India | Pakistan

Britain and India signed a free trade agreement on Thursday during a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sealing a deal to cut tariffs on goods from textiles to whisky and cars and allow more market access for businesses. The two countries concluded talks on the trade pact in May after three years of stop-start negotiations, with both sides hastening efforts to clinch a deal in the shadow of tariff turmoil unleashed by United States President Donald Trump. The agreement between the world’s fifth and sixth largest economies aims to increase bilateral trade by a further 25.5 billion pounds ($34bn) by 2040. It is Britain’s biggest trade deal since it left the European Union in 2020, although its impact will be a fraction of the effect of leaving the orbit of its closest trading partner. For India, it represents its biggest strategic partnership with an advanced economy, and one which could provide a template for a long-mooted deal with the EU as well as talks with other regions. It will take effect aft...

Pakistan is ready to engage in dialogue with India on all outstanding issues, but the next move depends on New Delhi, said Foreign Office Spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan during a weekly press briefing on Thursday.

India has pushed hundreds of ethnic Bengali-speaking Muslims into Bangladesh without due process, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday, accusing the government of flouting rules and fuelling bias on religious lines. The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hardline stance on immigration — particularly from Muslim-majority Bangladesh — with top authorities referring to them as “termites” and “infiltrators”. Critics also accuse the government of sparking fear among India’s estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, which is widely spoken in both eastern India and Bangladesh. HRW, a New York-based nonprofit, said that India forcibly expelled more than 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh between May 7 and June 15, quoting Bangladeshi authorities. “India’s ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) is fuelling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens,” Elaine Pearson, Asia director ...

Rishabh Pant’s retirement through injury slowed India’s progress on day one of the fourth Test against England, with the tourists closing on 264-4 in their first innings as they look to keep the thrilling five-match series alive. With England eyeing victory at Old Trafford that would seal a series win with one match to spare, […]

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reiterated Pakistan’s willingness for a “meaningful dialogue” with India on all outstanding issues, state media Radio Pakistan reported. The April 22 attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam killed 26 people, sparking a military confrontation between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan as New Delhi blamed it on Islamabad, which strongly denied the allegations while calling for a neutral investigation. A US-brokered ceasefire ended the war. Pakistan previously invited India to a comprehensive dialogue to address all contentious issues, including the Kashmir dispute and the water distribution. During a meeting with British High Commissioner Jane Marriott today, PM Shehbaz appreciated the UK’s role in de-escalating tensions during the Pakistan-India standoff and reiterated that Pakistan was ready for a meaningful dialogue with India on all outstanding issues. He welcomed the British government’s decision to resume PIA flights to the UK. He said, “This [decision] would go a lo...

India will resume issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens from July 24 this year, its embassy in China said on Wednesday, the first time in five years as both countries move to repair their rocky relationship. Tensions between the two countries escalated following a 2020 military clash along their disputed Himalayan border. In response, India imposed restrictions on Chinese investments, banned hundreds of popular Chinese apps and cut passenger routes. China suspended visas to Indian citizens and other foreigners around the same time due to the Covid-19 pandemic but lifted those restrictions in 2022, when it resumed issuing visas for students and business travellers. Tourist visas for Indian nationals remained restricted until March this year, when both countries agreed to resume direct air service. Relations have gradually improved, with several high-level meetings taking place last year, including talks between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Russia in October. China...

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reaffirmed Pakistan’s willingness to engage in meaningful dialogue with India on all outstanding issues.

Rejecting Indian allegations of cross-border terrorism, Pakistan has asked India to change its behaviour, instead of resorting to its “tired narrative of victimhood and blame-shifting” during a UN Security Council debate on ‘Promoting International Peace and Security through Multilateralism and Peaceful Settlement of.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) will retire its remaining fleet of Russian MiG-21s, considered the IAF’s workhorse that showed its vulnerability when Pakistan shot down one of them and captured its pilot in a Feb 2019 showdown. According to the Indian Express, the fleet is scheduled to be retired in Septe­mber after serving the IAF for six decades. Inducted in 1963, at least four MiG-21 squadrons were number-plated or retired from service between 2017 and 2024, the newspaper said, quoting unnamed sources in the military. Its sources said the IAF is set to retire the remaining Russian-origin MiG-21 fleet in a ceremonial decom­m­issioning at Chan­digarh airbase on Sept 19. Two squadrons of MiG-21 Bisons are currently active. India procured more than 700 MiG-21 aircraft of different variants, such as the Type-77, Type-96, BIS and the Bison, since the aircraft’s induction in the IAF in 1963. The phasing out of the aging MiG-21 fleet was originally scheduled to be concluded by 2022, but was held up due to a ...

United States President Donald Trump’s lunch meeting with Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir prompted a private diplomatic protest from India in a warning to Washington about risks to their bilateral ties while New Delhi is recalibrating relations with China as a hedge, officials and analysts said. The meeting and other tensions in the US-India relationship, after decades of flourishing ties, have cast a shadow in trade negotiations, they said, as Trump’s administration weighs tariffs against one of its major partners in the Indo-Pacific. India blames Pakistan, especially the military establishment, for supporting what it alleges is cross-border terrorism and has told the US it is sending the wrong signals by wooing Field Marshal Munir, three senior Indian government officials directly aware of the matter told Reuters. It has created a sore spot that will hamper relations going forward, they said. Pakistan has denied accusations that it supports militants who carried out an attack in Ind...

In a shocking disclosure, Indian officials have arrested Abdul Kalam, a Bangladeshi national who had been living in India for 20 years under the fake transgender identity of a woman named Neha Kinnar. The arrest happened in Bhopal after confidential information that led to an undercover police operation. According to reports, Abdul Kalam came to […]

LAHORE - Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain has asserted that India neither has courage nor capability to block Pakistan’s water as the natural flow of rivers favors Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi rejected backdoor diplomacy with India, declaring that no secret discussions are ongoing between the two nations, ARY News reported. In a casual discussion with journalists, Mohsin Naqvi discussed the openness in Pakistan’s foreign policy and highlighted the country’s moral stand on regional matters. Addressing domestic affairs, Mohsin Naqvi said […]

Pakistan on Friday beat India 3-0 in the Asian Men’s U-16 Volleyball Championship semi-final being held in Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. “Team Pakistan U-16 Men’s Volleyball continues its dream run at the 2nd Asian Men’s U-16 Volleyball Championship 2025 in Thailand by defeating arch-rivals India in the semi-final,” the Pakistan Volleyball Association announced in a post on Instagram. Pakistan beat India with a clean sweep by winning three straight sets (25-16, 25-19, 25-12). View this post on Instagram “Stellar performances from Junaid, Faizan, Irfan, and Talha powered the Green Shirts into the Final and one step closer to glory,” the association said. With this victory, Pakistan qualifies for the final, where they will face Iran on July 19 at 3:30pm PKT. On Wednesday, Pakistan secured a place in the semi-finals of the Asian U-16 Volleyball Championship and booked their berth in next year’s FIVB U-17 World Championship after defeating Indonesia in straight sets in the quarter-final. The national side had register...

Lightning strikes during monsoon storms in eastern India this week killed at least 33 people and injured dozens, officials said on Friday. The deaths in Bihar occurred during fierce storms between Wednesday and Thursday, a state disaster management department statement said, with the victims mostly farmers and labourers working in the open. More heavy rain and lightning are forecast for parts of the state. Bihar state’s disaster management minister, Vijay Kumar Mandal, told AFP that officials in vulnerable districts had been directed to “create awareness to take precautionary steps following an alert on lightning”. The state government announced compensation of 4 million Indian rupees ($4,600) to the families of those killed by lightning. India’s eastern region, including Bihar, is prone to annual floods that kill dozens and displace hundreds of thousands of people during the peak monsoon season. South Asia’s annual monsoon season from June to September offers respite from the intense summer heat and is cruci...

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Monday that Beijing and New Delhi should work towards mutual trust and “win-win” cooperation, after talks with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, state news agency Xinhua reported. China and India should “adhere to the direction of good-neighbourliness and friendship” and “find a way for mutual respect and trust, peaceful coexistence, common development and win-win cooperation”, Wang said, according to Xinhua. The two foreign ministers met in Beijing on Monday as the two rivals seek to repair ties following a 2020 clash on their border. The world’s two most populous nations are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, and their 3,500-kilometre frontier has been a perennial source of tension. The 2020 clash between their troops led to a four-year military standoff, but they agreed in October on patrols in disputed areas. India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China’s President Xi Jinping met for the first time in five years late...

Tesla unveiled its first showroom in India on Tuesday, marking its entry into the world’s most populous country, as Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company seeks new customers amid sagging sales in the United States and Europe. The store opened its doors to select visitors after its inauguration by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in India’s financial capital Mumbai. Tesla has for years signalled its interest in India but held back due to the country’s steep tariffs on electric vehicles. Musk, who once described India as having “more promise than any large country”, has also criticised its import duties, calling them among the “highest in the world”. New Delhi has offered to cut import taxes on electric vehicles for global automakers only if they commit to investing hundreds of millions of dollars and make cars locally. Tesla has yet to announce plans to set up a plant in India. For now, local media reports say, the company will likely sell cars imported from China, with deliveries projected to start...

England beat India by 22 runs to win a thrilling third Test at Lord’s on Monday as they went 2-1 up in a five-match series. India were on the brink of defeat at 147-9, still needing a further 46 runs to reach a victory target of 193, when last man Mohammed Siraj joined Ravindra Jadeja in the middle. Nevertheless, the pair batted on until after tea on the final day to give India hope of an improbable win. But with India in sight of just their fourth win in 20 Tests at Lord’s, Siraj played on to off-spinner Shoaib Bashir — off the field for much of the match with a finger injury — with the ball just dislodging the leg bail to the batsman’s visible despair. Jadeja was left stranded on 61 not out — the all-rounder’s fourth consecutive fifty this series — after taking India to within sight of what would have been a stunning success before they were all out for 170. England captain Ben Stokes bowled two lengthy spells today on his way to an innings return of 3-48, with fast bowler Jofra Archer — in his first Test a...

India on Monday ordered its airlines to examine fuel switches on several Boeing models, while South Korea said it would order a similar measure, as scrutiny intensified of fuel switch locks at the centre of an investigation into a deadly Air India crash involving a Boeing 787. The moves by India and South Korea came despite the planemaker and the US Federal Aviation Administration telling airlines and regulators in recent days that the fuel switch locks on Boeing jets are safe. The locks have come under scrutiny following last month’s crash of an Air India jet, which killed 260 people. A preliminary report found that the switches had almost simultaneously flipped from run position to cutoff shortly after takeoff. The report noted a 2018 advisory from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which recommended, but did not mandate, operators of several Boeing models, including the 787, to inspect the locking feature of fuel cutoff switches to ensure they could not be moved accidentally. India’s Directorate...

India and China must resolve friction along their border, pull back troops and avoid “restrictive trade measures” to normalise their relationship, India’s foreign minister told his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Monday. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Wang Yi in Beijing during his first trip to the country since 2020, when a deadly border clash between their troops led to a four-year military standoff and damaged ties until a thaw began in October, when they agreed to step back. “Good progress” made by the countries in the past nine months for normalisation of relations is a result of the resolution of friction along their border, Jaishankar told Wang. India and China share a 3,800-kilometre border that is poorly demarcated and has been disputed since the 1950s. They fought a brief but brutal border war in 1962, and talks over the decades to settle the border dispute have made slow progress. Last month, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told his Chinese counterpart that the two countries should seek a “per...