Chinese leader Li to meet President Bhandari today
Chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China Li Zhanshu is paying a courtesy call on President Bidya Devi Bhandari at the Rashtrapati Bhawan at 4 pm today. Similarly, the Chinese delegation led by Li is scheduled to make an on-site tour of the post-earthquake reconstruction projects at Bhaktapur Durbar Square at 9:30 am today. Li is currently on a four-day official visit to Nepal. He arrived here on Monday at the invitation of Speaker Agni Prasad Sapkota. Speaker Sapkota and the Chinese dignitary held delegation-level talks at the Federal Parliament Building, New Baneshwor the same day. They also signed a letter of agreement on exchange of cooperation on the occasion. Chairman Li remained busy in high-level meetings on Tuesday, the second day of his visit. He held separate meetings with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Narayan Khadka as well as on National Assembly Chair Ganesh Prasad Timilsina. Earlier on Tuesday, Li and his delegation had separate meetings with CPN-UML Chairman KP Sharma Oli and the CPN (Maoist Centre) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal. Li's delegation comprises 67 persons including six high-ranking officers, security personnel, journalists and other staff. CPC Chairperson Li and his delegation will return home on September 15 on a special flight.
Nepal, India discuss boundary dispute
The foreign secretaries of India and Nepal have discussed the boundary dispute along with other outstanding bilateral issues. Nepal Foreign Secretary Bharat Raj Paudyal and his Indian counterpart Vinay Mohan Kwatra held a meeting in New Delhi on September 13. They discussed multiple areas of cooperation between Nepal and India covering trade, transit, connectivity, infrastructure, power sector, irrigation and inundation, agriculture, investment, development cooperation, health sector competition, culture, and people-to-people relations, among others, says Nepal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On the boundary issues, the statement says, “They also discussed the boundary matters. In this regard, they exchanged views on completing the boundary works in remaining segments through established bilateral mechanisms.” The Foreign Secretary-level mechanism is mandated to look after the border issues. They expressed satisfaction with the progress made in different areas including the power sector, construction of transmission lines, railway connectivity, construction of ICPs, motorable bridges, and other important infrastructures. They also discussed the early conclusion of the Transit Treaty including its Protocol and the Memorandum to the Protocol and expediting the review of the treaty of the trade. Matters related to fertilizers supply, and waiver of export restrictions in wheat, sugar, paddy, and rice were discussed as well.
Xi and Putin to discuss Ukraine war at meeting - Kremlin
China's leader Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin will discuss the war in Ukraine and other "international and regional topics" at their meeting later this week, the Kremlin says, BBC reported.
The two will meet in Uzbekistan at a summit that will show an "alternative" to the Western world, the Kremlin said.
Mr Xi is making his first trip overseas since the beginning of the pandemic.
He is seeking a historic third term while Mr Putin's relations with the West are at rock bottom over Ukraine.
Mr Xi is beginning his three-day trip in Kazakhstan on Wednesday. He will then meet Mr Putin on Thursday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit in Samarkand, which will run from 15-16 September.
Mr Putin will also meet other leaders including those of India, Pakistan, Turkey and Iran - but his meeting with China's leader "is of particular importance," said Kremlin foreign policy spokesman Yuri Ushakov.
China and Russia have long sought to position the SCO, founded in 2001 with four ex-Soviet Central Asian nations, as an alternative to Western multilateral groups.
Mr Xi last left China in January 2020 to visit Myanmar - just days before the first lockdown came into effect in Wuhan. He has remained in China since then, leaving the mainland only once in July this year to visit Hong Kong.
Mr Putin is also making a rare foray abroad. His meeting with Turkish and Iranian leaders in Tehran in July was only his second foreign trip since Russian troops invaded Ukraine.
This is the two leaders' second meeting this year - they last met at Winter Olympics in Beijing in February.
China is not part of the international sanctions against Russia and trade between the two countries has continued to grow. Indian and Chinese imports of Russian oil have soared since the Ukraine invasion.
China too has seen its relations with the West and especially the US sour in recent months following tensions over self-ruled Taiwan. China claims the island as part of its territory.
Last month, Beijing staged a five-day military blockade around the island in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit.
China watchers say Mr Xi's decision to leave China after more than two years, despite significant domestic challenges - crippling lockdowns and a faltering economy - show his confidence in his leadership, BBC reported.
Analysts expect him to be re-elected for an unprecedented third term at the upcoming Chinese Communist Party Congress in October.
Ukraine war: Accounts of Russian torture emerge in liberated areas
In north-eastern Ukraine, a counter-offensive has seen the nation's forces recapture swathes of territory, and drive out Russian troops, BBC reported.
But in the newly-liberated areas, relief and sorrow are intertwined - as accounts emerge of torture and killings during the long months of Russian occupation.
Artem, who lives in the city of Balakliya in the Kharkiv region told the BBC he was held by Russians for more than 40 days, and was tortured with electrocution.
Balakliya was liberated on 8 September after being occupied for more than six months. The epicentre of the brutality was the city's police station, which Russian forces used as their headquarters.
Artem said he could hear screams of pain and terror coming from other cells.
The occupiers made sure the cries could be heard, he said, by turning off the building's noisy ventilation system.
"They made me hold two wires," he said.
"There was an electric generator. The faster it went, the higher the voltage. They said, 'if you let it go, you are finished'. Then they started asking questions. They said I was lying, and they started spinning it even more and the voltage increased."
Artem told us he was detained because the Russians found a picture of his brother, a soldier, in uniform. Another man from Balakliya was held for 25 days because he had the Ukrainian flag, Artem said.
A school principal called Tatiana told us she was held in the police station for three days and also heard screams from other cells, according to BBC.
Ukrainian police officers say as many as eight men were held in cells intended for two people. They say locals were scared to even pass the station when the Russians were in charge, in case they were grabbed by Russian soldiers.
In Balakliya's city centre, where the Ukrainian flag flies again, crowds gathered around a small truck carrying food supplies. Many in the queue were elderly and looked exhausted, but there were happy reunions too as friends embraced each other for the first time since the Russians were driven out.
Just a short walk away at the end of a lonely laneway, some of their victims lie hastily buried by their neighbours. A crude wooden cross marked the makeshift grave of a taxi driver called Petro Shepel. His passenger - whose identity is still unknown - lies next to him.
The stench of death filled the air as the police exhumed their remains, and zipped them into body bags.
The authorities say the two men were shot near a Russian checkpoint on the last day of the occupation.
"I want to ask Putin, why did he shoot and kill my son?" she cried.
"What for? Who asked him to come here with such threatening weapons? Not only did he kill our children, but he killed us, their mothers.
"These days I am a dead woman. And I want to address all mothers of the world: rebel against that assassin."
On the road to Balakliya, we saw military vehicles marked with the pro-war "Z" symbol - apparently abandoned by the Russians as they fled, BBC reported.
In a nearby village, we were shown the extensive damage to the school. Local authorities said this was one of the last acts of destruction before the Russians were driven out.
Standing in the ruins, the regional head of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, said the critical task now was to restore water and electricity supplies, but there are concerns the power lines could be mined.
Asked by the BBC if he thought the Russians could return he replied: "We are in war, there is always danger".
