Page 187 - Latest Updates on Ukraine peace talks

India believes dialogue diplomacy the only way out: Jaishankar at UNGA

With the months-long Ukraine conflict raging on, India on Saturday told the UN General Assembly that it is on the side of peace and on the side that calls for dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out. "As the Ukraine conflict continues to rage, we are often asked whose side we are on. And our answer, each time, is straight and honest, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session here. He underlined that it is in the collective interest of the international community to work constructively, both within the United Nations and outside, in finding an early resolution to this conflict. Delivering the national statement, he said in this conflict India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there. "We are on the side that respects the UN Charter and its founding principles. We are on the side that calls for dialogue and diplomacy as the only way out, he said. We are on the side of those struggling to make ends meet, ev

Qatar Energy partners with Total Energies for LNG expansion amid war

State-owned oil and gas company Qatar Energy signed on Saturday a deal with Total Energies for the Northfield South Expansion. The partnership deal was signed by Saad Sherida al-Kaabi, Qatar's Energy Minister and Patrick Pouyanne, Total Energies chief Executive, and took place in Doha, Qatar. The deal comes at a time when Europe is searching for alternative sources of energy away from Russia. The Northfield expansion project is made up of two distinct parts, namely the Northfield East or NFE project, which will increase the state of Qatar's LNG production capacity from 77 to 110 million tons per annum, and Northfield South or NFS project, which will further increase Qatar's liquefied natural gas or LNG production capacity from 110 to 126 million tonnes per annum. Al Kaabi said Total Energies will have an effective net participation interest of 9.375 per cent in the NFS project, out of a total of 25 per cent available for international partner participation, while Qatar Energy will

Russia launches new strikes on Ukrainian cities amid Kremlin-staged votes

Russian forces launched new strikes on Ukrainian cities as Kremlin-orchestrated votes took place in occupied regions of Ukraine to create a pretext for their annexation by Moscow. Ukraine's presidential office said the latest Russian shelling killed at least three people and wounded 19. Oleksandr Starukh, the Ukrainian governor of Zaporizhzhia, one of the regions where Moscow-installed officials organised referendums on joining Russia, said a Russian missile hit an apartment building in the city of Zaporizhzhia, killing one person and injuring seven others. In the five-day voting in the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk regions and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south that began on Friday, election officials accompanied by police officers carried ballots to homes and set up mobile polling stations, citing safety reasons. The votes are set to wrap up Tuesday, when balloting will be held at polling stations. Ukraine and its Western allies dismissed the referendums as a sham with no legal

Ukraine conflict aggravates food and energy inflation, says Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday that the conflict in Ukraine has aggravated food and energy inflation to make it one of the biggest challenges of our times. In his address here on a special India@75' Showcasing India-UN Partnership in Action' event, Jaishankar said India today envisions itself as a developed country by 2047, the 100th year of its independence. The conflict in Ukraine has aggravated food and energy inflation to make it one of the biggest challenges of our times. India has responded by supplying food grains including as grant assistance in recent years to Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Yemen and several other countries, he said. We dream of digitizing our most remote villages and landing on the moon. Perhaps even digitizing it. Our foundational belief is that India's own development is inseparable from that of the rest of the world, he said. The event was attended by dignitaries from the UN including President of the 77th session of UN Gener

BS Views of the week: Project Cheetah, Telecom Bill, Ukraine Oligarchs, and more

Business Standard's opinion pages this week focused on Project Cheetah, Telecom Bill, Ukraine versus the ex-Soviet economies, and much more

Ukraine attracted $11 bn through World Bank since conflict with Russia

Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal said that his country has attracted $11 billion from its partners through the World Bank (WB) since the start of the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia's referendum a 'sham', US will never recognise annexation: Biden

US President Joe Biden on Friday called Russia's referendum a "sham" and said that America will never recognise Ukrainian territory as anything other than part of Ukraine.

US ups diplomatic efforts with China on Taiwan, support to Russia

The Biden administration on Friday ramped up its diplomatic efforts to press China to end provocative actions against Taiwan and warned it about any active support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made both cases in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on Friday in a meeting on the sidelines of the annual UN General Assembly in New York, according to US officials. The session was one of the few that Blinken kept on his schedule after the death of his father on Thursday. The officials wouldn't describe the Chinese response, but said Foreign Minister Wang Yi was receptive to the messages and that the two men discussed the need to maintain open lines of communication and responsibly manage the US-China relationship, especially during times of tension. The talks between Blinken and Wang come amid a period of intense tensions on both issues and ahead of an expected meeting in November between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping. Biden's recent ..

Rupee breaches 81 vs USD before RBI steps in; FX reserves at near 2-yr low

So far in 2022, the local currency has depreciated 8.2 per cent versus the greenback

Inflation, social unrest challenge Bangladesh's 'miracle economy'

Experts say Bangladesh's predicament is nowhere nearly as severe as Sri Lanka's

Vladimir Putin stages 'votes' to annex occupied Ukrainian territories

The Kremlin ordered the ballots after its forces suffered their worst defeats to Ukraine's military since the early weeks of the seven-month-long invasion

Euro zone likely entering recession as price rises hit demand: Survey

Overall demand in the euro zone fell to its lowest since November 2020, when the continent was suffering a second wave of Covid-19 infections

Warnings in the Ukraine story for countries captured by oligarchs

While the oligarchs have played fast and loose, Ukraine remains by far the poorest of the ex-Soviet economies of Europe, writes T N Ninan

Sensex sheds 1,021 pts on Friday, ends week with 700-pt drop: Here's why

Stock markets: Today's decline was the third consecutive fall for the two indices after US Fed's 75 bps rate hike on Wednesday night

Vladimir Putin's conscripts won't win his war but may drag it out

Not only has Russia lost about 80,000 soldiers dead or wounded in Ukraine, according to estimates, but with insufficient manpower for rotation many troops are now spending their eighth month in field

Turkey mediates Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap involving 200, says Erdogan

Besides, Saudi Arabia mediated a release of 10 foreigners by Russia under the exchange, according to the Saudi Foreign Ministry

US calls on world to stop Russia from further nuclear threats, Ukraine war

The United States called on other nations to tell Russia to stop making nuclear threats and end the horror of its war in Ukraine as all three countries' top diplomats spoke but didn't quite meet at a high-profile UN Security Council meeting on Thursday. Held alongside the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders, the session followed a striking development in the war this week: Russia called up a portion of its reserves for the first time since World War II. At the same time, President Vladimir Putin said his nuclear-armed country will use all means available to us to defend itself if its territory is threatened. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken saw Putin's remark as particularly menacing given plans for referendums in Russian-controlled parts of eastern and southern Ukraine on whether to become part of Russia. Western nations have condemned those votes as illegitimate and nonbinding. But, in their wake, Moscow might then see any Ukrainian attempt to retake those

Lavrov walks out of UNSC meeting as West criticizes Russia for war crimes

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was criticized by the US and its allies for having left the UNSC meeting as he finished his speech in which he accused Ukrainian forces

Russia bars airlines from selling tickets to adult men, says report

Russian invasion has cost Ukraine $1 trillion: Kyiv official

Russia defends war in Ukraine as US, others call for accountability at UN

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of creating threats against Russian security and 'brazenly trampling' the rights of Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine