Morning Digest | SCO members should give each other full transit rights, says PM Modi; Russia allays India’s worries over Ukraine, and more
The Hindu
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SCO members should give each other full transit rights: PM Modi
Better regional connectivity is only possible if members grant each other “full transit rights”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, referring to Pakistan’s refusal to give India transit trade access by land to Afghanistan and Central Asia, at the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) here on Friday.
Russia allays India’s worries over Ukraine
Russia understands India’s “concerns” over its war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Prime Minister Narendra Modi, promising to try and end the nine-month old conflict and blaming the Ukrainian government for prolonging it, in the first meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Samarkand.
Jaish chief Masood Azhar in Afghanistan, says Bilawal Bhutto
Denying any knowledge of Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar being in Pakistan, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto said he was “hopeful” that Pakistan would soon be let off the Financial Action Task Force List. Speaking to The Hindu and other journalists after the SCO summit in Samarkand, Mr. Bhutto said that as far as he knew, “the individual” [Masood Azhar], who is wanted in India for a series of attacks from the 1999 IC-814 hijacking to the Parliament attack and 2019 Pulwama bombings and is a UN designated terrorist, was “in Afghanistan”, a statement that directly contradicts a statement by the Taliban regime that placed Azhar in Pakistan.
China’s zero-COVID trap