Submit your Article

India is all set to host the second Voice of Global South Summit on Friday in a virtual formation. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal is likely to attend the Summit.  

Earlier, India had hosted the inaugural Voice of Global South Summit (VOGSS) on 12-13 January 2023, in a virtual format. This unique initiative brought together 125 countries of the Global South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform, said India’s Ministry of External Affairs.

Throughout its G20 Presidency, India has worked to ensure that the concerns of the Global South receive due cognizance and that the priorities of the Global South were duly factored in finding solutions to the most pressing global challenges.

The 2nd VOGSS would focus on sharing with countries of the Global South the key outcomes achieved in various G20 meetings over the course of India’s Presidency, said the press release issued by India.

The challenges posed by global developments are also likely to be discussed. Further, the Summit will serve as a platform to discuss ways to sustain the momentum generated towards our common aspiration of a more inclusive, representative, and progressive world order, reads the press release.

Head of State from Global South will attend the inaugural session which will be chaired by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

The theme of the Inaugural Leaders’ Session is "Together, for Everyone’s Growth, with Everyone’s Trust” and that of the Concluding Leaders’ Session is "Global South: Together for One Future”.

In addition, there will be 8 Ministerial Sessions, with the following themes:

· Foreign Ministers’ Session on "India & the Global South: Emerging Together for a Better Future”

· Education Ministers’ Session on "Making Human Resources Future Ready”

· Finance Ministers’ Session on "Financing People-Centric Development”

· Environment Ministers’ Session on "Sustainable Solutions for Climate Resilience and Climate Finance”

· Foreign Ministers’ Session on "Global South and One Development”

· Energy Ministers’ Session on "Affordable & Inclusive Energy Transition for Sustainable Development”

· Health Ministers’ Session on "Solutions from the Global South for One Health”

· Commerce / Trade Ministers’ Session on "Global South & Resilient Supply Chains”

 Last year, Nepal’s then Finance Minister Bishnu Poudel attended the Voice of Global South Summit. And, Nepal had attended the meeting of the Finance Tasks force held during the G-20 Summit. 

The United States is hosting the annual APEC summit of world leaders this week for the first time since 2011. Leaders from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group will gather in San Francisco to talk about how to better spur trade and economic growth across the Pacific region.

But the main summit event will actually be on the sidelines: A face-to-face meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping. This year's conference is happening against the backdrop of the frosty relationship between China and the U.S. and global turmoil from the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

A look at what APEC is and how it works:

WHAT IS APEC?

APEC stands for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. It's a forum to promote trade, investment and economic development among nations around the Pacific Ocean.

The group started with 12 members in 1989, but has since grown to 21 including China, Russia, Japan, the U.S. and Australia. Those member nations pack a lot of punch, accounting for nearly 40% of the global population and almost half the world’s trade.

The annual leaders' conference brings together heads of nations and other top economic and diplomatic leaders. (Don't expect much of a presence from Russia this year; it's a pariah as Russian President Vladimir Putin presses his country's invasion of Ukraine and will have lower-level representation.)

White House aides say the goal for this year's summit is to try to make APEC economies more resilient, particularly in the face of growing climate issues and following a global pandemic that killed millions of people and strained supply chains.

THE MAIN EVENT

The main event of this summit is unfolding on the sidelines: a meeting between Biden and Xi. The two leaders haven't spoken in person since they met last November during the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. A lot has happened since then to ratchet up tensions between the superpowers.

The Biden administration shot down a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental U.S. earlier this year. The Chinese government hacked the emails of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. The U.S. government restricted the export of advanced computer chips to China, and has pushed to provide development aid to other nations to counter China's influence.

The differences also have been exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine and China’s increasing assertiveness in the Taiwan Strait. But representatives from the U.S. and China have been meeting with increasing frequency lately, working to thaw relations. Still, the Biden-Xi meeting isn't expected to substantially alter the trajectory of U.S.-China relations.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS APEC?

The forum has limited scope. It is centered on trade and the economy. There is no military component and it wasn't forged by a world-altering event like a war.

It technically has member “economies” rather than countries. That allows room for participation by both China-ruled Hong Kong and self-ruled Taiwan.

APEC's strength lies in its ability to get countries to work together on big initiatives and to ease business relations without binding agreements. Economists point to how APEC contributed to a reduction of tariffs and other barriers to trade.

But the trade landscape is different now than when APEC began in a period of increased globalization. The U.S. strategy has been focused on economic competition with China rather than cooperation, even as U.S. leaders continue to stress the importance of cooperation. Biden is seeking partnerships with other nations in the region to develop alternatives to Chinese manufacturing imports such as electronic equipment, machinery, furniture, textiles and other goods.

Biden also is trying to highlight progress on the new Indo-Pacific trade deal, started last year after President Donald Trump withdrew from the more popular Trans-Pacific Partnership.

FRICTION

The conference has had its challenges and moments of drama in recent years.

The group met virtually in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Leaders did gather in Bangkok last year, but Biden skipped the summit because his granddaughter was getting married and he sent Vice President Kamala Harris in his place. That decision was regarded as a snub by some APEC leaders. Then, delegates from the United States and four other nations walked out to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine as the Russian representative to the conference began to speak.

Chile withdrew as APEC host in 2019 due to mass protests. Last year, when Thailand hosted the summit in Bangkok, pro-democracy protesters challenged the legitimacy of the Thai prime minister, prompting police to fire at the crowd with rubber bullets that injured several protesters and a Reuters journalist.

This year may give rise to friction over the Israel-Hamas war. The variety of nations involved in the summit have strong views on both sides of the conflict. Typically at the close of a summit there is some kind of joint statement by all the nations, but that's not a given this year, in part because of those differences.

There is also some participation intrigue: Taiwan will once again be represented at the summit by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. founder Morris Chang. The 92-year-old’s lack of a domestic political role allows him to meet with world leaders without fear of repercussions from China.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, will be represented by Financial Secretary Paul Chan. Chief executive John Lee, who is under U.S. sanctions for his role in a political crackdown in Hong Kong, opted out of the summit, citing scheduling issues.

A potential U.S. government shutdown also could loom over the conference: The government will run out of money on Friday without a funding agreement between Congress and the president. It's a persistent reminder of U.S. political dysfunction just as as Biden seeks to project American reliability. The credit rating agency Moody’s Investors Service lowered its outlook on the U.S. government’s debt on Friday to “negative,” citing rising interest rates and political polarization in Congress.

FORUM FASHION

At the end of APEC summits, the leaders typically pose together for a “family photo.” At the first leader-level meeting three decades ago, President Bill Clinton, hosting in Seattle, handed out matching leather bomber jackets similar to those worn by American fighter pilots. He apparently wanted his fellow VIPs to feel relaxed, and a tradition was launched.

Since then, the APEC leaders have posed together in batik shirts (Malaysia, 1998), Chinese jackets (Shanghai, 2001), flowing ponchos (Chile, 2004) and "ao dai” tunics (Vietnam, 2006.) The Philippines’ barong tagalog, a partially see-through, embroidered shirt sewn from pineapple fiber and silk, was featured in the 1996 summit and again in 2015.

It's not clear if the matching outfits will be back this year. The last time the U.S. hosted the conference, in Hawaii in 2011, President Barack Obama nixed the idea. A reporter asked whether it was scrapped because the tradition felt too light-hearted amid ongoing concerns about the economy.

No. Obama just thought they looked embarrassing.

AP

Jerusalem: As an Israeli ground offensive in the Gaza Strip looms in its most devastating war yet with Hamas, one of the greatest threats to both its troops and the 2.3m Palestinians trapped inside the seaside enclave is buried deep underground.

An extensive labyrinth of tunnels built by the Hamas militant group stretches across the densely populated strip, hiding fighters, their rocket arsenal and over 200 hostages they now hold after an unprecedented Oct 7 attack on Israel.

Clearing and collapsing those tunnels will be crucial if Israel seeks to dismantle Hamas. But fighting in densely populated urban areas and moving underground could strip the Israeli military of some of its technological advantages while giving an edge to Hamas both above and below ground.

“I usually say it’s like walking down the street waiting to get punched in the face,” said John Spencer, a retired US Army major and the chair of Urban Warfare Studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point.

Urban defenders, he added, “had time to think about where they are going to be and there’s millions of hidden locations they can be in. They get to choose the time of the engagement—you can’t see them but they can see you.”

Overnight on Saturday, the Israeli military said its warplanes struck 150 underground Hamas targets in northern Gaza, describing them as tunnels, combat spaces and other underground infrastructure. The strikes—what appeared to be Israel's most significant bombardment of tunnels yet—came as it ramped up its ground operations in Gaza.

What the past has shown

Tunnel warfare has been a feature of history, from the Roman siege of the ancient Greek city of Ambracia to Ukrainian fighters holding off Russian forces in 24 kilometers (15 miles) of Soviet-era tunnels beneath Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works for some 80 days in 2022.

The reason is simple: tunnel battles are considered some of the most difficult for armies to fight. A determined enemy in a tunnel or cave system can pick where the fight will start—and often determine how it will end—given the abundant opportunities for ambush.

That’s especially true in the Gaza Strip, home to Hamas’ tunnel system that Israel has named the “Metro.”

When Israel and Egypt imposed a punishing blockade on Gaza after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007, the militant group expanded construction of its tunnel network to smuggle in weapons and other contraband from Egypt. While Egypt later shut down most of those cross-border tunnels, Hamas is now believed to have a massive underground network stretching throughout Gaza, allowing it to transport weapons, supplies and fighters out of the sight of Israeli drones.

Yehiyeh Sinwar, Hamas’ political leader, claimed in 2021 that the militant group had 500 kilometers (310 miles) of tunnels. The Gaza Strip itself is only some 360 square kilometers (140 square miles), roughly twice the size of Washington, DC.

“They started saying that they destroyed 100 kilometers (62 miles) of Hamas tunnels. I am telling you that the tunnels we have in the Gaza Strip exceed 500 kilometers,” Sinwar said following a bloody 11-day war with Israel. “Even if their narrative is true, they only destroyed 20 percent of the tunnels.”

The Israeli military has known of the threat since at least 2001, when Hamas used a tunnel to detonate explosives under an Israeli border post. Since 2004, the Israeli military’s Samur, or “Weasels," detachment has focused on locating and destroying tunnels, sometimes with remote-controlled robots. Those going inside carry oxygen, masks and other gear.

Israel has bombed from the air and used explosives on the ground to destroy tunnels in the past. But fully dislodging Hamas will require clearing those tunnels, where militants can pop up behind advancing Israeli troops.

During a 2014 war, Hamas militants killed at least 11 Israeli soldiers after infiltrating into Israel through tunnels. In another incident, an Israeli officer, Lt Hadar Goldin, was dragged into a tunnel inside Gaza and killed. Hamas has been holding Goldin’s remains since then.

Ariel Bernstein, a former Israeli soldier who fought in that war, described urban combat in northern Gaza as a mix of “ambushes, traps, hideouts, snipers.”

He recalled the tunnels as having a disorienting, surreal effect, creating blind spots as Hamas fighters popped up out of nowhere to attack.

“It was like I was fighting ghosts,” he said. “You don't see them.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Friday said he expected a difficult ground offensive, warning it “will take a long time” to dismantle Hamas’ vast network of tunnels. As part of the strategy, Israel has blocked all fuel shipments into Gaza since the war erupted. Gallant said that Hamas would confiscate fuel for generators that pump air into the tunnel network. “For air, they need oil. For oil, they need us,” he said.

The Israeli military also said Friday it had carried out “very meaningful” airstrikes on underground targets.

Typically, modern militaries have relied on punishing airstrikes to collapse tunnels. Israeli strikes in Gaza so far in this war have killed over 7,300 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. But those strikes can inflict only limited damage on the subterranean network.

US forces fighting the Vietnam War struggled to clear the 120-kilometer (75-mile) network known as the Củ Chi tunnels, in which American soldiers faced tight corners, booby traps and sometimes pitch-dark conditions in the outskirts of what was then Saigon, South Vietnam. Even relentless B-52 bombing never destroyed the tunnels. Nor did Russian strikes on the Ukrainian steel mill in 2022.

Underlining how tough tunnels can be to destroy, America used a massive explosive against an Islamic State group tunnel system in Afghanistan in 2017 called “the mother of all bombs,” the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the US military.

An additional layer of complexity

Yet in all those cases, advancing militaries did not face the challenge that Israel does now with Hamas’ tunnel system. The militant group holds some 200 hostages that it captured in the Oct 7 assault, which also killed more than 1,400 people.

Hamas' release on Monday of 85-year-old Yocheved Lifshitz confirmed suspicions that the militants had put hostages in the tunnels. Lifshitz described Hamas militants spiriting her into a tunnel system that she said “looked like a spider web.”

Clearing the tunnels with hostages trapped inside likely will be a “slow, methodical process,” with the Israelis relying on robots and other intelligence to map tunnels and their potential traps, according to the Soufan Center, a New York security think tank.

“Given the methodical planning involved in the attack, it seems likely that Hamas will have devoted significant time planning for the next phase, conducting extensive preparation of the battlefield in Gaza,” the Soufan Center wrote in a briefing. “The use of hostages as human shields will add an additional layer of complexity to the fight.”

The potential fighting facing Israeli soldiers also will be claustrophobic and terrifying. Many of the Israeli military's technological advantages will collapse, giving militants the edge, warned Daphné Richemond-Barak, a professor at Israel’s Reichman University who wrote a book on underground warfare.

“When you enter a tunnel, it’s very narrow, and it’s dark and it’s moist, and you very quickly lose a sense of space and time," Richemond-Barak told The Associated Press. “You have this fear of the unknown, who’s coming around the corner? … Is this going to be an ambush? Nobody can come and rescue you. You can barely communicate with the outside world, with your unit.”

The battlefield could force the Israeli military into firefights in which hostages may be accidentally killed. Explosive traps also could detonate, burying alive both soldiers and the hostages, Richemond-Barak said.

Even with those risks, she said the tunnels must be destroyed for Israel to achieve its military objectives.

“There’s a job that needs to get done and it will be done now,” she said.

AP

Jerusalem: Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas tunnels and underground bunkers in the northern Gaza Strip, the military said Saturday, signaling a further escalation in its campaign to crush the territory's ruling militant group after its bloody incursion in southern Israel three weeks ago.

Fighter jets hit dozens of underground targets, the military said. As part of the stepped-up bombardment, Israel also knocked out communications and created a near-blackout of information, largely cutting off the 2.3m people in besieged Gaza from contact with the outside world.

The Israeli military said Friday it was expanding ground operations in the territory, another sign that it was moving closer to an all-out invasion of Gaza. Military officials have said a key target would be Hamas' extensive network of tunnels and underground bunkers, much of it located under Gaza City in the north of the territory.

Explosions from continuous airstrikes lit up the sky over Gaza City for hours after nightfall Friday.

The Palestinian telecom provider, Paltel, said the bombardment caused “complete disruption” of internet, cellular and landline services. The cutoff meant that casualties from strikes and details of ground incursions could not immediately be known. Some satellite phones continued to function.

Already plunged into darkness after most electricity was cut off weeks ago, Palestinians were thrown into isolation, huddling in homes and shelters with food and water supplies running out. Attempts to reach Gaza residents by phone were largely unsuccessful early Saturday.

Relatives outside Gaza panicked after their messaging chats with families inside suddenly went dead and calls stopped going through.

Wafaa Abdul Rahman, director of a feminist organization based in the West Bank city of Ramallah, said she hadn't heard for hours from family in central Gaza. “We’ve been seeing these horrible things and massacres when it’s live on TV, so now what will happen when there’s a total blackout?” she said, referring to scenes of families that have been crushed in homes by airstrikes over the past weeks.

Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said ground forces were “expanding their activity” Friday evening in Gaza and “acting with great force... to achieve the objectives of the war.” Israel says its strikes target Hamas fighters and infrastructure and that the militants operate from among civilians, putting them in danger.

The Hamas media center reported heavy nighttime clashes with Israeli forces at several places, including what it said was an Israeli incursion east of the refugee camp of Bureij in the central Gaza Strip. Asked about the report, the Israeli military reiterated early Saturday that it had been carrying out targeted raids and expanding strikes with the aim of “preparing the ground for future stages of the operation.”

Israel has amassed hundreds of thousands of troops along the border ahead of an expected ground offensive. Since mid-week, the military has reported nightly hours-long raids by ground forces into Gaza, saying troops struck Hamas targets with the aim of preparing the battlefield.

The Palestinian death toll in Gaza has soared past 7,300, more than 60 percent of them minors and women, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. A blockade on Gaza has meant dwindling supplies, and the UN warned that its aid operation helping hundreds of thousands of people was “crumbling” amid near-depleted fuel.

More than 1,400 people were slain in Israel during Hamas’ Oct 7 attack, according to the Israeli government, and at least 229 hostages were taken into Gaza. Among those killed were at least 310 soldiers, according to the military.

Palestinian militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel.

The overall number of deaths far exceeds the combined toll of all four previous Israel-Hamas wars, estimated at around 4,000.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Friday that Israel expects a long and difficult ground offensive into Gaza soon. It “will take a long time” to dismantle Hamas’ vast network of tunnels, he said, adding that he expects a lengthy phase of lower-intensity fighting as Israel destroys “pockets of resistance.”

His comments pointed to a potentially grueling and open-ended new phase of the war after three weeks of relentless bombardment. Israel has said it aims to crush Hamas’ rule in Gaza and its ability to threaten Israel. But how Hamas’ defeat will be measured and an invasion’s endgame remain unclear. Israel says it does not intend to rule the tiny territory but not who it expects to govern—even as Gallant suggested a long-term insurgency could ensue.

In Washington, the Pentagon said US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with Gallant on Friday and “underscored the importance of protecting civilians during the Israel Defense Forces’ operations and focusing on the urgency of humanitarian aid delivery for civilians in Gaza.” The Pentagon said Austin also brought up “the need for Hamas to release all of the hostages.”

The conflict has threatened to ignite a wider war across the region. Arab nations—including US allies and ones that have reached peace deals or normalized ties with Israel — have raised increasing alarm over a potential ground invasion, likely to bring even higher casualties amid urban fighting.

With no electricity, no communications and no water, many of those trapped in Gaza had little choice but to wait in their homes or seek the relative safety of schools and hospitals as Israel expanded its bombing early Saturday.

Throughout the night, orange fireballs exploded on the horizon above the apartment buildings and refugee camps of Gaza City, briefly illuminating clouds of white smoke hanging in the air from previous strikes. Some bombs hit in tight groups, apparently slamming into the same location.

Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator for the occupied territories, posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that without phone lines and internet, hospitals and aid operations would be unable to operate. The Red Crescent said it could not contact medical teams and residents could no longer call ambulances, meaning rescuers would have to chase the sound of explosions to find the wounded. International aid groups said they were only able to reach a few staffers using satellite phones.

The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed alarm, saying the world “is losing a window into the reality” of the conflict. It warned that the information vacuum “can be filled with deadly propaganda, dis- and misinformation.”

The loss of internet and phones deals a further blow to a medical and aid system that relief workers say was already on the verge of collapse under Israel’s weekslong seal. More than 1.4m people have fled their homes, nearly half crowding into U.N. schools and shelters. Aid workers say a trickle of aid Israel has allowed to enter from Egypt the past week is a tiny fraction of what is needed.

Gaza hospitals have been scrounging for fuel to run emergency generators that power incubators and other life-saving equipment.

Gallant said Israel believes that Hamas would confiscate any fuel that enters. He said Hamas uses generators to pump air into its hundreds of kilometers (miles) of tunnels, which originate in civilian areas. He showed reporters aerial footage of what he said was a tunnel shaft built right next to a hospital.

AP