As Britain begins the process of leaving the European Union, it is trying to rekindle old trade links with Commonwealth countries. However, the push for new commerce has sparked a debate on the historical legacy of the British Empire, with accusations that ministers are trying to whitewash atrocities committed during colonial times.

British Chancellor Philip Hammond arrived in India for a three-day trip to, in his government’s words, “Bang the drum for British business.” The quest for new Commonwealth trade links has been dubbed “Empire 2.0.”

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox, on a trade mission in the Philippines, wrote on Twitter recently that Britain “Is one of the few European countries that does not need to bury its 20th-century past.”

Indian lawmaker and former U.N. Under-Secretary-General Shashi Tharoor, author of the book Inglorious Empire, has a different assessment of Britain’s colonial conduct: “Of which the highlights, but only the highlights, include the Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar in India which killed defenseless, unarmed women, children and men; the use of chemical weapons in Mesopotamia; the air-bombing of a number of innocent civilians in Basra; you have the horrendous partition of India; you have the cruelty with which the Mau Mau insurrection was put down in Kenya.”

Despite that history, Tharoor says India is listening carefully to what Britain has to offer.

“The idea that Commonwealth countries represent a possible alternative area for preferential free trade agreements is welcome, provided of course, as in every negotiation, that there is give and take,” he said.

But Britain must give more if it wants to benefit, Tharoor added.

India is critical of tightening visa restrictions on its citizens wanting to work in Britain.

Many people working in the $5.6 billion restaurant industry backed Brexit, hoping it would open the door to more migration from Commonwealth countries.

Enam Ali, a chef in an award-winning restaurant just outside London, says he feels betrayed, and warns the industry is in trouble.

“We feel it would be fair policy and we can bring people from outside the EU — from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan — where people can come and look after our business because the industry needs chefs desperately,” Ali said. “So this is something now that is happening opposite, because the people we are currently working on, helping hand from the European worker, Romanian and Polish, they are now going to leave. So, what we end up with is nobody to work for us.”

Cutting migration was a central pledge of Britain’s campaign to leave the European Union, but countries like India want visa restrictions relaxed as part of any trade deal.

Indian lawmakers say they are open to rekindling old trade links, but in the 21st century, Britain will no longer dictate terms.
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Afghanistan is calling on Pakistan to stop fencing off the border between the two countries, suggesting that Kabul might resort to military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the issue.  

The Pakistani military launched the fencing project last month after the fortification of regular border crossings and construction of new security installations along portions of the 2,600-kilometer, largely porous frontier, known as the Durand Line.

Islamabad says the measures will help address mutual terrorism concerns and prevent illegal crossings as well as terrorist infiltration in both directions.

The border security project, however, has outraged Afghan political circles and media commentators. The turmoil-hit nation historically has disputed portions of the 1893 demarcation undertaken under then-British rulers of the Indian subcontinent.

Days of heated debate on the issue in the Afghan parliament prompted the Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to issue a formal government response.

“We have clearly stated that any type of unilateral actions taken along the Durand Line without the agreement of the government of Afghanistan [are] going to be ineffective, impractical and impossible,” ministry spokesman Ahmed Shakib Mostaghani told a news conference in Kabul.  Afghanistan has long referred to the border with Pakistan as an imaginary boundary.

Mostaghani again dismissed as “mere excuses” Islamabad’s assertions that militants are entering Pakistan from the Afghan side to launch terrorist attacks in the neighboring country.  Mostaghani added that his government has taken up the issue with Pakistani authorities to resolve it through diplomatic channels.

“If this is not going to result in prevention of the unilateral actions taken by the Pakistani side along the Durand Line, and if the violations continue, the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are ready to defend the country’s territorial integrity and national sovereignty,” he responded when asked whether Kabul might consider using force to stop the fencing.  

The spokesman also said that instead of indulging in “unjustified” steps like fencing the border and shutting legal crossings, Islamabad should move against insurgents and sanctuaries on Pakistani soil who are being used against Afghanistan.

There was no immediate reaction from Pakistan to the assertions made by the Afghan side on Wednesday.

During this week’s debate in the Afghan parliament, angry lawmakers even called for a fellow member to be stoned to death for publicly stating that the Durand Line is an international border.

Pakistani officials, however, maintain that the fencing is being undertaken “well within” their territory and once completed, will address mutual security concerns and improve understanding between the two countries.

Islamabad has also dismissed Afghan objections over the international status of the Durand Line, saying Pakistan inherited it when the country gained independence from Britain in 1947.

Afghanistan and Pakistan blame each other for supporting anti-state militants and sponsoring cross-border terrorist attacks, a major source of tensions and deterioration in bilateral relations. Pakistan says anti-state militants sheltering in “ungoverned” Afghan areas are behind a recent wave of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.
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China said on Wednesday that India’s decision to host Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on a contested stretch of land on the India-China border would cause serious damage to relations between the two countries.

The Dalai Lama’s week-long trip to Arunchal Pradesh, an eastern Himalayan region administered by New Delhi, but claimed by China as “southern Tibet”, has raised hackles in Beijing, which labels the monk a dangerous separatist.

“China expresses firm opposition to this and will lodge stern representations with the Indian side,” foreign ministry spokeswomen Hua Chunying told a regular briefing in the Chinese capital.

The 81-year-old Buddhist monk and Nobel peace laureate had planned to fly by helicopter to the 17th-century Tawang monastery and hold three days of spiritual teachings starting on Wednesday.

However, heavy rainfall forced him to travel by road – a two-day drive through rugged mountain terrain – and he is not now expected to arrive until Friday.

The Dalai Lama received a rapturous welcome on Tuesday in the town of Bomdila, with large crowds turning out in streets festooned with flags, as musicians and dancers clad in traditional costumes performed before his sport-utility vehicle.

Later, the maroon-robed prelate walked slowly through the crowds, a fellow monk supporting him by the arm and another holding a large umbrella overhead to shield him from the rain.

Indian officials have dismissed China’s criticism of the Dalai Lama’s second visit to Arunachal Pradesh in eight years, saying he is a spiritual leader who has a devoted following in the region.

“His visit to this part of the country is totally religious,” the state’s chief minister, Pema Khandu, told Reuters Television.

“As far as the boundary issue is concerned, I have also maintained that we don’t share our boundary with China, but we share our boundary with Tibet.”

Severely damaged

China has repeatedly criticized visits by foreign officials to Arunachal Pradesh, which it calls South Tibet and over which it has a long-standing claim.

In its latest broadside, Beijing said that by ignoring China’s concerns and persisting in arranging the trip, India had “severely damaged China’s interests and China-India relations”.

“We demand that India immediately cease using the Dalai Lama’s mistaken behavior to damage China’s interests,” Hua added. “It will not bring any benefit to India. China will take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its territorial sovereignty and legitimate rights.”

The Dalai Lama fled in 1959 over the border not far from the Tawang monastery, the largest of its kind in India. At the start of his tour, he was reunited with an elderly Indian border guard who had helped him to safety.

He now resides in the Indian hill town of Dharamsala, where his supporters also run a small government in exile. He has renounced any political role in leading the Tibetan diaspora.

The Indian government has rejected China’s criticism of the Dalai Lama’s visit – his first to Arunachal Pradesh since 2009.

“The government has clearly stated on several occasions that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is a revered religious leader, who is deeply respected by the Indian people,” it said in its latest statement on the matter.

“The government, therefore, urges that no artificial controversy be created around his present visit to Arunachal Pradesh.”

 
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Almost 20 Afghan inmates in the Pul-i-Charkhi prison, on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, have sewn their lips shut to protest government policies.

They are part of a group of 300 prisoners who are on a hunger strike against a presidential decree denying them the right to serve jail time in their own provinces, rather than Kabul.

Abdul Halem Kohistani, the official in charge of protesting prisoners, said they also want to be included in presidential pardons usually granted around religious holidays like the Muslim holy festival of Eid.

Mohammad Hasham Alakozai, a member of Afghan senate, said prisoners arrested on drug-smuggling charges or for links to the Taliban also are among the protesters.

The Ministry of Interior confirmed the hunger strike, but it did not confirm that several inmates had sewn their lips. Najib Danish, the acting spokesman of MoI, said a joint delegation of MoI officials and the office of the attorney general will meet with the prisoners.

Hundreds of prisoners at the same facility had gone on a hunger strike at the end of February for what they claimed were violations of their rights.

This is not the first time that prisoners in Afghanistan have sewn their lips shut to draw attention to their condition.

Human rights groups sometimes have criticized conditions in Afghan prisons. A 2015 report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan revealed that one third of prisoners were either mistreated or tortured during detention.

 
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India has rejected a more proactive role for the U.S. between India and Pakistan, the rivals whose long running dispute over Kashmir has often raised international concern and fears of a conflict between the nuclear armed neighbors.

New Delhi’s sharp response came after U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said earlier this week that the U.S. would try to “find its place” in efforts to defuse tensions between the South Asian rivals.

Expressing concern over the relationship between the two countries, Haley asserted the Trump administration “wants to see how we de-escalate any sort of conflict going forward.”

She said at a press conference in New York that, “We very much think that we should be proactive in the way that we are seeing tensions rise and conflicts start to bubble up and so we want to see if we can be a part of that.”

In a swift reaction, India’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, “the government position for bilateral redressal of all India- Pakistan issues in an atmosphere free of terror and violence has not changed.”

Underlining its major concern, New Delhi called on the international community to enforce international mechanisms regarding “terrorism emanating from Pakistan, which continues to be the single biggest threat to peace and stability in our region and beyond.”

Although there have been some attempts previously on the part of Washington to play a role in resolving the Kashmir dispute, India has consistently opposed mediation in its dispute with Pakistan —  a position that was accepted by the previous U.S. administration of Barack Obama.

Pakistan, on the other hand, has often said it is ready to take the help of Washington and the United Nations to settle the Kashmir dispute and has repeatedly raised the issue at various international forums.

Indian analysts say although New Delhi is optimistic that a growing strategic partnership with Washington will deepen under the Trump administration, there is worry about how the new U.S. government will weigh in on the tense relationship between the estranged South Asian neighbors.

“India’s nightmare scenario with regard to the U.S. is that the U.S. will become active and try to resolve the Kashmir issue,” said Manoj Joshi at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

He said India is especially wary because, “We [the U.S.] have an administration which is very inexperienced, you have an inexperienced president, so anything can happen.”

Although India insists on a bilateral dialogue, peace talks between the two countries have been stalled for some time. Both countries blame each other for the lack of progress.

Tensions between the rivals spiked last September following an attack by armed militants on an army base in Indian Kashmir. Following that, India said it conducted surgical strikes inside Pakistani territory to take out Pakistan-based militants. Islamabad denied that such an operation took place, but the Kashmir border remained volatile for months, raising fears of a conflict.

The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region, which is divided between them but claimed by both.

 
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North Korea has conducted another ballistic missile test, just 48 hours before U.S. President Donald Trump is due to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.

The projectile was fired into the East Sea early Wednesday and flew about 60 kilometers, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said in a text message.

Any launch of objects using the ballistic missile technology is a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, but the North has defied the ban as infringement of its sovereign rights to self-defense and pursuit of space exploration.

Wednesday’s launch came after Trump threatened that the U.S. is prepared to go it alone in bringing the North to heel if China does not step in.

North Korea’s foreign ministry on Monday assailed Washington for its tough talk and for an ongoing joint military exercise with South Korea and Japan, which Pyongyang sees as a dress rehearsal for invasion.

The “reckless actions” are driving the tense situation on the Korean peninsula “to the brink of a war,” a ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official KCNA news agency.

South Korean intelligence warned in late March that North Korea could detonate a nuclear device in the first week of April to “overshadow” the U.S.-China summit.

In South Korea last month, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said: “Let me be very clear, the policy of ‘strategic patience’ has ended. We are exploring a new range of diplomatic, security and economic measures. All options are on the table.”

Meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, earlier in the month, Tillerson and said tensions on the Korean Peninsula have reached a “rather dangerous level.”

“I think we share a common view and a sense that tensions in the peninsula are quite high right now,” Tillerson said. “We will work together to see if we cannot bring the government in Pyongyang to a place where they want to make a different course – make a course correction – and move away from the development of nuclear weapons.”

Last month, North Korea fired four ballistic missiles into the sea off Japan in response to annual U.S.-South Korea military drills, which the North sees as a preparation for war.

Three of the missiles flew about 1,000 kilometers and landed in Japanese waters, the Pentagon said. U.S. officials said the weapons were medium-range rockets that did not pose a threat to North America.
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Any effort to curb North Korea’s weapons program will need to involve China, a senior U.S. military official said on Tuesday, just days after President Donald Trump said Washington might deal with Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs on its own if need be.

On Sunday, Trump said in an interview with the Financial Times, that China has great influence over North Korea and that “China will either decide to help us with North Korea, or they won’t. And if they do that will be very good for China, and if they don’t, it won’t be good for anyone.”

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are meeting in Florida on Thursday and Friday.

On Tuesday, General John Hyten, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, said it was difficult to see a solution to North Korea that did not involve China.

“Any solution to the North Korean problem has to involve China,” Hyten said at a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

“I am a military officer, my job is to provide military options to the president … but I look at it from a strategic perspective and I can’t see a solution that doesn’t involve China,” Hyten said.

It is not clear whether Trump’s comments will move China, which has taken steps to increase economic pressure on Pyongyang but has long been unwilling to do anything that may destabilize the North and send millions of refugees across the border into China.

It is also unclear what the United States might do on its own to deflect North Korea from the expansion of its nuclear capabilities and from the development of missiles with ever-longer ranges and the capacity to deliver atomic warheads.

North Korea has been testing rocket engines and heat-shields for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) while developing technology to guide a missile after re-entry into the atmosphere following a liftoff.

Once fully developed, a North Korean ICBM could threaten the continental United States.

The reclusive state has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches in defiance of United Nations resolutions.

Trump’s national security aides have completed a review of U.S. options to try to curb North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs that includes economic and military measures but leans more toward sanctions and increased pressure on Beijing to rein in its reclusive neighbor.
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