transgressions are result of the perceived boundary.”
Under
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is ramping up its infrastructure along the border, which it says isn’t aimed at any particular country, but rather the development of remote border areas. It has completed 74 strategic roads along the eastern border, with plans afoot to finish 20 more by next year, the people said. It will reduce time taken to move and material by half and help 431 villages that lie across the region during the Covid-19 outbreak.
by making it mandatory for companies from countries that share a land border to acquire local firms only after seeking an approval from the government. The move, which cuts the risk of opportunistic takeovers as the coronavirus outbreak drives down valuations of Indian companies, had so far applied only to FDI from Bangladesh and Pakistan. India shares its land border with seven countries, including China.
The new bridge opened by the India also strides one of the main access routes of the Chinese Army into India from Tibet.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Arunachal Pradesh, border, Bridge, China, Chinese army, dispute, Doklam platea, Himalayas, India’s, Indo-China, Infrastructure, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, new, New Delhi, potentially, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reignite, Tibet, Uncategorized |
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14/04/2020
- Vietnamese ships spent months last year shadowing the Haiyang Dizhi 8 as it surveyed the resource-rich waters within Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone
- Its return follows charges laid by the US that China is ‘exploiting the distraction’ and vulnerability caused by the pandemic
The Haiyang Dizhi 8 at sea. Photo: Weibo
A Chinese ship
embroiled in a stand-off with Vietnamese vessels last year
has returned to waters near Vietnam as the United States accused
China
of pushing its presence in the
South China Sea while other claimants are pre-occupied with the coronavirus.
Vietnamese vessels last year spent months shadowing the Chinese Haiyang Dizhi 8 survey vessel in resource-rich waters that are a potential global flashpoint as the
challenges China’s sweeping maritime claims.
China and Vietnam ‘likely to clash again’ as they build maritime militias
On Tuesday, the ship, which is used for offshore seismic surveys, appeared again 158km off
Vietnam’s coast, within its exclusive economic zone (EEZ), flanked by at least one Chinese coastguard vessel, according to data from Marine Traffic, a website that tracks shipping.
At least three Vietnamese vessels were moving with the Chinese ship, according to data issued by the Marine Traffic site.
The presence of the Haiyang Dizhi 8 in Vietnam’s EEZ comes towards the scheduled end of a 15-day nationwide lockdown in Vietnam aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
It also follows
, an act that drew a protest from Vietnam and accusations that China had violated its sovereignty and threatened the lives of its fishermen.
“We call on the PRC to remain focused on supporting international efforts to combat the global pandemic, and to stop exploiting the distraction or vulnerability of other states to expand its unlawful claims in the South China Sea,” the US State Department said in a statement, referring to China.
Vietnam pulls DreamWorks’ ‘Abominable’ over South China Sea map
, which also has disputed claims in the South China Sea, has raised its concerns too.
On Saturday, the Global Times, published by the official People’s Daily newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said Vietnam had used the fishing boat incident to distract from its “ineptitude” in handling the coronavirus.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Helped by a mass quarantine and aggressive contact-tracing, Vietnam has recorded 265 cases of the novel coronavirus and no deaths. Nearly 122,000 coronavirus tests have been carried out in Vietnam.
Coronavirus: what’s behind Vietnam’s containment success?
China and Vietnam have for years been at loggerheads over the potentially energy-rich waters, called the East Sea by Vietnam.
China’s U-shaped “nine-dash line” on its maps marks a vast expanse of the waters that it claims, including large parts of Vietnam’s continental shelf where it has awarded oil concessions.
and Brunei claim some of the waters that China claims to the south.
During the stand-off last year, at least one Chinese coastguard vessel spent weeks in waters close to an oil rig in a Vietnamese oil block, operated by Russia’s Rosneft, while the Haihyang Dizhi 8 conducted suspected oil exploration surveys in large expanses of Vietnam’s EEZ.
“The deployment of the vessel is Beijing’s move to once again baselessly assert its sovereignty in the South China Sea,” said Ha Hoang Hop, at the Singapore-based ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute.
“China is using the coronavirus distraction to increase its assertiveness in the South China Sea, at a time when the US and Europe are struggling to cope with the new coronavirus.”
Source: SCMP
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11/03/2020
BANGKOK (Reuters) – Thailand will temporarily suspend issuing visas on arrival to visitors from 19 countries and territories, including China, to contain the spread of the coronavirus, its interior minister said on Wednesday.
The suspensions were the latest measures imposed in the tourism-reliant Southeast Asian country, which has reported 59 cases of the virus and one death so far. Globally, over 113,000 people have been infected in over 100 countries.
“People from any country who want to come will need to apply for a visa with our embassies,” Minister of Interior Anupong Paochinda told reporters.
“Thai embassies everywhere will ensure that no sick people will travel to Thailand.”
Visa on Arrival (VoA) will be suspended for nationals of all 19 countries and territories previously eligible, including Bulgaria, Bhutan, China, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Malta, Mexico, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Uzbekistan, and Vanuatu, according to a list provided to reporters by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, Russian passport holders will not be affected by the suspension of the visa on arrival from Russia, as they can still travel to Thailand and stay for 30 days under a visa waiver agreement, an official at the ministry told Reuters.
Visa exemptions will be cancelled for South Korea, Italy and Hong Kong, Anupong said.
“These measures will solve the problem of foreigners arriving from risky zones,” he said.
Anupong said he would start the process immediately but it was not immediately clear when they will be effective.
Chatree Atchananant, director-general of the foreign ministry’s Consular Affairs Department, said visa applicants will need to present medical certificates and insurance as part of the screening at Thai embassies.
Last week, Thailand designated South Korea, China, Macao, Hong Kong, Italy and Iran as “dangerous communicable disease areas.”
Thai authorities urged people arriving from the six places to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Source: Reuters
Posted in 14 days, Bangkok, Bhutan, Bulgaria, China, Consular Affairs Department, coronavirus, countries, Cyprus, embassies, Ethiopia, Fiji, Georgia, Hong Kong, India, iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, limit, Macao, Malta, Mexico, Minister of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, restricts, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, self quarantine, South Korea, spread, Taiwan, territories, Thai, Thailand, Uncategorized, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Virus, Visa on Arrival (VoA), visitor visas |
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11/03/2020
GENEVA, March 10 (Xinhua) — A senior Chinese diplomat said here that China advocates that Myanmar and Bangladesh properly resolve the Rakhine State issue through dialogue and consultation and start the process of repatriating people at an early date.
Liu Hua, Special Representative for Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, told the on-going 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council on Monday that the international community should provide more constructive help to Myanmar and Bangladesh to create a favorable external environment for the two sides to implement bilateral repatriation agreements.
Liu pointed out that the international community should respect Myanmar’s sovereignty and treat Myanmar’s human rights progress in a comprehensive, impartial and objective manner.
On the issue of Myanmar, she said, the United Nations should take a fair and objective position, and related work should help promote the solution to the Rakhine state issue, not the contrary.
The Chinese diplomat also highlighted that China has always advocated that all countries should address human rights issues through constructive dialogue and cooperation, oppose politicization, selectivity, double standards, and confrontational practices, and does not support the practice of “naming and shaming” and publicly pressuring.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in "more constructive help", "naming and shaming", Bangladesh, Chinese diplomat, international community, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Myanmar, Rakhine, Rakhine state, Special Representative for Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), Uncategorized |
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17/02/2020
- Experts to visit Beijing, Guangdong and Sichuan but no word on whether Hubei is on the itinerary
- Specialists say visit must include a trip to the outbreak’s epicentre to get a full picture
A nurse cares for a 14-month-old baby infected with the novel coronavirus in an ICU isolation ward of Wuhan Children’s Hospital in Wuhan, at the epicentre of the outbreak. Photo: Xinhua
A team of medical experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO), including specialists from the US, will visit Beijing and the Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Sichuan from Monday to assess the country’s efforts to contain the spread of
a deadly coronavirus, according to the Chinese foreign ministry.
But the ministry did not say whether the team would go to Wuhan or any other parts of Hubei, the central Chinese province at the epicentre of the outbreak, raising concerns among medical experts about the transparency of the mission.
The death toll from the coronavirus had risen to 1,770 on mainland China as of Sunday, infecting 70,548 people, including more than 1,700 medical workers. Most of those confirmed with the disease, now known as Covid-19, are in Wuhan.
China has repeatedly said it welcomes international cooperation to contain the outbreak, but the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that it had not yet received an invitation to send experts to the country.
On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the WHO delegation would include Americans, but gave no further details.
The announcement came as a commentary in Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily accused Washington of dragging its feet on a funding pledge to help with the epidemic, saying it had a “dark mentality and taken dangerous action” during the outbreak.
WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday that the mission to China included 12 international medical specialists, and they would, with 12 Chinese experts, learn more about the transmission of the virus and the effectiveness of the measures in a bid to work out the next containment steps for China and the world.
An advance team of WHO medical experts arrived in Beijing last Monday, led by Canadian emergency expert Bruce Aylward, Tedros said.
China’s National Health Commission (NHC) said all of the delegation’s members arrived in Beijing over the weekend, and held talks with Chinese medical experts, public health officials and other government departments.
They exchanged views on virus containment, wildlife management and vaccine development, the NHC said.
Experts said the international team would be left with an “incomplete picture” of the outbreak if it did not go to Wuhan or Hubei.
“Unfortunately, this feeds into a narrative that China is trying to hide the true nature of the outbreak, so it would seem to be shortsighted and counterproductive to China’s efforts to say to the world that it is doing everything it can to contain this outbreak,” said Adam Kamradt-Scott, a specialist in global health security and international relations at the University of Sydney.
“We have seen in the past when we have external teams, they are often able to identify areas for improvement or to make recommendations for measures that national authorities may not have thought of – we’ve seen that through other examples where external expertise can be valuable in times of crisis.”
He said any impression of a cover-up would likely further strengthen the resolve of countries that had taken strict measures, including travel bans, to keep them in place or tighten them further.
“China has got a public relations campaign that it also needs to be mindful of in engaging with the international community, so there are the actual measures that the government needs to take in order to control the outbreak, but the government also needs to be seen to be doing everything that it can,” he said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Americans, assess, Beijing, China, Chinese foreign ministry, Communist Party mouthpiece, coronavirus crisis, COVID-19, dragging its feet, epicentre, epidemic, experts, funding pledge, Guangdong, hubei province, ICU isolation ward, international medical specialists, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, National Health Commission (NHC), outbreak, outbreak’s epicentre, People’s Daily, public relations campaign, sichuan province, Specialists, Uncategorized, vaccine development, visit, Washington, WHO team, wildlife management, World Health Organisation (WHO), Wuhan Children’s Hospital |
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08/12/2019
Participants learn about the construction of Shanghai West Bund in Shanghai, east China, Dec. 7, 2019, before attending the upcoming 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum. (Photo by Wang Xiang/Xinhua)
SHANGHAI, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) — Officials and scholars from more than 70 Asian, African and Latin American developing countries, as well as the United Nations, visited Shanghai on Saturday before attending the upcoming 2019 South-South Human Rights Forum.
The forum, hosted by the State Council Information Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will be held in Beijing from Dec. 10 to 11.
According to the Beijing Declaration issued at the first South-South Human Rights Forum held in Beijing in 2017, participants agreed that the right to subsistence and the right to development were the primary basic human rights.
During the one-day trip in Shanghai, the officials and scholars, from countries including Laos, Brunei, South Africa, Mexico and Mauritius, visited the city’s financial district and the World Expo Museum, snapped pictures of local residents’ life scenes on the bank of the Huangpu River, and investigated the progress of waste sorting in ordinary residential streets. They were impressed by the prosperous and orderly development of the mega city.
“I think China is becoming more open and confident about human rights. The changes I saw here are examples of the great improvements in the Chinese people’s rights to subsistence and development,” said Davina Sigauta Rasch, director of Corporate Service of the Ombudsman Office in Samoa, who studied international economics and trade from 2009 to 2013 at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.
She said that compared with 10 years ago, China has made significant progress in the emerging fields such as high-speed railways and mobile payments, which directly improved people’s lives. China is not only developing itself, but also helping other developing countries, she said.
Her idea was echoed by Lionel Vairon, CEO of CEC Consulting in Luxembourg and also a senior research member of the Charhar Institute, a private think tank in China.
Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, great achievements which have attracted worldwide attention have been made, he said, adding that the international community should not ignore China’s progress in human rights out of ideological misunderstanding and prejudice.
“In the future, global governance must make a choice between the policy of strong-power hegemony and the path of a community with a shared future for humanity. And the latter is the wisdom China has contributed to the world,” he said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in attending, before, Brunei, Chengdu, forum, Human rights, Laos, Mauritius, Mexico, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, participants, Samoa, Shanghai, sichuan province, South Africa, South-South, State Council Information Office, Uncategorized, visit, World Expo Museum |
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17/08/2019
- Chinese government advisers say Beijing has not reached direct intervention point but that could change if the violence continues
- Military action would trigger international backlash, observers say, as US expresses concern over reported paramilitary movements and ‘erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy’
Footage of trucks from the paramilitary People’s Armed Police in Shenzhen has circulated online. Photo: Handout
The unrest in Hong Kong does not yet warrant direct intervention by Beijing despite hardening public sentiment and calls for tougher action in mainland China, according to Chinese government advisers.
Shi Yinhong, an international relations expert at Renmin University and an adviser to the State Council – China’s cabinet – said China would risk damaging its ties with the United States and other major foreign powers, upsetting its own development and losing Hong Kong’s special status if it took the matter directly into its hands.
“I don’t think we need to use troops. Hong Kong police will gradually escalate their action and they haven’t exhausted their means,” Shi said, expressing a view shared by other mainland government advisers and academics.
But he warned that if the violence and chaos continued, it “won’t be too far away from reaching that point”.
A US State Department spokeswoman said the United States was “deeply concerned” about reports of paramilitary movements along the Hong Kong border and reiterated a US call for all sides to refrain from violence.
She said it was important for the Hong Kong government to respect “freedoms of speech and peaceful assembly” and for Beijing to adhere to its commitments to allow a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong.
She said the protests reflected “broad and legitimate concerns about the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy”.
brought the city’s air traffic to a halt and triggered
a huge backlash on the mainland
, where the public feel they have been wrongly targeted by the increasingly violent protesters. Many demanded the central government take action to end the chaos.
The tension deepened after US President Donald Trump, citing intelligence sources,
to the border with Hong Kong. Trump described the situation in the city as “tricky” and called on all sides to remain “calm and safe”.
Footage of trucks from the paramilitary People’s Armed Police rolling into Shenzhen began circulating online on Saturday.
Beijing ‘unlikely to intervene’ in Hong Kong as pressure mounts on police
But Shi and others said direct intervention would be too costly to China and would only be used when all other methods had been exhausted.
“As the trade war with the US goes on, Hong Kong’s importance to our financial system is getting bigger,” Shi said. “If Beijing intervenes with too much assertiveness, the US might revoke the preferential status of Hong Kong.”
He was referring to the US’ 1992 Hong Kong Policy Act which gives the city a special status. In June, American lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill requiring the US government to examine Hong Kong’s autonomy annually to decide whether to extend the arrangement.
Losing that status could cripple the operations of many businesses based in Hong Kong, said Shen Dingli, a Shanghai-based international affairs expert.
A satellite image appears to show a close-up of Chinese military vehicles at Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre in Shenzhen. Photo: Maxar Technologies
Wang Yong, another specialist on international political economy with Peking University, agreed.
“There would be a lot of opposition from interest groups in the US. Hong Kong is the bridgehead for many multinational corporations and investors from Wall Street to get into the Chinese market,” said Wang, who also teaches at an academy affiliated with China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“Hong Kong and the Chinese government will need to handle this with extra care, so as not to give any ammunition to hawks in the United States.
“If Hong Kong is not handled properly, it could add tensions to the bilateral ties and ruin any prospect of a trade deal.”
China rejects requests for US warships to visit Hong Kong amid protests Pang Zhongying, an international relations specialist at Ocean University of China in Qingdao, said direct intervention could also damage China’s ties with other countries.
“The whole world is watching. Beijing has exercised restraint for two months and still hasn’t taken any clear action because this is not an easy choice,” said Pang, who is also a member of the Beijing-based Pangoal Institution, a think tank that advises several ministerial offices.
While some observers said Beijing was under political pressure to end the protests in Hong Kong before October 1 – the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic, Shi said the central government would not lose patience so easily.
“National Day [on October 1] is an important time, but the Chinese government is not naive to believe there has to be peace under all heaven then,” he said.
“It’s only a bit more than a month from now, we can almost say for sure the trade war will still be on by then and a major turning point in Hong Kong is not likely to happen. But the celebration must go on.”
Source: SCMP
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22/05/2019
NAIROBI, May 21 (Xinhua) — China and Kenya have deepened mutual political trust and expanded cooperation over the years, pushing their relations to the level of a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Wu Peng said on Tuesday.
Wu said increased cooperation has seen China’s non-financial direct investment in Kenya record double-fold increase to about 520 million U.S. dollars in 2018.
“Now we have over 400 Chinese companies in Kenya, creating thousands of jobs for local community,” Wu said.
“Both sides enjoy frequent exchanges in education, science and culture. The China-Africa Joint Research Center and China-Kenya Joint Laboratory for Crop Molecular Biology have been operating smoothly in Kenya,” Wu said during the sixth press club meeting in Nairobi.
Since 2015, he said, China has provided over 67,000 training opportunities for Kenyans.
“Currently, over 2,400 Kenyan students are studying in China. In 2018, over 81,000 Chinese tourists traveled to Kenya for leisure and adventure,” he said.
Wu observed that China’s funding to Kenya and other developing countries is aimed at development.
“China always attaches high importance to debt sustainability. Before making decisions, Chinese companies and banks, even the third party, go through rigorous feasibility studies, evaluation, and review of a country’s credit rating,”said Wu, who used the occasion to discuss some hot topics about the China-Kenya partnership.
Huge infrastructural projects like the standard gauge railway (SGR) may take long to yield returns, but they are solid and valid assets, whose value will grow in time, he stressed.
The SGR, according to Wu, is a flagship project that showcases the fast speed and high quality of China-Kenya cooperation.
The building of Mombasa-Nairobi SGR has driven the Kenya’s economic growth by 1.5 percent and created 46,000 jobs for local residents.
He said the train shortened the Nairobi-Mombasa trip from over 10 hours to five hours. Since its launch in May 2017, with an average booking rate of 99 percent, over 2.77 million passengers have traveled by the SGR, and around 4.2 million tonnes of goods have been transported, said Wu.
In the first full year of operation, SGR earned nearly 10.33 billion Kenyan shillings (about 103 million dollars, which is very close to the operation cost of 120 million dollars a year, he said, adding that for an infrastructural project of SGR’s magnitude, it is not easy to achieve near break-even in one year.
China and Kenya are currently discussing the construction of the Mombasa Special Economic Zone and the Naivasha Industrial Park, said the ambassador.
“With the development of the industrial chain from railway transportation, port economy to industrial parks, we have every reason to believe that SGR will benefit Kenya’s efforts towards industrialization, and strongly boost Kenya’s GDP growth significantly.”
He noted that China does not pursue a policy of trade surplus with Kenya, adding it is paying great attention to Kenya’s desire to expand exports.
“We understand how important agricultural exports are to Kenya. Consequently, we have been working hard to expand China’s imports for Kenya’s agricultural produce,” said Wu.
Last year, China and Kenya signed an agreement on export of stevia to China. An agreement on the export of frozen avocados was also signed, which makes Kenya the first African country to export avocados to China, he added.
He said the two countries are working to seal the deal on export of fresh avocados, as well as working on other horticultural products.
Christopher Chika, head of Asia and Australasia affairs at Kenya’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Kenya will continue to engage with China as long as the relationship is beneficial.
“Our relationship is based on mutual respect and equality. China plays a great role in stabilizing Africa and we shall work with the Chinese nationally, regionally and internationally,” Chika said.
Source: Xinhua
Posted in China alert, China-Africa Joint Research Center, China-Kenya Joint Laboratory for Crop Molecular Biolog, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya, Christopher Chika, deep roots, developed, head of Asia and Australasia affairs, Kenya, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mombasa Special Economic Zone, Mombasa-Nairobi SGR, Naivasha Industrial Park, relations, Uncategorized, Wu Peng |
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18/02/2019
A Pakistani military court sentenced Kulbhushan Jadhav to death in April 2017 on charges of spying and terrorism after having claimed to have arrested him from its restive province Baluchistan in March 2016.
INDIA Updated: Feb 18, 2019 16:50 IST
Former Indian navy officer Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav is seen on a screen during a news conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad, Pakistan on December 25, 2017. (Reuters)
India on Monday said its national Kulbhushan Jadhav was sentenced to death by a farcical trial by a Pakistan military court without giving him consular access to India in breach of international law and convention.
Senior lawyer Harish Salve, appearing for India at the International Court of Justice that will hear the case for four days, said Pakistan has no substantive defence in the case and hadn’t even divulged fundamental details of the so-called offences for which Kulbhushan Jadhav had been convicted.
The face off comes against the backdrop of the Pulwama terror attack last week. Over 40 CRPF jawans were killed in the suicide bombing in south Kashmir that has led to national outrage and provoked Delhi to scrap the most favoured nation status to Pakistan.
The world court had stayed Jadhav’s execution in a unanimous order in May 2017 after it was approached by New Delhi. India and Pakistan have submitted written pleadings on several occasions last year.
Jadhav, a former Navy officer, had started a business and was reported to be in Iran in this connection when, according to India, he was kidnapped in March 2016. He turned up in Pakistan a few weeks later in custody of the Pakistani military that claimed to have arrested him from Baluchistan and accused him of spying and espionage.
Salve, a former solicitor general, told the UN court that India had sent 13 reminders for consular access to Jadhav on various dates but had received no positive response from Pakistan.
Also Read : Kulbhushan Jadhav’s story amounts to a déjà vu of India-Pakistan diplomatic lows
He told the court that Pakistan also didn’t share any details of the investigation and the alleged “confession” was obtained from Jadhav even before registering an FIR.
“Considering the trauma he (Jadhav) has been subjected to over the past three years, it would be in the interest of justice of making human rights a reality, to direct his release,” Salve told the 15-judge court.
Also Read: Pakistan will present evidence against Kulbhushan Jadhav in ICJ : FM Qureshi
“India seeks relief in declaring that the trial by the military court in Pakistan… hopelessly fails to satisfy even minimum standards of due process and should be declared unlawful,” he said, attacking the Pakistani government to use the case as a means of propaganda.
Pakistan will present its arguments at the ICJ on February 19. India will reply to Pakistan’s argument on February 20. Pakistan will make its closing submission on February 21.
The ICJ is expected to deliver its judgment a few months later.
Source: Hindustan Times
Posted in Baluchistan, consular access, CRPF, Harish Salve, ICJ, India alert, Islamabad, judgment, Kulbhushan Jadhav, Lawyer, military court, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Navy officer, Pakistan, propaganda tool, UN court, Uncategorized |
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CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 