Highlighting the significance of the growing India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan expressed confidence that the new Consulate will enhance and deepen the trade and investment relationship between India and the UAE. United Arab Emirates inaugurated the new Consulate in Hyderabad on Wednesday where Minister of State for Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan was in attendance. Taking to Twitter, Muraleedharan said, "Pleasure to attend the inauguration of the new UAE Consulate in Hyderabad today. Warmly congratulated UAE MOS HE Mr Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh on this happy occasion." "With an ever-growing India-UAE Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, confident that the Consulate will further deepen India-UAE trade and investment relationship. It will also strengthen our people-to-people ties," he added in another tweet. India and UAE share a great relationship. Earlier, the Minister of State for Foreign Trade of UAE, Thani Al Zeyoudi visited India and said that the trade ties between New Delhi and Abu Dhabi have proliferated following the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). "Trade ties with India have grown very rapidly following CEPA. There are several areas where we are looking to provide a further fillip to our robust trading ties," said Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade at a joint press conference in Delhi today. Highlighting the central goals of India-UAE CEPA at the press conference today, the UAE minister said that one of them was to increase the flow of goods and services between the two countries. "One of the central goals of the UAE-India CEPA was to increase the flow of goods and services between the UAE and India - and, by doing so, stimulate key export sectors, drive industrial output and kick-start an exciting new era of progress," the UAE Minister said. The India-UAE CEPA is a landmark free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. It covers trade in goods, services, investment, and other areas of economic cooperation. Speaking further, Al Zeyoudi added that it's a chance to reflect on the two nations' remarkable journey together. "Our initial figures suggest that, in the first 12 months of the CEPA, bilateral non-oil trade reached 50.5 billion dollars. That is a 5.8 per cent increase on the corresponding period a year earlier. For context, these figures came amid a sharp decline in global trade in Q3 and Q4 in 2022 - proving that we have created a real nexus of growth," he underlined during the presser in Delhi.

A hotline service was inaugurated for the expatriate Bangladeshis to communicate with the consulate in Jeddah of Saudi Arabia beyond the existing telephonic service under agreement between expatriates welfare and overseas employment ministry of Bangladesh and International Labor Organization (ILO). Bangladesh Jatiya Sangsad Deputy Speaker Md. Fazle Rabbi Mia, MP inaugurated the hotline service at the consulate premises on Monday. On this occasion in a meeting he said, the relation of Bangladesh government with the Saudi government is very friendly and intensive at the moment. The Deputy Speaker said, through this service the Bangladeshi expatriates will be able to talk to the consulate and also can solve their problems instantly. He thanked the consulate for such initiatives. Consul General FM Borhan Uddin presided over the meeting. He said, it is a special initiative of the government for the expatriates which will lessen the distance between the consulate and expatriates. Mentionable, the expatriates can take immediate service from 7 am to 9 pm every day except weekly and other holidays without any fee. The hotline number is-8002440051. In the program freedom fighters, consulate officials, Bangladeshi professionals in Jeddah, businessmen, community leaders and media representatives were present. AH    

Saudi Arabia on Saturday admitted that critic Jamal Khashoggi was killed during a “brawl” inside its Istanbul consulate, an explanation that President Donald Trump said he found credible but failed to convince top US lawmakers. The kingdom announced the arrest of 18 Saudis in connection with their probe and the sacking of two top officials linked to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who has faced mounting pressure over the journalist’s disappearance. Khashoggi, a critic of the Islamic petro-state’s powerful crown prince and a Washington Post contributor, was last seen on October 2 entering his country’s consulate in Istanbul. His disappearance had been shrouded in mystery and triggered an international crisis, with Turkish officials accusing Saudi Arabia of a state-sponsored killing and dismembering his body. The admission of his death after vehement denials by the Gulf kingdom came amid threats of US sanctions and leaves lingering questions about whether Prince Mohammed had any role in the affair. In the latest version of events from Riyadh, Saudi Attorney General Sheikh Saud al-Mojeb said Khashoggi died after talks at the consulate devolved into an altercation, without disclosing any details on the whereabouts of his body. “Discussions that took place between him and the persons who met him… at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul led to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace,” the attorney general said in a statement. The Saudi king also ordered the setting up of ministerial body under the chairmanship of the crown prince, widely known as MBS, to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence agency and “define its powers accurately”, state media said. Deputy intelligence chief Ahmad al-Assiri and royal court media advisor Saud al-Qahtani, both top aides to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, were sacked. – ‘Intense outcry’ – The controversy has put the kingdom — for decades a key Western ally and bulwark against Iran in the Middle East — under unprecedented pressure to offer an explanation to take the heat off its rulers. It evolved into a major crisis for Prince Mohammed, a US administration favorite whose image as a modernizing Arab reformer has been gravely undermined. US President Donald Trump said Friday that he found credible Saudi Arabia’s assertion that Khashoggi died as a result of a fight. “I do, I do,” Trump said when asked if the Saudis’ explanation was credible, while adding: “It’s early, we haven’t finished our review or investigation.” Trump had earlier said Washington could impose sanctions, but his administration had been notably slow to criticize the Gulf ally despite mounting evidence of what happened to Khashoggi. The case has presented Trump with one of the most acute foreign policy crises of his nearly two-year-old presidency. “It took an intense international outcry sustained for two weeks to acknowledge the obvious — that Khashoggi is dead, that he was killed in the Saudi consulate,” said Kristin Diwan, of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “That gives you an idea of the immense financial and strategic interests that are invested in maintaining the US partnership with Saudi Arabia and its leadership.” – ‘Deeply troubled’ – Saudi officials have roundly denied that Prince Mohammed had any involvement. But a suspect identified by Turkey was said to be a frequent companion of Prince Mohammed, three others were linked to his security detail and a fifth is a high-level forensic doctor, according to The New York Times. The decision to overhaul the intelligence apparatus and sack members of MBS’s inner circle is designed to “distance the crown prince from the murder”, said analysis firm Eurasia Group. Complicating the official narrative, Ali Shihabi, head of pro-Saudi think tank Arabia Foundation which is said to be close to the government, tweeted that “Khashoggi died from a chokehold during a physical altercation, not a fist fight”, citing a senior Saudi source. But pro-government Turkish media have repeatedly claimed that Khashoggi was tortured and decapitated by a Saudi hit squad inside the diplomatic mission, although Turkey has yet to divulge details about the investigation. “Each successive narrative put out by the Saudis to explain what happened to Khashoggi has strained credulity,” Kristian Ulrichsen, a fellow at Rice University’s Baker Institute in the United States, told AFP. “Especially because the Saudis are still unable or unwilling to produce the one piece of evidence — a body — that could provide a definitive answer one way or the other.” UN chief Antonio Gutterres said he was “deeply troubled” by the kingdom’s disclosure on Saturday, adding there needed to be “full accountability for those responsible.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, an influential Trump ally, said he doubted the latest admission from Saudi authorities. “To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr Khashoggi is an understatement,” he tweeted. Bob Menendez, the top US Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for sanctions, saying “we need to keep up international pressure” on the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s admission comes after Turkish authorities widened their probe on Friday, searching a forest in Istanbul city for further clues. Source: AFP AH

US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the expulsion of 60 Russians from the United States and closed the Russian consulate in Seattle over a nerve agent attack earlier this month in Britain, senior US officials said. The order includes 12 Russian intelligence officers from Russia’s mission to the United Nations headquarters in New York and reflects concerns that Russian intelligence activities have been increasingly aggressive, senior US administration officials told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Reports Reuters. Meanwhile BBC added, the US state department said in a statement: "On March 4, Russia used a military-grade nerve agent to attempt to murder a British citizen and his daughter in Salisbury”. "This attack on our Ally the United Kingdom put countless innocent lives at risk and resulted in serious injury to three people, including a police officer." It called the attack an "outrageous violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and breach of international law". In the US, 48 of the envoys to be expelled are said to be based at the Russian embassy in Washington and the others are at the UN in New York. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said his decision to expel 13 diplomats was taken "in the spirit of solidarity with our British partners and transatlantic allies and in coordination with EU countries". Earlier on Monday, various European countries - including Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland - summoned Russian ambassadors to their foreign ministries. Germany, France and Ukraine have also announced they are each expelling Russian diplomats. Various other European countries have followed suit. EU leaders agreed last week it was highly likely Russia was behind the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in southern England. Russia denies any role in the attack in Salisbury. AH