India | Pakistan

European Council president Antonio Costa arrived in India on Sunday, as the EU and New Delhi seek to seal a free trade pact, capping nearly two decades of negotiations between the economic behemoths. Costa and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are chief guests for this year’s Republic Day celebrations in New Delhi on Monday before an EU-India summit on Tuesday, where they hope to shake hands on the accord, described as the “mother of all deals”. “President Costa is in New Delhi for the 16th EU-India summit taking place on Tuesday,” the EU Council said on X. “The summit will be an opportunity to build on the EU-India strategic partnership and further strengthen collaboration across key policy areas.” India, the world’s most populous nation, is on track to become the world’s fourth-largest economy this year, according to International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections. While the EU eyes India as an important market for the future, New Delhi sees the European bloc as an important source of much-ne...

India and Europe hope to strike the “mother of all deals” when European Union (EU) chiefs meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi next week, as the two economic behemoths seek to forge closer ties. Facing challenges from China and the United States, India and the European Union have been negotiating a massive free trade pact — and talks, first launched about two decades ago, are nearing the finishing line. “We are on the cusp of a historic trade agreement,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said this week. Von der Leyen and European Council president Antonio Costa will attend Republic Day celebrations on Monday before an EU-India summit on Tuesday, where they hope to shake hands on the accord. Securing a pact, described by India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal as “the mother of all deals”, would be a major win for Brussels and New Delhi as both seek to open up new markets in the face of US tariffs and Chinese export controls. But officials have been eager to stress there is more to it...

India on Thursday condemned an alleged act of vandalism at its embassy in Zagreb as Croatia promised to prosecute the offenders. The Indian foreign ministry said that an act of “trespassing and vandalism” at its embassy in the Croatian capital was committed by “anti-India elements” without providing further details of the incident. “We have taken up the matter strongly with Croatian authorities and asked them to hold the perpetrators accountable for their reprehensible and illegal actions,” a ministry statement said. Indian media reported that a video had been posted online, purporting to show Khalistan activists removing the Indian flag and replacing it with the yellow flag representing the Sikh separatist movement. AFP could not verify the video, while police and the embassy did not immediately respond to questions. The Khalistan movement seeks an independent state for the religious minority carved out of Indian territory. The Croatian foreign ministry strongly condemned the incident and added that the inte...

Bangladesh will not travel to India to play in next month’s T20 World Cup, its cricket board said on Thursday, effectively ruling the country out of the tournament. According to ESPN Cricinfo, the decision was announced after a meeting in Dhaka between Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) President Aminul Islam Bulbul, CEO Nizamuddin, Sports Adviser Asif Nazrul and several national team players. “Our only demand is to play the World Cup – but not in India,” the BCB president told reporters. The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced that it would not be making any changes to the World Cup schedule or groups, days after Bangladesh requested that its matches be moved to Sri Lanka after refusing to play in India. “We will go back to the ICC with our plan to play in Sri Lanka,” the BCB president said. “They did give us a 24-hour ultimatum but a global body can’t really do that. ICC will miss out on 200 million people watching the World Cup (if Bangladesh is axed). It will be their loss…” “Bangladesh is a cricket...

The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Wednesday announced that it would not be making any changes to the Men’s T20 World Cup schedule or groups, days after Bangladesh requested that its matches be moved to Sri Lanka after refusing to play in India. Bangladesh announced on Jan 4 that it would not play its T20 World Cup matches in India after its player Mustafizur Rahman was released by his Indian Premier League (IPL) team amid growing tensions between the two countries. Subsequently, Bangladesh had “formally requested” the ICC to shift their games to Sri Lanka. The T20 World Cup begins on February 7 with Bangladesh in England’s Group C. The team is scheduled to play all of their group matches in Kolkata and Mumbai. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the ICC said the decision was reached after “considering all security assessments conducted, including independent reviews, all of which indicated there was no threat to Bangladesh players, media persons, officials and fans at any tournament venues in the cou...

Pakistan has warned that India’s unilateral decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance has triggered an unprecedented crisis for the country’s water security and poses serious risks to regional stability.

India will withdraw its diplomats’ families and dependents from Bangladesh in the face of security threats as tension rises ahead of a February 12 general election, an Indian official said on Wednesday. Campaigning begins on Thursday for Bangladesh’s election, which has sparked protests and counter-protests. Ties between the South Asian neighbours soured after former prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India in 2024, following deadly protests. India’s past support for Hasina has frayed relations between the two neighbours since her overthrow. India’s withdrawal move was part of “internal readjustments”, the official said, without elaborating. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, pointed to Indian media reports of New Delhi’s decision. It was not immediately clear when the families would return. The foreign ministries of India and Bangladesh did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In December, India summoned Bangladesh’s high commissioner, or ambassador to voice its concern over wha...

Pakistan has warned that India’s unilateral decision to hold the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) in abeyance has created an unprecedented crisis for Pakistan’s water security and regional stability. Calling the move a deliberate “weaponisation of water,” Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, said India’s actions amounted to material breaches of the landmark 1960 treaty. Speaking at the Global Water Bankruptcy Policy Roundtable hosted by Canada and the United Nations University on Tuesday, Ambassador Jadoon said that since April last year, India had committed several serious violations of the treaty, including unannounced disruptions of downstream water flows and the withholding of critical hydrological data. “Pakistan’s position is unequivocal; the treaty remains legally intact and permits no unilateral suspension or modification,” he said. He stressed that for more than six decades, the Indus Waters Treaty had provided a time-tested framework for the equitable and predictable ma...

India signed a $3 billion deal on Monday to buy liquefied natural gas from the United Arab Emirates, making it the UAE’s top customer, as the leaders of both countries held talks to strengthen trade and defence ties. The agreement was signed during a very brief two-hour visit to India by UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan for talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They pledged to double bilateral trade to $200bn in six years and form a strategic defence partnership. Abu Dhabi state firm ADNOC Gas will supply 0.5 million metric tons of LNG a year to India’s Hindustan Petroleum Corp for 10 years, the companies said. ADNOC Gas said the agreement brings the total value of its contracts with India to over $20bn. “India is now the UAE’s largest customer and a very important part of ADNOC Gas’ LNG strategy,” the company said. The UAE is India’s third largest trading partner and Sheikh Mohammed was accompanied by a government delegation that included his defence and foreign ministers. The two ...

The captains of India and Bangladesh skipped the customary handshake during the toss of their U-19 World Cup match but the two sides did shake hands at the end of the game, which the former won. At the toss, Bangladesh’s acting captain Zawad Abrar and India’s captain Ayush Mhatre did not do the customary handshake at the pre-match toss, which the former won. “There were, however, handshakes between the teams at the end of the game, which India won by 18 runs (DLS method),” ESPN Cricinfo reported. The report also quoted a statement from the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) as saying that the “absence of a handshake with the opposition captain was completely unintentional and resulted from a momentary lapse in concentration”. “There was no intent whatsoever to show discourtesy or disregard towards the opposition,” the report quoted the BCB as saying in a statement. “The board has viewed the matter with due seriousness, as upholding the spirit of cricket and respect for opponents is a fundamental prerequisite for ...

India’s aviation regulator on Saturday fined IndiGo a record 222 million Indian rupees ($2.45m) for poor pilot roster planning that led to mass flight cancellations in December. The regulator also issued warnings to senior personnel, including to Chief Operating Officer Isidre Porqueras and to Jason Herter, senior vice president of operations control centre, with directions to IndiGo to relieve Herter “of current operational responsibilities”. A government source said the fine was the largest to date. IndiGo has been ordered to provide a bank guarantee of $5.51m in favour of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, to ensure “compliance with the directives and long-term systemic correction,” the regulator said. IndiGo said in a statement that the board and management were “committed to taking full cognisance of the orders and will, in a thoughtful and timely manner, take appropriate measures”. India’s largest airline cancelled about 4,500 flights in the initial weeks of December, leaving tens of thousands o...

NEW DELHI:  Responding to renewed US sanctions, India transferred approximately $120 million to Iran to fully liquidate its financial commitment for developing Chabahar port, a key gateway to landlocked Afghanistan, The Economic Times said on Friday. A government source stated that India now has “no liability” in its commitment and that Iran is free to use the funds independently. In October last year, India was granted a six-month exemption from US sanctions on the port. New Delhi and Tehran signed a contract to develop and equip the long-stalled Chabahar project in 2024, giving India 10 years of access. Following the reimposition of sanctions, the state-owned entity India Ports Global Ltd (IPGL) effectively exited the project. Government directors resigned en masse, and its website was taken down to “insulate everybody associated with the port from potential sanctions”. A government source concluded, “India has no choice but to exit the Chabahar port”. The collapse followed US President Donald Trump’s Janua...

Hate speech against minorities, including Muslims and Christians, in India rose by 13 per cent in 2025, with most incidents occurring in states governed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Washington-based research group said on Tuesday. India Hate Lab documented 1,318 instances of what it called hate speech in 2025, up from 1,165 in 2024 and 668 in 2023, at events such as political rallies, religious processions, protest marches and cultural gatherings. Of that number, 1,164 incidents occurred in states and union territories governed by the BJP, either directly or with coalition political parties, the group said. The Indian embassy in Washington did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Modi and his party deny being discriminatory and say their policies, including food subsidy programs and electrification drives, benefit all communities. April recorded the highest monthly spike, 158 events, with nearly 100 occurring between April 22, after a deadly ...

Bangladesh’s cricket board said on Tuesday it had repeated its refusal to travel to India for next month’s T20 World Cup during talks with the International Cricket Council (ICC). Bangladesh announced on Jan 4 that it would not play its T20 World Cup matches in India after its player Mustafizur Rahman was released by his Indian Premier League (IPL) team amid growing tensions between the two countries. Subsequently, Bangladesh “formally requested” the ICC to shift their games to Sri Lanka. The World Cup begins on February 7, with Bangladesh scheduled to play their four group matches in India. On Tuesday, during a video conference with the ICC, the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) said it had “reiterated its request for the ICC to consider relocating Bangladesh’s matches outside India”. “The BCB reaffirmed its position regarding the decision not to travel to India, citing security concerns,” the board said in a statement. “While the ICC highlighted that the tournament itinerary has already been announced and requ...

Beijing has rejected New Delhi’s claim over the Shaksgam valley in Kashmir and said that the territory “belongs to China”. At a press conference on Monday, when asked by the Press Trust of India (PTI) for comment on the Indian criticism of China’s infrastructure development projects in the Shaksgam valley, China‘s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning said that it was “fully justified” for China to conduct infrastructure construction “on its own territory”. “The territory you mentioned belongs to China,” she said. India’s foreign ministry spokesperson had on Friday said that it reserved the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests as the Shaksgam valley was “an Indian territory”. “We have never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan boundary agreement that happened in 1963. We have consistently maintained that the agreement is illegal and invalid,” he said at a press conference in response to a question from India’s state-owned public television broadcaster Doordashan. The Indian spokespe...

India and the United States will discuss trade issues in their next call tomorrow, Washington’s newly-appointed ambassador to New Delhi, Sergio Gor, said on Monday, at a time when failure to secure a trade deal has roiled their ties and pushed the rupee to a record low. India will also be invited to join Pax Silica next month, Gor said, referring to a US-led initiative to build a silicon supply chain from critical minerals to semiconductors and AI. Trade talks between India and the US fell apart last year and Trump then doubled tariffs on Indian goods in August to 50 per cent, among the world’s highest rates, including a levy of 25pc to punish New Delhi for purchasing Russian oil. The two nations have been close to a deal on several occasions since they agreed to negotiate in February last year, India said last week. “Both sides continue to actively engage. In fact, the next call on trade will occur tomorrow,” Gor said in New Delhi as he formally took charge of his position, adding that the two countries will...

Australia has tightened checks for student visa applicants from India, moving it to the ‘highest risk’ category along with Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan, according to Australian and Indian media. The Times of India reported on Sunday that the re-rating of the countries was out of cycle, quoting Australian media, while the administration said this was triggered by “emerging integrity risks”. According to the TOI report, the administration did not cite any specific reason for which India had been assigned to a new category. However, it added that the move came after reports of “fake degree busts” in India which had reached international media. “India alone accounts for almost 140,000 of Australia’s 650,000 international students, and the four nations represent nearly one-third of 2025 enrolments,” the Indian outlet said. Impact on students Assessment levels influence not only the documentary burden but also how easily prospective students can plan to study in Australia, according to The Australia Today. “Higher...

India beat New Zealand by four wickets in the first one-day international in Vadodara on Sunday, where the in-form Virat Kohli fell agonisingly short of his 54th ODI hundred. The 37-year-old batting maestro, who had scored 376 in his last four ODI innings, anchored India’s chase of 301 with a sublime knock of 93 featuring eight boundaries and a six, but he was dismissed by Kyle Jamieson when a landmark century was within reach. The Vadodara crowd’s disappointment was palpable as their hero departed, but they rose to applaud Kohli, who achieved another milestone by becoming the second-highest run scorer in international cricket across all formats. With his 77th ODI fifty, Kohli moved on to 28,068 runs and surpassed Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara (28,016) to sit behind only Indian icon Sachin Tendulkar’s 34,357. “If I look back at my whole journey, it’s nothing short of a dream come true for me,” Kohli said on moving one step closer to his mentor Tendulkar. “I’ve always known my abilities, how much ability I...

India has proposed requiring smartphone makers to share source code with the government and make several software changes as part of a raft of security measures, prompting behind-the-scenes opposition from giants like Apple and Samsung. The tech companies have countered that the package of 83 security standards, which would also include a requirement to alert the government to major software updates, lacks any global precedent and risks revealing proprietary details, according to four people familiar with the discussions and a Reuters review of confidential government and industry documents. The plan is part of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to boost the security of user data as online fraud and data breaches increase in the world’s second-largest smartphone market, with nearly 750 million phones. IT Secretary S. Krishnan told Reuters that “any legitimate concerns of the industry will be addressed with an open mind”, adding it was “premature to read more into it”. A ministry spokesperson said i...

Pakistan has firmly rejected India’s comments on Pakistan-Bangladesh cooperation in construction and other key sectors, including defence-related engagements, saying New Delhi has no right to comment on bilateral ties between the two countries.