India | Pakistan

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi said New Delhi was committed to improving ties with Beijing in a key meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping on Sunday, as both countries resolved to put aside differences from a years-long border standoff. Modi is in China for the first time in seven years to attend a two-day meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), along with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other leaders from Central, South and Southeast Asia and the Middle East in a show of Global South solidarity. “We are committed to progressing our relations based on mutual respect, trust and sensitivities,” Modi told Xi during the meeting on the sidelines of the summit, according to a video clip posted on the Indian leader’s official X account. The bilateral meeting took place five days after Washington imposed punishing 50 per cent tariffs on Indian goods due to New Delhi’s purchases of Russian oil. Analysts say Xi and Modi are looking to present a united front against Western pressure. Modi s...

United States President Donald Trump has scrapped plans to attend an upcoming summit of the ‘Quad’ grouping in India amid deteriorating ties between Washington and New Delhi, US newspaper The New York Times (NYT) reported on Saturday. Relations between the two countries have plummeted, with 50 per cent levies on many Indian imports into the US taking effect this week as punishment for New Delhi’s massive purchases of Russian oil; a part of US efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine. As ties between both nations deteriorate, NYT reported on Saturday that the breakdown in relations was caused after a phone call on June 17. “After telling [Indian Prime Minister Narendra] Modi that he would travel to India later this year for the Quad summit, Mr Trump no longer has plans to visit in the fall, according to people familiar with the president’s schedule,” the NYT reported, citing “interviews with more than a dozen people in Washington and New Delhi”. The NYT mentioned how Trump’s repeated claims ab...

The Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) has warned that over 70,000 cusecs of additional water may flow into Pakistan from India in the coming days, heightening the risk of fresh flooding in Punjab.

India will not “bow down” and instead focus on capturing new markets, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said in his first public remarks since Washington imposed steep tariffs on Indian goods. The 50 per cent levies on many Indian imports into the United States took effect this week as punishment for New Delhi’s massive purchases of Russian oil, part of US efforts to pressure Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine. Since his return to the White House this year, US President Donald Trump has wielded tariffs as a wide-ranging policy tool, with the levies upending global trade. Speaking at a construction industry event in New Delhi on Friday, Goyal said India was “always ready if anyone wants to have a free trade agreement with us”. But, the trade minister added, India “will neither bow down nor ever appear weak”. “We will continue to move together and capture new markets.” The latest tariffs salvo from Trump has strained US-India ties, with New Delhi earlier criticising the levies as “unfair, unjustified and unreas...

ISLAMABAD: The flooding in Punjab was made worse by New Delhi’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty and the collapse of the gates on an Indian barrage. The middle section of Madhopur barra­­ge, which spans the Ravi River in India, was washed away by surging water, the Reu­ters news agency reported, referring to video broadcast by Indian media a day earlier. Pakistani officials said that this damage unleashed an uncontrolled flow across the border, flooding some parts of Lahore on Friday. An Indian government source, while confirming that two gates of Madhopur barrage had broken, denied there had been any deliberate attempt to flood Pakistan. Indian authorities say they are trying to stem the flow on the Ravi, despite the damage to the barrage, and the flow was being controlled by the Ranjit Sagar Dam upst­ream, Reuters quoted a source as saying. The official claimed that India was doing whatever it could, blaming incessant rain for causing the flood. Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2025

Canada and India announced new high commissioners to each other’s countries on Thursday, in the latest sign of improving ties frayed by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s allegation that India was linked to the killing of a Sikh separatist leader on Canadian soil. India’s previous high commissioner left Canada in October. Ottawa said he was among six diplomats who were expelled after they were linked to the murder of separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, while India said it had withdrawn the envoy. India also said that same day that it had ordered the expulsion of six high-ranking Canadian diplomats, including the then-acting high commissioner. Trudeau’s successor, Mark Carney, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to reinstate senior diplomats when they held their first bilateral meeting in Canada in June. Canada’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday that veteran diplomat Christopher Cooter would take up the post, which had been vacant since the previous incumbent left last year. “The ap...

Heavy rain swept across the Himalayas, killing at least 36 people in India over the past 24 hours and forcing authorities to open major dams, in turn triggering flood alerts on three rivers in neighbouring Pakistan. In the deadliest single disaster, a landslide killed 33 people near the Hindu mountain shrine of Vaishno Devi on a pilgrim route in India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday afternoon, officials said. Three more people died as floodwaters burst the banks of rivers in the district of Doda and swamped low-lying areas, authorities added. A view of a houseboat on the overflowing Jhelum River following heavy rain, in Srinagar, Indian-occupied Kashmir, on August 27. — Reuters About 200 children were stranded on Wednesday after flood water engulfed a school building in the northern state of Punjab, local media said. Vehicles tumbled off the Madhopur barrage over the Tawi river when parts of it collapsed after being lashed by heavy rain overnight into Wednesday morning, video images showed. There were n...

The Pakistan Army has been called in to assist the civil administration in Punjab after India released water into the River Ravi, triggering a sharp rise in water levels and creating a potential flood situation.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) on Tuesday issued a high-flood alert for the Ravi River after India released additional water into the tributary. A devastating monsoon season marked by record rainfall, glacier melt, and widespread flooding has exposed Pakistan’s extreme vulnerability to climate change. The “high flood” warnings this week have put Punjab on high alert and prompted mass evacuations in various places. In a high flood alert posted at 5:40pm, the NDMA said: “Heavy rainfall expected in the upper regions of Ravi over the next 48 hours. The Indian dam Thein is 97 per cent full, and its spillways may be opened at any time. Due to potential discharge, a high-level flood is expected in the Ravi River. High-level flow is also expected in Pir Panjal, Bain, Basantar and Deek.” The NDMA cautioned citizens to stay away from rivers, drains and low-lying areas, along with avoiding unnecessary travel. It also issued instructions to agencies and emergency services to remain on high alert. A sta...

India on Tuesday released additional water into the Sutlej River, prompting a flood alert in Punjab as water levels continue to rise.

The Foreign Office on Monday said India had shared flood warnings with Pakistan but stressed that the alerts were routed through diplomatic channels rather than the Indus Waters Commission, as stipulated under the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT). India in April held the IWT in abeyance following the attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam that killed 26 — an incident New Delhi blamed on Islamabad without evidence. Pakistan termed any attempt to suspend its water share an “act of war”, noting the IWT had no provision for unilateral suspension. Under paragraph 8 of Article IV of the IWT, “each party agrees to communicate to the other party, as far in advance as practicable, any information it may have in regard to such extraordinary discharges of water from reservoirs and flood flows as may affect the other party”. Punjab is on high alert for floods before the arrival of a fresh monsoon spell as the provincial government on Saturday evacuated thousands of people along the Sutlej River, as the river surged to a high flo...

Credit-rating firm Fitch on Monday maintained its long-term foreign-currency issuer default rating on India at ‘BBB-’, citing the country’s strong economic growth and resilient external finances. “India’s economic outlook remains strong relative to peers, even as momentum has moderated in the past two years,” Fitch said in a statement. The agency forecast GDP growth of 6.5 per cent for the fiscal year ending March 2026 (FY26), unchanged from FY25, and well above the ‘BBB’ median of 2.5pc. Fitch’s rating comes days after S&P Global Ratings lifted its sovereign credit rating on India, citing strong economic growth, marking its first upgrade in 18 years. Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur had then said she expects other rating agencies to take note of the factors behind S&P’s upgrade and follow suit. Domestic demand will remain “solid”, helped by the government’s ongoing capital spending drive and steady private consumption, Fitch said, but flagged that private investment will remain moderate due to risk...

India has reached out to Pakistan under the framework of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), sharing early flood warnings for the first time since the May military conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, official sources confirmed on Monday.

India fears a planned Chinese mega-dam in Tibet will reduce water flows on a major river by up to 85 per cent during the dry season, according to four sources familiar with the matter and a government analysis seen by Reuters, prompting Delhi to fast-track plans for its own dam to mitigate the effects. The Indian government has been considering projects since the early 2000s to control the flow of water from Tibet’s Angsi Glacier, which sustains more than 100 million people downstream in China, India and Bangladesh. But the plans have been hindered by fierce and occasionally violent resistance from residents of the border state of Arunachal Pradesh, who fear their villages will be submerged and way of life destroyed by any dam. Then in December, China announced that it would build the world’s largest hydropower dam in a border county just before the Yarlung Zangbo river crosses into India. That triggered fears in New Delhi that its longtime strategic rival — which has some territorial claims in Arunachal Prad...

Dozens of villages were submerged and hundreds of acres of crops destroyed after India released water into the River Sutlej on Saturday.

MUMBAI: India’s federal investigating agency said on Saturday it had opened a criminal case against industrialist Anil Ambani and his company Reliance Communications Ltd (RLCM.NS), opens new tab following a complaint by India’s largest bank about alleged fraud. State Bank of India alleged that Anil Ambani, the younger brother of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, and Reliance […]

Minister rules out one-sided overtures to India

Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Mohsin Naqvi on Saturday said that any talks on sporting ties with India would be held on equal footing and there would be no more pleading for negotiations. The suspension of bilateral ties between Pakistan and India has now been officially extended beyond cricket to all sports. On Thursday, India’s sports ministry issued a new policy that ends bilateral sporting ties with Pakistan, even on neutral venues. However, no stoppage has been announced for engagement at multilateral tournaments, paving the way for the much-anticipated Asia Cup cricket clash between the two rivals next month. Last month, the Pakistan Sports Board had asked sports federations in the country to seek approval before participating in sporting events held in India. Questioned about sporting ties with India during a press conference in Lahore, Naqvi said: “I think we are very clear that whenever talks are held will be on an equal footing with India and there will be no more begging for negotiations. That ti...

India’s national investigative bureau opened a criminal case against tycoon Anil Ambani after receiving a complaint from the country’s biggest bank alleging fraud, the agency said on Saturday. Anil, the younger sibling of Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, has business interests that range from power to defence. The State Bank of India (SBI) alleged Anil and his former telecom firm, Reliance Communications, “misappropriated” bank funds by entering into transactions that violated the terms of the loans. SBI claims it was hit with a loss of 29.29 billion rupees ($335.4 million) as a result of their actions. The Central Bureau of Investigation said it had registered a case and that the bank’s complaint would be subjected to “thorough investigation”. The agency searched premises linked to Reliance Communications and Anil’s residence on Saturday. His spokesperson said the tycoon “strongly denies all allegations and charges” and “will duly defend himself”. “The complaint filed by SBI pertains to matters dating back...

India’s foreign minister said on Saturday that trade negotiations with Washington are continuing but there are lines that New Delhi needs to defend, just days before hefty additional tariffs by the United States are due to hit. Indian goods face additional US tariffs of up to 50 per cent, among the highest imposed by Washington, due to its increased purchases of Russian oil. A 25pc tariff has already come into effect, while the remaining 25pc is set to be enforced from August 27. A planned visit by US trade negotiators to New Delhi from August 25-29 has been called off, dashing hopes that the levies may be lowered or postponed. “We have some redlines in the negotiations, to be maintained and defended,” Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said at an Economic Times forum event in New Delhi, singling out the interests of the country’s farmers and small producers. India-US trade talks collapsed earlier this year due to India not agreeing to open its vast agricultural and dairy sectors. Bilateral trade...