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The secretary-level meeting of the joint taskforce of Nepal and India, formed to facilitate supply of petroleum products and gas, has concluded.

The third virtual meeting of the joint taskforce that was formed between Nepal and India in March 2017 in the course of agreement of supply of petroleum products concluded on today.

Joint-secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply Radhika Aryal from Nepal and Joint-secretary at the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Esha Srivastava from India led the teams at the meet.

Representatives from finance ministry, foreign ministry and law Ministry as well as office-bearers of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, and high-ranking office bearers of Nepal Oil Corporation and Indian Oil Corporation were present on the occasion, said Joint-spokesperson at the Supply Ministry Urmila KC.

The meeting discussed various issues including smooth supply of petroleum products, expansion of Amalekhgunj-Chitwan and Siliguri-Jhapa petroleum pipeline, security management of Motihari-Amalekhgunj pipeline, and renewal of petroleum products supplies agreement between NoC and Indian Oil Corporation. RSS

Minister for Foreign Affairs Narayan Khadka is leaving for Turkey today to take part in the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

Issuing a statement on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that he is visiting Turkey at the formal invitation of his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The programme will be held from March 11-13.

Minister Khadka is scheduled to share panels with participating Foreign Ministers in two separate sessions entitled 'Democratic Governance and Security' and 'Asia Anew: For a Sustained Regional Growth' on March 12, the statement read.

Over 50 Foreign Ministers together with a cross-section of policy makers and experts are attending the event. The theme for this year’s annual Forum is ‘Recoding Diplomacy’.

During the visit, Minister Khadka will hold a meeting with officials of NRN-Turkey and Nepali entrepreneurs based in Istanbul to discuss business opportunities and challenges as well as problems faced by Nepali diaspora on March 9.

He will hold interactive sessions with members of Economic Chambers in Istanbul and Antalya. On the sidelines of the Forum, Minister Khadka will hold a bilateral meeting with his Turkish counterpart. 

He will also hold meetings with Foreign Ministers of different countries on the sidelines, the statement further read.

Russia has said it may close its main gas pipeline to Germany if the West goes ahead with a ban on Russian oil, BBC reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said a "rejection of Russian oil would lead to catastrophic consequences for the global market", causing prices to more than double to $300 a barrel.

The US has been exploring a potential ban with allies as a way of punishing Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

But Germany and the Netherlands rejected the plan on Monday.

The EU gets about 40% of its gas and 30% of its oil from Russia, and has no easy substitutes if supplies are disrupted, according to BBC.

In an address on Russian state television, Mr Novak said it would be "impossible to quickly find a replacement for Russian oil on the European market".

"It will take years, and it will still be much more expensive for European consumers. Ultimately, they will be hurt the worst by this outcome," he said.

Pointing to Germany's decision last month to freeze certification of Nord Stream 2, a new gas pipeline connecting the two countries, he added that an oil embargo could prompt retaliation.

"We have every right to take a matching decision and impose an embargo on gas pumping through the [existing] Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline," he said, BBC reported.

Russia is the world's top producer of natural gas and second top producer of crude oil, and any move to sanction its energy industry would badly damage its own economy.

Ukraine has implored the West to adopt such a ban, but there are concerns it would send prices soaring. Investor fears of an embargo drove Brent crude oil to $139 a barrel at one point on Monday - its highest level for almost 14 years, according to BBC.

Average UK petrol prices also hit fresh record of 155p a litre.

The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine deepened Monday as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce, in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission, Associated Press reported.

A third round of talks between the two sides ended with a top Ukrainian official saying there had been minor, unspecified progress toward establishing safe corridors that would allow civilians to escape the fighting. Russia’s chief negotiator said he expects those corridors to start operating Tuesday.

But that remained to be seen, given the failure of previous attempts to lead civilians to safety amid the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II.

Well into the second week of the invasion, with Russian troops making significant advances in southern Ukraine but stalled in some other regions, a top U.S. official said multiple countries were discussing whether to provide the warplanes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been pleading for, according to the Associated Press.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s forces continued to pummel cities with rockets, and fierce fighting raged in places. In the face of the bombardments, Zelenskyy said Ukrainian forces were showing unprecedented courage.

“The problem is that for one soldier of Ukraine, we have 10 Russian soldiers, and for one Ukrainian tank, we have 50 Russian tanks,” Zelenskyy told ABC News in an interview that aired Monday night. He noted that the gap in forces was diminishing and that even if Russian forces “come into all our cities,” they will be met with an insurgency.

In one of the most desperate cities, the encircled southern port of Mariupol, an estimated 200,000 people — nearly half the population of 430,000 — were hoping to flee, and Red Cross officials waited to hear when a corridor would be established, Associated Press reported.

The city is short on water, food and power, and cellphone networks are down. Stores have been looted as residents search for essential goods.

Police moved through the city, advising people to remain in shelters until they heard official messages broadcast over loudspeakers to evacuate.

Hospitals in Mariupol are facing severe shortages of antibiotics and painkillers, and doctors performed some emergency procedures without them.

The lack of phone service left anxious citizens approaching strangers to ask if they knew relatives living in other parts of the city and whether they were safe, according to the Associated Press.

In the capital, Kyiv, soldiers and volunteers have built hundreds of checkpoints to protect the city of nearly 4 million, often using sandbags, stacked tires and spiked cables. Some barricades looked significant, with heavy concrete slabs and sandbags piled more than two stories high, while others appeared more haphazard, with hundreds of books used to weigh down stacks of tires.