INTERNATIONAL
Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
- External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation Council of Foreign Ministers in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, later this month.
- Dialogue between India and Pakistan has been called off since the Pathankot attack in January 2016. After the Uri attack in September 2016, India also called off its engagement with Pakistan at the SAARC summit, and tensions between the two countries have been at an all-time high since the Pulwama attack in February this year, and airstrikes on Balakot by the Indian Airforce.
Laurentino Cortizo Declared the “virtual winner” in the Panama’s tight presidential election
- Panama’s Electoral Court declared opposition candidate Laurentino Cortizo the “virtual winner” in the country’s tight presidential election.
- Cortizo, of the Democratic Revolutionary Party, had 33% of the votes versus 31% for Roux, from former President Ricardo Martinelli’s Democratic Change party
Iran- US tensions
- Iran’s state-run IRIB news agency reported that Tehran would restart part of its halted nuclear programme in response to the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal.
- In response to a number of troubling and escalatory indications and warnings, the United States has deployed the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group and a bomber task force to the US Central Command region.
NATIONAL
Scorpene class submarine Vela launched
- The Scorpene-class submarine Vela, the fourth of six underwater warships being built in India with French collaboration, was launched in Mumbai with an aim to boost Indian capability to defend and secure the strategic sea lanes.
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